So what happens if the world's largest cruise ship — 5 times bigger than the Titanic — hits an iceberg? (2024)

• The Icon of the Seas, set to sail in the Caribbean in January, is five times the size of the Titanic.
• But it's unlikely to ever meet the same fate as the iconic ship, thanks to radar and iceberg monitoring.
• Royal Caribbean also says their cruise ships have enough lifeboats and rafts for everyone on board.

With the world's largest cruise ship set to make its maiden voyage in six months — and in light of another recent disaster at the Titanic — it's hard not to wonder what would happen if the Icon of the Seas met the same fate as the storied ocean liner.

The Icon of the Seas is currently set to sail in the Caribbean, meaning it won't be encountering ice. But even if in the future its used in an area in which there could be ice, it's still incredibly rare for a cruise ship today to strike an iceberg. It's not impossible though.

In 2007, in an incident The New York Times dubbed the "modern Titanic," a small cruise ship struck ice, causing a fist-sized hole that let water into the engine room and caused the power to fail. The 154 people on board had to evacuate on lifeboats and rafts.

Last year, a Norwegian Cruise Line ship hit an iceberg while traveling through dense fog near Alaska, causing enough damage to shorten the voyage and cancel another so it could undergo repairs.

But neither was a catastrophe of Titanic proportions.

Cruise industry expert Stewart Chiron, better known as The Cruise Guy, told USA Today that last year's incident was "extraordinarily rare." While cruise ships might occasionally make contact with ice, Chiron said it's uncommon for a ship to have physical damage or change its plans as a result.

Cruise ships rely on radar technology and satellite monitoring to avoid collisions with icebergs. Improvements in GPS and aircraft patrols of the oceans have also made sailing the seas safer, but there's still asmallrisk.

Thankfully cruise ships today are also better prepared for disaster.

Royal Caribbean, the cruise line behind Icon of the Seas, says all of their cruise ships carry "sufficient lifesaving craft to accommodate every guest and crew member onboard, as well as additional capacity in reserve." Passengers on their cruises are also required to complete drills so they know what to do in case of emergency.

So even if unlikely tragedy did strike, the lifeboat and raft protocols could help passengers avoid living out some of the most dramatic, and controversial, scenes of the "Titanic" movie.