Archive for October, 2001
Posted on October 1, 2001 - by Ralph Grizzle
15 Fascinating Facts About Cruising
October 2001 | Hemispheres and Denver Post
For more than 150 years, passenger ships have been luring travelers to ocean adventures with their mix of high – seas romance and relaxation. Today, sea cruises are calling to travelers as never before. The ships are bigger, the routes more varied, and the options and activities greater than ever. Prepare to set sail with this fleet of seaworthy facts.
- SINCE 1970, AN ESTIMATED 84 MILLION PASSENGERS -NEARLY A third of them in the past five years-have taken a cruise of two or more days. About 7.5 million people will take a cruise during 2001.
- In 1840, Cunard Line’s R.M.S. Britannia became the first ship to take passengers on regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings. Today, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 is the last of the great ocean liners sailing transatlantic. When it debuts in late 2003, the company’s gargantuan Queen Mary 2 will replace the QE2 on its Atlantic crossings.
- There will be 3.2 million berths in the cruise industry’s No. I market this year-the Caribbean-up nearly a third from last year. Rates are the lowest there.
- The mean age of today’s cruise passenger is 50. Seventy-eight percent are married, but only 35 percent of the married couples have children living with them. A total of 59 percent of those with children sail with them. More than half-a-million kids will be cruise passengers this year.
- Seattle, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Galveston, New York, Charleston, and New Orleans are becoming popular departure points. In these regional home ports, local agents can often provide great deals.
- During the 1950s, three female passengers by the names of Jones, Smith, and MacBeth really overdid it. On Cunard Line’s Caronia, Smith and Jones cruised for two years at a time; MacBeth sailed for 14 years at a cost of roughly $4 million before disembarking for good.
- Gross registered tonnage is a measure of volume, not weight. The term dates back to 1347, when Edward III of England levied a tax, known as tunnage, of three shillings on each tun of wine imported by ship into England. A tun was a large wine cask with a capacity of 252 old wine gallons. Today, a gross registered ton (grt) is equal to 100 cubic feet of enclosed space.
- Three areas where people spend the most money once under way: shore excursions, beverages, and onboard casinos. You can buy shore excursions on your own, typically for much less than you’ll pay on ship. Just having a cocktail in your cabin? BYOB. And if you do gamble, set a limit as to how much you can afford to lose.
- A cruise ship’s muster drill originated on British warships as a means of confirming that fictitious names had not been entered in the muster book, which contained the names of all men serving on the ship. Today, cruise ship personnel perform the muster drill to assign passengers to lifeboat stations.
- At 142,000 gross registered tons each, Voyager of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas, and Adventure of the Seas are the largest cruise ships afloat. They are dwarfed, however, by the immense Jahre Viking, a supertanker operated out of Norway. Measuring 260,851 gross registered tons, the Jahre Viking is the world’s largest ship.
- Don’t phone home. Phone rates range between $6 and $10 per minute on ships, but most have Internet cafes where rates are, on average, 70 cents per minute.
- In 1998, the Norwegian Wind and Norwegian Dream were stretched from 624 feet to 754 feet by inserting 130-foot midsections to add 251 cabins and enlarge the public rooms on each ship. The stretch was done at the Lloyd Werft Shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany.
- Carnival Cruise Lines wilt host 2,200 weddings on its ships this year. In addition to such special onboard events and theme cruises, ship charters are becoming increasingly popular.
- Cunard’s venerable Queen Mary was originally going to be named Victoria, following Cunard’s tradition of ending ship names with an “ia.” But Cunard Chairman Sir Thomas Royden reportedly asked King George V if he would approve naming the new ship after England’s greatest queen. Royden meant the king’s grandmother, Queen Victoria, but the king replied that his wife, Queen Mary, would be honored. The Queen Wary, now docked and operating as a hotel in Long Beach, California, was retired in 1967 after completing 1,001 crossings of the Atlantic.
- If you plan to be in your onboard room as little as possible, an inside cabin can save you big money-up to 25 percent over an ocean-view cabin and up to 50 percent over a balcony stateroom. Then again, what are you taking a cruise for if not to be able, at any moment, to gaze at the eternal and ever-changing sea and sky?
Ralph Grizzle has never paid too much for a cruise. He runs the Web site www.avidcruiser.com.
