largest cruise ships in development

The World's Largest Cruise Ship Is Coming in January—Here's What It's Like Inside

By Jessica Puckett

The biggest thing to ever hit cruising is coming in January 2024, when Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas —which will be the largest cruise ship in the world —will debut to passengers for the first time.

With capacity for nearly 10,000 passengers and crew, Icon of the Seas is billed as part all-inclusive resort, part theme park, and a massive destination unto itself . Clocking in at 250,380 gross tons and measuring nearly a quarter mile long (1,198 feet to be exact), the vast ship will sport a total of 20 decks, 18 of which will be accessible to guests.

The ship will be divided into eight different “neighborhoods,” each with their own distinct atmospheres, dining options, and activities. “ Icon of the Seas is truly what we call a white paper ship,” Anna Drescher, manager of architectural design, new building and innovation for Royal Caribbean group, said in a video statement . “The reason that we call it that is we start with a blank sheet of sketch paper, so it truly is starting fresh.”

In June 2023, the ship hit a major milestone when it completed its first sea trials outside the shipyard in Turku, Finland. Next up is the colossal new ship’s first voyage, slated to depart on January 27, 2024. It will sail roundtrip from Miami to the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts, St. Thomas, and the Bahamas.

The ship's typical seven-day itineraries include three at-sea days, so passengers have time to fully enjoy the endless choices of amenities on board. “We want guests to walk up to the ship and just have this moment of: I can’t believe that’s where I’m going ,” said Jennifer Goswami, the line’s senior manager of product development.

Here's a look at the enormous scale of the new ship and what to expect on board.

When it begins sailing, the Icon of the Seas will offer a total of 2,805 staterooms that can hold 5,610 passengers at double occupancy, or a maximum of 7,600 guests. Passengers can choose from a whopping 28 different room types, including Sunset Suites with wraparound balconies and Family Infinite Balcony staterooms with bunkbeds fit for a family of up to six.

The largest suite on board will be the three-story, 1,772-square-foot “Ultimate Family Townhouse,” which comes with its own movie theater, ping-pong table, karaoke, and a slide between floors. It can sleep up to eight people and costs approximately $75,000 per week.

Among the eight "neighborhoods," or sections of the ship with distinct ambiance, are Central Park, which offers greenery and sidewalk cafes, and The Hideaway, which aims for a European beach club aesthetic. There's also The Suite Neighborhood, Surfside, Thrill Island, Chill Island, The Royal Promenade, and the Aquadome.

The ship's 2,350 crew members will also get their own neighborhood, complete with amenities like a gaming room and hair salon.

Another superlative for Icon will be sporting the largest waterpark at sea. The park, called Category 6, features six different record-breaking waterslides, including the tallest onboard waterslide. There will also be a free-fall slide, plus a raft-style slide for four passengers to ride together.

Kristi Kellogg

Caitlin Morton

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CNT Editors

Seven pools and nine whirlpools will be located throughout the ship, including the first infinity pool on a cruise ship to be suspended in the air. The Royal Bay pool, located on the 15th deck, will break the record for largest pool at sea, holding an astounding 40,000 gallons of water.

Across the towering vessel, there'll be more than 20 food venues and 15 bars and nightlife experiences, including a sweeping three-level main dining room.

Among the options for grabbing a drink will be the line's first onboard swim-up bar, a walk-up Champagne bar, and a bar specializing in coffee cocktails like espresso martinis.

On the entertainment front, Royal Caribbean has hired 75 performers to titillate guests across three cavernous theaters. The Absolute Zero ice arena will feature shows with Olympic-level skaters, while the AquaTheater will combine the talents of divers, robots, and skateboarders.

In the Royal Theater, a 16-piece orchestra (the largest one at sea), will accompany shows like the Wizard of Oz.

In smaller venues throughout the ship, like the dueling piano bar, 50 live musicians and comedians will perform each night, making it possible for every type of passenger to find something that fits their style.

The World’s Largest Cruise Ship Is Nearly 1,200 Feet Long

Scheduled to debut in January, the vessel can accommodate 5,600 guests and 2,350 crew members

Daily Correspondent

The world’s largest cruise ship is almost ready to set sail.

Royal Caribbean’s massive new ship, Icon of the Seas , passed its inaugural round of sea trials with flying colors, bringing it one step closer to hitting the open ocean with passengers, the cruise line  announced late last month. If all goes as planned, the record-breaking vessel will begin sailing in the Caribbean in January 2024.

Just how big is Icon of the Seas ? Really big. As Jalopnik ’s Ryan Erik King writes, it’s the size of five Titantics. More specifically, Icon of the Seas measures 1,198 feet long—nearly a quarter of a mile—and has a gross tonnage of 250,800. All that space means it can accommodate 5,600 guests and 2,350 crew members.

The cruise line is positioning the vessel as “the ultimate family vacation,” as CEO Michael Bayley told reporters earlier this year, per  CNN ’s Maureen O’Hare.

“When you step back and look at all the energy and time that has gone into creating this ship, it is mind-blowing,” he added.

The previous world’s largest cruise ship was also a Royal Caribbean vessel, Wonder of the Seas , which spanned 1,188 feet long and featured 18 decks.

Crews in Turku, Finland, began work on Icon of the Seas in 2021. Last month, the vessel sailed the open ocean for the first time, as staffers spent four days testing the main engines, hull, brakes, steering system and other components. They also measured noise and vibration levels. 

The vessel will undergo another round of sea trials later this year before officially launching in Miami early next year, according to Royal Caribbean. Icon of the Seas will primarily take cruisers to the islands of the eastern and western Caribbean on seven-night itineraries.

With progress on Icon of the Seas moving along, Royal Caribbean has already started building another large “icon class” ship. The cruise line expects that unnamed vessel to launch in 2025, per a  statement .

Icon of the Seas has 20 total decks, 7 swimming pools and 8 “neighborhoods,” or distinct areas with entertainment and dining. Another noteworthy feature is Category 6, which will be the largest waterpark at sea when Icon of the Seas sets sail.

The ship will be equipped with a special grooming robot that will clean the hull whenever it’s in port to help reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency by 3 to 4 percent, reports  TTG Media ’s Charlotte Cullinan.

Icon of the Seas will also be the first ship in the cruise line’s fleet to run on liquefied natural gas and  fuel cells , which are similar to batteries but do not need to be recharged. Water is the main byproduct of fuel cells—which combine oxygen and hydrogen to produce energy—which should help the ship reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Liquefied natural gas , meanwhile, is a controversial energy source that involves cooling natural gas to a liquid state to make it easier to transport. The liquid version is “actually worse than ordinary gas,” writes the  Natural Resources Defense Council . “The energy required to chill, ship and regasify the fossil fuel makes it far more carbon-intensive and increases the potential for leakage of dangerous methane,” according to the organization.

Royal Caribbean’s leaders say they view liquified natural gas as a “ transitional fue l,” and that they hope to continue to  reduce the environmental impact of their ships moving forward. 

"[Liquefied natural gas] is about 20-30 percent better for the environment [than heavy fuel oil], but it’s still not going to be the solution,” Bayley tells TTG Media . “We don’t know the answer, but the whole industry is working towards the answer.”

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Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

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The world’s largest cruise ship will set sail in 2024.

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Featuring more than 40 restaurants, seven pools, an indoor aqua theater and the largest waterpark at sea, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas is being billed as the “ultimate family vacation”

Royal Caribbean International has revealed the first look at the highly anticipated Icon of the ... [+] Seas, the Icon of Vacations. Arriving in late 2023 ahead of its January 2024 debut.

Go big or go home as the old adage goes.

That’s certainly been the mantra for Miami based cruise line Royal Caribbean, who just announced their largest ship Icon of the Seas will officially enter service in 2024. At maximum capacity, Icon will be capable of hosting 7,600 passengers on its inaugural sail on January 28, 2024.

“With each new ship, we raise the bar in the travel industry while enhancing what our guests know and love,” President and CEO, Royal Caribbean Group Jason Liberty said in a statement today. “From the moment they step on board, every experience is specifically designed to give them the best vacation anywhere on land and at sea. With Icon of the Seas, we’ve taken this to a new level and made the ultimate family vacation.”

Royal Bay Pool in the new Chill Island neighborhood on Icon of the Seas will be the largest pool at ... [+] sea.

Once it’s completed, the ship will measure in at 20-decks high, 1,200 feet long, and 250,800 gross tons. This floating mini-city is expected to sail year round and offer seven-night Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises out of Miami.

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Icon will feature the largest waterpark at sea, with six record-breaking slides.

One of the most anticipated on-board amenities will be the largest waterpark at sea. With six “record-breaking” slides including Pressure Drop, the industry’s first open free-fall slide, a 46-foot-tall Frightening Bolt, the tallest drop slide at sea, Storm Surge and Hurricane Hunter, the first family raft slides at sea.

One of 15 restaurants, cafes, bars and lounges along the ships promenade, Coastal Kitchen will be a ... [+] two-story dining experience on board.

The ship will offer more than 40-restaurants, cafes, bars and lounges including a two-story “Coastal Kitchen,” a Central Park, and an aqua dome perched atop the ship that will offer ocean views and a waterfall for guests to dine by day before transforming into an interactive aqua theater with live performances by night.

Perched at the top of Icon, the Aqua Theater will feature wraparound ocean views and an ... [+] awe-inspiring waterfall as guests enjoy a bite or drink.

Featuring 28-room types on board, layouts have been designed with for families in mind and can accommodate three, four, five guests in options like the Family Infinite Balcony and Surfside Family Suite.

With 28 ways to stay, rooms onboard will offer something for every type of traveler

There will also be a three-story Ultimate Family Townhouse complete with its own white picket fence and mailbox. For rooms with a view, the Sunset Corner Suites and Panoramic Ocean Views in AquaDome are expected to be some of the best on-board according to the cruise line.

When it comes to views, among the best are from the brand’s first Sunset Corner Suites and Panoramic ... [+] Ocean Views in AquaDome.

“Icon of the Seas is the culmination of more than 50 years of delivering memorable experiences and our next bold commitment to those who love to vacation,” President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International Michael Bayley said. “Now more than ever, families and friends are prioritizing experiences where they can bond and enjoy their own adventures. We set out to create a vacation that makes all that possible in one place for the thrill-seekers, the chill enthusiasts and everyone in between, without compromise.”

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Oliver Franklin-Wallis

The dizzying story of Symphony of the Seas, the largest and most ambitious cruise ship ever built

S ymphony of the Seas – which, on its maiden voyage from Barcelona in March 2018 became the largest passenger ship ever built – is about five times the size of the Titanic . At 362 metres long, you could balance it on its stern and its bow would tower over all but two of Europe’s tallest skyscrapers. Owned and operated by Miami-based cruise line Royal Caribbean, it can carry nearly 9,000 people and contains more than 40 restaurants and bars; 23 pools, jacuzzis and water slides; two West End-sized theatres; an ice rink; a surf simulator; two climbing walls; a zip line; a fairground carousel; a mini-golf course; a ten-storey fun slide; laser tag; a spa; a gym; a casino; plus dozens more shopping and entertainment opportunities. To put it another way, Symphony of the Seas might be the most ludicrously entertaining luxury hotel in history. It just also happens to float.

Picture a cruise ship. You’re likely imagining crisped-pink pensioners bent double over shuffleboard, cramped cabins, bad food and norovirus. And, once upon a time, you’d have been right. But in the last decade or so, cruise ships have gone from a means of transport to vast floating cities with skydiving simulators ( Quantum of the Seas ), go-karting ( Norwegian Joy ), bumper cars ( Quantum again) and ice bars ( Norwegian Breakaway ). Restaurants offer menus designed by Michelin-starred chefs. As a result, the cruise industry is experiencing a golden age, boosted by millennials and explosive growth in tourists from China. More than twenty-five million people set sail on a cruise liner in 2017.

“Most people’s idea of a cruise is ‘Oh God, I’m going to be packed in with five thousand people I don’t want to talk to and getting bored out of my tree,” says Tom Wright, founder of WKK Architects, who has worked on cruise ships and land hotels. “In fact, it’s like going to a hotel that just moves magically over night.” (As one cruiser I met on Symphony ’s fan page put it, “We get to see five destinations, and I only have to unpack once.”)

For many, a maiden cruise is rarely the last. From Southampton to Venice to Barbados, ports are full of white-hulled ships packed with repeat customers. Industry satisfaction ratings regularly exceed 94 per cent. And, as Richard Fain is fond of saying: nobody gets those kinds of numbers. Not even chocolate companies.

Fain is chairman of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, a position he has held since 1988. (RCL comprises three lines: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara Club Cruises.) Now 69, Fain is square-jawed, broad and handsome. More than anyone, he is responsible for the transformation of cruise ships from modes of transport to mega-attractions. ( Symphony is one of his. So are the world’s second-, third- and fourth-largest cruise ships.) A gifted salesman, the first time you meet he’ll lean in, tilt his head just so, and ask you straight: “Have you cruised?”

It was Fain who realised that the cruise industry’s image problem was in fact an opportunity. Convince sceptical land-lovers that cruise ships aren’t outdated, boring and, as an industry joke put it, full of “the newlywed and the nearly dead”, and Royal Caribbean could lock up customers for life. The problem was just one of perception.

David Kushner

Andy Greenberg

Jenna Scatena

To attract a new kind of customer, Fain needed a new kind of ship. To build it, he hired Harri Kulovaara, a Finnish naval architect who made a name for himself designing passenger ferries. Kulovaara has a round, boyish face and glasses with such thick upper frames it has the effect of a monobrow. Growing up in the coastal city of Turku, he would watch the ferries sail out of the harbour for Sweden each morning, and spend every moment he could on the water. After graduating in the late 80s, he designed two groundbreaking ferries for Finnish company Silja Line. They included a 150-metre, two-deck-high promenade down the centre, culminating in a huge window at the aft. The window brought natural light into the centre of the ship – before that, dark, depressing places – and created a natural, street-like hub for passengers.

Fain, who has a keen eye for design himself – his mentors included Jay Pritzker, the Hyatt Hotels co-founder and creator of the Pritzker Architecture Prize – took notice. “When Richard saw [the Kulovaara-designed] Silja Serenade , he said, ‘I’d like to have this kind of ship.’ The [Royal Caribbean] technical department told him it couldn’t be built,” explains Kulovaara. So, in 1995, Fain hired him to help run the company’s shipbuilding department alongside Njål Eide, a Norwegian architect who had become a legend in shipbuilding. (Eide had designed the first hotel-like atrium at sea, now a commonplace feature.) The company was planning to commission a carbon copy of its existing flagship, Sovereign of the Seas . “We’re not going to build that, Harri,” Fain told him. “We need something better.”

That “better” was 1999’s Voyager of the Seas . Costing upwards of $650 million (£469m), it was 75 per cent bigger than the previous-largest cruise ship, exceeding Panamax – the width of the Panama Canal, an industry-standard measurement. They introduced a central promenade, similar to that which Kulovaara had designed for Silja Line, ending in two banks of panoramic lifts. It was on Voyager that Royal Caribbean introduced the first ice rink at sea, and climbing walls on the rear funnel. (Fain initially thought climbing walls were a bad idea. Now they’re an industry standard.)

If you want to pinpoint the moment ship design went crazy, it’s with the launch of Voyager. Suddenly, cruising was in an amenities arms race. “There was a big shakeup,” says Trevor Young, vice president of new building at Royal rival MSC Cruises. “Companies started to treat the cruise liner as a floating resort, rather than as a ship.” Consider: since the launch of the RMS Queen Elizabeth in 1940, the record for largest passenger ship had changed hands twice. Since Kulovaara joined Royal Caribbean, the record has been broken 11 times. Kulovaara has designed ten of them.

“We don’t set out to build the largest ships,” Kulovaara told me, somewhat sheepishly. “The goal is to build the best ship. But we have so many ideas that we need a little bit more space.”

Cruise-ship architects face constraints that would confound their land-based counterparts. Ships need to be able to face North Atlantic storms, Baltic snow and blistering Caribbean heat in equal measure. The hull is beset on all sides by waves, which cause not only perpetual motion, but vibrations through the steel structure – as do the engines and propellers. A ship at sea is its own island: it must generate its own energy and water, and treat its own waste. There is no fire service nor ambulance, so every crew member is fire trained and the on-board medical centre must be able to handle almost any kind of emergency (including death: all ships have a small morgue, a necessity for a pastime so beloved by the elderly). Some maintain a brig, in case of onboard miscreants – though I’m told their use is rare.

Kulovaara’s New Build department is located in Royal Caribbean’s Innovation Lab, which is based in PortMiami – the largest passenger port – in Biscayne Bay, Florida. The team has around 200 people, including naval architects, interior designers, engineers and project managers. “When I started to get involved we didn’t use CAD,” says Fain. “We used SAD, or ‘scissors-aided design’, because what you did was spread out your drawing on the dining room table and then cut and paste it.” Today, the Innovation Lab includes extensive prototyping and testing facilities, and a large virtual-reality “cave” simulator to allow Kulovaara’s designers and architects to walk around interior spaces throughout the design process.

The essential consideration when designing a cruise ship is flow of human traffic. “They have a relatively high density of population. How can you spread the people and make sure they find their way?” asks Kulovaara. “Understanding how people behave, anticipating how they behave, is key.” With nearly 9,000 people on board including crew, distributing attractions evenly across the ship is crucial. Hence, Symphony ’s two main theatres are at opposite ends. The casino is central, but below the Royal Promenade. (A rule of thumb is that it takes the first two days of a cruise just to get your bearings.)

Perhaps even more important is the movement of the ship’s 2,200 crew, who must be able to access galleys and stores in the bowels of the ship easily. There are safety considerations, too: today’s megaships are split vertically into six or more fire zones, which can be isolated in case of an emergency. Muster stations (usually large public areas) must be evenly spread. Even corridor width is calculated for the necessary flow of passengers in the event of an emergency.

Once the major spaces are sketched out, there’s the onerous task of plumbing. “The big part of building a ship, 85 per cent, is what you don’t see. It’s the air conditioning, the electric systems, the water systems, power generation,” says Kulovaara. Cruise ships are built using concurrent design: while the keel and lower hull are being cut, the top of the ship is still being laid out. “We do the conceptual design and the architectural design,” says Kulovaara. “The naval architects think about hydrodynamics, hydrostatics, hull forms. Then we transfer that to the shipyard and they do the final engineering.”

As the ship is so vast, the detailed design work is commissioned out to multiple architectural firms. Restaurant architects design restaurants; caravan designers tend to be good at state rooms (the industry term for cabins). “We have probably 100 architects who have worked closely with us for a long time,” says Kulovaara. Early in the design process, Royal holds open competitions to design new spaces. “The reason is if you do it in-house, you become blind to change.”

When trying to introduce “anything extraordinary”, Kulovaara assigns a special projects team. With Voyager, New Build had sketched a blank space in midship for a new entertainment venue. The team proposed an indoor arena including a synthetic ice surface, “glice”. Kulovaara assigned the project to Boston-based Wilson Butler Architects. The firm has since worked on several of Royal Caribbean’s wildest schemes, including a viewing platform that extends high above Quantum of the Seas . “We’ve become pretty good at problem solving,” says Butler.

In January 2018, I went to visit Symphony under construction in Saint-Nazaire, France. It was a miserable day: grey mist hung in the air like gauze, but the ship was still visible several kilometres away. The shipyard, STX France, is one of the few equipped to build liners of Symphony ’s scale. The decks are built upside down, in around 80 huge sections – each can weigh upwards of 800 tonnes – and are then robotically welded together like vast LEGO blocks. On the dockside, deck sections of a new MSC Cruises ship lay idle. The legs of an offshore rig stood monolithic, the platform unattached. Symphony was running ahead of schedule.

Kulovaara, Fain and the Royal Caribbean management team were visiting another of their ships, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge , due to sail in November 2018. While they attended meetings, Timo Yrjovuori, the project manager for Symphony ’s build, gave me a tour of the ship. Another Finn, Yrjovuori has light stubble and blond hair hidden under his yellow hard hat. As we boarded Symphony ’s lower decks, the ship was teeming with activity. More than 1,000 workers were undertaking the final outfitting, and the sounds of sawing, welding and industrial vehicles cut through a riot of languages and radio stations.

Symphony is the fourth ship in Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class, which launched in 2009. Oasis of the Seas was another paradigm shift in ship design: 50 per cent larger again, at 225,000 gross tonnes, it was almost double the industry average. Each Oasis-class ship costs more than $1 billion, not including the vast new cruise terminals Royal Caribbean built in Miami to hold them. “The complexity of building ships goes up exponentially” with size, Kulovaara says. (Previously, the largest lifeboats on the market carried 150 people. In designing Oasis , Royal Caribbean also had to develop a new class of 370-person lifeboats. Symphony has 18 of them.)

