157 Fun Facts About Cruise Ship

Which Argentine port, often billed as the world's southernmost city, is a recognised gateway for cruises to Antarctica?

Ushuaia lies only about 1,100 km from the Antarctic Peninsula, which is why it is one of just five recognised Antarctic gateway cities, handling tourist ships as well as research expeditions.

What was the world's first purpose-built cruise ship, launched in 1900?

Prinzessin Victoria Luise was built for the Hamburg America Line purely for pleasure voyages, so she was styled like a white private yacht; she was wrecked off Jamaica in 1906.

Which German shipping magnate's 1891 voyage on the Augusta Victoria is often called the first cruise?

Albert Ballin of the Hamburg America Line sent Augusta Victoria to the Mediterranean in early 1891 because his express liners earned little in winter, and he sailed on the voyage himself.

Which ship became the world's largest cruise ship on entering service in January 2024?

Icon of the Seas, at 248,663 gross tons, displaced Wonder of the Seas and ended a run in which every record-holder since 2009 had been an Oasis-class ship.

Which footballer named Royal Caribbean's new ship at a Miami ceremony in January 2024?

Lionel Messi placed a football on a pedestal to release the champagne bottle against the hull at the Miami naming ceremony in January 2024.

Which Alaskan national park sends rangers aboard visiting cruise ships to tell passengers what they are seeing?

Glacier Bay did not exist when George Vancouver's expedition charted the coast in 1794: one great glacier filled it, and the ice has since drawn back some 65 miles to open the fjord that ships now sail.

Where was Symphony of the Seas built in 2018?

Saint-Nazaire, France, built Symphony at Chantiers de l'Atlantique; Royal Caribbean moved the Oasis class there in 2012 after talks on state financing for the Turku yard that built the first two fell through.

When completed in 1987, which ship became the world's largest passenger ship?

Sovereign of the Seas was the largest passenger ship afloat when delivered in 1987; in 2020 her last operator, Pullmantur, filed for reorganisation in the pandemic and she was beached for scrap in Turkey.

Which ship entered service in 2004 as the first purpose-built ocean liner in 35 years?

Queen Mary 2 was built as a true liner for Cunard's Atlantic run, with thicker hull plating and some 40% more steel than a cruise ship of her size, to succeed QE2 of 1969.

Retired in 2008, Cunard's QE2 opened as a floating hotel in 2018 in which city?

Dubai's state investment arm bought QE2 from Cunard to moor her as a hotel at Palm Jumeirah, but the plan stalled for a decade before she finally opened at Mina Rashid in April 2018.

Samuel Cunard, founder of Britain's Cunard Line, was born in which present-day country?

Canada: Cunard was a shipowner from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who won the first British transatlantic steamship mail contract in 1839 and began sailings the next year.

Holland America Line was founded in 1873 in which city?

Rotterdam was home to the line's head office for decades; the building still stands on the quay as the Hotel New York, while the company itself is now run from the United States.

Norwegian Cruise Line was founded in 1966 by Knut Kloster and which Israeli businessman?

Ted Arison split from Kloster on bad terms in 1971 and launched a rival, Carnival Cruise Lines, the following year.

Norwegian's first ship, Sunward, began in 1966 as a car ferry from Southampton to where?

Gibraltar was the goal, but British limits on holiday currency helped kill the ferry within months, so Knut Kloster sent the idle Sunward to Miami to cruise instead.

Which French liner did Norwegian buy in 1979 and rename SS Norway?

SS France had been laid up at Le Havre since 1974 when Knut Kloster paid $18 million for her in 1979 and rebuilt her as SS Norway, then the world's largest cruise ship.

Which Italian film star has christened nearly every new MSC Cruises ship since MSC Lirica in 2003?

Sophia Loren named MSC Lirica, the line's first newbuild, in 2003 and has returned to christen most of its new ships since; the line named its 2012 arrival MSC Divina in her honour.

Until it moved to Bermuda in 2026, Carnival Corporation was incorporated in which country?

Panama was Carnival Corporation's legal home, though it was run from Florida, until May 2026, when it absorbed its British twin Carnival plc and re-registered in Bermuda.

Princess Cruises began in 1965 when founder Stanley McDonald chartered a ship for winter cruises from Los Angeles to which coast?

The Mexican Riviera was the destination: McDonald chartered Canadian Pacific's coastal steamer Princess Patricia for the months when she would normally have been laid up for winter.

On which ship was the TV series The Love Boat set?

