Is Royal Caribbean building any small ships?

[Rackham]

3 hours ago, latebuyer said:

Just curious when the radiance class of ships and grandeur of the seas will age out and they won’t be used anymore?

 

Typically around age 30 with modern ships. Historically, Royal has sold, transferred, or scrapped around or before age 25 however.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Rackham

[Miss Vickie]

On 6/13/2023 at 10:50 PM, Charles4515 said:

They did that with the M class and Radiance Class. Those are the same hull.  

They are on the same hull, but built out differently. The Celebrity S class ships are actually very similar in layout to the Radiance class ships. We enjoy both the M class and the S class. We stick to Radiance class on Royal, did Adventure once, and have no desire to do anything bigger. We also sail HAL, they have some great itineraries in Alaska and the Med, and the ship size is comfortable for us.we’d love it if Royal would build a new smaller ship.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Miss Vickie

[Ourusualbeach]

2 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

I see Quantum of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas going to Vancouver. 

They only stop in Vancouver  when they do the repos  to / From Hawaii to get around the PVSA. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Ourusualbeach

[Charles4515]

8 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

They only stop in Vancouver  when they do the repos  to / From Hawaii to get around the PVSA. 

I just read while googling around that Quantum class can only go under the bridge at low tide. 

[coaster]

I know the time is ticking to go on smaller ships at mass market prices. I don't expect Royal to build smaller ships in the future. Glad we have got to experience smaller ships the last 30 years and for maybe 10 more years when Vision, Radiance and M class on Celebrity ships are retired. It will just be high end lines with smaller ships at premium prices after that.

Edited June 15, 2023 by coaster

[Ourusualbeach]

50 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

I just read while googling around that Quantum class can only go under the bridge at low tide. 

Yep, Too difficult to plan weekly itineraries from there but they can manage the one offs.

[latebuyer]

Thanks for posting the table. It looks like royal caribbean has a lot of building to do in 10 years if they want to replace ships.

 

Just a note a casualty of this shift to larger ships will be kauai. Brilliance of the seas is the only ship i can find that goes there.

[Charles4515]

27 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Thanks for posting the table. It looks like royal caribbean has a lot of building to do in 10 years if they want to replace ships.

 

Just a note a casualty of this shift to larger ships will be kauai. Brilliance of the seas is the only ship i can find that goes there.

Maybe it is the only Royal ship that goes there now but Holland America, Princess and NCL have ships that go there. 

[latebuyer]

Celebrity doesn’t go there either and princess and holland are long cruises. Pride of america gets horrible reviews. Not really a lot of options.

[latebuyer]

In any event brilliance is still around and if i like her on the alaskan cruise i may sail to hawaii although a little concerned about sailing the pacific in a small ship. Sorry off topic.

[Charles4515]

9 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

In any event brilliance is still around and if i like her on the alaskan cruise i may sail to hawaii although a little concerned about sailing the pacific in a small ship. Sorry off topic.

I would just fly to Hawaii. And no way I would do Alaska on Royal Caribbean. Royal does not do Glacier Bay.  I did Alaska on Holland America from Vancouver and it was a great itinerary and cruise. Holland America and Princess are the best cruise lines to sail on out of Vancouver since they have the best Alaska itineraries and cruise tours. Best to leave Royal Caribbean for the Caribbean.

Edited June 16, 2023 by Charles4515

[latebuyer]

Thanks. I went on holland america and did glacier bay already. I wanted to do hubbard in a 7 night cruise and i had a cruise credit so i’m going royal caribbean.(I’m from vancouver and will probably go a third time so can try princess)

 

Actually i believe my former post was on topic as an advantage of these larger ships is i presume you wouldn’t feel the roughness as much as on the smallships.

[SteelCityCruiser10]

Onboard Radiance this week Capt. Marek talked about the Discovery Class coming to replace Voyager & Radiance class at the top tier event. He did say they would be around 3000 passengers capacity.

[zebra36]

4 hours ago, SteelCityCruiser10 said:

Onboard Radiance this week Capt. Marek talked about the Discovery Class coming to replace Voyager & Radiance class at the top tier event. He did say they would be around 3000 passengers capacity.

It will be interesting to see IF that plays out in the next 5 or so years, one can only hope.

[Liljo22]

12 hours ago, latebuyer said:

Thanks for posting the table. It looks like royal caribbean has a lot of building to do in 10 years if they want to replace ships.

 

Just a note a casualty of this shift to larger ships will be kauai. Brilliance of the seas is the only ship i can find that goes there.

I don't think Royal is looking at the number of ships as they are the number of passengers.  The Icon OTS covers 3 Vision class ships on its own.  

