While bigger is not always better, cruise lines have found that it is quite popular, with sailings on the largest ships enjoying record bookings and sometimes rapid sellouts.
While the category for large cruise ships starts at 3,000 passengers, the real ‘mega-ships’ like Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, can hold well over 5,000 passengers.
Industry reports indicate that they are especially popular with younger cruisers, an important market both for now and to develop future loyalty; the attraction is the wide range of activities aboard including some that were unimaginable a few years ago: ice rinks, roller coasters, climbing walls and surf simulators. And, of course, theaters, casinos and restaurants.
Despite the growing number of mega-ships, however, even the lines most noted for them are building some smaller ships, too. That’s not only because there is a market for a different experience, but also because the number of ports that a mega-ship can go into is limited. Sometimes the ship is simply too big for the port; more often the port can’t handle thousands of visitors all at once.
It seems a moment to reflect on some words from Arthur Frommer, who wrote in 2007 that it was unnecessary for cruise ships to actually sail because all the activities were focused within the ship. And, in a column from 2014 he added that
A cruise should be an occasion for conversation and reading, for long afternoons in a chaise lounge gazing at the sea and enjoying it. Those were the classic pleasures of cruising that once satisfied a large number of people, who emerged from the cruise with their equilibrium restored and with memories and new friendships.