Pacific Princess played the Love Boat for most of the run, with her twin standing in when schedules clashed; the famous ship herself was sold for scrap and broken up in Turkey in 2013.

Who played Captain Merrill Stubing on The Love Boat?

Gavin MacLeod played Captain Merrill Stubing for all nine seasons, then spent more than 30 years as Princess Cruises' global ambassador, taking part in the launches of its new ships.

Who sang The Love Boat theme over the opening credits for the first eight seasons?

Jack Jones sang The Love Boat theme for the first eight seasons; Dionne Warwick recorded a new version for the ninth and final season in 1985–86.

Which port bills itself as the "Cruise Capital of the World"?

PortMiami earned the slogan because the modern industry grew up on its piers: Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Carnival all began sailing from Miami between 1966 and 1972.

Which Bahamian island did Norwegian Cruise Line buy in 1977, making it the first private island of any cruise line?

Great Stirrup Cay was bought from the Belcher Oil Company, which had held it with an eye to oil exploration; Norwegian turned it into a beach stop for its own passengers instead.

Disney's private island Castaway Cay was formerly known as what?

Gorda Cay's airstrip was once a stop for bootleggers and later for drug runners; Disney took a 99-year lease on the island in 1997 and renamed it Castaway Cay.

Which 1998 ship, Disney Cruise Line's first, has Goofy hanging from her stern?

Disney Magic was built in two halves at Italian yards, the bow towed from Ancona to Marghera to be joined to the stern, before her maiden voyage in July 1998.

On a cruise ship, the open-air deck where the outdoor pools are found traditionally carries what name?

Lido deck borrows the name of the Lido, Venice's beach-resort island; British English took the word for open-air public pools, and ships took it for the deck with the pool.

What is the rounded underwater nose at the front of a cruise ship's hull, which cuts drag and saves fuel, called?

Bulbous bow is the name: the bulb raises a wave of its own that cancels much of the one the hull pushes up, so large ships fitted with one burn roughly 12 to 15 percent less fuel.

What is the general emergency alarm signal on a cruise ship?

Seven or more short blasts then one long, on the whistle and the internal alarms, is the general emergency signal, which is why every cruise begins with a drill where passengers hear it sounded.

The SOLAS treaty on safety at sea was first prompted by which disaster?

The sinking of the Titanic prompted the first SOLAS convention in 1914, which set lifeboat numbers and a continuous radio watch, but that treaty never took force because the First World War broke out.

What title do cruise lines give the woman chosen to name a new ship and wish it good fortune?

Godmother is the title, with godfather for a man; the pairing goes back to French launchings of the 1700s, which resembled baptisms and had a priest bless the new ship.

Azipods, the steerable propulsion pods under many modern cruise ships, were developed in which country?

Finland is where the Azipod was developed in the late 1980s, by a shipbuilder and an electrical firm that became part of ABB; the first unit went onto a Finnish fairway service vessel in 1990, years before any cruise ship.

Which canal's locks lift cruise ships 26 metres to a freshwater lake between two oceans?

The Panama Canal's Gatun Locks raise ships 26 metres to Gatun Lake, made by damming the Chagres River; the lake's own water fills each lock chamber by gravity, with no pumps.

On 13 January 2012, Costa Concordia struck rocks after a sail-by salute off which Italian island?

Costa Concordia hit rocks off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, while saluting the island on 13 January 2012; captain Francesco Schettino was later sentenced to 16 years.

Which Carnival ship's 2010 engine-room fire left it adrift off Mexico before a San Diego tow?

Carnival Splendor lost power after an engine-room fire in November 2010 and was towed to San Diego; the US Navy flew in Spam and Pop-Tarts for passengers.

Which Italian cruise ship was hijacked by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985?

Achille Lauro was seized off the Egyptian coast in October 1985; when US Navy jets forced the hijackers' getaway plane down in Sicily, American and Italian troops faced off on the runway over who would take them.

Which ship's 2013 engine-room fire left it adrift without power in the media-dubbed "Poop Cruise"?

Carnival Triumph drifted for days after the February 2013 fire, sewage backing up on deck, before a tow to Mobile, Alabama; Carnival then spent $300 million on safety upgrades across its fleet.

Which ship was quarantined at Yokohama for nearly a month in February 2020 over COVID-19?

Diamond Princess was held at Yokohama from 4 February 2020 and at least 712 of the 3,711 people aboard were infected; within weeks most cruise lines had suspended sailing altogether.

Which pathogen is behind most gastroenteritis outbreaks recorded on cruise ships?

