HOW CRUISE SHIPS GOT SO BIG

In the realm of watercraft, there exist small and large boats, and then there are the truly massive vessels, such as the MSC Meraviglia. This cruise ship was constructed in Saint-Nazaire, France in 2017 and was christened by Sophia Loren. It is the largest cruise ship to have ever docked in New York City, boasting an impressive array of amenities, including a water park, rope course, spa, mall, arcade, bowling alley, casino, gym, two theaters, five pools, nine restaurants, 23 bars, and 19 floors, with enough space to accommodate 5,655 passengers and 1,536 crew members. Cruise ships are the largest passenger vessels ever built, capable of transporting an entire small town's worth of people in a single vehicle. However, their appearance differs greatly from the transatlantic ships of a century ago.

Prior to the advent of cruise ships, ocean liners were the largest ships on the planet, designed solely for the purpose of transporting passengers from one location to another. During the golden age of ocean travel, before the advent of air travel, ships were the only option for long-distance travel. Ocean liners were advertised for their speed across the Atlantic and luxurious accommodations, which were difficult to achieve given the conditions of the open ocean. To replicate the amenities of life on land, ocean liners such as the RMS Aquitania featured restaurants, smoking rooms, gardens, and a massive lounge with painted ceilings. For first-class passengers, ocean liners offered all the comforts of a city, but at sea.

However, the rise of air travel rendered ocean liners obsolete by the 1960s. As ocean liner companies struggled to sell tickets, they began offering leisure trips to warmer regions, advertising ocean travel as a vacation rather than a mode of transportation. The cruise ship was born, but it took some time for them to gain popularity. It wasn't until the TV show The Love Boat that cruising became mainstream.

As cruises became more popular, ocean liners faced a problem. They were designed for speed and consumed a lot of fuel, sat low in the water, and had separate sections for first, second, and third class passengers, limiting everyone's freedom of movement throughout the ship. Compared to full-time cruise ships, ocean liners were huge and had to attract a lot of vacationers to be profitable. As sea travel continued to dwindle, even the largest ocean liner in the world, the SS France, couldn't generate enough revenue to operate. In 1979, Norwegian Caribbean Lines purchased the France and converted it into a full-time cruise ship.

The SS Norway, as it was renamed, proved that size worked for cruise ships and kicked off a race to build bigger and bigger ships, changing the look of cruise ships forever. To fit more cabins and amenities, superstructures became taller and wider, which shortened the bow. The once-prominent smokestacks were hidden, and the bow was rounded out to provide more square footage for amenities. The Norway was the biggest operating passenger ship in the world in 1980, with an internal volume of over 70,000 gross tons. However, the ships built over the following decades make the Norway look tiny, with the new Royal Caribbean ships being three times the size of the legendary Queen Elizabeth of 1940.

Today, there are over 320 cruise ships sailing around the world, but only one ocean liner remains: the Queen Mary 2. Built in Saint-Nazaire, France in 2004 and christened by Elizabeth II, it still operates regularly from Southampton to New York City. While the elegance of design may be missing from many of the new, massive ships, it is the way things go, and people will likely pine for the great-looking ships of the 2020s in the future.