How Big is Too Big?

[LauraS]

As we reported last week in our news story, Royal Caribbean announced it would build cruising's biggest ship ever: The first in its proposed series of Genesis-class ships will measure a whopping 220,000 tons and carry 5,400 passengers. The ship, which will be 43 percent larger than Royal Caribbean's soon-to-be-launched Freedom of the Seas -- itself the biggest cruise ship ever built -- will be launched in fall 2009.

 

We want to know: Poll: How big is too big? Tell us how you feel and we'll publish the results next week.

Then, after you've told us, share with each other.......

[w99flash]

Just wondering if existing ports will be able to handle this size ship, or will itineraries be limited by its size?

[i guide the sky]

:eek: 220,000 tons!!! wow that is big. to answer the question YES! I love Big ships. I'm taken in by the extreme engineering of it all.

 

I especially like the inside rooms on the large ships that look out on to the inside. I almost prefer it for some strange reason.

 

I still don't understand how they are going to get this thing in and out of ports, prolly a lot of tendering which could get anoying. The issue is almost equal to the new Airbus A380, They are so big they cant get into but a few airports/ports.

 

IMO, the more people the better, just more people to interact with. Now, there is a large caviot. They have to be able to feed and acomodate the larger number of people well. If this ship still has super long lines for buffets and crowded shows and such, it might not be fun. not to mention long lines for the tenders. (would need two or three stations) however I'm sure they will achieve it.

 

lastly, I have never been a huge fan of RCC whos service and quality always seems cheap, and it seems because there larger ships need to acomodate so many. AS long as they can keep up some level of acceptable quality, while mass producing dinner and such, i believe this ship could be a lot of fun.

 

however, i would like to see some new mega liners being made for some of the more elegant lines such as celebrity.

[BTDookie]

That is too big. In fact, anything larger than what I was just on (Constellation) is too big IMHO.

[canderson]

As someone has already noted on one of our threads --

 

If it becomes appropriate for a line to use its smallest ships (e.g. Zenith) to act as tenders for its largest ones (Genesis series), that might be a bit too big.

 

It's already 0.15 miles from dinner to the show on the M-Class ships. Does bringing it up to an even two tenths really improve anything?

[slotaddict]

Entirely to big, I cannot imagine getting on and off of this ship. I thought the Voyager class was big enough. :eek:

[teedee]

For me, it's way too big with way too many people. I think tendering would be a nightmare, and I shudder to think about the already overcrowded ports having that many more people crowding in. My personal preference is for the C Class ships, they are plenty big enough for me.

Terri

[DancerOT]

If its bigger than my college and graduate school......(and I went mid-size)....

 

draw your own conclusions

[safein]

I really believe that the larger the ship, the more nightmares will come true especially with trouble in embarkation and disembarkation. You hear about how long it takes with 2,000 passengers. 5,400 will be a nightmare.

 

Anita

[Prince]

Imagine what the airport will be like as well.... thats too big for me.

[adegner]

My thought is that the extension of RCCL's budget to buy this thing is one of the reason's Celebrity may be on the back burner. Not a GOOD thing....

[hshowalter]

Can tou imagine 5400 passingers going to Port Stanley in the Falkland islands with a population of 2,ooo. people?

[kendall jackson]

this ship will need it's own zip code. no thanks.

[meyer4two]

way too big, I can't imagine the buffet line or trying to find a pool chair.

No thanks, the Constellation is just the right size for me.

[House_Atreides]

I've sailed on the Mariner that was too big for me!!!!

 

The Summit was fine.....

 

I still like the ships that are 40 - 70 tons or so.

 

5000+ passengers is friggin INSANE:mad:

[Ericknow32]

It's already 0.15 miles from dinner to the show on the M-Class ships. Does bringing it up to an even two tenths really improve anything?

I am thinking that there will be more than one dining room. I hope its not freestyle but I would count on more than one dining room.

 

I plan to sail it once just to see it. Will I sail it again, Who knows...

[ML147000]

My thinking would be trying to evacuate 5000+ people in a limited period of time if Heaven forbid some emergency should happen. Think of it now...those large ships with the center atriums from stem to stern all open from top to bottom. The perfect atmosphere for a raging fire with plenty of air flow. And should there be such a disaster? How would those who's cabins open into said atrium evacuate?:eek:

 

Nope...I prefer the smaller ships. Easier to find stuff, easier to make and find new friends and you're not out of breath by the time you get to your assigned seating time.:cool:

[jenrn1]

I sailed on the Mariner last year at one of the school break times and man, it was WAAAYYY out of hand. Can only imaging what this ship will be like!!!

[Gypsea]

was on the Voyager of the Seas 9/04. The dining room staff was surly on the last morning.

Why? They can't handle all the people, even on that (little?)ship. She was too big for me.

