World’s Biggest Passenger Ships
In the past few years the competition has been hotting up to build the world’s largest passenger vessels, resulting in huge craft which would dwarf ships like RMS Titanic. Today we’re going to take a look at some of the World’s Biggest Passenger Ships!
Floating off the coast of Conzumel, Mexico is MS Freedom of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world which weighs in at 154,407 tons and is capable of carrying 4370 passengers! Guests are entertained by 3 huge pools, shops, pubs and even a climbing wall. If you think your car has poor fuel efficiency, take heart in the fact that this behemoth uses 12.8 tonnes of fuel… per hour!
Freedom of the Seas was built in the Aker yards in Turku, Finland, between 2004 and 2005, and in 2007 her sister ship, MS Liberty of the Seas, was also completed there to exactly the same specification. Microsoft Live Maps’ birds-eye feature has caught the construction in action, and it’s extraordinary to see the work that goes into a ship of this size. Check out the helipad on the bow!
(Warning: Live Maps are still not compatible with Safari I’m afraid!)
Until Freedom and Liberty became the largest passenger ships in the world, the title was held by Cunard’s famous RMS Queen Mary 21. At 148,528 gross tons she’s only slightly lighter, but takes the distinction of being the longest at 345 metres, as well as the highest and also the widest! Here she is docked in New York City.
Moored in Florida is one of Disney’s own fleet of two ships, Magic and Wonder. The two ships are almost identical, but I have it on good authority that this is Wonder. At 964 feet these are no record breakers, but I thought they were worthy of a mention!
The ships generally cruise the Caribbean, where one of their main stops is one of Disney’s own private islands, ‘Castaway Cay‘.
On board the ships there are some rather unique features for the 2400 passengers to enjoy, such as computer simulators to let you imagine you are guiding the ship, spas, and a whopping 24×14 foot LCD TV attached to the front funnel of the ship. However, what wins it for me is the main swimming pool, which of course is shaped like Mickey Mouse! 
Read more about Freedom of the Seas, Queen Mary 2 and the Disney Cruise Line at Wikipedia.
Thanks to Joao Almeida, Rob B, Jolo Quina, Tim, Chris, adam wanderman, greg and orchjoe.
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The RMS prefix is inferred on a vessel which is a Royal Mail Ship, such as the RMS Titanic. ↩
12.8 tonnes of fuel per hour, translates to roughly 27 miles per gallon per passenger, assuming full load, 21.6 knots, and 7 pounds of fuel per gallon. Not extremely inefficient, comparing to a car.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=40+km+%2F+%2812.8+tonnes+%2F+%287+pounds+per+gallon%29+%2F+4270%29+in+miles+per+gallon&btnG=Search
About the Live Maps and Safari thing, when you change your useragent to something else, like IE, it will work. Microsoft blocks Safari in Live Maps
The future Genesis class ships will hold almost twice as many people, although they don’t seem to be much larger than the Freedom of the Seas.
This article is great, but I can’t help but be disturbed by the fact that Disney owns one or more island(s)! GSS FTW!
ps What is with Rob’s fascination with car crashes?!
The difference between the land they own in Orlando and the land they own in the Bahamas is the later happens to border an ocean on all sides. How does this make such ownership disturbing? It shouldn’t be a problem unless Johny Depp and his band of pirates was involved…
How can you claim that the RMS Queen Mary 2 is longer wider and taller but not bigger?
Surely you mean the “heaviest” in the world and not the “largest” when referring to MS Freedom of the Seas?
Wikipedia says the QE2 is 294 m long and not 345m.
I have seen the QE2 in cape town a few years ago.
@Timothy,
According to Wikipedia, “size of civilian passenger ships is measured by gross tonnage.”
The Queen Mary 2 is 345m in length, maybe you had the QE2 confused with the QM2? The Queen Elizabeth 2 used to be in Los Angeles harbour, but it seems to have moved in the latest image update…
Cheers!
My RSS feed says Colombian Water Slide. But no sign of the post. What gives?
Like the boats above by the way. I rate this one 4 out of 5.
@julian: You must have been seeing into the future!
To respond to Lars initial comment above, looking at it in MPG is a very interesting way of doing it, but 27 MPG is *fantastic* for a boat.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/adventures/1277216.html?page=2
[i]At wide-open throttle (WOT) the engine was turning 4800 rpm and gulping down 11.9 gal. of gas per hour (gph). That’s 2.92 mpg. At a more relaxed speed of 20 mph, it returned 3.23 mpg to give a cruising range of 274 miles.[/i]
That’s for a consumer-sized engine on a consumer-sized boat. Granted, some of the boat engine companies (Yamaha etc) have come up with new technology recently to improve boat MPG, but boats are still far less fuel efficient than cars.
In regards to the “ownership” of the islands by Disney or Carnival or Royal Caribbean, we were on a cruise last summer and went to Carnival’s “private island” in the Bahamas, Half Moon Cay. They told us that they do not actually “own” the island — rather, they lease a portion of it from the Bahamas to make their little resort area (beach, cabanas, pavilions for lunch, etc.) and the large majority of the island is left undeveloped to preserve it.
Its not docked at either port but the Irish Ferries Ulysses is the “Worlds Largest Car Ferry” It is 209m long with a gross tonnage of 50,938.
It sails between Dublin, Ireland and Holyhead, Wales.
James,
The 27 mpg is per passenger, so if those boats that get 2.9-3.2 mpg have 8 or 9 people on board then they are getting about the same 27mpg per passenger.
Comparing it to the gas mileage of a car is not fair unless you consider the passenger capacity of the car (since you are using the passenger capacity of the ship), usually at least 5 seats in a car, getting the gas mileage up around 100 mpg per passenger, depending on the car. This makes sense because a wheel on hard ground has a lot less resistance than a ship in water.
My wife and I just finished a cruise on Freedom of the Seas. Absolutely awesome regardless of its gas mileage. I will drive a hybred to make up for it. Royal Caribbean has cruising down to a fine craft.
Queen Mary 2 is still among the largest and most beautiful ships of the world. Really like it much, but in my eyes it is quite conservative. If she creates more entertainments for young people it will be perfect.
I was always interested in getting the latest information about ships, that’s why it was a great pleasure for me to read this story. Thanks for sharing.
Who knew you can earn BIIG from drawing cartoon characters..Majic/Wonder may not be the biggest ship there is, but they sure are the most fun!