Why cruise lines are betting BIG on ships that can carry huge numbers of passengers

• Major cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line are building their biggest cruise ships ever, with at least 10 new megaships set to enter the market.
• Meanwhile, many destinations around the world are creating laws to limit the access of cruise ships to certain ports and countries.
• it doesn’t make sense. But here’s why cruise lines think bigger is better

Royal Caribbean is rolling out mega-ships every other year; Norwegian Cruise Line has just ordered four of its biggest ships yet; MSC’s World Class series have a capacity for nearly 7,000 passengers; and from 2029 Carnival Cruise Line will build its largest vessels yet.

These floating cities are mighty impressive feats of engineering and prove popular with guests. But as mass tourism becomes an issue, where will these ships go?

Cruise lines are investing heavily in their own private destinations, creating havens where they don’t have to worry about regulations or fees. And these private islands will be able to host the largest vessels in the world without push back from destinations.

Cities around the world have been taking steps to limit tourists, especially cruise passengers. The movement was kicked off by Venice banning cruise ships. Even in recent weeks we’ve seen confirmation from places all over the world, from Iceland to Mexico that they’re pushing back against cruise visitors. 

Attitudes towards over tourism both passengers as well. The Global Rescue Winter 2025 travel survey says 73% of travellers are worried about over tourism, and a third of travellers experienced it firsthand in 2024. 

Furthermore, 53% of travellers are intentionally trying to avoid destinations experiencing over tourism such as France and Spain.

So why are cruise lines investing huge amounts in these enormous vessels?

Megaships on their way

Royal Caribbean 

• Two years ago Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest ship started sailing. The gigantic ship that can carry 7600 passengers has proved extremely popular and there’s more on the way.
• Nearly as big as Icon of the Seas, Utopia of the Seas started sailing last year, home to 5668 guests at double occupancy and 2290 crew across 18 decks. 
• Coming up next is Star of the Seas, which will be the next ship in the Icon class, serving as the sister ship to Icon, every bit as large. 
• While Star of the Seas has just floated out and is set to start sailing in 2025, the cruise line isn’t slowing down. New Icon class ships are expected to arrive in 2026 and 2027 as well, currently unnamed. 
• Therefore, by 2027 Royal Caribbean will be operating four Icon class ships, each tied as the biggest ship in the world. Furthermore, in 2028, a seventh Oasis-class ship will arrive, from Royal Caribbean’s second-biggest class of ship. 

Norwegian Cruise Line 

• NCL has just placed an order for four massive megaships, each being able to hold a total of 8300 passengers and crew. These will be built and delivered between 2030 and 20236.
• This will be a new class of ship for NCL and their biggest yet.
• Meanwhile, NCL has new ships coming in 2027 and 2028, each of which will be the cruise line’s largest ships yet. 

Carnival Cruise Line 

• In 2029, the first of three giant vessels will be delivered to Carnival Cruises, with the others to follow in 2031 and 2033.
• Not too much is known about the ships yet other than that they’ll be Carnival’s biggest, and each will have a capacity of nearly 8000 guests. 

MSC Cruises 

• MSC has a new ship World America that will be its biggest yet and start sailing out of Miami this April.
• It’s been reported that MSC Cruises is in talks to build its biggest ships yet. 
• Little is known as of yet, except that MSC Cruises began talks with Meyer Turku, the shipyard that builds the Icon Class ships for Royal Caribbean.
• MSC’s biggest ships such as MSC World Europa already take nearly 7000 passengers, so if they were planning on going over bigger, their ships could rival the world’s largest. 

Destinations pushing back on cruise

Below is a list of just some of the ports, regions, and countries that have instituted activities in recent months and years to limit cruising to their country. 

• Mexico has a USD$42 tax on every cruise passenger that visits the country, whether they get off the ship or not.
• Venice has banned large cruise ships to the city centre.
• Juno in Alaska has placed cruise caps and attempted to stop cruise ships visiting on Saturdays. 
• Bar Harbor in Maine has stopped major cruise lines from visiting. 
• Norway will be banning all non-fuel-efficient ships from visiting its waters. 
• Iceland has seen ships cancel visits due to a significant new tax on cruise ships.
• New Zealand customs has added higher per-person processing fees on cruise ships. 
• Nice and Cannes are looking to ban cruises from 2025. 
• Greece is implementing cruise caps on popular destinations. 
• Barcelona is instituting new taxes on cruise passengers, as well as discussing cruise caps. 
• Also in Spain, Mallorca is reintroducing cruise caps. 
• Dubrovnik in Croatia has been steadily tightening cruise caps over recent years. 
• Amsterdam has pushed back on cruise with new caps and potentially moving the port out of the centre of the city.

The private island solution

With even traditionally cruise-friendly destinations tightening the screws on cruise, it raises doubt over how viable the future of these megaships are. However, the clues can be found in the cruise line investments. 

Of the large cruise lines that are currently looking at building bigger ships, they are all investing heavily in private islands and destinations. 

Industry analysts have previously explained to Reuters why cruise lines are drawn to private islands for the profits.

Bob Levinstein CEO of Cruise Marketplace said: “By having their own port and not having to pay passenger fees and government taxes, they are able to capture more of that total revenue.”

Kenneth Kurt, vice president at Ariel Investment said: “Royal is getting some of the best returns in all of cruise right now, and the big edge they have is CoCoCay, and everybody else is trying to catch up.” 

Ships getting larger as ports push back with capacity caps is all the more incentive for cruise lines to increase investment into private destinations, and that appears to be the prevalent pattern. 

Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day at CocoCay success has been well documented, and they’ll soon be opening a second PerfectDay experience in Mexico. Furthermore, they are developing beach clubs around the Caribbean, and one in the Pacific. 

Carnival Cruises is putting nearly $1 billion towards developing Celebration Key, a private island in the Bahamas, which will assumedly be a regular destination for its upcoming megaships. This is scheduled to open this year in 2025, and a year later it will complete expansions to its other private destination, Half Moon Cay.

NCL is currently working to expand the capacity on its private island in the Bahamas, in order that two ships will be able to visit at once, working out perfectly for the upcoming additions to its fleet. Furthermore, last year the cruise line finished work on Harvest Caye, a private island in Belize. 

MSC also has its own private island, Ocean Cay in The Bahamas. 

Including properties under development, cruise lines own a total of 17 ports and private destinations across the Caribbean, according to Business Insider. 

It appears that cruise lines are prepping for a private-island-centric future, where megaships can maximise profits and free themselves from worrying about fees, caps, and government regulations. 

The assuredness of cruise lines in continuing to develop mega ships suggests that they are undeterred by over-tourism concerns, and it appears to be because they’re already investing in their plans to combat these concerns.