cruise ship management means

What Is Cruise Ship Management?

By Alice Nichols

Cruise ship management is the process of overseeing the daily operations of a cruise ship. It involves making sure the ship is running smoothly and efficiently, ensuring that all necessary supplies are available, and ensuring that all passengers and crew are safe and secure. Cruise ship management also entails organizing onboard activities and special events, managing payrolls and budgets, and keeping an eye on the financial health of the cruise line.

To become a successful cruise ship manager, it is essential to have strong organizational skills. Cruise ships are complex systems with many moving parts, so it’s important for a manager to be able to keep track of them all.

The manager must also be able to make quick decisions if something unexpected arises. A good manager should also have excellent communication skills in order to effectively interact with passengers, crew members, vendors, and other stakeholders.

Cruise ship managers must also have a thorough knowledge of maritime law. They must understand how to comply with international regulations governing safety on board as well as proper waste disposal procedures. Managers must also be aware of any potential environmental hazards posed by their vessel.

The job of a cruise ship manager can be both challenging and rewarding. They must possess a high level of knowledge in order to ensure the safety of their passengers as well as their own staff. At the same time, they must be able to provide an enjoyable experience for passengers while meeting tight deadlines.

Conclusion:

Cruise ship management is an important role within the cruising industry. It requires a keen eye for detail and strong organizational skills in order to ensure the safe operation of a cruise line. Cruise ship managers must have an understanding of maritime law as well as an ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders in order for their vessels to run smoothly.

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Cruise Management & Operations

As the first ship management company to set up a dedicated cruise brand and team, V.Ships Leisure is uniquely placed to support the industry.

Our services include all aspects of cruise management operations, from safety to crewing, technical to hospitality, in co-operation with Oceanic, to ensure we provide the very best support. As part of V.Group, our scale and our ability to blend those services together in unique combinations allows us to tailor our services for each client’s particular needs. We’re, alongside our existing clients, also focusing our efforts to deliver the cruise industry’s collective environmental responsibilities.

Established across 30 countries, our recruitment organisation is expert in attracting, recruiting, deploying, training and managing seafarer talent globally. With our current network of over 10,000 leisure specific crew, the largest independent crew network in the industry, we can support any crewing requirements for your cruise operations. And our global reach means we can respond quickly to the need of our seafarers, customers and the vessels we manage.

Our clients also benefit from working with a partner that is making unrivalled investments in its own systems and technology. Our integrated marine digital platform, ShipSure 2.0, is the marine industry’s leading digital platform. Delivering data driven insights to your desktop and mobile devices globally, ShipSure 2.0 informs your decision making in real-time to optimise the operational performance of your fleet.

Combining extensive experience and capabilities in providing operational advisory services for optimisation and improvement programs, V.Ships Leisure will help to maximise the effectiveness of your cruise operations from fuel efficiency to guest experience.

Our passion and understanding of the cruise industry makes V.Ships Leisure the perfect partner. From enhancing established operations to start-up new cruise lines, our depth and breadth of services allow us to tailor our services to support your operations. V.Ships Leisure has a proven track record of working in the cruise industry, and we continue to strengthen our position as the leading ship manager in this sector.

Contact us today to find out more about our services and how V.Ships Leisure can make your vision a reality.

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Cruise Ship Ranks and Hierarchy

Working on a cruise ship is a unique environment. Although one may argue that it’s just a floating resort, a look closer identifies that hierarchy and ranks are embedded in each cruise job onboard. By understanding the difference in stripes and ranks you’ll get to know how the chain of command works on a cruise ship.

Overview of Cruise Ship Hierarchy

A cruise ship is run like a small corporation. Similar to the president of a company, the Captain is in charge and is ultimately responsible. The Captain has a handful of senior officers that report to him just like a handful of vice presidents that would report to the president of a company. Beyond those high level ranks, the larger the cruise ship, the bigger the organizational chart of other ranks and cruise ship jobs that there are.

Typically, each department has a department head, managers, supervisors and crewmembers. (The actual title of each cruise job varies by cruise line). This equates to a chain of command that all those working onboard must adhere to. Another term for cruise job is rank. The rank of all officers and crew on cruise ships governs not only their working environment but also their cabin assignment, where they eat, their emergency duty, and whether or not they have access to passenger facilities.

History of Hierarchy and Rank on Cruise Ships

When you look at both naval ships and cargo vessels, there has always been a strict hierarchy of command. Maritime laws govern safety of life at sea with regulations that must be followed by all officers and crew working onboard the vessels. The Golden Era of ocean liners evolved into the cruise industry today where cruise ship safety is also paramount.

In the past, cruise ship hierarchy was a very militarized organizational structure with lower ranks rarely questioning the authority of higher ranks. In addition, only few departments such as the Deck Department and the Engine Department wore stripes to indicate their officer status.

Although there are many differences in how cruise ships are managed today, the officer ranking system continues to be in place and has inevitably been expanded. In an interview with Royal Caribbean’s Captain Erik Standal for the website, Beyond Ships, Standal explains that the traditional militarized hierarchy on cruise ships is still necessary.

“We are a small community and in a community you have to have some order to control certain people.” He points out, “You have the ranking system in order to make it clear who is making the decisions…”

Cruise Ship Management Hierarchy

On today’s cruise ships, in addition to the Captain being in charge, there are a handful of senior officers that manage the ship’s operations and report to the Captain. These jobs include Staff Captain, Chief Engineer, Hotel Director, Cruise Director, Doctor, Food and Beverage Manager, and Staff Engineer.

Each of those department heads have managers and supervisors that report to them as well. (See the Cruise Ship Job Positions for more information.) Plus, each department is responsible for specific emergency duties.

Cruise Ship Officer Stripes

When you first start working on a cruise ship it may be overwhelming to understand how all the departments work together, who’s in charge of what and who reports to whom. Getting to know how to interpret the stripes on their epaulets is the first step. (Reading the officer’s name tag is an alternate method). For starters, each department’s stripes are represented by a specific colour of stripe.

• Deck Department  –  Black and gold stripes
• Engine Department –  Purple and gold stripes
• Hotel Department  –  White and gold stripes
• Medical Department  –  Red and gold stripes

The number of stripes indicates the rank of the officer. The more stripes, the more authority the officer has within their department. Each cruise line varies slightly with how many stripes a particular cruise job may have. In all cases, the Captain has the most stripes (4+ black and gold stripes)

Comparatively, in the Hotel Department, the Hotel Director is the head of his/her department. He/she may have four stripes. This person looks after all guest services, entertainment and revenue on the ship. Therefore, the Cruise Director, Doctor, Food and Beverage Manager, Customers Services Director, and Human Resources Manager all report to the Hotel Director and typically have between 3 – 3.5 stripes.

In some cases it’s difficult to tell who’s who on a ship because there are so many people wearing stripes. (Note: Some cruise jobs may not actually wear stripes but their job has a stripe equivalent in the case of the Cruise Director.)

Cruise Ship Chain of Command

Each cruise line has a slightly different organizational chart when it comes to the chain of command. Yet, most cruise lines follow the same chain of command protocol.

Click here for a simple diagram of cruise ship organizational hierarchy .

On cruise ships, you are expected to follow the chain of command whenever you have a complaint or concern. Always speak to your immediate supervisor first and allow them to make an effort to solve the issue. At no time should you jump the chain of command and proceed directly to the Captain.

When the Chain of Command Breaks Down

There may be times when you feel that your immediate supervisor has not dealt with the issue at hand. Or, possibly your immediate supervisor is the issue. If that’s the case, you take it one step up the chain of command and speak with the next in line.

Most cruise ships also have a Human Resources Manager onboard. This person is onboard for situations that you feel that can’t be resolved within your own department and also for situations that you feel are sensitive or personal. Feel free to speak this onboard HR manager.

All in all, working onboard a cruise ship can take a bit of getting used to, with its overly structured environment. But, once you experience it, you appreciate it. You know exactly what you can and cannot do. You know what your responsibilities are. You know who you need to report to. This military style is not for everyone, but many crewmembers and officers careers thrive in this environment.

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How cruise lines can manage scheduling and resources

Dynama's Lee Clarke explains how workforce optimisation technology can help

Managing large crews and keeping passengers safe in today’s cruise industry is complex. Lee Clarke from Dynama recommends using workforce optimisation technology in six focus areas to improve customer service and business performance

By Guest | 13 December 2018

The global cruise industry is undergoing a period of rapid transformation. In a climate of increased consolidation and regulation, cruise companies around the world face a complex set of challenges when it comes to managing their vast crews and keeping their passengers safe. Optimising crew and resources, achieving economies of scale and winning market share in one of the world’s fastest growing leisure sectors are key objectives in the sector, yet the sheer scale of managing cruise ships may make these goals seem unattainable.

All too frequently, the volume of information and process challenges involved in the industry can have a potentially damaging impact on customer service and negative commercial implications. At the same time, these challenges present significant opportunities for cost control, service improvement and strategic performance when the issues are overcome and resources are optimised effectively.

So how do cruise lines overcome these challenges and turn them into positive opportunities? Dynama’s Scheduling and Resource Management for Cruise Lines white paper outlines how these operators can improve guest satisfaction and business performance by deploying automated workforce optimisation (WFO) solutions to alleviate the biggest pain points in six key areas.

First, cruise operators should optimise their resources by using the latest WFO technology to gain 360-degree visibility across deck, engine and hotel crew from within one single integrated system. Having all critical information in one place provides control in an information-intensive environment, making it easy to create, maintain and change schedules quickly and efficiently. This gives management time to focus on revenues and minimising risk, while crew members can devote themselves to improving the guest experience.

The second area to focus on is cost control. Ensuring the right crew members are on the right cruise ships at the right time with up-to-date medical and travel documentation is critical but expensive. In fact, crew travel expenses are one of the biggest costs for cruise lines. The good news is that even small changes can amount to multi-million dollar savings. The latest WFO solutions integrate with human resources and travel systems to enable joined-up logistics planning that keep crew moving, with the best flight and hotel deals available. Furthermore, sophisticated functionality enables operators to plan for ‘what if’ scenarios. This includes budgetary analysis alongside full demand planning and compliance management before a single dollar is actually spent.

Third on the list is compliance with international best-practice standards and legislation. This is essential when it comes to ensuring the safety of crew and passengers. Automated WFO systems provide the hard evidence necessary to demonstrate compliance with these regulations by capturing, storing and reporting on a ship’s end-to-end compliance activities at the click of a button. Plus, they minimise the risk of heavy penalties for non-compliance.

Next up is staff engagement. Attracting, developing and retaining the best talent is a constant challenge in the highly competitive cruise industry, so operators must find ways to improve staff engagement levels. To do this, companies can use WFO to create a virtual library of crew skills and then tap into the data to develop meaningful training programmes and career paths. They can further empower and motivate staff by adding self-service capabilities. At a glance, crew members can view their schedules, see who they are working with, trade shifts with colleagues and request time off, at any time and from anywhere in the world.

Change readiness is the fifth key area. Constantly changing operational and industry demands put immense pressure on scheduling and resource management. Fortunately, WFO solutions consolidate and analyse big data in a dynamic way, enabling managers to build efficient, flexible schedules for today and tomorrow. Spotting trends and variances in demand and in real time improves proactive decision-making and boosts business agility.

Finally, cruise operators should explore system interfacing. Effective scheduling and resource management depend on harnessing the right information from the best applications available, rather than forcing existing systems to integrate with each other. The latest WFO solutions interface with most of the leading enterprise resource planning and human resources systems as standard, enabling easy information exchange for core financial, human resources and payroll requirements. Delivered as software-as-a-service solutions, today’s technology also reduces capital expenditure and simplifies the IT implementation and management procedures associated with traditional on-premise infrastructures.

By focusing on these six areas and executing them well, cruise operators can create a future-proof scheduling and resource management framework that helps them to keep everything shipshape.

Lee Clarke is general manager for US and EMEA at Dynama

Tags: Dynama     workforce optimisation

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If ocean waves and beaches excite you and working on a cruise is your dream job, how about charting a great career while working on a cruise ship. Sounds exciting, right? Well, it is exciting especially when we consider the ever-growing hospitality industry. The plethora of job opportunities in cruise ship operation space makes it a perfect option for you to go choose. 

What makes working on a cruise exciting?

Apart from a chance to travel the far corners of the world and have an amazing future, here is what more a career in cruise ship management has in the closet for you:

Working on a cruise ship enables you to connect with people from all over the world. Not only does it allow you to forge international connections but also helps in framing a confident personality. 

Living costs such as accommodation and food are usually taken care of by the employer. Jobs in cruise ship management need you to be on the ship at least for six months of the year making it easy to save while living a luxury life.

The scale of progression in this industry is quite fast making it a perfect option for those seeking to have an upward success curve.

And last but not the least, an opportunity to travel the world for absolutely free is something that attracts people most to the industry.

What are the various roles in cruise ship operations?

The companies engaged in the cruise hospitality industry strive to build better ships meaning a pool of jobs in various areas. As the hospitality sector mainly serves leisure and comfort to clients, the job roles vary greatly. You can find jobs ranging from chefs, housekeeping, cruise ship manager, bartender, fitness coach, and many more catering to serve people.

Here are the most common job roles in cruise ships: 

• Food and Beverage Manager: As a food and beverage manager, you will be responsible for handling all the areas serving food and beverages. Moreover, you will also be managing the budgets, expenses, and order placement for the food and beverage section. Apart from this, ensuring timely delivery and double-checking the quality of food and drinks marks the key responsibilities that come with the job role. 
• Accommodation Staff: Managing the laundry, cleaners, stewards, and on-time access to all the services is something an accommodation staff is responsible for. The job role requires a strong personality, keen eye, and robust ability to manage people.
• Hotel Manager: As a hotel manager, you will be equipped with the responsibility of managing all the areas of the cruise’s hotel. The managerial position is a significant role requiring you to manage hotel finances, train the new recruitments, and supervise the overall working of staff.
• Casino Manager: If you have worked as a croupier, then working as a cruise ship manager is a perfect option for you. The job role involves directing the ship’s casino operations and managing the staff working under you. Moreover, you will also be needed to track the finances of the cruise ship’s casino. As a casino manager at cruise, your priority should be to ensure brilliant customer service to guests.
• Chef Manager and Executive Chefs: A chef manager is one of the key job roles you can explore in the cruise ship management sector. You will be required to handle food services and ensure an exceptional guest experience. The job responsibility comes with supervising the kitchen staff working under you and preparing exquisite dining venues and exotic drink options for guests. To run the kitchen, you will need to have immense knowledge and experience in the field.
• Housekeeping Manager: As a housekeeping manager, ensuring top-notch cleanliness for guests in every nook and corner of the cruise ship will be your priority. Along with maintaining hygiene and cleanliness in guestrooms, bedrooms, washrooms, open decks, and public areas; you will also be needed to manage the baggage movement to and from the cruise. A fresher can enter the department as a utility cleaner, accommodation staff, steward, etc.
• The job roles in cruise ship management need an all-in-one person who can work exceptionally as a team as well as an individual ensuring all the requirements are well met on time. A job in a cruise ship comes with the responsibility to detect improvement areas, continuous operational analysis, manage finances, and make sure that the team complies with the rules and regulations.

What are the top cruise ship companies? 

In India and abroad, some of the top cruise ship companies are Royal Caribbean Group, Hapag-Lloyd, Viking Cruises, Disney Cruises Line, Carnival, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, and Costa Crociere. 

What are the qualifications for getting a job in the cruise ship management industry?

Travelling the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Americas, Europe, and Asia is a dream of many. If you want to work amidst far-reaching waters, getting a diploma in cruise ship operations is the first step. As the cruise ship industry conventionally relies on internal promotions, your best bet would be to focus on entry-level jobs and customer-service functions. The best option for those seeking a job role in cruise ships would be to pursue a certificate course in cruise operations .  

As you will be required to provide A-Class hospitality services, only those equipped with theoretical and practical knowledge will make it to the managerial positions. To convert your dream of working on a cruise into reality, getting a Certificate course in Cruise Operations with the ITM Institute of Hotel Management is the safest way to make it through. We have framed the course curriculum to make you equipped with the skill-set for the cruise industry.

Make Your Dream Career with Us

ITM Institute of Hotel Management is the pioneer to begin the course in Mumbai. We have framed the course such that you get exposure to the basics of the cruise industry and on-ground skills to make you a cruise professional and not a mere job seeker. We provide a complete package including on-ground training, paid internship opportunities, STCW certification, and CDC. ITM Institute of Hotel Management offers 100% placement assistance to our students ensuring you make a perfect start to your journey in the hospitality industry. The giant companies in the cruise ship industry visit our campus for recruiting our students.

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The Maritime Review

The online edition of the maritime league's maritime review magazine, cruise management systems: an overview.

