A seafarer’s cry: Too vast, matey!

IT seemed only fair. After expressing my dismay over the plans of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines to build a ship that will hold more than 6,000 passengers, I felt I should experience a cruise in a mega-ship, the kind that carries 2,000 to 3,000 passengers.

For three days, I sailed the Mexican coast on one of the smaller of these giant new vessels, designed to accommodate 2,100 adult passengers.

Several other ships now in service carry 2,800 passengers, and a new one -- Freedom of the Seas, debuting this June -- will carry 4,370 passengers.

There is no doubt that these mammoth vessels, with 12 or more decks, have created a new type of entertainment center for vacationing Americans.

The ship I was on has three open-air swimming pools, each with its own large hot tub and a fourth tub inside. The casino is the size of one you would find in a large Las Vegas hotel, and you have to walk through it to reach many other important facilities. The huge main theater has two balconies. The fitness center, which has many rooms for individual massages, is larger than most health clubs.

Everywhere you look are movie-like sets operated by professional photographers. One features a giant background photograph of the railing of a ship with the sea behind it; thus, you needn’t step outside to have a picture taken of yourself and your traveling companion that looks as though it were shot on an open deck.

Earlier, while boarding the ship, guests were photographed standing in front of the street of a fake Mexican village, eliminating the need to leave the ship for real-life photos in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan or Cabo San Lucas.

The main restaurant -- there are several -- seats about 1,100 people and offers two seatings for dinner. A crowd stands in line at the start of every evening meal. But the ship’s staff is so efficient in crowd control that rarely do you wait more than five minutes to enter and be seated.

At other points of the cruise -- entering the ship, leaving it in port, entering the theater, getting breakfast at different cafeteria-like setups -- lines are again encountered, but they move quickly.

Still, the constant sensation is that you are part of a crowd. The ship is so vast and stable, and so totally enclosed without windows in many areas, that you have the feeling you are on land and not at sea.

Constant pedestrian movement passes along the central atrium floor. This is not cruising as I have grown to love cruising.

It is not a quiet, contemplative week at sea, gazing at the vastness of the water-covered earth, quietly conversing with other passengers, catching up on your reading, listening to music and having a quiet meal. It is something else.

And although this new world of cruising is obviously popular among many, its very popularity is a sad commentary on the restless, rootless condition of so many of our fellow citizens.

In all the many lectures on board this ship -- on subjects including makeup, dieting and cooking -- there is not one with subject matter appealing to a well-read, intellectually curious person.

Let me, in all fairness, compliment the cruise lines on providing a considerable degree of comfort -- indeed, luxury -- at an extremely reasonable price.

The cruise I was on was one of the lower-cost options, and it offered real value.

But to thoughtful Americans, it provides no relaxing vacation. Next time you feel like a cruise, make sure the ship you choose has fewer than 1,000 passengers.

At least for a little bit longer, a number of such smaller cruise ships will be available to us.