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3 times the size? Am not so sure about that - at least, it depends strongly on what parameters you measure. The size of warships is given in displacement (the actual, total weight of the vessel) measured in tons, whether the long ton of 2240 lbs (ca. 1016 kg) or the metric tonne of 1000 kg (ca. 2204 lbs) - tonne is apparently more and more common in measuring displacement. Cruiseships are not measured in displacement, but - like most merchant vessels - in gross tonnage (GT), which refers to the volume of all ship's enclosed spaces (from keel to funnel) measured to the outside of the hull framing. GT does not have a unit. GT replaced Gross Registry Tonnage (GRT), which measured the total internal volume of a vessel in register tons of 100 cubic feet (or 2.8 cubic meters); GRT excluded crew quarters and some other non-productive spaces, which apparently are not excluded in the GT calculation.

Take Cunard's RMS Queen Mary 2, for instance. She has a length of 1132 feet, a beam of 135 feet, and draws 32 feet 10 inches, and her GT is about 151,400. Her block coefficient (which indicates how streamlined the hull is, and is used to calculate displacement) is 0.61. This means her design displacement is around 88,850 tonnes (assuming seawater is 1.025 times as dense as freshwater). A typical cruiseliner like RCCL's Project Genesis vessels will have a block coefficient of around 0.7, a length of 1181 ft, a beam of 154 ft and, draft of 30 ft and the gross tonnage is 220,000. The displacement, if the block coefficient is 0.7, will be about 110,850 tonnes, which is somewhat less than twice the displacement of CVF.

In terms of volume, of course, the cruiseship might be several times as large, since the superstructuve does extend far above the waterline in almost full length and width - but most of that superstructure is filled with prefabricated, standard-sized cabins and bathrooms, everything prefabricated on an assemblyline on land, and lifted onboard and hooked up to plumbing and wiring. And those will most likely be cabins just about identical to those on RCI's earlier Voyager-class and Independence-class (between them probably requiring around 11,500 cabin units), so we are talking about a tremendous economy of scale on a not very complicated, but well tried-out, component. The rest of the volume goes to public spaces like the internal promenade, probably an atrium, the large main restaurant (all three of which have a single thing in common - they are several decks high, open and airy - and air doesn't weigh or cost much), and a number of other, smaller public spaces. Decorations are main made in faux, relatively lightweight materials - I'd guess that the more expensive public spaces onboard are probably the showlounge and the ice-skating rink. And these are well-tested designs - RCI (the cruise company) and Aker Yards (the builder) have cooperated on large cruiseships for a long time now, and the designs are more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Another factor in how the cruiseship is cheaper, is of course all the things the carrier has to have, that the cruiseship does not. Some examples:

• The carrier needs to be able to service and maintain up to 40 modern, highly advanced fighter-jets - the cruiseship does not.
  
• The carrier needs electronics to control a large airspace around itself, as well as an EW or ECM suite - the cruiseship is satisfied with a much simpler electronic fit (and electronics are expensive)
• The carrier needs to safely carry large quantities of jet fuel for the figthers - the cruise ship does not, it only needs fuel for its engines.
  
• The carrier needs to safely carry missiles and bombs (and gun-ammunition?) in quantities for its fighters - the cruise ship does not.
  
• The carrier needs defensive systems - CIWS guns and/or missiles, chaff, etc. - against attacks of various natures - the cruise ship, if it does have defensive systems, has much less sophisticated systems, and passive only
  
• The carrier has a higher speed requirement than the cruiseship
• The carrier needs to be able to withstand battle damage on a whole other level than a cruiseship