Posted By: webmaster 30-Jan-2017

Passenger liners have not only become a means of transport over the seas, but they have also become floating hotels and resorts. As propulsion technologies, navigation systems, and ship designs improve, so do the systems which facilitate daily operations aboard cruise ships.

Just like hotels, cruise ships need the means to register guests and passengers, assign them to cabins according to allocations done ashore, and to issue access cards for use in the cabins and other ship facilities. A subsystem that does this must be able to synchronize guest and passenger information between the land-based office and the cruise ship.

A large cruise ship would need an internal map in order to assist passengers in locating their cabins, as well as the ship facilities they have access to.  This subsystem should be an interactive map with animated directions, and should be readable in multiple languages.

Cruise ships also need the means to facilitate and record retail transactions, restaurant meals, and services paid for by passengers. A point-of-sales (POS) system should be able to accept various types of payments, including cash, foreign currencies, credit cards, coupons, and vouchers.

These are just some of the features found in a typical cruise management system. The number of subsystems may vary among cruise lines, depending on their unique requirements.

CRUISE, FERRY & YACHT MANAGEMENT

OSM Thome delivers tailor-made end-to-end services for Cruise, Ferry, and Yacht management worldwide. We are dedicated team builders supporting and assuring our partners’ success in a safe and responsible way. Our full technical management service includes all aspects of Cruise ship management (as well as for other passenger vessels) operations.

CRUISE SHIPS & PASSENGER VESSELS TECHNICAL OPERATIONS

OSM Thome’s experience is built upon our core maritime technical management expertise from both conventional shipping to the most modern and hi-tech offshore units and vessels that require skilled crew, as well as a highly competent shore organization, designed to meet any customer requirements.​ The same values and quality we apply for Cruise Line and Passenger Vessel Technical Management.

Our Cruise Ships and Passenger Vessels Technical Management includes the following services:

Inspections.

We provide global coverage and quick turnaround time for 3rd party inspections of all vessel types, including Cruise ships and Ferries. Professional and timely reports according to agreed SoW; e.g. pre-purchase surveys, condition assessments, class record reviews, damage inspections and inspection, budget and schedule for breaking lay-up or modifications.

Project management and support

OSM Thome possesses a wide range of experience with project management, support and execution of technical projects ranging from minor to major vessel modifications, regulatory advice and follow-up, and review of drawings and new builds. The activity also covers projects of an administrative nature like the change of administrative systems, new areas of operation, improvement projects, business case studies etc. We are focused on doing projects with vessels in normal operation as far as practicably possible.

OSM Thome counts many years of experience in the Projects and New Building segment as Consultants, Engineers or Supervisors in the construction of several Cruise Ships, Super Yachts and Passenger Vessels. OSM has participated in Joint Developments, Project Developments, New Building Specifications, GA Developments, New Building Supervision, Site Supervision, Post-delivery Follow-ups, Vessel Conversions, Conversion Supervision, Damage Repairs , and more. If you are considering building a new vessel, get a quote from OSM Thome as well!

Maintenance system update and support

A dedicated and experienced maintenance team with experience in building Planned Maintenance Databases (PMS) databases for new vessels, improving database standard and integration of PMS and purchasing system with invoicing/ crewing/ accounting / other systems, change of PMS, troubleshooting, daily PMS support to shore team and Cruise ships, Ferries or Yachts, crew and shore team training. OSM Thome can offer spare part management including onboard riding crew for streamlining spare parts stock onboard.

Crew Management

OSM Thome delivers and manages qualified and trained crew for all departments onboard our growing fleet of Cruise ships, Expedition vessels, Ferries and Yachts. We offer professional partnership and tailor-made crew management services  for the passenger vessel industry worldwide.

Insurance and Claim handling

At OSM Thome we are committed to providing the necessary focus and resources to ensure that your vessel (Cruise line ship or Passenger vessel), crew and passengers are successfully and safely managed. In combination with technical services by OSM Thome and our dedicated team of qualified people, we are able to achieve competitive insurance as well as risk management solutions, combined with offering high-quality claims services for our clients.

What does Yacht Technical Management include?

Yacht technical management includes the management of a yacht’s technical and engineering systems to ensure the vessel is maintained to the highest standards of safety, reliability, and efficiency. This involves overseeing the maintenance, repair, and upgrade of the yacht’s propulsion, electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic systems, as well as the management of the yacht’s crew, supplies, and inventory.

Yacht technical management also includes ensuring compliance with international maritime regulations and standards, such as those set by classification societies and flag states, as well as implementing safety and security protocols. The technical manager may work closely with the yacht’s owner, captain, and other stakeholders to ensure that the yacht meets the owner’s expectations for performance, comfort, and amenities. Overall, the goal of yacht technical management is to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the yacht, while maximizing its lifespan and minimizing downtime.

What is Cruise Ship Technical Management?

Cruise ship technical management involves the management of a cruise ship’s technical operations, including the maintenance and repair of the vessel’s engines, propulsion systems, electrical systems, and other machinery. This includes managing the ship’s engineering department, which is responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the vessel. Cruise ship technical management also involves ensuring compliance with international maritime regulations and standards, as well as overseeing the procurement and management of spare parts, supplies, and equipment. Overall, the goal of cruise ship technical management is to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the ship, while minimizing downtime and maximizing efficiency.

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What is Ship Management?

Ship management is an essential aspect of the shipping industry across the globe. It deals with the process of managing a fleet or even a single vessel. It is done by firms which use other companies’ vessels or those belonging to independent owners.

The ship management company manages ships for the owner and pays him the yearly amount, which is settled between the owner and the ship management company.

Moreover, the ship’s owner signs a contract and leases the ship to the ship management company for a defined duration. The ship owner may continue with the same company or approach another if he is not satisfied with the performance of that company. The owner can ultimately lease the ship, or he can render some of the services such companies provide.

Hiring a ship management company can be advantageous for shipowners without prior experience in the field or those who might not have the time and capacity to undertake the task. It saves time and resources for the owner while also earning significant profits.

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Ship Management Companies

Some of the biggest ship-management companies include the V-Group, Schulte Group, OSM group and Thome Group. These companies manage various assets, including tankers, gas carriers, passenger vessels, cargo ships, cruise vessels etc. Through efficient crew recruitment, they have built a substantial onshore team with relevant experience in providing technical services to meet the ship’s or fleet’s specific needs.

Their success is attributed to transparency, service quality provided to the clients, catering to their high standards and individual preferences.

The services offered can be divided into three categories- technical management, commercial management and crewing management. Many shipowners often outsource such services from companies based in Singapore, Connecticut, Rotterdam etc.

What Is Included in Ship Management?

Managing ships is not an easy task. It includes several functions to be carried out before, during and after the vessel’s operation. The first and foremost thing is to get the ship approved. Many approvals need to be taken from different classification societies. However, the company can operate various types of vessels or concentrate on any one type. E.g. MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Corporation) deals with only container vessels, whereas companies like V ships and Anglo-Eastern manage all types of ships .

Suppose a management company wants to enter a new field by operating different vessels but is operating the vessel type for the first time. In that case, approval for operation is given for six months, and their performance is evaluated, which decides any further approval.

Services Provided

Following are the services that a ship management company is entitled to provide:

1. The company should supervise the maintenance of machinery onboard the ship. The process should also include different surveys and repair works. It should arrange and manage dry dockings and overlook the whole process. It has to arrange for sampling and testing of bunkers.

2. It should ensure that the ship complies with Flag State’s requirements and the classification society’s recommendations.

3. It should also comply with the ISM and ISPS Code .

4. The company should provide a good crew for manning the ship. It also undertakes crew training, career development, and everything related to its payrolls, insurance and other employee benefits.

5. It should arrange for the loading and unloading of the cargo.

6. It can hire the ship on behalf of the ship owner.

7. The company should negotiate the contracts for bunker and lube oil.

8. The company pays the expenses on behalf of the owner.

9. It should arrange the ship’s entry into the P&I (Protection and Indemnity) association.

10. The company also deals with various claims related to insurance , salvage etc.

11. The ship management company should arrange for the insurance concerning the ship.

12. The ship management company’s services include arrangements for providing victualling and stores for the crew.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what do you mean by ship management.

It includes the registration and management of ships or fleets owned by a company or an independent owner.

2. What is the responsibility of management companies?

Management firms have to oversee the ship repair, its maintenance, organise surveys, hire vessel crew and so on.

3. What is the role of shipping managers?

Shipping managers are responsible for overseeing packaging, verifying the contents of the cargo, ordering supplies and leading and managing the crew members.

4. How are ships managed?

All aspects of ships are managed by an independent company on behalf of the shipowner.

5. Which shipping company owns the largest fleet of ships?

A.P Moller Maersk operates a total of 708 vessels, making it the largest integrated shipping company in the world.

You might also like to read:

• What is Ship-Shore Interface Management in the Shipping World?
• What Procedure Does Master Follow For Handing-Over Of Ship’s Command?
• What Is Safety Management System (SMS) On Ships?
• How Can Ship Master Deal With Unprescribed Drugs On Ships?
• 10 Important Points To Comply With Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan

Disclaimer:  The author’s views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Marine Insight. Data and charts, if used in the article, have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same. The views constitute only the opinions and do not constitute any guidelines or recommendations on any course of action to be followed by the reader.

The article or images cannot be reproduced, copied, shared, or used in any form without the permission of the author and Marine Insight.

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18 Comments

I want to say thank you to who ever has created this write up on shipping management. I’m a student of the INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF AVIATION (ISA) Nigeria,Lagos state. The school has also got different campuses in different parts of the world. I must say that I’m privileged to be amongst those who gained from this site. I’ll also love to learn more about marine insurance,cargo handling,clearing aNd forwarding,and marine geography,because I want to come out the best with a wide spread of knowledge of this course. I have come to discover that a ship should be taken good care of like taking care of a baby, and shipping to me is like a way of life and a part of nature. I’m sure that as at when I’m done with the study of shipping management. Thanks and God bless.

Am a shipping management student..I love this topic..and I’m happy to among of this.. Victor if u wanna know about that contact me!!

Highly impressive having this educative fora very commendable.We will continue to support you from PORTEMAN

I’m so happy for the knowledge I get from these sites, him have build me up in my academy life. Once again thanks to the authority my God bless

hi so glad of joining the shiping managements students,i would like everyone that is studying such course should contact me for more exchange and more knowledge from you [email protected]

Lyk seriously aint knw it gonna full of fun buh wen i move into it

I love this how can I get the books Throu my emal

iam very happy to studie maritime security and port mangement and iam looking for a plaece to do my i.t

very good article about ship management

I have a difficulty of coming to a decision as to how to proceed with the following , a ship carrying goods from China to the port of Djibouti on deck got the commodity on board damaged as a result of Typhoon, what is the liability of the carrier in this aspect after paying the claim for the insured,as an insurer

actual, i feel happy to learn shipping management course am student, i get clearing and forwarding course. this is gives different knowledge and skills on how to managing a shipping process and also port management.

i’m so happy to lean about shipping managent and i want to be among one of the maritime studient an apapa lagos this years by de grace of God?

Thank once again your post is include very important things that student get lots of information. thank you for selecting this topic and posting this kind of post.

am so happy to know about this, but which one is the best between ship management and nautical science?

I am studying shipping management service

I have read all this shipping service blog it’s very informative for studying.

Thanks for sharing proper solutions about shipping

That’s it.

@Alisa: Glad the content is helpful to you.

I have read all this shipping service blog it’s very informative for studying.

I will like to Learn more about ship management system.

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We have been managing cruise ships and passengers vessels for more than two decades. We understand that every client, every ship, every itinerary and every product is unique. Therefore our value preposition that NTC brings you is genuine, no-nonsense approach technical management team which is fully engaged, immensely experienced and exceptionally driven to meet your specific needs, more importantly, NTC embraces your business with a personalized approach to cruise ship management and customer service level you will not find anywhere else in within our industry.

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How You Can Get a Job on a Cruise Ship

Curious about how to get a job on a cruise ship? Explore the education, training, and skills you may need to start a hospitality job on the sea!

Take the Culinary Career Survey

We’ve compiled a checklist of all of the essential questions into one handy tool: career options, culinary interest surveys, educational opportunities, and more.

Clicking the "Get the Survey Now" button constitutes your express request, and your express written consent, to be contacted by and to receive automated or pre-recorded call, texts, messages and/or emails from via phone, text, and/or emails by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts at the number(s)/email you provided, regarding furthering your education and enrolling. You understand that these calls , texts, messages and/or emails may be generated using an automated or pre-recorded technology. You are not required to agree to receive automated or pre-recorded calls, texts, messages or emails as a condition of enrolling at Escoffier. You can unsubscribe at any time or request removal of street address, phone number, email address via Escoffier website .

If you have a natural talent for delivering excellent customer service, paired with a “nomadic” spirit, have you ever considered a tourism job? More specifically…on a cruise ship? Not only can you embark on thrilling travel adventures, but you could join a thriving industry.

According to a cruise industry study conducted by Cyrus Shipping News , the cruise ship industry currently supports over one million jobs and is expected to hit $25.1 billion in revenue by the end of 2023. Needless to say, if you’re at all curious about joining a “floating hotel on the sea,” now could be the opportune time to start. Keep reading to discover how to get a job on a cruise ship.

Determine Whether a Cruise Ship Environment Is Right for You

Before we dive into which types of cruise ship occupations may speak to you, it might be beneficial to see if it’s the type of lifestyle you want to lead.

Consider asking yourself the following self-reflection questions:

• Do you consider yourself a people person?
• Are you naturally independent?
• Do you genuinely enjoy helping others?
• Do you relish a teamwork environment?
• Are you okay with not working the typical 9-5 job?
• Are you okay with being away from family and friends for long periods of time?
• Are you comfortable being out at sea for extended time, without immediate access to land?

If you answered yes to all, then that’s a step in the right direction!

Eligibility Requirements for Cruise Ship Jobs

According to Indeed , cruise ship candidates must:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Hold a valid passport and/or appropriate visa
• Pass a criminal background check
• Undergo a medical exam or submit medical records

A Cruise Career Success Story: Victor Mancilla

For Escoffier graduate, Victor Mancilla, living near the bustling Panama Canal 15 years ago and watching majestic cruise ships float by sparked his dream to eventually work on one. “At the time, I went to architectural school, but my passion was always about food.”* Victor says.

He seized the first entry-level opportunity he could get with Celebrity Cruises but really had his sights set on an executive chef position—even though he was told it was a “highly competitive” position. But with his unwavering focus and willingness to take on new responsibilities, he managed to secure this high-ranking position in just four years. He became the official Executive Chef for a few ships in the Galapagos.

“Imagine 16 kitchens, more than 12 restaurants, a 24-hour operation, 22 bars, and 375 crew members,” Victor says. “I remember saying, I don’t know how I’m going to make it for the next two years, but it ended up being the best culinary team in the fleet. And that team was the best ship of the year for two consecutive years.”*

Meanwhile, Victor pursued an online Culinary Arts diploma at Escoffier, while working full-time as an executive chef, simply to refine his skill set and “get better” at the culinary fundamentals.

“[Attending Escoffier] was such a rich experience—so helpful for my ego. It brought me back to reality since I was living a dream…I was living in a paradise,” Victor says. “I don’t regret a single cent that I paid…Because it gave me a vision.”*

“I’ve visited more than 250 cities and that’s the beauty of the cruise ship industry. I lived in Turkey for more than five years. I spent years in New Zealand. I had the privilege to be in the Galapagos, which is one of the most luxurious destinations in the world, for months.”* Victor Mancilla, Escoffier Culinary Arts Graduate

From there, Victor continued to expand his career and jumped to managing 900 crew members in Asia, with his promotion to Food & Beverage Director , requiring him to know the ins and outs of every restaurant on the cruise ship. Even though it was a challenging position to take on, especially during the pandemic, he wouldn’t change it for the world.

Although he’s not out at sea anymore, Victor is still overseeing cruise ship operations as the Corporate Executive Chef at COLUMBIA signature, located in Germany. He lives there with his wife (who he serendipitously met on a cruise ship) and two children. He also runs a Chef Academy for Spanish-speaking children and has authored a collection of ten cookbooks for children.

Explore Various Cruise Ship Job Positions

Now that you know which “archetype” is best suited for cruise ship life, let’s take a peek at some of the most common hospitality and food & beverage positions on cruise ships.

Food and Beverage Managers

Wearing multiple hats, food and beverage managers usually oversee all aspects of the operations side. This may include monitoring food budgets, inventory, quality control, and even guest satisfaction.

Food and beverage managers are typically highly-analytical—spending most of their time evaluating numbers in spreadsheets.

Dining Room Managers

If you think of an orchestra, dining room managers can be viewed as the “conductors” of a cruise ship restaurant. They usually address the flow of traffic, wait times, and any guest concerns, while taking immediate care of any staff needs.

