In the last 30 years cruise ships have evolved to appeal to a younger, more active and diverse family demographic. Uf Tukel’s recent blog on the benefits of sailing in suites on larger ships was a brilliant explanation of how one ship can find different ways to appeal to the broad spectrum of passenger profiles.

But if you are new to cruising, you might find the idea of a small ship luxury cruise costing much more than the more feature-packed mainstream cruise ship confusing. The primary reason is that small ships’ offer the simpler but more refined cruising style preferred by true ship enthusiasts, while many of them refer to the newer, action-packed “goliath” vessels to be “floating amusement parks.”

To demonstrate that appeal of smaller luxury ships, let’s take a glimpse at the historic traditions aboard the grand ocean liners of yesteryear. Liners were famous for exemplary cuisine and service, especially in first class. Many people loved just sitting in a deck chair, watching the horizon roll by, as they were treated like royalty with vastly more attentive and personalized service. In fact, even in the days before ocean liners were made obsolete by airlines, these ships often changed their itineraries to make round-trip cruises to more local destinations. So “cruising” actually became popular before transoceanic sailing was made effectively obsolete.

This traditional liner style is still widely appreciated. Beyond fantastic food and the best personalized service, the tradition also includes more social activities; card games, tea time, Captain’s parties and grand ballroom dancing. In fact, it is still well-known that it is easier to make new friends on a small ship than it is on a super-ship. Most luxury cruisers are avid ship and travel enthusiasts, and they share that passion with each other during the voyages.

Importantly, even though the luxury sector is bigger than ever, it is still much smaller than the mainstream cruise market. Until the 1980s there were still less than a million Americans who had ever even sailed on a passenger ship, and back them more of them were "traditionalist" cruisers. Today, close to 30-million people take a cruise every year and their cruise experience is vastly different from what is was 30 years ago.

The recent explosion in cruise popularity means the number of super-ships has increased by magnitudes. For example, the record-breaking Titanic was only 52,000-tons (gross tonnage) while Royal Caribbean will soon have eight ships that are over 200,000-tons, and the majority of the line’s 25 ships are well over 100,000-tons apiece. All of the new ships on order for Royal Caribbean are 200,000-tons or even bigger.

How Has Cruising Changed?

The new super-ships have a huge variety of onboard activities. Some of the newer features include bumper cars, go-karts, water-rafting rides, water-slides, mini-golf, surfing simulators, bowling alleys, iMax movie theaters, indoor parachuting, Merry-Go-rounds, zip lines, and the list goes on…

Entertainment options include full book Broadway productions like Mama Mia, Hairspray or Blue Man Group with casts of dozens and the latest technical gear. There is branded entertainment like Second City and BB King Blues Clubs, comedy clubs and even ice shows and aqua theater shows that rival Las Vegas. Many ships offer 3D movie theaters, some with full IMax specifications.

The focus on a la minute dining and personalized service has been replaced by several culinary options offered in a variety of different onboard restaurants (many charging a separate service fee), staff service is more “on demand” but less personalized, the daily children’s programs are immersive and very impressive, and the more diverse spa services will include acupuncture, teeth whitening and even Botox on some ships. Much of the “over the top” extravagant interior space on the ship will be dedicated to shopping, but there will usually be fewer enrichment lectures and free classes.

In other words, today’s super-ships are far more than a convenient travel conveyance -they are destination unto themselves. And to the fans of this new world of cruising the ship’s activities are more important than the ports of call (especially in the Caribbean).

It is impossible to overstate this last part. First time cruisers often pick their ship based upon where they want to travel (and this is still an important factor in many cruise selections), but today millions of cruisers a year pick the ship they want to sail upon first, and they may not even notice the ports of call. This is because they have already been to many of the Caribbean Islands, and while the ships keep offering more all the time, the islands remain largely the same.

Summing up the Difference

The aim on the new and larger ships is to have something for everyone, so they can attract the multigenerational family travel market. Most of these larger ships sail on seven-day or shorter itineraries on round-trip cruises from U.S. ports which means lower costs to get to the ship, lower cruise costs, and less strict travel documentation requirements.

On the other hand, they are still building smaller luxury cruise ships (average 25,000 to 75,000-tons, capacity of 100 to 700 passengers) where the clientele tends to be slightly older and less vigorous. These cruises are usually longer (12-days or more), which means far fewer children onboard. Most guests are retired. Their primary objective is to see the world in comfort, and to enjoy the best cuisine and service in the cruise industry. Because the most expensive luxury ships tend to go on longer cruises and ever-changing itineraries around the world, it is not unusual for cruisers to stay onboard a given ship for several cruises in a row.

So, you can see that there is far more than size when it comes to the difference between large and small ships. And what you want from a cruise is up to you - you can try both the more crowded, but also more action-packed cruises on large ships sailing from convenient U.S. ports; or you can take the more exclusive and quality-consistent luxury cruises that usually sail from foreign ports and offer longer and more immersive itineraries.

About Paul Motter, Cruise & Travel Writer

<p>Paul Motter took his first cruise in 1983, when he was lucky enough to get hired by Royal Viking Line, a small but very influential cruise line still credited with inventing all-inclusive luxury cruises. At the time less than one million Americans had ever sailed on a cruise. For the year 2017 the projected number of cruise passengers is over 25-million people.</p><p>Paul's first cruise included sailing ten straight days at sea from San Francisco to Bora Bora, and he had no idea that was unusual. In the next year he sailed to destinations all the way from Tahiti to the North Cape of Norway. In later years Paul also worked aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's S.S. Norway and aboard three Holland America Line ships.</p><p>In 1999 Paul started the web site CruiseMates.com, the first professional cruise review site on the Internet, with well-known AOL cruise reviewer Anne Campbell as his partner. Paul served as the CEO of CruiseMates until 2007 when he became the editor-in-chief, the role he maintained until 2016. Paul has cruised on every popular cruise line in the U.S. His favorite ships include the Royal Caribbean Oasis-class, Carnival's Vista-class, Norwegian Cruise Line's Breakaway class, Celebrity's Solstice class, Oceania, Crystal, or any cruise on Princess or Holland America. His favorite river cruise experiences include the Nile in Egypt and a 10-day Russian River on Viking River Cruises.</p><p>His favorite memories as a cruise reporter include seeing Queen Elizabeth, Princess Kate and Camilla (all separately) commission the three Cunard ships now in service.</p><p>Paul has written about cruising for Women's Day, The San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Herald, Sherman's Travel, FoxNews.com and CruiseMates.</p>