A trip aboard a cruise ship can be exciting experience, like being in a resort hotel floating on the water. These huge ships have a lot to offer, and there are different things to explore in all different vessel parts. Below are some interesting facts, both good and bad, that you may not knows about cruise ships.
- Morgues – With ships full of people of middle age to elderly, cruise ships must be prepared for the inevitable. Therefore, one of the vessel parts they don’t talk about is the morgue. Each ship is equipped to hold one to three bodies, until they can be returned to shore.
- Disease – With so many people on board any cruise ship, it’s easy for disease to spread. Bacterial infections and food-borne illnesses are most common on cruise ships.
- Pollution –
- Pirate Attacks – Cruise ships are attractive targets for pirates: hundreds of unarmed tourists carrying cash and valuables, and a supply of spare parts on the ship.
- Retirement – With the cost of retirement homes so high nowadays, some seniors are choosing instead to live out their retirement on board a cruise ship. There’s less permanence, but cocktails are more readily available.
- Flag of Convenience – Cruise ships and many merchant vessels around the world are registered in countries like Panama and Liberia, which have few environmental or human rights regulations. This allows companies to avoid the taxes and environmental restrictions of other nations.
- World’s Largest Cruise Ship – The largest cruise ships in the world are Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. The specifications are simply ridiculous: 300 feet longer than the Titanic, and more than four times heavier. The Allure has 22 restaurants, a replica off Manhattan’s Central Park, and quite a spare part supply.
- Costa Concordia – In 2012, the Italian vessel struck a rock off the coast of Tuscany and gouged a hole in its hull. The ship floundered and came to rest on its side, and as a result of the crew’s incompetence, 32 people died, and dozens were injured In the end, it turns out the captain, Francesco Schettino, forgot this was a vessel for a non-singles cruise, and was showing off his navigational prowess to one of the ship’s dancers.
- Stranded at Sea – In 2013, the Carnival Triumph survived a fire in the engine room, but lost power and was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. It took five days to tow the ship back in, and in the meantime, food supplies dwindled, toilets backed up, and temperatures were stifling.
- Disappearances – There have been about 200 incidents of people simply disappearing from cruise ships, since 2000. Sometimes it’s suicide, and sometimes it’s foul play, but oftentimes, no one knows the passenger is missing until their luggage goes unclaimed.
Cruise ships produce an incredible amount of pollution. In order to carry thousands of people, as well as cruise vessel parts and equipment, in addition to hauling the ship itself, cruise ships require immense amounts of fuel.