If I had a pantheon of the top questions I've been asked for over two decades about Royal Caribbean,

one of them definitely has to be, will I be disappointed if I go on an older, smaller, less new cruise ship out there?

A lot of people get their start on a brand new ship, like an icon, or even an oasis class ship, like a wonder, utopia, something like that.

And they get into it. They do, you know, maybe two, three cruises, but they gravitate towards these newer, bigger ships. And so inevitably people ask, am I going to be disappointed? There's going to be a problem if I try to go on an older ship. Actually, my favorite is when they phrase it along the lines of, will I be disappointed if they go on a smaller ship and then point out

like freedom of the seas as a smaller ship which of course I giggle about because I'm a

cruise nerd and I don't think freedom of the seas is a small ship at all but smaller

relatively speaking yes that's an accurate way of describing it nonetheless will he be

disappointed with a older ship the answer is yes and no. It really

depends on your perspective. I think when a lot of people go from a brand new ship to an older ship,

they come at it from a different perspective because they're used to, quite frankly, the lace and

grace. That is one of the best reasons to go on a new big ship. That's what Royal Creamy kind of advertises, right?

When you watch those commercials, you're seeing all these amazing things to do on board,

and not all those things are necessarily available on smaller ships.

The thing is, when you go on a smaller ship, you are gaining a couple of advantages,

which I think can at least maybe not make up for the differences,

but certainly stand out as a good reason to try an older, smaller ship. As an example, number one,

you're probably going to pay less for a smaller, older ship. And again, smaller older is more

of a slash, not a comma. It could be one or the other. And what I mean by that is you're paying a premium for brand new ships.

You will pay way more for Star of the Seas than you will for Freedom of the Seas,

or you will for brilliance of the Seas.

And so for me, at least, in a lot of cases, when I look at the price difference,

I can make my piece with maybe missing out on not having the Aquado market

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