Smaller cruise ships have special appeal. Size does matter.

Kiwanis Small Ship Fundraiser Cruises

A small ship is part cruise ship and part private yacht. You have many of the advantages of cruising, but you can go to remote locations out-of-the-way ports where big ships can’t go. While the cruise industry keeps churning out ships so massive that their 2,500-plus occupants have to go up 10 decks to get a glimpse of the ocean, a small but growing cadre of seagoing travelers is opting for the Lilliputian. 

"We like to call them 'big-ship refugees.' They're looking for something more thoughtful and focused on the destination," says Clipper Cruise Lines' Liz McQuinn. Most of the company's passengers are over 60, attracted by Clipper's on-board naturalists and historians and such off-the-pina-colada-circuit itineraries as Canada's St. Lawrence Seaway and Venezuela's Orinoco River. But the tiny vessels also are luring first-timers whose vision of a high-seas escape doesn't include mingling with a cast of thousands.

Longer voyages to exotic destinations are a hallmark of many small ships, from Pitcairn Island (highlight of Society Expeditions' 17-day "In the Wake of the Bounty" trip on the 138-passenger World Discoverer) to Mersin (a remote town in eastern Turkey that's included on sailings of Radisson Seven Seas' 120-passenger Song of Flower).

 The less-is-more flotilla ranges from 70-passenger expedition ships that ferry nature lovers through Baja California to a twin-hulled, 350-passenger vessel, with on-board ambience that extends from cookies and blue jeans to caviar and black tie. Typically, there will no games, few announcements, no assigned dining room seating. Instead of bingo, you have the opportunity to visit the bridge at any time and stand at the helm station or on a very small ship perhaps take the helm yourself. Instead of a cruise director, you have historians, naturalist guides and other experts who know the area who give talks and slide shows and join you at dinner. There may be a best-selling author or a wildlife photographer. Sometimes there is a casino, more likely not. Sometimes there is a piano bar or a band and a dance floor, but just as often there is a local band brought on board for dancing on the aft deck. Instead of spending much time inside the ship, you spend most time outside at destinations or on deck looking at the scenery. On some ships passengers dress up for dinner occasionally or all the time, on others not at all. 

Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, described by America Online Cruise Critic Anne Campbell as "camping at sea," offers week-long Caribbean voyages on authentic sailing ships at prices that start at less than $100 per person, per day. It's bring-your-own-bottle on American Canadian Caribbean Line, whose trio of tiny vessels charge an average $175 per day.

More typical, though, are the globe-spanning, yachtlike ships that make up the Cunard Sea Goddess, Seabourn and Silversea fleets, where the service is tastefully fawning, attire is formal and fares can top $1,000 per person, per day. After 16 voyages on a dozen ships, the veteran traveler becomes a loyal fan of Seabourn Cruises, whose ultra-luxurious vessels carry fewer passengers than could fit in a disco on the biggest floating resorts. If you want Las Vegas-type shows and a constant inundation of the senses, you don't want Seabourn. It's much easier to make friends with only 200 people on board.

Usually there is focus on learning about the environment and people and cultures of the area, with lectures by naturalists and historians, wildlife excursions with guides and a library with books and videos on the destinations. You might be learning about ancient roots of civilization while viewing Mayan ruins or archeological sites in the Greek Islands or you might be getting close to nature while watching the courting dances of blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos, being inches away from sea lions belching and belly-flopping on the beach, or feeding bananas to a lemur on your shoulder in The Seychelles. Whether their amenities include recommended reading lists and evening slide shows on local flora and fauna, retractable platforms for water sports or private beach picnics washed down with Moet et Chandon, many small ships target a similar audience: experienced travelers weary of midnight buffets, atrium shopping malls and shipboard comedians asking if you've heard the one about the lady who wondered whether the crew commuted or lived on board. 

"A big ship is like a big city: If you engage in conversation with someone at a bar, you'll probably never run into him or her again," Campbell says. "On some ships, parents even use walkie-talkies to keep in touch with their kids." By contrast, many small ships are more like B&Bs or country clubs at sea. Instead of heading for assigned tables at a first or second seating, passengers are free to eat when and with whom they fancy. In lieu of high-gloss musical revues, evening entertainment might consist of savoring a glass of port around a piano bar or kibitzing with the first officer on the bridge (which, on most small ships, maintains an "open door" policy). On most small ships, children are actively discouraged.

Because there are fewer people, you have the opportunity to meet with speakers in informal conversations. The lectures, the art works, the closeness to the environment all provide a profound sense of place to the destinations. Because of their turn-on-a-dime maneuverability the small ships can get into secluded coves and remote places inaccessible to bigger ships, they can go up rivers to where they are just navigable, and visit secluded places that can be reached only by water. Also because of the small number of passengers, the itinerary can be flexible. You can stay for the evening for a local festival, stop to watch a whale, or launch the zodiacs in minutes if there is something special to see. 

