Talk:Cruise ship

Cruise ships are an environmental disaster. There needs to be a section on this.

Ugly great things, and with a propensity to flood nice places with hundreds of morons all at once, too :-)

I disagree. They're not ugly. ;-)

Environmental Disaster? I bet you love your car too.

--- Isn't it worth mentioning that South Korea is the largest shipbuilder? I'm not sure if taht's also the case for cruise shps but i'm pretty sure it is... Igob8a 02:36, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

--- Where are statistics on how much food is on a cruise ship?

Added statistics on food consumption. Gsloan 02:26, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Add that the ancient Egyptians had a form of Cruise Ship?

--- Added link to "External Links" "Types of Cruiselines." Removed link to Discount Cruises

Would love more information on how the ships are run. My research has shown that most ships are staffed almost exclusively from Italy, India, China, Eastern Europe, with very few Americans. Since the ships are not under the protection of any one government (traveling through different waters) most of the crew members do not pay taxes on their wages. This is a great benefit to them and the Cruise companies... they pay them less as a result. American's are the only ones who must still pay income taxes regardless of where the boat starts out or ends up. These are massive moving countries if you will. They have the law of the ship. For example the doctors aboard are not subject to American standards of practice. They are within their rights to treat a patient one day and have sex with her the next.

Cruise Ship Terminals

There is no mention of where a cruise goes, or the requirements for larger cruise ships such as superyachts and luxury liners. This is a very important environmental, economic and geographical issue. The installation of Cruise Ship Terminals greatly affects the surrounding environment insofar as depth, sea walls, and habitat for various aquatic organisms such as fish and aquatic vegetation. AQjosh

Environmental Disaster

they are an environmental disaster. they dump raw sewage directly into the ocean (without any treatment) which pollutes waters. they also carry invasive species from one habitat to another. this is a major threat to biodiversity. i was actually looking at the cruise ships article to find out more.

Sounds interesting. I don't know anything about that. Why don't you add what you know, to give people a framework to add more? -- Aaronwinborn 13:36, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I disagree - whilst on Carnival's Fantasy the other month, they claimed in a video on-board that all sewage onboard the ship is treated with chemicals before being flushed into the sea. On short cruises, and where available, it claimed that the sewage is usually stored and then transported (im assuming via a tube/pipe) to a truck, and then sent to a special facility to clean the waste. However, it could be all rubbish, and they're trying to sound good, as I cant say that you could prove it without working for them. -- pmhtuk 20.27, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

I worked on cruise ships 20 years ago. All sewage was treated even then prior to being pumped over board. On the SS Oriana and SS Canberra the holds the had previously been used for cargo in their days as passenger liners were filled with aerobic digestion tanks. No doubt environmental legislation since then has made the requirements for sewage treatment even greater- some enclosed waters I believe do prohibit the pumping out of treated sewage and tanks haved to be pumped out ashore. And as far as transporting invasive creatures from one place to another, all shipping has the potential to do that- not just cruise ships. Ballast water, pumped into ballast tanks in one area of the world and discharged in another, has long been recognised as a source of invasive species. Various organisations such as the US Environmental Protection Agency and the International Maritime Organisation are working towards solutions for this problem. All of the major cruise ship operators spend a lot of money making their ships as environmentally friendly as possible, including the design of their engines. Many modern ships have been fitted with Gas Turbines for operation in environmentally sensitive areas, as these engine, although very much more expensive to run, produce less pollutants and visible smoke. Advances in diesel engine technology have also resulted in much lower emissions [1]. I would suggest that the person who chose to remain anonymous should do some research and quote sources before posting comments like those above.--Dashers 23:21, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

I must say I read the same thing regarding their negative environmental impact, albeit a year or two ago. I will do a bit of research and see what turns up Tellkel 09:37, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Carnival ships/Hurricane Katrina

The paragraph on the use of Carnival ships for housing Hurricane Katrina victims is too specific for a general article such as this. I propose to move it to the Carnival Cruise Lines page. Kablammo 01:09, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Done. Kablammo 18:32, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I think a mention of cruise ships is appropriate. At least a cross reference to the use in natural disasters or the Athens Olymics say.

