Cruise ships are organized much like floating hotels, with a complete hospitality staff in addition to the usual ship's crew. It is not uncommon for the most luxurious ships to have more crew and staff than passengers.
Dining
Dining on almost all cruise ships is included in the cruise price.
Traditionally, the ships' restaurants organize two dinner services per day, early dining and late dining, and passengers are allocated a set dining time for the entire cruise; a recent trend is to allow diners to dine whenever they want. Having two dinner times allows the ship to have enough time and space to accommodate all of their guests. Having two different dinner services can cause some conflicts with some of the ship's events (such as shows and performances) for the late diners, but this problem is usually fixed by having a shorter version of the event take place before late dinner. Cunard Line ships maintain the class tradition of ocean liner s and have separate dining rooms for different types of suites, while Celebrity Cruises and Princess Cruises have a standard dining room and "upgrade" specialty restaurants that require pre-booking and cover charges. Many cruises schedule one or more "formal dining" nights. Guests dress "formally", however that is defined for the ship, often suits and ties or even tuxedos for men, and formal dresses for women. The menu is more upscale than usual.
Besides the dining room, modern cruise ships often contain one or more casual buffet-style eateries, which may be open 24 hours and with menus that vary throughout the day to provide meals ranging from breakfast to late-night snacks. Ships also feature numerous bars and nightclubs for passenger entertainment; the majority of cruise lines do not include alcoholic beverages in their fares and passengers are expected to pay for drinks as they consume them. Most cruise lines also prohibit passengers from bringing aboard and consuming their own beverages, including alcohol, while aboard. Alcohol purchased duty-free is sealed and returned to passengers when they debark.
There is often a central galley responsible for serving all major restaurants aboard the ship, though specialty restaurants may have their own separate galleys.
As with any vessel, adequate provisioning is crucial, especially on a cruise ship serving several thousand meals at each seating.
Other on-board facilities
Most modern cruise ships feature the following facilities:
- Casino — Only open when the ship is at sea to avoid conflict with local laws Spa Fitness center Shops — Only open when ship is at sea to avoid merchandising licensing and local taxes Library Theatre with Broadway-style shows Cinema Indoor and/or outdoor swimming pool with water slides Hot tub Buffet restaurant Lounges Gym Clubs Basketball courts Pool tables Ping pong tables
Some ships have bowling alleys, ice skating rinks, rock climbing walls, sky-diving simulator, miniature golf courses, video arcades, ziplines, surfing simulators, basketball courts, tennis courts, chain restaurants and/or ropes obstacle courses.
Crew
Crew is usually hired on three to eleven month contracts which may then be renewed as mutually agreed, which is based upon service ratings from passengers as well as the cyclical nature of the cruise line operator. Most staff work 77-hour work weeks for 10 months continuously followed by 2 months of vacation. [22] [23]
There are no paid vacations or pensions for service, non-management crew, depending on the level of the position and the type of the contract. Non-service and management crew members get paid vacation, medical, retirement options, and can participate in the company's group insurance plan.
The direct salary is low for North American standards, [23] though restaurant staff have considerable earning potential from passenger tips. Crew members do not have any expenses while on board as food and accommodation, medical care, and transportation for most employees, are included. This makes a cruise ship career financially attractive enough to compensate for lack of employment benefits.
Living arrangements vary by cruise line, but mostly by shipboard position. In general two employees share a cabin with a shower, commode and a desk with a television set, while senior officers are assigned single cabins. There is a set of facilities for the crew separate from that of passengers, such as mess rooms and bars, recreation rooms, prayer rooms/mosques, and fitness center, with some larger ships even having a crew deck with a swimming pool and hot tubs. [24]
For the largest cruise operators, most "hotel staff" are hired from under-industrialized countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and Central America. While several cruise lines are headquartered in the United States, like most international shipping company, ships are registered in countries including the Netherlands, the UK, the Bahamas, and Panama. The International Labour Organization's 2006 Maritime Labour Convention, [25] also known as the "Seafarers' Bill of RIghts," [26] provides comprehensive rights and protections for all crewmembers. The ILO sets rigorous standards regarding hours of work and rest, health and safety, and living conditions for crewmembers and requires governments to ensure ships are in compliance. For cruise routes around Hawaii. operators are required to register their ships in the United States and the crew is unionized, so these cruises are typically much more expensive than Caribbean and Mediterranean.
Business model
The "luxury cruise lines" such as Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Crystal Cruises provide "the most all-inclusive" cruises. [27] Base fare on Regent Seven Seas ships includes most alcoholic beverages onboard ship and most shore excursions in ports of call, as well as all gratuities that would normally be paid to hotel staff on the ship. Fare also includes one night's hotel stay before boarding [27] and airfare to and from the cruise's origin and destination ports. [28]
Most cruise lines since the 2000s have priced the cruising experience, to some extent, a la carte, as passengers spending aboard generates significantly more from ticket sales. [29] The passenger's ticket includes the stateroom accommodation, room service, unlimited meals in the main dining room and buffet, access to shows, and use of pool and gym facilities. However, there are extra charges for alcohol and soft drinks, official cruise photos, Internet and wi-fi access, and specialty restaurants; it has been reported that the casino and photos have high profit margins. Cruise lines earn significantly from selling onshore excursions (keeping 50 percent or more of what passengers spend for these tours) offered by local contractors. [29] In addition, cruise ships earn significant commissions for sales from onshore stores that are promoted on board as "preferred" (as much as 40 percent of gross sales). Facilitating this practice are modern cruise terminals with establishments of duty-free shops inside a perimeter accessible only by passengers and not locals. [29] Ports of call have often oriented their own businesses and facilities towards meeting the needs of visiting cruise ships. In one case, Icy Strait Point in Alaska, the entire destination was created explicitly and solely for cruise ship visitors. [30]
Travel to and from the port of departure are the passengers' responsibility, although purchasing a transfer pass from the cruise line for the trip between the airport and cruise terminal will guarantee that the ship will not leave until the passenger is aboard. Similarly, if the passenger books a shore excursion with the cruise line and the tour runs late, the ship is obligated to remain until the passenger returns. [31]
Ship naming
Older cruise ships have had multiple owners. it is usual for the transfer of ownership to entail a refitting and a name change. Some ships have had a dozen or more identities.
Many cruise lines have a common naming scheme they use for their ships. Some lines use their name as a prefix or suffix in the ship name (such as the prefixes of "Carnival ", "AIDA ", "Disney ", or "Norwegian " and the suffix of "Princess "). Other lines use a unique word or phrase (such as the prefix of "Pacific" for P&O Cruises Australia or the suffixes of "of the Seas" for Royal Caribbean International or "-dam" for ships of the Holland America Line ). The addition of these prefixes and suffixes allows multiple cruise lines to use the same popular ship names while maintaining a unique identifier for each ship.
Cruise ships utilization
Due to slower speed and reduced seaworthiness, as well as being largely introduced after several major wars, cruise ships have never been used as troop transport vessels. By contrast, ocean liner s were often seen as the pride of their country and used to rival liners of other nations, and have been requisitioned during both World Wars and the Falklands War to transport soldiers and serve as hospital ships.
Cruise ships and former liners often find employment in applications other than those for which they were built. A shortage of hotel accommodation for the 2004 Summer Olympics led to a plan to moor a number of cruise ships in Athens to provide tourist accommodation.
In 2010, in response to the shutdown of UK airspace due to the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, the newly completed Celebrity Eclipse was used to rescue 2000 British tourists stranded in Spain as an act of goodwill by the owners. The ship departed from Southampton for Bilbao on 21 April, and returned on 23 April. [33]