Executive Chef

Along with conceptualizing cruise ship menus, an executive chef usually manages all aspects of food service on a cruise ship. This may include hiring and overseeing all kitchen staff, as well as maintaining food quality control.

Bar Managers

What’s a cruise experience without the endless flow of cocktails ? Bar managers can expect to stay relatively busy on cruise ships, with the responsibility of crafting compelling cocktail menus. On top of educating staff on how to create specialty spirits, bar managers usually oversee alcohol costs and revenue.

Working closely with the dining room managers, the maître d’ interacts with guests and also closely monitors overall dining satisfaction—ensuring that it’s up to par with specified standards. On top of being the “face of the restaurant,” they typically work behind the scenes as well—accommodating any restaurant staff requests.

Hotel Managers

Dedicated to creating a seamless guest experience, hotel managers on cruise ships work to ensure that the entire staff is leading with class and professionalism. Along with directly interacting with passengers on a daily basis, a hotel manager may oversee all fiscal operations, communicating closely with the captain of the cruise ship. They’re also typically responsible for training and hiring skilled staff members who are committed to “wowing” guests.

Chief Cabin Stewards

Housekeeping is one of the largest departments on cruise ships and the chief cabin steward is responsible for managing this sector. With demands to maintain a level of cleanliness 24/7, the chief cabin steward usually must be meticulous and set high standards for the housekeeping staff.

Event Managers

In addition to lounging and enjoying indulging in various cuisines, cruise ship guests will often engage in daily events, such as movie nights, salsa dancing, speakeasy parties, corporate events, and even weddings! Event managers strive to plan these types of events that keep guests entertained, which may require great attention to detail and organization.

Consider a Hospitality or Culinary Education

As you can see, there’s a vast range of hospitality and foodservice jobs you can explore on cruise ships! Although there’s no set educational path for these occupations, obtaining a culinary arts or hospitality degree may help you: a) stand out on your resume b) garner the applicable skill set to prosper c) rise in the ranks and get promoted more quickly.

Escoffier’s Hospitality & Restaurant Operations Management online degree program can help you prepare for several hospitality-focused positions on a cruise ship—with a curriculum focused on hospitality from a business perspective. Students also explore how to cultivate world-class guest experiences, train and manage hospitality employees, utilize technology to enhance business operations, craft menus, prepare for events, and more.

“Our program is meant to get a student prepared for an entry-level position in the hospitality industry, that could lead to a management position.”* Jason Goldman, Escoffier Lead Chef Instructor

Now, if a culinary-centric job on a cruise ship sounds more appealing, such as an executive chef position, you may want to consider a Culinary Arts program, such as the degree and diploma options that Escoffier offers. With more of an emphasis on contemporary culinary techniques, students can explore a variety of topics, such as cooking methods, bake shop staples, commercial food service operations, world cuisines, farm-to-table philosophy, and more.

At the end of the day, which program you choose will likely depend on the cruise ship occupation that interests you the most and if it’s more geared toward hospitality or culinary arts.

Refine Your Skill Set To Work On A Cruise Ship

As we mentioned before, if you exude great communication and customer service skills, stepping into a hospitality job on a cruise ship could be in your wheelhouse.

But if you don’t have any experience in hospitality, how can you begin to foster the necessary skills it might take to start? This is where education and work experience comes in! At Escoffier, students can begin to develop soft and hard skills from day one, just by immersing themselves in the curriculum. On top of this, students must complete one to two externships in order to graduate. These placements can help provide real-world experience and training you can list on your resume.

For example, you might secure an externship on a cruise ship or in a hotel to “get a taste” of what to expect. An externship is also an invaluable opportunity to forge industry connections, which can plant seeds for your future career.

“The externship class allows students–even those with no prior experience–to get their foot in the door. Once they gain that valuable experience, it is easier for them to determine which path they want to take with their careers.”* Maria Davenport, Hospitality & Restaurant Operations Management Instructor

How to Apply for Cruise Ship Jobs

Unlike other jobs where you can apply directly, cruise ships usually partner with agencies that do the hiring for them. So finding a recruiting agency that works with cruise ships can be a great first step. In tandem with this, Escoffier students can also work with Career Services to prepare for the job search, by utilizing one-on-one career coaching and a slew of readiness tools to bolster confidence!

While you begin this stage in the process, you’ll also want to consider exactly how long you’ll want to work on a cruise ship, as placements will vary—meaning you could work on a cruise ship for a week (short-term contract) or several months (long-term contract). Depending on your preferences, look into cruise ships that offer your desired duration, then look into agencies that specifically represent those cruise lines.

Before accepting a job position, you’ll probably also want to consider the type of employment and pay structure that suits you the most. For example, permanent employees might be able to access “contract perks” like longer stints at home, time off preferences, and ongoing healthcare, versus non-permanent employees.

It’s also important to note that some cruise ship positions are salaried, while others are not paid, but you may receive complimentary room and board, plus the occasional gratuity. These are just a few aspects of the job to consider before signing a cruise ship contract.

“The power of working on a cruise ship is that it gives you that confidence. If you put me in a competition right now, I’m not afraid of that. I have to create 18,000 meals a day and design 6,000 recipes in six months.”* Victor Mancilla, Online Culinary Arts Graduate, Corporate Executive Chef

Start Your Cruise Ship Career

If you’re craving more of a non-conventional tourism career on the sea, then securing a cruise ship job could be the best move for you! But before you say bon voyage, you may want to consider starting with an education first, which could help you gain the necessary skills to flourish in this industry.

To take the next step, contact our admissions department to get more information on Escoffier’s Hospitality & Restaurant Operations Management or Culinary Arts programs that could help you achieve your dream career.

Enjoyed this article on hospitality? Read these next:

• What is Hospitality & Restaurant Operations Management?
• Is Hospitality Management a Good Career Choice for You?
• What Can You Lean in a Hospitality Degree Program?

*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.

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Clicking the "Get the Workbook Now" button constitutes your express request, and your express written consent, to be contacted by and to receive automated or pre-recorded call, texts, messages and/or emails from via phone, text, and/or emails by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts at the number(s)/email you provided, regarding furthering your education and enrolling. You understand that these calls , texts, messages and/or emails may be generated using an automated or pre-recorded technology. You are not required to agree to receive automated or pre-recorded calls, texts, messages or emails as a condition of enrolling at Escoffier. You can unsubscribe at any time or request removal of street address, phone number, email address via Escoffier website .

Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) Management

Outbreaks of influenza and other respiratory viral diseases can occur at any time of the year among cruise ship passengers and military personnel aboard ships. Early detection, prevention, and control of influenza are important, not only to protect the health of travelers on cruise ships, but also to avoid spread of disease into home communities by disembarking ill passengers and crew members.

This document provides interim guidance for cruise ships originating from or stopping in the United States, to help prevent, diagnose, and control outbreaks of influenza-like illness (ILI). This guidance will be updated as needed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes that cruise ships travel worldwide, necessitating awareness of and responsiveness to local jurisdictional requirements. Cruise ship management and medical staff need to be flexible in identifying and caring for persons with ILI. The health care provider’s assessment of a patient’s clinical presentation and underlying risk factors is always an essential part of decisions about the need for further medical evaluation, testing, and treatment.

Commercial maritime travel is characterized by the movement of large numbers of people in closed and semi-closed settings. As with other close-contact environments, these settings can facilitate the transmission of influenza viruses and other respiratory viruses from person to person through droplet spread or potentially through contact with contaminated surfaces.

CDC recommends that efforts to reduce the spread of influenza and other respiratory diseases on cruise ships focus on encouraging crew members and passengers to:

• Get vaccinated annually for influenza
• Postpone travel when sick
• Take everyday steps to protect themselves and others while traveling

Specific management should include early identification and isolation of crew members and passengers with ILI, implementation of good respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette, use of influenza antiviral medications for treatment of persons with suspected or confirmed influenza, and use of antiviral chemoprophylaxis during influenza outbreaks if indicated for high-risk persons exposed to persons ill with influenza. This document provides guidance for the management of ILI during and after a voyage, including personal protective measures for the crew.

Influenza Vaccination of Crew and Passengers

CDC recommends that all persons 6 months of age and older be vaccinated each year with influenza vaccine.

Crew members should be vaccinated yearly. Vaccination of passengers, especially those at high risk for influenza complications, is recommended at least 2 weeks in advance of cruise ship travel, if influenza vaccine is available and the person has not already been vaccinated with the current year’s vaccine. For more information, review the recommendations for use of the influenza vaccine .

Managing Passengers and Crew with Influenza-Like Illness

Signs and symptoms of influenza can include some or all of these symptoms: fever or feeling feverish, chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headache, fatigue (tiredness), and sometimes diarrhea or vomiting. Fever (a temperature of 100° F [37.8° C] or higher) will not always be present in persons with influenza, especially not in elderly persons. Cruise ship medical personnel should consider someone to have a fever if the ill person feels warm to the touch, gives a history of feeling feverish, or has an actual measured temperature of 100° F (37.8° C) or higher. Because the signs and symptoms of influenza are not specific and most persons who have a respiratory illness are not tested for influenza, ILI has been defined for surveillance purposes as an illness with fever or feverishness plus either cough or sore throat.

Persons who are experiencing severe illness (e.g., high fever, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, rapid breathing, chest pain, altered mental status, dehydration, or worsening of chronic underlying medical conditions) or who have ILI and are at high risk for severe influenza due to their age or chronic conditions should seek medical evaluation immediately.

Respiratory Hygiene and Cough Etiquette

Persons with ILI should be advised of the importance of covering coughs and sneezes with their shoulder, elbow, or a tissue. Used tissues should be disposed of immediately in a disposable container (e.g., plastic bag) or a washable trash can. Passengers and crew members should be reminded to wash their hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. If soap and water are not available, they can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Screening and Isolation

Any passenger who has ILI at the time of embarkation should be advised not to travel until at least 24 hours after resolution of fever (100° F [37.8° C]) without the use of fever-reducing medications (e.g., acetaminophen, ibuprofen, paracetamol). Aspirin should not be used to treat influenza symptoms in children or adolescents younger than 19 years because of the risk of Reye’s syndrome.

Passengers with ILI who nonetheless decide to board, as well as passengers who become ill with ILI en route, should be medically evaluated (see next section) and remain isolated in their cabins or quarters until at least 24 hours after resolution of fever (100° F [37.8° C]) without the use of fever-reducing medications.

Crew members with ILI should take the following actions:

• Notify their supervisors.
• Report to the infirmary for medical evaluation, according to shipboard protocols.
• Remain isolated in their cabins or quarters until at least 24 hours after resolution of fever (100° F [37.8° C]) without the use of fever-reducing medications.
• Continue to practice respiratory hygiene, cough etiquette, and hand hygiene after returning to work, because respiratory viruses can continue to be shed for several days after fever resolves.

While temporarily in common areas, passengers and crew members with ILI should be encouraged to remain as far away from others as possible (at least 6 feet), and either wear face masks or cover their mouths and noses with their elbow, shoulder, or tissues when they cough or sneeze.

Management of Passengers or Crew with ILI upon Disembarkation

A disembarking cruise ship passenger or crew member who has ILI or who has had fever within the 24 hours prior to disembarking should be advised to take the same precautions: to stay in home or hotel isolation in the city of disembarkation and to refrain from further travel until at least 24 hours after he or she is free of fever (100° F [37.8° C]) without the use of fever-reducing medications.

If a passenger or crew member with ILI is taken to a health-care facility off the ship, the facility should be informed before arrival.

Managing Passengers and Crew Following Exposure to an Ill Person

Passengers and crew who may have been exposed to an ill person suspected of having influenza should monitor their health for 5–7 days after the exposure. Passengers and crew who develop ILI while still onboard should notify the shipboard infirmary immediately and remain isolated in their cabins or quarters until at least 24 hours after resolution of fever (100° F [37.8° C]) without the use of fever-reducing medications. Ill persons should be advised to seek health care if they are at high risk of developing severe illness from influenza or if they are concerned about their illness.

Medical Evaluation and Management

For more information, read updated resources for clinicians and guidance on the medical evaluation and management of persons with influenza, available on CDC’s influenza website .

Influenza Diagnostic Tests

CDC’s  influenza website also includes interim recommendations for the clinical use of influenza diagnostic tests .

Rapid influenza diagnostic tests have low to moderate sensitivity, and many false-negative results occur. As a result, many influenza virus infections will be missed. Therefore, negative rapid influenza diagnostic test results do not exclude a diagnosis of influenza; clinical diagnosis of influenza should be considered. However, positive test results are useful to establish a diagnosis of influenza and to provide evidence of influenza in passengers and crew aboard ships.

Use of Antiviral Treatment and Chemoprophylaxis for High-Risk Persons

Early antiviral treatment with neuraminidase inhibitors (oral oseltamivir or inhaled zanamivir) is recommended for persons with suspected or confirmed influenza who have severe illness or who are at high risk for influenza complications pdf icon , including persons with asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. Early antiviral treatment of influenza is most effective.

For patients aged 7 years and older (who do not have chronic pulmonary disease, including asthma) when oseltamivir resistance is demonstrated or highly suspected (e.g., for immunosuppressed patients with prolonged viral replication during oseltamivir treatment and persons who developed illness while receiving oral oseltamivir chemoprophylaxis), inhaled zanamivir is the treatment of choice.

In addition to treatment of  suspected or confirmed influenza with antiviral medications, antiviral chemoprophylaxis can be considered for prevention of infection in exposed persons who are at high risk for complications or for controlling influenza outbreaks on cruise ships when large numbers of persons at higher risk for influenza complications are on board.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations on the use of antiviral agents for the treatment and chemoprophylaxis of influenza and CDC’s  influenza website also provides information about the use of antiviral agents and antiviral resistance .

Outbreak Control

A combination of measures, including isolation and early antiviral treatment of ill persons, following recommended infection control, antiviral chemoprophylaxis of exposed persons, and active surveillance for new cases, can be implemented to control influenza outbreaks.

Preventing Influenza in Crew

In addition to annual influenza vaccination, the following recommendations should be followed, when possible, by crew members whose work activities involve contact with passengers and by other crew members who have ILI.

• Maintain a distance of about 6 feet from the ill person while interviewing, escorting, or providing other assistance.
• Keep interactions with ill persons as brief as possible.
• Limit the number of persons who interact with ill persons. To the extent possible, the ill person should receive care and meals from a single person.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water . If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Ask the ill person to consider wearing a face mask, and provide one, if wearing it can be tolerated.
• Cover his or her mouth and nose with a tissue (or face mask) when coughing or sneezing. If the ill person does not have a tissue and is not wearing a face mask, he or she should cough or sneeze into his or her upper sleeve or elbow, not into his or her hands.
• Dispose of used tissues immediately in a disposable container (plastic bag) or a washable trash can.
• If soap and water are not available, the ill person can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

CDC does not require that ships traveling to or within U.S. waterways report individual cases of suspected or confirmed influenza, but requests reporting of total ILI/influenza cases (including zero) for each voyage by using the Maritime Illness and Death Reporting System (MIDRS) cumulative report form.

The following situations should be immediately reported to the CDC Quarantine Station in the jurisdiction of the U.S. seaport where the ship is expected to arrive:

• Changes in the clinical profile and severity of illnesses reported or severe complications among at least two epidemiologically linked influenza cases.
• Outbreaks of influenza among passengers or crew members.
• A death caused by or suspected to be associated with influenza or ILI onboard the vessel

Vessel captains may request assistance from CDC to evaluate or control influenza outbreaks, as needed. If the ship will not be arriving imminently at a U.S. seaport, CDC quarantine officials will provide guidance to cruise ship officials regarding the management and isolation of the suspected case and recommendations for other passengers and crew members.

Before the ship arrives, local port health authorities should be informed if any support is needed, including hospitalization of ill persons and laboratory testing of clinical specimens.

For influenza cases requiring hospitalization, CDC quarantine officials will work with the cruise line and local and state health departments to facilitate medical transportation of the patient upon arrival. In outbreak situations, CDC staff may also assist with disease control and containment measures, passenger and crew notification, surveillance activities, communicating with local public health authorities, obtaining and testing laboratory specimens, and providing additional guidance as needed.

For ships on international voyages, if an illness has occurred onboard, the Maritime Declaration of Health should be completed and sent to the competent authority, according to the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) and the national legislation of the country of disembarkation. Before entering a seaport, cruise ships may also be required to report the ship’s previous itinerary.

Additional Recommendations

Personal protective equipment.

Crew members and other staff who may have contact with persons with ILI should be instructed in the proper use, storage, and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE). Improper handling of PPE can increase transmission risk.

