The general public has a persistent and widespread misperception that all big passenger liners are also ocean liners and that all ocean liners are cruise ships as reported by Cruise.
Fundamental difference
Admittedly, there is some overlap, but to misunderstand the difference between the two is to overlook a key reality of the human condition as recently as 50 years ago.
And this is where the fundamental difference lies.
This is in stark contrast with cruise ships, which take passengers to pleasant destinations on leisurely voyages.
Ultimately, they were built a different times for different purposes and with different technologies.
While this is true, most of the time some cruises do end in a different port than the origin As a result of their different functions, ocean liners and cruise ships are, generally speaking, designed much differently.
Dawn of the ocean liner
People have been crossing oceans regularly since the reunion of the Old World and the New World.
In 1840, the RMS Britannia was completed for the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (later called Cunard) and was the first ocean liner in today’s sense of the term.
Constructed of wood and powered by steam, Britannia could more or less transport passengers across the Atlantic in a routine and timely manner.
And so the money and incentive were available to build stronger and faster ships, leading to an explosion of technological development in the industry.
Now, travel across oceans was better and more accessible than ever, linking the world in new ways.
This shift in perspective is proven by the fact that during this time, an ocean liner might occasionally take a break from its transoceanic services to take paying passengers on pleasure cruises.
End of the ocean liner era
After World War Two, aviation technology advanced quickly, and soon after the war, jet-powered airliners were able to carry passengers across the Atlantic.
New ocean liners were no longer being built for the Atlantic run by the early 1960s.
The shipping lines spent an increasing amount of time carrying passengers on cruises while trans and transcontinental travel had switched to the airlines as they started to struggle to fill their previously existing ships.
Dawn of the cruise ship
In the early days of cruising, the ships were old liners, not built for the type of work they were now engaged in.
But the purpose of cruising at the time was the destination and the joy of being at sea.
Besides, the ocean liner style was what the public was used to.
In 1972, Carnival Cruise Line started with a 12-year-old liner, Empress of Canada.
Their deep drafts limited access to ports with deep harbours.
So when the shipping companies and cruise lines realized that cruise ships, because they spend most of their time in fair weather, did not need the technical capabilities of ocean liners, the floodgates were opened for change and development.
Modern cruise ships
Between 1987 and 2018, the maximum cruise ship size increased from 73,000 gross tons to 228,000 gross tons.
All of this is because the objective of their construction has changed.
These design choices create a lot of space for these accommodations.
That isn’t to say modern cruise ships aren’t safe.
Modern technologies and the sheer size of cruise ships keep them safe while they fulfil a very different mission than that of the ocean liners of yesteryear.
Bottom line
There is only one extant ocean liner, and cruise ships aren’t like them. The RMS Queen Mary 2 is the only large ship in the world operating regularly between continents and still making trips across the Atlantic. Even the Queen Mary 2 cruises for a large portion of the year. However, cruise ships do occasionally travel across the ocean, frequently carrying passengers. However, because ships travel between various places according to the seasons, these repositioning trips are a necessary annoyance for cruise lines.
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Source: Cruise
