Is bigger going to be better?

It has just been announced that Costa Cruises are planning on building the 2 largest ships at sea. The ‘accolade’ of biggest cruise ship is currently held by Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class ships with a tonnage 225.000 and passenger capacity of between 5,400 based on double occupancy and a maximum of 6360 if all cabins were fully occupied.

BARCELONA, SPAIN – JUNE 17: Costa Atlantica cruise ship navigating in Barcelona port, Spain on June 17, 2012. Costa Atlantica is cruise ship owned and operated by Italian cruise line Costa Crociere from 2000.

The thing that sounds a little odd to me is that the tonnage of these new ships will be considerably less than the Oasis class ships at 180,000 tonnes and yet they are claiming that the ship will have a capacity of 6,600 passengers. Now to me the maths simply doesn’t add up. Where are all these people going to go? If they have more cabins then surely this is going to reduce the space for public areas and surely if there are more passengers there will be a need for MORE public areas. It will be interesting to see what the finished product looks like.

There have been many cruise ships that have been ‘stretched’ – ie cut in half and had a whole new section of ship inserted to add more cabin capacity and the general consensus from most people who have been on these ships is that the ships struggle to accommodate the extra passengers in places such as restaurants, theatres and lounging on deck. Let’s hope some seriously good designers are working on the plans for these 2 big bad boys otherwise I can see some real ‘sunbed wars’ taking place on deck.

On the plus side the ships are going to feature a revolutionary new “green design” which will see them using Liquefied Natural Gas, which is the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel. Great news for the environment and let’s hope the other cruise lines take note and try and become greener.

Despite the bad rap, cruise lines continue to make important strides to improve their environmental policies — some lines more extensively than others. Whereas recycling, incinerating and waste-processing were cutting edge on cruise ships a decade ago, such processes today are basic and expected.

So what do you think about this news? Is bigger better or is it just a way for the cruise lines to make more money by getting more passengers on board? Do you prefer a smaller ship?

Let me know your thoughts in the comment box.