Oasis class ships will only do short cruises

[Carla Cooper]

Can you do a video on Royal changing their biggest and newest ships from 7 nts or more, to 3 & 4 nt cruises?

It may bring in new cruisers, but then when they want a longer cruise, (now that they love a bigger/newer ship) they’ll lose them to NCL or Carnival.

Also, loyal and seasoned customers want the amenities of the Oasis class that visits more than the Bahamas.

[JasonOasis]

Although I do share your concerns about them having so many Oasis Class ships in the 3 and 4 night cruise market I don't think they are at risk of loosing customers. Having said that I 100% understand why Royal has decided to put many of their biggest, best and newest ships in the 3 and 4 night cruise market and after doing multiple 3 and 4 night cruises on Utopia and Allure when Allure was in the market I know first hand these cruises are a big hit. 

However for those looking for a longer cruise on an Oasis Class ships during the fall/winter season of 2026 I do believe both Symphony and Allure of the Seas will remain in the 7 night cruise market along with Icon and Star and eventually Legend will join the in in the 6-8 night Southern Caribbean cruise market.  Royal will also have some older ships in the 7-14 night market but those ships don't have all the bells and whistles found on Oasis and Icon Class ships. 

I think Royal has done their homework on this 3-4 night cruise market, in fact looking at 2026/2027 deployment schedules for cruise lines like MSC, NCL, and Carnival what you will notice is those cruise lines are moving new ships into the 3 and 4 night cruise market.  What these cruise lines have noticed is the younger generation those in their 20s and 30s love the 3 and 4 night cruises but they don't want to cruise on older outdated ships.  Royal just happens to be at the forefront (right behind Virgin Voyages) of this seismic shift taking place in the 3 and 4 night cruise market but the other major mainstream cruise lines are following suit they are just several seasons behind Royal in moving new ships into the market.

[smokeybandit]

Just a shift in the times taking advantage of a big population of America that can only do 3-4 night cruises, for various reasons.  It's been a huge hit.

[ChessE4]

I am fine taking older ships on longer or better itineraries. The food is fine--sometimes too much of it, and I love the variety of music. The Royal Caribbean production shows are great, and we often catch the singers at special performances. We don't  need four or five speciality  restaurants. The issue for us is getting to the departure port.  Also, the larger ships require more walking, which can adversely impact seniors as they age further. I do believe Royal has something for everyone.

[Matt]

 

[PhillyLady]

Very nice summary, Matt.  You presented a well-rounded overview with a neutral perspective. For me, this is not a "controversy," but a current management decision.

Yes, bottom-line is that RC is a business, and wants to grow its passenger lists, and especially attract newbies.  

I do think those cruisers who like complex itineraries should not select monster ships anyway, as it takes more time to get everybody off and on at a port, especially if tenders are required. 

I agree that this issue may change in a few years anyway, so no need to overly stress.  After cruising for more than five decades, I just enjoy being on the water somewhere on some kind of ship (smile!).

[Doug_Texas]

All is true about changes with Oasis but the changes run deeper.  We just got back from a B2B on Explorer (11 day + 10 day) where the captain announced during the C&A recognition event that this is the end of long cruises (over 7 nights) out of Florida.  This is probably not a game changer unless you are retired.  We like the Southern Caribbean and to do that on Royal now means sailing out of San Juan.  Today we can fly from DFW to South Florida for around $600 pp R/T but Puerto Rico air tickets are double that cost.  This will change our cruise behavior.

[mworkman]

It’s sad times when and if that becomes the norm of sailings from Florida becomes 7 days or less.  I miss the 11 & 12 night sailings to the southern Caribbean.

[loki007]

we love the 3 night weekender cruise. Just got off Indy this morning. We go on 6 or so a year in between a couple week long cruises. I think Royal will keep adding ships to the short cruise sailings as long as they keep selling out which they do. 

[tjcruisers]

We like the Oasis, but are kind of tired of going to the same ports over and over. 3 or 4 night cruises don't do anything for us (seeing we have a good hike to get to the cruise ports). We have one more on an Oasis class next spring (southern Caribbean), after that we probably won't be doing another in the near future. If RCL's intent is to keep cruises out of Florida to 7 or less nights, will look at jumping to other cruise lines if we go out of Florida. 

[Vancity Cruiser]

I am going to sound like an old man here (I'm only in Gen X range ) but I feel like the short cruise market trend is a reflection of where society is at. Everyone's attention span is shot to hell, all information is consumed in short form (videos or news) and in order to remain stimulated need to constantly be moving on to something else. While I am not a fan of short cruises (although I would partake if I lived close to a port offering them) I understand why Royal is doing this. The financial aspect of it is fascinating as 3 or 4 night cruises are about 75% the cost of a 7 nighter which means in a 7 day span RC is making 50% more in cruise fares. The onboard spend is probably just as much on a short cruise than a longer one so doubling revenues there.

For those of us born in the 1900's who enjoy a longer vacation we just have to find other options.

[WAAAYTOOO]

32 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

The financial aspect of it is fascinating as 3 or 4 night cruises are about 75% the cost of a 7 nighter which means in a 7 day span RC is making 50% more in cruise fares. The onboard spend is probably just as much on a short cruise than a longer one so doubling revenues there

This is all you need to know...

[karl_nj]

6 hours ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

For those of us born in the 1900's who enjoy a longer vacation we just have to find other options.

