5200 pax capacity on new ship?

We tried Azura and did not like her at all. She felt very crowded, especially as someone above said, on wet sea days. Getting back on board in one port, we queued for 45 minutes in 90 degrees. By contrast, I have never found Oriana crowded on wet sea days at all. There is always somewhere to go and chill out. the idea of a ship with 2000 more pax than Azura is just horrible,

We also watched passengers queueing to get back on an MSC ship in Malta. The size of the queues were just horrendous.

I quite agree Jean. The only place that seems to get crowded on Oriana (& Aurora) is around the Atrium when they put out the nasty Tat stalls :eek:.

True Andrew. I don't do tat stalls though! Ha ha.

Berlitz Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships shows a ‘Passenger Space Ratio (Gross Tonnage per passenger)’.

Results for P&O ships (best to worst) are;

Adonia 42.6

Aurora 40.7

Britannia 38.2

Ventura 37.7

Arcadia 37.4

Azura 37.2

Oriana 36.9

These figures are misleading though, because they only count lower berths, so in reality (with upper berths deployed) family ships are likely to have lower (worse) ratios in school holiday periods.

We found Azura far too crowded last Easter. On a sea day we could rarely get a seat anywhere about the ship (except in bars). Shuttle buses were a nightmare - so much so that I nicknamed her "Qzura" as we seemed to be constantly queueing

We sailed on a Ventura round trip Caribbean cruise which had loads of sea days, quite a few in cool northern waters, and never found her too crowded. There were always plenty of daytime activities, if guest speakers can be considered an activity, and we rarely found it difficult to find a quiet seat somewhere.

However I can imagine that families with young children might find problems when a sea day is wet or cold.

We found Azura far too crowded last Easter. On a sea day we could rarely get a seat anywhere about the ship (except in bars). Shuttle buses were a nightmare - so much so that I nicknamed her "Qzura" as we seemed to be constantly queueing

Exactly what we found. And very noisy. Either the Seascreen blaring out - why no wifi headsets I wonder? Then if you are in the library or computer room, they are ballroom dancing in the Atrium?