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A timeline of the world’s largest passenger ships

What are the largest passenger ships of all time? We’ve created the ultimate cruise ship size comparison timeline so you can take a deep dive through maritime history to discover when famous ocean liners and cruise ships such as the the SS Great Eastern, RMS Titanic, SS France, RMS Queen Mary 2, and Symphony of the Seas have held the title of biggest passenger ship in the world. Take a look below at our illustrated timeline of the largest ocean liners in history and cruise ship size chart.

A timeline of the world's largest passenger ships

What are the TOP#10 biggest cruise ships in 2020?

  1. Symphony of the Seas: Royal Caribbean International (gross tonnage 228,081 GT, 361 meters)
  2. Harmony of the Seas: Royal Caribbean International (gross tonnage 226,963 GT, 362 meters)
  3. Oasis of the Seas: Royal Caribbean International (gross tonnage 226,838 GT, 359 meters)
  4. Allure of the Seas: Royal Caribbean International (gross tonnage 225,282 GT, 359 meters)
  5. Costa Smeralda: Costa Crociere (gross tonnage 185,010 GT, 337 meters)
  6. AIDAnova: AIDA Cruises (gross tonnage 183,858 GT, 337 meters)
  7. Carnival Mardi Gras: Carnival Cruise Line (gross tonnage 183,900 GT, 344 meters)
  8. MSC Grandiosa: MSC Cruises (gross tonnage 181,541 GT, 331 meters)
  9. MSC Meraviglia and MSC Bellissima: MSC Cruises (gross tonnage 171,598 GT, 315 meters)
  10. Spectrum of the Seas: Royal Caribbean International (gross tonnage 169,379 GT, 347 meters)

What's on order to be built?

As of October 2020, there are 42 passenger ships on order or under construction with a publicly announced size of over 120,000 GT.

 

The largest are two Oasis-class ships being built for Royal Caribbean International (RCI) for 2021 and 2023. RCI also has three 200,000-GT Icon-class cruise ships on order, with expected delivery between 2022 and 2025, and a fifth Quantum-class ship on order for late 2020. Celebrity Cruises, which is part of the Royal Caribbean Group, will introduce three larger 140,600-GT Edge-class ships in 2021, 2022, and 2024. TUI Cruises, a joint venture between Royal Caribbean Group and TUI Group, are introducing a new class of 161,000-GT cruise ships in 2024 and 2026.

 

Dream Cruises is planning to take delivery of two 208,000-GT Global-class ships in 2021 and 2022, which will be the first ships over 200,000 GT not built for RCI and will have the largest maximum passenger capacity of 6.000.

 

MSC Cruises has four World-class ships planned for 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2027, and at 205,700 GT and a capacity of 6,850 passengers, they will have the highest passengers capacities of any ship and be the largest ships operated by a European cruise line. They also have two ships from each of the Meraviglia Plus class and the Seaside Evo class on order for delivery from 2020 to 2023.

 

Carnival Corporation has seven more 183,200–183,900-GT Excellence-class ships planned to debut between 2020 and 2023 for Costa Crociere, P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, and AIDA Cruises. Costa will also take delivery of the fifth 135,000-GT Vista-class ship in 2020, and two more Vista-class ships are planned in 2023 and 2024 for a joint venture between Carnival Corporation and China State Shipbuilding Corporation now know as CSSC Carnival (Carnival China). Princess Cruises will take delivery of the last two Royal-class ships in 2020 and 2021, planned at 144,650 GT each.

 

Each year from 2022 to 2027, Norwegian Cruise Line will debut a ship from Project Leonardo. The six ships are expected to be 140,000 GT and carry 3,300 passengers.

 

Disney Cruise Line will launch three 144,000-GT Triton-class ships in 2021, 2022, and 2023. These ships will have 1,250 staterooms, like the line’s previous two ships, but will be 14,000 GT larger than those ships and powered by liquefied natural gas fuel.