Bigger ships

[Dhill]

I was just looking at a picture that Paul posted of the Norwegian Epic pretty impressive looking ship. Having only been on one cruise that was aboard the Sapphire Princce. I was wondering if the bigger ships just have more cabins they would have to have more Resturaunts to handle more people.I guess what Im asking would sailing on the Epic or Oasis be the same as sailing on a ship the size of the Sapphire just in bigger scale ?

[ednotmilkman]

I'm wondering if more pax means longer lines getting on and off the ship and through customs, etc. I kinda like the idea that with 1800 fellow passengers, I may not know many, but at least I've seen most all the faces after three days so I feel like I am not among 3000 strangers ALL week !

[Dhill]

Never thought about the longer lines.But then again with a bigger ship would they be able and be set up to handle the extra passengers. On our first cruise on the Sapphire by the end of the cruise we reconized some faces when we saw them and would talked to them .I dont know if it would be the same on a bigeer ship or not ?

[AF1]

I sailed Allure of the Seas in Jan. The ship is the largest cruise ship out there. It is 1112 feet long. It carries 6,000 passengers maximum. It has 7 neighborhoods and 15 resuraunts; can't even remember how many bars. There are two flowriders(surf machines), a zip line, rock climbing wall, ice skating ring, the Boardwalk, Central Park, Sports Deck, Royal Promenade, and Entertainment zone. Dreamworks is aboard; so to answer you question is bigger better, or is there more to do on a bigger ship. On Allure we had a ball, never felt overly crowded; no line to board or go thru customs on last day. Plenty of activities onboard, plenty of places to eat, both free and pay. We loved Allure.

[LisaK]

it is all a matter of personal choice. There is more,more to do on board on the huge ships by far, and they are pretty good at line management. I do think that personal service does suffer a bit but thats understandable. We cruised Freedom of the Seas, and for us, she was too big, we didn't like having to walk what seemed like miles of hallways to get to our cabin, and never really "got the layout" of the ship, where we knew which stairwell, which elevator that type of thing, but we also never felt herded or overcrowded in anyway

[Dhill]

Originally Posted by AF1

I sailed Allure of the Seas in Jan. The ship is the largest cruise ship out there. It is 1112 feet long. It carries 6,000 passengers maximum. It has 7 neighborhoods and 15 resuraunts; can't even remember how many bars. There are two flowriders(surf machines), a zip line, rock climbing wall, ice skating ring, the Boardwalk, Central Park, Sports Deck, Royal Promenade, and Entertainment zone. Dreamworks is aboard; so to answer you question is bigger better, or is there more to do on a bigger ship. On Allure we had a ball, never felt overly crowded; no line to board or go thru customs on last day. Plenty of activities onboard, plenty of places to eat, both free and pay. We loved Allure.

Sounds like fun . I dont understand the neighorhoods I was loking at pictures of the Oasis of the sea with its diffrent neighorhoods.I guess you can have a stateroom In the diffrent Neighbohoods. My thought is instaed of having a stateroom in the Central park neighborhood why not just go stay in Central park in New York? When we go on a cruise I want to feel like Iam on a ship out in the ocean not someplace on land! Just by looking at the pictures I think the ship looked to big for us. Altho It sounds like theres alot to do but also alot more people wanting to do the same thing.

[AF1]

The only cabins overlooking neighborhoods are central park, boardwalk, and royal promenade. The other neighborhoods are entertainment zone, sports deck, I was on boardwalk and enjoyed it. I had views of the ocean on the back of ship, aqua theater, and the actual boardwalk.

[chipmeister]

Just checked the boards after a while and it was a coincidence to run across this thread as I was just talking with someone about this while on vacation in Florida. One thing that I think does not get a lot of air time when it comes to choosing larger ships but that I feel is really important is who's ship it is. Royal Caribbean seems to have an amazing knack, when it comes to designing large ships, in avoiding crowding, lines, etc. I always tell people that, having sailed on the Voyager, Freedom, and Oasis size ships, I am always truly amzed at how well they design these ships and engineer the passenger flow so that there almost never seems to be huge lines, waits etc. But, I have heard the opposite about the larger Carnival ships. Almost everyone I have ever talked with who has sailed on one, starting with the Destiny and up to the Dream (the people we just talked with just got of her) say there are many lines and long waits onboard. There is a definite pattern here, at least from the discussions I have had. So I would say that to lup all large ships in one group when thinking about these issues may not be correct and it may pay to differentiate between the cruise lines and their designs of these ships.

[AF1]

I agree with you. Don't put the different cruise lines with larger ships into same category. Royal Caribbran is all about the customer; and how can we give them their money's worth on vacation, and still have them not feel overcrowded or herded around like cattle.

[Bruce Chafkin1]

Recently in Fort Lauderdale, my 2,000 passenger ship started disembark at the same time that Allure of the Seas did.
Allure's 5,000+ passengers had finished departing before my 2,000 passengers were gone.

[AF1]

Yea, Allure and Oasis have it down to a science. They board all pax, and the average wait time is 15 min to board. About 30 to disembark; due to going thru customs and picking up baggage.

[Doug S]

I enjoy larger ships. If you've explored the entire layout, and seen all there is to see in the first afternoon, what fun is that. I'm all in favor of multiple neighborhoods and expanded common areas. It's not about knowing everyone on the ship to me. Even on big ships you make good friends, and oddly enough, tend to bump into the same circle of folks on a regular basis. I like discovering a little Karake bar, or a deli I hadn't tried yet on the last day or 2 of a cruise. Keeps it fresh.

[Dhill]

Originally Posted by AF1

Yea, Allure and Oasis have it down to a science. They board all pax, and the average wait time is 15 min to board. About 30 to disembark; due to going thru customs and picking up baggage.

What about on the ship itself seems to me (altho I dont know that with that many people on a ship there would be lines everywhere

[chipmeister]

I have to say I was totally impressed with the boarding process on Oasis. Granted the new facility is huge and had lots of check-in positions. But literally, it was less than 15 minutes from curb to boarding. Of course, this was the innaugural sailing and the ship was not full (I believe we were told approx. 85% capacity) but still it was really nice. And last fall, we used the same facility to board Solstice and it was really uncrowded then.

On board, it did not seem crowded at all. Especially for the size of the ship. I think about the only lines we saw were waits to get on the Rising Tide bar, and to be honest, the most we ever saw there were about 5 people. And more than once, we walked onto the Boardwalk, in the middle of the day, and only saw 2 or 3 people. It was almost like a twilight zone episode....where have all the passengers gone? I think that possibly, because of the size of the ship and the numerous places to be at any given time, that really drops the crowd pressure on any given spot. I know for us, if we saw a short line somewhere, often we'd just say to heck with it and go somewhere else, and come back later. I'm not saying the ship was a ghost town but it really never seemed jammed anywhere, with the exception of the line to get your picture taken with the Captain.

Yep, I was very impressed with RCCL's version of the megaship. And except for the incident with the underwear and the TV news helicopter, we thoroughly enjoyed the innaugural.

[AF1]

When I sailed Allure in Jan, we had almost max capacity; which I believe is 5400. Never waited in any lines; used the navigation screens to find places to eat; theater shows, no lines, so all in all we had a good vacation.