Quantum of the Seas is 347 m long and 49 m wide, and weighs 168,000 gross tons. Icon is 364 m long, 48 m wide, and weighs 248,000 gross tons. What’s behind the big difference?
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The person who posted this said: Quantum of the Seas is 347 m long and 49 m wide, and weighs 168,000 gross tons. Icon is 364 m long, 48 m wide, and weighs 248,000 gross tons. What’s behind the big difference?
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Gross tonnage doesn’t mean weight. It’s actually a measurement of interior volume.
Dakota said:
Gross tonnage doesn’t mean weight. It’s actually a measurement of interior volume.
Exactly! It’s not something people usually think about. Kind of like how a 12-inch pizza feels much smaller than a 15-inch one even though they don’t seem that different visually.
@Grayer
Good point. It’s also not a simple doubling. For example, 200,000 gross tons isn’t twice the volume of 100,000 gross tons.
Dakota said:
Gross tonnage doesn’t mean weight. It’s actually a measurement of interior volume.
Totally agree. And when you consider the Icon can hold over 50% more people than the Quantum, it makes sense for its gross tonnage to be that much higher. All those people need rooms!
Dakota said:
Gross tonnage doesn’t mean weight. It’s actually a measurement of interior volume.
You’re spot on, but I’ve noticed they don’t release displacement numbers for these ships, which is frustrating. I’d love to compare their actual weight to other vessels.
Icon is 15 meters longer, but the real difference is in its width. Quantum is about 41 meters wide, while Icon is around 66 meters.
I think you mixed up the beam measurements. Looks like you’ve confused the waterline beam with the overall width of the superstructure.
- Quantum: 136 ft / 41 m wide
- Icon: 219 ft / 66 m wide
Icon is a beast. It’s not just longer than other ships—it’s way wider and taller too.
Gross tonnage is a tricky number to calculate. It’s not simple like weight or displacement.
Also, you got Icon’s beam wrong—it’s about 65 meters, at least for the superstructure.
Icon can carry about 10,000 people, including crew and passengers. It’s enormous.
Ridley said:
Icon can carry about 10,000 people, including crew and passengers. It’s enormous.
Technically, it’s a ship, not a boat.
One big factor is the massive LNG tank that Icon has.
It also has multiple extra decks compared to Quantum.
People often get misled by gross tonnage stats. Newer, bigger ships might only be a little longer and wider, but they gain most of their size from stacking more decks of rooms, not public spaces. This makes things feel more crowded.
That said, Icon does have a lot of public spaces compared to others, but bigger doesn’t always mean better.
@Dale
Keep in mind gross tonnage measures volume, not weight.
The Icon uses LNG as fuel, which isn’t as energy dense as diesel. Its storage tanks are larger and more specialized, so they take up more space.
Natural gas has more energy per kilogram, but you can’t compress it as efficiently as liquid fuels like diesel or hydrogen.
@Fane
That’s true, but I doubt it has a major effect on tonnage.