Crew members should wear impermeable, disposable gloves if they need to have direct contact with ill persons or potentially contaminated surfaces, rooms, or lavatories used by ill passengers and crew members. Crew members should wash their hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer after removing gloves. Gloves should be discarded in the trash and should not be rewashed or saved for reuse. Crew members should avoid touching their faces with gloved or unwashed hands.

Use of N95 respirators or face masks is not generally recommended for cruise ship crew members for general work activities. Use of face masks can be considered for cruise ship workers who cannot avoid close contact with persons with ILI. Crew members who use N95 respirators should receive annual fit testing. Crew members who provide health care to passengers or to other crew members (e.g., onboard nurses and physicians) should follow CDC’s prevention strategies for seasonal influenza in health care settings .

Ships should ensure availability of conveniently located dispensers of alcohol-based hand sanitizer; where sinks are available, they should ensure that supplies for hand washing (i.e., soap, disposable towels) are consistently available.

Ships should carry a sufficient quantity of PPE such as face masks, N95 respirators, and disposable gloves as may be needed for influenza and other diseases.

Ships should carry a sufficient quantity of medical supplies to meet day-to-day needs. Contingency plans are recommended for rapid resupply in outbreak situations. Stocking oral oseltamivir and inhaled zanamivir for antiviral treatment or chemoprophylaxis of influenza virus infection is recommended.

Ships are encouraged to carry sterile viral transport media and sterile swabs to collect nasopharyngeal and nasal specimens. These optimal recommendations can be modified to reflect individual ship capabilities and characteristics.

Cleaning and Disinfection

In addition to routine cleaning and disinfection strategies, during influenza outbreaks cruise ships may consider more frequent cleaning of commonly touched surfaces, such as handrails, countertops, and doorknobs. Surfaces contaminated by the respiratory secretions of an ill person (e.g., in the ill person’s living quarters or work area, and in isolation rooms) can also be cleaned. The primary mode of influenza virus transmission is believed to be through respiratory droplets that are spread from an infected person through coughing or sneezing to a susceptible close contact within about 1-2 meters. Therefore, widespread disinfection to control influenza outbreaks is unlikely to be effective.

• Cruise ships: high-risk passengers and the global spread of new influenza viruses. external icon Miller JM, Tam TW, Maloney S, Fukuda K, Cox N, Hockin J, Kertesz D, Klimov A, Cetron M. Clin Infect Dis. 2000 Aug;31(2):433-8.
• Influenza B virus outbreak on a cruise ship–Northern Europe, 2000. external icon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2001 Mar 2;50(8):137-40.
• Large summertime influenza A outbreak among tourists in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. external icon Uyeki TM, Zane SB, Bodnar UR, Fielding KL, Buxton JA, Miller JM, Beller M, Butler JC, Fukuda K, Maloney SA, Cetron MS; Alaska/Yukon Territory Respiratory Outbreak Investigation Team. Clin Infect Dis. 2003 May 1;36(9):1095-102.
• Update: outbreak of influenza A infection–Alaska and the Yukon Territory, July-August 1998. external icon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1998 Aug 28;47(33):685-8.
• Outbreak of influenza A infection–Alaska and the Yukon Territory, June-July 1998. external icon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1998 Aug 7;47(30):638.
• Outbreak of influenza A infection among travelers–Alaska and the Yukon Territory, May-June 1999. external icon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1999 Jul 2;48(25):545-6, 555.
• Update: influenza activity — United States, 1997-98 season. external icon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1997 Nov 21;46(46):1094-8.
• Acute respiratory illness among cruise-ship passengers–Asia. external icon Centers for Disease Control (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1988 Feb 5;37(4):63-6.
• Outbreak of influenza-like illness in a tour group–Alaska. external icon Centers for Disease Control (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1987 Oct 30;36(42):697-8, 704.
• Presumptive summer influenza A: an outbreak on a trans-Tasman cruise. external icon Ferson M, Paraskevopoulos P, Hatzi S, Yankos P, Fennell M, Condylios A. Commun Dis Intell. 2000 Mar 16;24(3):45-7.
• Outbreak of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) on a Peruvian Navy ship – June-July 2009. external icon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2010 Feb 19;59(6):162-5.
• Outbreak of influenza in a highly vaccinated crew of a U.S. Navy ship. external icon Earhart KC, Beadle C, Miller LK, Pruss MW, Gray GC, Ledbetter EK, Wallace MR. Emerg Infect Dis.2001 May-Jun;7(3): 463-5.
• Preparedness for the prevention and control of influenza outbreaks on passenger ships in the EU: the SHIPSAN TRAINET project communication. external icon Mouchtouri VA, Black N, Nichols G, Paux T, Riemer T, Rjabinina J, Schlaich C, Menel Lemos C, Kremastinou J, Hadjichristodoulou C, from the SHIPSAN TRAINET project. Eurosurveill. 2009 May 28;14(21):1-4.
• The decision making process for public health measures related to passenger ships: the example of the influenza pandemic of 2009. external icon Mouchtouri VA, Bartlett, CLR, Jaremin B, Nichols G, Paux T, Riemer T, Black N, Varela-Martinez C, Swaan CM, Schlaich C, Rachiotis G, Kremastinou J, Hadjichristodoulou C, from the SHIPSAN TRAINET project. Int. Marit. Health. 2010;61(4):241-5.
• Retrospective investigation of an influenza A/H1N1pdm outbreak in an Italian military ship cruising in the Mediterranean Sea, May-September 2009. external icon Tarabbo M, Lapa D, Castilletti C, Tommaselli P, Guarducci R, Lucà G, Emanuele A, Zaccaria O, La Gioia VF, Girardi E, Capobianchi MR, Ippolito G. PLoS ONE 6(1): e15933. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015933.
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Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) oceangoing members (CLIA members) recognize that proper waste management is fundamental to the protection of the environment. Toward this end, CLIA members are to manage their wastes in accordance with sound environmental principles and in compliance with all regulatory requirements, and continually strive to minimize their waste and seek improved waste management practices.

Through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and flag and port States, CLIA Members are subject to comprehensive, consistent and uniform international standards, as well as the national, state and/or local regulations that apply to all vessels. The standards of MARPOL (the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) have in turn been adopted by most flag and port States and subsequently enacted into national legislation and regulation. Additional national and local legislation have been adopted by many port States. The cruise industry demonstrates its commitment to protecting the environment through the use of a broad spectrum of waste management technologies and procedures employed on its vessels.

CLIA Members have demonstrated their commitment to the environment by:

• Developing and maintaining an environmental policy which is the basis of an environmental management system;
• Establishing   a   dedicated,   responsible   person   to   oversee   the environmental program;
• Clearly defining operational  objectives,  requiring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and encouraging continuous improvement of performance;
• Designing,  constructing,  and  operating vessels,  so  as  to  minimize their impact on the environment;
• Implementing  comprehensive  waste  minimization  processes  and procedures,  and  advancing  technologies  to  minimize  waste  and exceed current requirements for protection of the environment, where possible;
• Expanding  waste  reduction  strategies  to  include  beneficial  reuse, recycling, and waste to energy processes, to the maximum extent possible;
• Conserving  resources  through  purchasing  strategies  and  product management;
• Optimizing  energy  efficiency  through   conservation   and   energy management;
• Reviewing and improving processes and procedures for collection and transfer of hazardous waste;
• Strengthening programs for the monitoring and auditing of shipboard environmental practices and procedures, in accordance with the International Safety Management (ISM) Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention;
• Engaging   and   evaluating   partners   who   provide   efficient   and sustainable strategies for waste and recyclables landed ashore;
• Minimizing and properly managing wastewater discharges beyond compliance with applicable requirements whenever possible; and
• Increasing environmental awareness by educating crew, guests, and the communities in which they operate regarding cruise ship environmental programs.

WASTE MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES

Introduction

The cruise industry is inextricably linked to the environment. Our business is to bring people to interesting places in the world, by travelling via water. The future of the industry depends on a clean and healthy environment.   Cruise industry senior management has demonstrated its commitment to stewardship of the environment by establishing industry practices that will make CLIA’s oceangoing members (CLIA Members) leaders in environmental performance.

The purpose of this document is to describe waste management practices and procedures that CLIA Members agree shall be incorporated into their respective Safety Management Systems (SMS).  The development of industry practices and procedures is based upon the fundamental principles outlined in CLIA’s Waste Management policy.

To  the  extent  there  are  any  waste  management  practices  and  procedures  not described herein, CLIA Members have agreed to use best waste management practices and to comply with all local, state, national, and flag State operational waste management laws and requirements.

Cruise vessels, as do all industrial, commercial, and residential entities, generate waste as a result of normal daily activities/operations. Due to the itinerant nature of cruises, the management of these wastes is more complicated than for land-based establishments. As ships move from port to port, the available facilities and regulatory requirements they encounter are different.

On an international level, environmental concerns are an important part of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) policies and procedures for the maritime industry. CLIA members have agreed on the need to incorporate international, national and local environmental performance standards into their individual SMS. As specified under agreements and laws in many nations, compliance with these requirements is routinely reviewed by port States.

The industry has developed best practices for the management of traditional wastes (e.g., garbage, graywater, sewage, oily residues, sludge oil, and bilge water), as well as the small quantities of hazardous waste produced onboard, during normal operations. CLIA Members share waste management strategies and technologies amongst themselves while focusing on the common goals of waste reduction and pollution prevention. CLIA Members have voluntarily agreed to adopt the more stringent practices set forth in this Policy, which exceed legal requirements, during all normal operations. Allowable exceptions to CLIA’s Policy may occasionally occur, e.g., sewage treatment plant equipment maintenance and malfunctions, and safety related discharges permitted under MARPOL Annex IV. In all cases where limits on discharge to the more stringent CLIA policy cannot be achieved, discharges must still be compliant with international and national laws.

The commitment of the industry to this cooperative effort is successful, as companies continue to share best practices, information, and strategies which continue to improve.

Waste Management Practices

CLIA Members take great measures to manage garbage and continuously strive to implement new and more effective waste minimization processes and procedures. These operators further continuously strive to implement and invest in new and comprehensive  waste  minimization  processes  and  procedures,  relevant environmental training, and sustainable wastewater operations.

CLIA member have agreed to develop programs that raise the level of environmental awareness of both crew and passengers. Each ship’s crew are to receive initial and recurring training regarding shipboard environmental procedures. Advanced training in specific shipboard environmental management issues is to be provided for those directly involved in these areas. Those directly responsible for processing wastes are to be given specific instructions as to their duties and responsibilities, the operation of the relevant equipment and waste management systems. Specific steps CLIA Members have agreed to take to train crew members and increase passenger awareness may include the following:

• Comprehensive training programs for new crew with recurring and updated training on a periodic basis;
• Announcements over the public address system, notices in ship newsletters, appropriate signage (required and voluntary) and informational posters in crew and passenger areas encouraging environmental awareness and protection;
• Environmental information booklets in crew cabins and crew lounges;
• Corporate and shipboard produced informational videos shown on cabin TV channels;
• Presentations  for  passengers  on  company  environmental  programs  and regulatory requirements; and
• Periodic environmental committee meetings, consisting of officers and crew from all departments to review methods of improving performance, including enhanced and more effective environmental practices.

Waste Collection, Separation, and Processing

CLIA Members have agreed to establish comprehensive procedures in their specific waste management plans that drive the safe and hygienic collection, minimization separation, and processing of wastes onboard and offloads to approved shoreside waste vendors.

Waste can be classified in several ways, but the following definitions represent typical classifications used by CLIA Members, some of which come from the pertinent MARPOL Annex V definitions:

Biomedical waste means waste whose collection and disposal is subject to special requirements in order to prevent infection.

Cooking oil means any type of edible oil or animal fat used or intended to be used for the preparation or cooking of food, but does not include the food itself that is prepared using these oils.

Domestic wastes means all types of wastes that are generated in the accommodation spaces on board the ship, but does not include graywater.

Electronic waste (E-waste) means used electrical appliances, TVs, computers, monitors, etc.

Food wastes means any spoiled or unspoiled food substances, including fruits, vegetables, dairy products, poultry, meat products and food scraps generated aboard the ship.

Garbage means all kinds of food wastes, domestic wastes and operational wastes, all plastics, and cooking oil generated during the normal operation of the ship and likely to be disposed of continuously or periodically.

Harmful Substance means any substance which, if introduced into the environment, is likely to create hazards to human health, harm living resources and/or marine life. This may include the term “hazardous waste” used in some jurisdictions.

Incinerator ashes means ash and clinkers resulting from shipboard incinerators used for the incineration of garbage.

Operational wastes means all solid wastes that are collected on board during normal maintenance or operations of a ship.   Operational wastes includes cleaning agents and additives contained in external wash water, but does not include graywater, bilge water or other similar discharges essential to the operation of a ship.

Plastic means a solid material, which contains, as an essential ingredient, one or more high molecular mass polymers, and which is formed (shaped) during either the manufacture of the polymer or the fabrication into a finished product by heat and/or pressure. Plastics have material properties ranging from hard and brittle to soft and elastic.

Recyclable materials means paper, glass, bottles, cans, metals, certain plastics, clothes, and batteries capable of some beneficial re-use.

CLIA Members agree to manage their waste streams according to the following details and specific practices.

Cooking Oil :

Waste cooking oil is typically strained to remove debris and then collected and landed ashore for recycling in the bio-diesel market where feasible. Otherwise, it may be collected in onboard storage tanks and landed ashore with engine oily residues.    It  may  be  directly  incinerated  or  burned  as  fuel  to  make  steam  or electricity on board.

Domestic Wastes :

CLIA Members agree to the installation of any method (compactors, shredders, incinerators, etc.) to reduce the volume of the waste, which in turn reduces the storage space required and results in more efficient offloading and recycling programs.

Paper, cardboard, and other combustibles are to be recycled when local recycling facilities are available shoreside, but some volume may be incinerated aboard to avoid large accumulation of these combustible materials, as that would present an increased fire hazard.

Glass  bottles,  jars  and  other  glassware  are  to  be  crushed  for  recycling.    Some members and larger vessels separate glass by color to further increase the recycling potential of the waste stream.

Aluminum, (soda cans and deck chairs), galley tins, and other metals (copper, brass, bronze, Cu-Ni and scrap steel) are to be separated by type and landed ashore for recycling, where local recycling facilities exist.

Incinerator Ash:

Incinerator  ash  is  to  be  landed  ashore  in  accordance  with  applicable  local  and national requirements.  CLIA Members agree to test incinerator ash at least annually for any hazardous components. Each CLIA Member is to also use a testing standard that is accepted worldwide.

Operational Wastes :

Many operational wastes may be hazardous or may otherwise require special handling.  CLIA Members have agreed to ensure that all waste of this nature is appropriately categorized and landed in accordance with the local requirements and only where an acceptable handling/disposal practice is in place.

CLIA Members have agreed on the need to identify and segregate hazardous wastes aboard cruise vessels for individual handling and management, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. CLIA Members have further agreed that hazardous wastes are not to be commingled or mixed with other waste streams. The following specific measures have been identified as best industry practices:

P hoto Processing, including X-ray development fluid waste:

CLIA Members agree to prevent the discharge of silver into the marine environment through the use of the best available technology to reduce the silver content of the waste stream to levels specified by prevailing regulations.   Photo chemical waste shall not be discharged overboard or commingled with any other waste water. Otherwise, they are to treat all photo processing and x-ray development fluid waste (treated or untreated) as a hazardous waste and land ashore in accordance with local legislation.

Many CLIA Members have installed digital X-ray and photo processing alternatives to further reduce the generated waste.

Dry-cleaning waste fluids and contaminated materials:

Shipboard dry cleaning facilities typically use a chlorinated solvent and produce a small amount of waste. This waste is comprised of dirt, oils, filters material, and spent solvent. This material is classified as hazardous or special waste and is only to be disposed of ashore as required by law or regulation.  Some CLIA Members have replaced solvent based dry cleaning equipment with similar systems using non-toxic solvents.  Others have installed “wet cleaning” processes which do not utilize any solvents and therefore do not produce hazardous waste.

Electronic waste (E-waste):

Rapid changes in technology mean that more and more electronic items are replaced and discarded continually.  Electronic waste, also known as E-waste, is known to contain  low  levels  of  toxic  heavy  metals  such  as  arsenic,  barium,  cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, silver and selenium. To dispose of these products in a sound manner, CLIA Members agree to collect and recycle used electronic equipment generated aboard with reputable vendors known to properly handle this waste.   E- waste accepted for recycling includes the following:

• Computer monitors and televisions
• Personal computers, keyboards, hard drives, printers and printer cartridges
• VCRs, audio and video equipment
• Communication equipment such as cellular telephones and hand-held radios
• Smoke detectors (non-ionizing)

P rint shop waste fluids:

Print shop waste may contain hazardous waste. Printing solvents, inks and cleaners may contain hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, and/or heavy metals that can be harmful. Recent advances in printing technology and the substitution of chemicals that are less hazardous reduce the volume of print shop waste generated and the impact of these waste products.

