The term ‘cruise ship’ is used to denote a passenger ship used exclusively for recreational voyages, where the journey itself and the facilities on board are considered to be part of the holiday experience. Cruising attracts millions of tourists each year, and is a vital part of the tourism industry. Ever since the cruise ship business began in earnest in the mid sixties, the number of passengers embarking on cruise ships has grown exponentially, and ship builders have striven to build more and bigger vessels in order to keep up with the rising demand from American passengers. The second biggest cruising market is in Europe, although the developing markets in Asia are fast catching up. As a general rule, cruise ships operate on circular routes, allowing their passengers to be picked up and returned to their original port. This is opposed to the typical routes used by ocean liners, which tend to transport passengers from one location to another, rather than take a round trip. Some liners take longer routes which do not return to the same port for months. . The cruise liner as we now know it is a bit like a floating hotel, with the usual ship’s crew being joined by a fleet of attentive hospitality staff. Transatlantic liners have to be designed to a higher specification in order to withstand the higher levels of strain experienced by a vessel on a trans-oceanic voyage. Cunard’s Queen Mary II is the only transatlantic liner still in operation. The majority of other transatlantic liners have been turned into stationary hotels, permanently moored at tourist-friendly locations Given that a cruise liner can contain thousands of passengers, and has to go long distances without re-stocking, it is vital that a cruise ship has a large amount of food storage. For example, passengers on the Royal Caribbean vessel Mariner of the Seas get through an average of 18,000 slices of pizza, 28,000 eggs, 9,000kg of beef, and 8,000 gallons of ice cream in just one week! Some of the older cruise ships have a had a few different owners through the years. As each operator has its own logo, colour scheme, and naming protocol (for instance, all Royal Amsterdam ships end with the suffix ‘dam’), it is common for ships to have had many names and paint jobs over the course of their sea-faring life. Often old ocean liners and cruise ships are used as emergency accommodation for large public events and disasters. For example, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of stranded civilians were housed in a number of moored Carnival Cruise Lines ships, and a shortage of tourist accommodation during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens led to a similar contingency being put in place.
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The term ‘cruise ship’ is used to denote a passenger ship used exclusively for recreational voyages, where the journey itself and the facilities on board are considered to be part of the holiday experience. Cruising attracts millions of tourists each year, and is a vital part of the tourism industry. Ever since the cruise ship business began in earnest in the mid sixties, the number of passengers embarking on cruise ships has grown exponentially, and ship builders have striven to build more and ...
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