Norovirus causes most stomach-bug outbreaks at sea; it was first called Norwalk virus, after the Ohio town where a 1968 outbreak at an elementary school led researchers to it.

The liner Andrea Doria sank in 1956 after colliding with which Swedish ship off Nantucket?

Stockholm struck Andrea Doria in thick fog on 25 July 1956; the Swedish liner survived, was later rebuilt as a cruise ship and went on sailing under other names until 2020.

Norway's Hurtigruten coastal route sails between Bergen and which northern town?

Kirkenes is the turning point of a route that is still a working public service: besides tourists, Hurtigruten carries local passengers and cargo between its 34 northbound ports of call.

Where are the operating headquarters of Viking, the river-and-ocean line founded by Torstein Hagen?

Viking's operating headquarters are in Basel, Switzerland, on the Rhine where many of its river cruises begin, while its marketing arm sits in Los Angeles.

Virgin Voyages' first ship, which began sailing in 2021, is called what?

Scarlet Lady takes her name from one of Virgin Atlantic's first aircraft; delivered in 2020, she was held back by the pandemic until short UK sailings from Portsmouth in August 2021.

Celebrity Cruises was founded in 1988 by the Chandris shipping family of which country?

Greece: the Chandris liners carried the Greek letter chi, the family's initial, on their funnels, which is why Celebrity's ships sail under a big X.

Which ship, in service since 2002, is run like a floating condominium whose apartments belong to the residents aboard?

The World is steered by the people who live aboard: its residents elect a board and have a voice in choosing each year's itinerary.

Cruise ships visiting Rome actually dock about ninety minutes away at which port city?

Civitavecchia has been Rome's sea gate since the emperor Trajan had its harbour built around AD 106, and passengers still travel inland from there to reach the capital.

Roughly how many ocean cruise ships were in service worldwide in late 2022?

About 300: one count listed 302 ships in November 2022, a small fleet for so visible an industry, yet between them they had berths for more than 660,000 passengers at a time.

What is the practice of registering a ship in a foreign country with lighter rules and taxes called?

Flag of convenience is the term, in use since the 1950s; open registries let owners hire cheaper foreign crews and escape income tax at home, which is why so few big ships fly their owners' flags.

During which Olympic Games did eleven cruise ships dock in the host city's port as floating hotels for sponsors' guests?

Barcelona 1992 berthed the ships for an average of 18 days, housing 11,000 guests a night, the Games' largest block of beds after the Olympic Village; later seaside hosts copied the idea.

On Royal Caribbean ships, what does a loudspeaker call of 'Oscar, Oscar, Oscar' tell the crew?

Man overboard: crews use code words so passengers aren't alarmed, and Oscar is also the signal flag that means the same thing; a fire is 'Bravo' and a medical case 'Alpha'.

Cunard's QE2 was requisitioned in 1982 to carry British troops to which conflict?

Falklands War service saw QE2 fitted with two helicopter pads and her lounges turned into dormitories; the liner Canberra, nicknamed the Great White Whale, went south as a troopship too.

What is a one-way cruise that moves a ship between seasonal regions called?

A repositioning cruise, such as the autumn run from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, is usually cheap: passengers must add a one-way flight, and many prefer port calls to a long string of days at sea.

What sent the ocean liner trade into terminal decline in the 1960s?

Large passenger jets such as the Boeing 707, flying the Atlantic from 1958, took the liners' passengers; older liners' deep draughts and windowless cabins also made them poor cruise ships.

In 2016 Crystal Serenity became the largest cruise ship to sail which Arctic route to New York?

Northwest Passage ice defeated explorers for centuries, and Roald Amundsen needed three years to get through in 1903-06; Crystal Serenity's passengers made the transit on a month-long luxury cruise.

At which Greek island do cruise ships anchor below the cliffs and send passengers up to Fira by cable car or donkey?

Santorini has no pier for big ships beneath its capital, so they anchor in the flooded volcanic crater and local boatmen ferry passengers to the foot of the cliff.

Which TV personality fronted Carnival's 'Fun Ships' television commercials from 1984?

Kathie Lee Gifford sang in the 'Fun Ships' ads for years and became the face of the line, which later had her christen its new ship Carnival Ecstasy in 1991.

Which famous city park gives its name to the open-air garden that runs down the middle of Oasis-class ships?

Central Park is planted with live tropical plants and open to the sky; to fit it and the Boardwalk down the middle, Oasis-class ships split their superstructure in two.

Which Royal Caribbean series overtook Cunard's new liner as the largest passenger ship in 2006?

