Top 10 Biggest Cruise Ships in the World 2024

Table Of Content

• MSC Grandiosa
• Largest Cruise Ship Ever Built Debuts in 100 Days
• Second Icon-Class Ship Will Have a Furry Family Member
• Royal Caribbean Rolling Out Audio Over WiFi to All Cruise Ships
• Carnival Cracks Down on High Stakes Activity on Pool Deck
• Royal Caribbean Announces Cancellation of All Cruise Stops to Private Island

Costa Toscana is the second Excel class vessel built for Carnival-owned Costa Cruises. The LNG-powered cruise ship is the flagship of the fleet and was constructed at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. She’s almost identical to the Costa Smeralda, including gross tonnage and size. The only reason she is lower than her sister ship in the largest cruise ships in the world is that she entered service in 2021. In 2019, The Royal Caribbean cruise ship underwent a massive $165 million upgrade, which did not just add new water slides, but also The Ultimate Abyss aft slide, new dining venues, and a refreshed look. The amplification increased the ship’s gross tonnage, and she now overtakes sister ship Allure of the Seas in the list of the world’s top 10 largest cruise ships.

MSC Grandiosa

“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. Harmony of the Seas overtakes its older Oasis-class ships just slightly, making her the fourth-largest cruise ship in the world.

Largest Cruise Ship Ever Built Debuts in 100 Days

The line until now has resisted the trend among major brands to build ever-bigger vessels. Carnival Panorama doesn't even crack the top 40 list of biggest ships. Back in January, before COVID-19 halted cruising around the world, two of the biggest big-ship cruise lines -- Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises -- were just starting up sailings with their biggest ships ever. Another major brand, Carnival Cruise Line, was just months away from rolling out its own record-sized vessel. The vessel first arrived in the US on February 20 with huge anticipation and received a warm welcome in Florida.

Second Icon-Class Ship Will Have a Furry Family Member

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

Royal Caribbean Rolling Out Audio Over WiFi to All Cruise Ships

Harmony of the Seas was the first in the class to feature the 10-Story Ultimate Abyss slide, which is located aft of the ship above the AquaTheater. The slide has since been a major feature on new Oasis-class vessels and added during refurbishments. 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.

Wonder of the Seas (Royal Caribbean)

Perspective Does the world's biggest cruise ship meet the hype? We tried it. - The Washington Post

Perspective Does the world's biggest cruise ship meet the hype? We tried it..

Posted: Thu, 08 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Norwegian Encore is a slightly bigger version of three other Breakaway-Plus class ships that Norwegian has unveiled since 2015 (thanks to a small addition at its back to make room for the laser tag area). It can hold more than 5,000 passengers with all berths filled. MSC Grandiosa also has all the deck-top pizzazz that we've come to expect from MSC Cruises, including a sprawling waterpark with multiple waterslides called the Wild Forest Aquapark, and a stunningly large main pool area. The ship also harbors race car simulators, a flight simulator and exclusive shows created in partnership with Canada's famed Cirque du Soleil. The first lucky guests are embarking on the newest Oasis-class vessel from Royal Caribbean, which takes them from Florida on a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean. In June 2023, the ship hit a major milestone when it completed its first sea trials outside the shipyard in Turku, Finland.

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. 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.

Royal Caribbean Announces Cancellation of All Cruise Stops to Private Island

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. There is, however, a clientele for whom this cruise makes perfect sense. Cruise ships have become, for a certain kind of hardworking family, a form of subsidized child care. 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.

It has 16 guest decks (18 total decks) along with 2,759 staterooms. 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. The Icon of the Seas is the Linda Loman of cruise ships, exclaiming that attention must be paid. Symphony of the Seas is the fourth Oasis-class and 25th cruise ship from Royal Caribbean. It is slightly larger than her sister ships that were built earlier, making her the third largest cruise ship.

You’re likely imagining crisped-pink pensioners bent double over shuffleboard, cramped cabins, bad food and norovirus. 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.

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. 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. Carnival Pinnacle was never built as the project was officially canceled (mainly due to the vessel's incredible cost at that time).

Crown’s Edge is a skywalk, part ropes course, where you will be able to swing 154 feet above the ocean. Eighteen decks high and nearly 1,200 feet long, Symphony of the Seas can hold up to 6,680 passengers at maximum occupancy -- an astounding number. The fourth vessel in the line's groundbreaking Oasis Class series of ships also offers a never-before-seen array of onboard attractions. The world's largest cruise ship Wonder of the Seas is departing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on her maiden voyage to the Caribbean.

AIDAnova, in particular, is designed just for the German-speaking market. Symphony 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. To put it another way, Symphony of the Seas might be the most ludicrously entertaining luxury hotel in history. 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.

I am wearing a DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL T-shirt, I want to say to him. Just like her sister ships, Wonder of the Seas is divided into themed neighborhoods, but this ship has the addition of a new Suite Neighborhood. The eighth neighborhood offers Royal Suite Guest a Suite Sun Deck with a plunge pool, private restaurant, deck bar, and lounges. 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. Icon of the Seas will homeport in Miami, Florida and sail seven night cruises to the Caribbean departing every Saturday starting January 27, 2024.

The ship also will have Carnival's largest waterpark ever, a far broader array of suites than earlier Carnival ships and new dining venues such as the first Emeril Lagasse restaurant at sea. Fast-growing MSC Cruises has been rolling out ever bigger ships in recent years, culminating last November with the unveiling of the appropriately named MSC Grandiosa. The "grand" new flagship of the line is the biggest MSC Cruises ship ever at 181,543 tons -- and the seventh-largest cruise vessel ever from any line. 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.