What is the largest cruise ship?
Utopia of the Seas
Above: Royal Caribbean's Oasis class cruise ships are no longer the largest cruise ships. However, he largest of these is now Utopia of the Seas with sisters Wonder of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas (above right); and Harmony of the Seas (below) in the second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
 Oasis of the Seas (above), the first cruise ship to surpass 200,000 gross tons is now the sixth largest cruise ship with sister Allure of the Seas (below) in seventh place.
Costa Toscana of Costa Cruises (above), is the largest of the new LNG-powered ships delivered to Carnival Corporation's lines. (Photo courtesy of Costa Cruises).
Sister ship Arvia, sailing for P&O Cruises, rounds out the top ten largest ships as of January 1, 2025. 
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Symphony of the Seas
January 2025:
As it has for more than a decade, Royal Caribbean dominates the list of the world's largest cruise ships, tgis year holding the first seven positions. However, MSC Cruises has burst into the top ten, surpassing Carnival Corporation's series of massive LNG powered ships. Absent from the list is Norwegian Cruise Line, a traditional member of the club. As in the past, we will use the standard for measuring the size of cruise ships (and ocean liners) gross tonnage.* The highest gross tonnage is Icon of the Seas, the first ship in Royal Caribbean's Icon class. The next largest is Utopia of the Seas, an Oasis class cruise ship, which slightly edges out her sisters Wonder of the Seas (235,600 gross tons); Symphony of the Seas, 228.081 gross tons; Harmony of the Seas (227,000 gross tons); Oasis of the Seas (226,858 gross tons), and Allure of the Seas (225,282 gross tons). (Note that although Oasis was the lead ship in the class, and each ship in the class was built larger than its predecessor, she is now larger than the younger Allure of the Seas due to a refit in which her tonnage was increased. It is not all that unusual for ships of the same class not to have the same gross tonnage). The next largest cruise ship in terms of gross tonnage is MSC Cruises' MSC World Europa. The remainder of the top ten are ships in Carnival Corporation's Excellence class. These LNG-powered giants have been distributed over Carnival's various operating brands. They are all similar in size but the two largest by narrow margins are Costa Toscana (186,364 gross tons) and P&O Cruises' Arvia (165,581 gross tons). The largest ocean liner - - as opposed to cruise ship - - remains 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). 
Queen Mary 2 is the largest ocean liner but no longer in the top ten largest passenger ship.
Top Ten Biggest Passenger Ships1. Icon of the Seas
2. Utopia of the Seas 3. Wonder of the Seas 4. Symphony of the Seas 5. Harmony of the Seas 6. Oasis of the Seas 7. Allure of the Seas 8. MSC World Europa 9. Costa Toscana 10. Arvia |
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