 

I like the Millenium class and even NCL Dawn for big ships. Both are 965 feet long and those are plenty big. An Inside Promenade screws up getting around the ship. And I know many of you loathe NCL but one of the promises they make is that they will not try to keep up with the Jones's (if you will). The reason is that staff cannot take care of that many people and do it well. So, if you never see X doing that you should understand why. I wrote this (below) recently in pointing out why Celeb is a cut above (X is #1, 2, 3 and 4 in Conde Nast this month for large ships).

 

"As for the Vision of the Seas, the ship is the same size (approx 78000 tons or 2435 guests)as the Dawn Princess but the Dawn takes 500 fewer passengers. The Mercury is also the same size and takes 80 less than the Dawn. The difference becomes obvious as the service is better when the guest to staff ratio is smaller. This is what gives them the edge on the competition and the reason I call them the Cadillac of Royal Caribbean."

 

Am I wrong?

[canderson]

"As for the Vision of the Seas, the ship is the same size (approx 78000 tons or 2435 guests)as the Dawn Princess but the Dawn takes 500 fewer passengers. The Mercury is also the same size and takes 80 less than the Dawn. The difference becomes obvious as the service is better when the guest to staff ratio is smaller. This is what gives them the edge on the competition and the reason I call them the Cadillac of Royal Caribbean."

 

Am I wrong?

Not sure if 'wrong' is the right word, but there seems to be some confusion between "space ratio" and "pax/crew ratio". An improvement in the former doesn't necessarily assure the latter. They're pretty much independent functions, one measuring potential sense of spaciousness and the other the potential level of service.

 

Let's try it will both sets of your variables:

 

........................PAX.........CREW......S/R......C/R

Vision.................2,000........765......39.2.....0.38

Dawn...................1,950........900......39.5.....0.46

Mercury................1,870........909......41.6.....0.49

What the numbers show, more than anything, is that Vision has a really poor crew to pax ratio. Apart from that, space ratios and crew/pax ratios are about the same.

 

It really doesn't matter how large the ship is overall apart from whether or not there are enough berths to accomodate a decent number of staff. The service starts to look very different, though, when you start fiddling around with the C/R number.

 

Wow... Vision really doesn't look very good by way of comparison, does it?

[Ericknow32]

Wow... Vision really doesn't look very good by way of comparison, does it?

Yes she does (said in a whiny tone):(

[Gypsea]

Fine. I go about it wrong but come to the same conclusion. The ships are approximately the same size but one is obviously superior. According to the magazine mentioned the Vision doesn't even make the list for the best large ships on the water and the Dawn is far down. These ratings are consumer opinion.

 

The thread is asking "how big is too big" and it seems the answer has to do with service. Isn't the reason we cruise about being pampered? If the Vision is weak how would service be on something three times as big (ratios aside). The evidence for RC demonstrates their trouble in this area already. However, some people love big and they shall have it if all goes as planned. Whatever happens I don't see the benefit and I doubt X will be following suit. Look at Seabourne, RCCS, Crystal and Silversea they seem to know something RC may be missing completely.

[canderson]

The thread is asking "how big is too big" and it seems the answer has to do with service. Isn't the reason we cruise about being pampered? If the Vision is weak how would service be on something three times as big (ratios aside). The evidence for RC demonstrates their trouble in this area already.

Guess my point is that service needn't suffer simply as a function of size, and as "How big is too big?" is indeed the question...

 

A great deal depends upon staffing ratios, and I haven't seen any estimates for what they plan to do in this regard on these larger ships. Service could range anywhere between lousy and fantastic. My guess is that it will be lousy compared to X, only because it won't be staffed any differently than the rest of RCL's fleet. The charts below are pretty astounding (and telling). We have no reason to believe that RCL's approach to staffing will be any different on even larger ships, but if they'd chosen to build smaller ones, the ratios would probably look just the same:

 

RCL's Fleet Staff/Pax Ratios

 

Freedom Class ...... 0.38

Voyager Class ...... 0.38

Radiance Class ..... 0.41

Vision Class ....... 0.38

Sovereign Class .... 0.37

RCL's Fleet Staff/Pax Ratios

Millennium Class ... 0.51

Century Class ...... 0.48

Zenith ............. 0.48

[USSFRef]

Nevermind the embarkation/debarkation issues, nevermind the dining issues, nevermind the service issues. If I wanted to be crowded along with 5000+ other people, I'd go to Vegas. Too many people!

[Sky Sweet]

Has anyone had this experience. You are a guest at a hotel wedding that has 165 people and enjoy wonderful food with excellent service. Then a few months later you attend a dinner/meeting with 300 people that is held in that exact same ballroom at the same hotel, but this time the food is lousy and so is the service. I have experienced this scenario more than once and it is a perfect illustration of why the passenger to crew ratio on a ship, as well as its passenger to space ratio, are more important factors than the size of the ship itself.