History Main / StarshipLuxurious

* [[Creator/BrianDaley Brian Daley's]] ''Jinx on a Terran Inheritance'' and the sequel novels feature this trope as often as they avert it. The most luxurious examples are such spacecraft as ''The Pearl,'' a very large iridescent blue sphere 'ship's boat' whose main passenger deck is a decadently appointed lounge, complete with bar and attractive string quartet (who all happen to be [[EliteMooks part of the ship's Security Detachment]]). Oh, and it's also armed to the teeth in case [[GunshipRescue the landing party needs help]], but you'd never know that by looking at it. Furthermore, the ''Pearl's'' mothership is one of the most powerful warships in the region, but it still finds the resources and space to support its very own [[DreamingOfAWhiteChristmas Winter Wonderland]] habitat for the pleasure of its Master, his wife, and their guests. Be sure to wear the thoughtfully provided [[PrettyInMink fur coats]] before you enter.

* The age of the Great Liners from the 1880s through the 1950s, before crossing the Atlantic by airliner was routine. Steamers got so big so fast that regulations couldn't keep up. The {{Titanic}} herself had Third Class accommodations as good as Second Class on smaller ships.
* The fishing boats shown on ''DeadliestCatch'' are, first and foremost, fishing boats, designed to catch fish in frigid Arctic Circle conditions. They're hardy, tough, and routinely look weathered and old. The bunks are cramped and the personal rooms small, because when they're on the crab, the crew won't be sleeping anyway. That being said, most ships have remarkably spacious kitchens, and at least the ''Time Bandit'' has a fully functioning sauna. They're not comfortable, but they're not prisons.

* One of TheJournalEntries has a throw-away mention of Pendorian starships having padded leather interiors. It is not clear how seriously to take this, but Pendor is absurdly wealthy.

** Also bear in mind that the actual Battleship Yamato was called the Yamato Hotel in WWII for its really spacious living area with over 10 times the crew members,(also for it being anchored on shore for almost its entire life time without seeing combat) so this is not quite off the chart.

** Royal Caribbean in general follow this trope. They've released the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Oasis_of_the_Seas Oasis]], which is even bigger than the Freedom.

** Averted with [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Klingon]] ships, especially in the [[ExpandedUniverse EU]]. For example, the newest ''Qang''-class warships of the ''IKS Gorkon'' novels feature cramped bunks for the thousands of troops on-board. Then again, Klingons don't really like comfort (they never bathe).

* {{NASA}} advisors to the movie ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' (2007) spoke out in favor of this trope. The cost of roomy quarters, in terms of air and mass, would be more than balanced out by the benefits to a crew's sanity on a long mission. As evidenced when they actually go into the part of the ship with the bomb inside, there's ''plenty of space'' around the bomb itself... and breathable air, too. Besides, they were towing a bomb the size of Manhattan, so a little additional space would hardly be noticeable. Ultimately, the movie retained a submarine-ish feel, but toned it down.

- the "'Calalbakrab'" (Arabian-American-Russian flagship) is way, way big, with dozen of swimming pools, at least a soccer field, some shopping center and so on. It's shaped like a scorpion, can detach in three contained ships and sports an energy cannon able to vaporize entire fleets;
- the "'Proteo Tien'" (Asian-European converted utility ship) lacks room and is quite spartan. Crewmen are often required to speak softly because loud noises can be heared in the entire ship;
- last ship, the "Akai Mazinga Zuikaku" (Japan 'battleship') is smaller that a regular satellite, is manned by a liofilized captain/warrior/explorer and sixty trained mices, and has a single multipurpose room.

* In LarryNiven's KnownSpace, a [[AcmeProducts General Products]] #4 hull is a sphere more than a thousand feet in diameter. Kitted out with the superfast 'Quantum II' [[FasterThanLightTravel hyperdrive]], it has [[AwesomeButImpractical about as much living space as a Winnebago]].

* The winner, of course, is the Golden Ship from CordwainerSmith's "Golden the Ship Was-Oh! Oh! Oh!" Ninety million miles long and very much golden ... with a crew of ... one. True, its quarters were dwarfed by the size of the ship, and twenty feet by thirty feet small compared to the space pleasure cruisers but huge compared to our current cramped quarters, but that doesn't matter much when you spend most of your time jacked into a pleasure inducing electric current. [[spoiler: Nor the fact that the rest of the ship was foam and wires to fake the effect of a legendary unbeatable starship. In short, the universe's largest scarecrow.]]

