The work at Chantiers de l’Atlantique isn’t limited to building megaships. During my visit two smaller vessels were also under construction: the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s 452-passenger Luminara and Celebrity Cruises’ 3,248-passenger Celebrity Xcel. The shipyard has also played a central role in several recent green-tech cruise breakthroughs; by the end of next year, it will complete the construction of the world’s largest sailing yacht, the Orient Express Corinthian, which will have a first-of-its-kind wind-powered propulsion system.
No matter what your cruising preference, megaships are astonishing feats of human innovation. “Any function you can imagine a land-based city should have—from electricity to water treatment plants—that’s all here,” Bernhard Stacher, MSC Cruises’ senior vice president of shipboard hospitality operations, told me. But unlike a city, “it has to float.” A megaship requires its own security force, food production facilities, waste disposal systems, medical centers, and even its own jail and morgue. And its inhabitants must be kept entertained. That means water parks, Broadway-caliber musicals, comedy shows, karaoke, casinos, hundreds of hours of live music, and an almost unimaginable amount of booze.
Behind every sailing is a level of logistical planning that surpasses even that of the largest resorts. “If you’re on land, you can easily call a supplier and say, ‘Listen, I’m running out of flour. Can you deliver some tomorrow?’” Stacher said. “With a ship that is not possible.”
When I boarded MSC World America for its inaugural voyage, I saw no signs of the months of planning or years of construction. Instead of workers hanging in harnesses from the ceiling, there were acrobats in silver bodysuits dangling in aerial silks. The ship’s steel bones had been fashionably concealed in Italian marble and polished chrome. “It’s magical to see a ship of this size come to life,” Lynn Torrent, MSC Cruises’ president for North America, told me after our embarkation. “It’s really an overwhelming feeling.”
As I sipped my first glass of Champagne while singers belted tunes from Dirty Dancing, the whirling noises of drills and saws felt worlds away. And that’s the point, after all: to create a universe unto itself that is untethered to any semblance of reality.
The next morning on my balcony, I glanced up to see a giant red swing set hanging over the side of the upper deck. High above the blue Bahamian sea, its riders shrieked in excitement, feeling the adrenaline—and the magic of an experience like no other.
This article appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.