What is the largest cruise ship?
The Oasis class cruise ships are the largest cruise ships with Symphony of the Seas, surpassing her sisters Harmony of the Seas (above), Allure of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas (respectively below). Allure is larger than Oasis by about an inch, which led to the claim that Allure was the largest cruise ship. However, gross tonnage is the recognized standard of measurement and since the two ships have the same gross tonnage, they should be considered the same size.
 
Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas (above) and sisters Anthem of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas are tied for seventh.
Queen Mary 2 (below) is the largest ocean liner but no longer in the top ten largest passenger ship. 
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 Symphony of the Seas
The standard for measuring the size of cruise ships (and ocean liners) is gross tonnage.*
The highest gross tonnage is Symphony of the Seas, an Oasis class cruise ship, with 228.081 gross tons. She just slightly surpasses her three sister ships Harmony of the Seas (227,000 gross tons), Allure of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas (both 225,282 gross tons). (Note that it is not all that unusual for ships of the same class not to have the same gross tonnage. For example, the first two ships of Royal's Voyager class were slightly smaller than the last three ships of that class). The next largest cruise ships in terms of gross tonnage is MSC Cruises' Meraviglia at 171,598 gross tons. Royal Caribbean then returns with Spectrum of the Seas, a Quantum-Ultra class ship. At 168,800 gross tons, Spectrum is slightly larger than the Quantum class sisters Anthem of the Seas, Quantum of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas at 168,666 gross tons. Norwegian Cruise Line has the next two largest ships with Norwegian Bliss (168,028 gross tons) and Norwegian Joy (167,725). The largest ocean liner - - as opposed to cruise ship - - is Queen Mary 2 at 151,000 gross tons. To give a sense of how this compares to the great ocean liners of the past, Titanic was 46,000 gross tons, Normandie was 79,280 gross tons, the first Queen Mary was 81,237 gross tons, the first Queen Elizabeth was 83,673 gross tons, the France was 66,343 gross tons (subsequently 76,049 as Norway) and the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was 70,327 gross tons. *Note: Creating some confusion, the size of warships and cargo ships are measured in tons. However, gross tonnage is different than the measures (i.e., displacement and dead weight) used for those other types of ships. (see separate article). 
Norwegian Bliss
Top Ten Biggest Passenger Ships1. Symphony of the Seas
2. Harmony of the Seas 3,4. (tie) Allure of the Seas Oasis of the Seas 5. MSC Meraviglia 6. Spectrum of the Seas 7, 8, 9. (tie) Anthem of the Seas Quantum of the Seas Ovation of the Seas 10. Norwegian Bliss |
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