Smaller ships have passenger/space ratio similar to mega ships. Crowds?

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

What does the shower size have to do with the crowdness of the ship?

 

To me it is about the whole package.  Our days of living in a cubbyhole are past us and we prefer comfort in our cabin (it does not need to be a suite), public spaces, Lido, and other dining venues.  We also appreciate being able to go on deck (any time of the day) and easily finding empty loungers.  And yes, a spacious cabin bathroom/shower is a good thing.  We have spent our time in showers where we were hugged by a plastic curtain and sat on toilets where there was no room for our legs/feet.  Having cruises, extensively, for over 50 years, we have seen the good and bad on an awful lot of vessels.  I could tell you about cruising on the Regent Spirit where we had to walk down a ladder to get to our cabin on the lowest passenger deck (your feet were right at the water line).  The truth is that every cruise has been wonderful and fun, but now being "older than dirt" we expect some luxury.

 

Hank

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Say whatever you want but it is a useless measure when it comes to human cargo, which moves around. Has zip to do with being an O regular. 

 

We can certainly agree to disagree.  One can argue that a Holiday Inn is the same as a Four Seasons, but most know this is not the case.

 

Hank

[ak1004]

53 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

To me it is about the whole package.  Our days of living in a cubbyhole are past us and we prefer comfort in our cabin (it does not need to be a suite), public spaces, Lido, and other dining venues.  We also appreciate being able to go on deck (any time of the day) and easily finding empty loungers.  And yes, a spacious cabin bathroom/shower is a good thing.  We have spent our time in showers where we were hugged by a plastic curtain and sat on toilets where there was no room for our legs/feet.  Having cruises, extensively, for over 50 years, we have seen the good and bad on an awful lot of vessels.  I could tell you about cruising on the Regent Spirit where we had to walk down a ladder to get to our cabin on the lowest passenger deck (your feet were right at the water line).  The truth is that every cruise has been wonderful and fun, but now being "older than dirt" we expect some luxury.

 

Hank

 

Hank, I completely agree with you, it's about the whole package.

 

However, the original post was about the crowds and lines. We were on Regatta in Sep.2022, the ship was almost full, and yet it never felt crowed, and no lines. No comparison to mainstream lines, although the space to passenger ratio looks similar (not sure how accurate those ratios are). No even close to what we experienced on the RCI Allure of the Seas, and even Celebrity ships felt much more crowded.

 

Of course the cabins are a different topic. We previously sailed on Azamara and still remember those bathrooms, so this time we took a PH. It's not huge (less than standard cabins on SS/SB), but very comfortable overall. To me, 260 sqft was more than enough.

 

We still prefer the Riviera (it's newer, the cabins are larger, more dining options etc) but R class ships can still provide a very pleasant cruising experience. It's not fair to compare them to the newer SS/SB ships, although O class ships in my opinion provide an experience pretty close to SS.