World News today

 

The cruise industry has been growing fast in recent years -- and so has the size of its ships. It wasn't until the 1996 debut of the 101,353-ton Carnival Destiny that a cruise vessel exceeded 100,000 tons. Now the biggest ships are more than twice that size, and there are 50 vessels over 110,000 tons, including 20 built in the last four years.

Our new photo tour in the carousel above offers a ship-by-ship look at the new Kings of the High Seas, starting with the 50th largest and counting down to No. 1. It's a list that won't remain static for long. More giant cruise vessels are on the way, including Royal Caribbean's 167,600-ton Anthem of the Seas and Norwegian Cruise Line's 164,600-ton Norwegian Escape.
RELATED: The hottest new ships of 2015
PHOTO TOUR: Inside Royal Caribbean's newest megaship
As for the once mighty Carnival Destiny, now renamed Carnival Sunshine: Even after an expansion in 2013 that boosted its size to 102,853 tons, it doesn't even make the list of biggest megaships. In today's cruise world, it's almost midsize.