Big Ships vs Little Ships: Which Is Best?
Yes, plenty will look at what is onboard the ship and many have their favourite line, which limits the ships that you can choose from and of course there many cruisers who have a favourite cruise ship.
If you are more open to the options out there, one thing that determine so many other aspects of your holiday is the size of your ship.
You may think that it really doesn’t matter what the size of your ship is as once onboard, they are all pretty much the same but that just hasn’t been our experience.
We have been fortunate enough to have sailed on huge ships such as the MSC Virtuosa, the NCL Bliss and the Celebrity Silhouette, whilst we have cruised on smaller ships such as the NCL Spirit and the Celebrity Summit.
That gives us a firsthand insight into their differences and the impact that they have on a cruise holiday.
We have had great holiday on both big and small ships but one thing I can never quite determine is which is the best option for my wife and me.
That is what I hope to determine in this article that should hopefully prove of use to you in determining whether a big ship or a small ship is best for your own next cruise holiday.
To try and determine which is best, we will break it down into the key aspects of a cruise holiday and in what you need to think about when choosing a cruise ship including; pre-cruise issues, the check-in process, differences in your entertainment onboard, the overall onboard experience, food & drink offerings, the itineraries offered and the overall value of your getaway.
Big Ships or Little Ships: Which Are Best?
You may think that the choice of ship has little impact on your holiday before you get on the ship, but it often does.
We are not talking about things such as choosing your cabin and the options available when doing so as a small ship can have just as many options as a larger ship.
What we have found is that when choosing to cruise on a big ship, you need to be much more organised, plan your days out more in advance and book things before you even set sail on your ship.
Whilst it does depend on which line you are cruising with, you will often find that on a big ship you will need to book dining times (or choose a set time every night) in the Main Dining Room, book into speciality dining rooms, choose and book in advance the date, time and shows you want to watch in the theatre and choose arrival and check in times- amongst other things.
On a small ship, so many of those things area lot more flexible and you can simple choose what you want to do and when along the way on your journey.
This works so much better for us than having to plan everything in advance but what is the best option is a hybrid of the two and on the small ships we have sailed that is exactly what we have been able to do.
Winner: So for this one, small ships tend to work best for us as we can pre-book things such as dining times for the days when we know for sure we will want to eat in a restaurant, normally sea days, and we don’t need to decide if we are off to see a show in the theatre until showtime- which is ideal for those days when you are just not sure what you are doing and when.
This is something else that many don’t really associate with their ship and whilst the port that you set sail from will be the biggest determining factor, the ship you choose to sail on can make a big difference.
The biggest issue is the sheer volume of people and luggage that when sailing on a huge ship creates a level of chaos that can cause ongoing issues for you.
If 5-6000 people all try to arrive at the terminal at the same time, with 10-15,000 pieces of luggage the chances are that you will have to join queue after queue after queue, be constantly bumped into and often not have any idea of where you are supposed to go due to not been able to see signs, doors and helpers.
All of that is just usually outside of the building but it continues when you enter the terminal as you queue for security, struggle to find a check-in desk and then you often have to stand around and wait ages to be able to board your ship.
When you do get onboard, the ship is often busy and with everybody having luggage, it is just a stressful experience.
On a smaller ship, there is just less of all of that, with fewer people comes less luggage and little queuing and your ship is easy to get onboard and explore.
Winner: The check-in process for a smaller ship just tends to be a more enjoyable experience and that tends to set you up to start your holiday in a better mood and more relaxed, which is always a big plus.
For this one we are going to focus on the actual entertainment on offer on both types of ship, as we have already covered our issue with having to pre-book shows on mega ships.
Both big and small ships will often have a theatre for big production shows and guest entertainers whilst they will also have performers in bars, lounges and the atrium.
Where they do differ is in the variety of entertainment on offer on bigger ships where you will often have more production shows, more guest performance and more places for more entertainers to perform more often.
You also then get bonus extras such as cirque de soleil shows on MSC, diving and ice-skating shows on Royal Caribbean and West End style shows on NCL.
Bigger ships will also have live music venues, comedy clubs and more, so if you love to experience a variety of entertainment throughout your journey and you just want to have fun whilst onboard, a bigger ship is probably the way to go.
If you don’t mind settling into an inhouse production show in the theatre and maybe listening to live music in the atrium for a night’s fun, small ships offer that and more.
Winner: Whilst we know our preferred cruise line will offer plenty to keep us entertained onboard even on a smaller ship, we must give the win to bigger ships as the variety can really make for a special getaway as you can simply enjoy the sort of entertain you like throughout your journey.
There are lots of things that make up the onboard experience you will have on your cruise ship including the staff, the style of the line you cruise with and the people you cruise alongside but another big part of it, is the actual ship that you sail on.
On a larger ship you can get lost in the crowd as there are just so many people onboard and so many venues, attractions and places to spend your time that you will likely be in a different place every day you are on the ship.
On a smaller ship with fewer places to spend your time, you will likely head to the same places over and over and that allows you to get to know the staff working there and your fellow cruisers who also frequent the same places as you.