The Freedom class took the record in 2006 with an extended version of the Voyager design rather than a wholly new ship; the Oasis class overtook it in turn in 2009.

Cunard's headquarters were merged with Princess Cruises' in 2004 in which California city?

Santa Clarita, California, was already home to Princess Cruises; Carnival moved Cunard's head office there so the two lines could share administrative, financial and technology services. Cunard is now back in Southampton.

Which British cruise line only takes passengers aged 50 and over?

Saga Cruises takes only passengers aged 50 and over because it grew out of Saga, the British holiday firm for older travellers that Sidney De Haan founded in 1951.

Cruise ships fill the summer docks of which Alaskan city that no road reaches from outside?

Juneau has no road link to anywhere else, so nearly everything that isn't flown in, from visitors to residents' cars, arrives by sea on ships, ferries and barges.

A cruise ship's speed is given in knots; one knot is one of which unit per hour?

Nautical mile per hour is the definition, 1.852 km/h, so a ship doing 20 knots covers about 37 km an hour; the name comes from the knots on the log line sailors once paid out to gauge speed.

Why do cruise ship casinos and shops open only at sea?

To avoid conflict with local laws and taxes: in port a ship falls under the host country's gambling and duty rules, so its casinos and duty-free shops wait until it is back at sea.

What is the kitchen aboard a cruise ship called?

The galley is a ship's kitchen, built for a floor that moves: stoves are often gimballed so pans stay level as the ship rolls, and one central galley usually feeds all the main restaurants.

What is the ILO's 2006 Maritime Labour Convention nicknamed?

Seafarers' Bill of Rights is the nickname of the Maritime Labour Convention of 2006, which took force in August 2013 only after 30 countries holding a third of the world's ship tonnage had ratified it.

Which Alaska destination was created solely for cruise ship visitors?

Icy Strait Point opened in 2004 around a restored 1930s cannery at Hoonah; it belongs to Huna Totem, the village's Native corporation, which bought the site to bring work to the community.

What did US Customs crack down on in 2016, ending most 'cruises to nowhere'?

Foreign-flagged ships skipping foreign ports were the target: a voyage that touches no other country never legally leaves the United States, even if it reaches international waters.

When the cruise liner Oceanos sank off South Africa in 1991 and her captain left early, who ran the rescue?

The onboard entertainers, led by guitarist Moss Hills, sent the mayday, launched the lifeboats and helped navy helicopters lift off those still aboard; nobody died.

Cunard merged in 1934 with which rival British shipping line?

White Star Line was ailing in the Depression, and the British government would lend Cunard the money to finish its stalled superliner only if the two old rivals merged.

Which new ship rescued some 2,000 stranded British tourists from Bilbao during the 2010 ash cloud?

Celebrity Eclipse had not even been christened when her owners sent her from Southampton to Bilbao in April 2010 to bring home Britons stranded by the ash cloud.

Roughly how many people worldwide took an ocean cruise in 2024?

About 35 million is the right order: counts for 2024 run from roughly 32 to 35 million, a record reached after passenger numbers climbed back past their pre-pandemic level in 2023.

Cruise ships dock at Philipsburg on which Caribbean island, divided between a Dutch side and a French side?

Saint Martin has been split between France and the Netherlands since 1648; Philipsburg, the Dutch capital, has the island's only deep-water port, so its two million cruise passengers a year all land there.

Which underwater fins do cruise ships extend from the hull to reduce rolling in rough seas?

Stabilisers work like small wings: a gyroscope senses the roll and tilts the fins so the ship's own forward motion pushes back, and in calm water they fold into the hull to save fuel.

Which company built Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess at its Nagasaki yard in 2004?

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built the pair at Nagasaki, the first Princess ships from a Japanese yard; its next cruise ship, AIDAprima, ran so late that the company reviewed its future in the business.

Which sonic device helped the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit repel a pirate attack off Somalia in 2005?

The crew turned an LRAD, a long-range acoustic device, and a fire hose on pirates who were firing rockets at the ship; two crewmen were later decorated for bravery by the Queen.

Which marking on a ship's hull shows the legal limit to which it may be loaded?

Plimsoll line is named after Samuel Plimsoll, the MP who devised the mark in 1876 after years in which overloaded ships were being lost at sea.

The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 requires which simple security feature in every passenger cabin door?

A peephole in every cabin door is required by the act, along with rails at least 42 inches high and prompt reporting of serious crimes to the FBI; Congress passed it after assaults and disappearances at sea.

Expedition cruise ships sailing from South America to Antarctica must cross which notoriously rough stretch of water?

