Where are the mid sized ships?

Having just had a lovely chat with one of my customer who has recently returned from an Alaskan cruise with NCL on the Norwegian Jewel, we got on to the subject of mid-sized ships and the fact they seem to be a dying breed. At 93,000 tonnes and carrying just shy of 2,400 passengers, the Jewel is a decent enough size without being too big that if you forget something in your cabin, it isn’t going to take you the best part of an hour to go back and get it.

There is a big market of people that prefer sailing on a smaller ship as you tend to get a more personal service, what with there being less people on board the staff can really get to know their guests and better relationships can be made. Whilst the smaller ships cannot offer the mega facilities that a mega ship can they can more than make up for it with service and quality.

Looking at what is coming up orders wise there is not a single ship from the mainstream cruise lines that comes in at less than 100,000 tonnes. The only ships smaller that have been ordered are with the luxury lines such as Viking, Seabourn and Regent Seven Seas, which lets face it will not be cheap.

So, does this spell the end of the mid-sized cruise ships? With MSC having 6 ships launching before the end of 2019, the smallest of which being over 154,000 tonnes, NCL with 2 over 163,000 and Royal Caribbean looking forward to the Symphony of the Seas, a whopping 225,000 tonnes and a new Ovation Class ship (167,000) it certainly seems that the future is big. Very BIG!!

The mid sized ship lovers will sadly have to holiday on an ageing collection of ships or bite the bullet and learn to love super ships.