The cruise ship market is a 30 billion-dollar industry: what keeps the passengers coming in such huge numbers isn't the food, the ports or the entertainment. They come for the magnificent floating palaces themselves, the giants of the sea. In this new book, the author showcases the most influential cruise ships of the last three decades beginning with Royal Caribbean's groundbreaking Sovereign of the Seas.    The reader is taken aboard thirty of the most spectacular ships to reveal how their innovative designs changed the landscape of modern cruising. By employing original and archival photographs, deck plans, cruise programs, as well as the author's intimate knowledge of many of these vessels, a unique picture is built up of these great ships and it becomes clear that the true Golden Age of Cruising is not in some distant past but exists right now. A truly sumptuous and fascinating book for all those drawn to the world of the modern cruise ship.