The Oasis class’s crowning glory is its split superstructure: 18 decks tall, its central section is a progression of Voyager’s promenade design. The aft is divided up the middle by an 11-deck valley, giving it a horseshoe shape. Standing in the centre of the Boardwalk (Oasis ships are split into seven “neighbourhoods”) feels like standing in Manhattan, with mini-skyscrapers on each side. The chasm is bridged by a Sun deck at the top; from there the 11-storey Ultimate Abyss slides curl down to the Boardwalk.

“To split a cruise liner down the middle in this way was a really big departure,” says Tom Wright, who helped in the development of the exterior spaces for the Oasis class ships. “It’s probably the biggest departure ever by the cruise industry.”

Yrjovuori and I toured the ship. Below decks, Symphony of the Seas is like an Amazon warehouse, a cathedral to logistics. The ship’s bowels are split by a two-lane corridor, nicknamed I-95 after the US highway. In the main galleys are bathtub-sized food processors and dishwashers closer in appearance and size to car washes.

Food is stored in bungalow-sized cold rooms. Even here, flow is king: the layout of the room has been meticulously optimised by observing chefs and service staff to maximise output at peak time; because cold food guarantees unhappy passengers, all of Symphony ’s restaurants are designed with a set maximum distance from galley to table.

“The level of hygiene is extreme,” Yrjovuori announced, as we passed a hand-washing station. Though ship-wide outbreaks of sickness make the news at least once a year, the total number of passengers who fall ill is a fraction of one per cent. But close quarters enable outbreaks, so sanitation regulations at sea are stringent. Every part of the ship, from lift buttons to the casino’s chips, are sanitised daily; interior materials have to stand up to the high level of chlorination from the constant cleaning. Rubbish is frozen in vast storage containers to slow bacteria growth and is only removed in port.

In midships above the Royal Promenade lies perhaps Symphony ’s most remarkable feature: Central Park, an open-air garden enclosed by the upper cabins. Its development was another first, and was fraught with challenges. “I suggested it was going to be a grassy field,” says Wright. Fain loved the idea, but a grass park at sea seemed insane: the deck faces salt air, scorching Sun and foot traffic from thousands of passengers almost every day of the year.

“We do a lot of research,” explains Kelly Gonzalez, Royal’s vice president of newbuilding architectural design. Gonzalez, who leads the design of the ships’ public spaces, is Kulovaara’s closest collaborator; the two have worked together for 20 years. “We hired a grass and lawn expert from the University of Florida. We did a machine test, which was a rolling wheel with sneakers on it that would simulate footsteps.”

The results were not encouraging. “The immediate response is always ‘We’ll tweak it,’” says Fain. “We said no, this is not a tweak. This is a design flaw.”

Kulovaara called a charrette – a closed-doors design retreat that Royal has used for problem-solving since Voyager. “We went back to redesign it,” he says. Their solution was a landscaped garden with 12,000 plants and trees. It required extensive engineering, right down to the soil. “It’s a kind of volcanic exploded clay, so it’s not as dense as it would be on a land-based arboretum,” explains Butler, whose firm worked on the engineering. “On land you put in a sprinkler system and the soil gets saturated. We can’t afford that wet weight, so we do underground watering.” Botanists were consulted, as were ports’ various customs agencies for rules on foreign plant species.

Even unfinished, it’s remarkable: an airy urban park, floating on a skyscraper with an open-air café and performance space thrown in, all in the middle of the ocean.

After the park, we toured Symphony ’s accommodation. Its state rooms are pre-fabricated en masse and inserted into the ship like huge Jenga blocks. Yrjovuori’s army of outfitters were busy adding mattresses and other finishing touches.

More than half of Symphony is taken up by state rooms. “We always say the millimetres matter,” says Harold Law, a senior architectural associate who oversees their development. A centimetre saved by using a thinner veneer might, along the length of the ship, mean an extra cabin per deck. Storage is honed with IKEA-like precision (the secret is calculating average luggage size plus a little extra, for souvenirs).

State rooms must be acoustically insulated – to shield occupants from their neighbours, but also vibrations from the engines, nightclubs or an overhead skydiving machine. The bathroom units are subjected to an incline test: a blocked toilet must still drain at 10° of ship tilt without spilling into the room.

The biggest challenge comes when designing the interior rooms. “Traditionally on inside rooms there’s no natural light, so you can lose track of time very quickly,” says Law. (Days at sea distort time – Symphony ’s lifts contain screens reminding passengers what day of the week it is.) On 2014’s Quantum of the Seas , Royal Caribbean introduced Virtual Balconies, floor-to-ceiling screens which show a live camera feed of the outside view. There are four cameras, because during testing, they discovered that a feed facing the wrong direction causes seasickness. “You have the sensation of the motion of the ship; the visual has to match,” Law says.

“We’re constantly using design to alter the perspective of the room environment,” says Gonzalez. Uplighting and mirrors can help ceilings feel taller. The right pattern on a carpet can lengthen or shorten a space, or provide a subliminal help with wayfinding. One problem with such huge ships is the absurdly long corridors, so the architects insert fake arches or obstacles to make them appear shorter. On Quantum , Royal introduced lenticular wall art, which changes whether you’re walking fore or aft.

Celebrity Edge will introduce perhaps the biggest change in state-room design since balconies were introduced in the 80s. “I was watching the cruise ships going out from Miami one day,” explains Xavier Leclercq, Royal’s senior vice president of New Build and innovation. “I counted the passengers on their balconies – only two per cent of people [were] using them.”

Kulovaara’s team commissioned some research and came to a counterintuitive conclusion: offer passengers balconies and they say they want them, but few actually use them. So, on Celebrity Edge , Wright – the ship’s lead architect – and Royal’s New Build team eliminated balconies entirely. Instead they designed what they call the Infinite Veranda: floor-to-ceiling windows, the upper half of which lowers entirely to create an indoor balcony. As a result, Edge ’s entry-level state rooms are 23 per cent larger and bathrooms 20 per cent bigger than the previous standard. “The cruise industry is incredibly conservative,” says Wright. “To change the structure of how it’s always been done – it’s really quite a big deal.”

In November 2017, before my visit to France, I flew to New York to see the future of cruise ship design. Royal Caribbean had rented a space in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard to demonstrate what it calls Project Excalibur. Guests from the travel industry lounged on white leather sofas, ordering drinks via an app. Wi-Fi beacons tracked our locations, and the waiters’ custom-designed trays included a smartphone displaying our picture, so we never had to go to the bar.

The feature will debut on Symphony of the Seas and be rolled out across the entire Royal fleet. On the main stage, huge 4K screens on robotic arms delivered a dance performance (the show, something of a novelty gimmick, is featured on Quantum-class ships), before Fain made his presentation.

Kulovaara watched from the side of the room. New Build were early in the masterplanning phase for Royal’s next class of ship, codenamed Icon, which is planned to debut in 2022. Notably, Icon class, at 200,000 gross tonnes, will be smaller than Oasis. Instead, the focus is on efficiency, an urgent trend in an industry long criticised for cruise ships’ environmental impact, which included burning huge quantities of fuel and, for several decades, dumping of waste water. (Today, black water – the ship’s sewage – is treated on board, and only dumped into the sea when it reaches near drinking-water purity.)

“Energy efficiency is something we have a lot of pride in,” says Kulovaara. They expect Symphony to be, by weight, the most energy-efficient ship at sea (a claim currently held by Harmony ). “We were able to improve the ship’s energy efficiency by 20 per cent with about 100 different initiatives. The hull form was improved, the propellers were improved, the air conditioning controls were improved, the lighting system was improved.” New Royal ships feature hulls that emit tiny bubbles to reduce drag, meaning the ship in effect sails on air.

After Fain’s pitch for Excalibur, we were given a rundown of the attractions Icon might eventually bring. Some, like a shallow VR sushi-eating experience, felt more like gimmicks for the tech press in attendance. But other elements seemed inevitable: check in via facial-recognition, and a Star Trek -like bridge of the future which included augmented-reality displays showing live data streams. Perhaps the most significant demo was the least well attended: a hydrogen fuel cell, which will be used to generate electricity on Icon, supplementing existing diesel engines. Icon will also be the first of Royal’s fleet to run on liquefied natural gas; Carnival, AIDA and MSC also all have LNG ships under construction, as part of an industry-wide move to meet emissions targets.

Icon’s design is still a closely-held secret, and Kulovaara would only speak in veiled terms. “We’re looking at how the infrastructure has been done on a cruise ship for the last 40 years, and we believe that there is the potential of doing drastically different things,” he said. The last time we spoke, in January, the outline for Icon was coming together, but the design was still lacking… something, so they took a break to look for inspiration. “A ship’s lifespan is at least 25 years. So we have to plan that a ship is still relevant, purposeful and efficient, more than 20 years ahead.”

Right now, Kulovaara has 13 ships on order. In 2014, Royal Caribbean became the world’s largest cruise line by passenger capacity (Carnival is still larger by total passengers, primarily because it offers shorter cruises). Other cruise lines have followed Fain’s lead: in 2017, MSC Cruises announced plans to build four 200,000-tonne World class ships, with split hulls remarkably similar to Symphony . Arch-rival Carnival has ordered two 180,000-tonne ships, due in 2020.

Still, Symphony ’s record as the largest ever looks like it won’t be broken for a while. “The ships are now large enough and give us a platform that we can really do some amazing things,” says Fain. “So a gut answer is: I don’t personally see a need to build larger. But never say never.”

Back on Symphony of the Seas , Yrjovuori momentarily lost his bearings. We stopped and, taking our cue from the stairway’s decor, set off downwards. The sky was getting darker and it had started to rain. Construction was winding down for the night, and for the first time the ship’s corridors were quiet. “It’s maybe romantic, but I think ships have a kind of soul,” he said. “It’s not like a building. They have a kind of personality. ”

It was a few weeks before Symphony would set out on final sea trials. “It’s such an interesting moment in the ship’s life, when she first meets the sea,” Leclercq told me, back on shore. “It’s like a baby being born. Thousands of people, thousands of skill sets… it’s a big human adventure.” When Harmony was floated, the locals in Saint-Nazaire took to the water to meet her. “Thousands of boats were in the water. It was a beautiful day.”

Symphony of the Seas already has bookings until the end of 2019. At the time of my visit, the ship’s Facebook page was filling with passengers excitingly monitoring its progress and discussing itineraries. Kelli Carlsen, an American teacher based in Oslo, told me she booked after her and her husband spent their honeymoon on Harmony of the Seas . “It was once in a lifetime,” she said – until it wasn’t. They’re booked for June 2018. The week after they disembark, she and a friend are cruising again, on Serenade of the Seas. They’re joining the ship late, in Rome, but Carlsen says she doesn’t mind. “There’s so many stops. We just go for the ships, really.”

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

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20 decks, a skywalk, a water park: Inside the world’s biggest cruise ship

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A new cruise vessel is passing its sea trials swimmingly, and when it’s eventually cleared for passenger voyages it will break records as the world’s largest cruise ship.

Put simply, Royal Caribbean International ‘s Icon of the Seas is a monster. At 365 metres long and weighing approximately 250,000 tonnes, it’s the biggest cruise ship ever built. (According to Royal Caribbean, it’s about six per cent bigger than the current record holder, their own Wonder of the Seas .)

The vessel made its foray into open waters this month, completing its first round of sea trials following its construction in Finland’s Meyer Turku shipyard.

Icon of the Seas marks the first of Royal Caribbean’s Icon Class cruise ships and the first new type of vessel created for the company since 2014.

The countdown to the maiden voyage has begun: if all goes well in the second round of sea trials later this year, the Icon of the Seas will welcome its first paying passengers next January in Miami, Fla.

Here’s a look at some of the most impressive (and, sometimes, over-the-top) features of the Icon of the Seas.

There’s no shortage of space on the Icon of the Seas. The 20-deck vessel includes eight “neighbourhoods” to explore and can accommodate 5,610 passengers and 2,350 crew.

The so-called neighbourhoods are designed to cater to every type of vacationer, the company says, with areas for young families and adult-only areas.

Attractions on the ship are meant to mimic various land vacation experiences, with a six-slide waterpark, seven full-size pools, a dueling pianos bar, an indoor aquatic theatre and more.

In case you’re worried about not seeing a waterfall, you can put those fears to rest — the company says the Icon will include a 55-foot-tall waterfall, making it the tallest waterfall at sea.

The ship will also include a greenspace, called Central Park, which will have lots of live plants, live music and a walk-up champagne bar. An extensive pool area called Chill Island will feature the first swim-up bar at sea.

Category 6, the waterpark, will feature the tallest drop slide at sea, an open free-fall slide, family raft slides and two slides dedicated to mat-racing.

For the passengers who find it difficult to lounge around, there’s a part-skywalk part-ropes course designed to intentionally take you beyond the boat’s railings, as well as rock-climbing and surfing simulator expeditions available too.

“Every type of family and kind of adventurer can make memories together and on their own terms without compromise across record-breaking thrills, relaxing ways to chill, a neighborhood designed for young families, more than 40 ways to dine, drink and be entertained, and more,” Royal Caribbean says in its latest press update .

The ship also features 28 different types of cabins, giving more options for families and group travellers – including twisty slides and bunk beds in some quarters.

Families willing to shell out the money (US$75,000 per week, to be precise) can stay in a three-level townhouse, which comes complete with a white picket fence and a mailbox and is being touted as “the most impressive suite anywhere at sea.”

The cruise line says it’s the longest time frame it’s ever dedicated to “designing the perfect home base.”

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The 21 largest cruise ships in the world.

Book your next cruise vacation on one of these floating megaresorts.

The Largest Cruise Ships in the World

Courtesy of Royal Caribbean International

With every year comes bigger and grander cruise ships.

Just when you think cruise ships can't get any larger, a major cruise line unveils yet another longer, taller and grander state-of-the-art vessel – with the capacity to carry the population of a small town. To put the size of today's megaships into perspective: They often stretch three times longer than a 120-yard football field, and some feature nearly two dozen decks or measure more than 215 feet wide.

So, if you're looking for a vacation aboard a large-scale vessel, consider booking a voyage on one of the biggest cruise ships in the world. With cutting-edge technology and entertainment, world-class dining, and endless attractions and activities for cruisers of all ages, you may not even want to leave the ship. Here are the biggest cruise ships, arranged by gross tonnage.

• 1. Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas
• 2. Royal Caribbean Utopia of the Seas
• 3. Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas
• 4. Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas
• 5. Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas
• 6. Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas
• 7. Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas
• 8. MSC World Europa
• 9. Costa Smeralda
• 10. Costa Toscana
• 11. P&O Cruises Arvia
• 12. AIDAcosma
• 13. P&O Cruises Iona
• 14. AIDAnova
• 15. Carnival Jubilee
• 16. Carnival Celebration
• 17. MSC Euribia
• 18. MSC Virtuosa
• 19. Carnival Mardi Gras
• 20. MSC Meraviglia
• 21. Norwegian Encore

Find your perfect cruise

Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas

Length: 1,198 feet

Width: 213 feet

Gross tons: 250,800

Maximum number of passengers: 7,600

Icon of the Seas will be the largest cruise ship afloat when it debuts in January 2024. The next-level megaship is Royal Caribbean 's first Icon-class vessel and the first of three ships powered by liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which is considered a more sustainable alternative to other fuel options. The ship will have 2,805 staterooms and carry up to 2,350 crew. There's no end to the fun with eight unique neighborhoods, including the new Surfside: a stay-all-day space designed specifically for families.

Other features on the ship include seven pools, nine whirlpools and six record-breaking waterslides. There are also more than 20 new dining venues, such as the swanky Empire Supper Club, which features an eight-course tasting menu; the AquaDome Market, the line's first food hall; and sushi restaurant Izumi in the Park. Cruisers will also find other international cuisine, including Japanese, Mexican and Italian fare, as well as The Lemon Post, the Surfside Eatery and Pier 7 in the Surfside neighborhood.

Read: The Newest Royal Caribbean Ships

Royal Caribbean Utopia of the Seas

Length: 1,188 feet

Width: 211 feet

Gross tons: 236,860

Maximum passengers: 6,788

Royal Caribbean's first LNG-powered Oasis-class ship will sail its debut voyage in July 2024. The new ship will have 2,834 staterooms and up to 2,290 crew members, as well as eight neighborhoods to keep passengers entertained. Ten complimentary dining venues include the line's new food truck concept, The Spare Tire, which serves up handheld eats on the pool deck. The ship will also feature sloping beach-entry and resort-style pools, plus three Lime & Coconut bars on the outdoor deck.

In total, there are more than 40 dining options, bars and lounges on Utopia of the Seas. Many of Royal Caribbean's specialty dining and bar favorites are returning, such as Chops Grille, Giovanni's Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar, Rising Tide Bar and Vue Bar. Guests will also find familiar entertainment offerings with rock climbing walls, the AquaTheater, Splashaway Bay, laser tag, mini-golf, the Sports Court, Studio B and much more. With two casinos, five pools and a visit to private island Perfect Day at CocoCay, you'll never run out of things to do.

Read: The Top New Cruise Ships

Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas

Michel Verdure | Courtesy of Royal Caribbean International

Gross tons: 235,600

Maximum passengers: 7,084

Royal Caribbean's current largest ship at sea, Wonder of the Seas , first set sail in March 2022. The Oasis-class vessel has 2,867 staterooms and carries as many as 2,204 crew members. While you may get lost on this ship, you'll never be bored. Features include eight unique neighborhoods – such as Central Park, the Boardwalk, and the new Suite Class neighborhood, an exclusive space for suite guests.

Take advantage of the AquaTheater, an outdoor live entertainment venue with a 30-foot diving platform and incredible ocean views. Wonder Playscape is an underwater-themed outdoor space for kids filled with slides, climbing walls, games and more. You can also enjoy a few of Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class favorites, such as the FlowRider surf simulator, the rock climbing wall or laser tag at the Battle for Planet Z. If you dare, head into the Ultimate Abyss: Billed as the tallest waterslide at sea, it towers 150 feet above sea level and features an exhilarating 13-second ride through 10 stories of dark, winding tunnels.

When hunger strikes, dine at your pick of more than 20 complimentary and specialty restaurants, including the new Mason Jar Southern Restaurant & Bar. If you're craving a cold beer, a cocktail or a cup of Starbucks coffee, you'll have roughly a dozen bars and lounges at your disposal.

Read:  The Top Party Cruises

Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas

Width: 215.5 feet

Gross tons: 228,081

Maximum passengers: 6,680

Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas , another Oasis-class ship, debuted in April 2018. This ship features 2,759 passenger staterooms and accommodates 2,200 crew members. There are seven distinct neighborhoods, four pools, roughly 20 restaurants (about half of which are specialty venues), and about a dozen bars and lounges. The ship even boasts two robotic bartenders that whip up drinks at the Bionic Bar.

Adults can enjoy Broadway-style shows in the onboard theaters and major international sports games at Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade. Meanwhile, kids can cool down at the Splashaway Bay water park, soar on a zip line nine decks high through the Boardwalk neighborhood, try out rock climbing or attend a show at the AquaTheater.

Read:  Royal Caribbean vs. Carnival

Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas

Gross tons: 226,963

Maximum passengers: 6,687

Another Oasis-class ship, Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas has been sailing since May 2016. The vessel features 2,747 staterooms and up to 2,200 crew members. Cruisers have plenty of places to dine thanks to eight complimentary venues – including the main dining room and Windjammer Marketplace, a globally inspired buffet – as well as nine specialty restaurants serving everything from burgers and shakes to Italian fare. The Boardwalk, one of the ship's seven neighborhoods, is a favorite spot for cruisers; it contains casual eateries, retail shops and carnival games.

Harmony of the Seas also has Splashaway Bay, the Ultimate Abyss waterslide and a trio of slides called The Perfect Storm. In the evening, don't miss a pre-dinner cocktail at the Rising Tide Bar, which offers a ride between the Central Park neighborhood and the Royal Promenade with dazzling skylight views. Sit back and sip your drink while the entire bar slowly floats between the decks.

Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas

Simon Brooke | Courtesy of Royal Caribbean International

Length: 1,187 feet

Width: 215 feet

Gross tons: 226,838

Maximum passengers: 6,771

Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas was the largest cruise ship in the world when it was launched in 2009. The line's debut Oasis-class ship is nearly five times bigger than the Titanic by gross tonnage; it has 2,801 staterooms and carries 2,109 crew members.

Oasis of the Seas was reimagined in 2019, with many added amenities that are on newer Oasis-class ships, such as FlowRider simulators, the Perfect Storm waterslides, the Ultimate Abyss and Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade. Across the ship's seven distinct neighborhoods, you'll also find state-of-the-art technology such as VOOM, billed as the fastest internet connection on the high seas – plus exciting live performances and theater productions, laser tag, escape rooms and more.

Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas

Gross tons: 225,282

Maximum passengers: 6,826

Embarking for the first time in 2010, Allure of the Seas was Royal Caribbean's second Oasis-class vessel. The ship underwent a refurbishment in 2015. Allure of the Seas has 2,748 staterooms and 2,054 crew. Onboard highlights include seven neighborhoods, four pools, and several whirlpools and hot tubs, plus more than 20 dining venues and too many bars and lounges to count.