There is often a ‘community’ atmosphere onboard smaller ships where you are likely to bump into people you meet over and over again.
Larger ships also tend to feature more big groups of people cruising, including family groups and groups of friends and they also tend to have an overall younger demographic onboard.
Smaller ship will likely feature more couples and an older demographic so as you would expect from those points, bigger ships tend to noisier and busier whilst smaller ships tend to be quieter and have a slower pace onboard.
Bigger ships will also have lots more entertainment, as already mentioned, and a wider range of activities to enjoy whilst smaller ships will offer more basic activities.
It is often thought that a smaller ship offers a more traditional style of cruising whilst a bigger ship offers a modern style or to put it in simpler terms for those who are maybe new to cruising, a smaller ship is like staying a hotel whilst on holiday whilst a bigger ship is like staying at a resort.
This is one of the hardest categories to break down into which is best for us as we don’t mind either.
In many ways in depends on where we are sailing as in more remote places, that community feeling you get on a smaller ship really adds to the sense of adventure on your cruise but if you are in somewhere like the Mediterranean and are going from big city to big city, it really doesn’t matter.
Winner: If we had two cruise options, where everything was identical apart from one was a big ship and one was a small ship, the chances are that we would pick the bigger one, so we will give the point to big ships in this one, but it really is incredibly close.
This can often be one of the biggest differences between smaller and bigger ships as on many ships, much of the extra space is take up by 3 things, cabins, food and drink venues and attractions.
A lot of the extra venues onboard are speciality restaurants, of course, but for the sake of this category, that does add in more variety and the option to enjoy your favourite type of food.
In not just extra cost venues however where bigger ships often come out on top as the buffets tend to be bigger and offer more variety whilst you also tend to have more main dining rooms and more flexibility as to when you can eat in them.
Bigger ships also have many more bars and cafes, with different theming’s, that allow for more variety of drinks.
On smaller ships, you tend to find food in main dining rooms and the buffet can get repetitive and with few options to eat elsewhere, you can end up getting bored with your food on longer cruisers.
Winner: The chance to try new food and drink on a cruise ship is a big part of cruising for us and that gives the edge to bigger ships as there is just more variety across the board.
The places that we visit on a cruise holiday will always be more important than the ship that we sail on and its not only in terms of where we want to visit but where we don’t want to visit.
A perfect itinerary for us will have few days at sea, visit only places we want to go, have no wasted ports (such as Le Verdon!) and even have overnight stops in places.
We like destinations where you dock within walking distance of the main reason for been there or at least next to a metro system to take you there and we like somewhere that isn’t overcrowded.
Unfortunately, sailing on a bigger ship will limit all parts of those points, as when sailing on the biggest ships, you are limited in the ports that can accept the ships and as it is only the biggest, more commercial ones that you will often dock far from your destination and more often than not have to get a shuttle to the port gate.
The destinations will also often be huge cities that are mostly full of multinational shops, bars, cafes and more or they will be a major tourist hotspot where the signs are in English, and you are unlikely to find locally made produce.
For us, a holiday is a chance to experience a different culture and way of life and it tends to be on smaller ships where you get to have that experience.
With fewer people on your ship, the port and places you visit tend to be less crowded and thanks to your ship been smaller, you can visit more out of the way places.
Winner: With all of that in mind, we give this point to smaller ships as you tend to get more interesting itinerary, that offer more variety and more chances to really ingrain yourself in the places you visit.
This is a tricky one to come to an overall decision on as there are just so many variables including the line that you sail with, the age of your ship, the cost of your journey and what is, and isn’t, including the cruise fare.
We will therefore have to stick to broad overall discussion points for this one and that includes smaller ships often been older ones, so the cost can often be less.
Bigger ships tend to be new ones that cost more but that doesn’t answer the question of value.
Whilst a smaller ship may cost you less, you often get less for your money, so on the flip side of that, a bigger ship costs more but you get more for your money, so the value starts to level off.
That does get confused once again as whilst having much more on offer, bigger ships tend to have more pay extra activities and restaurants than smaller ships.
In many ways it comes down to just what you want from a ship and from a cruise holiday.
If you are going to take advantage of things such as ice rinks, dodgems, water parks, west end shows, surfing, 4d cinemas, rock climbing walls, go-karts and more, then a big ship could prove better value but if not, smaller ship could work best.
Winner: For us, whilst we would certainly do enjoy lots of things added onto big new ships, with all the extra costs for most of them, we tend to get more value from smaller ships.
That is because we love to sail in more remote areas of the world and when on a smaller ship you get taken closer to what you are there to see, such as fjords, mountains and wildlife and all of that is free to enjoy from your ship.
There are huge plusses and minuses for both types of ship, and it really comes down to where we are sailing in the world and what the itineraries are- as well as the cost of course.
One thing is for sure, if you have always sailed on one type over the other, we would recommend trying the other type at least once- you never know, you may prefer it!
Winner: So overall, smaller ships pick up the win by coming out on top in 4 categories over 3 for bigger ships and the closeness of it is no surprise.
