Thread: What size ship do you prefer?

Originally Posted by Martysr

Was 'Regent' formerly known as 'Regency'? And weren't they the ones that had numbers for their ships instead of names? I think there were 8 ships and they were pretty much cookie cutter duplicates of each other. They closed up operations when they went belly up from eliminating all commissions and ties with travel agencies. They thought they could make a go of it strictly from the internet.

Regent was formerly Radisson.

Renaissance Cruises was the cruise line that had numbers instead of names. That is correct, there were 8 ships, named R1 - R8. Princess now has three of those ships. They went bankrupt after 9/11, and was based here in Ft Lauderdale, FL.

Originally Posted by Martysr

In a couple years if you can wait that long.
MIAMI - Royal Caribbean International on Monday ordered the world’s largest and most expensive cruise ship, a $1.24 billion vessel that will hold up to 6,400 passengers.
The ship, dubbed Project Genesis, is set to be delivered to the world’s second-largest cruise operator in fall 2009 by Oslo, Norway-based shipbuilder Aker Yards. It will be 220,000 gross registered tons and weigh in at about 100,000 tons based on displacement — a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier comes in at about 97,000 tons.

Oh, I read this but forgot about it. Gotta cruise on this baby. She will be mighty huge, hmm, heavier that a Nimitz Class afct carrier? Wow. Looking forward to a cruise on Liberty of the Seas.

Originally Posted by Martysr

In a couple years if you can wait that long.
MIAMI - Royal Caribbean International on Monday ordered the world’s largest and most expensive cruise ship, a $1.24 billion vessel that will hold up to 6,400 passengers.
The ship, dubbed Project Genesis, is set to be delivered to the world’s second-largest cruise operator in fall 2009 by Oslo, Norway-based shipbuilder Aker Yards. It will be 220,000 gross registered tons and weigh in at about 100,000 tons based on displacement — a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier comes in at about 97,000 tons.

Thats to darn big.

I agree!
I have absolutely no desire to cruise on something like that.

I have been on the Carnival Spirit and have been on the Celebration. I will go on the Carnival Victory in Sept 07 and the Carnival Freedom Nov 08. I am just glad to be on a ship that is going anywhere! I feel like Royalty when I am on a ship. I am just your average everyday "joette" but on the Ship I am somebody!!! At least that is how the staff on the ships make me feel!

Originally Posted by jrmende63

I have been on the Carnival Spirit and have been on the Celebration. I will go on the Carnival Victory in Sept 07 and the Carnival Freedom Nov 08. I am just glad to be on a ship that is going anywhere! I feel like Royalty when I am on a ship. I am just your average everyday "joette" but on the Ship I am somebody!!! At least that is how the staff on the ships make me feel!

That's one of the many nice things about cruising - and definately one of the things that keeps us all coming back, I think.

Originally Posted by Martysr

In a couple years if you can wait that long.
MIAMI - Royal Caribbean International on Monday ordered the world’s largest and most expensive cruise ship, a $1.24 billion vessel that will hold up to 6,400 passengers.
The ship, dubbed Project Genesis, is set to be delivered to the world’s second-largest cruise operator in fall 2009 by Oslo, Norway-based shipbuilder Aker Yards. It will be 220,000 gross registered tons and weigh in at about 100,000 tons based on displacement — a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier comes in at about 97,000 tons.

What is it like getting on tenders on a ship that size? How about waiting in line for a restaurant? And how many people deep are waiting to get photos from the photographer's desk? I can't imagine being on a ship with that many other people. A big ship would not be the problem...it's the gazillion other people on the ship that would get to me!

The biggest ship we've been on was about 115,000 gt, but we had assigned seating (traditional). I don't know if we would ever want "anytime dining" (the term on Princess for those who don't want assigned seating: you go to an anytime dining room when you want dinner and if there's an available table, you are seated immediately and if not, you wait or go to another dining room). If Princess ever gets into that really-mega size ship, they may have to rethink things such as increasing the number of passengers on traditional (on many ships, there's a waiting list for traditional) or have a reservation desk for the really popular times (but then, wouldn't that go against the concept of "anytime"?).

As for tendering, there's a priority system. If you have a ship-sponsored excursion early in the morning, you are told to meet in a specific location and are then escorted to the tendering area (we had one such excursion on our last cruise). Also, some ships give priority to those in high category cabins or those with so many cruises (elite on Princess). That's why if you're booking an indy excursion, you need to make sure it's not at 8am. At a certain time of day, there's no waiting to catch a tender.

Some ships handle the huge numbers of passengers better than others.

I've been fortunate enough to have sailed on the two largest cruise ships today...the Freedom of the Seas and the Queen Mary 2. I truly enjoyed both experiences, and have sailed Voyager Class ships many times with RCI, but felt the Freedom was way too big for my personal taste.

I have been on ships from 20,000 to 72,000 tons - never anything bigger just because that's the way its been. I haven't deliberately avoided bigger ships.

That being said, I also must say that the small 20,000 Superstar Gemini was just a jewel of a ship, and the crew was just wonderful as was the quality of the dinning and entertainment. Don't ignore the smaller ships unless you really don't like cruising and the gigantic ships are almost like not cruising. (That's kind of snoty or snooty, isn't it?)