Commercial Cruise Ship
Introduction A cruise ship which is also known as a cruise liner is a ship for passengers, especially for pleasant voyages, which has several amenities that make the various destinations along the way as well as a nice experience. In most cases, cruise ships act on paths that come back passengers to their primary port, the ports of call are normally located in a certain region of a continent and so transportation is not the sole purpose, as cruise ships make 2-3 day round trips to nowhere with no ports of call. In contrast, ocean liners that are transport oriented operate “line voyages” which are directed at transportation passengers from one destination to another than at round trips. By tradition, an ocean liner will be made to the highest standards than a cruise ship, together with stronger plating and elevated freeboard to endure rough seas and unfavorable conditions in the open ocean.
Ocean liners have large capacities for stores for food and fuel on long voyages in comparison to cruise ships. Even if ocean liners are luxurious, they possess peculiarities that made them inappropriate for cruising such as fast and high consumption of fuel, weatherproof decks that were not suitable for tropical climate, inability to entering not too deep ports, and cabins meant to maximize the numbers of passengers other than comfort. The steady advancement of passenger ship from ocean liners to cruise ships has made passenger cabins shift from inside the hull to the superstructure with concealed balcony. Modern cruise ships have reduced their seaworthiness, added delights to tourists, and modern vessels that have been expressed as “balcony-laden floating condominiums”. Bigger cruise ships have engaged in distant trips such as transoceanic voyages that do not return to the same port for months.
Some earlier ocean liners function as cruise ships, such as Mona Lisa and Marco Polo. Cruising continues to be a major player of the tourism industry, contributing to U.S. $30 billion with over 20 million passengers worldwide in the past 2011 year. The industry’s fast growth has seen the development of more than nine built ships that cater for North American clients while others service European clients.
Small markets such as the Asia-Pacific and similar markets get serviced by older ships and are replaced by modern ships in the great growth points. Travelling by cruise ship is a noble idea since it is comfortable and has everything needed on the board. Cruise voyages are made not for travelling but mainly for entertainment of the passengers and so travelling becomes a hobby and also more fascinating to travel by ship. People enjoy their lives in pools, they visit cafes, restaurants, go shopping, visit spa-salons, and go to the cinema. There is no time to think how much money and time was spent as every experience in a cruise ship is thrilling.
To enjoy in a journey by a cruise ship, one should understand the route the ship will have where the sea or ocean should be not only deep along the route, but also be provided with a picturesque landscapes. On the other side, the trip should not last too long, since it may bore people to stay on the board of the ship. If it is long, the stops in big ports should be included. So, firstly, we should decide the route and think it over. For instance let us take the route port Canaveral (Orlando) – Kokokey (Bahamas) – Nassau (Bahamas) – port Canaveral (Orlando). During the trip, there will be no ports of call, mainly because the route is not very long and the trip itself will not take more than four or five days.
This route is interesting both for kids and adults. The water of the Caribbean Sea is clear and blue; the horizontal line is almost invisible, because the sky is so light, that it has the same color as sea water. As the sea water is pure, passengers may see the bottom of the sea life. When choosing the ship, it must not be too big and too small. First of all, it is proper to establish how many people will be on board the ship at the same time.
If we do not think about this in advance, it may occur that there are too many passengers, so the trip itself will become unprofitable; or if there is too less crew, the passengers will not be satisfied with the service, which will also be unprofitable for the company. It is proper to settle a ship of six hundred fifty passengers. The ship should be big enough to have space for the passengers to live and be entertained. For the crew to live and work, without disturbing others it should be a six-decker. The first and the lowest deck Navigator will be for the crew. The next deck, Promenade, is for passengers to walk along and enjoy the view.
On the other three decks there will be cabins for the passengers. The cabins will be of several kinds. Table 1. In the above table, there are different kinds of cabins available on the ship. They differ not only in size or price, but also in the deck. The most expensive cabins are on the lowest decks.
On the shipboard, there are two restaurants, music hall, 5 bars, one pool, spa and beauty salons, fitness club, library, internet-cafe, different stores, medical center and a casino. Passengers are provided with everything they need. Every cabin, also, will be provided with hair-dryers, air conditioning and sockets for 220 v. It is clear that passengers will be given support and so two restaurants will help. There will be three or four cooks for each, and about five or seven waiters and cleaners for each of them. A barman will be needed to make cocktails and a sommelier to serve wine.
And we should not forget about a cleaner. Of course, we may save some money and have just one crew of cleaners for the ship itself and for restaurants, cafes, bars and all the stores we have on board the ship. But if we want to have some profit, we should not economize on our passengers. So, we need one or two cleaners for each restaurant. The highest priority in cruise industries is to ensure the safety and security of the passengers and crew. In the past two decades, North American cruise lines ensured the best safety in the travel industry and transported more than 60 million people worldwide.
A cruise ship is similar to a protected building with a 24-hour security guard. Since the cruise ship operates in a controlled environment, right of entry should be strictly enforced. Each individual on board from passengers to crew members should be placed on an official monitoring with strict security. Operations within strict legal frameworks of both federal and state authorities have permission to investigate onboard crimes. In spa and beauty salons there should be hair dresser, barber, cosmetologist, masseur, persons who do manicure and pedicure, makeup artist, and, but not obligatory, a biologist, who will help women to choose the course of massage or different spa-treatments, so it will not harm their health.
At least one trainer and a cleaner will be needed for fitness club. The same goes for the library (a librarian and a cleaner are enough) and for internet-cafe (an administrator and a cleaner will be required). Depending on the amount of stores, shop assistants will be needed. There should be at least one shop assistant for the store.10 shops will be enough.
