Small Ship Cruises

[Pug1]

Hi everyone,
my wife and I prefer to cruise on small ships for a number of reasons - they can get into places the big ships cannot and passenger numbers are limited to hundred or so rather than thousands. We've done a couple of cruises with APT on "Island Sky", which takes about 120 passengers and they were great. We also discovered a great little family owned cruise line in Scotland that has two little ships, with a third to be launched for their 2016 cruises. We did their 6 night cruise around the island of Mull in the Hebrides and loved it. Our cruise had 9 passengers and four crew and we anchored every night in sheltered bays or lochs, so no sea sickness. The company is family owned and is grandly named "The Majestic Line" based out of Oban on the Scottish West Coast. They do 3, 6 and 10 day cruises and are great for nature lovers, bird watchers, whisky drinkers and lovers of Scotland's wild west coast. Thoroughly recommended for anyone who likes small "ships" and something different for a cruise. Interestingly they also reserve two cabins on each cruise for singles, with nil surcharge, which we thought was very generous of them. The website is at "http://www.themajesticline.co.uk" and I confirm that we are not associated with them in any way other than having done one cruise.

 

[Limewood]

If you like small ships we went on MV President around the beautiful Croatia islands best vacation we've ever had, new ships joined the fleet since MV Futura and MV Admiral, must go back.

Sample Cruise

 

[Pug1]

If you like small ships we went on MV President around the beautiful Croatia islands best vacation we've ever had, new ships joined the fleet since MV Futura and MV Admiral, must go back.

Sample Cruise

thanks Limewood, I will check it out.

 

[drron]

We also like small ships-in fact our next cruise is an APT cruise on the Caledonian Sky-Japan for cherry blossom time.
Mrsdrron got me into small ship cruising first on an 8 pax boat in Alaska-absolutely fantastic.
MV Sikumi | Alaska Small Cruise Ship

Then graduated to a 16 pax boat in the Galapagos-
Athala II, Galapagos Islands Luxury Boats, Ships & Accommodation - A&K

You can now even get Avios points sailing on the Athala 11.

Now mostly the Silver Explorer.

 

[Pug1]

We also like small ships-in fact our next cruise is an APT cruise on the Caledonian Sky-Japan for cherry blossom time.
Mrsdrron got me into small ship cruising first on an 8 pax boat in Alaska-absolutely fantastic.
MV Sikumi | Alaska Small Cruise Ship

Then graduated to a 16 pax boat in the Galapagos-
Athala II, Galapagos Islands Luxury Boats, Ships & Accommodation - A&K

You can now even get Avios points sailing on the Athala 11.

Now mostly the Silver Explorer.

thanks for the tips drron. We did Norway and Sri Lanka/India with APT and would also love to get back to Alaska on a small ship. The Alaska cruise we have done was Holland America, which was good and not too crowded with its 1800 odd passengers. I believe Caledonian Sky is almost identical to Island Sky. Being retired is good but the money runs out quickly if we plan too many trips!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Out of interest, when does it become a "Small Ship" as opposed to a yacht, boat etc ?

I have enjoyed some live-aboard snorkelling trips of about a week each with upto say 30 pax but would not regard the boats as small ships.

Obviously the original definition of a ship as a 3 masted square rigged vessel is out of date. But how big before a marine vessel can be judged to be a ship, or small ship?

 

[Pug1]

Out of interest, when does it become a "Small Ship" as opposed to a yacht, boat etc ?

I have enjoyed some live-aboard snorkelling trips of about a week each with upto say 30 pax but would not regard the boats as small ships.

Obviously the original definition of a ship as a 3 masted square rigged vessel is out of date. But how big before a marine vessel can be judged to be a ship, or small ship?

lovetravellingoz, I'm a social sailor so don't know the technical definition. I would call "Island Sky" and "Caledonian Sky" small ships but would not consider anything much smaller to be called that. The Majestic Line "ships" are really boats but if you look at the pictures on their web site you'll see they are quite cute "little ships". Perhaps one of the AFF marine experts could enlighten us? We also have a "boys fishing trip" on a 10 passenger mother boat in May, but it's off Darwin so snorkling is definately out as I don't want to be eaten by crocs!

 

[Cynicor]

Out of interest, when does it become a "Small Ship" as opposed to a yacht, boat etc ?