Drake Passage is so rough because no land anywhere at its latitude slows the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that runs through it, and waves there can top 12 metres.

What keeps tall modern cruise ships stable?

A low centre of mass and great width keep tall modern cruise ships upright: engines and fuel sit at the bottom while aluminium and light steel go up top.

Which US agency runs the Vessel Sanitation Program, whose surprise inspections score cruise ships out of 100?

CDC inspectors failed the luxury ship Silver Shadow in 2013 after crew members tipped them off that food was being moved into cabins to hide it from the surprise check.

A US health review of 2008 to 2014 found roughly what share of cruise passengers reported a stomach bug on board?

About 0.2%: just 0.18 percent of more than 73 million passengers reported gastroenteritis, which led a medical journal to write that the breeding-ground image of cruise ships does not hold water.

Which device lets ships keep burning cheaper high-sulphur fuel inside emission control areas?

Scrubber systems wash sulphur oxides out of the exhaust, so a ship can meet the 0.10% limit of emission control areas without paying for costlier low-sulphur fuel.

Which three cities are regularly cited as victims of cruise-ship overtourism?

Venice, Barcelona and Dubrovnik are regularly cited for cruise-ship overtourism; critics say cruise passengers spend little ashore while crowding the historic streets.

What is Carnival Cruise Line's funnel logo shaped like?

Carnival's funnel is shaped like a whale's tail in red, white and blue, a design introduced with Tropicale in 1982 and carried by every new Carnival ship since.

As of 2025, where is Carnival Cruise Line headquartered?

Doral, Florida, is home to both Carnival Cruise Line and its parent Carnival Corporation; the two are scheduled to move to a new campus elsewhere in Miami-Dade County in 2028.

What is the ramp placed between a moored cruise ship and the pier for boarding called?

The gangway is the ramp or bridge placed between a moored ship and the pier for boarding; on cruise ships security scans every passenger's keycard at it.

Which pop artist painted the hull art of Norwegian Breakaway in 2013?

Peter Max was chosen in 2012 to paint the hull of Norwegian Breakaway, a New York-themed ship built to sail from the city all year round.

Micky Arison, Carnival CEO from 1979 to 2013, took majority ownership of which NBA team?

Miami Heat came under Micky Arison's control in 1995; he hired Pat Riley that summer, and the team went on to win NBA titles in 2006, 2012 and 2013.

Which line's logo, the 'Sea Witch', is a woman's face with flowing hair?

Princess Cruises' Sea Witch logo, a woman's face with wave-like hair, has marked its funnels since the 1960s and was famous from The Love Boat.

Holland America has named its passenger ships with which suffix since the 1880s?

-dam has ended Holland America passenger ship names since 1883, as in Noordam and Zuiderdam; the ending showed a ship's job, since the line's cargo ships took '-dijk' instead.

Disney Cruise Line operates through an English-registered company with which legal name?

Magical Cruise Company is Disney Cruise Line's legal name; Disney chose to run its own ships after its partner Premier Cruise Line said in 1993 that it would trade Disney's characters for Looney Tunes.

Disney's Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point sits on which Bahamian island?

Eleuthera is home to Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, opened in June 2024; Disney bought the land in 2019, promised to build on less than a fifth of it and gave Bahamians free access.

Since 2011 Cunard's ships have been registered in which port?

Cunard re-registered its ships in Hamilton, Bermuda, in 2011 so captains could conduct weddings at sea; the Queens had previously flown the Red Ensign from Southampton.

On what patriotic date did Cunard's first ocean liner, Britannia, set out on her maiden voyage?

4 July was pure coincidence: the British steamer Britannia left England that day, reached Halifax in 12 days and 10 hours, then carried on to Boston.

The 'Peninsular' in P&O's full name refers to which peninsula, its first mail route?

Iberian Peninsula is right: the firm began with steamers to Spain and Portugal and won the mail contract there in 1837, and its house flag still combines those two countries' old royal colours.

Costa Cruises is based in which Italian city?

Genoa has been home to the Costa family firm since 1854, when it traded olive oil and textiles; it moved into passenger shipping only after the Second World War.

Costa launched full passenger service in 1948 with Anna C, sailing from Italy to which South American port?

Buenos Aires was Anna C's destination: Costa, a cargo shipper before the war, rebuilt its fleet around passengers afterwards and opened its full South American service in March 1948.

German line AIDA Cruises is based in which Baltic port?

