People amazed to see size of world's largest cruise ship that's five times bigger than the Titanic as it prepares for voyage

People have been left stunned by the size of a new cruise liner.

The new ship Icon of the Seas is due to set off on its maiden voyage from Miami on January 27.

Calculated by gross tonnage, which is not a measure of the ship's weight but of its volume, the ship is the largest cruise liner in the world.

The gross tonnage of Icon of the Seas is a whopping 248,663.

It also has an overall length of 364.75 metres, making it longer than the previous longest Oasis Class cruise liners.

The enormous ship still has long way from being the longest ship ever built though,

This was the oil tanker Seawise Giant, which measured some 458.46 metres in length before it was retired in 2009.

But that hasn't stopped people being flabbergasted by the sheer size of Icon if the Seas.

And, of course, we have to make the obvious comparison to the Titanic.

JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images

In terms of length, the Titanic certainly lived up to its name, clocking in at a whopping 269.1 metres.

But it's in gross tonnage where Icon of the Seas wipes the floor with Titanic.

While Icon of the Seas has a gross tonnage of 248,663, Titanic's gross register tonnage, used in place of gross tonnage at the time, was much lower at just 46,329.

With 2,350 crew and a maximum capacity of 7,600 passengers, Icon of the Seas is almost like a floating town.

But what about the amenities?

Well, according to Royal Caribbean, the ship has six waterslides on board.

There are also not one, but seven swimming pools on the ship, including Royal Bay which they claim is the largest pool at sea.

JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images

The ship even boasts an on board ice rink, because at this point why not?

There is also an on board 'beach club', which features the first suspended infinity pool on a ship.

Icon of the Seas is also some 20 decks high.

The ship also has a distinctive 'aquadome' located at the front of the vessel.

This 363-tonne structure had to be assembled first before being lifted into place in an operation, which took 80 hours to complete.

But how do you power such as enormous vessel? In this case, it's by liquid natural gas.

People took to social media to share their amazement at the size of the ship.

One wrote: "Truly is unbelievable how big of a ship she is."

A second posted: "Icon of the Seas is CRAZY."

A third said: Holy cr*p Icon of the Seas makes the other mega ships its sailing past look so small in comparison."

Topics: News, Travel, World News, Social Media

Kit Roberts

Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.