The future of cruises: Are mega-ships here to stay?

VENICE, Italy − Norwegian Cruise Line’s new ship, Norwegian Aqua, towered over Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard in Venice on a recent morning. It was a mass of exposed metalwork adorned with tarps and scaffolding that loomed particularly large in the confines of its wet dock rather than the oceans where such vessels are usually found. Even under construction, the brand's first Prima Plus Class ship lives up to the category’s name.

Aqua, set to launch in March, is 10% bigger than its predecessors in the line’s Prima Class and will accommodate about 3,600 passengers at double occupancy (though still smaller than the preceding Breakaway Plus Class). Norwegian Prima and Viva can carry just under 3,200 each.

Those aren’t the only large vessels coming. The final two ships in the class – still to be named – will be 20% larger than Prima and Viva, and the line will welcome four more ships between 2030 and 2036, each with a capacity of nearly 5,000 guests.

Norwegian isn’t the only one. Many major cruise lines are embracing the trend of going bigger, launching increasingly massive ships to attract travelers with more amenities, entertainment options, and space, reshaping the cruise experience as they compete for attention.

The moves come amid soaring interest in cruises more broadly. Gross booking revenue in 2022 was up 545% after the COVID-19-induced industry shutdown, according to Phocuswright's U.S. Cruise Market Report 2023-2027, released in May.

"But projections for 2023 were more modest, with many in the industry expecting 90% growth over 2022," the report said. "That projection was exceeded by more than 30 percentage points, as gross bookings soared 122% to reach $24.7 billion."

And floating-resort-style vessels are sought-after. “The guest demand for the large cruise ship, the really, really massive, big cruise ship, is through the roof,” Adam Duckworth, president and founder of Travelmation, told USA TODAY.

But that doesn’t mean the industry will be awash in huge ships. Here’s what to know.

Which cruise lines are ordering big ships?

Several major cruise companies revealed plans for large vessels in recent months. Royal Caribbean Group announced in August that it had signed an agreement with shipbuilder Meyer Turku for a fourth ship in its Icon Class, with the option to build two more.

Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas, which began sailing in January, is the world’s biggest cruise ship. The line's president and CEO, Michael Bayley, said during a second-quarter earnings call in July that the ship was sailing at about 132% load factor (denoting the number of full cabins). Cruise ships can sail at over 100% occupancy when more than two people stay in staterooms.

The load factor for the company's brands overall, including Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises, was 108%.

Carnival Cruise Line will add the largest ships in its history – and of parent company Carnival Corp. – starting in 2029, the brand said in July. Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of shipbuilder Fincantieri, said in a news release at the time that the class would mark the biggest ship ever built in Italy.

The line's biggest ships now are Carnival Jubilee and Carnival Celebration, which sail Caribbean cruises from Galveston, Texas and Miami, respectively.

Why are cruise lines leaning into big ships?

For Norwegian’s part, there were multiple motivations for scaling up the Prima Plus Class, according to Patrik Dahlgren, executive vice president, chief vessel operations and newbuild officer at the line’s parent company, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

The company applied lessons learned from the first Prima Class ships, for one.

Dahlgren told USA TODAY in an interview that “there are certain spaces that we saw on the two first ones that maybe guests found a little bit crowded, and then if they're crowded, then we are expanding that area. So, the pool area is much larger (with a) more lavish pool, so you have more seating.”

Norwegian Aqua’s atrium – a main hub of activity – is also “significantly” bigger.

Adding cabins has benefits, too. “So, you have more people on board, which also helps us as a company,” he said.

The passenger appetite for big vessels is there, according to Duckworth. At his agency, bookings in 2024 “have been higher than ever for any type of experience on these larger ships,” he said.

The ships are frequently marketed with multigenerational travel in mind and take a something-for-everyone approach to onboard offerings – a contrast to small vessels that often target a more narrow demographic.

Icon of the Seas, for instance, was touted as the “ultimate family vacation” and drove record bookings before it even set sail. The vessel’s eight neighborhoods range from the young-family-focused Surfside to the adults-only Hideaway.

Cruise lines often keep vessels in their fleet for 25 to 30 years.

