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Have Cruise Ships peaked in size or can they get bigger


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Ships seem to get bigger all the time but when is it time to stop. Personally I love big ships but will there come a time when they are too big. When you consider that one of the biggest ships in the world is the Oasis at 220000 tons and it must take all your cruise to get around her perhaps we have got there now.

 

Will it now be as seems to be happening that the ships will fight it out for the best attractions on board. You only have to look at Quantum , she has got some amazing new features or do you think we may see the ships get smaller and more intimate with much more luxury. In my opinion bigger is best but what do you all think.

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I doubt Oasis/Allure is the largest we will ever see. I do think value proposition may be at slightly smaller but soon enough the envelope will be pushed again.  Especially with ports upgrading to accommodate much larger ships around the world.

I think you hit the nail on the head there, Matt. With ports getting bigger, that will be the green light for other cruise lines to look into larger ships.

 

That being said, there's still a market (some people like smaller ships) and even a NEED for the industry (ie- Panama Canal) for smaller ships to continue being built.

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One thing I will add, though, is that because of size, the waves are no longer a huge issue--not as much as the WIND is. Because there's so much more surface area, the wind, even if the seas are calm, will cause the ships to rock pretty heavily.

 

Fortunately, they've figured this out a bit. They built the Oasis-class ships in pieces, and lefts "gaps," if you will. This allows the ship to expand, contract, and even "twist," in essence, to accommodate wind and waves. It's fascinating because, in certain areas, you can actually hear the ship creaking, but not feel ANY roll. Brilliant if you ask me.

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I doubt Oasis/Allure is the largest we will ever see. I do think value proposition may be at slightly smaller but soon enough the envelope will be pushed again.  Especially with ports upgrading to accommodate much larger ships around the world.

I agree. There ARE larger ships afloat besides Oasis/Allure. It is obvious that the larger ships make the company more money. So it seems that the company will be building larger ships from here on out. Also I think the larger ships provide more value and options to the customer, which is what people want. I look forward to all the great things Royal Caribbean is doing for cruising. I constantly think, why would anyone sail with anyone else?

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  • 10 years later...
22 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

……. But the trend continues to be bigger not smaller. 

True, but there's always another class of ship coming. In the next few years Royal is going to have to announce the path forward for Vision, Radiance and Voyager classes. All of them are going to be 30+ years old soon.

Once these age out, Royal will be unable to reposition through the Panama Canal.  They won't be able to effectively tender. Therefore they won't be able to develop new ports.

Perhaps they'll go all in on mega ships and use Celebrity for those purposes. Perhaps they'll develop a neo panamax (about the size of Voyager, but with different proportions) class for the purpose. 

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I think Royal has found the perfect equation for balancing ship size and customer preference. 

Having large ships with multiple, distinct neighborhoods, gives passengers the unique ability to experience different cruising styles just by strolling from one neighborhood to another. 

Rather than committing to a smaller ship with a singular cruising vibe...customers can choose to sample from a smorgasbord of cruising tastes. 

I like larger ships...I hope after Icon, they get even larger. I don't believe they will...but I didn't believe they could after Oasis. Who knows...maybe they'll come up with an 'Island-class' ship. She just sits out at sea and other ships come and dock alongside. Impossible? 🤔

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I think ships can get bigger (specifically length/height/width) than Oasis/Icon ships. But that's just not practical right now for many more reasons other than actual ship building technology. There's a reason Oasis class has been the biggest cruise ship class since Oasis of the Seas was ordered in 2006. MSC has some larger ships on order, but still smaller than Oasis.

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3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I think ships can get bigger (specifically length/height/width) than Oasis/Icon ships. But that's just not practical right now for many more reasons other than actual ship building technology. There's a reason Oasis class has been the biggest cruise ship class since Oasis of the Seas was ordered in 2006. MSC has some larger ships on order, but still smaller than Oasis.

I agree that the ships can get bigger.  The largest ship to date is the Seawise Giant built in 1979.  It was 260,941 GRT.  That doesn't sound much larger than Icon's 250,000 GRT, but it says a lot! This was built in 1979.  Shipbuilding has advanced a lot in the 45 years since.  Further, Seawise Giant was a crude carrier.  It had a fully laden displacement of over 600,000 metric tons.  For comparison Oasis has an estimated displacement of just 100,000 metric tons.

As you mention, the real question is what is practical?  A larger ship needs extremely large facilities to dock and service it.  Eventually, these facilities will be built and the ships will get larger. I just don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

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