In the middle of the 1980's, several reasons caused a boom in passengers for the modern cruiselines. First, the old ships were replaced by purpose-build cruiseships that were more suitable for their role. Different from the rebuilt earlier ships, they could offer the cruisepassenger more relaxation and more activities. Lido decks were extended and at this time, it seemed the cruisecompanies recognized that modern cruisepassengers required other needs than traditional line-voyage passengers. Also, plans were put out for bigger ships, starting with the modernization of the old France of 1960. This formerly inside orientated ocean liner became the outside orientated cruiseship Norway for the Norwegian Caribbean Line and she started her sailings in 1980 in the Caribbean. At that time, she was more than double the size then any other cruiseship in service at the time. Other lines simply had to add new and bigger ships also to compete with this. This new boom was thus started by Norwegian Caribbean Lines, but swiftly followed by the new Carnival Cruise Line when they ordered a series of eight 70.000-ton cruiseships in the middle of the 1980's. Princess Cruises, the cruisedivision of P&O Lines, ordered also a big ship in 1982, their first Royal Princess. She was built in a totally different manner than ships before her, with her cabins on the highest decks and the public rooms below. 

Changes now were following rapidly throughout the industry, because every company had to act to stay in the race. New ships adopted the Royal Princess-layout and this became the new standard. This caused the older ships to become really outdated and thus more ships had to be replaced and a snowballeffect came into being. Thus, the 1980's were a very important period and the foundations of our modern cruisefleet were laid down.

These Giants of the Seas are built for massmarket sailings, not any longer limited to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Most shiplovers don't like these modern massive resorts and when you look at these modern ships comparing them to what passengerships sailed before, I can understand that totally. But do not forget that there is a big difference between the reasons these ships are built and the reasons the old ones were. The passengers have changed, the financials have changed, the routes have changed so it would be very strange if the ships did still look the same as fourty years ago. Looking at the details and the differences between these modern ships (yes, there are differences) I think there are a lot of great ships built in our time and that was the main reason I started up this website.

In this part of the website, the ships are ordered under the banner of their company in chronological order, instead of alphabetical. In this way it is easier to spot the differences between the older and the newer ships of the companies that are featured here.