Longboats: The longest cruise ship in the world, in context

7/13/23 7:00PM

Iconic

‍‍Royal Caribbean recently announced that its new mega cruise ship, the Icon of the Seas, passed its first round of sea trials, successfully navigating the open ocean for the first time ahead of its maiden voyage in January 2024. As far as response on social media goes, however, things haven't exactly been plain sailing.

With 20 decks, 15 bars, 2,350 crew members, space for 5,600 passengers, 7 pools, a neon-heavy color scheme, 6 “record-breaking” water slides, and a gross tonnage of 250,800, Royal Caribbean’s latest offering is either a “game changer” or a “hellish monstrosity”, depending on your perspective.

‍Longboats

‍The Icon of the Seas is just the latest instalment in Royal Caribbean's fleet of gargantuan cruise liners — the Norwegian company, which is actually based in Miami, has been leagues ahead of competitors when it comes to mega ships for years now. The company first began to pull away from the competition in the 90s with its range of Voyager Class ships, and they’ve been building them bigger ever since.

Royal Caribbean dominates the cruise liner game in terms of overall length, with ships occupying every one of the top 10 spots, and that’s not even including the Icon and its staggering 1,198ft (365 meter) span — more than double the length of the Washington Monument. The cruiser’s magnitude is hard to get your head around, but when laid flat, for example, the Eiffel Tower is a full 115ft shorter than the Icon.

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