[Charles4515]

2 minutes ago, Liljo22 said:

I don't think Royal is looking at the number of ships as they are the number of passengers.  The Icon OTS covers 3 Vision class ships on its own.  

Royal has made a niche for itself of having super large ships with a large number of passengers. They do that rather well. I don’t think it makes sense for them to modify that formula which seems to work for them. The Royal group has Celebrity brand that has relatively smaller ships and they have reciprocated loyalty benefits. The other mainstream cruise lines have relatively smaller ships. None is forced to book Royal. Other choices exist in the mainstream category. Royal might in the future build some smaller Royal branded ships but I don’t see it as at the top of their to do list with their current financial situation. 

[cruiselvr04]

If they age out all the smaller ships that will definitely keep the brand out of the world cruise market.  
 

[latebuyer]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

Royal has made a niche for itself of having super large ships with a large number of passengers. They do that rather well. I don’t think it makes sense for them to modify that formula which seems to work for them. The Royal group has Celebrity brand that has relatively smaller ships and they have reciprocated loyalty benefits. The other mainstream cruise lines have relatively smaller ships. None is forced to book Royal. Other choices exist in the mainstream category. Royal might in the future build some smaller Royal branded ships but I don’t see it as at the top of their to do list with their current financial situation. 

So basically less itineraries. I just find it a shame as they do have competive pricing in some instances. It is what it is.

[RedIguana]

On 6/15/2023 at 11:38 PM, latebuyer said:

Actually i believe my former post was on topic as an advantage of these larger ships is i presume you wouldn’t feel the roughness as much as on the smallships.

You may be surprised at how little difference there really is, and that it can be worse on the larger ships on the upper decks. The stabilizers on ships built in the last 25 years or so pretty much equalize and dampen the amount of roll. Granted the worst seas I have encountered on a cruise ship was on Brilliance, we caught the 50+ knot winds and 20-25 ft seas for a night returning to Tampa last year. 

[John&LaLa]

On 6/16/2023 at 11:36 AM, cruiselvr04 said:

If they age out all the smaller ships that will definitely keep the brand out of the world cruise market.  
 

 

To early to tell if Royal even wants to be in world cruise market.

 

UWC may be a 1 and done

[John&LaLa]

On 6/16/2023 at 11:42 AM, latebuyer said:

So basically less itineraries. I just find it a shame as they do have competive pricing in some instances. It is what it is.

 

They have competitive prices in weak markets. Doesn't make sense to keep them

[The Fun Researcher]

On 6/15/2023 at 6:21 PM, Miss Vickie said:

They are on the same hull, but built out differently. The Celebrity S class ships are actually very similar in layout to the Radiance class ships. We enjoy both the M class and the S class. We stick to Radiance class on Royal, did Adventure once, and have no desire to do anything bigger. We also sail HAL, they have some great itineraries in Alaska and the Med, and the ship size is comfortable for us.we’d love it if Royal would build a new smaller ship.

Celebrity S class really are beauties.  My only grip is the centrums rather than a Royal Promanade.  It just makes the interior chopped up with no grand space like the Promenades get you.  Having said that, LOVE so many other things on those ships.  Sunset bar, the lawn area, the gorgeous dining room, Sushi on 5, the indoor pool and hot tubs, the outside focus and connection to the sea, I could go on and on...

[steveru621]

There are an increasing number of ports that are limiting passenger capacity.

[Pratique]

IMHO Royal is not interested in the small cruise ship market. They will leave that to lines like Margaritaville at Sea. Royal is shooting for the moon on the megaships and the handful of itineraries that they can sail at full capacity year round.

 

Last night we were chatting with our server onboard Oasis who has been with Royal for 10 years. He said that he is concerned about how Royal is going to staff all of these new megaships with two to three thousand-plus crew per sailing. He thinks they need at least 50% experienced staff on a given sailing to meet the minimum service levels, so they will need to poach crew from other ships while they train up the new recruits. I could sense the apprehension in his voice about how well that is (or isn't) going to turn out. Time will tell whether Royal can pull it off and what the end result will be for the rest of us.

[Ourusualbeach]

40 minutes ago, Pratique said:

Last night we were chatting with our server onboard Oasis who has been with Royal for 10 years. He said that he is concerned about how Royal is going to staff all of these new megaships with two to three thousand-plus crew per sailing. He thinks they need at least 50% experienced staff on a given sailing to meet the minimum service levels, so they will need to poach crew from other ships while they train up the new recruits. I could sense the apprehension in his voice about how well that is (or isn't) going to turn out. Time will tell whether Royal can pull it off and what the end result will be for the rest of 

They have been doing that with every new ship built.  As they build more large ships it actually gets easier for them as they have more ships and more staff to draw from.