Cruise expert says 'mega ships' will soon rival cities and carry 35,000 passengers

A cruise expert has predicted that cruise ships could soon be the size of small cities, carrying thousands of passengers and having enough onboard that most people probably wouldn't get off the ship.

Long gone are the days when cruise holidays included a bit of live entertainment and a pool. Nowadays, ships have everything from onboard rollercoasters, epic water parks, slides, and thrill-attractions, not to mention the plethora of restaurants and shops on board.

Of course that means that vessels are getting bigger every year. Currently, the world's largest cruise ship is Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, which can hold up to 7,600 passengers - and even that is getting a rival in the form of a sister ship Star of the Seas which will be the same size.

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Mark Barton, cruise expert at Avanti Travel Insurance, looked at the current growth rates for cruise ships, and has predicted that theoretically, by 2075 we could be seeing mega ships that can carry up to 34,860 passengers, with a gross tonnage of 902,000 - nearly five times the size of Icon of the Seas.

Mark has attributed the demand for these larger ships to passenger demands for entertainment. Research from Avanti showed that the growth is driven by younger passengers, who make up over a third of cruise passengers worldwide, and prefer onboard entertainment to traditional sightseeing.

He points to the ever-increasing number of festival cruises where passengers tend to stay on the ship because of a jam-packed programme of entertainment, such as the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, which has been dubbed 'the world's biggest heavy metal cruise', carries 3,000 metal fans and features 60+ bands performing 120+ shows across four stages. Meanwhile the EDSea - the Electronic Dance Carnival cruise - transforms ships into floating nightclubs with multiple stages and 24/7 music programming.

However, these mega ships could have one big drawback for those who prefer the traditional port-hopping experiences; destinations simply aren't equipped to deal with the size of giant vessels.

"While the mathematical projections suggest ships could one day carry 35,000 passengers, this is future-gazing based on past growth patterns. The reality is different, as there are significant real-world constraints," Mark explained. "Port infrastructure, safety protocols, and fuel demands make vessels of that scale highly unlikely.

"Only a handful of global superports, such as Miami, Barcelona, Shanghai or Dubai, could potentially accommodate vessels of this size, and critically, the environmental impact of building and operating ships at this scale cannot be ignored."

In recent years a number of holiday hotspots have been introducing rules to try and combat the effects of overtourism, including the crowds of cruise passengers that descend on a city for a few days. In 2021, Venice became one of the first port cities to ban cruise ships weighing over 25,000 tons and redirecting them to a port further away. The city has also brought in a tourism tax of approximately €5 for day-trippers who are not spending the night in the Italian city, over a course of peak season travel dates.

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