How Many Ships Does The Royal Caribbean Cruise Company Own & Which Is The Largest?

Royal Caribbean is one of the most prominent, and certainly most regal, names in the cruise ship business. The corporate headquarters of Royal Caribbean Group is in Miami, but the company itself actually dates back to late 1960s Norway. A venture that began in 1970 with the Song of Norway cruise ship's inaugural journey has now grown to a brand with a total revenue of $16.5 billion in 2024.  

This was not accomplished by the Song of Norway alone. This particular vessel, which was just under 200 meters long and had capacity for 1,196 passengers, sported a formidable 22,945 gross tonnage. As the cruise market grew, however, the Song of Norway ended up actually being quite modest. Royal Caribbean lists its current active fleet at 28 ships (though this is variable as new additions are completed and enter service), each of them with names ending in "of the Seas." From Allure of the Seas to Utopia of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas, they continue to be named to suggest luxury and stellar service, as was the original intent behind the founders' choice of the name "Royal" Caribbean.

In November 2023, Guinness World Records declared Icon of the Seas to be the world's biggest cruise ship. At 248,663 gross tons, it is 1,196 feet in length and has room for 5,610 passengers (and 2,350 staff members). A veritable floating vacation resort it may be, but it's far from the only cruise ship of awe-inspiring dimensions in the Royal Caribbean Fleet. Cruise ships aren't the fastest ships around, but they're certainly some of the biggest.

Needless to say, the crown of biggest cruise ship in the world is quite a prestigious one, not to mention a competitive one. As rival companies introduce new vessels and continue to make them bigger and bigger, there's danger of it changing hands. Royal Caribbean is known to have broken its own record on that score, and not just once. In May 2022, Sean Treacy, then the brand's vice president of international sales, declared that the then-in-progress Icon of the Seas would be of even grander scale than Wonder of the Seas, an Oasis class vessel that was the biggest cruise ship in the world at the time. Let's not forget that cruise ships need to hold an awful lot of fuel as well as everything else.

Wonder of the Seas measures 1,188 feet long, and weighs in at 235,600 gross tons. It's also over 215 feet wide. It's easy to see how it was the biggest such vessel anywhere on its launch, but Icon of the Seas was just titanic enough to eclipse it. In fact, the famously doomed Titanic weighed just (that being a relative term) 46,329 gross tons and was 852.5 feet long. It was also the biggest ship in the world when it was launched. Not just the biggest ship of its sort but the biggest, period. Star of the Seas, the second planned Icon class vessel, is set to measure 1,196 feet long just like Icon itself, so it isn't planned to top its predecessor. As undeniably monstrous as the Icon class ships are, they are not the biggest overall ships afloat, as the Titanic was on its introduction. Outside of such passenger vessels, there are more formidable ones still. 

One of the main factors determining a ship's size is its purpose. In the case of the biggest cruise ships, there needs to be ample room not only for cabins, but for eating and entertainment venues, shops, hosting a wide range of activities, and everything else besides. While cargo ships aren't likely to host Tex-Mex buffets or rock climbing walls, they do need an awful lot of storage space. Unsurprisingly, some of the other biggest ships the world has ever seen aren't about glamorous vacations, but about hard work.

The world's biggest ship of all was the appropriately named Seawise Giant. This gigantic vessel was designed as a supertanker, and super it would certainly prove to be. In terms of pure deadweight tonnage, this giant vessel tipped the scales at 564,763 tons, giving it a ludicrous cargo capacity in tandem with the fact that it was 1,504 feet long. Comfortably over 300 feet longer than Icon of the Seas, Interesting Engineering declares it to have been "the longest, biggest, and heaviest ship ever made." In 2010, this ocean-going behemoth was taken apart for scrap metal. The world's largest active ship -– in terms of its gross tonnage, which hits 403,342 -– at present is the Pioneering Spirit, created for pipe-laying and crane work. Royal Caribbean has never approached these lofty measurements, but there's no telling what the cruise line might achieve in the future.