There are also plenty of entertainment options for guests of all ages, including an ice skating rink, the Sports Court, a nine-deck-high zip line, two rock climbing walls and two FlowRider simulators (a Royal Caribbean favorite). Kids will especially enjoy the interactive H2O Zone Water Park. Adults on this ship will appreciate Broadway productions like "Mamma Mia!," aerial acrobatic performances in Oceanaria (an original AquaTheater production) and '70s disco dance parties. If you find yourself on board for business reasons, rest assured that the ship's conference facilities can host as many as 1,394 guests.

Find a Royal Caribbean cruise on GoToSea.

MSC World Europa

Courtesy of MSC Cruises

Length: 1,093 feet

Width: 154 feet

Gross tons: 215,863

Maximum passengers: 6,762

MSC World Europa was one of the most anticipated new cruise ships when it launched in December 2022 as the first vessel in the line's MSC World-class fleet. It's also the first LNG-propelled ship by MSC Cruises , reaching a maximum cruising speed of 22.7 knots.

The ship's futuristic interior and exterior design features a 341-foot-long promenade. Half the promenade is covered with the Meraviglia-class LED sky screens, while the other half is open-air and offers ocean views. MSC World Europa features 2,626 staterooms and can house 2,138 crew members. As a special touch, each passenger deck is named after an international city, including London, Paris, Lisbon and Rome.

The ship is divided into distinct areas, with a quiet zen district for adults and a family zone that has bumper cars and roller skating. At the fleet's largest onboard water park, younger cruisers will find a twisty, stainless steel tunnel slide towering 11 decks high at the center of the ship. Luna Park Arena, the ship's 300-seat multifunction entertainment venue, can accommodate almost any performance or event.

When you're exhausted from all of the action, grab a bite to eat at one of 13 restaurants or a drink at a selection of bars and cafes. Then, take time to relax and unwind with a signature treatment at the Balinese-inspired MSC Aurea Spa. For an all-inclusive VIP experience during your voyage, book stateroom accommodations in the MSC Yacht Club. This exclusive part of the ship boasts premium suites, a separate pool, a private restaurant and lounge, butler service, and other amenities.

Costa Smeralda

Courtesy of Costa Cruises

Length: 1,106 feet

Width: 138 feet

Gross tons: 185,000

Maximum passengers: 6,554

Costa Smeralda was the first of the two Excellence-class vessels in the Costa Cruises fleet. The vessel debuted in 2019 as the Italian cruise line's largest ship to date. It was also the line's first vessel to use LNG power at sea and in port. The ship has 2,612 staterooms and can carry as many as 1,678 crew members.

Cruisers will never go hungry or thirsty, thanks to the 11 restaurants and snack bars plus 19 bars and lounges on Smeralda . One of the most notable dining venues on board is Archipelago, which serves innovative cuisine created by three world-renowned chefs. If you're interested in culinary pursuits, join other passengers for a cooking class at sea in the Food LAB. When it comes to entertainment, centrally located Colosseo – modeled after the piazzas across Italy – is the place to go for socializing and live performances. What's more, the ship also has 13 pools and hot tubs, an aqua park, the Beauty Spa Solemio, and the Squok Club for kids ages 3 to 11.

Costa Toscana

Costa Toscana, Costa Cruises' newest flagship and the second Excellence-class vessel in the fleet, set sail on its debut voyage in March 2022. Similar in size and passenger capacity to Costa Smeralda, Toscana is also LNG-powered. This vessel has 2,663 staterooms, and there can be up to 1,678 crew members on board.

Similar to Smeralda, Colosseo is the centerpiece of Toscana; you'll find live entertainment and themed bars in this area. There are 11 restaurants and snack bars plus 19 bars and lounges on the ship. For a refreshing aperitif with a view, head to the Aperol Spritz Bar, which features special beach cocktails. Another dining highlight is Sushino at Costa, the line's new sushi bistro. After dinner, take in unparalleled views of the sea along the Volare Skywalk, the highest point of the ship, which towers more than 200 feet above sea level.

Explore Costa Cruises deals on GoToSea.

P&O Cruises Arvia

Courtesy of P&O Cruises

Length: 1,130 feet

Maximum passengers: 5,200

Arvia joined the P&O fleet as sister ship to Iona in December 2022. It is also LNG-powered, has 2,614 cabins and carries up to 1,800 crew. The family-friendly ship offers guests many firsts, including Altitude, a new activity area with an escape room, a high-ropes experience, the Splash Valley aqua zone, the Sports Arena and much more.

Arvia has 30 bars and restaurants. New dining venues include the American-inspired 6th Street Diner and Green & Co. feat. Mizuhana, which focuses on sushi and plant-based dishes. For entertainment, plan to see the line's production of "The Official Take That Musical," an adaptation of London West End musical "The Band." Guests can also head to the dome beneath the SkyDome retractable roof for live performances, aerial displays, movies on the giant SeaScreen and DJ parties under the starry skies.

Tips on Trips and Expert Picks

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Courtesy of AIDA Cruises

Gross tons: 184,600

Maximum passengers: 6,654

The sister ship to AIDAnova, AIDAcosma set sail in early 2022. The partly LNG-powered AIDA Cruises vessel has 2,732 staterooms and the capacity for up to around 1,500 crew members. With 17 restaurants and 23 bars and cafes, AIDAcosma offers passengers a seemingly endless number of venues to dine and imbibe. Other onboard attractions include a four-deck outdoor area, complete with an infinity pool and an expansive area for sunbathing; an indoor playground with a bouldering wall and ropes course; the Body & Soul Spa; and a 360-degree stage at the Theatrium.

P&O Cruises Iona

Length: 1,129 feet

Gross tons: 184,000

P&O Cruises' Iona, which launched in spring 2021, has the distinction of being the first LNG-powered British cruise ship. The family-friendly vessel has 2,614 cabins and carries 1,800 crew members. Iona's top features include the two-story SkyDome, a gin distillery, four pools, 10 entertainment venues, and 30 restaurants and bars offering a wide variety of food and beverage options.

With selections ranging from casual eateries to gelaterias to Indian- and British-inspired cuisine at Sindhu, you won't get bored with the restaurant choices. For an especially unique meal, dine and sip wine while watching aerial performances in the Grand Atrium at The Glass House. Or, enjoy dinner at The Limelight Club, an adults-only supper club venue featuring vocal performances and other live music. After dinner, check out the entertainment around the ship, including aerial productions in the Grand Atrium, guest and crew shows in Headliners, late night dancing in The Club House, and performances in partnership with the entertainment company Creativiva in the SkyDome.

Gross tons: 183,900

When German line AIDA Cruises' first Helios-class ship, AIDAnova, debuted in December 2018, it was the first LNG-powered cruise ship in the world. The ship is equipped with 2,626 staterooms, including the two-deck Penthouse Suite, and carries around 1,500 crew members. You won't miss this ship when it's docked in port: It features the line's signature exterior design, with bold red lips at the ship's bow and blue-and-yellow eyes on the port and starboard sides.

While on board, passengers can check out 17 restaurants, along with 23 bars and lounges; party the night away at the Beach Club; and take in live performances on the 360-degree stage in the Theatrium. When it's time to relax, head to the Body & Soul Spa, where you can book a massage, spend time in one of the hot tubs or saunas, take a dip in the private pool, and chill out on the private spa sun deck.

Carnival Jubilee

Width: 137 feet

Gross tons: 183,521

Maximum passengers: 6,631

Carnival Jubilee, as sister ship to Carnival Celebration and Carnival Mardi Gras, will offer many of the same features and amenities as its two predecessors when it launches in December 2023. The new vessel will have 2,687 staterooms, 1,735 crew and six zones of fun. Currents and The Shores are new to Jubilee . Currents is inspired by the underworld of the ocean with mermaids and sea monsters; it's designed with new bars, restaurants, music venues and high-tech spaces, including a wave-shaped LED ceiling and six LED windows that virtually take guests under the sea. The Shores is all about the outdoors, inspired by beaches and boardwalks. Cruisers can grab a slice of pizza at Coastal Slice, a hot dog at Beach Buns and a cocktail at Marina Bar.

On Jubilee, you'll also find Carnival Cruise Line favorites such as BOLT, the first and fastest roller coaster at sea, as well as Waterworks, the onboard water park with twin racing slides, three spiraling slides and more. The line's "next-level fun" ship will also include familiar eateries and lounges like Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken, Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse, Cucina del Capitano, Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse and more.

Carnival Celebration

Courtesy of Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival Celebration sailed its inaugural cruise in November 2022. Carnival's second-newest ship at sea is LNG-powered and the second in the line's Excel class, with 2,687 staterooms and as many as 1,735 crew. Guests will find new attractions to enjoy on the ship, such as the partnership with the Kennedy Space Center at Space Cruisers: This program is designed for children ages 2 to 11 at Camp Ocean.

Adults can check out the new bar at Latitudes, which features specialty cocktails and outdoor scenery through the virtual windows. Celebration has a variety of complimentary dining venues, including Shaq's Big Chicken, Guy's Burger Joint and Mexican favorites at BlueIguana Cantina. There is also a selection of specialty restaurants like Emeril's Bistro 1397, Rudi's Seagrill, the Steakhouse and Bonsai Teppanyaki. For action and 360-degree views of the ocean from the top of the ship, take a spin around the track on the BOLT roller coaster.

Compare Carnival Cruises on GoToSea.

MSC Euribia

Length: 1,087 feet

Width: 141 feet

Gross tons: 181,541

Maximum passengers: 6,327

MSC Euribia, the newest MSC Cruises ship, debuted in June 2023. The line's second LNG-powered vessel – and the fifth Meraviglia-class ship – has 2,419 cabins and can carry as many as 1,711 crew members. The ship's hull features Alex Flämig's artwork "#SaveTheSea" to highlight the company's dedication to preserving the marine ecosystem.

On board Euribia , guests will find five pools and 11 dining venues, offering everything from sushi and teppanyaki to Latin American street food. There are also 21 bars and lounges, the MSC Aurea Spa, the Ocean Cay Aquapark, luxury retail shopping and more. Two additional highlights are the longest – and most impressive – LED Dome at Sea, which covers the ceiling of Galleria Euribia, and the reimagined Carousel Lounge. The beautiful, updated space features floor-to-ceiling windows, outdoor terraces and cozy seating to enjoy live entertainment, including performances by one of the largest big bands at sea.

MSC Virtuosa

Maximum passengers: 6,334

This vessel launched in 2021 as a sister ship to MSC Grandiosa , the line's other Meraviglia Plus-class ship. MSC Virtuosa has 2,421 staterooms and carries around 1,704 crew members. It offers cruisers 11 dining venues plus 21 bars and lounges. At the heart of the ship, Galleria Virtuosa houses the largest shopping area on a cruise ship, with more than 12,500 square feet of retail space. In this area, you'll also find entertainment venues, restaurants and cocktail bars. And don't forget to look up: An impressive LED dome, one of the longest at sea, spans the ceiling of the promenade.

Another highlight to check out during your voyage is the MSC Starship Club, which features Rob, the first humanoid robotic bartender on a cruise ship. The multilingual expert mixologist even tells jokes and will show you a dance move or two. After all the indoor fun, head outside for a cool dip in one of MSC Virtuosa's five pools or take a ride on the slide at the Savannah Aquapark.

Book an MSC Cruise on GoToSea.

Carnival Mardi Gras

Gross tons: 180,000

Maximum passengers: 6,465

One of Carnival Cruise Line's newest ships, Mardi Gras , debuted in July 2021. Its name honors the line's first ship, the TSS Mardi Gras, which launched in 1972. The original Mardi Gras was around 27,000 gross tons and 650 feet long – in contrast, the new Carnival Mardi Gras weighs more than six times as much and is nearly twice as long. This ship also holds the title as North America's first LNG-powered ship. It has 2,641 staterooms and holds up to 1,745 crew members.

Six themed areas each offer unique dining and entertainment experiences. For New Orleans -inspired cuisine, head to the French Quarter; there, you'll find Emeril's Bistro 1396 and The Brass Magnolia, a bar reminiscent of The Big Easy's jazz culture and Garden District. Don't miss one of the ship's top onboard attractions: the BOLT roller coaster, where riders can hit speeds of nearly 40 mph at 187 feet above sea level.

Read: The Top Themed Cruises

MSC Meraviglia

Courtesy of Port Miami for MSC Cruises

Length: 1,036 feet

Gross tons: 171,598

Maximum passengers: 5,655

MSC Cruises' Meraviglia first set sail in 2017 with an impressive 2,244 staterooms and the capacity to carry 1,536 crew members. A dozen restaurants offer a wide variety of cuisines, including a Spanish tapas bar with dishes created by a Michelin-starred chef, Japanese teppanyaki, Italian fare, fresh seafood, steaks and more. There are also 20 bars, lounges and cafes serving everything from Champagne and cocktails to ice cream and crepes.

The central highlight of the ship is Galleria Meraviglia, a 315-foot promenade with eateries, boutiques and evening parties. Nightly entertainment includes live performances and shows in the Broadway Theatre and the Carousel Lounge. Kids will find plenty to do, as well: There's an Aquapark, an F1 simulator, a flight simulator, LEGO play areas, bowling and more. When it's time to wind down, book a signature treatment at the MSC Aurea Spa.

Norwegian Encore

Length: 1,094 feet

Width: 136 feet

Gross tons: 169,116

Maximum passengers: 3,998 (double occupancy)

Norwegian Encore was built in 2019 as one of Norwegian Cruise Line 's Breakaway Plus-class ships. The vessel has 2,040 staterooms and carries 1,735 crew members. There are several complimentary culinary venues on board, including three main dining rooms, The Local Bar & Grill, the Garden Café buffet, and grab-and-go options. Specialty dining restaurants offer a variety of cuisines, from seafood to steak to Japanese teppanyaki.

When it's time for cocktail hour, 14 bars and lounges serve up everything from cold brews to fine wine and whiskey. For a pre-dinner option, head up to the Observation Lounge for panoramic ocean views. Norwegian Encore is also home to several entertainment venues featuring award-winning live shows and performances.

You'll find the most fun on the ship's top decks. First, head to the Encore Speedway race track, which takes thrill-seekers on a heart-pumping ride through high-speed curves extending 13 feet off the side of the ship. Also at the top of the vessel you'll find The Haven: Norwegian's exclusive "ship within a ship" concept boasts luxurious suites, villas and penthouses with balconies. These luxe accommodations include perks like 24-hour butler service, a concierge and a private sun deck.

Find a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise on GoToSea.

Frequently Asked Questions

The largest cruise ship currently in service is Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas, at more than 235,000 gross tons. Icon of the Seas will become the largest cruise ship in the world at 250,000-plus gross tons after its launch, set for January 2024.

Carnival Jubilee, scheduled to debut in December 2023, and Carnival Celebration are the line's largest ships at 183,521 gross tons.

The line's largest ship is Disney Wish at about 144,000 gross tons. The vessel is 1,119 feet in length and 128 feet wide; it has 1,254 staterooms and carries up to 4,000 passengers and 1,555 crew.

Why Trust U.S. News Travel

Gwen Pratesi has been an avid cruiser since her early 20s. She has sailed on nearly every type of cruise ship built, including the newest megaships, paddle-wheelers on the Mississippi River, and an 18-stateroom river ship on the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia. She has also cruised on a traditional masted sailing ship and on a small luxury expedition vessel in Antarctica crossing the notorious Drake Passage twice. She covers the travel and culinary industries for major publications including U.S. News & World Report.

You might also be interested in:

• The Top World Cruises
• The Top Cruises on Small Ships
• The Top Gay Cruises
• Cruise Packing List Essentials
• The Top Cruise Insurance

Tags: Travel , Cruises

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• # 1 South Island, New Zealand
• # 4 Bora Bora

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The 30 Largest Cruise Ships in the World Ranked

Wondering what the largest cruise ship in the world is? You're not alone. These vacation-ready giants of the sea seem to push the boundaries of size year after year. With the biggest ships at sea, though, you're getting way more than just crowds of fellow passengers. Water parks , huge entertainment spaces, dizzying restaurant options, and a wider variety of cabins are all part of how the largest cruise ships are filling all that space.

To help you compare the sizes, we've rounded up and ranked the 30 largest cruise ships in the world by gross tonnage (which is a measure of volume, not weight). We've included other stats, such as passenger capacity (both double occupancy and max occupancy) plus length and beam (the width at the widest point of the vessel).

Keep in mind that this list of biggest cruise ships in the world changes annually, as cruise lines update their fleets. While Royal Caribbean continues to dominate the top (and the bottom) of the list, new entries may surprise you. For example, Princess Cruises has a new ship on the list (the largest ever for that fleet), barely missing the top twenty.

See how your favorite cruise lines and ships measure up this year with our list below.

1. Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas

Besides taking on the mantle of largest cruise ship in the world, Icon of the Seas is yet another game changer for Royal Caribbean. Its launch in January 2024 heralds a new ship class loaded with new attractions and iconic spaces. It features 20 decks (18 guest-accessible decks), a record-setting six water slides and the largest swimming pool at sea.

The second Icon-class ship, Star of the Seas , is set to sail in 2025.

Icon of the Seas Gross Tonnage : 250,800 GTs

Icon of the Seas Length : 1,198 feet

Icon of the Seas Beam (Maximum) : 213 feet

Icon of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max) : 5,610/7,600

2. Royal Caribbean Utopia of the Seas

Utopia of the Seas Gross Tonnage : 236,860 GTs

Utopia of the Seas Length : 1,188 feet

Utopia of the Seas Beam (Maximum) : 211 feet

Utopia of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max) : 5,668/6,509

3. Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas

Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas was previously the world's largest cruise ship, starting in January 2022. Its first voyage was in March 2022, becoming the fifth member of Royal's Oasis-class ships. The aptly named Wonder of the Seas has 18 decks (16 guest-accessible decks), 2,867 staterooms and 19 pools.

Wonder of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 235,600 tons

Wonder of the Seas Length: 1,188 feet

Wonder of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 215 feet

Wonder of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,734/7,084

4. Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas

Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas slips to the fourth position this year, having been the biggest cruise ship in the world from 2018 to 2022. It has 16 guest decks (18 total decks) along with 2,759 staterooms.

Symphony of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 228,081 tons

Symphony of the Seas Length: 1,188 feet

Symphony of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 215.5 feet

Symphony of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,518/6,680

5. Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas

Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas , now the fifth-largest cruise ship in the world, was actually the largest cruise ship from 2016 to 2018. Onboard, passengers can find 16 guest decks, 2,747 staterooms and suites and 23 pools and whirlpools.

Harmony of the Seas Gross Tonnage : 226,963 GTs

Harmony of the Seas Length : 1,188 feet

Harmony of the Seas Beam (Maximum) : 215.5 feet

Harmony of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max) : 5,479/6,687

6. Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas

Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas is the flagship of the Oasis class. It made its maiden voyage in 2009, offering 18 total decks (16 guest decks) along with 2,801 staterooms, almost 2,000 of which have balconies.

Oasis of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 226,838 tons

Oasis of the Seas Length: 1,187 feet

Oasis of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 215 feet

Oasis of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,602/6,771

7. Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas

Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas made its maiden voyage in December 2010. Allure of the Seas has 18 total decks, 16 of which are guest-accessible, and 2,742 staterooms (including 1,796 balcony suites).

Allure of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 225,282 tons

Allure of the Seas Length: 1,187 feet

Allure of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 215 feet

Allure of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,484/6,780

8. MSC World Europa

MSC entered the top ten in 2022 when World Europa made its maiden voyage in December of that year. It has 2,700 staterooms, 430,000 square feet of public space, 16 total decks and even an 11-foot dry slide called the Spiral, among the longest dry slide at sea. World Europa is the first of four total ships in MSC's World-class fleet, with the second ship World America set to launch in 2025.

World Europa Gross Tonnage: 215,863 tons

World Europa Length: 1,093 feet

World Europa Beam (Maximum): 151 feet

World Europa Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,400/6,762

9. P&O Arvia

P&O Cruises held its spot on the top ten list of largest cruise ships in the world with an aptly named ship. Arvia is Latin for “from the seashore.” Arvia was launched in 2022 and features 19 decks (15 passenger-accessible decks).

P&O Arvia Gross Tonnage : 185,581 GTs

P&O Arvia Length : 1,132 feet

P&O Arvia Beam (Maximum) : 137 feet

P&O Arvia Passenger Capacity (Double/Max) : 5,200/6,264

10. Costa Cruises Costa Smeralda

Costa Smeralda is the first ship in Costa Cruises' Excellence-class fleet. This premier ship has 20 decks along with 2,614 staterooms and suites onboard. Costa Smeralda was named after a popular tourist destination in Sardinia.

Costa Smeralda Gross Tonnage: 185,010 tons

Costa Smeralda Length: 1,106 feet

Costa Smeralda Beam (Maximum): 138 feet

Costa Smeralda Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,224/6,554

11. Costa Cruises Costa Toscana

Costa Toscana is Costa Smeralda's sister ship, meaning the two ships are identical in size. Toscano launched in March of 2022.

