Could this giant floating city become the world's biggest cruise ship?

Cruise ships have been getting bigger for decades, but a proposed new vessel would make today’s floating giants look surprisingly small.

Dubbed the Freedom Ship, the ambitious project aims to create the world’s first true “city at sea” – a mile-long floating community designed to carry up to 80,000 residents, visitors and crew as it continuously circumnavigates the globe.

Complete with schools, parks, shops, hotels and even a hospital and sports stadium, its backers say it would be less a cruise ship and more a permanently inhabited ocean-going metropolis.

There are currently two “never-ending cruises” sailing around the world – the millionaire-friendly The World, a private residential cruise ship operated like a condominium complex, and the more affordable Villa Vie Odyssey. But, with a maximum physical capacity of mere hundreds of passengers, both will be significantly dwarfed by the Freedom Ship.

The vessel, which was first proposed in the late 1990s, is the brainchild of the team behind Freedom Cruise Line International.