Rostock has been AIDA's home from the start: the line grew out of Deutsche Seereederei, East Germany's state shipping company, and launched its first club ship, AIDA, in 1996.

Virgin Voyages, launched with Bain Capital's backing, accepts only which passengers?

Adults only: nobody under 18 may sail with Virgin Voyages, a pitch aimed at younger, first-time cruisers since Virgin Group and Bain Capital launched the line in 2014.

Luxury line Seabourn shares its headquarters with sister brand Holland America in which US city?

Seattle became Seabourn's base in 2011, when the line left Miami to move in with Holland America, its stablemate at Carnival Corporation.

Luxury line Silversea, launched in 1994 with the ship Silver Cloud, was founded in which Riviera location?

Monaco is Silversea's home: Silver Cloud was christened at Monte Carlo in March 1994 with Prince Albert looking on, her name borrowed from a Rolls-Royce to promise top-class service.

What was the luxury line Regent formerly called?

Radisson Seven Seas Cruises took the Regent name from the luxury hotel brand of its owner Carlson, which sold the line to Apollo for $1 billion in 2008; Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings bought it in 2014.

Windstar's five-masted flagship Wind Surf entered service in 1990 for which company?

Club Med sailed her from 1990 as Club Med 1, with computers working the sails; when Windstar bought her eight years later she took the name Wind Surf, first planned for her before Club Med stepped in.

What does 'Hurtigruten', the name of Norway's coastal steamer service, literally mean?

Fast route is right: Richard With's steamers cut mail delivery from central Norway to the far north from three weeks in summer, and five months in winter, to seven days.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines is headquartered in which English town?

The Norwegian-owned line belongs to Bonheur.

Which line's Solstice-class ships debuted with a lawn of real grass on the top deck?

Celebrity Cruises laid about half an acre of living grass on Celebrity Solstice in 2008 for bocce, croquet and picnics; a 2026 refit replaced that ship's Lawn Club with artificial turf.

Which Japanese company founded Crystal Cruises in 1988?

Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) founded Crystal Cruises in 1988 and launched Crystal Harmony in 1990; it sold the line to Genting Hong Kong in 2015, and A&K Travel Group bought the brand after the 2022 insolvency.

What was Margaritaville at Sea called before its 2022 rebrand?

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line took the Margaritaville at Sea name in 2022 under a deal with Jimmy Buffett's brand; its ship Grand Classica became Margaritaville at Sea Paradise.

Which American author joined the Quaker City's 1867 pleasure cruise to Europe and the Holy Land and wrote a bestseller about it?

Mark Twain sailed as a newspaper correspondent, and his comic letters home became The Innocents Abroad (1869), the best-selling of his books in his lifetime.

A ship's 'starboard' side takes its name from what piece of equipment once mounted there?

The steering oar hung over that side before ships had central rudders, and Old English 'steorbord', the steering side, became 'starboard'.

Which side of a ship is 'port'?

The left side facing forward was once called 'larboard'; because that sounded too much like 'starboard' when shouted, navies switched to 'port', the side ships tied up on.

Royal Caribbean bills Category 6 as the largest what at sea?

Water park is the answer: Category 6 has six slides, one billed as the tallest at sea, and its name plays on hurricane categories, which stop at five.

What does a ship's 'draught' measure?

Depth of hull below the waterline is the draught: an Oasis-class ship, for all its 72 metres of height above the water, draws only about 9.3 metres.

Wonder of the Seas was originally planned to be based in which Chinese city?

Shanghai was to be Wonder of the Seas' first home, with bookings open for a 2022 season there, before her owner switched her debut to Florida in March 2022.

What did Oasis of the Seas lower to squeeze under Denmark's Great Belt Bridge in 2009?

Its telescoping funnels came down, and the ship ran at 23 knots so that her hull squatted lower in the water, clearing Denmark's Great Belt Bridge by under a metre.

From where did Utopia of the Seas enter service in July 2024?

Port Canaveral welcomed Utopia of the Seas in July 2024; her owner billed the sixth Oasis-class ship as 'the ultimate short getaway', sailing brief trips to the Bahamas.

Which Olympic figure skater named Voyager of the Seas in 1999?

Katarina Witt, a two-time Olympic champion, named Voyager of the Seas in November 1999, a fitting sponsor for the first cruise ship with an ice-skating rink.

What role did MSC World Europa play in Doha before her December 2022 debut?

Hotel ship for the FIFA finals: Qatar chartered MSC World Europa to house World Cup fans at Doha's port, and her first cruise left from Qatar that December.

Carnival Jubilee entered service in December 2023 from which Texas port?