Costa Toscana Gross Tonnage: 185,010 tons

Costa Toscana Length: 1,106 feet

Costa Toscana Beam (Maximum): 138 feet

Costa Toscana Passengers (Double/Max): 5,224/6,554

12. P&O Cruises Iona

P&O Cruises Iona was the first in the line's Excel-class. Iona includes 2,614 cabins and 15 decks accessible to guests.

Iona Gross Tonnage: 184,700 tons

Iona Length: 1,130 feet

Iona Beam (Maximum): 138 feet

Iona Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,200/6,600

13. MSC Euribia

Launched in 2023, MSC Euribia is among the list of LNG-powered ships that are revolutionizing the industry with cleaner operations as it cruises to mostly European ports of call.

MSC Euribia Gross Tonnage: 181,541 GTs

MSC Euribia Length : 1,087 feet

MSC Euribia Beam (Maximum) : 141 feet

MSC Euribia Passenger Capacity (Double/Max) : 4,842/6,334

14. AIDA Cruises AIDAnova

AIDA Cruises AIDAnova is the first launched in the Excellence-class, which also has sister ship AIDAcosma. AIDAnova was built in 2018 and has 16 decks with 2,600 cabins. It was the first ship to be awarded the "Blauer Engel," which is a German environmental label given to green-friendly products and services .

AIDAnova Gross Tonnage: 183,858 tons

AIDAnova Length: 1,106 feet

AIDAnova Beam (Maximum): 138 feet

AIDAnova Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,252/6,654

15. Carnival Jubilee

When Carnival Jubilee arrived in Galveston late in 2023, it became the largest and newest ship Carnival has ever cruised from that port. The ship even features a Texas-style livery. Attractions include the Bolt rollercoaster and a whopping 22 dining options, many of which are included in the cruise fare.

Carnival Jubilee Gross Tonnage : 183,521 GTs

Carnival Jubilee Length : 1,130 feet

Carnival Jubilee Beam (Maximum) : 137 feet

Carnival Jubilee Passenger Capacity (Double/Max) : 5,374/6,631

16. Carnival Celebration

Carnival's Celebration , which launched in November 2022, is a sister ship to the famed Mardi Gras and a "celebration" for the cruise line's 50th birthday year. The Celebration cruise ship, which is fueled by cleaner burning LNG, has 20 decks and 2,687 staterooms and suites.

Carnival Celebration Gross Tonnage: 180,800 tons

Carnival Celebration Length: 1,130 feet

Carnival Celebration Beam: 138 feet

Carnival Celebration Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,282/6,500

17. AIDA Cruises AIDAcosma

AIDA Cruises AIDAcosma, the second in the Excellence-class, was first released in December 2021. It has 20 decks and 2,626 passenger cabins, which includes suites.

AIDAcosma Gross Tonnage: 183,200 tons

AIDAcosma Length: 1,105 feet

AIDAcosma Beam (Maximum): 138 feet

AIDAcosma Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,228/6,600

18. MSC Grandiosa

MSC Grandiosa is a part of the Meraviglia Plus-class, which currently has five sailing ships. Onboard, there are 18 decks (15 of which are passenger-accessible) and 2,405 staterooms onboard.

MSC Grandiosa Gross Tonnage: 181,541 tons

MSC Grandiosa Length: 1,087 feet

MSC Grandiosa Beam (Maximum): 141 feet

MSC Grandiosa Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,842/6,334

19. MSC Virtuosa

MSC Virtuosa , which is another member of the Meraviglia-Plus class, first set sail in May 2021. It is easily one of the largest in MSC's fleet (along with sister ship Grandiosa), having 2,421 cabins on 15 passenger-accessible decks (18 decks total).

MSC Virtuosa Gross Tonnage: 181,000 tons

MSC Virtuosa Length: 1,092 feet

MSC Virtuosa Beam: 141 feet

MSC Virtuosa Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,842/6,334

20. Carnival Mardi Gras

Carnival Mardi Gras first debuted in 1972 and was a trailblazing ship. Its preliminary focus was on festive fun for all guests (hence the name), which was unlike any other cruise ship at the time. The unique onboard ambiance continues today on the most recent Mardis Gras, which was launched in 2021, and has 17 passenger decks, 2,641 staterooms and a rollercoaster.

Carnival Mardi Gras Gross Tonnage: 181,800 tons

Carnival Mardi Gras Length: 1,130 feet

Carnival Mardi Gras Beam (Maximum): 138 feet

Carnival Mardi Gras Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 5,282/6,631

21. Sun Princess

Until Utopia of the Seas launches in 2024, Sun Princess will be among the twenty largest cruise ships afloat on the world’s oceans. The ship’s first cruise is set for February 2024, and will debut Princess Cruises ' largest number of dining options , offering guests 29 choices.

Sun Princess Gross Tonnage : 175,500 GTs

Sun Princess Length : 1,133 feet

Sun Princess Beam (Maximum) : 155 feet

Sun Princess Passenger Capacity (Double/Max) : 4,324/5,189

22. MSC Meraviglia

MSC Meraviglia is the first ship in MSC's Meraviglia-class and received the "8 Golden Pearls" award, which recognizes sustainable and environmental stewardship. This meritable ship has 18 decks, 15 of which are accessible to guests, and 2,244 total staterooms. Look for her at port at Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve .

MSC Meraviglia Gross Tonnage: 171,598 tons

MSC Meraviglia Length: 1,036 feet

MSC Meraviglia Beam (Maximum): 141 feet

MSC Meraviglia Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,500/5,714

23. MSC Bellissima

MSC Bellissima is yet another member of MSC's Meraviglia-class to make our list. It first set sail in 2019 and has 18 decks (15 available to guests) and 2,217 cabins.

MSC Bellissima Gross Tonnage: 171,598 tons

MSC Bellissima Length: 1,036 feet MSC

Bellissima Beam (Maximum): 141 feet

MSC Bellissima Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,500/5,686

24. MSC Seashore

MSC Seashore first debuted in August 2020 and is one of only two ships in the Seaside EVO-class. Onboard, there are 2,270 staterooms and 15 public-accessible decks.

MSC Seashore Gross Tonnage: 170,412 tons

MSC Seashore Length: 1,112 feet

MSC Seashore Beam (Maximum): 135 feet

MSC Seashore Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,540/5,877

25. MSC Seascape

MSC Seascape debuted in December 2022 easily making our list of the biggest cruise ships in the world. This impressive ship has 20 decks with 2,270 staterooms in 12 different categories. The ship has its own unique experience called Robotron , the first robotic arm thrill ride on the sea. Seascape currently sails from Miami , and in 2025 will offer MSC cruises from Galveston for the first time.

MSC Seascape Gross Tonnage: 169,400 tons

MSC Seascape Length: 1,060 feet

MSC Seascape Beam (Maximum): 135 feet

MSC Seascape Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,560/5,877

26. Royal Caribbean Spectrum of the Seas

Royal Caribbean Spectrum of the Seas is the first ship in the Quantum Ultra-class, which is a subset of Royal's Quantum-class . Spectrum of the Seas has 16 total decks (14 guest decks) and 2,137 staterooms.

Spectrum of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 169,379 tons

Spectrum of the Seas Length: 1,139 feet

Spectrum of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 161.5 feet

Spectrum of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,246/5,622

27. Norwegian Encore

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Encore is a part of the four-ship Breakaway Plus-class , a class known for mimicking small cities with numerous outdoor activities. NCL Encore has a total of 20 decks and 2,043 staterooms.

Norwegian Encore Gross Tonnage: 169,116 tons

Norwegian Encore Length: 1,094 feet

Norwegian Encore Beam (Maximum): 157.9 feet

Norwegian Encore Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 3,998/N/A

28. Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas

Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas is the flagship of the Quantum class cruising Asia and the South Pacific half the year, before spending summer in Alaska . It made its maiden voyage in 2014 and holds 16 total decks (14 guest decks) and 2,094 staterooms.

Quantum of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 168,666 tons

Quantum of the Seas Length: 1,141 feet

Quantum of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 162 feet

Quantum of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,180/4,905

29. Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas

Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas is the second ship in the five-ship Quantum-class. Anthem of the Seas debuted in 2015 and has 16 decks (14 guest decks) along with 2,090 staterooms.

Anthem of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 168,666 tons

Anthem of the Seas Length: 1,141 feet

Anthem of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 162 feet

Anthem of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,180/4,905

30. Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas

Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas made its first voyage in 2016, which made it the third ship in the Quantum-class. This ship has 16 decks (14 guest decks) and 2,091 staterooms.

Ovation of the Seas Gross Tonnage: 168,666 tons

Ovation of the Seas Length: 1,138 feet

Ovation of the Seas Beam (Maximum): 160 feet

Ovation of the Seas Passenger Capacity (Double/Max): 4,180/4,905

© 1995— 2024 , The Independent Traveler, Inc.

Icon of the Seas: World's largest cruise ship sets sail from Miami

• Published 28 January

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Watch: A look at Icon of the Seas as it leaves the Port of Miami

The world's largest cruise ship has set sail from Miami, Florida, on its maiden voyage, but there are concerns about the vessel's methane emissions.

The 365m-long (1,197 ft) Icon of the Seas has 20 decks and can house a maximum of 7,600 passengers. It is owned by Royal Caribbean Group.

The vessel is going on a seven-day island-hopping voyage in the Caribbean.

Environmentalists warn the liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ship will leak harmful methane into the air.

Built at a shipyard in Turku, Finland, the Bahamas-registered ship has seven swimming pools and six water slides.

It cost $2bn (£1.6bn) to build and also has more than 40 restaurants, bars and lounges.

Although LNG burns more cleanly than traditional marine fuels such as fuel oil, there is a risk that some gas escapes, causing methane to leak into the atmosphere.

Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

"It's a step in the wrong direction," Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Programme at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"We would estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits over 120% more life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than marine gas oil," he said.

Earlier this week, the ICCT released a report arguing that methane emissions from LNG-fuelled ships were higher than current regulations assumed.

A powerful greenhouse gas, methane in the atmosphere traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over 20 years. Cutting these emissions is seen as crucial to slowing down global warming.

Royal Caribbean says the Icon of the Seas is 24% more energy efficient than required by the International Maritime Organization for modern ships. The company plans to introduce a net-zero ship by 2035.

The cruise industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism, with young people in particular interested in cruise holidays, according to the trade body Cruise Lines International Association.

It said that the cruise industry contributed $75bn (£59bn) to the global economy in 2021.

On Thursday, Argentina's World Cup winning captain Lionel Messi, who currently plays for Inter Miami, took part in the ship's naming ceremony.

He was seen placing a football on a specially built stand to trigger the traditional "good luck" breaking of a champagne bottle against the vessel's bow.

Quick facts about the Icon of the Seas

• The Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world, weighing 250,800 tonnes with a length of nearly 365 meters (1,198 ft). That's about five times larger than the Titanic
• The ship itself cost Royal Caribbean International a hefty price of €1.65bn ($1.79bn; £1.41bn) to build and acquire
• Tickets range from $1,723 to $2,639 per person , according to Royal Caribbean's website. A high-season cruise around Christmas will set you back $5,124 per person
• Its maiden voyage will stop in Saint Kitts and Nevis and Charlotte Amalie in the US Virgin Islands.

Related Topics

• Cruise ships
• Effects of global warming
• United States

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What it's like inside the world's largest cruise ship

The world's largest cruise ship embarked on its maiden voyage from its home port of Miami on the weekend.

Royal Caribbean's new, 365-metres-long and 230,000-tonne Icon of the Seas left the Florida city amid a blaze of publicity for its first seven-day voyage.

• Cruise Ship

The I con of the Seas towers like a multilayered birthday cake and has a total of 20 decks, 18 of which are for guests.

The frosting on top is in the form of seven swimming pools, a whimsical striped carousel, groves of tropical greenery and twisting waterslides in green, pink, blue and orange.

The departure of the US$2 billion ($3 billion) ship was watched by hundreds of people lining the causeway to Miami Beach that parallels the cruise ship channel.

The ship can carry a whopping 7,600 guests at full capacity, along with 2,350 crew, equivalent to the size of a small Australian town.

Icon of the Seas' eight different onboard "neighbourhoods" are designed to appeal to cruising's multi-generational demographics as well as passengers with different interests, including families with young kids and adults-only travellers.

The 28 different kinds of onboard accommodations range from 14-square-metre interior plus cabins, to the three-storey Ultimate Family Townhouse, with its own wraparound deck, cinema, outdoor hot tub and spiraling slide to ride between decks that averages US$100,000 ($151,000) per week.

Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, centre, currently playing for Inter Miami in the US was in on the ship's early fanfare, christening the Icon of the Seas on January 23.

Impressive feats of engineering are on display everywhere on the ship.

The Overlook Lounge, located inside the 25-metre-tall steel and glass AquaDome that crowns part of the top of the ship, has elevated seating pods.

The ship's parabolic bow — a first for Royal Caribbean — is designed to help a ship move more easily through the water and does help reduce fuel consumption and emissions, the company said.

The ship is Royal Caribbean's first to be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). But not everyone is impressed with that choice. The International Council on Clean Transportation said the Icon of the Seas uses engines that release methane to the atmosphere.

But a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said Icon of the Seas is 24 per cent more energy efficient than required for ships designed today.

The company plans to introduce a net-zero ship by 2035.

Passengers won't be stuck for a choice of eateries, with more than 40 onboard restaurants, bars and lounges to choose from.

They include the Surfside Eatery geared toward families with kids aged six and younger.

The ship has the first cantilevered infinity pool at sea, as well as the largest swimming pool for a ship.

It also boasts a 1600-square-metre water park, currently the largest at sea.

Some 50 musicians and comedians keep passengers entertained with ensembles that include the largest orchestra at sea (16 pieces) as well as the first at-sea performance of The Wizard of Oz , complete with flying monkeys.

There's even a resident golden retriever, Rover, dubbed the Chief Dog Officer, who is still a puppy and appears on her own schedule alongside a dedicated handler.

Royal Caribbean International signalled it is pitching Icon of the Seas to a market that goes beyond cruising.

" We didn't create Icon to compete with other cruise ships," said Jay Schneider, the company's chief product innovation officer.

"We designed it to compete with any other family vacation you wanted to do anywhere else on the planet , from skiing to Vegas to the Grand Canyon."

Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever

Seven agonizing nights aboard the Icon of the Seas

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MY FIRST GLIMPSE of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, from the window of an approaching Miami cab, brings on a feeling of vertigo, nausea, amazement, and distress. I shut my eyes in defense, as my brain tells my optical nerve to try again.

The ship makes no sense, vertically or horizontally. It makes no sense on sea, or on land, or in outer space. It looks like a hodgepodge of domes and minarets, tubes and canopies, like Istanbul had it been designed by idiots. Vibrant, oversignifying colors are stacked upon other such colors, decks perched over still more decks; the only comfort is a row of lifeboats ringing its perimeter. There is no imposed order, no cogent thought, and, for those who do not harbor a totalitarian sense of gigantomania, no visual mercy. This is the biggest cruise ship ever built, and I have been tasked with witnessing its inaugural voyage.

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“Author embarks on their first cruise-ship voyage” has been a staple of American essay writing for almost three decades, beginning with David Foster Wallace’s “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” which was first published in 1996 under the title “Shipping Out.” Since then, many admirable writers have widened and diversified the genre. Usually the essayist commissioned to take to the sea is in their first or second flush of youth and is ready to sharpen their wit against the hull of the offending vessel. I am 51, old and tired, having seen much of the world as a former travel journalist, and mostly what I do in both life and prose is shrug while muttering to my imaginary dachshund, “This too shall pass.” But the Icon of the Seas will not countenance a shrug. The Icon of the Seas is the Linda Loman of cruise ships, exclaiming that attention must be paid. And here I am in late January with my one piece of luggage and useless gray winter jacket and passport, zipping through the Port of Miami en route to the gangway that will separate me from the bulk of North America for more than seven days, ready to pay it in full.

The aforementioned gangway opens up directly onto a thriving mall (I will soon learn it is imperiously called the “Royal Promenade”), presently filled with yapping passengers beneath a ceiling studded with balloons ready to drop. Crew members from every part of the global South, as well as a few Balkans, are shepherding us along while pressing flutes of champagne into our hands. By a humming Starbucks, I drink as many of these as I can and prepare to find my cabin. I show my blue Suite Sky SeaPass Card (more on this later, much more) to a smiling woman from the Philippines, and she tells me to go “aft.” Which is where, now? As someone who has rarely sailed on a vessel grander than the Staten Island Ferry, I am confused. It turns out that the aft is the stern of the ship, or, for those of us who don’t know what a stern or an aft are, its ass. The nose of the ship, responsible for separating the waves before it, is also called a bow, and is marked for passengers as the FWD , or forward. The part of the contemporary sailing vessel where the malls are clustered is called the midship. I trust that you have enjoyed this nautical lesson.

I ascend via elevator to my suite on Deck 11. This is where I encounter my first terrible surprise. My suite windows and balcony do not face the ocean. Instead, they look out onto another shopping mall. This mall is the one that’s called Central Park, perhaps in homage to the Olmsted-designed bit of greenery in the middle of my hometown. Although on land I would be delighted to own a suite with Central Park views, here I am deeply depressed. To sail on a ship and not wake up to a vast blue carpet of ocean? Unthinkable.

Allow me a brief preamble here. The story you are reading was commissioned at a moment when most staterooms on the Icon were sold out. In fact, so enthralled by the prospect of this voyage were hard-core mariners that the ship’s entire inventory of guest rooms (the Icon can accommodate up to 7,600 passengers, but its inaugural journey was reduced to 5,000 or so for a less crowded experience) was almost immediately sold out. Hence, this publication was faced with the shocking prospect of paying nearly $19,000 to procure for this solitary passenger an entire suite—not including drinking expenses—all for the privilege of bringing you this article. But the suite in question doesn’t even have a view of the ocean! I sit down hard on my soft bed. Nineteen thousand dollars for this .

The viewless suite does have its pluses. In addition to all the Malin+Goetz products in my dual bathrooms, I am granted use of a dedicated Suite Deck lounge; access to Coastal Kitchen, a superior restaurant for Suites passengers; complimentary VOOM SM Surf & Stream (“the fastest Internet at Sea”) “for one device per person for the whole cruise duration”; a pair of bathrobes (one of which comes prestained with what looks like a large expectoration by the greenest lizard on Earth); and use of the Grove Suite Sun, an area on Decks 18 and 19 with food and deck chairs reserved exclusively for Suite passengers. I also get reserved seating for a performance of The Wizard of Oz , an ice-skating tribute to the periodic table, and similar provocations. The very color of my Suite Sky SeaPass Card, an oceanic blue as opposed to the cloying royal purple of the standard non-Suite passenger, will soon provoke envy and admiration. But as high as my status may be, there are those on board who have much higher status still, and I will soon learn to bow before them.

In preparation for sailing, I have “priced in,” as they say on Wall Street, the possibility that I may come from a somewhat different monde than many of the other cruisers. Without falling into stereotypes or preconceptions, I prepare myself for a friendly outspokenness on the part of my fellow seafarers that may not comply with modern DEI standards. I believe in meeting people halfway, and so the day before flying down to Miami, I visited what remains of Little Italy to purchase a popular T-shirt that reads DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL across the breast in the colors of the Italian flag. My wife recommended that I bring one of my many T-shirts featuring Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, as all Americans love the beagle and his friends. But I naively thought that my meatball T-shirt would be more suitable for conversation-starting. “Oh, and who is your ‘daddy’?” some might ask upon seeing it. “And how long have you been his ‘little meatball’?” And so on.

I put on my meatball T-shirt and head for one of the dining rooms to get a late lunch. In the elevator, I stick out my chest for all to read the funny legend upon it, but soon I realize that despite its burnished tricolor letters, no one takes note. More to the point, no one takes note of me. Despite my attempts at bridge building, the very sight of me (small, ethnic, without a cap bearing the name of a football team) elicits no reaction from other passengers. Most often, they will small-talk over me as if I don’t exist. This brings to mind the travails of David Foster Wallace , who felt so ostracized by his fellow passengers that he retreated to his cabin for much of his voyage. And Wallace was raised primarily in the Midwest and was a much larger, more American-looking meatball than I am. If he couldn’t talk to these people, how will I? What if I leave this ship without making any friends at all, despite my T-shirt? I am a social creature, and the prospect of seven days alone and apart is saddening. Wallace’s stateroom, at least, had a view of the ocean, a kind of cheap eternity.

Worse awaits me in the dining room. This is a large, multichandeliered room where I attended my safety training (I was shown how to put on a flotation vest; it is a very simple procedure). But the maître d’ politely refuses me entry in an English that seems to verge on another language. “I’m sorry, this is only for pendejos ,” he seems to be saying. I push back politely and he repeats himself. Pendejos ? Piranhas? There’s some kind of P-word to which I am not attuned. Meanwhile elderly passengers stream right past, powered by their limbs, walkers, and electric wheelchairs. “It is only pendejo dining today, sir.” “But I have a suite!” I say, already starting to catch on to the ship’s class system. He examines my card again. “But you are not a pendejo ,” he confirms. I am wearing a DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL T-shirt, I want to say to him. I am the essence of pendejo .

