Let me answer a question with a couple of questions…
Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?
We’ve been fortunate to cruise on rivers and oceans all over the world, and we’ve cruised on ships as small as 20 passengers and 14 cabins, and one as large as 6,780 passengers in thousands of cabins. The amazing thing is we’ve enjoyed both of those cruises and every one of the cruises on ships of every size in between.
So the question is not about the “best” size of the ship but what you might want from the cruise and where you are going, and what you want to do once you get there. During our recent trip to Hawaii, we traveled on a small cruise ship with 28 other adventurers around the islands and were able to kayak and snorkel in remote areas and never had to miss an oversold excursion or wait in lines, but there was little to do in the evenings. Then we traveled on a 4000 passenger ship around the Hawaiian Islands where we queued up for tickets to take a small tender into port, but every night there were dozens of options to dine, and see live entertainment. We had a wonderful time on both ships, because we knew before we booked what we wanted out of each experience and chose each cruise to meet those needs.
Positives and Negatives
Price:
Often ships that carry more passengers can use the scale of economy to offer more affordable cabins on cruises. That allows passengers to afford a cruise or to take more trips. Smaller cruise ships often cost more, but in exchange guests get a higher level of service and unique experiences included. Larger ships have more options for cabin selections, and families on a budget can select cabins in a range or price points.
Dining:
While larger ships often have many more options for dining, sometimes the quality suffers trying to feed such a large number of passengers. And some of those restaurants charge extra fees on top of fares already paid. Smaller ships have to create fewer meals and although there may only be a few choices on board at each meal, the quality can be better.
Service and Crowds:
The fewer passengers, the more likely you’ll have you personal needs met and not have to wait to experience things like service, dining or leaving the ship, or on tours. On a small ship, generally everyone can experience good service because the ratio of staff to guests is lower.
Distance to Ports and Excursions:
Small ships can often get into remote areas or small ports where larger ships either aren’t allowed or need to transfer all the passengers by smaller boats called tender. Once ashore, large ships create a huge increase in local population, making it hard to experience the local culture and find tour guides for excursions. Large ship excursions are often crowded and have a lot of time spent organizing the group. With smaller cruises, you’ll often have included excursions and with so few people landing in port, you might have a better chance to meet locals and fewer competition for activities ashore. But BEWARE! If you book a more expensive small cruise ship and it’s itinerary includes very popular ports, you may be sharing the port with thousands of passengers from larger ships also in port. So when choosing smaller ships, make sure they are also offering smaller, unique ports where the advantage of being aboard a small ship disappears! Also, some smaller ships are located in very remote home ports…this allows them to explore remote or off the beaten path places, but it costs more money and time to travel to the home port.
Using a GREAT travel advisor can help you choose the right cruise for you!
I’m sharing my list of Preferred Travel Advisors…people I’ve worked with personally or several very close friends or colleagues have used them and had great experiences! Check out the cruise specialist we’ve used, or ask your good friends about their favorite advisors. A good travel advisor will ask questions to find our your budget and needs and suggest options that meet your needs!
Did you know that at Go See It Travel, we add ship photo tours here after sailing?
While we haven’t done photo tours for every ship we’ve sailed, we do try to post one for each unique class of ship, or ships that are new or don’t have a lot information about them online already!
Here are the latest ship photo tours from our recent sailings in Hawaii! Click on each ship photo to see the ship photo tour. More tours can be found under the “Ships Tour” tab.