CLIA Members are to utilize, whenever possible, printing methods and printing process chemicals that produce less hazardous waste volume.   Shipboard print operators are to be trained to minimize printing waste.   Alternative printing inks, such as soy based, non-chlorinated or hydrocarbon-based ink products, are to be used whenever possible.

CLIA Members have further agreed that all print shop waste, including waste solvents, cleaners, and cleaning cloths, is to be treated as hazardous waste, if such waste  contains  chemical  components  that  may  be  considered  hazardous  by regulatory definitions and that all other waste may be treated as non-hazardous.

P hoto copying and laser printer cartridges:

The increased use of laser and photo copying equipment onboard results in the generation of a number of used toner and ink cartridges. Only such ink, toner and printing/copying cartridges that contain non-hazardous chemical components are to be used. In recognition of CLIA Members’ goal of waste minimization, cartridges should, whenever possible, be returned to the supplier or an alternative facility for recycling and reuse.

Unused and outdated pharmaceuticals:

In general, ships carry varying amounts of pharmaceuticals in their medical centers. The pharmaceuticals that are carried range from over-the-counter products such as anti-fungal creams to prescription drugs such as epinephrine. Each ship stocks an inventory based on its itinerary and the demographics of its passenger base. All pharmaceuticals are managed to ensure that their efficacy is optimized and that disposal is done in an environmentally responsible manner.

When disposing of pharmaceuticals, the method used is to be consistent with established and applicable regulations.  Furthermore, most regulatory jurisdictions have a posting of listed pharmaceuticals that must be considered hazardous waste once the date has expired or the item is no longer acceptable for patient use.

Stocks of such listed pharmaceuticals should, when possible, be returned to the vendor prior to the date of expiration. Pharmaceuticals that are being returned and have not reached their expiration date are shipped using ordinary practices for new products.

CLIA Members have agreed that all expired listed pharmaceuticals are to be handled in accordance with established guidance.  For example, in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a report that clarifies the fact that residuals, such as epinephrine, found in syringes after injections are not considered an acutely hazardous waste, by definition, and may be disposed of appropriately in sharps containers.  Additionally, all CLIA Members have agreed to adhere to all Universal Precautions when handling sharps.

CLIA  Members  are  to  employ  one  or  more  of  the  following  practices  when disposing of pharmaceuticals:

• establish a reverse distribution system  for returning unexpired, unopened non-narcotic pharmaceuticals to the original vendor;
• appropriately destroy narcotic pharmaceuticals onboard the ship, in a manner that is witnessed and recorded;
• offload listed pharmaceuticals in accordance with local regulations. Listed pharmaceuticals are hazardous wastes with chemical compositions that prevent them from being incinerated or disposed of through the ship’s wastewater treatment plant; and/or
• dispose  of  other  non-narcotic  and  non-listed  pharmaceuticals  through onboard incineration or landing ashore.

F luorescent and mercury vapor lamp bulbs:

CLIA Members agree to prevent the release of mercury into the environment from spent fluorescent and mercury vapor lamps by assuring proper recycling or by using other acceptable means of disposal.

Fluorescent and mercury vapor lamps contain small amounts of mercury that could potentially be harmful to human health and the environment. To prevent human exposure and contamination of the environment, these lamps are to be handled in an environmentally safe manner. Recycling of mercury from lamps and other mercury containing devices is the preferred handling method and is encouraged by various authorities. The recycling of fluorescent lamps and high intensity discharge (HID) lamps keeps potentially hazardous materials out of landfills, saves landfill space, and reduces raw materials production needs.

Disposal of the glass tubes can be accomplished by (1) processing with shipboard lamp crusher units that filter and absorb the mercury vapor through H.E.P.A. and activated carbon, or (2) by keeping the glass tubes intact for recycling ashore. The intact lamps or crushed bulbs are classified when they are shipped to a properly permitted recycling facility; as such, testing is not required. The filters are to be disposed of as hazardous waste, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Other mercury containing products:

Where  feasible,  CLIA  Members  are  to  reduce  the  use  of  mercury-containing products. Any product that contains mercury is to be landed ashore as hazardous or special waste, as appropriate.

B a tteries:

If not properly disposed of, spent batteries may constitute a hazardous waste stream. Most of the large batteries are used in Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems, in lifeboats and tenders and standby generators. Small batteries used in flashlights, microphones and other equipment and by passengers’ personal use, account for the rest. CLIA Members agree to recycle batteries whenever possible.

Spent batteries are to be collected and returned for recycling and/or disposal in accordance with prevailing regulations. Discarded batteries are to be isolated from the other waste streams to prevent potentially toxic materials from inappropriate disposal. The wet-cell battery-recycling program is to be kept separate from the dry- battery collection process. Intact wet-cell batteries are to be returned to the supplier, when  possible.  Dry-cell  batteries  are  to  be  manifested  to  a  licensed  firm  for recycling.

Bilge and Oily Water Residues :

CLIA Members agree to meet or exceed the international requirements for removing oil from bilge and wastewater prior to discharge.

The lowest point in the engine room machinery spaces of a cruise ship is known as the bilge.   Water and oil drip from various sources such as shaft seals, propulsion system cooling elements, evaporators, and other machinery. It is periodically pumped into holding tanks and treated to bring the oil in water concentration down to 15 parts per million (ppm) or less.  

International conventions (i.e. MARPOL) allow discharge of this treated bilge water so long as the oil remaining in the water does not exceed 15 ppm and that it does not leave a visible sheen on the surface of the water when the ship is proceeding en route (underway to allow for dispersion).  The oil removed from the water is held onboard for reuse or disposal ashore.

In accordance with the MARPOL Convention and associated regulations, every ship of 400 gross tonnage and above shall be provided with and maintain an Oil Record Book  that  records  the  transfer  of  all  oil  and  oily  liquids,  including  fuel  oil, lubricating oil, waste oil, oily sludge, and oily bilge water.

CLIA Members are constantly researching ways in which plastic can be reduced through sourcing and product selection. Plastic is a product that exists in every aspect of our lives, both ashore and aboard. CLIA Members are committed to reducing plastics disposed of in landfills and increasing recycling volumes. Plastics are separated and recycled whenever possible.

Wastewater Reclamation:

Management of water use on a cruise ship is extremely important.  This management includes minimizing water usage and reclamation and reuse of water for non-potable purposes.  CLIA Members are to use various techniques to minimize onboard water use, including:

• use of technical water (for example, air conditioning condensate) in systems that do not require potable water (flushing toilets, laundry, open deck washing), where possible;
• use of water recovery systems (for example, filtering and reuse of laundry water “last rinse” used for first wash);
• active water conservation (for example, use of reduced flow showerheads, vacuum systems for toilets, vacuum food waste transportation, and laundry equipment that utilizes less water); and
• training of the crew to continually remind them to close faucets and valves when not in use and use only necessary quantities of water for cleaning purposes.

G r aywater :

The term graywater is used on ships to refer to wastewater that is incidental to the operation  of  the  ship.  This  typically  includes  drainage  from  galleys  (food preparation, dishwashing and cleaning), accommodation showers and sinks, and laundry.

CLIA Members agree that for ships not using onshore reception facilities and travelling regularly on itineraries beyond the territorial waters of coastal States, graywater may only be discharged  while the ship is underway and proceeding at a speed of not less than 6 knots 1 and at a distance not less than 4 nautical miles from the nearest land or such other distance as agreed to with authorities having local jurisdiction or provided for by local law except in an emergency or where geographically limited. 2

S e w age (also known as Blackwater)

Sewage includes waste water from toilets, urinals, medical sinks and other similar facilities. CLIA members agree to process sewage through a sewage treatment system that is certified in accordance with international regulations, prior to discharge during normal operations. For ships not using onshore reception facilities and travelling regularly on itineraries beyond the territorial water of coastal states, discharge is to take place only when the ship is more than 4 nautical miles from the nearest land and traveling at a speed of not less than 6 knots. 3

Advanced Wastewater Treatment Systems

To improve environmental performance, many cruise lines have installed advanced wastewater treatment systems (AWTS) that utilize advanced tertiary-level treatment. These advanced wastewater treatment systems result in effluent discharges that are often equivalent to the best shoreside treatment plants and may therefore not be subjected to the strict discharge limitations noted above 4 . CLIA members recognize the sensitivity of discharging wastewater and cooperate fully with national and local requirements in planning wastewater discharges where permitted. CLIA, as an organization, encourages the provision of adequate shoreside reception facilities for wastewater where discharge is a concern.

Baltic Sea CLIA members recognize the extraordinary eutrophication situation in the Baltic Sea, which necessitated its designation as a Special Area under MARPOL Annex IV.  The IMO Guide to Good Practice for Port Reception Facility Providers and Users, which was revised following the designation of the Baltic Sea as a Special Area, encourages shipping companies, even when the Special Area has not yet come into effect, to endeavor to meet the requirements as if the Special Area status had taken effect.  Consistent with the spirit of MARPOL and the port reception facility guidance, CLIA members have adopted a policy that, when operating in the Baltic, ships are to discharge MARPOL Annex IV waste ashore where adequate port reception facilities are available under a ‘no special fee’ arrangement. Equivalent Equipment, Practices and Procedures

CLIA members have long been at the forefront of innovative technological solutions regarding the management of waste onboard their ships and it is important that such innovation be encouraged. To that end, CLIA Members welcome the use of equivalent or other acceptable practices and have agreed that any such procedures shall be communicated to CLIA. As appropriate, such practices and procedures may be included as a revision to this document. As an example, when equivalent systems for treating graywater or blackwater are shown to meet the requirements for MSDs and accepted by appropriate authorities for the treatment of graywater or blackwater, the new systems and associated technology may be included in this document together with an explanation of the impact such systems and associated technology may have on the current practice of discharging graywater or blackwater while underway.

1 For vessels operating under sail, or a combination of sail and motor propulsion, the speed shall not be less than 4 knots. 2 The term “geographically limited” includes special circumstances where a ship is operating in internal waters or shoreward of a territorial sea baseline for an extended period of time, in which case any applicable laws and regulations will be controlling. 3 For vessels operating under sail, or a combination of sail and motor propulsion, the speed shall not be less than 4 knots. 4 Associated AWTS bioresidual may be landed ashore, dried and incinerated or discharged consistent with the requirements of MARPOL Annex IV.

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Port of Baltimore suspends ship traffic after bridge collapse: What it means for travel

Travel is being impacted by Tuesday’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse along Interstate 695 in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Drivers were immediately directed to take alternate routes through the city, following the early morning incident. What’s less clear is what the bridge collapse may mean for upcoming cruises in and out of Baltimore.

“Vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore is suspended until further notice,” the Port of Baltimore posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Live Updates: Baltimore's Key Bridge collapses after ship hits it; construction crew missing

Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., whose district includes the bridge and the port, called the collapse an “unthinkable horror” and said he had spoken with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the White House. 

Learn more: Best travel insurance

“They are responding with all of the assets at their disposal,” he said in a statement. “Our prayers right now are for the missing individuals and victims of this tragedy. We thank God for the effective service of our first responders.”

Here’s what we know.

Which cruises go to Baltimore?

Several major cruise lines serve Baltimore. According to the Cruise Lines International Association, the industry’s leading trade group, published itineraries in the 2024 calendar year include a dozen ships making 115 stops in Baltimore.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragedy and collapse of the Key Bridge that occurred last night and extend our support and heartfelt prayers to all those impacted,” CLIA spokesperson Anne Madison said in an emailed statement. “We join everyone in extending our thanks and appreciation to the first responders and emergency workers in Baltimore, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other professionals who are working with one goal in mind—to save lives. We are closely following this situation.”

Carnival’s website shows Carnival Pride and Carnival Legend also have sailings into or out of Baltimore set for April. 

Carnival Legend will temporarily move operations to Norfolk, Virginia.

The ship's current cruise, which left for a planned round-trip sailing from Baltimore on March 24, will end in Norfolk on Sunday. Passengers will then receive free bus rides to Baltimore. The vessel's next cruise will sail round-trip from Norfolk later that day.

“Our thoughts remain with the impacted families and first responders in Baltimore,” Carnival president Christine Duffy said in a statement. “We appreciate the pledge made by President Biden today to dedicate all available resources to reopen Baltimore Harbor to marine traffic as soon as possible. As those plans are finalized, we will update our future cruise guests on when we will return home to Baltimore, but in the meantime, we appreciate the quick response and support from officials in Norfolk.”

The cruise line has not yet shared plans for Carnival Pride. Carnival's parent company, Carnival Corp., said the temporary change in homeport is estimated to have an impact of up to $10 million on adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income this year, according to a news release .

Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas, which left from Baltimore on March 23 , will return to Norfolk instead on April 4. "Our guests on board will be provided compensation and complimentary shuttle transportation as well as Wi-Fi and phone calls to adjust their travel arrangements," a spokesperson said in an email.

The ship's April 4 and 12 cruises will leave from Norfolk, too. "Our guests booked to sail with us will receive compensation due to the necessary adjustments made to their vacations," the spokesperson added. "After returning from the April 12 cruise, Vision will head to the Bahamas for its previously scheduled maintenance."

Was your cruise itinerary changed?: What to do next

American Cruise Lines has roundtrip sailings from Baltimore scheduled in May, according to its website.

“We will monitor the situation and make adjustments to future cruises if needed, but at the present time our schedules remain unaffected, and our thoughts remain with those affected by the immediate situation and rescue efforts underway,” an American Cruise Lines spokesperson told USA TODAY.

Norwegian Cruise Line doesn’t appear to have any Baltimore sailings until September on Norwegian Sky . The line will stay in contact with the port and share any changes with passengers and travel partners, according to a spokesperson.

"In the meantime, we wish the city of Baltimore strength during this very unfortunate event," they said in an email.

Alternate routes for the Baltimore bridge

Most drivers can take Interstate 95 (Fort McHenry Tunnel) or Interstate 895 (Baltimore Harbor Tunnel) to avoid the collapsed bridge. However Maryland Transportation Authority notes there are some exceptions .

Vehicles carrying hazardous materials, including more than 10 pounds of propane, are not allowed in the tunnels. Additionally, vehicles more than 13-feet and 6-inches high or 8-feet wide may not use the 1-895 Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. Vehicles more than 14-feet and 6-inches high or 11-feet wide may not use the I-95 Fort McHenry Tunnel. 

Those vehicles should use the western portion of I-695 instead.

23 Things That You Should Never (and We Mean Never) Do on a Cruise

Posted: February 22, 2024 | Last updated: March 21, 2024

Cruising for Trouble

From the peril of reckless selfies to the nuances of interacting with staff, and the absolute necessity of not missing the muster drill, cruise ship etiquette extends far beyond the buffet line. Whether you're a first-timer or a seasoned sailor, being aware of these lesser-known guidelines and things to never do on a cruise is crucial so your dream vacation isn’t turned into a nautical nightmare.

Editor's note: This story was updated in February 2024

1. Shoot Reckless Selfies

Just because you’ve booked a cruise of a lifetime does not mean you have the license to endanger yourself for a TikTok. Royal Caribbean's rules get right to the point: “Sitting, standing, jumping, laying or climbing on, over or across any exterior or interior railings or other protective barriers is strictly prohibited” and they enforce it as well ; they’ve banned a woman caught posing on her balcony railing in her swimwear.

2. Hook Up With a Member of Staff

Every cruise line has strict and explicit guidelines on interactions between crew and passengers. Royal Caribbean even goes so far as to say: “Please do not misinterpret their friendliness. Crew members are prohibited from engaging in physical relationships with guests.” Staff are not permitted in staterooms except to perform their shipboard duties, and similarly, passengers are not allowed to enter restricted or crew areas of the ship.

3. Forget Your Passport

Yes, you can go on a cruise without your passport but you need to make sure you have the right paperwork, and IF you get stranded in a foreign port of call and have to fly back, it could get tricky. So pack your passport and government ID on you, and leave it in your checked bag or you might end up being refused boarding.

4. Throw Anything Overboard, Including Yourself

Whether it’s a fork, a lounge chair, or even yourself, don’t throw anything overboard. It may sound like an obvious one, but as we know, common sense isn’t always so common. Cruise staff take this offense very seriously and passengers have not only faced fines but been asked to disembark, or even banned for life like this man who leaped from a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Related: The Worst Cruise Ship Horror Stories

5. Skip the Muster Drill

A muster drill is a mandatory safety exercise that familiarizes passengers with emergency procedures such as using life vests and locating escape routes. Now that you can usually access the drills from your stateroom TV or via an app on your phone (applicable only to some cruise lines), you don’t have any excuse not to complete them. If you miss the 24-hour deadline to participate in one, find out how/when you can attend a makeup drill.