Eventually, I give up and head to the plebeian buffet on Deck 15, which has an aquatic-styled name I have now forgotten. Before gaining entry to this endless cornucopia of reheated food, one passes a washing station of many sinks and soap dispensers, and perhaps the most intriguing character on the entire ship. He is Mr. Washy Washy—or, according to his name tag, Nielbert of the Philippines—and he is dressed as a taco (on other occasions, I’ll see him dressed as a burger). Mr. Washy Washy performs an eponymous song in spirited, indeed flamboyant English: “Washy, washy, wash your hands, WASHY WASHY!” The dangers of norovirus and COVID on a cruise ship this size (a giant fellow ship was stricken with the former right after my voyage) makes Mr. Washy Washy an essential member of the crew. The problem lies with the food at the end of Washy’s rainbow. The buffet is groaning with what sounds like sophisticated dishes—marinated octopus, boiled egg with anchovy, chorizo, lobster claws—but every animal tastes tragically the same, as if there was only one creature available at the market, a “cruisipus” bred specifically for Royal Caribbean dining. The “vegetables” are no better. I pick up a tomato slice and look right through it. It tastes like cellophane. I sit alone, apart from the couples and parents with gaggles of children, as “We Are Family” echoes across the buffet space.

I may have failed to mention that all this time, the Icon of the Seas has not left port. As the fiery mango of the subtropical setting sun makes Miami’s condo skyline even more apocalyptic, the ship shoves off beneath a perfunctory display of fireworks. After the sun sets, in the far, dark distance, another circus-lit cruise ship ruptures the waves before us. We glance at it with pity, because it is by definition a smaller ship than our own. I am on Deck 15, outside the buffet and overlooking a bunch of pools (the Icon has seven of them), drinking a frilly drink that I got from one of the bars (the Icon has 15 of them), still too shy to speak to anyone, despite Sister Sledge’s assertion that all on the ship are somehow related.

Kim Brooks: On failing the family vacation

The ship’s passage away from Ron DeSantis’s Florida provides no frisson, no sense of developing “sea legs,” as the ship is too large to register the presence of waves unless a mighty wind adds significant chop. It is time for me to register the presence of the 5,000 passengers around me, even if they refuse to register mine. My fellow travelers have prepared for this trip with personally decorated T-shirts celebrating the importance of this voyage. The simplest ones say ICON INAUGURAL ’24 on the back and the family name on the front. Others attest to an over-the-top love of cruise ships: WARNING! MAY START TALKING ABOUT CRUISING . Still others are artisanally designed and celebrate lifetimes spent married while cruising (on ships, of course). A couple possibly in their 90s are wearing shirts whose backs feature a drawing of a cruise liner, two flamingos with ostensibly male and female characteristics, and the legend “ HUSBAND AND WIFE Cruising Partners FOR LIFE WE MAY NOT HAVE IT All Together BUT TOGETHER WE HAVE IT ALL .” (The words not in all caps have been written in cursive.) A real journalist or a more intrepid conversationalist would have gone up to the couple and asked them to explain the longevity of their marriage vis-à-vis their love of cruising. But instead I head to my mall suite, take off my meatball T-shirt, and allow the first tears of the cruise to roll down my cheeks slowly enough that I briefly fall asleep amid the moisture and salt.

I WAKE UP with a hangover. Oh God. Right. I cannot believe all of that happened last night. A name floats into my cobwebbed, nauseated brain: “Ayn Rand.” Jesus Christ.

I breakfast alone at the Coastal Kitchen. The coffee tastes fine and the eggs came out of a bird. The ship rolls slightly this morning; I can feel it in my thighs and my schlong, the parts of me that are most receptive to danger.

I had a dangerous conversation last night. After the sun set and we were at least 50 miles from shore (most modern cruise ships sail at about 23 miles an hour), I lay in bed softly hiccupping, my arms stretched out exactly like Jesus on the cross, the sound of the distant waves missing from my mall-facing suite, replaced by the hum of air-conditioning and children shouting in Spanish through the vents of my two bathrooms. I decided this passivity was unacceptable. As an immigrant, I feel duty-bound to complete the tasks I am paid for, which means reaching out and trying to understand my fellow cruisers. So I put on a normal James Perse T-shirt and headed for one of the bars on the Royal Promenade—the Schooner Bar, it was called, if memory serves correctly.

I sat at the bar for a martini and two Negronis. An old man with thick, hairy forearms drank next to me, very silent and Hemingwaylike, while a dreadlocked piano player tinkled out a series of excellent Elton John covers. To my right, a young white couple—he in floral shorts, she in a light, summery miniskirt with a fearsome diamond ring, neither of them in football regalia—chatted with an elderly couple. Do it , I commanded myself. Open your mouth. Speak! Speak without being spoken to. Initiate. A sentence fragment caught my ear from the young woman, “Cherry Hill.” This is a suburb of Philadelphia in New Jersey, and I had once been there for a reading at a synagogue. “Excuse me,” I said gently to her. “Did you just mention Cherry Hill? It’s a lovely place.”

As it turned out, the couple now lived in Fort Lauderdale (the number of Floridians on the cruise surprised me, given that Southern Florida is itself a kind of cruise ship, albeit one slowly sinking), but soon they were talking with me exclusively—the man potbellied, with a chin like a hard-boiled egg; the woman as svelte as if she were one of the many Ukrainian members of the crew—the elderly couple next to them forgotten. This felt as groundbreaking as the first time I dared to address an American in his native tongue, as a child on a bus in Queens (“On my foot you are standing, Mister”).

“I don’t want to talk politics,” the man said. “But they’re going to eighty-six Biden and put Michelle in.”

I considered the contradictions of his opening conversational gambit, but decided to play along. “People like Michelle,” I said, testing the waters. The husband sneered, but the wife charitably put forward that the former first lady was “more personable” than Joe Biden. “They’re gonna eighty-six Biden,” the husband repeated. “He can’t put a sentence together.”

After I mentioned that I was a writer—though I presented myself as a writer of teleplays instead of novels and articles such as this one—the husband told me his favorite writer was Ayn Rand. “Ayn Rand, she came here with nothing,” the husband said. “I work with a lot of Cubans, so …” I wondered if I should mention what I usually do to ingratiate myself with Republicans or libertarians: the fact that my finances improved after pass-through corporations were taxed differently under Donald Trump. Instead, I ordered another drink and the couple did the same, and I told him that Rand and I were born in the same city, St. Petersburg/Leningrad, and that my family also came here with nothing. Now the bonding and drinking began in earnest, and several more rounds appeared. Until it all fell apart.

Read: Gary Shteyngart on watching Russian television for five days straight

My new friend, whom I will refer to as Ayn, called out to a buddy of his across the bar, and suddenly a young couple, both covered in tattoos, appeared next to us. “He fucking punked me,” Ayn’s frat-boy-like friend called out as he put his arm around Ayn, while his sizable partner sizzled up to Mrs. Rand. Both of them had a look I have never seen on land—their eyes projecting absence and enmity in equal measure. In the ’90s, I drank with Russian soldiers fresh from Chechnya and wandered the streets of wartime Zagreb, but I have never seen such undisguised hostility toward both me and perhaps the universe at large. I was briefly introduced to this psychopathic pair, but neither of them wanted to have anything to do with me, and the tattooed woman would not even reveal her Christian name to me (she pretended to have the same first name as Mrs. Rand). To impress his tattooed friends, Ayn made fun of the fact that as a television writer, I’d worked on the series Succession (which, it would turn out, practically nobody on the ship had watched), instead of the far more palatable, in his eyes, zombie drama of last year. And then my new friends drifted away from me into an angry private conversation—“He punked me!”—as I ordered another drink for myself, scared of the dead-eyed arrivals whose gaze never registered in the dim wattage of the Schooner Bar, whose terrifying voices and hollow laughs grated like unoiled gears against the crooning of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

But today is a new day for me and my hangover. After breakfast, I explore the ship’s so-called neighborhoods . There’s the AquaDome, where one can find a food hall and an acrobatic sound-and-light aquatic show. Central Park has a premium steak house, a sushi joint, and a used Rolex that can be bought for $8,000 on land here proudly offered at $17,000. There’s the aforementioned Royal Promenade, where I had drunk with the Rands, and where a pair of dueling pianos duel well into the night. There’s Surfside, a kids’ neighborhood full of sugary garbage, which looks out onto the frothy trail that the behemoth leaves behind itself. Thrill Island refers to the collection of tubes that clutter the ass of the ship and offer passengers six waterslides and a surfing simulation. There’s the Hideaway, an adult zone that plays music from a vomit-slathered, Brit-filled Alicante nightclub circa 1996 and proves a big favorite with groups of young Latin American customers. And, most hurtfully, there’s the Suite Neighborhood.

I say hurtfully because as a Suite passenger I should be here, though my particular suite is far from the others. Whereas I am stuck amid the riffraff of Deck 11, this section is on the highborn Decks 16 and 17, and in passing, I peek into the spacious, tall-ceilinged staterooms from the hallway, dazzled by the glint of the waves and sun. For $75,000, one multifloor suite even comes with its own slide between floors, so that a family may enjoy this particular terror in private. There is a quiet splendor to the Suite Neighborhood. I see fewer stickers and signs and drawings than in my own neighborhood—for example, MIKE AND DIANA PROUDLY SERVED U.S. MARINE CORPS RETIRED . No one here needs to announce their branch of service or rank; they are simply Suites, and this is where they belong. Once again, despite my hard work and perseverance, I have been disallowed from the true American elite. Once again, I am “Not our class, dear.” I am reminded of watching The Love Boat on my grandmother’s Zenith, which either was given to her or we found in the trash (I get our many malfunctioning Zeniths confused) and whose tube got so hot, I would put little chunks of government cheese on a thin tissue atop it to give our welfare treat a pleasant, Reagan-era gooeyness. I could not understand English well enough then to catch the nuances of that seafaring program, but I knew that there were differences in the status of the passengers, and that sometimes those differences made them sad. Still, this ship, this plenty—every few steps, there are complimentary nachos or milkshakes or gyros on offer—was the fatty fuel of my childhood dreams. If only I had remained a child.

I walk around the outdoor decks looking for company. There is a middle-aged African American couple who always seem to be asleep in each other’s arms, probably exhausted from the late capitalism they regularly encounter on land. There is far more diversity on this ship than I expected. Many couples are a testament to Loving v. Virginia , and there is a large group of folks whose T-shirts read MELANIN AT SEA / IT’S THE MELANIN FOR ME . I smile when I see them, but then some young kids from the group makes Mr. Washy Washy do a cruel, caricatured “Burger Dance” (today he is in his burger getup), and I think, Well, so much for intersectionality .

At the infinity pool on Deck 17, I spot some elderly women who could be ethnic and from my part of the world, and so I jump in. I am proved correct! Many of them seem to be originally from Queens (“Corona was still great when it was all Italian”), though they are now spread across the tristate area. We bond over the way “Ron-kon-koma” sounds when announced in Penn Station.

“Everyone is here for a different reason,” one of them tells me. She and her ex-husband last sailed together four years ago to prove to themselves that their marriage was truly over. Her 15-year-old son lost his virginity to “an Irish young lady” while their ship was moored in Ravenna, Italy. The gaggle of old-timers competes to tell me their favorite cruising stories and tips. “A guy proposed in Central Park a couple of years ago”—many Royal Caribbean ships apparently have this ridiculous communal area—“and she ran away screaming!” “If you’re diamond-class, you get four drinks for free.” “A different kind of passenger sails out of Bayonne.” (This, perhaps, is racially coded.) “Sometimes, if you tip the bartender $5, your next drink will be free.”

“Everyone’s here for a different reason,” the woman whose marriage ended on a cruise tells me again. “Some people are here for bad reasons—the drinkers and the gamblers. Some people are here for medical reasons.” I have seen more than a few oxygen tanks and at least one woman clearly undergoing very serious chemo. Some T-shirts celebrate good news about a cancer diagnosis. This might be someone’s last cruise or week on Earth. For these women, who have spent months, if not years, at sea, cruising is a ritual as well as a life cycle: first love, last love, marriage, divorce, death.

Read: The last place on Earth any tourist should go

I have talked with these women for so long, tonight I promise myself that after a sad solitary dinner I will not try to seek out company at the bars in the mall or the adult-themed Hideaway. I have enough material to fulfill my duties to this publication. As I approach my orphaned suite, I run into the aggro young people who stole Mr. and Mrs. Rand away from me the night before. The tattooed apparitions pass me without a glance. She is singing something violent about “Stuttering Stanley” (a character in a popular horror movie, as I discover with my complimentary VOOM SM Surf & Stream Internet at Sea) and he’s loudly shouting about “all the money I’ve lost,” presumably at the casino in the bowels of the ship.

So these bent psychos out of a Cormac McCarthy novel are angrily inhabiting my deck. As I mewl myself to sleep, I envision a limited series for HBO or some other streamer, a kind of low-rent White Lotus , where several aggressive couples conspire to throw a shy intellectual interloper overboard. I type the scenario into my phone. As I fall asleep, I think of what the woman who recently divorced her husband and whose son became a man through the good offices of the Irish Republic told me while I was hoisting myself out of the infinity pool. “I’m here because I’m an explorer. I’m here because I’m trying something new.” What if I allowed myself to believe in her fantasy?

“YOU REALLY STARTED AT THE TOP,” they tell me. I’m at the Coastal Kitchen for my eggs and corned-beef hash, and the maître d’ has slotted me in between two couples. Fueled by coffee or perhaps intrigued by my relative youth, they strike up a conversation with me. As always, people are shocked that this is my first cruise. They contrast the Icon favorably with all the preceding liners in the Royal Caribbean fleet, usually commenting on the efficiency of the elevators that hurl us from deck to deck (as in many large corporate buildings, the elevators ask you to choose a floor and then direct you to one of many lifts). The couple to my right, from Palo Alto—he refers to his “porn mustache” and calls his wife “my cougar” because she is two years older—tell me they are “Pandemic Pinnacles.”

This is the day that my eyes will be opened. Pinnacles , it is explained to me over translucent cantaloupe, have sailed with Royal Caribbean for 700 ungodly nights. Pandemic Pinnacles took advantage of the two-for-one accrual rate of Pinnacle points during the pandemic, when sailing on a cruise ship was even more ill-advised, to catapult themselves into Pinnacle status.

Because of the importance of the inaugural voyage of the world’s largest cruise liner, more than 200 Pinnacles are on this ship, a startling number, it seems. Mrs. Palo Alto takes out a golden badge that I have seen affixed over many a breast, which reads CROWN AND ANCHOR SOCIETY along with her name. This is the coveted badge of the Pinnacle. “You should hear all the whining in Guest Services,” her husband tells me. Apparently, the Pinnacles who are not also Suites like us are all trying to use their status to get into Coastal Kitchen, our elite restaurant. Even a Pinnacle needs to be a Suite to access this level of corned-beef hash.

“We’re just baby Pinnacles,” Mrs. Palo Alto tells me, describing a kind of internal class struggle among the Pinnacle elite for ever higher status.

And now I understand what the maître d’ was saying to me on the first day of my cruise. He wasn’t saying “ pendejo .” He was saying “Pinnacle.” The dining room was for Pinnacles only, all those older people rolling in like the tide on their motorized scooters.

And now I understand something else: This whole thing is a cult. And like most cults, it can’t help but mirror the endless American fight for status. Like Keith Raniere’s NXIVM, where different-colored sashes were given out to connote rank among Raniere’s branded acolytes, this is an endless competition among Pinnacles, Suites, Diamond-Plusers, and facing-the-mall, no-balcony purple SeaPass Card peasants, not to mention the many distinctions within each category. The more you cruise, the higher your status. No wonder a section of the Royal Promenade is devoted to getting passengers to book their next cruise during the one they should be enjoying now. No wonder desperate Royal Caribbean offers (“FINAL HOURS”) crowded my email account weeks before I set sail. No wonder the ship’s jewelry store, the Royal Bling, is selling a $100,000 golden chalice that will entitle its owner to drink free on Royal Caribbean cruises for life. (One passenger was already gaming out whether her 28-year-old son was young enough to “just about earn out” on the chalice or if that ship had sailed.) No wonder this ship was sold out months before departure , and we had to pay $19,000 for a horrid suite away from the Suite Neighborhood. No wonder the most mythical hero of Royal Caribbean lore is someone named Super Mario, who has cruised so often, he now has his own working desk on many ships. This whole experience is part cult, part nautical pyramid scheme.

From the June 2014 issue: Ship of wonks

“The toilets are amazing,” the Palo Altos are telling me. “One flush and you’re done.” “They don’t understand how energy-efficient these ships are,” the husband of the other couple is telling me. “They got the LNG”—liquefied natural gas, which is supposed to make the Icon a boon to the environment (a concept widely disputed and sometimes ridiculed by environmentalists).

But I’m thinking along a different line of attack as I spear my last pallid slice of melon. For my streaming limited series, a Pinnacle would have to get killed by either an outright peasant or a Suite without an ocean view. I tell my breakfast companions my idea.

“Oh, for sure a Pinnacle would have to be killed,” Mr. Palo Alto, the Pandemic Pinnacle, says, touching his porn mustache thoughtfully as his wife nods.

“THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S your time, buddy!” Hubert, my fun-loving Panamanian cabin attendant, shouts as I step out of my suite in a robe. “Take it easy, buddy!”

I have come up with a new dressing strategy. Instead of trying to impress with my choice of T-shirts, I have decided to start wearing a robe, as one does at a resort property on land, with a proper spa and hammam. The response among my fellow cruisers has been ecstatic. “Look at you in the robe!” Mr. Rand cries out as we pass each other by the Thrill Island aqua park. “You’re living the cruise life! You know, you really drank me under the table that night.” I laugh as we part ways, but my soul cries out, Please spend more time with me, Mr. and Mrs. Rand; I so need the company .

In my white robe, I am a stately presence, a refugee from a better limited series, a one-man crossover episode. (Only Suites are granted these robes to begin with.) Today, I will try many of the activities these ships have on offer to provide their clientele with a sense of never-ceasing motion. Because I am already at Thrill Island, I decide to climb the staircase to what looks like a mast on an old-fashioned ship (terrified, because I am afraid of heights) to try a ride called “Storm Chasers,” which is part of the “Category 6” water park, named in honor of one of the storms that may someday do away with the Port of Miami entirely. Storm Chasers consists of falling from the “mast” down a long, twisting neon tube filled with water, like being the camera inside your own colonoscopy, as you hold on to the handles of a mat, hoping not to die. The tube then flops you down headfirst into a trough of water, a Royal Caribbean baptism. It both knocks my breath out and makes me sad.

In keeping with the aquatic theme, I attend a show at the AquaDome. To the sound of “Live and Let Die,” a man in a harness gyrates to and fro in the sultry air. I saw something very similar in the back rooms of the famed Berghain club in early-aughts Berlin. Soon another harnessed man is gyrating next to the first. Ja , I think to myself, I know how this ends. Now will come the fisting , natürlich . But the show soon devolves into the usual Marvel-film-grade nonsense, with too much light and sound signifying nichts . If any fisting is happening, it is probably in the Suite Neighborhood, inside a cabin marked with an upside-down pineapple, which I understand means a couple are ready to swing, and I will see none of it.

I go to the ice show, which is a kind of homage—if that’s possible—to the periodic table, done with the style and pomp and masterful precision that would please the likes of Kim Jong Un, if only he could afford Royal Caribbean talent. At one point, the dancers skate to the theme song of Succession . “See that!” I want to say to my fellow Suites—at “cultural” events, we have a special section reserved for us away from the commoners—“ Succession ! It’s even better than the zombie show! Open your minds!”

Finally, I visit a comedy revue in an enormous and too brightly lit version of an “intimate,” per Royal Caribbean literature, “Manhattan comedy club.” Many of the jokes are about the cruising life. “I’ve lived on ships for 20 years,” one of the middle-aged comedians says. “I can only see so many Filipino homosexuals dressed as a taco.” He pauses while the audience laughs. “I am so fired tonight,” he says. He segues into a Trump impression and then Biden falling asleep at the microphone, which gets the most laughs. “Anyone here from Fort Leonard Wood?” another comedian asks. Half the crowd seems to cheer. As I fall asleep that night, I realize another connection I have failed to make, and one that may explain some of the diversity on this vessel—many of its passengers have served in the military.

As a coddled passenger with a suite, I feel like I am starting to understand what it means to have a rank and be constantly reminded of it. There are many espresso makers , I think as I look across the expanse of my officer-grade quarters before closing my eyes, but this one is mine .