Small ships come in all shapes and sizes. Even "small ships" can have only a few passengers, more like a private yacht, or several hundred passengers. Ships can be diesel-powered, have paddlewheels, or be sailing ships. There are riverboats that go along the Danube or Rhine, the Volga in Russia, the remote jungle tributaries of the Amazon, the Yangtze, the Nile, the Snake River in Oregon, or up and down the Mississippi and the Ohio. There are icebreakers that can slice through ice in the Antarctic and Arctic. There are barges in Europe, and freighters, and even boats that can you charter yourself. Some ships have bow ramps that let you walk directly onto a beach, others have a diving platform/sports deck at the stern from which, when at anchor, you can scuba, water ski, windsurf, swim, paddle a kayak or sail a sunfish. Some have a fleet of zodiacs for quick access to coves and beaches.

In a recent industry survey of how prospective passengers perceived cruises vs. other forms of vacations, "being pampered," "relaxing" and "romantic getaway" emerged as key cruise advantages, says Cruise Week's Mike Driscoll.

"Obviously," he adds, "those have nothing to do with the fact that a ship is 100,000 gross tons and has virtual-reality games or a climbing wall."

Ten years ago, Windstar Cruises marketed its four-masted, computerized sailing ships to early-40s workaholics as "the consummate yuppie vacation," says sales chief Rick Meadows. Sushi is still served poolside as the sails unfurl on the 148-passenger Wind Star, Wind Song and Wind Spirit and their 312-passenger sibling, the Wind Surf. But now, Meadows says, "we're getting the empty-nest boomer -- burned-out executives who need to step off the planet for a week."

To be sure, the same shallow drafts that let some small ships nuzzle close to an Alaskan glacier can send stomachs churning during rough seas. And just as small-ship aficionados would rather walk the plank than stand in line for a souvenir photo of the lifeboat drill, the vast majority of cruisers continue to prefer the megaliners' expansive public spaces and plethora of choices. 

Smaller cruise ships can offer a bigger variety 
of ports and itineraries 

Cruise ships wander all over the world, including many small ships which offer unusual itineraries and call at ports which the 2,000-passenger ships can't reach.

• Swan Hellenic's 11 "discovery" cruises explore the Gulf of Arabia, India and the Far East aboard the Minerva, a 300-passenger liner. Other cruises call at ports in India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Bali, the Philippines and Borneo, with shore excursions offered to places like Angkor Wat, Cambodia and Sri Lanka's elephant orphanage. Swan Hellenic also offers annual spring cruises called "Lord of the Isles," visiting England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, seeing main cities as well as castles and gardens. 
• The 513-passenger MS Deutschland of Peter Deilman Ocean Cruises roams the world. To attract more Americans, the line is offering discounts on cruises in Central and South America, northern Europe, the Mediterranean and Middle East. Deilman ships are better known for European river cruising, including fall cruises on the Danube River. 
• KD River Cruises, most famous for Rhine River cruises, has an itinerary between Paris and Honfleur on the Seine River. Included are sightseeing time in Paris (while the boat is docked downtown); a stop to see Claude Monet's home and gardens in Giverny; a stop in Rouen, the beautiful old city where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake; and Honfleur, the picturesque little port that was a favorite place of Impressionist painters. 
• South America cruises from southeast Florida are popular, but they usually include Caribbean stops. However, several ships plan cruises that start and end in South America, between Chile and Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro. The ships include Celebrity Cruises' Mercury; Cunard Line's Caronia, formerly called the Vistafjord; and Silversea's new Silver Shadow. Port calls include Chile's fjords, Patagonia and Cape Horn, and a number of optional side trips such as Easter Island, Iguazu Falls and the Falklands. 
• Silversea Cruises was recently chosen as the World's Best Small Cruise Line by Travel & Leisure magazine readers. Its ships the Silver Shadow, Silver Wind and Silver Cloud offer ultra luxury service on cruises in Europe and South America. The line will launch another new ship, the Silver Whisper, next summer. 
• There are small ships and chartered yachts that sail within Alaska along with the big cruise ships. Companies include Glacier Bay Tour and Cruises, Clipper Cruise Line and Cruise West. From a small ship you can reach out and touch the iceberg, look the bear in the eye, cruise up close and personal. 
• Two new Florida-built cruise vessels - the Cape May Light and the Cape Cod Light - set forth next spring on 7- and 14-day itineraries along the northeast coast of North America. The ships, designed to resemble 19th-century steamships, each carry 226 passengers and have 114 cabins. Operated by Delta Queen Coastal Voyages (a subsidiary of American Classic Voyages of New Orleans, which also operates cruises in Hawaii and elsewhere in the U.S.), they'll offer various itineraries along the New England coast and eastern Canada. 

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Happy Cruising!