Galveston has been Carnival Jubilee's year-round home since December 2023, and the ship wears a Texas star on her bow to mark the tie.

What happened to Carnival's first ship, Mardi Gras, leaving Miami on her 1972 maiden cruise?

Ran aground is right: too deep in the water when fully loaded, she sat stuck for more than a day while rivals dubbed her 'Mardi Gras on the Rocks'.

Norwegian Epic's Studio cabins, introduced in 2010, were designed for which passengers?

Solo travellers were the target: Norwegian Epic's Studio cabins of 2010 were small single-occupancy rooms sold without the usual single supplement, sharing a lounge of their own.

From 2026, Disney Adventure sails year-round from which Asian city?

Singapore is her home for at least five years; Disney bought the hull, begun as Global Dream for the collapsed Genting group, and had it finished in Germany as the largest cruise ship ever built there.

Who led the naval architects who designed Queen Mary 2?

Stephen Payne wrote to the BBC's Blue Peter as a boy, insisting another great liner would be built and that he would design it; three decades later the show gave him a gold badge for doing so.

Which shipyard built Queen Elizabeth 2 on the Clyde?

John Brown & Company launched QE2 at Clydebank in 1967 as its last passenger liner; the yard was merged into Upper Clyde Shipbuilders the next year, and that group collapsed in 1971.

The original RMS Queen Mary, the Cunard liner retired in 1967, is permanently moored as a hotel and museum in which city?

Long Beach, California, bought the Queen Mary for $3.45 million; she left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and reached her new home by way of Cape Horn.

Which Cunard liner, launched in 1938, carried troops before her first commercial crossing in 1946?

Queen Elizabeth slipped out of the Clyde in March 1940 in battleship grey under sealed orders, spent the war as a troopship, and carried her first paying passengers only in October 1946.

Florida's Okaloosa County bought the liner SS United States in 2024 to turn her into what?

An artificial reef, billed as the largest on Earth: the county had the 1952 record-breaker towed to Mobile to be stripped for sinking off Destin, with her two funnels saved for a museum.

Who designed SS United States?

William Francis Gibbs so feared fire that he wanted no wood aboard SS United States and even asked Steinway for aluminium pianos; the ship took the Blue Riband on her 1952 maiden voyage.

Which deck of a passenger ship traditionally carries a covered walkway running around its sides?

Promenade deck takes its name from the French for a leisurely walk: its open walkway let passengers stroll the length of the ship, with the lifeboats slung on davits alongside.

What is the name of the method used to pull Costa Concordia upright in 2013?

Parbuckling rolled the wreck upright in a 19-hour operation in September 2013, using chains and weighted tanks fixed to her side; she was refloated in 2014 and towed away for scrap.

On a cruise ship, what is a passenger's 'muster station'?

Their emergency assembly point is where passengers gather when the alarm sounds; at the muster drill the crew send everyone there and explain the lifejackets and lifeboats.

Which wheelchair-using American passenger was murdered when Palestinian gunmen hijacked an Italian cruise ship in 1985?

Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old New Yorker in a wheelchair, was shot by the hijackers and thrown overboard; the 1985 killing inspired the opera The Death of Klinghoffer.

What sped up Diamond Princess's delivery after a 2002 fire gutted the first hull?

A name swap: the second hull, planned as Sapphire Princess, was finished first as Diamond Princess, while the burned one was rebuilt and took the Sapphire name.

What was Carnival Triumph renamed after her 2019 refit?

Carnival Sunrise is the name Carnival Triumph took after a $200 million rebuild at Cádiz in 2019, chosen to reflect how much had changed, just as a rebuilt Carnival Destiny had become Carnival Sunshine.

What is the small boat that ferries passengers ashore when a cruise ship anchors off a port called?

Tender is the term; on many cruise ships the tenders double as lifeboats, hanging in davits along the side.

Cabin stewards on many cruise ships leave guests a nightly surprise by folding what into animal shapes?

Towels are folded into elephants, swans and rabbits and left on the bed; Carnival, which says its first towel animal appeared in 1991, gives its stewards more than ten hours of training in the craft.

PortMiami sits on an island made by joining Dodge, Lummus and Sam's islands in which bay?

Biscayne Bay surrounds the port's island; since 2014 a tunnel under the bay has carried port traffic straight to the interstate instead of through downtown Miami's streets.

Port Canaveral is the main cruise port for visitors to which Florida city?

Orlando is the draw: Port Canaveral bills itself as the closest port to the city and Central Florida's theme parks, and Disney Cruise Line made it its original home port.