A shocking sight greets me beyond the pools of Deck 17 as I saunter over to the Coastal Kitchen for my morning intake of slightly sour Americanos. A tiny city beneath a series of perfectly pressed green mountains. Land! We have docked for a brief respite in Basseterre, the capital of St. Kitts and Nevis. I wolf down my egg scramble to be one of the first passengers off the ship. Once past the gangway, I barely refrain from kissing the ground. I rush into the sights and sounds of this scruffy island city, sampling incredible conch curry and buckets of non-Starbucks coffee. How wonderful it is to be where God intended humans to be: on land. After all, I am neither a fish nor a mall rat. This is my natural environment. Basseterre may not be Havana, but there are signs of human ingenuity and desire everywhere you look. The Black Table Grill Has been Relocated to Soho Village, Market Street, Directly Behind of, Gary’s Fruits and Flower Shop. Signed. THE PORK MAN reads a sign stuck to a wall. Now, that is how you write a sign. A real sign, not the come-ons for overpriced Rolexes that blink across the screens of the Royal Promenade.

“Hey, tie your shoestring!” a pair of laughing ladies shout to me across the street.

“Thank you!” I shout back. Shoestring! “Thank you very much.”

A man in Independence Square Park comes by and asks if I want to play with his monkey. I haven’t heard that pickup line since the Penn Station of the 1980s. But then he pulls a real monkey out of a bag. The monkey is wearing a diaper and looks insane. Wonderful , I think, just wonderful! There is so much life here. I email my editor asking if I can remain on St. Kitts and allow the Icon to sail off into the horizon without me. I have even priced a flight home at less than $300, and I have enough material from the first four days on the cruise to write the entire story. “It would be funny …” my editor replies. “Now get on the boat.”

As I slink back to the ship after my brief jailbreak, the locals stand under umbrellas to gaze at and photograph the boat that towers over their small capital city. The limousines of the prime minister and his lackeys are parked beside the gangway. St. Kitts, I’ve been told, is one of the few islands that would allow a ship of this size to dock.

“We hear about all the waterslides,” a sweet young server in one of the cafés told me. “We wish we could go on the ship, but we have to work.”

“I want to stay on your island,” I replied. “I love it here.”

But she didn’t understand how I could possibly mean that.

“WASHY, WASHY, so you don’t get stinky, stinky!” kids are singing outside the AquaDome, while their adult minders look on in disapproval, perhaps worried that Mr. Washy Washy is grooming them into a life of gayness. I heard a southern couple skip the buffet entirely out of fear of Mr. Washy Washy.

Meanwhile, I have found a new watering hole for myself, the Swim & Tonic, the biggest swim-up bar on any cruise ship in the world. Drinking next to full-size, nearly naked Americans takes away one’s own self-consciousness. The men have curvaceous mom bodies. The women are equally un-shy about their sprawling physiques.

Today I’ve befriended a bald man with many children who tells me that all of the little trinkets that Royal Caribbean has left us in our staterooms and suites are worth a fortune on eBay. “Eighty dollars for the water bottle, 60 for the lanyard,” the man says. “This is a cult.”

“Tell me about it,” I say. There is, however, a clientele for whom this cruise makes perfect sense. For a large middle-class family (he works in “supply chains”), seven days in a lower-tier cabin—which starts at $1,800 a person—allow the parents to drop off their children in Surfside, where I imagine many young Filipina crew members will take care of them, while the parents are free to get drunk at a swim-up bar and maybe even get intimate in their cabin. Cruise ships have become, for a certain kind of hardworking family, a form of subsidized child care.

There is another man I would like to befriend at the Swim & Tonic, a tall, bald fellow who is perpetually inebriated and who wears a necklace studded with little rubber duckies in sunglasses, which, I am told, is a sort of secret handshake for cruise aficionados. Tomorrow, I will spend more time with him, but first the ship docks at St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie, the capital, is more charming in name than in presence, but I still all but jump off the ship to score a juicy oxtail and plantains at the well-known Petite Pump Room, overlooking the harbor. From one of the highest points in the small city, the Icon of the Seas appears bigger than the surrounding hills.

I usually tan very evenly, but something about the discombobulation of life at sea makes me forget the regular application of sunscreen. As I walk down the streets of Charlotte Amalie in my fluorescent Icon of the Seas cap, an old Rastafarian stares me down. “Redneck,” he hisses.

“No,” I want to tell him, as I bring a hand up to my red neck, “that’s not who I am at all. On my island, Mannahatta, as Whitman would have it, I am an interesting person living within an engaging artistic milieu. I do not wish to use the Caribbean as a dumping ground for the cruise-ship industry. I love the work of Derek Walcott. You don’t understand. I am not a redneck. And if I am, they did this to me.” They meaning Royal Caribbean? Its passengers? The Rands?

“They did this to me!”

Back on the Icon, some older matrons are muttering about a run-in with passengers from the Celebrity cruise ship docked next to us, the Celebrity Apex. Although Celebrity Cruises is also owned by Royal Caribbean, I am made to understand that there is a deep fratricidal beef between passengers of the two lines. “We met a woman from the Apex,” one matron says, “and she says it was a small ship and there was nothing to do. Her face was as tight as a 19-year-old’s, she had so much surgery.” With those words, and beneath a cloudy sky, humidity shrouding our weathered faces and red necks, we set sail once again, hopefully in the direction of home.

THERE ARE BARELY 48 HOURS LEFT to the cruise, and the Icon of the Seas’ passengers are salty. They know how to work the elevators. They know the Washy Washy song by heart. They understand that the chicken gyro at “Feta Mediterranean,” in the AquaDome Market, is the least problematic form of chicken on the ship.

The passengers have shed their INAUGURAL CRUISE T-shirts and are now starting to evince political opinions. There are caps pledging to make America great again and T-shirts that celebrate words sometimes attributed to Patrick Henry: “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.” With their preponderance of FAMILY FLAG FAITH FRIENDS FIREARMS T-shirts, the tables by the crepe station sometimes resemble the Capitol Rotunda on January 6. The Real Anthony Fauci , by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appears to be a popular form of literature, especially among young men with very complicated versions of the American flag on their T-shirts. Other opinions blend the personal and the political. “Someone needs to kill Washy guy, right?” a well-dressed man in the elevator tells me, his gray eyes radiating nothing. “Just beat him to death. Am I right?” I overhear the male member of a young couple whisper, “There goes that freak” as I saunter by in my white spa robe, and I decide to retire it for the rest of the cruise.

I visit the Royal Bling to see up close the $100,000 golden chalice that entitles you to free drinks on Royal Caribbean forever. The pleasant Serbian saleslady explains that the chalice is actually gold-plated and covered in white zirconia instead of diamonds, as it would otherwise cost $1 million. “If you already have everything,” she explains, “this is one more thing you can get.”

I believe that anyone who works for Royal Caribbean should be entitled to immediate American citizenship. They already speak English better than most of the passengers and, per the Serbian lady’s sales pitch above, better understand what America is as well. Crew members like my Panamanian cabin attendant seem to work 24 hours a day. A waiter from New Delhi tells me that his contract is six months and three weeks long. After a cruise ends, he says, “in a few hours, we start again for the next cruise.” At the end of the half a year at sea, he is allowed a two-to-three-month stay at home with his family. As of 2019, the median income for crew members was somewhere in the vicinity of $20,000, according to a major business publication. Royal Caribbean would not share the current median salary for its crew members, but I am certain that it amounts to a fraction of the cost of a Royal Bling gold-plated, zirconia-studded chalice.

And because most of the Icon’s hyper-sanitized spaces are just a frittata away from being a Delta lounge, one forgets that there are actual sailors on this ship, charged with the herculean task of docking it in port. “Having driven 100,000-ton aircraft carriers throughout my career,” retired Admiral James G. Stavridis, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, writes to me, “I’m not sure I would even know where to begin with trying to control a sea monster like this one nearly three times the size.” (I first met Stavridis while touring Army bases in Germany more than a decade ago.)

Today, I decide to head to the hot tub near Swim & Tonic, where some of the ship’s drunkest reprobates seem to gather (the other tubs are filled with families and couples). The talk here, like everywhere else on the ship, concerns football, a sport about which I know nothing. It is apparent that four teams have recently competed in some kind of finals for the year, and that two of them will now face off in the championship. Often when people on the Icon speak, I will try to repeat the last thing they said with a laugh or a nod of disbelief. “Yes, 20-yard line! Ha!” “Oh my God, of course, scrimmage.”

Soon we are joined in the hot tub by the late-middle-age drunk guy with the duck necklace. He is wearing a bucket hat with the legend HAWKEYES , which, I soon gather, is yet another football team. “All right, who turned me in?” Duck Necklace says as he plops into the tub beside us. “I get a call in the morning,” he says. “It’s security. Can you come down to the dining room by 10 a.m.? You need to stay away from the members of this religious family.” Apparently, the gregarious Duck Necklace had photobombed the wrong people. There are several families who present as evangelical Christians or practicing Muslims on the ship. One man, evidently, was not happy that Duck Necklace had made contact with his relatives. “It’s because of religious stuff; he was offended. I put my arm around 20 people a day.”

Everyone laughs. “They asked me three times if I needed medication,” he says of the security people who apparently interrogated him in full view of others having breakfast.

Another hot-tub denizen suggests that he should have asked for fentanyl. After a few more drinks, Duck Necklace begins to muse about what it would be like to fall off the ship. “I’m 62 and I’m ready to go,” he says. “I just don’t want a shark to eat me. I’m a huge God guy. I’m a Bible guy. There’s some Mayan theory squaring science stuff with religion. There is so much more to life on Earth.” We all nod into our Red Stripes.

“I never get off the ship when we dock,” he says. He tells us he lost $6,000 in the casino the other day. Later, I look him up, and it appears that on land, he’s a financial adviser in a crisp gray suit, probably a pillar of his North Chicago community.

THE OCEAN IS TEEMING with fascinating life, but on the surface it has little to teach us. The waves come and go. The horizon remains ever far away.

I am constantly told by my fellow passengers that “everybody here has a story.” Yes, I want to reply, but everybody everywhere has a story. You, the reader of this essay, have a story, and yet you’re not inclined to jump on a cruise ship and, like Duck Necklace, tell your story to others at great pitch and volume. Maybe what they’re saying is that everybody on this ship wants to have a bigger, more coherent, more interesting story than the one they’ve been given. Maybe that’s why there’s so much signage on the doors around me attesting to marriages spent on the sea. Maybe that’s why the Royal Caribbean newsletter slipped under my door tells me that “this isn’t a vacation day spent—it’s bragging rights earned.” Maybe that’s why I’m so lonely.

Today is a big day for Icon passengers. Today the ship docks at Royal Caribbean’s own Bahamian island, the Perfect Day at CocoCay. (This appears to be the actual name of the island.) A comedian at the nightclub opined on what his perfect day at CocoCay would look like—receiving oral sex while learning that his ex-wife had been killed in a car crash (big laughter). But the reality of the island is far less humorous than that.

One of the ethnic tristate ladies in the infinity pool told me that she loved CocoCay because it had exactly the same things that could be found on the ship itself. This proves to be correct. It is like the Icon, but with sand. The same tired burgers, the same colorful tubes conveying children and water from Point A to B. The same swim-up bar at its Hideaway ($140 for admittance, no children allowed; Royal Caribbean must be printing money off its clientele). “There was almost a fight at The Wizard of Oz ,” I overhear an elderly woman tell her companion on a chaise lounge. Apparently one of the passengers began recording Royal Caribbean’s intellectual property and “three guys came after him.”

I walk down a pathway to the center of the island, where a sign reads DO NOT ENTER: YOU HAVE REACHED THE BOUNDARY OF ADVENTURE . I hear an animal scampering in the bushes. A Royal Caribbean worker in an enormous golf cart soon chases me down and takes me back to the Hideaway, where I run into Mrs. Rand in a bikini. She becomes livid telling me about an altercation she had the other day with a woman over a towel and a deck chair. We Suites have special towel privileges; we do not have to hand over our SeaPass Card to score a towel. But the Rands are not Suites. “People are so entitled here,” Mrs. Rand says. “It’s like the airport with all its classes.” “You see,” I want to say, “this is where your husband’s love of Ayn Rand runs into the cruelties and arbitrary indignities of unbridled capitalism.” Instead we make plans to meet for a final drink in the Schooner Bar tonight (the Rands will stand me up).

Back on the ship, I try to do laps, but the pool (the largest on any cruise ship, naturally) is fully trashed with the detritus of American life: candy wrappers, a slowly dissolving tortilla chip, napkins. I take an extra-long shower in my suite, then walk around the perimeter of the ship on a kind of exercise track, past all the alluring lifeboats in their yellow-and-white livery. Maybe there is a dystopian angle to the HBO series that I will surely end up pitching, one with shades of WALL-E or Snowpiercer . In a collapsed world, a Royal Caribbean–like cruise liner sails from port to port, collecting new shipmates and supplies in exchange for the precious energy it has on board. (The actual Icon features a new technology that converts passengers’ poop into enough energy to power the waterslides . In the series, this shitty technology would be greatly expanded.) A very young woman (18? 19?), smart and lonely, who has only known life on the ship, walks along the same track as I do now, contemplating jumping off into the surf left by its wake. I picture reusing Duck Necklace’s words in the opening shot of the pilot. The girl is walking around the track, her eyes on the horizon; maybe she’s highborn—a Suite—and we hear the voice-over: “I’m 19 and I’m ready to go. I just don’t want a shark to eat me.”

Before the cruise is finished, I talk to Mr. Washy Washy, or Nielbert of the Philippines. He is a sweet, gentle man, and I thank him for the earworm of a song he has given me and for keeping us safe from the dreaded norovirus. “This is very important to me, getting people to wash their hands,” he tells me in his burger getup. He has dreams, as an artist and a performer, but they are limited in scope. One day he wants to dress up as a piece of bacon for the morning shift.

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC (the Icon of the Seas is five times as large as that doomed vessel) at least offered its passengers an exciting ending to their cruise, but when I wake up on the eighth day, all I see are the gray ghosts that populate Miami’s condo skyline. Throughout my voyage, my writer friends wrote in to commiserate with me. Sloane Crosley, who once covered a three-day spa mini-cruise for Vogue , tells me she felt “so very alone … I found it very untethering.” Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes in an Instagram comment: “When Gary is done I think it’s time this genre was taken out back and shot.” And he is right. To badly paraphrase Adorno: After this, no more cruise stories. It is unfair to put a thinking person on a cruise ship. Writers typically have difficult childhoods, and it is cruel to remind them of the inherent loneliness that drove them to writing in the first place. It is also unseemly to write about the kind of people who go on cruises. Our country does not provide the education and upbringing that allow its citizens an interior life. For the creative class to point fingers at the large, breasty gentlemen adrift in tortilla-chip-laden pools of water is to gather a sour harvest of low-hanging fruit.

A day or two before I got off the ship, I decided to make use of my balcony, which I had avoided because I thought the view would only depress me further. What I found shocked me. My suite did not look out on Central Park after all. This entire time, I had been living in the ship’s Disneyland, Surfside, the neighborhood full of screaming toddlers consuming milkshakes and candy. And as I leaned out over my balcony, I beheld a slight vista of the sea and surf that I thought I had been missing. It had been there all along. The sea was frothy and infinite and blue-green beneath the span of a seagull’s wing. And though it had been trod hard by the world’s largest cruise ship, it remained.

This article appears in the May 2024 print edition with the headline “A Meatball at Sea.” When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

On the world’s largest cruise ship, thrills and space to chill

With room for nearly 8,000 people on Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, there are wild water rides, 40 dining and entertainment choices and, surprisingly, spaces for some actual peace and quiet

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One man got down on his knees and kissed the rug emblazoned with the ship’s logo. Another lifted his wife and swung her around, ecstatic to be among the roughly 5,000 passengers to embark on the inaugural sailing of the world’s largest cruise ship, the Icon of the Seas.

For months, the 250,800-ton ship, which can carry nearly 8,000 people, has been making headlines — including some that have criticized its size and potential to damage the environment. But the passengers who plunked down $1,800 to $100,000 and boarded the ship at Port Miami in Florida on Jan. 27, said nothing could have prepared them for the vessel’s sheer scale.

“It’s stunning,” said Christina Carvalho, a 43-year-old accountant from Oakland, as she stood on the ship’s Royal Promenade, gaping up at “The Pearl,” a gigantic kinetic art installation. “It feels even bigger than I expected.”

While Royal Caribbean has packed the ship with amenities to craft “the ultimate family vacation,” the company’s design team has tried to defy negative stereotypes like crowded decks and long lines. Instead of steel walls, the interior is open and airy, with floor-to-ceiling windows to bring passengers closer to the water and make the central thoroughfare feel less like a shopping mall.

“Over the years our customers told us that despite being on the ocean, they did not feel connected to it, so with Icon we wanted to bring water everywhere,” said Jennifer Goswami, the director of product development at Royal Caribbean International.

I was on board the Icon of the Seas for five days of its seven-night inaugural sailing to the eastern Caribbean. Here are some of my takeaways:

Embarkation

Embarkation starts through Royal Caribbean’s app. After some glitches, it took me 10 minutes to scan identification documents, fill out a health form and pick a time slot for boarding.

On the day of the sailing, I headed to Port Miami expecting chaos, but as I got out of the taxi, I was greeted by a porter who took my bag and ushered me to the terminal. I scanned my app, showed my passport and went through security in less than 10 minutes. I lingered, waiting to see if others had as smooth an experience as I did, but there was just a steady flow of passengers ascending the gangway.

The ship has the feel of a city, with eight distinct “neighborhoods.” My favorite, Central Park, was filled with more than 33,000 plants; it was the perfect place to stroll or read on a bench. The Royal Promenade, with karaoke and a piano bar, could get crowded and noisy at peak times.

The seven swimming pools are designed for different vibes and demographics: The Hideaway is an adults-only infinity pool, with DJ sets and cocktails; another adult pool has an adjacent children’s splash pool. Empty lounge chairs were plentiful for sunbathers across the ship.

On our first sea day, I was so surprised by the relative absence of crowds that I walked the ship trying to find them. But with so many venues, including 40 restaurants, bars and entertainment spaces, passengers were constantly moving around.

Seeking a quiet space one afternoon, I found the Aquadome , a tranquil lounging area with wraparound windows. Fellow passengers napped there.

Entertainment and activities

From a sunrise surf simulator lesson to late-night dancing in the nightclub, the ship seems to offer something for everyone, most of it free. The water park with six slides was a big draw. One ride, the Crown’s Edge, is not complimentary: Starting at $49, it tosses you (in a harness) above the sea, leaving you dangling.

There is a fitness center, jogging track, a basketball and soccer court, a putt-putt course, pickleball, rock climbing and dancing. A wellness center and spa offers treatments for an additional cost. All can be reserved on the app; for popular attractions like the Crown’s Edge it’s helpful to book ahead because places fill up fast.

For nightly entertainment, “Aqua Action” was a standout, with aquatic entertainers performing under a 55-foot waterfall, as was the comedy club.

Not surprisingly, some passengers felt overprogrammed. “There’s almost too much to do,” said Nancy Carter, 54, a nurse from Brighton, England. “It’s hard to plan your day and even when you are busy doing something, you feel like you are missing out on something else.”

At the Surfside neighborhood, there are pools and restaurants for both adults and children so that families can spend time together. For parents wanting alone time, the Adventure Ocean child-care facility has play areas and programs for ages 6 months to 12 years that is included in the fare.

There’s a social center for teenagers, too, with games and music. “It’s a great place to meet new people and make friends,” said Madison Foxx, 14, from Morrisville, N.C. Her mother, Ashley, a 38-year-old federal prosecutor, said the ship kept her two children entertained and allowed her both alone time and quality family time.

“I can relax and the kids are happy and busy all day,” she said. “Then we have many special moments together.”

One of the biggest surprises was the array of dining choices.

The Windjammer Cafe and the main dining room were the busiest all-inclusive options. My daily go-to was the Aquadome food hall, with crepes made-to-order and a Greek food stand. Another favorite of mine was Pier 7, a restaurant in Surfside that served raw-tuna Buddha bowls, mango-lime shrimp tostadas and other dishes.

Meals at specialty restaurants, such as Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen and Hooked Seafood, come at an additional cost, or are included in some food and beverages packages that range from $9.99 to $115 per day. Reservations are recommended.

The Empire Supper Club offers an eight-course meal paired with cocktails. At $200, the tasting menu included wagyu rib-eye, rabbit and sea bass topped with parsnip and red beets.

Cabin prices — which recently increased, because of high demand — range from $2,699 per person for an interior cabin to more than $100,000 for a three-story town house with an indoor slide and backyard. Some family accommodations have connecting rooms and large terraces.

Though only 204 square feet, my ocean balcony room did not feel cramped thanks to minimalist design and the views.

Environment

Royal Caribbean says it set a new standard for sustainability with this ship, installing advanced water-treatment and waste systems, among other features. But some environmental groups say that building a vessel this size is not compatible with the cruise industry’s long-term sustainability goals.

On board, I saw staff sorting through the trash to take out misplaced items to recycle, and single-use plastic appeared to be minimal; passengers were given reusable cups at drinking stations.

