Cruise ships are one of the most interesting ways to take a vacation. You get to sleep and hang out with your family and friends on a huge boat, and you get to visit lots of interesting and fun places as well! Although you probably know a lot about cruise ships already, there’s a good chance that there are some fun facts that you’ve missed out on.
In this article, we’re going to look more closely at a list of 10 fun facts about cruise ships, so let’s get into it.
10 Interesting Facts About Cruise Ships
1. Every cruise ship has a morgue onboard.
Although this fact might be a bit morbid, it’s a good one! The reason that cruise ships have a morgue onboard is more a precautionary measure than anything else.
Since the ship will be away from land for quite some time, they need to be prepared for all kinds of situations, one of them being death. If a passenger passes away unexpectedly, the cruise ship has a morgue to hold the deceased person until it is time for them to be buried and taken back onto land.
Fun fact: Lusitania was a big cruise ship which was attacked during World War I.
2. The Titanic is much smaller than cruise ships today.
Although the Titanic was a massive cruise ship for the time it was built, the cruise ships of today are almost twice as large! To understand this fact better, let’s look at the numbers. The Titanic was able to accommodate around 2,300 people. However, a more modern cruise ship by Royal Caribbean, called Oasis of the Seas, is able to accommodate around 5,400 people!
3. There is a private residential cruise ship that operates like a condominium.
If you wanted to live on a cruise ship, now’s your chance! There is a cruise ship called The World, and it is a private and residential ship with apartments available for purchasing! The luxury condos on this ship are like any other luxury condo you’d find, only they are inside an ocean liner. There are 165 different types of residences on this ship, and it has various facilities like a grocery store and deli, and even access to the internet.
4. You cannot take a clothes iron onto a cruise ship.
Did you know that clothing irons aren’t allowed on cruise ships? The reason for this is that irons are considered to be fire hazards, which is why they aren’t allowed. If you are caught with an iron on your cruise, then it will most likely be confiscated by the staff on board.
5. The very first cruise ship set sail in 1900.
The first cruise ship set sail 124 years ago in 1900! This ship was called the Prinzessin Victoria Luise. It was a German ship, and was also the first cruise ship build for a specific purpose. In the world today, this cruise ship’s size would be closer to yacht than a cruise ship, but it was still considered to be an exciting advancement in the technology of time.
6. The average cruise ship anchor is extremely heavy.
This fact shouldn’t come as a surprise to you! Cruise ships are getting bigger and heavier with each passing year, and so, they need a heavy anchor to hold the ship in place when it docks at a port. The average cruise ship anchor weighs roughly the same as four elephants all put together.
7. Cruise ships have a terribly negative impact on the environment.
Although they are fun to go on, cruise ships are terrible for the environment. They generate tonnes of sewage, greywater, solid waste, and so much more. Since most cruise ships run on what is called bunker fuel or heavy fuel oil, they emit large amounts of sulphur dioxide. They also cause severe air pollution, so much so that 50,000 people die per year from the air pollution caused by cruise ships.
8. The pools on cruise ships are filled with seawater.
This is another fact that probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to you, since a cruise ship is situated in the middle of a huge body of water. The swimming pools on cruise ships are filled with seawater that are treated with chemicals to make it safe to read.
9. Scientologists have their own cruise ship.
The Church of Scientology has its own cruise ship. Although not much is known about what goes on inside this cruise ship, some former travelers have said that it is used for conferences.
10. The average travel time for a cruise ship is 20 knots.
This means that the ship travels at around 23 miles per hour. Cruise ships can go faster and travel at around 30 knots per hour.
Conclusion
In this article, we examined some interesting and new facts about cruise ships. Although it might seem obvious, we had no idea that the pools on cruise ships are filled with seawater, or that they have a morgue onboard. Researching and writing this article was a lot of fun for us, and we hope that you enjoyed it and learned something new from it.