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Psychologist Explains Why That Viral Photo Of A Massive Cruise Ship Is Freaking People Out

Royal Caribbean recently revealed a rendering of their new 'Icon of the Seas,' which has 20 decks and can hold 5,610 passengers—and the internet is understandably nervous about it.

Psychologist Explains Why That Viral Photo Of A Massive Cruise Ship Is Freaking People Out
Royal Caribbean International; @Raymodraco/Twitter

It's the biggest and brightest in Royal Caribbeans' line of super mega cruise ships, and it's been freaking people out.

Royal Caribbean recently announced their new 'Icon of the Seas,' a cruise ship that boasts 20 decks and can hold over 5,600 passengers with 40 bars, 2,350 crew members and more. Along with the announcement was a rendering of the back of the ship, and the latter had people concerned by the image.

Huffington Post talked with a psychologist about why the picture of the ship was disturbing so many people.

The psychologist chalked it up to identifying possible scenarios and threats that might come with being one human on such a large vessel.

They stated:

“As human beings, we are hard-wired to pay attention to our safety."
"We intuitively want to feel that we could escape from a threat if we needed to, and there are lots of identifiable threats to our safety that might be triggered by this image...."
"What would it be like to be a tiny being on such an enormous, floating vessel—the vast majority of which is fully enclosed, some of which is submerged beneath the surface of the ocean?”

Far from the psychological analysis, some people pointed out that it's just too darn big.

Dangerous, others said.

Others were more visceral with their descriptions.


Folks commented on the climate concerns that the ship brought up for them.


A large focus for many commenters was about the sheer amount of people on the ship.

The 'hell is other people' crowd.




Many people were concerned about public health measures on board such a large ship.

Some had more moral fears about it.


Finally were those making some future predictions.

The 'Icon of the Seas' is set to make its first public voyage sometime in 2024.