Medium size cruise ships

[nodrog semaj]

Hi everyone my wife and I are long time cruisers but in recent years we have run into a problem.

We don’t like the very large ships now making up an ever increasing part of cruise fleets.

We have two major problems with these ships, we feel they are too big and with so many people on board you lose the feeling of getting know fellow cruisers.

Our other problem is these ships are so big that they can only dock at major harbour locations with the result in our view you cruise between a few   Major cities / locations that have big ports. 
Finally my question is how do you easily identify the size of ships ? Currently we have to wade through cruise advertisements then go to the company and check their info on ships, some cruise companies don’t list passenger number. This then requires a visit to google. None of the search sites allow you to put in ship size.

Am I asking the impossible? 
look forward to any suggestions.

nodrog semaj

 

[Essiesmom]

Go to www.cruisedeckplans.com.  They list the cruise lines that sail regular cruises with some niche exceptions.  Choose your cruise line and the first page for that line will show each ship with the basic statistics:  age,size, occupancy, etc.  it’s a start.  EM

[Heidi13]

13 hours ago, nodrog semaj said:

Hi everyone my wife and I are long time cruisers but in recent years we have run into a problem.

We don’t like the very large ships now making up an ever increasing part of cruise fleets.

We have two major problems with these ships, we feel they are too big and with so many people on board you lose the feeling of getting know fellow cruisers.

Our other problem is these ships are so big that they can only dock at major harbour locations with the result in our view you cruise between a few   Major cities / locations that have big ports. 
Finally my question is how do you easily identify the size of ships ? Currently we have to wade through cruise advertisements then go to the company and check their info on ships, some cruise companies don’t list passenger number. This then requires a visit to google. None of the search sites allow you to put in ship size.

Am I asking the impossible? 
look forward to any suggestions.

nodrog semaj

 

 

When reviewing a ship, I look for 2 details - the ship's Gross Tonnage, which is a measure of the total internal enclosed space, with 100 cubic feet = 1 ton. The other is the passenger count, which most ships post as the cabins at double occupancy. Note - many ships have 3rd, even 4th berths in many cabins, so the total pax could be higher.

 

I find this information is readily available for most ships from a simple Google search, either from the cruise line's website, or Wiki.

 

To determine the pax space ratio, I divide the Gross Tonnage by the total pax. We only consider ships with pax counts between 750 and 1,250 and a pax space ratio of >50.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Heidi13

[navybankerteacher]

I suppose we should define our terms.  Not long ago a small ship probably carried perhaps a couple of hundred passengers, a medium one perhaps 1,000 or so, while large started at 1,500 - and anything over 2,000 was huge.   Now, with 5,000 plus heffalumps of the sea out there, medium seems to mean anything around 3,500.

[Charles4515]

I check on Wikipedia. Ship tonnage, length, draft, decks, year built, passenger capacity, crew capacity. etc.   Pretty simple..........

[donaldsc]

You could pick a line that ONLY has small or medium sized ships and don't even look at other lines.  There are a bunch of them out there.  

 

DON

[ldubs]

If you have a lot of experience then it should be a simple matter to identify those ship classes that are most appealing.  For example, because I like the Crown Princess, I will likely enjoy all Grand Class Princess ships.   I enjoy Celebrity Infinity => Millennium Class ships.  For RCI, I really like the Radiance Class ships.  

 

Of course, this only works if you have been on one of the ships.  

[MBP&O2/O]

Look at

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/wiki/761-cruise-ship-passenger-capacity-ratings#:~:text=Cruise passengers-to-space ratio,45ft3%3D45000%2F1000).

[LHT28]

What size  ships are you looking for ?

 Max  PAX capacity ?

 

I prefer ships under 1500 PAX

 

Most main stream lines  are now 2000 +

JMO

[LocoLoco1]

Every Cruise line has Websites that give the number of passengers. Every one. 

[shipgeeks]

OP, It might be of interest to you, being in Australia, that Royal Caribbean will have a fairly small ship, Brilliance of the Seas, doing ANZ cruises starting next year.  Her capacity is a bit over 2,000 pax, I believe, which is certainly smaller than the biggies that have 5,000 or more.  We find that class of ship quite comfortable and appealing.  (We, too, are not at all interested in ships with malls down the middle, thrill rides, etc.)

[Charles4515]

8 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

OP, It might be of interest to you, being in Australia, that Royal Caribbean will have a fairly small ship, Brilliance of the Seas, doing ANZ cruises starting next year.  Her capacity is a bit over 2,000 pax, I believe, which is certainly smaller than the biggies that have 5,000 or more.  We find that class of ship quite comfortable and appealing.  (We, too, are not at all interested in ships with malls down the middle, thrill rides, etc.)

Brilliance is not small......

[nodrog semaj]

3 hours ago, LocoLoco1 said:

Every Cruise line has Websites that give the number of passengers. Every one. 

I don’t agree not all lines show ship passenger capacity. You then have to google the ship. 

