Royal Caribbean Has a New “Short Getaway” Ship

Above, Royal Caribbean's former ship, Majesty of the Seas,
 docked in Havana Port in 2019. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When friend Mitch Geriminsky and I were discussing taking a cruise this summer, my criteria was that the cruise has to be of shorter duration (4 to 5 days) on a smaller ship and not on any "behemoths" that cruise lines have been currently introducing.

The idea of spending more than five days aboard a ship with 1,500 to 2,000 others (especially after COVID) is not appealing to me. 

Therefore, we settled on a four-day cruise to the Bahamas board the Norwegian Sky, a smaller ship that accommodates about 2,000 people by Norwegian Cruise Lines. 

Abovc, Norwegian's ship, Norwegian Sky, docked in Nassau last month. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I am not alone, it appears. According to an article in the Caribbean Journal, the trend lately are cruises of shorter duration. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity are targeting travelers favoring shorter duration cruises. Royal Caribbean has a new ship tailored for short-duration cruising.

We took a cruise to Key West and Havana, Cuba in 2019 that was five days in duration with Royal Caribbean aboard their former ship, Majesty of the Seas, a ship that accommodated 2,000. That was sufficient enough for me.

They wrote:

Cruise passengers are looking for shorter trips. That seems to be the trend of late, with cruise giant Royal Caribbean making a major push to cater to what it calls “short getaway” itineraries. 

The company calls it “flipping the script on short getaways,” with the upcoming debut of the new Utopia of the Seas ship in Port Canaveral next week. 

To read more, go here.