Thread: The Middle Way - A Return to Medium-Size Ships?

I wouldn't get bored! I cruise for the ship and the interaction with fellow passengrs. If I never see another broadway re-production on a ship stage I will not be disappointed. I can do that at home, but on a ship I want to do "ship" things that aren't available to me at home.

Originally Posted by *Lars*

Also, we have all said we would like a ship to feel like a ship and not a big floating city. We want a more intimate and personal cruise experience. We want quality over quantity!!
But once onboard a smaller mid size ship, lets say 50 000 tons i.e the Azamara, Oceania size, would we get bored with fewer lounges, fewer restaurants, fewer activities to keep us entertained???
Would we be bored if we got stuck onboard for more then a week???

We have sailed on 30 ships ranging from 17,000 to 138,000 grt. Yes, the small ships did not have all the venues of the big mega-ships but that is what cruise was back in the old days. The buffets did not exist. You dined had you table mates 3 times a day. (with the exception of open seating for lunch while in port. You would see many of the same people over and over during the cruise. Through the 80's new ship started coming our that were bigger and some things began to change but for the most part you still had the feel of being on a ship.

In the 90's the building really got big as the ships aproched 80,000 grt. Some designs were better than others. We started seeing a number of big boxes on water. The addition of more balconies was a big plus.

The turn of the centry marked the big balcony explosion. They were now becoming affordable. Many other new features came aloing as the ships passed 100.000 grt.

The day of the small mass market ship was gone. There are still a numer of medium size ships for the mass market and hopefully there will be some into the future.

There are 2 reasons for the dissapearence of the small mass market ships in the US market.
1) The cost to bring them up to the new SOLAS safety regulations was too great.
2) The economy of scale of the bigs ships keeps the prices down, the smaller ships just cost too much per passenger day to compete.

There are a number of the smaller to meduim ships still opperating in Europe.

I would like the choices to be there as it will help the world of cruising. Each person could find the product they like.

I've been on ships as large as 116,000 (the Sapphire), and I'm not sure about the smallest (probably the Holiday or Jubilee, would have to look at their sizes to know for sure). We didn't find the Sapphire too big. But that's us.

I'm more interested in keeping some of the traditions of cruising intact for those who prefer them. Like traditional dining. My concern is that cruiselines are trying to go for the freestyle or anytime dining concept in order to drop traditional.

Originally Posted by *Lars*

70-90K ships are still large ships. When I am thinking about mid size ships I am thinking Azamara, Oceania, Regent. i.e ships around 50 000 tons.

That definition would mean that I like the small end of the big ship range.

That's why I try now the MS Noordam.