Have Cruise Ships Become Too Big?

Over the past decades cruise ships have been progressively getting bigger and bigger.

When I first started cruising 70,000 gt was classed as a mega-ship. Now that tonnage is just regarded as mid-sized, at best.

P&O Britannia and Marco Polo (Courtesy Karen Bradbury )

In the image above, you can see what has changed in around fifty years. The mega-ship is P&O’s Brittania (2015, 144,00gt approx. 3,650 passengers) compared to CMV’s Marco Polo (1964, 22,00gt approx. 820 passengers). The image is NOT an optical illusion, Brittania is about 6.5 times bigger, in volume (gt). However, there are many ships even bigger than Brittania, today.

Royal Caribbean’s new class of ship, “Icon of the seas”, is an amazing 250,00 gross tonnes – the world’s biggest. Including the crew, she can accommodate over 9000 people! Icon exceeds the size of the world’s former biggest ship, Royal Caribbean’s ‘Oasis’ class.

In addition, there are many other very big ships (MSC, NCL, etc.) are already in the shipyards order books, which will be entering service within the next decade or so. Therefore it is hardly surprising  that there are two major concerns about today’s leviathans:

1) How well will the ships cope with the huge number of passengers that they carry.

2) How will the ports of call cope?

Many people are now asking the bigger question “Have cruise ships become too big”? 

So what is “Too Big”?

With all of this talk about ‘too big’, how do we decide when ‘big’ becomes ‘too big?’ The ships that we considered too big ten years ago (Carnival Destiny, Grand Princess etc.) are now looking medium sized and their size has generally been accepted as ‘standard’. As another commentator said : “It seems that with each major increase in ship size there are people who say it won’t work. Yet magically, these ships are somehow able to handle the crowds and the crowds seem to love being on the ships”.

Crowded Mega Ships:

Mega-ships: Just imagine the opportunities to join a queue (line) for embarkation and disembarkation. Imagine the queue for the lifts (Elevators) or for the buffet. Imagine the possibilities of getting lost in the endless corridors and decks.  Just imagine the number of people crowded onto the pool deck on a sunny day. Let’s look at each of the fears above:

Queuing:

Most megaship have multiple lifts. Oasis has 41.  They are often very large and very fast. Queuing, apart from peak times such as dinner and embarkation can be rare. Mega-ships have enormous buffets. Admittedly they can still get VERY busy, but there are always alternative dining facilities onboard.

Getting Lost:

Many big modern ships are actually easy to navigate, however the endless corridors and decks are a fact of life. They can make your legs ache. Mobility impaired passengers normally prefer smaller ships.

Crowded Pool Decks:

This can be very true. Big ships tend to be taller, but there uppermost pool decks are not proportionately bigger to their passenger numbers. In addition, today’s pool decks may even accommodate water-chutes, climbing walls, Go-Kart tracks, aqua parks, mini-golf and other ‘gimmicks’, actually reducing the space for pools and sun loungers. However mega-ships often have private lounger areas for adults and Solarium areas. The family/children areas are often separated from the adult ones. There are also hundreds of cabins, with private balconies, to enjoy some peace and sunshine.

The Myth  There is a myth that I must ‘bust’:

Big ships do NOT necessarily feel more crowded on-board, that smaller ones. It’s all to do with the passenger-to-space ratio. Some big ships have more space per passenger, than some smaller ships. The passenger flow on-board a mega-ship is based the concept that not everybody will be in the same place at the same time: this is why they have multiple dining rooms and multiple entertainment venues.

For example, if you are dining in Oasis’s main dining room (which must accommodate over 2,000 passengers per sitting) cleverly you are only really aware of the tables and people directly around you. At NO time do you feel that you are eating in a giant mess hall with 2,000 other passengers. The “not everybody will be in the same place at the same time” principle can work very well, until there are times when most passenger DO need to be at the same place at the same time.  For example: cruise embarkation/disembarkation is one of these occasions. Another time is getting off the ship and getting back on, in the ports of call.

Embarcation/Disembarcation

So how do you get 6,000+ people on and off a ship without unparalleled grid-lock? For those that have not cruised on a mega-ship, it can take over half a day to fully disembark all of the passengers and about the same time to embark the new compliment. That’s when it runs smoothly! If it doesn’t, major delays occur.

However Royal Caribbean, for example, have built some enormous and very efficient cruise terminals in Florida, America, for example. These are for their giant ‘Oasis’ class ships carrying 6,000+ passengers.  I  embarked from “Kerb to Cabin” in fifteen minutes! It can be done. However ports like Southampton UK, can struggle when three or more big ships are in port. Some commentators suggest that the existing Southampton cruise terminal buildings are no longer big enough for the new mega-ships. The number of check-in desks and security scanners can be  inadequate to process the incoming passengers fast enough. The baggage handling staff appear overworked. The car parking spaces have become too few.  The  local roads are now also inadequate, as they are shared with shopping malls and the likes of IKEA etc.

Mergaviglia, maiden cruise June 2017, disembarkation, Barcelona. (Source Unknown)

It is hard to imagine how the popular Caribbean islands will be able to cope, if a city like Southampton can’t. Imagine two  or three ships carrying 6,000+ tourists arrive simultaneously, on a daily basis.  Even if you built a suitable infrastructure to cope with that many people, would it not spoil these island paradises and turn them into mini-Manhattans? Some commentators feel this has already happened.

