Big or small

Which do you prefer??????

After speaking to many past passengers over this year, the same concerns and feed back keeps coming up time & time again. Are smaller ships going to be a thing of the past unless you want to pay 6* prices and fly.

It seems to be that passengers who prefer the smaller ship with good old fashioned entertainment, fine dining, and friendly atmosphere, are running out of new itineraries & different ships to try from the UK. I think it is a shame, as lets face it, if it were not for these maturer passengers who have cruised for the last 50 years investing money into the cruise industry, cruising would not be where it is today.

If you prefer a smaller ship and cannot fly, you are quite restricted to a selection of ships to chose from, and if you live up in the north and don’t want to travel all the way down to Southampton you are restricted full stop to a handful of cruises to choose from over the whole year.

I have to agree with many of my passengers bringing this to my attention, I’m only 36 but I do prefer a smaller ship with friendly passengers on board and would actually favor a River cruise anyday over ocean cruising. I don’t need cinema screens, rock climbing walls, zip ropes, sky diving simulators to entertain me, I much prefer to have a good meal, with a nice bottle of wine making new friends and creating our own entertainment and memories onboard.

I always say to my passengers one of the best Christmas party cruises I’ve enjoyed with our Company was on board Fred Olsen’s Black Watch, no gimics just fantastic staff, great food and brilliant Company, what more could you wish for, oh and that little cafe in Amsterdam……..

I do appreciate the cruise market has developed enourmaously over the last few decades creating floating cities at sea, and entertainment to hold the attention of the new generation of cruisers but I think it is a shame that the real cruise passengers, the ones that want to discover new destinations and meet new friends who cannot fly and don’t want to board a floating monster are being forgotten about.

So this is a polite request to those lines cruising out of the UK mainly P&O, Freds, Cruise & Maritime, please can you consider building or aquiring some new smaller ship instead of the monsters please for the loyal cruise passengers to get excited about.