Many cruisers wonder why cruise lines keep building bigger and bigger ships.   Last week Royal Caribbean released the first details of the next “biggest ship in the world”, the 220,000-ton Genesis-class with a passenger compliment of 5,400 people.  

At present, Royal Caribbean’s Freedom-class ships are the largest cruise ships afloat. The Genesis vessels will be 69 feet longer, 29 feet wider and have a gross tonnage that is 43% greater.  The estimate price tag is $1.2 billion.

When asked why they keep building bigger ships, cruise line executives invariably say it’s so they can add more features such as an ice skating rink, expanded spa and “Central Park” on the new Genesis-class ships.  While it’s true that people do run to the ships with the bells and whistles, that’s not why cruise lines keep constructing bigger ships.

The real reason is financial.  While the largest ships are the most expensive to build, they’re more efficient to operate.  Not only is there greater fuel efficiency but provisioning is easier. 

Economy of scale is the biggest reason to keep increasing the tonnage of passenger vessels.   The most expensive part of operating any ship is below passenger decks.   It is more cost-effective to build engines and air conditioning units for a ship with many thousands of people than one with a few hundred. All ships, no matter what their size, have officers and crew.  And in terms of construction costs, the larger the ship, the lower the price per cabin.

According to Tim Rubacky, Oceania Cruises’ Director of Communications, ” We have the same number of bridge officers on a 700-passenger ship that Royal Caribbean has on a 4,000 passenger ship.”   

Ten years ago, cruise lines obtained their revenue from the price of a cruise ticket.  Today, it’s by generating onboard revenue from alcohol, gambling, bingo, shore excursions, the shops and art auctions.  While art auctions were once scheduled in an empty conference or public room, today cruise lines build  “galleries” for the auctions, which generate a lot of revenue for the cruise line.

Royal Caribbean has always been the cruise industry leader when it comes to building the most noteworthy ships.  When RCI’s Sovereign of the Seas entered service in 1988, she made waves as the first ship with an atrium which proved so popular that every other cruise line followed suit. 

Royal Caribbean’s Voyager- and Freedom-class vessels are among the most popular ships in the world.   The first Voyager-class ship had mind boggling features like rock climbing and ice skating.  The Freedom-class vessels, basically just larger copies of the Voyager-class ships, are equally popular.

What is the largest ship you’ll go on? 

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