And if you think you can skip it altogether, according to Cruise Hive you can be forced to exit the ship at its next port of call. At the very least your cabin number and name will be broadcast ship-wide, so don’t be that person.

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6. Fly a Drone

You can pack it but may not be able to use it, and it might be temporarily confiscated until the end of your voyage. Carnival and Royal Caribbean sailing are currently the only cruise lines that allow drones but there are conditions, Carnival only allows camera drones, Royal Caribbean won’t allow you to use the drone on the ship or even inside the port, and also their private destinations of CocoCay, Bahamas or Labadee, Haiti.

Related: Tips and Tricks for Smooth Sailing on Your Next Cruise

7. Hide a Communicable Illness

With so many passengers in an enclosed space, ships take any form of infectious disease (flu, coronavirus, norovirus) very seriously. According to Royal Caribbean, even if mild symptoms show up, you’re expected to return to your stateroom and report to the ship’s medical personnel by calling the medical facility onboard or risk a fine.

8. Bring Drugs, Even CBD Gummies

Don’t bring drugs. Not even cannabis even if it may be legal in your state. They’re not allowed on cruise ships, especially those calling into ports that have a hard stance on drugs. Try to sneak some in (even if it’s just some CBD gummies) and you risk getting arrested or even banned for life — even if you have a medical marijuana card.

9. Just Eat at the Buffet

Variety is nice but the ship’s buffet is often the most crowded and chaotic part of the ship. Take the time to browse the rest of the dining options (don’t just leave specialty dining to the last day) or order off the menu at the main dining room for a more peaceful dining experience.

Related: 14 People Who Should Never Take a Cruise

10. Be the Last One to Board

It doesn’t matter if it’s 20 minutes or two hours, cruise ships are on a tight schedule and they leave on time. If you think you can rock up at the tail end of boarding, don’t wing it because you might run late and get there just in time to see the ship sail out of port. But what about excursions, surely they won’t leave without you right? Nope. Just ask this woman who came back late and had to catch a plane to her next port of call.

11. Be the First to Disembark

Cruise staff can be pretty pushy when it's time to disembark, but you don't want to shortchange yourself. Some people don't even get coffee in their race to get off the boat, but the main buffet and main dining room are usually both open on disembarkation day, though possibly with a limited menu. Definitely grab some coffee at the very least.

12. Forget to Pack a Day Bag for Embarkation Day

Cruise ships are basically moving hotels. Just because you checked in your luggage early does not mean it’ll be waiting in your cabin as soon as you board. So if you have essential medications, or need something specific for your first day of cruising, it's best to keep it handy with you.

13. Think You Won’t Get Sea Sick

Even if you’re out on the water regularly, having sea legs on a large cruise ship is another thing altogether. There are wristbands and patches but you can pop a seasick pill every evening to keep you even-keeled.

14. Sneak Alcohol Onto a Cruise

Mouthwash bags, rum runner flasks, fake shampoo bottles: cruise staff are onto just about every method or product used to smuggle in booze — thanks TikTok for spoiling it for the rest of us — so just don’t do it or you may be asked to disembark at the next port.

Royal Caribbean’s alcohol policy explicitly states, “Guests who violate any alcohol policies, (over consume, provide alcohol to people under the legal drinking age, demonstrate irresponsible behavior, or attempt to conceal alcoholic items at security and or luggage check points or any other time), may be disembarked or not allowed to board, at their own expense.”

Most cruise lines will allow each 21-year-old and above adult to carry one 750 milliliter bottle of wine or Champagne onboard, which can be enjoyed for a corkage fee at bars, dining rooms, and specialty restaurants.

15. Pack the Surge Protector

You’ll need a power strip but make sure it does not have surge protection. According to Anker : “Surge protectors are not allowed on cruise ships because they increase fire risk. The reason this danger exists is that a normal surge protector only breaks the circuit on the “live” electrical wire, whereas both the “live” and “neutral” wires carry current on a cruise ship.”

16. Buy a Piece of Art at Sea

The onboard art auctions may be fun but they’re not the best place to buy a piece of art unless you’ve already done your due diligence — look up Park West Gallery which handles most art auctions on cruise ships — to make sure you’re paying the “right” price for it. The lack of Wi-Fi makes it difficult to do on-the-go research on an art piece’s provenance, there’s been controversy over authenticity, and while it’ll come with a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) it’s only as good as who issued it unless the artist signed it.

Related: Things You Should Never Buy on a Cruise

17. Assume You Can Freely Vape in Your Room

Vaping is generally not allowed in a ship’s indoor spaces, though restrictions vary by cruise line. Seabourn and Oceania allow vaping in guest suites while most other cruise lines allow vaping in outdoor spaces, but some only in specific outdoor areas.

18. Be a Chair Hog

Everyone wants a chair by the pool so be a good sport and reserve it only if you’re going to be using it. If you think you can reserve a pool chair by placing a towel on it and then walking away for a few hours, you might come back to get your towel (and belongings) removed by a pool attendant or an irate fellow cruiser — and you’ll be the one in the wrong.

19. Go Shopping Too Early

Do go window shopping early in the cruise to curate a few things that you might want but leave it to the last couple of days to pull the trigger on your purchase. Why? Because you might find the same thing cheaper on a shore excursion, or more likely, it’ll be on sale on the last day of your cruise.

20. Dress Inappropriately

Going shirtless in Croatia, traipsing in heels when visiting the Acropolis, or wearing camouflage clothing in certain Caribbean hotspots (Bahamas, Dominica, Barbados, Jamaica) are some of the lesser-known clothing rules. So before you pack, make sure you take note of what’s accepted or not, usually a cruise line will clue you in.

Royal Caribbean’s website states, “Please note camouflage print clothing and accessories, as well as military-style clothing, is illegal in Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. This style of clothing is reserved only for members of the military at these destinations.”

And yes, this even extends to backpacks, just ask this cruise passenger who got escorted back to the ship in Barbados for his camo backpack.

21. Overpay for Drinks

That Drink Package may look excessive when booking but it’s one way to not overpay for drinks if you’re likely to be drinking more than a couple of glasses a day. Other savvy ways to keep your drink bill reasonable include checking for daily drink specials and happy hour, attending the captain cocktail parties, and if you’re going to be playing at the casino, enjoying some complimentary libations.

22. Expect to Drink Bottles of Liquor Purchased on Board

If you buy bottles of liquor or beer in port or the ones they're hawking on the ship, you won't be able to drink it while on board, much to the chagrin of many. That bottle of tequila from Mexico will be taken by the staff as you board, as will any liquor you buy on the ship, and then delivered to your room on the final morning for disembarkation. Some cruise lines make an exception for fine wines, but only after you pay a corkage fee.

23. Buy the Wi-Fi Package

Using the internet on board a cruise ship is expensive, like really expensive. Some lines charge $20 per hour , and that's usually restricted to things like browsing email and social media sites only. On top of the price, the service is usually very slow, so you're not going to be able to get a lot done in those 60 minutes. Instead, plan to disconnect and enjoy your vacation, or do as most people do and mob the Starbucks in port and use its free Wi-Fi instead.

This article was originally published on Cheapism

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Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever

Seven agonizing nights aboard the Icon of the Seas

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Updated at 2:44 p.m. ET on April 6, 2024.

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MY FIRST GLIMPSE of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, from the window of an approaching Miami cab, brings on a feeling of vertigo, nausea, amazement, and distress. I shut my eyes in defense, as my brain tells my optic nerve to try again.

The ship makes no sense, vertically or horizontally. It makes no sense on sea, or on land, or in outer space. It looks like a hodgepodge of domes and minarets, tubes and canopies, like Istanbul had it been designed by idiots. Vibrant, oversignifying colors are stacked upon other such colors, decks perched over still more decks; the only comfort is a row of lifeboats ringing its perimeter. There is no imposed order, no cogent thought, and, for those who do not harbor a totalitarian sense of gigantomania, no visual mercy. This is the biggest cruise ship ever built, and I have been tasked with witnessing its inaugural voyage.

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“Author embarks on their first cruise-ship voyage” has been a staple of American essay writing for almost three decades, beginning with David Foster Wallace’s “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” which was first published in 1996 under the title “Shipping Out.” Since then, many admirable writers have widened and diversified the genre. Usually the essayist commissioned to take to the sea is in their first or second flush of youth and is ready to sharpen their wit against the hull of the offending vessel. I am 51, old and tired, having seen much of the world as a former travel journalist, and mostly what I do in both life and prose is shrug while muttering to my imaginary dachshund, “This too shall pass.” But the Icon of the Seas will not countenance a shrug. The Icon of the Seas is the Linda Loman of cruise ships, exclaiming that attention must be paid. And here I am in late January with my one piece of luggage and useless gray winter jacket and passport, zipping through the Port of Miami en route to the gangway that will separate me from the bulk of North America for more than seven days, ready to pay it in full.

The aforementioned gangway opens up directly onto a thriving mall (I will soon learn it is imperiously called the “Royal Promenade”), presently filled with yapping passengers beneath a ceiling studded with balloons ready to drop. Crew members from every part of the global South, as well as a few Balkans, are shepherding us along while pressing flutes of champagne into our hands. By a humming Starbucks, I drink as many of these as I can and prepare to find my cabin. I show my blue Suite Sky SeaPass Card (more on this later, much more) to a smiling woman from the Philippines, and she tells me to go “aft.” Which is where, now? As someone who has rarely sailed on a vessel grander than the Staten Island Ferry, I am confused. It turns out that the aft is the stern of the ship, or, for those of us who don’t know what a stern or an aft are, its ass. The nose of the ship, responsible for separating the waves before it, is also called a bow, and is marked for passengers as the FWD , or forward. The part of the contemporary sailing vessel where the malls are clustered is called the midship. I trust that you have enjoyed this nautical lesson.

I ascend via elevator to my suite on Deck 11. This is where I encounter my first terrible surprise. My suite windows and balcony do not face the ocean. Instead, they look out onto another shopping mall. This mall is the one that’s called Central Park, perhaps in homage to the Olmsted-designed bit of greenery in the middle of my hometown. Although on land I would be delighted to own a suite with Central Park views, here I am deeply depressed. To sail on a ship and not wake up to a vast blue carpet of ocean? Unthinkable.

Allow me a brief preamble here. The story you are reading was commissioned at a moment when most staterooms on the Icon were sold out. In fact, so enthralled by the prospect of this voyage were hard-core mariners that the ship’s entire inventory of guest rooms (the Icon can accommodate up to 7,600 passengers, but its inaugural journey was reduced to 5,000 or so for a less crowded experience) was almost immediately sold out. Hence, this publication was faced with the shocking prospect of paying nearly $19,000 to procure for this solitary passenger an entire suite—not including drinking expenses—all for the privilege of bringing you this article. But the suite in question doesn’t even have a view of the ocean! I sit down hard on my soft bed. Nineteen thousand dollars for this .

The viewless suite does have its pluses. In addition to all the Malin+Goetz products in my dual bathrooms, I am granted use of a dedicated Suite Deck lounge; access to Coastal Kitchen, a superior restaurant for Suites passengers; complimentary VOOM SM Surf & Stream (“the fastest Internet at Sea”) “for one device per person for the whole cruise duration”; a pair of bathrobes (one of which comes prestained with what looks like a large expectoration by the greenest lizard on Earth); and use of the Grove Suite Sun, an area on Decks 18 and 19 with food and deck chairs reserved exclusively for Suite passengers. I also get reserved seating for a performance of The Wizard of Oz , an ice-skating tribute to the periodic table, and similar provocations. The very color of my Suite Sky SeaPass Card, an oceanic blue as opposed to the cloying royal purple of the standard non-Suite passenger, will soon provoke envy and admiration. But as high as my status may be, there are those on board who have much higher status still, and I will soon learn to bow before them.

In preparation for sailing, I have “priced in,” as they say on Wall Street, the possibility that I may come from a somewhat different monde than many of the other cruisers. Without falling into stereotypes or preconceptions, I prepare myself for a friendly outspokenness on the part of my fellow seafarers that may not comply with modern DEI standards. I believe in meeting people halfway, and so the day before flying down to Miami, I visited what remains of Little Italy to purchase a popular T-shirt that reads DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL across the breast in the colors of the Italian flag. My wife recommended that I bring one of my many T-shirts featuring Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, as all Americans love the beagle and his friends. But I naively thought that my meatball T-shirt would be more suitable for conversation-starting. “Oh, and who is your ‘daddy’?” some might ask upon seeing it. “And how long have you been his ‘little meatball’?” And so on.

I put on my meatball T-shirt and head for one of the dining rooms to get a late lunch. In the elevator, I stick out my chest for all to read the funny legend upon it, but soon I realize that despite its burnished tricolor letters, no one takes note. More to the point, no one takes note of me. Despite my attempts at bridge building, the very sight of me (small, ethnic, without a cap bearing the name of a football team) elicits no reaction from other passengers. Most often, they will small-talk over me as if I don’t exist. This brings to mind the travails of David Foster Wallace , who felt so ostracized by his fellow passengers that he retreated to his cabin for much of his voyage. And Wallace was raised primarily in the Midwest and was a much larger, more American-looking meatball than I am. If he couldn’t talk to these people, how will I? What if I leave this ship without making any friends at all, despite my T-shirt? I am a social creature, and the prospect of seven days alone and apart is saddening. Wallace’s stateroom, at least, had a view of the ocean, a kind of cheap eternity.

Worse awaits me in the dining room. This is a large, multichandeliered room where I attended my safety training (I was shown how to put on a flotation vest; it is a very simple procedure). But the maître d’ politely refuses me entry in an English that seems to verge on another language. “I’m sorry, this is only for pendejos ,” he seems to be saying. I push back politely and he repeats himself. Pendejos ? Piranhas? There’s some kind of P-word to which I am not attuned. Meanwhile elderly passengers stream right past, powered by their limbs, walkers, and electric wheelchairs. “It is only pendejo dining today, sir.” “But I have a suite!” I say, already starting to catch on to the ship’s class system. He examines my card again. “But you are not a pendejo ,” he confirms. I am wearing a DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL T-shirt, I want to say to him. I am the essence of pendejo .

Eventually, I give up and head to the plebeian buffet on Deck 15, which has an aquatic-styled name I have now forgotten. Before gaining entry to this endless cornucopia of reheated food, one passes a washing station of many sinks and soap dispensers, and perhaps the most intriguing character on the entire ship. He is Mr. Washy Washy—or, according to his name tag, Nielbert of the Philippines—and he is dressed as a taco (on other occasions, I’ll see him dressed as a burger). Mr. Washy Washy performs an eponymous song in spirited, indeed flamboyant English: “Washy, washy, wash your hands, WASHY WASHY!” The dangers of norovirus and COVID on a cruise ship this size (a giant fellow ship was stricken with the former right after my voyage) makes Mr. Washy Washy an essential member of the crew. The problem lies with the food at the end of Washy’s rainbow. The buffet is groaning with what sounds like sophisticated dishes—marinated octopus, boiled egg with anchovy, chorizo, lobster claws—but every animal tastes tragically the same, as if there was only one creature available at the market, a “cruisipus” bred specifically for Royal Caribbean dining. The “vegetables” are no better. I pick up a tomato slice and look right through it. It tastes like cellophane. I sit alone, apart from the couples and parents with gaggles of children, as “We Are Family” echoes across the buffet space.

I may have failed to mention that all this time, the Icon of the Seas has not left port. As the fiery mango of the subtropical setting sun makes Miami’s condo skyline even more apocalyptic, the ship shoves off beneath a perfunctory display of fireworks. After the sun sets, in the far, dark distance, another circus-lit cruise ship ruptures the waves before us. We glance at it with pity, because it is by definition a smaller ship than our own. I am on Deck 15, outside the buffet and overlooking a bunch of pools (the Icon has seven of them), drinking a frilly drink that I got from one of the bars (the Icon has 15 of them), still too shy to speak to anyone, despite Sister Sledge’s assertion that all on the ship are somehow related.

Kim Brooks: On failing the family vacation

The ship’s passage away from Ron DeSantis’s Florida provides no frisson, no sense of developing “sea legs,” as the ship is too large to register the presence of waves unless a mighty wind adds significant chop. It is time for me to register the presence of the 5,000 passengers around me, even if they refuse to register mine. My fellow travelers have prepared for this trip with personally decorated T-shirts celebrating the importance of this voyage. The simplest ones say ICON INAUGURAL ’24 on the back and the family name on the front. Others attest to an over-the-top love of cruise ships: WARNING! MAY START TALKING ABOUT CRUISING . Still others are artisanally designed and celebrate lifetimes spent married while cruising (on ships, of course). A couple possibly in their 90s are wearing shirts whose backs feature a drawing of a cruise liner, two flamingos with ostensibly male and female characteristics, and the legend “ HUSBAND AND WIFE Cruising Partners FOR LIFE WE MAY NOT HAVE IT All Together BUT TOGETHER WE HAVE IT ALL .” (The words not in all caps have been written in cursive.) A real journalist or a more intrepid conversationalist would have gone up to the couple and asked them to explain the longevity of their marriage vis-à-vis their love of cruising. But instead I head to my mall suite, take off my meatball T-shirt, and allow the first tears of the cruise to roll down my cheeks slowly enough that I briefly fall asleep amid the moisture and salt.