If they are on the same deck and in one raw, two cleaners will be needed to clean all the stores at the end of the day. In the medical center, there should be two or three nurses, so if anything happens they are ready to help everyone. There should be at least one doctor, and physician, who will do what the nurses cannot. The casino on shipboard will be one of the most visited places by men. While their wives are in the salon and kids in the pool, they will go to the casino.
The casino will not be too big; it will be no Los Angeles casino. Three tables will be required in the casino to play roulette and four tables to play poker. So, one croupier will be needed for every table. Slots will be availed and one person will be needed to walk around and watch the players, so nobody cheats. As a rule, it will be the casino guard.
The casino should be protected the most, because it is a place where money is the main aim, five guards will be enough to guard the casino. Cruise ship operators are known as cruise lines that have a dual character. Cruise lines are partly in the transportation business and in the entertainment business .This is the duality that applies to the ships which have both the crew headed by the hospitality staff headed by the counterpart of a hotel manager and the captain of the ship. Some cruise lines are descendants of the traditional passenger transport lines, while others were based entirely on cruising.
The business is volatile since capital expenditures and operating costs are very high. Cruise lines regularly sell, repair and simply rename their ships to keep up with the emerging travelling trends. There should be four or five persons responsible for people’s lives, and should lead passengers and the crew to the ship’s boats, help them find their relatives, and to take their places on the boats. All the members of the crew should know the rules of first aid and the plan of evacuation, but on the other hand, they may be busy with helping others. As the ship is not very big, the crew that will service it will not be big.
A captain will be needed; two captain assistants, junior captain and ten or eleven seamen. Fifteen up to twenty workers will be needed to service the ship. They will watch if everything works properly and check for anything to repair, if there is anything, they will solve the problem too. Hundred and eighty eight to two hundred people will be needed to serve passengers and service the ship itself. It is important to know how many ship’s boats are needed. Let’s take the average ship’s boat, in which fifty persons may sit.
So, we have six hundred fifty passengers and two hundred persons of the crew, that are eight hundred fifty persons. So we need seventeen ship’s boats and eight hundred fifty life jackets. Besides, there should be plans of evacuation printed and hanging on the walk along the deck and in every cabin. There should be made all the conditions so the captain will send SOS signals to the land. To feel secure, if anything goes not as planned, there should be some (three or four) signal rockets. Since the ship is now protected, there is crew and the route is known.
The journey is set forthwith. The trip on such a ship will be very interesting for men and women, for elderly and kids, for businessmen and housewives. On the ship, one may walk along the deck and enjoy the view; he or she may lie in the sun, taking sunbaths, or go to the bar to have a cocktail. Kids may go to the library to choose a book to read and read it either in the cabin or lying on the sunbed. Women also may visit beauty salons and become more beautiful for their husbands, and make the other men envy.
Men may go to the casino and play cards, or relax in the sun. Businessmen may search for the information needed or reviewing something in the internet-cafe. Elderly may lie in the sun or go to the pool, where our life guards will help them, if anything happens. If something goes wrong and the life guards cannot help, we have nurses and the physician to help them, to give professional medical aid. We have different kinds of cabins on different decks. The passenger of the ship may choose the cabin which fits the price he or she wants to pay and his or her expectations.
We have cabins with one or two rooms, from Economy Class to Luxury Cabins. Every morning, during the breakfast, cabins will be cleaned, so the passengers feel comfortable coming inside their cabin. In the evening we will have topical parties. As our route is along Bahamas, the Bahamian parties will be held. People do not need to worry about security of their lives and money.
Almost every cabin has room safe, so money and jewellery will be safe. Our passengers should not worry about their lives. The guards are professional and they know how to act in this or that situation. They were trained to help people on shipboard.There are people who worry too much about their health and safety.
They may ask the seaman and he will lead them to the captain or the junior captain, so he will explain the route and the measures that were taken to protect the passengers. This trip will not last too long and it will not be very short. So, the passengers will have enough time to enjoy their lives during such vacations and not to become bored. Besides, such a trip is a good opportunity to meet new people, who will, hopefully, become your friends after landing. Children may play together and they will become friends, probably, this friendship will last the whole life. There are more advantages than disadvantages in the trip; but nevertheless, we should speak about the disadvantages.
According to Levine, the main disadvantage is that there could be terrorists on board the ship. Their presence will cause panic and people will not trust this company anymore. To avoid this, all the passengers and the crew will be checked before going up to the board. Such checks will be done in the presence of the captain and the chief guard. This will prove that our passengers are in safe hands.
If anything happens, the guards know how to behave with the terrorists and how to save people. The other disadvantage may be sea sickness of some passengers, and they may not even know about this. For this case, nurses are there to help them. Annoying pensioners may become another problem and make this trip not so joyful. If the passengers, who live in the next cabins, cannot solve the problem by themselves, our crew will help them and, most likely find another cabin to live. As we may see, there are almost no disadvantages, and the trip remains interesting and thrilling.
People of all ages will definitely enjoy it. Nowadays, people travel mostly by airplanes, which is faster than travelling by ship. We will make the ship trip amazing, with all the comfort, we will need people to start travelling by ship again. It does not matter, whether they will travel to Bahamas from Orlando, or cross the Atlantic Ocean; the main fact is that they will travel with comfort, they will make new friends. Every night calm waves will lull them, bring them to dreams and in the morning wake them up with smiles upon their faces, because out of the window they will see not gloomy reality with skyscrapers, but the fairy tale, with the sun shine and see water.
They will smell not exhaust gases from the cars, passing by near the window, but the fresh sea air, filled with the smell of freedom and eternity. Such a trip may make people more kind, happier, they will feel life again. The adults will become little children for some days, they will finally smile.
