is Celebration tooooooooo big?

[havanadaydreaming]

not that it will keep us cruise fanatics from booking a voyage, but i think i heard Celebration runs 5500+ capacity?  

 

whooo boy, dat a lot of humanity on one ship.  we've never sailed the RC monsters, i think our biggest ship we have sailed is right about 4k  (Escape, Epic, Divina, Panorama/Horizon) 

 

 

[hard_eight]

Booked on Celebration Jan 8th. Honestly I'm a lil concerned about that. My favorite class is the Fantasy class, the Glory and Magic give me some anxiety with ALL the hoomans but, looking forward to it!

[JOHN 57]

we are sailing for 5 March, cannot wait.

[pirate4me2]

Our biggest ship we sailed to date is the Horizon, we embark this Saturday on Mardi Gras and I am a little anxious about it! 

We do have Celebration booked for March, and will keep that sailing due to some exciting things we have planned for it, but if we feel the Excel class is too big, we will scale back down to the Vista and Dream classes for future bookings. 

[EngIceDave]

I've been on some of the giant ships, like over at RCCL, and I don't need Disney World at sea. They're too big.

I get that the idea is not just the ability to house more people, but be able to spread them out so it doesn't seem as crowded.

It's still too big.

 

Don't need a 10 second roller coaster costing me $20 a pop

Don't need a bicycle in the sky

Too long of lines for too short a ride. 

[UPNYGuy]

DW and I have sailed on the MSC Meraviglia, when it was doing its maiden season around the med. That ship is roughly the same size as the XL class. We had a great time on it. FWIW, we sail on a range of capacity from under 1000 (oceania) to around 5000. Only problem is when all those people want to do the same thing at the same time.

[UPNYGuy]

2 minutes ago, EngIceDave said:

I've been on some of the giant ships, like over at RCCL, and I don't need Disney World at sea. They're too big.

I get that the idea is not just the ability to house more people, but be able to spread them out so it doesn't seem as crowded.

It's still too big.

 

Don't need a 10 second roller coaster costing me $20 a pop

Don't need a bicycle in the sky

Too long of lines for too short a ride. 

 

like it or not, this is the modern cruise industry. Unless you go with Viking, Azamara, or Oceania, what you see is what you are now going to get. Even Holland America's new ships are almost twice the size as the smallest and oldest ones that were decommissioned in the last few years (99,000 GRT vs 50,000ish GRT) Hell, Princess has a 175,000 GRT ship on order, and several in the fleet right now that are the same size as a Breakaway or Voyager class.

[havanadaydreaming]

1 hour ago, JOHN 57 said:

we are sailing for 5 March, cannot wait.

We are close to booking that sailing, John.   Soon as airfare decreases i think we'll jump on it.  

 

[mz-s]

The new big ships can hold twice the number of guests as the smaller ships, but don’t use twice as much fuel or crew. They are cheaper for the cruise lines to operate and will be the way forward for the mass-market lines.

[JOHN 57]

12 minutes ago, havanadaydreaming said:

We are close to booking that sailing, John.   Soon as airfare decreases i think we'll jump on it.  

 

Let me know, when you do

[Illbcruzn4life]

20 minutes ago, UPNYGuy said:

DW and I have sailed on the MSC Meraviglia, when it was doing its maiden season around the med. That ship is roughly the same size as the XL class. We had a great time on it. FWIW, we sail on a range of capacity from under 1000 (oceania) to around 5000. Only problem is when all those people want to do the same thing at the same time.

This is where RCI shines on their Oasis class. Since advance reservations are needed for the shows and comedians it keeps people spaced out.

[JOHN 57]

4 minutes ago, JOHN 57 said:

Let me know, when you do

we are doing the same, looking for airfares, but we are already booked on Celebration.

[Indytraveler83]

I'll be honest, I've been a part of the "keep them small" crowd for years. But after two voyages on the Horizon, my mind has changed. My main reasons why:

 

1) Many of the older ships (not including Spirit class as they are a different story) tend to have just a few huge areas for all the passengers.  They generally expected most everyone to be on Lido, the MDR or in the show lounge.  This meant that you always had 2,000 of your new closest friends near you.  To me, the Dream class was the biggest offender in this regard, especially before they started adding venues to the lanai.

 

The newer ships have several small venues.  Yes, some of them do fill up, but you are never surrounded by the entire ship of people at once.  We just got off a sold out cruise on the Horizon, but never felt it.

 

2) Those venues I just mentioned are fantastic.  And I'm not talking about a roller coaster or movie theater at sea type of attractions.  I'm talking bars, places to eat and multiple places on the ships for music and performances.  

 

3) Simple stability.  We went through some storms on the Horizon, and the ship never moved enough to threaten the balance of a full wine glass.  Years ago on the Elation, we cruises through a similar storm that had the bow pitching up and down, glasses filled less than half full and barf bags everywhere. 

[Illbcruzn4life]

2 minutes ago, JOHN 57 said:

we are doing the same, looking for airfares, but we are already booked on Celebration.

us too. We are booked on Celebration for April. We got our airfare at a good price going. It's just the return trip that has bad times and very high prices.

[JOHN 57]

Just now, Illbcruzn4life said:

us too. We are booked on Celebration for April. We got our airfare at a good price going. It's just the return trip that has bad times and very high prices.

we are 5 March, watching the prices.  we talked about if air fares, do not go down, rent a car and go, but that is talk for now.  Both retired and in no rush.

