Titanic vs a Modern Cruise Ship Fleet – Comparison with Photos!

The Titanic was the largest and most state of the art cruise ship when she set sail in 1912, but shipbuilding has changed a lot during the last century.

In this article, we will compare the length, height and tonnage of the Titanic to various modern cruise ships.

Are Modern Cruise Ships Bigger Than The Titanic?

Modern cruise ships are, on average, 20% longer than the Titanic and twice as high.

The average Royal Caribbean cruise ship is 325 meters long, 14 decks high and has a gross tonnage of 133,000.

In comparison, the Titanic was only 269 meters long, nine decks high, and had a gross tonnage of 46,000.

Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas is 1,196.7 ft long (364.75 metres). She has twenty decks and weighs in at 248,663 gross tonnes.

The sinking of the Titanic happened over 100 years ago, and although she was the largest ship at the time of her launch, a lot has changed since. Almost all modern cruise ships are bigger than the Titanic.

Titanic vs Modern Cruise Ships – Length Comparison

The Titanic was 269 meters long, meaning she was shorter than all the ships in the modern Royal Caribbean fleet. ( but not by much!)

Cruise Ship	Length (Nearest Meter)
*** TITANIC ***	* 269m *
Grandeur of the Seas, Rhapsody of The Seas, Vision of The Seas	279m
Radiance of the Seas, Brilliance of The Seas, Serenade of The Seas, Jewel of The Seas	293m
Enchantment of the Seas	301m
Voyager of the Seas, Explorer of The Seas, Adventure of The Seas, Navigator of The Seas, Mariner of The Seas	311m
Freedom of the Sea, Liberty of the Seas, Independence of The Seas	338m
Spectrum of The Seas	347m
Quantum of The Seas, Anthem of The Seas, Ovation of The Seas	348m
Oasis of the Seas, Allure of The Seas, Harmony of The Seas, Symphony of The Seas	360m +

The graph below shows the length of the Titanic in comparison to the Royal Caribbean fleet.

It’s interesting to note that although lengths of cruise ships have increased – on average cruise ships aren’t that much longer than Titanic.

The process of having to dock and manoeuvre cruise ships means that although they can increase almost exponentially in height, the same can’t be said for length.

Modern cruise ships still need to be able to dock in ports that were often designed for much older ships.

Find out more about the Symphony of the Seas in the video below. She is huge – I don’t think I saw everything during my week onboard!

Titanic vs Modern Cruise Ships -Tonnage Comparison

The Titanic had a gross tonnage of 46,000, less than that of all cruise ships in the modern Royal Caribbean cruise ship fleet.

The table below shows Royal Caribbean cruise ships in the order of tonnage, with Titanic first as it has the least tonnage. The average tonnage of a Royal Caribbean ship is 133,000, which is almost three times that of the Titanic.

Cruise Ship	Tonnage (Nearest 1000)
*** TITANIC ***	* 46,000 *
Grandeur of the Seas, Rhapsody of The Seas, Vision of The Seas	73,000
Enchantment of the Seas	82,000
Radiance of the Seas, Brilliance of The Seas, Serenade of The Seas, Jewel of The Seas	90,000
Voyager of the Seas, Explorer of The seas, Adventure of The Seas, Navigator of The Seas, Mariner of The Seas	140,000
Freedom of the Sea, Liberty of the Seas, Independence of The Seas	156,000
Spectrum of The Seas	169,000
Quantum of The Seas, Anthem of The Seas, Ovation of The Seas	168,000
Oasis of the Seas, Allure of The Seas, Harmony of The Seas, Symphony of The Seas, Icon of the Seas	225,000+

The below graph shows the comparison between ships.

Cruise ships have managed to increase their tonnage despite not increasing in length a great deal. This is due to the fact that cruise ships have increased in height dramatically.

Building methods and materials have also vastly improved greatly since Titanic was built, which allows ships to be built bigger and faster.

Eight men died during the construction of Titanic. That certainly wouldn’t happen building modern-day cruise ships!

Titanic vs Modern Cruise Ships – Height Comparison

Modern cruise ships can be so much larger than the Titanic because they are so much higher.

The Titanic was built in one piece by riveting large plates together, whereas modern cruise ships are built in smaller sections and then loaded into place using large cranes.

The modular way that modern cruise ships are built allows them tobuilt higher faster than using traditional ship-building methods.

Cruise Ship	Number of Passenger Decks
*** TITANIC ***	9
Majesty of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas, Rhapsody of The Seas, Vision of The Seas, Enchantment of the Seas	11
Radiance of the Seas, Brilliance of The Seas, Serenade of The Seas, Jewel of The Seas	12
Voyager of the Seas, Explorer of The seas, Adventure of The Seas, Navigator of The Seas, Mariner of The Seas, Freedom of the Sea, Liberty of the Seas, Independence of The Seas	14
Spectrum of The Seas, Quantum of The Seas, Anthem of The Seas, Ovation of The Seas	16
Oasis of the Seas, Allure of The Seas, Harmony of The Seas, Symphony of The Seas	18

The largest cruise ship for Royal Caribbean has over double the number of passenger decks as the Titanic had.

For the purpose of this comparison the decks mentioned are accessible passenger decks, the ships may have more decks which are off limits to guests.

Cunard Fleet Compared to Titanic

Comparing the Titanic to the current Cunard fleet also shows that the Titanic was smaller and lighter than modern Cunard ships.

The same goes for the majority of mainstream cruise lines.

	Titanic	Queen Elizabeth	Queen Victoria	Q M 2	Queen Anne
Length	269m	314m	294m	345m	322.5m
Gross Tonnage	46,000	83,673	90,049	149,215	113K
Decks	9	12	12	14	13

The above diagram shows the Titanic (in black) compared to the Queen Mary 2. For reference, a person, car, bus and plane are also shown.

Do Modern Cruise Ships Have More Lifeboats Than The Titanic?

The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 brought about many changes, the most famous being the number of lifeboats required by a ship.

In 1914, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was created to provide guidelines for ships to follow.

Modern cruise ships must have the following:

• Enclosed partially enclosed lifeboats for 50% of the ship’s capacity on each side (total 100%).
• Life rafts that hold at least 25% of the ship’s capacity.

The Titanic actually had space on board to carry many wooden lifeboats, but it was decided that 16 lifeboats and four collapsible life rafts would be enough.

Had the maximum amount of wooden lifeboats that the Titanic could hold been carried, there would have been more than enough space for all passengers and crew.

For comparison, the Queen Mary 2 mentioned above has 22 lifeboats (capacity of 150), 2 rescue boats (capacity of 6), and 60 life rafts each (capacity of 37).

Find out everything you need to know about lifeboats on modern-day cruise ships here:

Inside a Cruise Ship Lifeboat (Crew Tour) – Emergency Food, Engine, Seating Plan and More

The Titanic Was Different to Modern Cruise Ships

The Titanic wasn’t ever designed to be a cruise ship. She was an Ocean Liner.

There are many differences between Ocean Liners and cruise ships. Find out more about that here:

Cruise Ships vs Ocean Liners – Measurable Differences You Need to Know

When the Titanic sank, she was sailing from Southampton, UK, to New York City, USA, via Cobh ( then called Queenstown) in Ireland. She hit an Iceberg – 1,517 died.

Before You Go

Titanic was a state-of-the-art Ocean Liner. She had electricity onboard and a swimming pool for her passengers. This was incredible for the time. You can find out more about this in the post below.

Inside Titanic’s Swimming Pool – Real Photos, Restrictions, and Design

The Titanic and Electricity – How Did They Generate it and What Was it For?