Cruise Ships

A cruise ship is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, when the voyage itself, the ship’s amenities, and sometimes the different destinations along the way (i.e., ports of call), are part of the experience. Transportation is not the only purpose of cruising, particularly on cruises that return passengers to their originating port (known as “closed-loop cruises”). On “cruises to nowhere” or “nowhere voyages”, the ship makes 2–3 night round trips without any ports of call.

Order Digital Image 13.043 on A4 scale

Order Digital Image 13.047 on A4 scale

Kreuzfahrtschiffe

The birth of leisure cruising began with the formation of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company in 1822. The company started out as a shipping line with routes between England and the Iberian Peninsula. P&O first introduced passenger cruising services in 1844, advertising sea tours to destinations such as Gibraltar, Malta and Athens, sailing from Southampton. The forerunner of modern cruise holidays, these voyages were the first of their kind, and P&O Cruises has been recognised as the world’s oldest cruise line.

Cruceros

游轮照片和视频

Navires de Croisière

السفن السياحية الصور ومقاطع الفيديو

In an attempt to shift the focus of the market from passenger travel to cruising with entertainment value, Cunard Line pioneered the luxury cruise transatlantic service on board the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner. International celebrities were hired to perform cabaret acts onboard and the crossing was advertised as a vacation in itself.
The 1970s television series Love Boat, helped to popularize the concept as a romantic opportunity for couples. Another ship to make this transition was SS Norway, originally the ocean liner SS France and later converted to cruising duties as the Caribbean‘s first “super-ship.”

круизных судов

Navi da Crociera

クルーズ船の写真とビデオ

Contemporary cruise ships built in the late 1980s and later, such as Sovereign-class which broke the size record held for decades by Norway, showed characteristics of size and strength once reserved for ocean liners – some have undertaken regular scheduled transatlantic crossings. The Sovereign-class ships were the first “megaships” to be built for the mass cruising market, they also were the first series of cruise ships to include a multi-story atrium with glass elevators. They also had a single deck devoted entirely to cabins with private balconies instead of oceanview cabins. Other cruise lines soon launched ships with similar attributes, such as the Fantasy-class, leading up to the Panamax-type Vista-class, designed such that two thirds of the oceanview staterooms have verandas. As the veranda suites were particularly lucrative for cruise lines, something which was lacking in older ocean liners, recent cruise ships have been designed to maximize such amenities and have been described as “balcony-laden floating condominiums.”