I have enjoyed some live-aboard snorkelling trips of about a week each with upto say 30 pax but would not regard the boats as small ships.

Obviously the original definition of a ship as a 3 masted square rigged vessel is out of date. But how big before a marine vessel can be judged to be a ship, or small ship?

Maybe we should open the question up to the "thongs in the lounge" thread? endless debate.

 

[amaroo]

When I read Small & Cruise - I think of this Private Barge Cruise in the South of France via Lufthansa First Class - FlyerTalk Forums

 

[lovetravellingoz]

When I read Small & Cruise - I think of this Private Barge Cruise in the South of France via Lufthansa First Class - FlyerTalk Forums

I great up around boats, sailboats and yachts and so for me a "ship" is a lt lot larger.

When I was about 10 we we were anchored in Refuge Cove at Wilsons Promotory after having sailed there in an 18 foot yacht.

The HMAS Ardent which was a Patrol Boat (now in the Indonesian Navy) came in anchored after us. Much to my delight they invited us on board for a private tour. Talking with the divers on board there were a lot of old anchors on the sea bottom there from sailing ships which once anchored there in the 18/1900s as they often got stuck. For this reason a lot of steel spikes had been driven into the rocks on the shore and the sailors also gave me a tour of these in their tender. They also pointed out some grafitti from that period that had been chisselled into the rocks.

As I was only 10, and was on a small yacht the Patrol Boat seemed huge at the time, and at that time was the largest marine vessel that I had been on.

Having learnt to sail at 5 I have tended to favour sailed propelled vessels. I have been fortunate to have been on some Tall Ships (ie 3 masted square rigged) as well as Brigatines (2 masted and so hence not a ship but a Brigatine).

 

[Deleted member]

I don't know if it counts as small , but Mrs GPH and I did a week on the Seabourn spirit around the Greek islands some years ago. 204 pax max.
I don't "Do Boats" usually, but this was pretty damn good. I believe it's no longer with Seabourn .

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Normally anything over 200 passengers is too big for us, but in August we are on the Silver Whisper ( 380 !!!) that will be the max for us - not counting the crazy 3 days on a Russian ship in Sydney.

So far our tally is -


ALEXANDR PUSHKIN 1988 3 day Bicentennial TALL SHIPS cruise Sydney
SIKUMI 2006 8 day Inside Passage Alaska
ATHALA II 2008 8 days Galapagos cruise
ORION July 2009 Broome - Darwin
SILVER EXPLORER (PRINCE ALBERT II) August 2010 Arctic
ORION December 2010 Antarctic - step inside Mawsons Hut
SILVER SHADOW July 2011 - Incheon to Anchorage
SILVER WIND July 2012 - Black Sea -Istanbul to Istanbul
SILVER CLOUD November 2012 Barbados -Amazon -Barbados
SILVER EXPLORER March/April 2013 Capetown to Accra Ghana
SILVER EXPLORER July 2013 Reykjavik Iceland to Churchill Canada
SILVER EXPLORER September 2014 Sapporo Japan to Fiji 30days B2B
Belmond ORCAELLA December 2014 Burma River cruise 12 days Mandalay to Bagan
SILVER CLOUD June 2015 18 days Copenhagen/Archangel/Copenhagen
SILVER EXPLORER September 2015 Nassau to CUBA, Panama Canal-Guayaquil 24 days B2B

 

[love_the_life]

Mrs.dr.ron, I have a feeling that you were getting off in Tromso in 2010 when we were getting on PAII.

 

[Pug1]

Normally anything over 200 passengers is too big for us, but in August we are on the Silver Whisper ( 380 !!!) that will be the max for us - not counting the crazy 3 days on a Russian ship in Sydney.

So far our tally is -


ALEXANDR PUSHKIN 1988 3 day Bicentennial TALL SHIPS cruise Sydney
SIKUMI 2006 8 day Inside Passage Alaska
ATHALA II 2008 8 days Galapagos cruise
ORION July 2009 Broome - Darwin
SILVER EXPLORER (PRINCE ALBERT II) August 2010 Arctic
ORION December 2010 Antarctic - step inside Mawsons Hut
SILVER SHADOW July 2011 - Incheon to Anchorage
SILVER WIND July 2012 - Black Sea -Istanbul to Istanbul
SILVER CLOUD November 2012 Barbados -Amazon -Barbados
SILVER EXPLORER March/April 2013 Capetown to Accra Ghana
SILVER EXPLORER July 2013 Reykjavik Iceland to Churchill Canada
SILVER EXPLORER September 2014 Sapporo Japan to Fiji 30days B2B
Belmond ORCAELLA December 2014 Burma River cruise 12 days Mandalay to Bagan
SILVER CLOUD June 2015 18 days Copenhagen/Archangel/Copenhagen
SILVER EXPLORER September 2015 Nassau to CUBA, Panama Canal-Guayaquil 24 days B2B