I WAKE UP with a hangover. Oh God. Right. I cannot believe all of that happened last night. A name floats into my cobwebbed, nauseated brain: “Ayn Rand.” Jesus Christ.

I breakfast alone at the Coastal Kitchen. The coffee tastes fine and the eggs came out of a bird. The ship rolls slightly this morning; I can feel it in my thighs and my schlong, the parts of me that are most receptive to danger.

I had a dangerous conversation last night. After the sun set and we were at least 50 miles from shore (most modern cruise ships sail at about 23 miles an hour), I lay in bed softly hiccupping, my arms stretched out exactly like Jesus on the cross, the sound of the distant waves missing from my mall-facing suite, replaced by the hum of air-conditioning and children shouting in Spanish through the vents of my two bathrooms. I decided this passivity was unacceptable. As an immigrant, I feel duty-bound to complete the tasks I am paid for, which means reaching out and trying to understand my fellow cruisers. So I put on a normal James Perse T-shirt and headed for one of the bars on the Royal Promenade—the Schooner Bar, it was called, if memory serves correctly.

I sat at the bar for a martini and two Negronis. An old man with thick, hairy forearms drank next to me, very silent and Hemingwaylike, while a dreadlocked piano player tinkled out a series of excellent Elton John covers. To my right, a young white couple—he in floral shorts, she in a light, summery miniskirt with a fearsome diamond ring, neither of them in football regalia—chatted with an elderly couple. Do it , I commanded myself. Open your mouth. Speak! Speak without being spoken to. Initiate. A sentence fragment caught my ear from the young woman, “Cherry Hill.” This is a suburb of Philadelphia in New Jersey, and I had once been there for a reading at a synagogue. “Excuse me,” I said gently to her. “Did you just mention Cherry Hill? It’s a lovely place.”

As it turned out, the couple now lived in Fort Lauderdale (the number of Floridians on the cruise surprised me, given that Southern Florida is itself a kind of cruise ship, albeit one slowly sinking), but soon they were talking with me exclusively—the man potbellied, with a chin like a hard-boiled egg; the woman as svelte as if she were one of the many Ukrainian members of the crew—the elderly couple next to them forgotten. This felt as groundbreaking as the first time I dared to address an American in his native tongue, as a child on a bus in Queens (“On my foot you are standing, Mister”).

“I don’t want to talk politics,” the man said. “But they’re going to eighty-six Biden and put Michelle in.”

I considered the contradictions of his opening conversational gambit, but decided to play along. “People like Michelle,” I said, testing the waters. The husband sneered, but the wife charitably put forward that the former first lady was “more personable” than Joe Biden. “They’re gonna eighty-six Biden,” the husband repeated. “He can’t put a sentence together.”

After I mentioned that I was a writer—though I presented myself as a writer of teleplays instead of novels and articles such as this one—the husband told me his favorite writer was Ayn Rand. “Ayn Rand, she came here with nothing,” the husband said. “I work with a lot of Cubans, so …” I wondered if I should mention what I usually do to ingratiate myself with Republicans or libertarians: the fact that my finances improved after pass-through corporations were taxed differently under Donald Trump. Instead, I ordered another drink and the couple did the same, and I told him that Rand and I were born in the same city, St. Petersburg/Leningrad, and that my family also came here with nothing. Now the bonding and drinking began in earnest, and several more rounds appeared. Until it all fell apart.

Read: Gary Shteyngart on watching Russian television for five days straight

My new friend, whom I will refer to as Ayn, called out to a buddy of his across the bar, and suddenly a young couple, both covered in tattoos, appeared next to us. “He fucking punked me,” Ayn’s frat-boy-like friend called out as he put his arm around Ayn, while his sizable partner sizzled up to Mrs. Rand. Both of them had a look I have never seen on land—their eyes projecting absence and enmity in equal measure. In the ’90s, I drank with Russian soldiers fresh from Chechnya and wandered the streets of wartime Zagreb, but I have never seen such undisguised hostility toward both me and perhaps the universe at large. I was briefly introduced to this psychopathic pair, but neither of them wanted to have anything to do with me, and the tattooed woman would not even reveal her Christian name to me (she pretended to have the same first name as Mrs. Rand). To impress his tattooed friends, Ayn made fun of the fact that as a television writer, I’d worked on the series Succession (which, it would turn out, practically nobody on the ship had watched), instead of the far more palatable, in his eyes, zombie drama of last year. And then my new friends drifted away from me into an angry private conversation—“He punked me!”—as I ordered another drink for myself, scared of the dead-eyed arrivals whose gaze never registered in the dim wattage of the Schooner Bar, whose terrifying voices and hollow laughs grated like unoiled gears against the crooning of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

But today is a new day for me and my hangover. After breakfast, I explore the ship’s so-called neighborhoods . There’s the AquaDome, where one can find a food hall and an acrobatic sound-and-light aquatic show. Central Park has a premium steak house, a sushi joint, and a used Rolex that can be bought for $8,000 on land here proudly offered at $17,000. There’s the aforementioned Royal Promenade, where I had drunk with the Rands, and where a pair of dueling pianos duel well into the night. There’s Surfside, a kids’ neighborhood full of sugary garbage, which looks out onto the frothy trail that the behemoth leaves behind itself. Thrill Island refers to the collection of tubes that clutter the ass of the ship and offer passengers six waterslides and a surfing simulation. There’s the Hideaway, an adult zone that plays music from a vomit-slathered, Brit-filled Alicante nightclub circa 1996 and proves a big favorite with groups of young Latin American customers. And, most hurtfully, there’s the Suite Neighborhood.

I say hurtfully because as a Suite passenger I should be here, though my particular suite is far from the others. Whereas I am stuck amid the riffraff of Deck 11, this section is on the highborn Decks 16 and 17, and in passing, I peek into the spacious, tall-ceilinged staterooms from the hallway, dazzled by the glint of the waves and sun. For $75,000, one multifloor suite even comes with its own slide between floors, so that a family may enjoy this particular terror in private. There is a quiet splendor to the Suite Neighborhood. I see fewer stickers and signs and drawings than in my own neighborhood—for example, MIKE AND DIANA PROUDLY SERVED U.S. MARINE CORPS RETIRED . No one here needs to announce their branch of service or rank; they are simply Suites, and this is where they belong. Once again, despite my hard work and perseverance, I have been disallowed from the true American elite. Once again, I am “Not our class, dear.” I am reminded of watching The Love Boat on my grandmother’s Zenith, which either was given to her or we found in the trash (I get our many malfunctioning Zeniths confused) and whose tube got so hot, I would put little chunks of government cheese on a thin tissue atop it to give our welfare treat a pleasant, Reagan-era gooeyness. I could not understand English well enough then to catch the nuances of that seafaring program, but I knew that there were differences in the status of the passengers, and that sometimes those differences made them sad. Still, this ship, this plenty—every few steps, there are complimentary nachos or milkshakes or gyros on offer—was the fatty fuel of my childhood dreams. If only I had remained a child.

I walk around the outdoor decks looking for company. There is a middle-aged African American couple who always seem to be asleep in each other’s arms, probably exhausted from the late capitalism they regularly encounter on land. There is far more diversity on this ship than I expected. Many couples are a testament to Loving v. Virginia , and there is a large group of folks whose T-shirts read MELANIN AT SEA / IT’S THE MELANIN FOR ME . I smile when I see them, but then some young kids from the group makes Mr. Washy Washy do a cruel, caricatured “Burger Dance” (today he is in his burger getup), and I think, Well, so much for intersectionality .

At the infinity pool on Deck 17, I spot some elderly women who could be ethnic and from my part of the world, and so I jump in. I am proved correct! Many of them seem to be originally from Queens (“Corona was still great when it was all Italian”), though they are now spread across the tristate area. We bond over the way “Ron-kon-koma” sounds when announced in Penn Station.

“Everyone is here for a different reason,” one of them tells me. She and her ex-husband last sailed together four years ago to prove to themselves that their marriage was truly over. Her 15-year-old son lost his virginity to “an Irish young lady” while their ship was moored in Ravenna, Italy. The gaggle of old-timers competes to tell me their favorite cruising stories and tips. “A guy proposed in Central Park a couple of years ago”—many Royal Caribbean ships apparently have this ridiculous communal area—“and she ran away screaming!” “If you’re diamond-class, you get four drinks for free.” “A different kind of passenger sails out of Bayonne.” (This, perhaps, is racially coded.) “Sometimes, if you tip the bartender $5, your next drink will be free.”

“Everyone’s here for a different reason,” the woman whose marriage ended on a cruise tells me again. “Some people are here for bad reasons—the drinkers and the gamblers. Some people are here for medical reasons.” I have seen more than a few oxygen tanks and at least one woman clearly undergoing very serious chemo. Some T-shirts celebrate good news about a cancer diagnosis. This might be someone’s last cruise or week on Earth. For these women, who have spent months, if not years, at sea, cruising is a ritual as well as a life cycle: first love, last love, marriage, divorce, death.

Read: The last place on Earth any tourist should go

I have talked with these women for so long, tonight I promise myself that after a sad solitary dinner I will not try to seek out company at the bars in the mall or the adult-themed Hideaway. I have enough material to fulfill my duties to this publication. As I approach my orphaned suite, I run into the aggro young people who stole Mr. and Mrs. Rand away from me the night before. The tattooed apparitions pass me without a glance. She is singing something violent about “Stuttering Stanley” (a character in a popular horror movie, as I discover with my complimentary VOOM SM Surf & Stream Internet at Sea) and he’s loudly shouting about “all the money I’ve lost,” presumably at the casino in the bowels of the ship.

So these bent psychos out of a Cormac McCarthy novel are angrily inhabiting my deck. As I mewl myself to sleep, I envision a limited series for HBO or some other streamer, a kind of low-rent White Lotus , where several aggressive couples conspire to throw a shy intellectual interloper overboard. I type the scenario into my phone. As I fall asleep, I think of what the woman who recently divorced her husband and whose son became a man through the good offices of the Irish Republic told me while I was hoisting myself out of the infinity pool. “I’m here because I’m an explorer. I’m here because I’m trying something new.” What if I allowed myself to believe in her fantasy?

“YOU REALLY STARTED AT THE TOP,” they tell me. I’m at the Coastal Kitchen for my eggs and corned-beef hash, and the maître d’ has slotted me in between two couples. Fueled by coffee or perhaps intrigued by my relative youth, they strike up a conversation with me. As always, people are shocked that this is my first cruise. They contrast the Icon favorably with all the preceding liners in the Royal Caribbean fleet, usually commenting on the efficiency of the elevators that hurl us from deck to deck (as in many large corporate buildings, the elevators ask you to choose a floor and then direct you to one of many lifts). The couple to my right, from Palo Alto—he refers to his “porn mustache” and calls his wife “my cougar” because she is two years older—tell me they are “Pandemic Pinnacles.”

This is the day that my eyes will be opened. Pinnacles , it is explained to me over translucent cantaloupe, have sailed with Royal Caribbean for 700 ungodly nights. Pandemic Pinnacles took advantage of the two-for-one accrual rate of Pinnacle points during the pandemic, when sailing on a cruise ship was even more ill-advised, to catapult themselves into Pinnacle status.

Because of the importance of the inaugural voyage of the world’s largest cruise liner, more than 200 Pinnacles are on this ship, a startling number, it seems. Mrs. Palo Alto takes out a golden badge that I have seen affixed over many a breast, which reads CROWN AND ANCHOR SOCIETY along with her name. This is the coveted badge of the Pinnacle. “You should hear all the whining in Guest Services,” her husband tells me. Apparently, the Pinnacles who are not also Suites like us are all trying to use their status to get into Coastal Kitchen, our elite restaurant. Even a Pinnacle needs to be a Suite to access this level of corned-beef hash.

“We’re just baby Pinnacles,” Mrs. Palo Alto tells me, describing a kind of internal class struggle among the Pinnacle elite for ever higher status.

And now I understand what the maître d’ was saying to me on the first day of my cruise. He wasn’t saying “ pendejo .” He was saying “Pinnacle.” The dining room was for Pinnacles only, all those older people rolling in like the tide on their motorized scooters.

And now I understand something else: This whole thing is a cult. And like most cults, it can’t help but mirror the endless American fight for status. Like Keith Raniere’s NXIVM, where different-colored sashes were given out to connote rank among Raniere’s branded acolytes, this is an endless competition among Pinnacles, Suites, Diamond-Plusers, and facing-the-mall, no-balcony purple SeaPass Card peasants, not to mention the many distinctions within each category. The more you cruise, the higher your status. No wonder a section of the Royal Promenade is devoted to getting passengers to book their next cruise during the one they should be enjoying now. No wonder desperate Royal Caribbean offers (“FINAL HOURS”) crowded my email account weeks before I set sail. No wonder the ship’s jewelry store, the Royal Bling, is selling a $100,000 golden chalice that will entitle its owner to drink free on Royal Caribbean cruises for life. (One passenger was already gaming out whether her 28-year-old son was young enough to “just about earn out” on the chalice or if that ship had sailed.) No wonder this ship was sold out months before departure , and we had to pay $19,000 for a horrid suite away from the Suite Neighborhood. No wonder the most mythical hero of Royal Caribbean lore is someone named Super Mario, who has cruised so often, he now has his own working desk on many ships. This whole experience is part cult, part nautical pyramid scheme.

From the June 2014 issue: Ship of wonks

“The toilets are amazing,” the Palo Altos are telling me. “One flush and you’re done.” “They don’t understand how energy-efficient these ships are,” the husband of the other couple is telling me. “They got the LNG”—liquefied natural gas, which is supposed to make the Icon a boon to the environment (a concept widely disputed and sometimes ridiculed by environmentalists).

But I’m thinking along a different line of attack as I spear my last pallid slice of melon. For my streaming limited series, a Pinnacle would have to get killed by either an outright peasant or a Suite without an ocean view. I tell my breakfast companions my idea.

“Oh, for sure a Pinnacle would have to be killed,” Mr. Palo Alto, the Pandemic Pinnacle, says, touching his porn mustache thoughtfully as his wife nods.

“THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S your time, buddy!” Hubert, my fun-loving Panamanian cabin attendant, shouts as I step out of my suite in a robe. “Take it easy, buddy!”

I have come up with a new dressing strategy. Instead of trying to impress with my choice of T-shirts, I have decided to start wearing a robe, as one does at a resort property on land, with a proper spa and hammam. The response among my fellow cruisers has been ecstatic. “Look at you in the robe!” Mr. Rand cries out as we pass each other by the Thrill Island aqua park. “You’re living the cruise life! You know, you really drank me under the table that night.” I laugh as we part ways, but my soul cries out, Please spend more time with me, Mr. and Mrs. Rand; I so need the company .

In my white robe, I am a stately presence, a refugee from a better limited series, a one-man crossover episode. (Only Suites are granted these robes to begin with.) Today, I will try many of the activities these ships have on offer to provide their clientele with a sense of never-ceasing motion. Because I am already at Thrill Island, I decide to climb the staircase to what looks like a mast on an old-fashioned ship (terrified, because I am afraid of heights) to try a ride called “Storm Chasers,” which is part of the “Category 6” water park, named in honor of one of the storms that may someday do away with the Port of Miami entirely. Storm Chasers consists of falling from the “mast” down a long, twisting neon tube filled with water, like being the camera inside your own colonoscopy, as you hold on to the handles of a mat, hoping not to die. The tube then flops you down headfirst into a trough of water, a Royal Caribbean baptism. It both knocks my breath out and makes me sad.

In keeping with the aquatic theme, I attend a show at the AquaDome. To the sound of “Live and Let Die,” a man in a harness gyrates to and fro in the sultry air. I saw something very similar in the back rooms of the famed Berghain club in early-aughts Berlin. Soon another harnessed man is gyrating next to the first. Ja , I think to myself, I know how this ends. Now will come the fisting , natürlich . But the show soon devolves into the usual Marvel-film-grade nonsense, with too much light and sound signifying nichts . If any fisting is happening, it is probably in the Suite Neighborhood, inside a cabin marked with an upside-down pineapple, which I understand means a couple are ready to swing, and I will see none of it.

