Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on tours known as "shore excursions". On "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages", some cruise ships make two- to three-night round trips without visiting any ports of call.
Wonder of the Seas is one of the largest cruise ships in service.
Icon of the Seas
Cruiseferry MS Galaxy at the port of Mariehamn, Åland, in February 2016
Cruise ships MSC Poesia, Vision of the Seas, and Mein Schiff Herz at Tallinn Passenger Port in Estonia
A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight. Indeed, until recently virtually all ocean liners were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Only in more recent ocean liners and in virtually all cruise ships has this cargo capacity been eliminated.
An ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth 2
An ocean liner, Normandie
A cruise ship, Freedom of the Seas
A ferry, Mega Smeralda