Way Bigger is Way Better

Is there any place where we can put this information?--Xlegiofalco 14:20, 27 August 2006 (UTC) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14471443/?GT1=8404

Food consumption and norovirus

I think the norovirus episodes need to be mentioned in the history of cruise ships. At the very least a reference to the incidents.

The natural place to mention it would be following:

"As with any vessel, adequate provisioning is crucial, especially on a cruise ship serving several thousand meals at each seating. The amount of food and beverages consumed by a cruise ship on an average seven-day voyage is staggering. Passengers and crew on the Royal Caribbean International ship Mariner of the Seas consume 20,000 pounds of beef, 28,000 eggs, 8,000 gallons of ice cream, and 18,000 slices of pizza in a week."

as norovirus is linked to food preparation sanitation.

Does each passenger on this ship really consume over 2.5 gallons (10 liters) of ice cream in a week (ie approx 30,000 calories if Haagen Dazs) Dencynic 17:13, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't believe that they do it "all at one sitting", if that's what you're asking. However, divide the 30,000 kcal over 7 days and you've got (only) a little less than 2300 kcal per day per person (in just ice cream). Given the facts that a) Kids on the ships probably consume *easily* that much ("free, all - you - can - eat ice cream, kids? come and get it!") and b) Cruises are usually an annual opportunity for fat people to become *really* fat people (basically a 24/7 - all - you - can - eat floating buffet), you've got to think that it's not far from the truth.

External links

• Which of the external links should be kept? I find some of dubious value. James Kidd 04:49, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

I may suggest to add the link to the subpages of this webpage *divX clips on passenger ships to the corresponding wikipedia pages. There are not too many pages with videos on ships and providing the link would be a justified addition to the corresponding wikipedia articles.

See also the *alphabetic list of ship names

160.91.72.133 18:30, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

List of norovirus incidents

A section was recently added listing norovirus incidents. While the addition is sourced and the subject should be addressed, the present list occupies a disproportionate amount of space, and also is an invitation to add further incidents as they occur. (The same content is repeated at Norovirus#Norovirus_on_cruise_ships.) Do we need this level of detail in this article? Kablammo 21:52, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Now condensed, with seealso added to Norovirus article. Kablammo 16:27, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Confusing two uses of liners

The book "Liners to the Sun" explains in detail: Historically, there's a basic division between two kinds of passengers on liners: people who are travelling, and people who are not trying to get from place to place, but are partying, enjoying the sun, etc. Liners now have almost exclusively the second kind of people. 60 years ago, the opposite was true.

This Wiki article keeps skipping back and forth between the two uses, for example the comment about "transatlantic crossing taking four days" has to do with to liners as transportation. So do the comments about jets taking away ship business. But some other comments -- without being clear -- only pertain to liners as pleasure boats.

Luxury liners were always incredibly opulent (it's not just with the advent of the tourist trade) and "organized like floating hotels". Practically every aspect of ship structure, cabin design, crew, social arrangements were not developed for the tourist industry, but simply appropriated when times changed.

Somebody above makes the comment that the ships are polluting, etc. That may be so, but facts need to be cited to demonstrate that the modern party ships are any more wasteful than, for example, flying 1,000s of miles to spend a few days at a resort. Both may be extravagant, but probably liners shouldn't be singled out for that.

Here's an interesting resource which is available on Google books: "Cruise Ship Blues: The Underside of the Cruise Ship Industry".

Also, on the positive side, if you choose to see it that way, cruise ships are a big asset for a country in times of war (think of how the troops got to the Falklands). Alpha Ralpha Boulevard 21:23, 15 November 2007 (UTC)