WEIGHING UP CRUISING’S BIG AND SMALL

A conference of cruise-specialist travel agents in Canberra has been shown something of the diversity in size of cruise ships now available to holidaymakers.

After hearing about the merits of ships big, ships small, ships medium-size, European river cruisers and Asian river-adventure boats, this picture was shown of the truly Big and the Small

It's Royal Caribbean Line's brand new Oasis of the Seas (225,282 tonnes, 5,400 passengers and 2,165 crew) dwarfing SeaDream Yacht Club's SeaDream I (a tiny 4,300 tonnes and just 112 passengers and 95 crew) as they shared a berth in St Thomas in the Caribbean this month.