page_title: Cruise ship
section_title: From luxury ocean liners to "megaship" cruising
hierarchical_section_title: Cruise ship / History / From luxury ocean liners to "megaship" cruising
caption_attribution_description: Oasis of the Seas - Aqua Theater amphitheatre - View from the up of the Boardwalk August 6th-13th 2011
context_page_description: Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, they typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "shore excursions." On "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages", cruise ships make two- to three-night round trips without visiting any ports of call.
  Modern cruise ships, while sacrificing some qualities of seaworthiness, have added amenities to cater to water tourists, with recent vessels being described as "balcony-laden floating condominiums".
  As of December 2018, there are 314 cruise ships operating worldwide, with a combined capacity of 537,000 passengers. Cruising has become a major part of the tourism industry, with an estimated market of $29.4 billion per year, and over 19 million passengers carried worldwide annually as of 2011. The industry's rapid growth has seen nine or more newly built ships catering to a North American clientele added every year since 2001, as well as others servicing European clientele.
  As of 2020, the world's largest passenger ship is Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas.
context_section_description: With the advent of large passenger jet aircraft in the 1960s, intercontinental travelers switched from ships to planes sending the ocean liner trade into a terminal decline. Certain characteristics of older ocean liners made them unsuitable for cruising duties, such as high fuel consumption, deep draught preventing them from entering shallow ports, and cabins (often windowless) designed to maximize passenger numbers rather than comfort.
  Ocean liner services aimed at passengers ceased in 1986, with the notable exception of transatlantic crossings operated by the British shipping company Cunard Line, catering to a niche market of those who appreciated the several days at sea. In an attempt to shift the focus of the market from passenger travel to cruising with entertainment value, Cunard Line pioneered the luxury cruise transatlantic service on board the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner. International celebrities were hired to perform cabaret acts onboard and the crossing was advertised as a vacation in itself.
  Queen Elizabeth 2 also inaugurated "one-class cruising" where all passengers received the same quality berthing and facilities. This revitalized the market as the appeal of luxury cruising began to catch on, on both sides of the Atlantic. The 1970s television series Love Boat helped to popularize the concept as a romantic opportunity for couples. Another ship to make this transition was SS Norway, originally the ocean liner SS France and later converted to cruising duties as the Caribbean's first "super-ship".
  Contemporary cruise ships built in the late 1980s and later, such as Sovereign-class which broke the size record held for decades by Norway, showed characteristics of size and strength once reserved for ocean liners – some have undertaken regular scheduled transatlantic crossings. The Sovereign-class ships were the first "megaships" to be built for the mass cruising market, they also were the first series of cruise ships to include a multi-story atrium with glass elevators. They also had a single deck devoted entirely to cabins with private balconies instead of oceanview cabins. Other cruise lines soon launched ships with similar attributes, such as the Fantasy-class, leading up to the Panamax-type Vista-class, designed such that two-thirds of the oceanview staterooms have verandas. As the veranda suites were particularly lucrative for cruise lines, something which was lacking in older ocean liners, recent cruise ships have been designed to maximize such amenities and have been described as "balcony-laden floating condominiums".
  Until 1975–1980, cruises offered shuffleboard, deck chairs, "drinks with umbrellas and little else for a few hundred passengers". After 1980, they offered increasing amenities. As of 2010, city-sized ships have dozens of amenities.
  There have been nine or more new cruise ships added every year since 2001, including the 11 members of the Vista-class, and all at 100,000 GT or greater. The only comparable ocean liner to be completed in recent years has been Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Following the retirement of her running mate Queen Elizabeth 2 in November 2008, Queen Mary 2 is the only liner operating on transatlantic routes, though she also sees significant service on cruise routes.
  Queen Mary 2 was for a time the largest passenger ship before being surpassed by Royal Caribbean International's Freedom-class vessels in 2006. The Freedom-class ships were in turn overtaken by RCI's own Oasis-class vessels which entered service in 2009 and 2010. A distinctive feature of Oasis-class ships is the split "open-atrium" structure, made possible by the hull's extraordinary width, with the 6-deck high "Central Park" and "Boardwalk" outdoor areas running down the middle of the ship and verandas on all decks.
  In two short decades (1988–2009), the largest class cruise ships have grown a third longer (268 m to 360 m), almost doubled their widths (32.2 m to 60.5 m), doubled the total passengers (2,744 to 5,400), and tripled in volume (73,000 GT to 225,000 GT). Also, the "megaships" went from a si
caption: Oasis of the Seas with a 6-deck high outdoor area
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