Icon of the Seas is listed near 250,000 GT. What is GT actually measuring?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: Enclosed interior volume
Ship weight in tonnes — No, and this is a common trap because the word tonnage sounds like weight. Gross tonnage is a volume-based index, while displacement is the weight of water the ship displaces. That distinction is why a cruise ship can sound like it weighs 250,000 tons even when the brochure is really talking about enclosed space.
Passenger-and-crew mass — No. Passengers and crew affect loading, but GT is not a headcount weight calculation. Icon's capacity may be thousands of people, yet the quoted gross tonnage is about the ship's enclosed volume. The number is closer to hotel size than bathroom-scale mass.
Enclosed interior volume ✓ — Right. The international gross-tonnage formula uses V, the total volume of enclosed spaces, with a logarithmic factor. Royal Caribbean describes Icon around 250,000 GT and also frames it as enormous internal volume. The useful surprise: for cruise ships, “bigger by tonnage” usually means more enclosed space, not literal weight.
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