Traditionally, if a ship could not dock at a port,  possibly due to lack of an available berth or the ship being too large for the  berth, passengers were “tendered” ashore in small boats. RCI’s ‘Oasis’ class, for example, is just too big to berth in many of the world’s smaller ports. In addition,  tendering that many people is simply impossible. This severely limits the mega-ships itineraries. However the berth size and infrastructure has been extend on all or Oasis’s regular ports of call. Then there is the question of shore excursions. One commentator put it very concisely: “It is going to make it twice as long to get on and off the ship reducing time people have in ports”. Can you imagine all 6000+ people getting off in a port and demanding buses and taxis where the locals only a minimal amount of public  transport available?

Somehow it Works

It’s important to note that big cruise ships are not a new phenomenon, they just happen to have been getting even bigger, every time a new ‘class’ of ship enters service. Many of the most popular ships in service today exceed 100,000 gross tonnes and  carry over 3,000 passengers. On any given day, it is not unusual to find half a dozen big ships, or more, berthed at a port of call. Although it is not necessarily an ideal situation – most of the Caribbean ports are certainly more crowded than they used to be – somehow it still all seems to work. This is due to the excellent on-board organisation of the cruise lines in disembarking people on shore tours etc. I’ve seen it run like clockwork.

The Caribbean is still the world’s biggest cruise destination and that does not look set to change. If it was so unbearable due to overcrowding, I think people would simply stop cruising there, yet they keep on coming.

The major cruise lines today, have their own private island such as Disney’s, ‘Castaway Cay’. This helps reduces the congestion at some of the the more popular ports. Some new ports of call in the Caribbean are also emerging, such as ‘Grand Turk’. Personally I think that the ports of the Mediterranean, many of which are large mainland  cities, rather than small islands, are better placed to absorb the increasing passenger numbers, assuming their cruise terminals are regularly upgraded/enlarged. However, who knows, perhaps the ports of call will become less important in the future as these ‘floating resorts’ become the destination and not just the means of travel.

Mega-ships are making way for ultra-ships. Even the term ‘ship’ is increasingly becoming inadequate to describe these giant floating resorts. Despite the skepticism in some quarters, RCI’s ‘Oasis’ class ships has proved that it is possible to embark, disembark 6000+ people efficiently, even on Caribbean islands, if the organisation and supporting infrastructure is in place. They now do it on a weekly basis. Although the sight of 20 of buses lined up on the dock, ready to take hundreds of passengers on excursions,  is not a pretty sight or very environmentally friendly. However once again, thorough good organisation, the negative impact can be minimised.

Big Ships Are Not all Bad

To be fair, we should also take a look at the positive aspects of these very big ships. I have been lucky enough to enjoyed cruises on both the biggest ships and some that are very small. Big ships offer a range of facilities including a vast variety of dining, entertainment and sports facilities, that could only have been dreamed of, thirty years ago. The staterooms (cabins) have become more luxurious, are often larger, with many having private balconies. Fares on these mega-ships should be more competitive that smaller ships, due to the ‘economies of scale’ offered to the owners: running one big ship instead of several smaller ones, is simply more cost effective.

A number of factors drive the  demand for ships of ever increasing size. The cruising masses certainly love them. According to NCL’s former CEO, Colin Veitch, “The thing that’s attractive about bigger ships is you have more choice and variety on board,” he said. “We make a lot more money on them. Ticket revenue and on-board revenue is dramatically higher on larger ships than on smaller, older ships.”

The global cruise market is continuing to grow, so the cruise lines were simply responding to the Kevin Costner adage; “if you build it, they will come”. These big ships almost market themselves; ‘The Biggest’ always generates headlines. Let’s not forget that it is big ships that have enabled the masses to cruise in the first place, by offering affordable fares.

Smaller Ships

In total contrast, to everything that I have said above, we are also seeing a ‘boom’ in smaller ship construction. However theses are mainly exclusive  ‘Expedition’ vessels, carrying 100-200 passengers, operating in remote parts of the world. They offer high luxury with very high fares to match.

River cruising, which has been growing in recent years,  also involves small vessel often carrying under 200 passengers. However, some smaller cruise lines that rely on buying/operating second-hand ship (Olsen, Ambassador etc.) are finding that each time they are in the market to buy a new ship, those available are bigger than their past vessels.  For example, there was once many older ships in operation at 30,000 gt or less. Now the smallest tend to be between 45,000-70,000 gt. Therefore even small ships are getting bigger!

The Coronavirus

2019’s Coronavirus pandemic, has been a game changer! Even in 2022, the thought of being confined with thousands of people on a ship is not a pleasant thought, at the moment. However, even post pandemic: if I had a choice of cruising with 1,000 fellow passengers or 6,000 passengers, I know which I would choose.

Conclusion

A non-cruiser once asked me what was the difference between the big-ship and small-ship cruise experience. I answered that the former is like a busy, high-energy, floating shopping mall, come state-of-the-art resort experience, with all the positives and negatives that it brings. The latter is more sedate, intimate, friendly one and in many ways more nautical. A small ship has a much better connection with the sea. Back to the opening question: “Have cruise ships become too big?”  It is of course a very subjective question. The cruising masses do not seem to think so. It is a fact that much of  the cruise growth in recent years was being driven by very big family-friendly resort ships.  RCI and NCL have gone on record as stating that their biggest ship are their most profitable.  This should not be surprising,  as the new big ships are full of alternative dining, sports and entertainment options, many of which carry a surcharge. Many of the cruising public obviously think that  “Big IS Beautiful”. 

Malcolm Oliver

.

So is ‘Oasis of the Seas’ too big?  See My review: HERE

*(You will notice that I did not even discuss the safety and logistics of evacuating 6,000+ people into lifeboats, as it does not bear thinking about. Neither did I touch on the environment and pollution caused by big ships. Next time..)