Aircraft Carrier Vs Cruise Ship Size: Which Is The More Massive Boat?

Aircraft carriers and cruise ships are among the biggest ships the world has ever seen. Both these ship types are awesome sights, but — obviously — both serve distinctly different purposes. Cruise ships exist to give us a taste of luxury and take us to exotic places. Aircraft carriers are there to ensure that the world remains a safe enough place to take such cruises. But just how big are these ships, and which is larger, a cruise liner or an aircraft carrier? 

To establish this, we can take the current largest of each ship type and do a side-by-side comparison. First, let's take a look at the world's largest cruise ship. Until recently, this was a record held by Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, which weighed in with a gross tonnage of 248,663. However, on August 9, 2025, the new holder of the crown – Royal Caribbean's Star of the Seas — berthed at Port Canaveral to prepare for her first cruise on August 16. This behemoth weighs in at 250,800 gross tons. Big ships indeed, but how do they compare to an aircraft carrier? 

The current holder of the record is the USS Gerald R. Ford, which has a displacement of about 100,000 tons. By this metric alone, the biggest cruise liner is substantially larger than its aircraft carrier equivalent. But let's have a little fun and dig a little deeper into the stats and see how the two ship types compare. 

Beginning operations in August 2025, Star of The Seas is just one of Royal Caribbean's many cruise ships. And while we've established that the Star of the Seas is more than twice the weight of the heaviest aircraft carrier, weight isn't everything. We need to explore some other metrics to get a true sense of the scale of these ships. 

Royal Caribbean's latest cruise ship is 1,196 feet in length and has a beam of 219 feet. At double occupancy rates, it can accommodate 5,610 passengers in 2,805 staterooms across her 18 guest decks (the ship has 20 decks in total). However, at full capacity, the passenger numbers can rise to 7,000. Add a crew of 2,350, and the total people aboard a full ship is over 9,000 — the epitome of a city at sea. Of course, unlike the aircraft carrier, this is a ship that is built for one purpose — pleasure. So, to keep all those passengers happy, there are seven swimming pools, over 40 bars and restaurants, waterslides, a theater, a spa, sports courts, and... you get the picture. Driving the ship and all this luxury are six dual-fuel, lower-emission engines. As well as supplying power to the ship's fuel cells, these power five bow thrusters and three diesel-electric azimuthing thrusters. In short, this is a floating resort that dwarfs most other vessels. 

The crew of the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier doesn't have access to waterslides, bars, and casinos, but they do have access to one of the most impressive, deadly, and technologically advanced machines ever. While not quite as long as its cruise ship equivalent, the carrier is still an impressive 1,092 feet long and 134 feet wide. Once you add a flight deck, however, the ship's width grows to 252 feet. Crewing this behemoth are a total of 4,660 personnel split across the ship's crew, air wing, and staff. The Gerald R. Ford is built to protect the US and its allies. To this end, she is a formidable military force capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft and armaments. The latter includes the Sea Sparrow missile and a rolling airframe missile system for close-range protection. 

The ship uses a twin nuclear reactor propulsion system that powers four propeller shafts and a zonal electrical power system. To get an idea of how big this ship is, at the end of each of the ship's four shafts sits a bronze propeller that weighs 30 tons. The ship is the first in the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers (hence the name) and features several upgrades from the Nimitz class carriers. Including improved sortie rates, a 150 percent increase in electrical power generation, and a 30 percent reduction in maintenance needs. 

Both these ships are different in purpose, but are unmatched in their realms, and make awe-inspiring sights wherever they go.