“Building on the incredible momentum and market response to the launch of Icon of the Seas and the excitement for its sister ship, Star of the Seas, coming in 2025, we’re thrilled to join with Meyer Turku once again to expand our roster of Icon Class ships and continue our future growth plans,” Jason Liberty, Royal Caribbean Group’s president and CEO, said in a news release about the latest order. “Since its debut, Icon has changed the game in vacation experiences and exceeded our expectations in both guest satisfaction and financial performance.”

Joanna Kuther, a travel agent and owner of Port Side Travel Consultants, is typically not a fan of large ships. She first fell in love with cruising on Royal Caribbean's smaller Nordic Prince during a sailing to Bermuda.

"I loved getting to be, like, best friends with 700 people because you were so close for seven days," she said.

But when she sailed on Icon, the found the cruise line pulled off a feat: The ship felt much more manageable than its size would suggest. The way it was divided up offered "intimate" spots to grab a drink, and even large waterslides felt as if they fit on the ship.

"The way the areas are, you just don't feel like you're on this gargantuan ship," she said. With cruising becoming increasingly oriented around multigenerational trips, she argued, ships like Icon are "just kind of answering the needs for family travel."

Cruise lines also go toe to toe in a bid for customers, Duckworth said, pointing to the proliferation and enhancements of cruise line private islands. “They're always competing with each other to try to vie for a guest's attention,” he said.

Not all ships are getting bigger

Though massive ships like Icon generate tons of buzz, that's not the whole picture. About 70% of cruise ships now sailing carry 3,000 passengers or fewer, according to Cruise Lines International Association, the industry’s leading trade organization.

“As reflected in the current and future fleet profile based on the order book for the next 10 years, the size of ships is balanced with approximately one-third of ships in the large, one-third mid-sized, and one-third smaller ships, including expedition vessels,” spokesperson Anne Madison said in an email.

In Norwegian’s case, having various ship sizes also allows the line to visit a range of destinations, Dahlgren said. Not all cruise ports can accommodate big ships.

Still, the new orders for large ships come as a number of ports, including Venice and Juneau, Alaska, have taken steps such as capping visitor numbers and moving ships out of city centers in recent years to mitigate the strain of overtourism and environmental impacts.

Large cruise ships often sail in the Caribbean, Kuther said. They can also be found in Europe.

But Madison said that with a handful of exceptions, cruises make up “just a fraction” of tourism in a given destination. “CLIA and member cruise lines work closely with the port and destination to support tourism management needs while also protecting the economic benefits that cruise tourism brings to communities,” she said.

Floating resorts vs yacht-like vessels: How to pick between big and small cruise ships

Sustainability remains a challenge for the cruise industry, but many lines are investing in initiatives to that end, such as shore power. “There are an increasing number of ships being built and being retrofitted with cutting-edge technologies that make them the most energy-efficient and environmentally focused ships in history, regardless of size,” Madison said.

Bigger doesn't necessarily mean less efficient, either. From a propulsion standpoint, larger ships would likely outperform smaller ships environmentally because of an "economy of scale" effect, said Matthew Collette, a professor of naval architecture and marine engineering at the University of Michigan.

"A ship that, say, holds 4,000 passengers is not going to require four times the power to go through the water that four ships that hold 1,000 passengers are going to require," he said. That comparison gets complicated, however, depending on types of voyages ships are sailing and the technology ports have.

"If it's a ship in the Caribbean sailing primarily at night and pulling into ports where there's shore power and then going on to shore power, it might look very good environmentally compared to a ship that's on its own for most of the voyage and sailing more," Collette said.

When it comes to local pollution, larger ships generate more. But there are other variables: If a ship is running on cleaner-burning liquefied natural gas, for example, the effect on a port city's air quality may be less than one using diesel fuel (even if the carbon dioxide emissions are still significant).

"So that's another kind of wrinkle here, that a more modern, larger ship may be better if it's using a better fuel," Collette said.

Duckworth noted that while not all travelers enjoy big ships, many are “excited about what's bigger and better.”

“There's something magnificently special about saying to people that you've stepped on the largest cruise ship in the world.”

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are cruise ships getting bigger? Not all of them.