Well, there are plenty of other cruise lines out there. I don't restrict myself to royal. 

For some reason Celebrity abandoned Bermuda during the summer months. I found this somewhat shocking, since Celebrity was created for the NY->Bermuda run, but that's the change they made for 2025 and 2026. We'll have to see what happens in the future, but instead of sailing to Bermuda on a Celebrity ship, I'll be on Norwegian Aqua in June of 2026, and I'm looking forward to checking out a new ship. It's been a while since I've sailed on NCL.

[Southern Dan]

20 hours ago, karl_nj said:

We'll have to see what happens in the future, but instead of sailing to Bermuda on a Celebrity ship, I'll be on Norwegian Aqua in June of 2026, and I'm looking forward to checking out a new ship. It's been a while since I've sailed on NCL.

I will be on the Aqua to Bermuda in June 2026 as well, we are booked on the 6/13 sailing.

[karl_nj]

4 hours ago, Southern Dan said:

I will be on the Aqua to Bermuda in June 2026 as well, we are booked on the 6/13 sailing.

I'll be on one week later!

[Southern Dan]

4 hours ago, karl_nj said:

I'll be on one week later!

Dang!  Would have been cool if you were on the same sailing.

I was looking at that one originally but I decided the week prior will be before Northeast schools are done for the year so there will most likely be fewer kids onboard.

[karl_nj]

On 4/30/2025 at 9:45 PM, Southern Dan said:

Dang!  Would have been cool if you were on the same sailing.

I was looking at that one originally but I decided the week prior will be before Northeast schools are done for the year so there will most likely be fewer kids onboard.

Good thinking -- that is actually why I'm sailing the following week... my youngest is still in high school, and we live in NJ

[Southern Dan]

3 hours ago, karl_nj said:

Good thinking -- that is actually why I'm sailing the following week... my youngest is still in high school, and we live in NJ

I'm from Long Island originally...I've only been Southern Dan since 2018 lol.  It will be my first time sailing out of NYC and going to Bermuda so I'm very excited for this one.

[IzzyB]

I don't think this change is because people only have short attention spans, I think it is a change based on vacation trends.  I know a lot of people who do longer vacations (like myself) and then throw in some shorter vacations along the way to allow us to vacation more with the vacation time we have.  So short cruises are super popular amongst my friends but we are all driving distance to ports.  So for us doing a weekend cruise means only 1 day off fro work and we get to go have fun.  Then there is a whole batch of people who can't afford longer cruises so shorter allows them to experience a cruise.  Another market this taps that I see amongst my friend group is ladies cruises where a bunch of women leave the kids and husband behind, but 7 would be too long for that.  Clearly RC is seeing that shorter cruises book quickly (especially when schools are in session for weekend ones) and longer ones don't.  So they are moving towards that trend.  Honestly everyone I know was SUPER excited when Oasis class ships started cruising 3/4 nights because what kept many away from this market was crappy ships.  My guess is Allure booked and they realized they should do this more.

[smokeybandit]

52 minutes ago, IzzyB said:

I think it is a change based on vacation trends

I think it's tapping into a market of existing vacation trends to make cruising an option for those people who can only do/like to do shorter vacations.

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I think it's tapping into a market of existing vacation trends to make cruising an option for those people who can only do/like to do shorter vacations.

do/like afford to do shorter vacations

[NRD]

What a waste of a cruise ship! 

[FOB]

if you want 7 nights on Oasis class then come to Europe.

We have a completely different view on vacation time - a week or even 2 of paid vacation in the summer is fairly standard (in the UK by law you need at least 25 paid vacation days)

We have got Allure this summer and Harmony in summer 2026 plus legend for a while before she goes across to Ft Lauderdale

Hoping they keep sending an Oasis class ship across as it is so much cheaper booking flights from the Uk to the med ports.

Otherwise we (DH and I) will have to keep doing the TA followed by B2B (possibly multiple) so that it make sense for the cost of a one way ticket to or from the US (depending on which direction the TA goes

[JimnKathy]

Thank goodness there's still some 7 and 8-night Oasis class sailings out of Galveston.

While we prefer the passenger "vibe" on Florida port sailings, until we can find longer sailings again on Oasis class ships, we'll stick to driving 9 hours down to Galveston vs. flying into Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/Port Canaveral...either way we have to travel the day prior to embarkation.

[OCSC Mike]

On 5/13/2025 at 11:10 AM, NRD said:

What a waste of a cruise ship! 

Royal's bottom line begs to differ.

[JimnKathy]

17 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Royal's bottom line begs to differ.

Sad but true.

[Mike n Ky]

From Royal's standpoint the cost of fuel for these short cruises is significantly less and I would imagine that there is more use of the specialty restaurants. Every room steward I have asked about this over the past few years...everyone was very negative about it. We invest a lot more than the cost of the cruise since we have to travel a long distance to the port so for us, even though we are taking a 4 day on Utopia in July, we will cruise less on Royal.

[Smokey79]

One issue we had recently is the lack port choices because of the shorter sailings. Part of this is my fault as I introduced my wife and daughter to RC on Freedom class and now those are the “small” boats. They love Oasis class but it’s boring just going to Nassau and PDCC over and over again. We’ve got one last shorty booked on Wonder this October and after that we have Star and Legend booked next year. We are looking hard at Celebrity in 27 just to go do something different. 

[barjpoe]

In Nassua pretty soon you can PAY to go to the Beach Club, so its a new place to visit in Nassau