Average Ship Size Across Every Cruise Line We Track (and the Ones We Don’t)
Not all cruise ships are built the same — and the difference between a 700-guest expedition yacht and a 6,700-guest resort ship changes everything about the holiday, from the queue for the buffet to how many kids you’ll see at the pool. We track live prices across 16 major cruise lines on CruisePriceSpy, spanning everything from Royal Caribbean’s floating cities to Azamara’s intimate 700-guest ships. Here’s how they compare on size — plus a look at the well-known names we don’t currently track.
Figures below are average passenger capacity at double occupancy, calculated across each line’s current fleet from publicly available fleet data. They’re a guide to typical ship size, not an official cruise-line statistic.
Cruise lines currently on CruisePriceSpy
Ordered from the largest average ship to the smallest.
| Cruise line | Avg. passengers per ship | Fleet size |
|---|---|---|
| MSC Cruises | ~4,391 | 23 ships |
| Royal Caribbean | ~3,708 | 31 ships |
| Disney Cruise Line | ~3,485 | 8 ships |
| P&O Cruises | ~3,445 | 7 ships |
| Norwegian Cruise Line | ~3,100 | 22 ships |
| Princess Cruises | ~2,986 | 17 ships |
| Virgin Voyages | ~2,770 | 4 ships |
| Celebrity Cruises | ~2,338 | 16 ships |
| Cunard | ~2,284 | 4 ships |
| Holland America Line | ~2,157 | 11 ships |
| Marella Cruises | ~1,862 | 5 ships |
| Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines | ~1,341 | 3 ships |
| Ambassador Cruise Line | ~1,233 | 3 ships |
| Oceania Cruises | ~1,185 | 8 ships |
| Azamara | ~695 | 4 ships |
| Crystal Cruises | ~673 | 2 ships |
Major cruise lines not currently on CruisePriceSpy
| Cruise line | Avg. passengers per ship | Fleet size |
|---|---|---|
| Carnival Cruise Line | ~4,120 | 31 ships |
| Costa Cruises | ~3,727 | 11 ships |
| AIDA Cruises | ~2,886 | 14 ships |
| Saga Cruises | ~999 | 2 ships |
| Viking Ocean Cruises | ~950 | 12 ships |
| Explora Journeys | ~924 | 2 ships (6 planned) |
| Regent Seven Seas Cruises | ~697 | 5 ships |
| Seabourn | ~528 | 5 ships |
| Silversea Cruises | ~450 | 12 ships |
| Hurtigruten Expeditions | ~300–350 | 5 ships |
| Windstar Cruises | ~245 | 6–7 ships |
| Ponant | ~200–264 | 13 ships |
Why ship size matters when comparing prices
A bigger ship usually means a lower cost per person per night (PPPN) — more cabins to fill spreads the fixed costs of running the ship further. That’s part of why lines like MSC and Royal Caribbean can often undercut smaller luxury lines like Silversea or Seabourn on PPPN, even before you factor in what’s included. It’s also why we built CruisePriceSpy around PPPN rather than headline price — a 7-night balcony cabin on a 700-guest ship and a 7-night balcony cabin on a 6,700-guest ship aren’t really the same product, and comparing them fairly means looking past the raw number on the page.