That the waterslides remained on, even after they were closed to passengers, caught me by surprise. It seemed like an unnecessary waste of energy. (Royal Caribbean did not respond to a request for comment.)

Passengers I spoke to did not seem too concerned about the ship’s potential to harm the environment, with some arguing that land and air travel are not climate-friendly either.

Our seven-night itinerary started with two days at sea. The first stop was on Day 4 at Basseterre, the capital of St. Kitts and Nevis. Excursions ranged from a hike up Mount Liamuiga to a food-and-rum tour, with prices from $39 to $249. I chose a sailing and snorkeling excursion ($155) and enjoyed the secluded bay, but the beach was crowded and touristy.

An anticipated excursion for Foxx, the federal prosecutor, and others was Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. When I asked about her visit — I called later, having to disembark before the excursion — Foxx said her children loved the slides and snorkeling.

And would she sail on the Icon of the Seas again?

“Yes, but I might wait a bit,” she replied. “I want everyone to get a chance to try it out.”

Yeğinsu writes for The New York Times.

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I sailed on Royal Caribbean's 2 largest cruise ships. They were shockingly similar for the $1,000 difference

Posted: April 3, 2024 | Last updated: April 3, 2024

• Royal Caribbean operates many of the cruise industry's biggest ships.
• Icon of the Seas  launched in January, dethroning its predecessor, Wonder of the Seas, as the world's largest.
• Here's how the two mega-ships compare in size, neighborhoods, amenities, dining, cabins, and costs.

Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's new mega-cruise ship darling, was deemed a success before it was even built.

In January, the highly anticipated vessel — complete with more than 40 bars and restaurants, a six-slide waterpark, and a waterfall — set sail, dethroning its less than two-year-old precursor, the Wonder of the Seas , as the world's largest cruise ship.

Before its debut, Michael Bayley, the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, had already repeatedly called Icon its "best-selling product" yet. The company experienced its largest booking day ever when reservations opened for Icon of the Seas more than a year before its launch, it said

Despite all of this fanfare, you might be surprised by how similar it is to its predecessor.

I've sailed on both ships. Let's see how Icon and Wonder compare in six categories: size, neighborhoods, amenities, dining, cabins, and costs.

Both ships stunt the size of their competitors.

Wonder of the Seas debuted in 2022 as the then-world's largest cruise liner, measuring 235,600 gross-tons, 1,188 feet-long, and 18 decks-tall. The ship can accommodate up to 9,288 people, including 2,204 crew.

Icon of the Seas is, comparatively, 13,063 gross-tons heavier, eight feet longer, and two decks taller. It can sail up to 9,950 people, including 2,350 crew, although it's 52 feet less wide than its predecessor.

Both vessels feel more like amusement parks than traditional cruise ships.

Royal Caribbean invited me on complimentary, non-revenue sailings on both ships: two nights on Wonder in late 2022 and three nights on Icon in January.

I spent most of my time lost, overwhelmed, and exhausted.

It's no surprise both ships are operating weeklong itineraries this year. Any less, and you might not have time to experience all the activities and restaurants on your list.

Like other Royal Caribbean ships, Wonder and Icon have eight 'neighborhoods' that serve separate purposes.

The new ship shares three of Wonder of the Seas' neighborhoods : Central Park, Royal Promenade, and Suite.

Icon's other five — Thrill Island , Surfside, Hideaway, Chill Island, and AquaDome — are a first for the cruise line.

Many of the ships' amenities overlap, but in differing quantities.

Wonder has three waterslides. Icon has a six-slide waterpark complete with rafting and racing options.

Both have increasingly popular cruise amenities like decks-long dry slides, mini-golf courses, rock climbing walls, and playgrounds.

But instead of Wonder of the Seas' zipline , Icon of the Seas has Crown's Edge, a thrilling agility course with a small zipline that leaves travelers dangling 154 feet above the ocean.

Wonder’s Boardwalk neighborhood was my go-to.

Boardwalk delivered exactly as it had promised: an open-air space grounded by wood-planked floors, a hot dog stand, a sweets store, and kitschy, colorful decor.

Icon of the Seas' Surfside , designed for families with young children, felt like its closest dupe.

Both neighborhoods had a carousel, an outdoor playground, and family-friendly dining. But Surfside was more toddler-friendly, as suggested by the children's water play area and nighttime story readings.

On to entertainment: Both mega-ships have ice skating performances and exciting multi-disciplinary shows at the AquaTheater.

But travelers who enjoy musicals at sea will want to stick to Icon.

Unlike its predecessor, the new ship shows a rendition of Broadway hit "The Wizard of Oz" — Munchkins, a puppet Toto, and a 16-piece live band included.

The layout of Icon's amenities were better than its cousin.

Some of Wonder of the Seas' enticing outdoor amenities — like the surf simulator, zipline, and mini-golf course — are clustered on the deck above and away from the pools and water slides.

This layout might be difficult for parents with children who bounce from one activity to the next. Wouldn't it be easier to have all of these outdoor extras near each other, or at least on the same deck, for parental supervision purposes?

This is where Icon of the Seas excelled: All its exciting open-air activities were adjacent.

The rows of pools flowed perfectly into Thrill Island's waterpark , rock climbing walls, mini-golf course, and Crown's Edge.

The best part? The adult-only Hideaway — which flexes an infinity pool club with a DJ — is right behind Thrill Island, creating a clear separation between parents and their children without being too far from each other.

'Free' options like the buffet and build-your-own tacos and burritos bar are available on both ships.

But you won't find the larger vessel's five-stall food hall or mini-golf-adjacent finger food stand on Wonder.

As expected, Icon of the Seas has more dining options than its predecessor, although there are some overlaps.

Wonder of the Seas has 11 bars and 21 dining venues (9 complimentary and 12 upcharged).

Icon of the Seas has eight more bars, four more complimentary restaurants, and three more specialty dining choices.

Nor will you find the new ship’s plush $200-a-person Empire Supper Club on any other cruise liner.

The multi-course dinner, paired with cocktails and live music, stunts the cost of either vessel's other dinner options.

But if you love Johnny Rockets, you’ll be disappointed by Icon of the Seas.

Restaurants like the popular burger chain and Southern comfort-inspired Mason Jar are only on Wonder of the Seas. Fine by me: My fried chicken at Mason Jar was as dry as a desert.

The younger ship doesn't have Wonder's robot bartender-armed bar either. It does, however, have new watering holes with dueling pianos and live jazz.

Surprisingly, Wonder of the Seas has 65 more cabins than its new cousin.

But several of Icon's 28 stateroom categories are a first for the cruise line.

This includes the new family infinite balcony cabin, which has a small bunk bed nook for children.

Royal Caribbean assigned me an ocean-view balcony stateroom on both ships.

My Wonder of the Seas' cabin was 20 square-feet smaller than the one on Icon. But my bathroom on the latter was so tiny, I accidentally elbowed the walls at almost every turn.

Sailing on the world's largest cruise ship doesn't mean you'll have the world's largest cabin after all.

Wonder and Icon are both operating seven-night roundtrip itineraries from Florida to the Caribbean.

In 2024, Wonder of the Seas is scheduled for year-round sailings from Port Canaveral to the Caribbean and Royal Caribbean's private island, Perfect Day at CocoCay , starting at $700 per person.

Icon of the Seas is spending its first year in service operating nearly identical itineraries but from Miami instead. The cheapest 2024 option is $1,786 per person.

That's a difference of more than $125 per person per day.

"Bookings and pricing for Icon of the Seas can only be described as 'iconic,'" Naftali Holtz, the CFO of Royal Caribbean Group, told analysts in February.

Icon of the Seas’ name speaks for itself.

If your family is looking for a jam-packed kid-friendly cruise with enough amenities to stay entertained for a week, both ships are a great option.

But if you're a seasoned mega-ship-cruiser looking to experience something new, Icon of the Seas is your best bet.

They may be similar, but no other behemoth cruise liner has a waterpark for children and a pool club for adults just dozens of feet from each other.

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• Marine Engineering

Top 10 List of World’s Largest Cruise Ships in 2024

Workshop insider.

• May 25, 2021

Cruise ships are luxurious large passenger ships designed to provide holidays and vacationing afloat. The ships are designed as a hotel accommodation fitted inside a ship, where public spaces and leisure areas demand larger space. The cruise ship operates with the usual ship’s crew to operate the ship’s various machinery and equipment and navigate the ship. Besides, complete hospitality staff to service the guests and visitors.

The Mega Cruise Ships do not only provide spacious public spaces and leisure areas but feature amenities such as fine-dining restaurants, sports facilities, fitness centers, spas, simulators, onboard zip lining and rock climbing, snow room, amusement park, casinos, theaters, and much more. Cruise ship passengers typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports where they may go on tours on each port-of-call; these tours are known as “ Shore Excursions .”

Cruise ship size and capacity development

Cruise ships are ranked as the largest ships in the world by gross tonnage (GT), more significant than many cargo ships. These ships are designed and built to carry thousands of passengers on a single trip. In the last two decades, the cruise ships grew in length from 268 m, the longest ship at that time to 362 m as of today, doubled their widths from 32.2 m to 65.7 m, doubled the total passengers from 2,744 to 6,780, and tripled in volume from 73,000 GT to 228,000 GT. The world’s largest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas, has a gross tonnage of 228,081, is 361 meters long, 65.7 meters wide, and holds up to 6,680 passengers.

List of the 10 largest cruise ships

The following is a list of the ten largest cruise ships worldwide, ranked in order of their gross tonnage.

1. Symphony of the Seas

Symphony of the Seas was built in 2018 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in France; the ship is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. Symphony of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage at 228,081 GT.

The ship features various facilities and amenities, including a park, a zip line that is ten decks high, an indoor theater with 1400-seat, an outdoor aquatic theater, a children’s water park, an ice-skating rink, 13 m rock-climbing walls, and a full-size basketball court.

Symphony of the Seas is powered by six marine-diesel generating sets, three 16-cylinder engines (Wärtsilä 16V46D) and three 12-cylinder engines (Wärtsilä 12V46D). The ship is fitted with a 2 MW steam turbine to recover waste heat from the engines and converting it into energy to power a portion of the onboard hotel load. The ship uses three Azipod thrusters, which are electric. In addition to the three Azipod thrusters, there are four bow thrusters used for ship maneuvering, each with 5,500 kilowatts of power or 7,380 horsepower.

Symphony of the Seas uses 25% less fuel compared with her similar class ships due to the implementation air bubble system that releases tiny air bubbles under the hull to enable the vessel to glide more smoothly through the water and reduces excitation from the propellers, which cuts noise and vibration levels in the aft part of the ship.

Ship particulars

Capacity: 6,680 passengers. Length: 361 meters. Beam (Width): 65.7 meters. Built: 2018. Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International.

2. Harmony of the Seas

Harmony of the Seas was built in 2016 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in France; the ship is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. Harmony of the Seas is the second-largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage at 226,963 GT.

The ship features various facilities and amenities, including a central park, boardwalk, several water-based attractions, including a large dry slide complex, two surf simulators, and 23 swimming pools, 20 dining venues, a 1,400-seat theatre, and 11,252 works of art.

Harmony of the Seas uses a waste heat recovery system utilizing steam turbines and drives three Azipod propellers from the recovered energy. Harmony of the Seas uses 20% less fuel compared with her similar class ships due to the implementation air bubble system that releases small air bubbles under the hull to reduce drag and glide more smoothly through the water and reduces excitation from the propellers, which cuts noise and vibration levels in the aft part of the ship.

Capacity: 6,687 passengers. Length: 362.1 meters. Beam (Width): 65.7 meters. Built: 2016. Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International.

3. Oasis of the Seas

Oasis of the Seas was built in 2009 by STX Europe Turku Shipyard, Finland; the ship is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. Oasis of the Seas, at the time of construction, set a new capacity record of carrying over 6,000 passengers. Oasis of the Sea’s gross tonnage (GT) was 225,282 at the ship’s launch, but it was expanded to 226,838 GT when additional cabins were added to Deck 14 in 2019.

The ship features various facilities and amenities, including a zip-line, an ice-skating rink, a surf simulator, an aquatic amphitheater, a moving bar, a casino, a miniature golf course, multiple nightclubs, several bars and lounges, a karaoke club, comedy club, five swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, youth zones, and nurseries for children.

Oasis of the Seas is powered by six marine-diesel generating sets, three 16-cylinder engines (Wärtsilä 16V46D) and three 12-cylinder engines (Wärtsilä 12V46D). The ship is fitted with additional power that comes from solar panels, which provide energy for lighting in the promenade and central park areas. The ship uses three Azipod thrusters, which are electric. In addition to the three Azipod thrusters, there are four bow thrusters used for ship maneuvering, each with 5,500 kilowatts of power or 7,380 horsepower.

Capacity: 6,780 passengers. Built: 2009. Length: 360 meters. Beam (Width): 60.5 meters. Royal Caribbean International.

4. Allure of the Seas

Allure of the Seas was built in 2009 by STX Europe Turku Shipyard, Finland; the ship is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. Upon her launch in November 2009, she became the world’s largest passenger ship. The gross tonnage of Allure of the Seas is 225,282, and her displacement is equal to that of Oasis of the Seas, which is estimated to be around 100,000 metric tons.

The ship features various facilities and amenities, including a two-deck dance hall, a theatre with 1,380 seats, an ice skating rink, seven distinct “neighborhoods,” and 25 dining options, including a Starbucks coffee shop at sea.

Capacity: 6,780 passengers. Length: 360 meters. Beam (Width): 60.5 meters. Built: 2010. Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International.

5. Costa Smeralda

Costa Smeralda was built in 2019 by Meyer Turku Oy Shipyard, Finland; the ship is owned and operated by Costa Cruises, a Carnival Corporation & plc subsidiary. Costa Smeralda is the largest ship commissioned for and to ever operate for Costa and is the fifth-largest cruise ship globally, with a gross tonnage of 185,010 (GT).

Costa Smeralda is the second cruise ship in the world to be fully powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), after sister brand AIDA Cruises became the first in 2018. The ship is fitted with four 16-cylinder dual-fuel hybrid engines (MaK 16VM46DF Model).

Capacity: 6,554 passengers. Length: 337 meters. Beam (Width): 42 meters. Built: 2019. Cruise Line: Costa Cruises.

MS Iona was built in 2020 by Meyer Werft GmbH shipyards, Germany; the ship is owned and operated by P&O Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. MS Iona is the sixth-largest cruise ship globally, with a gross tonnage of 184,089 (GT).

The ship features various facilities and amenities, including 17 different eateries, including eight restaurants designated as ‘select dining,’ and 12 different bars, 16 whirlpools, and four swimming pools, an entertainment venue topped by a 105-ton, 340-pane, 970-square-meter glass dome with a retractable stage for shows, and a three-deck atrium flanked by triple-deck glass panels projecting outwards.

Capacity: 6,600 passengers. Length: 334.5 meters. Beam (Width): 42 meters. Built: 2020. Cruise Line: P&O Cruises.

7. AIDAnova

AIDAnova was built in 2018 by Meyer Werft GmbH in Papenburg, Germany; the ship is owned and operated by AIDA Cruises. AIDAnova is the seventh-largest cruise ship globally, with a gross tonnage of 183,858 (GT).

AIDAnova is the first cruise ship in the world that operates completely using liquefied natural gas (LNG); the ship has four dual-fuel hybrid engines, which can use either LNG or traditional fuel oil.

Capacity: 6,654 passengers. Length: 337 meters. Beam (Width): 42 meters. Built: 2018. Cruise Line: AIDA Cruises.

8. Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras was built in 2020 by Meyer Turku Oy Shipyard, Finland; the ship is owned and operated by Carnival Cruise Line. Mardi Gras is the world’s eighth-largest cruise ship, with a gross tonnage of 181,808 (GT).

The ship features various facilities and amenities, including six zones incorporating themed elements and spaces that host activities and events and also house various dining and shopping outlets, an “Ultimate Playground” zone, the world’s first shipboard roller coaster, self-propelled cars that ride on an 800-foot track, an extensive water park, and sports center.

Capacity: 6,630 passengers. Length: 344 meters. Beam (Width): 42 meters. Built: 2020. Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Line.

9. MSC Grandiosa

MSC Grandiosa was built in 2019 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France; the ship is owned and operated by MSC Cruises. MSC Grandiosa is the ninth-largest cruise ship globally, with a gross tonnage of 181,541 (GT).

Capacity: 6,761 passengers. Length: 331.4 meters. Beam (Width): 43 meters. Built: 2019. Cruise Line: MSC Cruises.

10. MSC Virtuosa

MSC Virtuosa was built in 2021 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France; the ship is owned and operated by MSC Cruises. MSC Virtuosa is the tenth-largest cruise ship globally, with a gross tonnage of 181,541 (GT).

Capacity: 6,334 passengers. Length: 331.4 meters. Beam (Width): 50 meters. Built: 2020. Cruise Line: MSC Cruises.

Related Article: Top 10 List of World’s Largest Container Ships.

Images Credits: Wikimedia Commons .

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The Cost of Building a Cruise Ship: Expensive Development of Floating Resorts

The Cost of Building a Cruise Ship: At sea, contemporary cruise ships resemble floating cities. The ships combine elements of a theater, amusement park, dining options, entertainment, bars, and hotel services into one. But as you’ll quickly discover, it’s not inexpensive to develop a floating resort.

What is The Cost of Building a Cruise Ship?

Building a cruise ship typically costs $500 million to $1.2 billion.

A large cruise ship that can accommodate 2000–3000 people costs about $1 billion.

Numerous factors, such as a cruise ship’s size, amenities, and interior design, affect its price.

Conventional cruise lines, like Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, MSC Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival, frequently invest more than $800 million in brand-new cruise ships.

The cost of each ship in the largest class, the Oasis class of Royal Caribbean, ranges from $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

Carnival spent $1 billion to launch the Carnival Celebration in 2022. Norwegian Prima made its debut the same year, spending over $850 million.

Comparing the overall cost to the number of beds (berths) is another method to examine the cost.

Cruise lines favor this method of relating the overall cost to the number of births.

The Oasis of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean vessel, is anchored in St. Maarten. For instance, the Oasis of the Seas’ construction cost about $250,000 per berth. Also, a berth on Carnival’s Mardi Gras costs almost $188,000.

Discover the Top 7 Luxury Cruises Offering Unparalleled Service and Experiences

Mainstream cruise lines have larger cruise ships than luxury cruise lines. They also cost less to construct than a mega-ship.

The cost-to-berth ratio of an opulent cruise ship is higher, though.

This is due to the more upscale furnishings and services seen on luxury cruise lines. A higher relative cost than major cruise lines can be attributed to these variables.

The construction of the opulent Silver Dawn cruise ship by Silversea cost $380 million. The ship, which could accommodate 576 passengers, cost almost $660,000 per berth.

The construction of Seven Seas Splendor cost $478 million. The ship can accommodate 754 passengers, and each berth costs $634,000.

There’s no doubt that building a new cruise ship is an expensive undertaking, even though the price varies.

Factors Affecting Cost

The size of the ship, the location of the shipyard, taxes, the cost of the materials, and the amenities on board all affect the building cost of a cruise ship.

The most important factor in deciding how much it costs to build a cruise ship is its size. Bigger vessels cost more overall since they require more labor and materials.

Given that labor expenses and taxes differ by nation, the shipyard’s location is also crucial.

For instance, building a warship in Europe is more expensive than in Asia. Although European shipyards produce the majority of cruise ships, Asian shipbuilders are catching up swiftly.

Costs for materials are another factor. All through the year, the cost of materials like as steel and aluminum varies.

The astronomical cost of building a cruise ship seemed ridiculous at first. However, a lot of steel is needed to construct these floating cities at sea, which can reach lengths of over 1,000 feet and heights of up to 20 stories.

Long-term contracts are frequently acquired by shipbuilders to reduce risk and lock in material pricing. However, they are unable to completely remove the risks connected to price fluctuations.

The cost of building a cruise ship increases in tandem with increases in material prices.

The cost of creating a cruise ship is also influenced by the standard of the interior design, facilities, onboard features, and construction.

Large sums of money are frequently invested by cruise lines in creating distinctive amenities and features including water parks, rock climbing walls, surf simulators, go-kart courses, and upscale dining establishments.

Consider how many rooms, dining areas, bars, restrooms, entertainment centers, activities, and swimming pools are required to accommodate thousands of passengers. Not to mention the staff, who need their own facilities.

These features are not free because more effort, materials, and engineering are needed to make them. Not to mention the years of planning, development, and market research that go into creating a new ship.

The Costliest Cruise Ships Ever Constructed

At $1.4 billion, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas is the most costly cruise ship ever constructed. Oasis was constructed in 2009, and if inflation is taken into account, the project would have cost more than $1.6 billion to construct today.

After Oasis, Royal Caribbean spent $1.4 billion building two new ships: Allure of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas.

However, when taking inflation into account, their construction cost was lower because they were constructed after the Oasis of the Seas. Oasis continues to occupy the top place as the most costly cruise ship ever built due to its higher inflation-adjusted cost.