Which county owns Port Everglades, the Fort Lauderdale cruise port?

Broward County owns and runs Port Everglades; it opened in 1928 as Bay Mabel Harbor and took its present name after a contest run by local women's clubs.

Texas's oldest Gulf port was established by which government's proclamation in 1825?

Mexico's congress proclaimed the port in October 1825, when Texas was still Mexican territory, eleven years before Texan independence; it is the oldest Gulf port west of New Orleans.

MSC's private island Ocean Cay was used for what before becoming a cruise destination?

Sand mining shaped Ocean Cay: the island is man-made, dredged up in the 1960s to quarry aragonite sand, before MSC turned the industrial site into a marine reserve for its cruise guests.

Half Moon Cay's official name is what?

Little San Salvador Island is the name on the map; the cruise line that bought it in 1996 renamed it Half Moon Cay when its beach stop opened a year later.

Which Haitian ruler leased Labadee to Royal Caribbean in 1985?

Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier's government signed the Labadee lease in 1985, months before his 1986 overthrow; Royal Caribbean later extended it to 2050.

What colour is the navigation light on a ship's port side?

Red marks the port side and green the starboard, so at night another crew can tell which way a ship is heading from the colour they see.

AIDAnova, delivered in 2018, was the first cruise ship able to run entirely on which fuel?

LNG was the breakthrough: AIDAnova, delivered by Meyer Werft in December 2018, could run on liquefied natural gas alone, though her dual-fuel engines can still burn ordinary fuel oil.

Meyer Werft's inland-built cruise ships reach the North Sea down which river?

Ems is the river: each new giant creeps downstream to open water, a spectacle that draws thousands of onlookers; the Meyer family ran the yard, founded in 1795, for seven generations.

Chantiers de l'Atlantique sits at the mouth of which river?

Loire is the river: the yard stands on its estuary where it meets the Atlantic, and France briefly nationalised it in 2017 during a tussle over its sale to Italy's Fincantieri.

Fincantieri is based in which Italian city?

Trieste houses Fincantieri's headquarters; the group was set up in 1959 as a state holding company for Italy's main shipyards and now builds cruise ships itself at nearby Monfalcone.

Disney Cruise Line's lifeboats are yellow rather than the usual safety orange to match what?

Mickey Mouse's shoes set the colour; the choice needed a waiver from international maritime rules, and the ships' black hulls with red trim echo the rest of his outfit.

What does a ship's gross tonnage actually measure?

Internal volume is what gross tonnage counts, not weight: under a 1969 convention it is worked out from all of a ship's enclosed spaces, and it sets her port dues and safety rules.

What is the artificial stationary wave on cruise ships marketed as?

FlowRider pumps a thin sheet of water over a surface shaped like an ocean wave, which is why the ride is called a sheet wave.

Jeraldine Saunders, whose memoir inspired The Love Boat, had held which shipboard job?

Cruise director was her job, and her 1974 book The Love Boats, full of romances she had watched on board, became a TV movie and then the series created by Wilford Lloyd Baumes.

What was the name of the world's first shipboard roller coaster, on Carnival's Mardi Gras?

Bolt is an all-electric coaster whose riders work the throttle of a motorcycle-style car themselves; it opened on Mardi Gras in 2021 as the first roller coaster at sea.

Which game show revealed the name of Carnival's 2020 ship Mardi Gras in December 2018?

Wheel of Fortune spelled out the name on its puzzle board as the credits rolled; it honours Carnival's first ship, the Mardi Gras of 1972.

Which New Orleans celebrity chef put his name to a bistro aboard Carnival's Mardi Gras?

Emeril Lagasse opened Emeril's Bistro 1396 on the ship, and in 2022 Carnival went further, naming him its chief culinary officer to shape menus across the fleet.

Which city, rather than a person, did Cunard name as sponsor of Queen Anne in 2024?

Liverpool, Cunard's historic home port, was named sponsor of Queen Anne in June 2024, breaking the tradition of choosing an individual; five Liverpool women including Melanie C performed the naming.

Which Nobel Peace laureate christened Celebrity Edge in December 2018?

Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace laureate, christened Celebrity Edge in December 2018; the ship introduced the Magic Carpet, a platform that glides up and down a track on her side.

Which Ted Lasso actress named Princess Cruises' Sun Princess in Barcelona in April 2024?

Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso's Rebecca, named Sun Princess in Barcelona in April 2024 and later sang The Love Boat theme aboard the ship for the line's advertising.