[nodrog semaj]

4 hours ago, LHT28 said:

What size  ships are you looking for ?

 Max  PAX capacity ?

 

I prefer ships under 1500 PAX

 

Most main stream lines  are now 2000 +

JMO

I am happy up to approx. 2500 but beyond 3000 forget it. 

[Charles4515]

11 minutes ago, nodrog semaj said:

I don’t agree not all lines show ship passenger capacity. You then have to google the ship. 

My experience is that they have it somewhere on their website but  it may be hard to find so it is easier to look it up on Wikipedia by a google search.  

[nodrog semaj]

7 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

I check on Wikipedia. Ship tonnage, length, draft, decks, year built, passenger capacity, crew capacity. etc.   Pretty simple..........

That seems to be the only method when the cruise company doesn’t tell you which is what I have been doing. 

[nodrog semaj]

Thank you everyone. It seems there is no short cut so I have decided to make a list of the ships I check then on future occasions I will know. 
As an aside I think my cruising days are getting reduced by these sailing small cities. The ships at below 1K are too expensive for my budget and as the monsters replace reasonable size ships the cruises available to me reduce. 

[jolinda]

Cruiseplum will let you filter by ship size.

[Essiesmom]

Did you look at cruisedeckplans, as I suggested?  I think you will find what you are looking for there, on the home page for each cruise line.  EM

[navybankerteacher]

5 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Brilliance is not small......

Inflation does not just impact the cost of gasoline -- "small" is a relative term.  When large ships ran to 2000 passengers, mid size were 1,000 to 2,000, and small were under 1,000.   it is very hard to find many ships in the 500 or so range - so they hardly exist: meaning that anything under 2,000 is the new "small"

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

Inflation does not just impact the cost of gasoline -- "small" is a relative term.  When large ships ran to 2000 passengers, mid size were 1,000 to 2,000, and small were under 1,000.   it is very hard to find many ships in the 500 or so range - so they hardly exist: meaning that anything under 2,000 is the new "small"

There are plenty of small ships. OP asked about medium size ships because they figure  that small ships are out of their price range. OP mentions up to 2500 passengers which would be the ship someone called smaller, Brilliance. OP also mentions ships being so big that they can only port at major harbor locations. Lets call Brilliance medium sized since it has about 2500 ish passengers..Same with Celebrity Millenium Class. They still have to port at major harbors and ports. They can't for example dock in Hamilton, Bermuda or St. Georges, Bermuda it has to dock at the Royal Navel Dockyard in Bermuda. There is not much advantage to medium sized ships as to ports and locations they can visit. 

[YourWorldWithBill]

On 8/4/2022 at 7:34 PM, nodrog semaj said:

Hi everyone my wife and I are long time cruisers but in recent years we have run into a problem.

We don’t like the very large ships now making up an ever increasing part of cruise fleets.

We have two major problems with these ships, we feel they are too big and with so many people on board you lose the feeling of getting know fellow cruisers.

Our other problem is these ships are so big that they can only dock at major harbour locations with the result in our view you cruise between a few   Major cities / locations that have big ports. 
Finally my question is how do you easily identify the size of ships ? Currently we have to wade through cruise advertisements then go to the company and check their info on ships, some cruise companies don’t list passenger number. This then requires a visit to google. None of the search sites allow you to put in ship size.

Am I asking the impossible? 
look forward to any suggestions.

nodrog semaj

 

Just FYI, In the past year my wife and I have been on two Viking ocean cruises. Every ship holds a maximum of 930 passengers. Feels right.

[Charles4515]

39 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Just FYI, In the past year my wife and I have been on two Viking ocean cruises. Every ship holds a maximum of 930 passengers. Feels right.

I have not been on Viking yet but I have been on Azamara and Oceania. Those feel right to me too. The OP has indicated small ships are not in their budget. That is why OP is asking for Medium size ships with 2500 passengers but not over 3000. To me once you get to 2500-3000 there is not much difference between that and 4000, 5000.

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

...The OP has indicated small ships are not in their budget. ...

The OP should realize that if he does not want the Walmart experience, he should be willing to pay a bit more than Walmart prices.  Efficiencies of scale (when you are moving thousands of passengers the cost per passenger has to be a lot less than on a ship carrying hundreds) translate to lower fares.  And, as soon as you are willing to pay more than rock bottom fares you will find you are likely to get a better experience.

[crystalspin]

On 8/4/2022 at 6:34 PM, nodrog semaj said:

Am I asking the impossible? 
look forward to any suggestions.

Holland America: 

Zaandam & Volendam = 1400-1700

Noordam, Oosterdam, Zuiderdam, Westerdam = 2000-2400 

Eurodam & Nieuw Amsterdam = 2100-2500

 

Even their largest ships may be tolerable depending on occupancy:

Koningdam, Nieuw Statendam, Rotterdam = 2600-3200

 

I realize I did not answer your question of how to search for smaller ships. I guess my suggestion is to limit search to lines that are (mostly) within your limits.