what a fantastic number of cruises mrs.dr.ron. half your luck, I'm envious. I sailed on the Anna Kristina from Newcastle to Gold Coast in 1988 and loved it. She's a 100 year old Norwegian yawl and it was magic being on the helm at night, sailing up the coast of NSW, with moonlight and the gentle motion of the ship. We were in convoy as part of the Australian Bicentennial fleet, but our Danish captain commonly lied about his position to the commodore so that he did not have to start the engine! Would also love to sail Iceland, Greenland and Artic Canada. Life and money is too short but we can dream.
love_the_life, we also sailed from Tromso last year on our cruise with ms Island Sky down to Oslo, beautiful country.

 

[drron]

Well Pug1 we have looked down upon you.The Alexandr Pushkin was one of the "buoys"for the tall ships on Australia Day.

 

[amaroo]

Normally anything over 200 passengers is too big for us, but in August we are on the Silver Whisper ( 380 !!!) that will be the max for us - not counting the crazy 3 days on a Russian ship in Sydney.

So far our tally is -


ALEXANDR PUSHKIN 1988 3 day Bicentennial TALL SHIPS cruise Sydney
SIKUMI 2006 8 day Inside Passage Alaska
ATHALA II 2008 8 days Galapagos cruise
ORION July 2009 Broome - Darwin
SILVER EXPLORER (PRINCE ALBERT II) August 2010 Arctic
ORION December 2010 Antarctic - step inside Mawsons Hut
SILVER SHADOW July 2011 - Incheon to Anchorage
SILVER WIND July 2012 - Black Sea -Istanbul to Istanbul
SILVER CLOUD November 2012 Barbados -Amazon -Barbados
SILVER EXPLORER March/April 2013 Capetown to Accra Ghana
SILVER EXPLORER July 2013 Reykjavik Iceland to Churchill Canada
SILVER EXPLORER September 2014 Sapporo Japan to Fiji 30days B2B
Belmond ORCAELLA December 2014 Burma River cruise 12 days Mandalay to Bagan
SILVER CLOUD June 2015 18 days Copenhagen/Archangel/Copenhagen
SILVER EXPLORER September 2015 Nassau to CUBA, Panama Canal-Guayaquil 24 days B2B

Terrific list!

We haven't even started to think about a cruise - something to look forward to!

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Mrs.dr.ron, I have a feeling that you were getting off in Tromso in 2010 when we were getting on PAII.

Missed you by THAT much ! That was the cruise that got us hooked on expedition cruising and Silverseas especially. We had a great time.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Terrific list!
We haven't even started to think about a cruise - something to look forward to!

Amaroo - Ron never wanted to go cruising, but when you find the right fit - and for us that is small ships and preferably expedition, it is easy to get hooked

We have another 3 cruises booked - 2 for this year and one in 2017, and we are already looking at 2018 !!

 

[Deleted member]

Out of interest, when does it become a "Small Ship" as opposed to a yacht, boat etc ?

I have enjoyed some live-aboard snorkelling trips of about a week each with upto say 30 pax but would not regard the boats as small ships.

Obviously the original definition of a ship as a 3 masted square rigged vessel is out of date. But how big before a marine vessel can be judged to be a ship, or small ship?

I'm. It sure, BUT I believe the difference is in the type of "survey" conducted.
Paul Allan's yacht Octopus is too big to fit through the Corinth canal, but the seaborne spirit with 200 odd pax , manages to squeeze through.
As an aside , I would NEVER go cruising as a choice. That said, we went on the seaborne spirit some years ago, and it was amazing. The class of ship, coupled with the fact it was in the Med' and flat calm was (for me) the saving grace. We cruised at night, and went ashore by day, perfect in my opinion.

 

[Pushka]

After our Oriana convict ship experience in 1981 it took over 30 years to put the toes in the water again.