New Small Ships

[Solomom]

Does anyone know if Royal Caribbean is going to introduce new smaller ships (less than 90,000 tons) or are they going to eventually sell all of their smaller ships? I like the smaller ships anything bigger than 90,000 tons is too big for me.

 

Solomom

[spadercool]

It is not that likely that Royal Caribbean will be building smaller ships in my eyes since people want bigger ships and better amenities. If I recall correctly, Sovereign class will be sold off by 2010. Just out of curiosity, what was the gross tonnage of Song of Norway??

[negc]

As long as it is more cost-effective to build larger ships which can carry more fare-paying customers and offer more attractive features and as long as they continue to fill those ships, the likelihood of them building smaller ships (even ships as large as 90,000 GRT) is just about nil. It isn't something that you or I may want to hear but it is the reality we are facing. As it is, it is unlikely that there will be many new ships built (other than those currently under contract) unless or until the global economy improves dramatically.

[cruisePRN]

It is not that likely that Royal Caribbean will be building smaller ships in my eyes since people want bigger ships and better amenities. If I recall correctly, Sovereign class will be sold off by 2010. Just out of curiosity, what was the gross tonnage of Song of Norway??

 

I think people want smaller ships with the personal touches that used to be in the earlier days of cruising. That is why azamara was added to the the RCL company.

[Druke I]

Some of the European lines are building ships in the 86,000GRT range for the European market. AIDA comes to mind at the moment.

[BrainChemicals]

Saga Rose and Saga Ruby come to mind for myself. I sailed on the Saga Ruby back in 2002 when it was owned by Cunard as the M/S Caronia, it was a beautiful vessel with roughly 650 passengers. It was the best 18 days I ever spent on a ship.

[P.A.C.R.U.I.S.E.R]

Spadercool the song of Norway weighed 18,000 tons. Got to love Google.

 

Fritz

[Son of a Cruiser]

Spadercool the song of Norway weighed 18,000 tons. Got to love Google.

 

Fritz

 

True, but in 1978 she was streched and increased to 23,000 tons. We thought she was huge when we sailed on her after the stretching. 90,000 ton ships are now considered small:). Times do change. After several Oasis class ships are launched will Voyager class be considerd small ships??:eek:

[Maraprince]

Princess has both the mega ships and the small ones. Passengers liked the size of the original Love Boat and her sister ship, the Island Princess. Those ships were big for their day and time and packed a lot of activities and features into them. The greatest part, unless a port didn't have a dock, no tenders were needed!

 

This was especially a good feature up in Alaska where some of the larger lines had to transfer passengers to a smaller ship to get up close to the glaciers where Princess didn't.

 

Smaller ships will never entirely go away. There will always be a market for them. The larger ships are way too impersonal and unless provided with many sea days, passengers never get to see and do a lot of things on board for which they have paid for.

 

Bigger isn't always better!:D

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[GXmanDC]

Their trend is not to sell them, rather they move them to one of their new European lines. Azamara is a new RCI brand with smaller ships, 600+ passengers. Time will tell how successful it is. All of the lines are building bigger ships. Oceania has three sister ships to Azmara's, but they're going bigger with their next class of ships, 1200 passengers. Even Regent Seven Seas, known for small 200+ passenger ships, is doubling the size of their ships with the next class.

 

I'd like to try Azamara sometime. They get to go to places that the big ships don't.

[GigglewolfOfTheSeas]

Having been involved with the cruise industry for over 18 years and with past intimate knowledge of RCI ;) , in my opinion, it's unlikely that RCI will ever go smaller than 90,000 tons again.

 

Essentially, all the major cruiseline-players are using size to help differentiate their respective brands. Azamara is RCI's effort to offer folks who prefer smaller vessels an option...at a HIGHER price. This is also why Celebrity's ships can continue to grow larger...to nudge folks up to Azamara.

 

As for the European-based cruise brands...cruising is still relatively new in continental Europe; that's why they can "get-away" with using older (ex-American market) tonnage or building smaller vessels: it's tougher to fill new/expensive or larger ships).

 

I do believe that after the Oasis (Genesis)-class ships, RCI may ramp-down the size of their following generation of vessels, likely comparable to Radiance-class...or slightly larger. (Personally, I loathe the Radiance-class ships, but I can appreciate why other folks enjoy them and that's a topic for another thread.)

 

On another side note, I continue to "light my candle" for the day when RCI places a Voyager-class ship in the 3 & 4 nt. Bahama run out of Miami. Sovereign-class was (obviously) a HUGE step-forward for cruising, but so was the horseless carriage back-in-the-day...that doesn't mean I want to drive one today, lol :D . IMO, those three ships need to leave the American market, asap (late 2010, perhaps?).

 

Please don't take my comments as RCI-bashing...I'm quite faithful to the brand.

 

Bon voyage to all,

Gigglewolf-of-The-Seas