[Illbcruzn4life]

2 minutes ago, JOHN 57 said:

we are 5 March, watching the prices.  we talked about if air fares, do not go down, rent a car and go, but that is talk for now.  Both retired and in no rush.

 

Will be retired in March but not driving to Miami from Pennsylvania. I had a hard enough time making it to North Carolina this summer. The old legs aren't what they used to be. lol

[JOHN 57]

Just now, Illbcruzn4life said:

 

Will be retired in March but not driving to Miami from Pennsylvania. I had a hard enough time making it to North Carolina this summer. The old legs aren't what they used to be. lol

I agree, drive from Pennsylvania is a long drive, but from Texas not so bad.  We are both retired, so no rush.  Maybe drive and enjoy some sites on the way, a bit to early to decide.  I retired in 2013, Myriam 2 years later.

[UPNYGuy]

9 minutes ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

This is where RCI shines on their Oasis class. Since advance reservations are needed for the shows and comedians it keeps people spaced out.

 

i can agree with that, but most megaship operators are like that. IIRC MSC did on Meraviglia. 

[UPNYGuy]

16 minutes ago, Indytraveler83 said:

I'll be honest, I've been a part of the "keep them small" crowd for years. But after two voyages on the Horizon, my mind has changed. My main reasons why:

 

1) Many of the older ships (not including Spirit class as they are a different story) tend to have just a few huge areas for all the passengers.  They generally expected most everyone to be on Lido, the MDR or in the show lounge.  This meant that you always had 2,000 of your new closest friends near you.  To me, the Dream class was the biggest offender in this regard, especially before they started adding venues to the lanai.

 

The newer ships have several small venues.  Yes, some of them do fill up, but you are never surrounded by the entire ship of people at once.  We just got off a sold out cruise on the Horizon, but never felt it.

 

2) Those venues I just mentioned are fantastic.  And I'm not talking about a roller coaster or movie theater at sea type of attractions.  I'm talking bars, places to eat and multiple places on the ships for music and performances.  

 

3) Simple stability.  We went through some storms on the Horizon, and the ship never moved enough to threaten the balance of a full wine glass.  Years ago on the Elation, we cruises through a similar storm that had the bow pitching up and down, glasses filled less than half full and barf bags everywhere. 

 

agree 100% here. we used to have an arbitrary cap at around 100,000 GRT, which is impossible out of some ports and itineraries. Try sailing a ship out of NJ or NY under that limit...not going to happen unless you actively try to. When DW and I had the foresight to realize that Royal Caribbean was correct (ships getting much larger), we went on Norwegian Breakaway in a Haven cabin just to try it...or previous cruise on a ship that was 1/3 the size. We loved it and aren't as hard nosed about ship size as we used to be.

Edited November 8, 2022 by UPNYGuy

[elcuchio24]

We're on the Celebration during Feb break. On NCL Joy next week out of NYC. Love the megaships, never understood people liking small ships with less to do unless just holding on to memories of the past. 

 

Celebration still dwarfed by our April Break cruise......Wonder of the Seas. That one will be something to see, looking forward to it. 

[mz-s]

I like the larger ships for the variety of things to do, but I like the smaller ships because it doesn’t take 20 minutes to get to what you want to do. So I guess all things considered the Conquest class size is where I like to be. I could go a little bigger or smaller, say down to Sunshine or up to Dream/Vista, but I’m not sure I’m ready for XL Class (or Oasis class for that matter!)

[UPNYGuy]

9 minutes ago, elcuchio24 said:

never understood people liking small ships with less to do

 

because the smaller ships almost always have fewer people on it, and some (spirit class) are exceedingly spacious. 

[UPNYGuy]

10 minutes ago, mz-s said:

I like the larger ships for the variety of things to do, but I like the smaller ships because it doesn’t take 20 minutes to get to what you want to do. So I guess all things considered the Conquest class size is where I like to be. I could go a little bigger or smaller, say down to Sunshine or up to Dream/Vista, but I’m not sure I’m ready for XL Class (or Oasis class for that matter!)

 

oasis class design to me appears too inward facing. I like to feel like I am on a ship, and be able to easily look out and see the ocean. not sure if I would venture on a split superstructure ship for this very reason, but never say never 😂

Edited November 8, 2022 by UPNYGuy

[elcuchio24]

15 minutes ago, UPNYGuy said:

 

oasis class design to me appears too inward facing. I like to feel like I am on a ship, and be able to easily look out and see the ocean. not sure if I would venture on a split superstructure ship for this very reason, but never say never 😂

 

Easy enough to get an ocean facing balcony---nice to give it a try at least, especially with some good options out of NJ near you...

[UPNYGuy]

15 minutes ago, elcuchio24 said:

 

Easy enough to get an ocean facing balcony---nice to give it a try at least, especially with some good options out of NJ near you...

 

thats the other thing too, and why I havent flatly said no. I know how well that went...

 

1) no ships above 100,000 GRT = we go on one that is 140,000

2) no Royal Caribbean = we go on Liberty of the seas

3) no Carnival =  ... soon to be platinum 🤣

 

hence why I have given up trying to set rules. For years, mine was a no ships above 100,000 GRT, and we stuck with Holland America (and flat out refused to sail on carnival due to the reputation). After we had several poor cruises with HAL, we ventured out and found that most cruise lines are more alike than different (especially the megaship lines). They have the same end result (carry pax from place to place on a floating hotel, and provide food and drink, and entertainment).