I go to the ice show, which is a kind of homage—if that’s possible—to the periodic table, done with the style and pomp and masterful precision that would please the likes of Kim Jong Un, if only he could afford Royal Caribbean talent. At one point, the dancers skate to the theme song of Succession . “See that!” I want to say to my fellow Suites—at “cultural” events, we have a special section reserved for us away from the commoners—“ Succession ! It’s even better than the zombie show! Open your minds!”

Finally, I visit a comedy revue in an enormous and too brightly lit version of an “intimate,” per Royal Caribbean literature, “Manhattan comedy club.” Many of the jokes are about the cruising life. “I’ve lived on ships for 20 years,” one of the middle-aged comedians says. “I can only see so many Filipino homosexuals dressed as a taco.” He pauses while the audience laughs. “I am so fired tonight,” he says. He segues into a Trump impression and then Biden falling asleep at the microphone, which gets the most laughs. “Anyone here from Fort Leonard Wood?” another comedian asks. Half the crowd seems to cheer. As I fall asleep that night, I realize another connection I have failed to make, and one that may explain some of the diversity on this vessel—many of its passengers have served in the military.

As a coddled passenger with a suite, I feel like I am starting to understand what it means to have a rank and be constantly reminded of it. There are many espresso makers , I think as I look across the expanse of my officer-grade quarters before closing my eyes, but this one is mine .

A shocking sight greets me beyond the pools of Deck 17 as I saunter over to the Coastal Kitchen for my morning intake of slightly sour Americanos. A tiny city beneath a series of perfectly pressed green mountains. Land! We have docked for a brief respite in Basseterre, the capital of St. Kitts and Nevis. I wolf down my egg scramble to be one of the first passengers off the ship. Once past the gangway, I barely refrain from kissing the ground. I rush into the sights and sounds of this scruffy island city, sampling incredible conch curry and buckets of non-Starbucks coffee. How wonderful it is to be where God intended humans to be: on land. After all, I am neither a fish nor a mall rat. This is my natural environment. Basseterre may not be Havana, but there are signs of human ingenuity and desire everywhere you look. The Black Table Grill Has been Relocated to Soho Village, Market Street, Directly Behind of, Gary’s Fruits and Flower Shop. Signed. THE PORK MAN reads a sign stuck to a wall. Now, that is how you write a sign. A real sign, not the come-ons for overpriced Rolexes that blink across the screens of the Royal Promenade.

“Hey, tie your shoestring!” a pair of laughing ladies shout to me across the street.

“Thank you!” I shout back. Shoestring! “Thank you very much.”

A man in Independence Square Park comes by and asks if I want to play with his monkey. I haven’t heard that pickup line since the Penn Station of the 1980s. But then he pulls a real monkey out of a bag. The monkey is wearing a diaper and looks insane. Wonderful , I think, just wonderful! There is so much life here. I email my editor asking if I can remain on St. Kitts and allow the Icon to sail off into the horizon without me. I have even priced a flight home at less than $300, and I have enough material from the first four days on the cruise to write the entire story. “It would be funny …” my editor replies. “Now get on the boat.”

As I slink back to the ship after my brief jailbreak, the locals stand under umbrellas to gaze at and photograph the boat that towers over their small capital city. The limousines of the prime minister and his lackeys are parked beside the gangway. St. Kitts, I’ve been told, is one of the few islands that would allow a ship of this size to dock.

“We hear about all the waterslides,” a sweet young server in one of the cafés told me. “We wish we could go on the ship, but we have to work.”

“I want to stay on your island,” I replied. “I love it here.”

But she didn’t understand how I could possibly mean that.

“WASHY, WASHY, so you don’t get stinky, stinky!” kids are singing outside the AquaDome, while their adult minders look on in disapproval, perhaps worried that Mr. Washy Washy is grooming them into a life of gayness. I heard a southern couple skip the buffet entirely out of fear of Mr. Washy Washy.

Meanwhile, I have found a new watering hole for myself, the Swim & Tonic, the biggest swim-up bar on any cruise ship in the world. Drinking next to full-size, nearly naked Americans takes away one’s own self-consciousness. The men have curvaceous mom bodies. The women are equally un-shy about their sprawling physiques.

Today I’ve befriended a bald man with many children who tells me that all of the little trinkets that Royal Caribbean has left us in our staterooms and suites are worth a fortune on eBay. “Eighty dollars for the water bottle, 60 for the lanyard,” the man says. “This is a cult.”

“Tell me about it,” I say. There is, however, a clientele for whom this cruise makes perfect sense. For a large middle-class family (he works in “supply chains”), seven days in a lower-tier cabin—which starts at $1,800 a person—allow the parents to drop off their children in Surfside, where I imagine many young Filipina crew members will take care of them, while the parents are free to get drunk at a swim-up bar and maybe even get intimate in their cabin. Cruise ships have become, for a certain kind of hardworking family, a form of subsidized child care.

There is another man I would like to befriend at the Swim & Tonic, a tall, bald fellow who is perpetually inebriated and who wears a necklace studded with little rubber duckies in sunglasses, which, I am told, is a sort of secret handshake for cruise aficionados. Tomorrow, I will spend more time with him, but first the ship docks at St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Charlotte Amalie, the capital, is more charming in name than in presence, but I still all but jump off the ship to score a juicy oxtail and plantains at the well-known Petite Pump Room, overlooking the harbor. From one of the highest points in the small city, the Icon of the Seas appears bigger than the surrounding hills.

I usually tan very evenly, but something about the discombobulation of life at sea makes me forget the regular application of sunscreen. As I walk down the streets of Charlotte Amalie in my fluorescent Icon of the Seas cap, an old Rastafarian stares me down. “Redneck,” he hisses.

“No,” I want to tell him, as I bring a hand up to my red neck, “that’s not who I am at all. On my island, Mannahatta, as Whitman would have it, I am an interesting person living within an engaging artistic milieu. I do not wish to use the Caribbean as a dumping ground for the cruise-ship industry. I love the work of Derek Walcott. You don’t understand. I am not a redneck. And if I am, they did this to me.” They meaning Royal Caribbean? Its passengers? The Rands?

“They did this to me!”

Back on the Icon, some older matrons are muttering about a run-in with passengers from the Celebrity cruise ship docked next to us, the Celebrity Apex. Although Celebrity Cruises is also owned by Royal Caribbean, I am made to understand that there is a deep fratricidal beef between passengers of the two lines. “We met a woman from the Apex,” one matron says, “and she says it was a small ship and there was nothing to do. Her face was as tight as a 19-year-old’s, she had so much surgery.” With those words, and beneath a cloudy sky, humidity shrouding our weathered faces and red necks, we set sail once again, hopefully in the direction of home.

THERE ARE BARELY 48 HOURS LEFT to the cruise, and the Icon of the Seas’ passengers are salty. They know how to work the elevators. They know the Washy Washy song by heart. They understand that the chicken gyro at “Feta Mediterranean,” in the AquaDome Market, is the least problematic form of chicken on the ship.

The passengers have shed their INAUGURAL CRUISE T-shirts and are now starting to evince political opinions. There are caps pledging to make America great again and T-shirts that celebrate words sometimes attributed to Patrick Henry: “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.” With their preponderance of FAMILY FLAG FAITH FRIENDS FIREARMS T-shirts, the tables by the crepe station sometimes resemble the Capitol Rotunda on January 6. The Real Anthony Fauci , by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appears to be a popular form of literature, especially among young men with very complicated versions of the American flag on their T-shirts. Other opinions blend the personal and the political. “Someone needs to kill Washy guy, right?” a well-dressed man in the elevator tells me, his gray eyes radiating nothing. “Just beat him to death. Am I right?” I overhear the male member of a young couple whisper, “There goes that freak” as I saunter by in my white spa robe, and I decide to retire it for the rest of the cruise.

I visit the Royal Bling to see up close the $100,000 golden chalice that entitles you to free drinks on Royal Caribbean forever. The pleasant Serbian saleslady explains that the chalice is actually gold-plated and covered in white zirconia instead of diamonds, as it would otherwise cost $1 million. “If you already have everything,” she explains, “this is one more thing you can get.”

I believe that anyone who works for Royal Caribbean should be entitled to immediate American citizenship. They already speak English better than most of the passengers and, per the Serbian lady’s sales pitch above, better understand what America is as well. Crew members like my Panamanian cabin attendant seem to work 24 hours a day. A waiter from New Delhi tells me that his contract is six months and three weeks long. After a cruise ends, he says, “in a few hours, we start again for the next cruise.” At the end of the half a year at sea, he is allowed a two-to-three-month stay at home with his family. As of 2019, the median income for crew members was somewhere in the vicinity of $20,000, according to a major business publication. Royal Caribbean would not share the current median salary for its crew members, but I am certain that it amounts to a fraction of the cost of a Royal Bling gold-plated, zirconia-studded chalice.

And because most of the Icon’s hyper-sanitized spaces are just a frittata away from being a Delta lounge, one forgets that there are actual sailors on this ship, charged with the herculean task of docking it in port. “Having driven 100,000-ton aircraft carriers throughout my career,” retired Admiral James G. Stavridis, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, writes to me, “I’m not sure I would even know where to begin with trying to control a sea monster like this one nearly three times the size.” (I first met Stavridis while touring Army bases in Germany more than a decade ago.)

Today, I decide to head to the hot tub near Swim & Tonic, where some of the ship’s drunkest reprobates seem to gather (the other tubs are filled with families and couples). The talk here, like everywhere else on the ship, concerns football, a sport about which I know nothing. It is apparent that four teams have recently competed in some kind of finals for the year, and that two of them will now face off in the championship. Often when people on the Icon speak, I will try to repeat the last thing they said with a laugh or a nod of disbelief. “Yes, 20-yard line! Ha!” “Oh my God, of course, scrimmage.”

Soon we are joined in the hot tub by the late-middle-age drunk guy with the duck necklace. He is wearing a bucket hat with the legend HAWKEYES , which, I soon gather, is yet another football team. “All right, who turned me in?” Duck Necklace says as he plops into the tub beside us. “I get a call in the morning,” he says. “It’s security. Can you come down to the dining room by 10 a.m.? You need to stay away from the members of this religious family.” Apparently, the gregarious Duck Necklace had photobombed the wrong people. There are several families who present as evangelical Christians or practicing Muslims on the ship. One man, evidently, was not happy that Duck Necklace had made contact with his relatives. “It’s because of religious stuff; he was offended. I put my arm around 20 people a day.”

Everyone laughs. “They asked me three times if I needed medication,” he says of the security people who apparently interrogated him in full view of others having breakfast.

Another hot-tub denizen suggests that he should have asked for fentanyl. After a few more drinks, Duck Necklace begins to muse about what it would be like to fall off the ship. “I’m 62 and I’m ready to go,” he says. “I just don’t want a shark to eat me. I’m a huge God guy. I’m a Bible guy. There’s some Mayan theory squaring science stuff with religion. There is so much more to life on Earth.” We all nod into our Red Stripes.

“I never get off the ship when we dock,” he says. He tells us he lost $6,000 in the casino the other day. Later, I look him up, and it appears that on land, he’s a financial adviser in a crisp gray suit, probably a pillar of his North Chicago community.

THE OCEAN IS TEEMING with fascinating life, but on the surface it has little to teach us. The waves come and go. The horizon remains ever far away.

I am constantly told by my fellow passengers that “everybody here has a story.” Yes, I want to reply, but everybody everywhere has a story. You, the reader of this essay, have a story, and yet you’re not inclined to jump on a cruise ship and, like Duck Necklace, tell your story to others at great pitch and volume. Maybe what they’re saying is that everybody on this ship wants to have a bigger, more coherent, more interesting story than the one they’ve been given. Maybe that’s why there’s so much signage on the doors around me attesting to marriages spent on the sea. Maybe that’s why the Royal Caribbean newsletter slipped under my door tells me that “this isn’t a vacation day spent—it’s bragging rights earned.” Maybe that’s why I’m so lonely.

Today is a big day for Icon passengers. Today the ship docks at Royal Caribbean’s own Bahamian island, the Perfect Day at CocoCay. (This appears to be the actual name of the island.) A comedian at the nightclub opined on what his perfect day at CocoCay would look like—receiving oral sex while learning that his ex-wife had been killed in a car crash (big laughter). But the reality of the island is far less humorous than that.

One of the ethnic tristate ladies in the infinity pool told me that she loved CocoCay because it had exactly the same things that could be found on the ship itself. This proves to be correct. It is like the Icon, but with sand. The same tired burgers, the same colorful tubes conveying children and water from Point A to B. The same swim-up bar at its Hideaway ($140 for admittance, no children allowed; Royal Caribbean must be printing money off its clientele). “There was almost a fight at The Wizard of Oz ,” I overhear an elderly woman tell her companion on a chaise lounge. Apparently one of the passengers began recording Royal Caribbean’s intellectual property and “three guys came after him.”

I walk down a pathway to the center of the island, where a sign reads DO NOT ENTER: YOU HAVE REACHED THE BOUNDARY OF ADVENTURE . I hear an animal scampering in the bushes. A Royal Caribbean worker in an enormous golf cart soon chases me down and takes me back to the Hideaway, where I run into Mrs. Rand in a bikini. She becomes livid telling me about an altercation she had the other day with a woman over a towel and a deck chair. We Suites have special towel privileges; we do not have to hand over our SeaPass Card to score a towel. But the Rands are not Suites. “People are so entitled here,” Mrs. Rand says. “It’s like the airport with all its classes.” “You see,” I want to say, “this is where your husband’s love of Ayn Rand runs into the cruelties and arbitrary indignities of unbridled capitalism.” Instead we make plans to meet for a final drink in the Schooner Bar tonight (the Rands will stand me up).

Back on the ship, I try to do laps, but the pool (the largest on any cruise ship, naturally) is fully trashed with the detritus of American life: candy wrappers, a slowly dissolving tortilla chip, napkins. I take an extra-long shower in my suite, then walk around the perimeter of the ship on a kind of exercise track, past all the alluring lifeboats in their yellow-and-white livery. Maybe there is a dystopian angle to the HBO series that I will surely end up pitching, one with shades of WALL-E or Snowpiercer . In a collapsed world, a Royal Caribbean–like cruise liner sails from port to port, collecting new shipmates and supplies in exchange for the precious energy it has on board. (The actual Icon features a new technology that converts passengers’ poop into enough energy to power the waterslides . In the series, this shitty technology would be greatly expanded.) A very young woman (18? 19?), smart and lonely, who has only known life on the ship, walks along the same track as I do now, contemplating jumping off into the surf left by its wake. I picture reusing Duck Necklace’s words in the opening shot of the pilot. The girl is walking around the track, her eyes on the horizon; maybe she’s highborn—a Suite—and we hear the voice-over: “I’m 19 and I’m ready to go. I just don’t want a shark to eat me.”

Before the cruise is finished, I talk to Mr. Washy Washy, or Nielbert of the Philippines. He is a sweet, gentle man, and I thank him for the earworm of a song he has given me and for keeping us safe from the dreaded norovirus. “This is very important to me, getting people to wash their hands,” he tells me in his burger getup. He has dreams, as an artist and a performer, but they are limited in scope. One day he wants to dress up as a piece of bacon for the morning shift.

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC (the Icon of the Seas is five times as large as that doomed vessel) at least offered its passengers an exciting ending to their cruise, but when I wake up on the eighth day, all I see are the gray ghosts that populate Miami’s condo skyline. Throughout my voyage, my writer friends wrote in to commiserate with me. Sloane Crosley, who once covered a three-day spa mini-cruise for Vogue , tells me she felt “so very alone … I found it very untethering.” Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes in an Instagram comment: “When Gary is done I think it’s time this genre was taken out back and shot.” And he is right. To badly paraphrase Adorno: After this, no more cruise stories. It is unfair to put a thinking person on a cruise ship. Writers typically have difficult childhoods, and it is cruel to remind them of the inherent loneliness that drove them to writing in the first place. It is also unseemly to write about the kind of people who go on cruises. Our country does not provide the education and upbringing that allow its citizens an interior life. For the creative class to point fingers at the large, breasty gentlemen adrift in tortilla-chip-laden pools of water is to gather a sour harvest of low-hanging fruit.

A day or two before I got off the ship, I decided to make use of my balcony, which I had avoided because I thought the view would only depress me further. What I found shocked me. My suite did not look out on Central Park after all. This entire time, I had been living in the ship’s Disneyland, Surfside, the neighborhood full of screaming toddlers consuming milkshakes and candy. And as I leaned out over my balcony, I beheld a slight vista of the sea and surf that I thought I had been missing. It had been there all along. The sea was frothy and infinite and blue-green beneath the span of a seagull’s wing. And though it had been trod hard by the world’s largest cruise ship, it remained.

This article appears in the May 2024 print edition with the headline “A Meatball at Sea.” When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.