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Ship size vs guests


spylman
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Maybe an odd question, but please bare with me, I'm new

 

Think of the different ships Magic/wonder vs fantasy/dream and their sizes.

 

Question being are the bigger ships way too packed, longer wait times, etc or because they're bigger they can accommodate more guests

 

and...what time is late dining?

 

that's all for now, I'm sure i'll have a gazillion more questions.

 

Looking(thinking) at the dream

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Dinner times vary minimally on some cruises, but late dinner is typically 8:15 +/- 15 minutes. 8:15 is the norm.

 

There are more ways to spread out people on the larger ships and the various venues are bigger ...but yes, there are longer lines, more crowded dining rooms, more crowds at Castaway, etc. They did enlarge the guest areas at Castaway to allow for the bigger ships and more people.

 

There are good "times" for many things--if you want to ride the AquaDuck without lines, you can go during dinner or a show or early morning/late evening. If you go at 2 pm on a sunny afternoon, you'll have a line. They do cut off the character lines at a point, so those continue to be basically manageable.

 

All said, I prefer the Magic...but I'm not a teen.

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In general the Magic felt less crowded to us, but both classes of ship are crowded at the expected times/places (breakfast/lunch buffet, shows, pools, etc.).

 

We found Castaway much less crowded and more enjoyable when there on the Magic vs. Fantasy.

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I have found size makes no difference as far as perception of being crowded. I have been on smaller ships that "felt" crowded and I was on Oasis of the Seas (one of the largest ships on the sea) and felt like it was a ghost town. Hard to answer your question.

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Before the dream ws launched, I did a simple comparison of gross tonnage/passengers. (Gross tonnage is a measure of the volume of a ship, not weight)

The Magic class and the Dream have roughly the same volume per passenger. So don't expect to feel more packed in, generally.

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It isn't the "packed in" feeling....it is the length of lines to get into the dining rooms, to use the AquaDuck, to see characters (but these they do end at a certain point), etc. And the mass of kids at I Scream (and the mess despite constant CM attention) was incredible. It is self serve, but a self serve 8 year old with no parent in sight can be a disaster. We took one look and walked away. As noted, this was despite a CM trying to keep up with the cleaning! Never saw that kind of mess on Magic or Wonder. Ditto beverage station but it was in better shape.

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Before the dream ws launched, I did a simple comparison of gross tonnage/passengers. (Gross tonnage is a measure of the volume of a ship, not weight)

The Magic class and the Dream have roughly the same volume per passenger. So don't expect to feel more packed in, generally.

 

Thank you! I have been using the gross tonnage divided by capacity for years to get a rough calculation of space per person and was highly criticized on another board as using a meaningless calculation. It works for me!

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I've been on the Dream and the Wonder (and I've been thinking about this since the OP posted). When we were on the Dream, we stopped in Nassau and CC. Nassau was crazy busy as there were many ships at the port and it was nutso. CC was not terribly crowded but there were lines for things. And getting on the Aquaduck was really tough... every time I walked by it, it was either closed or there was a huge line. Cabanas "felt" crowded and by that, I mean I had a little sleuthing to do to find a table a prime times. Once we went there about 20 minutes before closing time and found a table with no problem.

 

On the Wonder, the only time I really experienced a "crowd" was in the terminal at the port, BUT, I realize that we stopped in Grand Cayman on a Sunday when there was ONE other ship anchored. I heard there can be up to 20k people from cruise ships on GC. So GC was absolutely fantastic (except for the rocky waters)... now CC was where I noticed the big difference, and it could be that the water was cold and only people north of the Mason-Dixon line dared to jump in, AND there was a crazy rain storm that lasted around 20 minutes that may have led people back to the ship (for what, I don't know), but that's when I really felt the smaller amount of people and like I said, circumstances may have caused the same thing to happen on the Dream.

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It isn't the "packed in" feeling....it is the length of lines to get into the dining rooms' date=' to use the AquaDuck, to see characters (but these they do end at a certain point), etc. And the mass of kids at I Scream (and the mess despite constant CM attention) was incredible. It is self serve, but a self serve 8 year old with no parent in sight can be a disaster. We took one look and walked away. As noted, this was despite a CM trying to keep up with the cleaning! Never saw that kind of mess on Magic or Wonder. Ditto beverage station but it was in better shape.[/quote']

 

Exactly! The GRT and passenger space ratio is great and all, but doesn't do you any good when everybody on the ship wants to occupy the same space at the same time.

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I find that that people all feel they need to try everything immediately. After a few days the crowds seem less noticeable. However on a 3 or 4 day cruise, by the time everyone has figured it out and relaxed... You get off. [emoji30]

And then, just remember the crowds and lines in the parks. [emoji33]

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