Oasis of the Seas is not the largest of the Oasis-class ships. However, because their structure is comparable, there are less upfront costs, making them less expensive to create.

However, the newest cruise ship from Royal Caribbean may surpass it.

At the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland, Icon of the Seas is now undergoing construction. Furthermore, not much is known about how the ship was built.

It is a known fact that the Icon-class ship will eventually top the global cruise ship size. The ship was said to have cost $2 billion in the beginning. Icon of the Seas would be the most costly cruise ship ever built if these figures prove to be accurate.

Until the ship ships, we most likely won’t know the exact cost. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if Icon surpassed Oasis’ record.

What Was the Price of the Titanic?

For $7.5 million, the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, constructed the Titanic. The cost of building the Titanic, after deducting inflation, comes to approximately $200 million in modern currency.

The Titanic’s construction took about three years to finish, starting in 1909.

The renowned ship was built with the assistance of more than 3,000 construction workers and an astounding 3 million rivets.

When Do They Take To Construct?

A new cruise ship takes between 12 and 24 months to build. And before the first steel is laid, the process starts years in advance.

Every part of the ship is meticulously designed over many years by naval architects and engineers to guarantee its safety, dependability, and—above all—fun.

Not to add, cruise lines are always in competition with one another to offer new features and firsts on their ships. The technology and research needed to create the amazing things we take for granted come at a heavy cost.

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Why Do Cruise Companies Decide to Modernize Their Old Ships?

Because it is far less expensive to modify an existing ship than to build a new one, cruise lines choose to do so.

Cruise operators exercise tremendous caution when determining whether to buy or renovate an existing vessel due to the extremely high construction costs associated with designing and building new cruise ships.

A renovation could be as small as painting a room or as large as remodeling it.

Large portions of the ship have been rebuilt during extensive renovations, and new features like water slides, theaters, attractions, and fitness facilities have been added.

A comprehensive makeover is exemplified by Royal Caribbean’s Royal Amplified initiative. Upgrading ships in the scheme might cost up to $165 million.

When cruise lines renovate well, the amenities offered to guests are comparable to those found on modern ships.

We had the impression that we were traveling on a brand-new ship while we were on one of Royal’s upgraded cruise ships.

Furthermore, we didn’t feel that traveling on an older ship meant we were missing out on any of the newest thrills.

Annually, cruise lines invest millions of dollars in modernizing their current ships to maintain a competitive edge.

The average life of a cruise ship is thirty years. Additionally, updates guarantee that cruise ships stay in service for as long as feasible.

Every year, environmental regulations are updated. When the law changes, it makes sense for cruise operators to renovate an existing ship rather than build a new one.

The cruise business is evolving quickly, and cruise lines would struggle to draw guests to their older ships if it weren’t for the regular modifications.

Additionally, the cruise line is compelled to remove a ship from the fleet if it isn’t well-liked.

Regular modifications guarantee that cruise ships will continue to operate for a very long time. can yield a healthy return on investment for cruise lines.

A cruise line would consider factors such as expenses, rival offerings, passenger expectations, and the state of its current fleet while determining whether to build a new ship or renovate an old one.

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How one cruise line will keep kids from running wild on its new, huge cruise ships

It's no small feat to keep the largest cruise ships in the world from being overrun with children.

Megaship sailings are ideal for families with kids of all ages. Do it right, and you're making memories that will last a lifetime. Do it wrong, and you've got moody teens hanging out in stairwells, rowdy kids taking over hot tubs and screaming babies in the dining room.

That's why MSC Cruises is playing it smart with its newest megaships, 6,762-passenger, 215,863-ton MSC World Europa and its Miami-based twin, MSC World America , the latter of which debuts in 2025. (For context, these new World Class ships are similar in passenger count and ship size to Royal Caribbean's Oasis Class ships .)

After all, the line has plenty of experience with children; it carries 600,000 kids and teens annually. In high season, its largest ships sometimes see 2,000 kids and teens per cruise.

MSC's goal is to give kids and families plenty of options for fun — both together and apart — to keep everyone busy, happy and out of trouble (my words, not theirs).

"We are working every week to surprise them and give them something new," Matteo Mancini, MSC Cruises' senior manager of kids and family entertainment, told me during a Zoom interview. In the highly competitive family cruise market, MSC Cruises is not trying to dominate; its goal is "to be simply different and unique."

MSC Cruises is a privately owned family company, whose top executives are grandparents and parents themselves. So the line's mission to create appealing choices for families and kids is personal.

Here's how the Mediterranean-based cruise line plans to win over the littlest cruisers on its biggest new ships — and, consequently, keep those kids from running wild on board.

More space for kids

MSC Seascape , which debuted in late 2022 and currently sails weeklong Caribbean and Bahamas cruises, offers 700 square meters (more than 7,500 square feet) of Doremiland youth space between its Baby Club (for babies and toddlers younger than 3), Mini Club (ages 3 to 6), Junior Club (ages 7 to 11), Young Club (ages 12 to 14) and Teen Club (ages 15 to 17).

When MSC World America debuts next year, it will house more than 1,000 square meters (nearly 10,800 square feet) of youth space, as well as more youth staff members to accommodate more kids.

Plus, its upper decks, at least on the back half of the ship, will be filled with kid-friendly attractions, including waterslides, an arcade with virtual reality attractions, an indoor sports court and the aforementioned kids clubs.

The buffet is also in this area, and Mancini says that the ship will feature a new section of the buffet especially for kids and teens, with different food options daily. The line is also taking a page out of other cruise lines' books and bringing free soft-serve ice cream — a kid favorite — to the buffet.

Related: The 6 types of MSC Cruises ships, explained

Kid- and teen-approved activities

But how does MSC Cruises know what kids will like? They go to the source and ask.

"Every three months, both on board our ships and in the headquarters in Geneva, we do a kids committee with kids and teenagers," Mancini revealed. "We talk to kids and teenagers, and we ask them, 'Guys, are you having fun with our Doremiland program?'"

MSC asks what the kids like, what they don't like and which programs and activities the line should cancel.

The line also presents ideas it's toying with bringing to the ships, and its focus group of kids and teens tells them whether the ideas are worth exploring or not.

This process allows the line to continuously adapt and improve its youth programming. Changes that Mancini has seen include shortening activities from an hour to half an hour to get in a wider variety of events and giving kids the choice of joining in the group activity or continuing to do free play in the youth space.

The line has also changed how its staff approaches participation in youth club activities. "Because of social media, Instagram, YouTube, now teenagers want to be the star of what we're offering," says Mancini. "Once upon a time, they were like, OK, let's watch this activity. Now they want to be on stage, they want to be part of something, and we give them the opportunity if they feel like it."

Plus, the line has different options for what it means to participate. "I give you an example — at some point, we were doing dance competitions, but not everyone is comfortable in dancing," explains Mancini. "So we tell them, do you want to be the [judge] of the dance competition, and there we see magic because they say, 'Oh, yes,' and then you give them the microphone, and you discover another talent that you didn't expect."

With a game show-style activity, teens can choose to be the contestant, the judge, the emcee or the audience. Everyone can play a role and have fun in a way that works for them.

Related: MSC Cruises vs. Royal Caribbean: Which big-ship line is right for you?

High-tech activities go beyond video games

MSC Cruises knows that kids these days are immersed in technology, but its youth staff wants programming to be more than just video games. So it got creative.

Drone Academy is a new program that takes place in the Sportplex indoor sports court where teens learn how to pilot drones and race them around obstacles. Instead of typical arts and crafts with paper and crayons, kids can create images on computers and print them out on 3D printers. The activities blend innovation with technology, so kids are not just mindlessly playing Mario Kart all day long.

Don't worry, parents of video game-obsessed children — MSC cruise ships do also have PlayStations on board. But the youth staff tries to make the games social. "When you are on our cruise ships, you play together with other kids and teenagers," says Mancini. "You talk to them because you are playing in a group." The games serve as an entree into socializing and making friends, rather than a solitary activity.

Related: 5 best cruise lines for families

Kids clubs are inclusive

MSC Cruises is an international brand, and its ships routinely sail with 35 different nationalities on board. While the international vibe might be appealing to adults, it can be intimidating for kids to interact with peers who don't speak the same language.

But MSC has already thought about that.

"Right now, in the U.S., the majority of kids and teenagers we are having in our kids club are from America," says Mancini. "There is no issue to make friends." However, MSC's youth staff members all speak several languages so they can translate for kids if necessary.

Plus, this international vibe is the main reason why MSC pursued a relationship with Lego, whose beloved bricks are now found in kids clubs fleetwide.

"We went to Lego years ago and we say, 'Listen, we are having 35 different nationalities of kids. They are from different cultures and speak different languages, and the only toy that needs no explanation is a Lego brick. So we need you. Can you guys help us?' And they said yes for this reason."

It's not only different language speakers who are welcomed into MSC's kids clubs. The line also welcomes children with disabilities.

"At the end of 2023, we asked all our youth staff fleetwide to follow specific training to work and spend time with children with autism," says Mancini. When an autistic child comes on board, every member of the youth staff knows how to work with them and provide a welcoming environment within the kids club.

No-cost programming

When Mancini said MSC wants its program to be unique, he wasn't only referring to the specific activities. He was also referring to its cost — or lack thereof.

All of the Doremiland clubs are open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. free of charge. Other lines start charging for late-night babysitting after 10 p.m., but MSC Cruises gives kids an extra hour for free. In addition, babies and toddlers can be dropped off at the Baby Club for free — unlike on Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Line , where parents must pay for drop-off baby care.

In addition, the line has a program where kids and teens can eat lunch and dinner with the youth staff so parents can enjoy a leisurely meal and date night together. Again, this service is provided at no extra cost to families.

It's not just the big ships

MSC Cruises' Doremiland youth program is the same fleetwide, whether you're on the smallest ship or the biggest . You'll find the same Lego partnership, the same range of age-appropriate clubs, arcades and some kind of kid-friendly water attraction. Family programming, such as "Master Chef at Sea Juniors" or the "Guinness World Records" family game show, takes place across different sizes of ships.

When MSC World America debuts in Miami next year, the line hopes it will win the hearts of cruising families with its wealth of attractions and activities aimed at keeping kids and teens busy, not bored. But when MSC's newest fans decide to branch out and sail the line's smaller ships in Europe or South America, they won't have to settle for less-than kids programming.

And the adults on board fleetwide can breathe easier, knowing that the kids will be lured away from the stairwells and into the kids clubs — hopefully leaving the hot tubs free for some adult R&R.

Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:

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The unspoken rules about how to behave on a superyacht

• The superyachting world is very small, with only 5,800 yachts longer than 30 meters at sea.
• That insularity has bred a specific etiquette, which is often hard for outsiders to know about.
• These are the de facto rules of the most expensive billionaire toys, superyachts .

For the owners of superyachts , privacy is often the most valuable thing money can buy. It's one reason centimillionaires and billionaires pay eight or nine figures for a palace at sea, far from the prying eyes of land dwellers.

Even the most gossipy crew members should stay tight-lipped about the name of a former owner or charter guest, and many brokers shy away from answering benign questions.

That means that, aside from basic safety guidelines, most of the rules of superyachting are unwritten. The very few who need to know them — there are only about 5,800 yachts longer than 30 meters at sea, according to SuperYacht Times — already know them.

But if you do happen to be a lucky guest at a party on a billionaire's $500 million ship or find yourself included in a $1 million-a-week vacation, there are a few things you need to know.

After four days of touring superyachts that sell for as much as $75 million and chatting with the people who buy, sell, and work on them at the Palm Beach International Boat Show , Business Insider gleaned a few key edicts. Given the discreet nature of the industry, almost all the people we spoke with requested anonymity to protect their working relationships, but here's what they had to say.

Take off your shoes

While it's a basic rule for anyone in boating, it may come as a surprise to an outsider that no matter how rich you are or how expensive your heels are, in the vast majority of cases, you can't wear shoes on board.

It's partly for safety — you don't want anyone slipping on a wet deck — but partly to keep the yacht clean. So expect to see barefoot billionaires, and if you forgot to get a pedicure, bring a set of special boat shoes.

Don't make any assumptions about money — but know the signs

In the superyacht world, it's safe to assume almost everyone you meet is very, very rich, and many brokers and builders say you can't judge a book by its cover when it comes to prospective clients.

"It has nothing to do with how they're dressed," one broker told BI. "It's the biggest mistake you can make because a complete slobby-looking guy or couple could be a multibillionaire."

There are, however, a few clues. Watches are one; new footwear is another.

"Rich people always have new shoes," a superyacht expert said. But because of the shoe rule mentioned above, this tip probably applies only when they're on land.

Book your massage early

Wellness areas, including spa rooms with a massage bed or two and a professional-grade facial machine, are becoming must-haves on superyachts . Most have a customized spa menu and a crew member who doubles as a trained masseuse or beautician — and they're usually in high demand.

One captain said he'd implemented a booking system to ensure people weren't fighting for the same spots. A broker said sometimes masseuses would be so busy they wouldn't leave the small spa cabin for hours on end.

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So if you want to make the most of your relaxing time on board, reserve your pampering slot as soon as you get your welcome cocktail.

Pirates are more real than you'd think, and many superyachts have hidden safe rooms

While you might dress up as a fake pirate for an onboard theme party, there are very real ones — and other dangers — on the high seas.

In certain areas, including parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, pirates are a cause of concern . In the Red Sea, owners are concerned about the Houthis .

Superyachts can come equipped with sonic weaponry, lockdown systems, and anti-drone protection. Builders are even designing safe rooms — which are apparently just as plush as the rest of the ship.

The longer the boat, the closer to $1 billion

While you can't judge a buyer based on appearances, you can judge them on the length of their boat.

One rule of thumb: If someone has a brand-new 50-meter vessel, chances are they have $1 billion to their name. If it's over 100 meters, expect the owner to have at least $2 billion. And for a boat bigger than that — like Jeff Bezos' 127-meter megayacht Koru — it takes many, many billions.

Money can't buy you everything

The world's biggest, most expensive yachts are custom-built by shipyards that produce only a handful of boats a year.

But no matter how many tens of millions of dollars clients are spending, there are things to which builders will refuse to say yes.

"In the end, the boat has our name," an executive from one of the world's biggest shipyards told BI.

They recalled a client who requested a yellow hull to match his Lamborghini . The shipyard declined, steering the client in another direction.

"If I don't like it, I don't build it. I finalize two or three contracts a year," another builder said. "If somebody can say your vessel is ugly, my reputation is bad."

Yacht crews are trained to make the impossible possible. A guest requests fresh caviar flown into the middle of the Caribbean? No problem. Fresh flowers every day while at sea? It'll cost you, but it can be done.

But they can't time travel, and captains and crew members say the thing that causes the most friction is when a client or owner wants to go from point A to point B — right now.

"The hardest request is when they want the boat in a place — yesterday," one captain said.

The best person to know? A friend with a superyacht

Superyachts are expensive to build and expensive to maintain . According to the industry standard, owning a superyacht will cost 10% of its new-build price annually. For a $100 million yacht, that's at least $10 million yearly going to crew, regular maintenance, insurance, fuel, and dockage.

Chartering, too, is costly . Beyond the list price, which can be hundreds of thousands a week, guests must pay for provisions, which are pegged at 35% of the charter fee, and are expected to tip between 10% and 20%.

So the most important unspoken rule of superyachting is actually that the only thing better than owning a superyacht is knowing someone else who does — and invites you along, of course.

Watch: Why it costs $1 million a day to run one of the world's biggest cruise ships

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‘A Lot of Chaos’: Bridge Collapse Creates Upheaval at Largest U.S. Port for Car Trade

A bridge collapse closed Baltimore’s port, an important trade hub that ranks first in the nation by the volume of automobiles and light trucks it handles.

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Shipping in the Port of Baltimore

Monthly cargo handled by the Port of Baltimore

By Peter Eavis and Jenny Gross

• March 26, 2024

The Baltimore bridge disaster on Tuesday upended operations at one of the nation’s busiest ports, with disruptions likely to be felt for weeks by companies shipping goods in and out of the country — and possibly by consumers as well.

The upheaval will be especially notable for auto makers and coal producers for whom Baltimore has become one of the most vital shipping destinations in the United States.

As officials began to investigate why a nearly 1,000-foot cargo ship ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the middle of the night, companies that transport goods to suppliers and stores scrambled to get trucks to the other East Coast ports receiving goods diverted from Baltimore. Ships sat idle elsewhere, unsure where and when to dock.

“It’s going to cause a lot of chaos,” said Paul Brashier, vice president for drayage and intermodal at ITS Logistics.

The closure of the Port of Baltimore is the latest hit to global supply chains, which have been strained by monthslong crises at the Panama Canal, which has had to slash traffic because of low water levels; and the Suez Canal, which shipping companies are avoiding because of attacks by the Houthis on vessels in the Red Sea.

The auto industry now faces new supply headaches.

Last year, 570,000 vehicles were imported through Baltimore, according to Sina Golara, an assistant professor of supply chain management at Georgia State University. “That’s a huge amount,” he said, equivalent to nearly a quarter of the current inventory of new cars in the United States.

The Baltimore port handled a record amount of foreign cargo last year, and it was the 17th biggest port in the nation overall in 2021, ranked by total tons, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Baltimore Ranks in the Top 20 U.S. Ports

Total trade in 2021 in millions of tons

Baltimore ranks first in the United States for the volume of automobiles and light trucks it handles, and for vessels that carry wheeled cargo, including farm and construction machinery, according to a statement by Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland last month.

The incident is another stark reminder of the vulnerability of the supply chains that transport consumer products and commodities around the world.

The extent of the disruption depends on how long it takes to reopen shipping channels into the port of Baltimore. Experts estimate it could take several weeks.

Baltimore is not a leading port for container ships, and other ports can likely absorb traffic that was headed to Baltimore, industry officials said.

Stephen Edwards, the chief executive of the Port of Virginia, said it was expecting a vessel on Tuesday that was previously bound for Baltimore, and that others would soon follow. “Between New York and Virginia, we have sufficient capacity to handle all this cargo,” Mr. Edwards said, referring to container ships.

“Shipping companies are very agile,” said Jean-Paul Rodrigue, a professor in the department of maritime business administration at Texas A&M University-Galveston. “In two to three days, it will be rerouted.”

But other types of cargo could remain snarled.

Alexis Ellender, a global analyst at Kpler, a commodities analytics firm, said he expected the port closure to cause significant disruption of U.S. exports of coal. Last year, about 23 million metric tons of coal exports were shipped from the port of Baltimore, about a quarter of all seaborne U.S. coal shipments. About 12 vessel had been expected to leave the port of Baltimore in the next week or so carrying coal, according to Kpler.

He noted that it would not make a huge dent on the global market, but he added that “the impact is significant for the U.S. in terms of loss of export capacity.”

“You may see coal cargoes coming from the mines being rerouted to other ports instead,” he said, with a port in Norfolk, Va., the most likely.

If auto imports are reduced by Baltimore’s closure, inventories could run low, particularly for models that are in high demand.

“We are initiating discussions with our various transportation providers on contingency plans to ensure an uninterrupted flow of vehicles to our customers and will continue to carefully monitor this situation,” Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram, said in a statement.

Other ports have the capacity to import cars, but there may not be enough car transporters at those ports to handle the new traffic.

“You have to make sure the capacity exists all the way in the supply chain — all the way to the dealership,” said Mr. Golara, the Georgia State professor.

A looming battle is insurance payouts, once legal liability is determined. The size of the payout from the insurer is likely to be significant and will depend on factors including the value of the bridge, the scale of loss of life compensation owed to families of people who died, the damage to the vessel and disruption to the port.

The ship’s insurer, Britannia P&I Club, part of a global group of insurers, said in a statement that it was “working closely with the ship manager and relevant authorities to establish the facts and to help ensure that this situation is dealt with quickly and professionally.”

The port has also increasingly catered to large container ships like the Dali, the 948-foot-long cargo vessel carrying goods for the shipping giant Maersk that hit a pillar of the bridge around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The Dali had spent two days in Baltimore’s port before setting off toward the 1.6-mile Francis Scott Key Bridge.

State-owned terminals, managed by the Maryland Port Administration, and privately owned terminals in Baltimore transported a record 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo in 2023, worth $80 billion.

Materials transported in large volumes through the city’s port include coal, coffee and sugar. It was the ninth-busiest port in the nation last year for receiving foreign cargo, in terms of volume and value.

The bridge’s collapse will also disrupt cruises traveling in and out of Baltimore. Norwegian Cruise Line last year began a new fall and winter schedule calling at the Port of Baltimore.

An earlier version of this article misstated the Port of Baltimore’s rank among U.S. ports. It was the nation’s 17th biggest port by total tons in 2021, not the 20th largest.

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Peter Eavis reports on business, financial markets, the economy and companies across different sectors. More about Peter Eavis

Jenny Gross is a reporter for The Times in London covering breaking news and other topics. More about Jenny Gross