** WordOfGod (at least for ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'') is that the designers knew full well that a real starship wouldn't have those broad corridors (instead having narrow corridors like, for instance, real Navy ships have), but there were other, practical considerations, like being able to maneuver the cameras through the corridors to follow walking characters. The senior officer's quarters are also not all that large, and they appear to also have a chunk of space set aside for use as an office (which makes sense, as only McCoy works in an area of the ship which can plausibly have an office space for the department head, and still doesn't seem to have one there). The mess hall, rec rooms, and conference rooms shown are all also relatively small given that the crew is supposed to number in the hundreds.

* Subverted, averted and played straight in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Imperial warships are described as having luxurious bridges and officer's quarters, but the crewmembers have tiny rooms that they have to share with far more people that would comfortably fit in them. The Eldar tend to play this straight, especially when it comes to their Craftworlds, but in the Craftworld's case its justified as they are giant GenerationShips that house the remaining Eldar population.

*** We get to see what Klingon [=VIP=] quarters are like when Picard an Data get a lift from a Klingon ship to go look for Spock (who's on Romulus, so they need a cloaked ship to go there). It's all metal, including the bed. Which is a shelf that slides out of a wall. Data doesn't even call it a bed, just a shelf, when telling Picard he can have it. (Klingons do ''know'' about luxury, but don't view it as appropriate on warships.) The cabin is also fairly small, particularly when you consider how a TV set is usually sort of opened out from the way a real room would be.

* Averted by the Split, the {{proud warrior race guy}}s of the ''[[VideoGame X-Universe]]''. Ancillary materials describe the interior of the Panther as sacrificing basically every non-combat function possible in order to create a [[TheBattlestar pocket carrier]] mounting heavy guns and enough fighters to take on entire fleets by itself in skilled hands. Unofficial reports state that the crew and pilots are bedded in the fighter hangar, or stuffed into the cargo bay in suspended animation.

* The winner, of course, is the Golden Ship from CordwainerSmith's "Golden the Ship Was-Oh! Oh! Oh!" Ninety million miles long and very much golden ... with a crew of ... one. True, its quarters were dwarfed by the size of the ship, and twenty feet by thirty feet small compared to the space pleasure cruisers but huge compared to our current cramped quarters, but that doesn't matter much when you spend most of your time jacked into a pleasure inducing electric current. Nor the fact that the rest of the ship was foam and wires to fake the effect of a legendary unbeatable starship. In short, the universe's largest scarecrow.

* Subverted in AlastairReynolds' ''Revelation Space'': the ''Nostalgia for Infinity'' is kilometers long, manned by five people and features a rather beautiful grove that serves the crew as a dining room. The one set of quarters seen are explicitly mentioned to be only austere due to its occupant's personality. However, outside the dining grove are the rotted remnants of a much-larger park, a pattern that basically holds true for the rest of the ship.

** This is lampshaded in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse. In the first novel of the [[XWingSeries X-wing series]], Kirtan Loor is invited to Ysanne Isard's office. It is huge and nearly empty. Kirtan wonders why Isard doesn't have more stuff, if for no other reason to flaunt her wealth, until he realizes that on Coruscant, the crowded city planet, empty space is one of the most expensive commodities in existence.

** Not quite luxurious if one calculate the numbers. A space ship with minimal space enough to be mothership of multiple HumongousMecha of the 20~25 metre class simply dwarfs the crew space by comparison and the parking space for say, like 10 mecha along with its spare parts can accomodate well over the need of space for any sufficient number of crew.

** This is lampshaded in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse. In the first novel of the [[XWingSeries X-wing series]], Kirtan Loor is invited to Ysanne Isard's office. It is huge and nearly empty. Kirtan wonders why Ysard doesn't have more stuff, if for no other reason to flaunt her wealth, until he realizes that on Coruscant, the crowded city planet, empty space is one of the most expensive commodities in existence.

* The BuckRogersInthe25thCentury series featured an episode called "Cruise Ship to the Stars" which featured a very luxurious spaceship in the style of a cruise ship. So it was ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.