Chapter 10

Floating Resorts:
The Cruise Line Business

Hospitality Today
An Introduction

Eighth Edition
Growth of the Cruise Industry

• The cruise industry has experienced impressive

growth since 1970, when it is estimated that
just 500,000 people took a cruise each year.
• By 2014 more than twenty-two million people
reported having taken a vacation on a cruise
ship somewhere in the world that year.
• The 2009 launch of the Oasis of the Seas
symbolizes the progress of the modern cruise
line industry. Costing $1.4 billion, the Oasis of
the Seas has 2,160 cabins and can
accommodate 5,400 passengers.
Slide 2
Potential for Future Growth
in the Cruise Industry

• Despite the cruise industry’s rapid growth,

there are many reasons to believe that there is
the potential for even faster growth in the
future.
• While only 20 percent of U.S. adults have ever
taken a cruise, cruises generate a very high
rate of customer satisfaction.
• More than fifty new cruise ships have been
launched since 2010.

Slide 3
Early Ship Travel

• The first person to take a cruise and write about

it was the noted English novelist William
Makepeace Thackeray in 1844.
• After traveling to Greece, the Holy Land, and
Egypt, Thackeray complained about seasickness,
bugs, and other problems, but still recommended
the experience.
• The first American-origin cruise was probably one
taken by the American humorist Mark Twain and
described in his book, The Innocents Abroad.
Twain, too, became a cruising enthusiast.
Slide 4
The Titanic Disaster

• In the early years of the twentieth century, a few

shipbuilders designed “gigantic floating hotels” to
try to make ship passengers forget that they were
at sea.
• On the whole, this strategy worked, and
passengers began to regard steamships as both
luxurious and unsinkable.
• This complacency was shattered when the Titanic
sank on her maiden voyage in 1912.
• Over 1,500 lives were lost on one of the most
tragic nights in maritime history.
Slide 5
Ship Travel in the
Mid-Twentieth Century

• By the 1920s, the transatlantic passenger business

was booming again, thanks in part to Prohibition.
Americans who could not legally buy a drink could
indulge as much as they desired on an ocean voyage!
• The Great Depression began in 1929, making the
expense of European vacations prohibitive for most.
• When WWII ended in 1945, the rebuilding of Europe
once again spurred a growing demand for ocean
liners.
• The first Boeing 707 jet devastated the cruise world
in 1958; as trans-Atlantic flights grew in popularity,
many ocean-going passenger ships were scrapped.
Slide 6
The Birth of Modern Cruising
• In the early 1960s, Leslie Frazer of Miami
chartered two ships and began marketing them
exclusively for cruises.
• Caribbean cruises took off in 1966 thanks to the
birth of Norwegian Caribbean Line (now
Norwegian Cruise Line) and Royal Caribbean
Cruise Lines (now Royal Caribbean International).
• In the early 1970s, the U.S. cruise business
expanded westward when Seattle’s Stanley
McDonald founded Princess Cruise Lines and
began offering cruises to the Mexican Riviera.
Slide 7
The Love Boat

• In 1977, Aaron Spelling Productions decided to

make a Princess luxury cruise ship the site of a
major TV series.
• The series was called The Love Boat, and in nine
years of production it featured stories of people
who fell in love, solved personal problems, or
just had a great adventure while on a cruise.
• The program popularized the idea that a cruise
was a vacation that wasn’t just for the rich and
famous.

Slide 8
Carnival Is Born
• In 1971, Norwegian Cruise Line co-founder Ted Arison
decided to start his own business, Carnival Cruise
Lines.
• Up to that time, cruise promotion had been
destination-driven. Carnival’s approach was to provide
more activities and entertainment onboard ship and
make the ship itself the destination.
• Until then, cruises had been viewed as suitable only for
wealthy older people. Carnival targeted younger
passengers and emphasized the fun that could be had
on the ship itself—this strategy was probably the
defining event in the development of the modern
cruise industry.
Slide 9
Cruise Line Market Segments

• The contemporary/value segment (e.g.,

Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean)
• The premium segment (e.g., Celebrity, Holland
America, Princess)
• The luxury segment (e.g., Seabourn, Crystal,
Cunard, Silversea)
• “Specialty” lines, which concentrate on niche
destinations and various riverboat cruises

Slide 10
Giant Players in the Cruise Industry

• Carnival, which is the largest of all the cruise

lines, with nine brands
• Royal Caribbean, which also operates Celebrity
Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, and owns
Pullmantur (based in Spain) and CDF Croisieres
de France
• Genting Hong Kong, owner of Star Cruises (the
largest cruise line in Asia) and Norwegian Cruise
Line (NCL)

Slide 11
The Average Cruise Passenger

• Is forty-nine years old

• Has a household income of $114,000
• Pays $1,635 for an all-inclusive vacation that
includes a cabin, four to five meals a day, and
entertainment

Slide 12
Hotel Division Personnel

• Hotel manager
• Purser
• Food and beverage manager
• Chief housekeeper
• Cruise director
• Human resources manager

Slide 13
The Captain

• Is responsible for the ship’s operation and the

safety of all aboard.
• Must ensure that all company policies and rules
are followed, as well as national and
international laws.
• Has the authority under maritime laws to
enforce these laws, an authority granted by the
country in which the ship is registered.

Slide 14
People Who Report Directly
to the Captain

• The chief officer (called the staff captain on

some lines), who is second in command and also
the captain’s deputy
• The chief engineer, who is in charge of the
ship’s physical plant
• The hotel manager
• The environmental officer, who is responsible
for compliance with international and local
environmental regulations

Slide 15
The Hotel Manager
• The job of the hotel manager has some similarities
but also many differences to a general manager’s
job in a land-based hotel. Two major differences are
that there is no sales or marketing staff to supervise
and that passengers do not have to check in at a
front desk.
• The hotel manager is ultimately responsible for food
and beverage services and housekeeping services,
and may also be responsible for medical care,
entertainment, and shore excursions.
• Hotel managers on cruise ships typically spend four
months at sea, followed by two months off.
Slide 16
The Purser

• The purser is the ship’s banker, information

officer, and complaint handler. On smaller
ships, the purser may also serve as human
resources director.
• The purser is also second in command of the
hotel division and is in charge of the division
whenever the hotel manager is off the ship.
• The purser’s office runs the ship’s front office,
including the management of guest accounts or
folios, and clears the ship at foreign ports.
Slide 17
The Food and Beverage Manager

• The food and beverage manager has a crucial role

because one of the most important components of
every cruise, from the passengers’ point of view, is
the food.
• In addition to feeding the passengers, the food and
beverage department is also responsible for feeding
the ship’s crew members.
• Reporting to the food and beverage manager
typically are the assistant food and beverage
manager, executive chef, maître d’ (dining room
manager), bar manager, and provision master or
storekeeper.
Slide 18
Serving Issues
• Serving times for meals represent a major
challenge for the food and beverage manager of
a cruise ship.
• Except for the smaller luxury ships, none of
today’s cruise vessels has enough main dining
room seats to handle more than half of its
passengers at the same time.
• In the past, two dinner sittings was the
standard. That is still the case on some ships,
but today’s lifestyles demand a more flexible
approach to dinner.
Slide 19
The Chief Housekeeper

• The chief housekeeper (also called the chief

steward) runs a department that is very similar to
the housekeeping department of any hotel.
• The chief housekeeper’s staff is responsible for the
cleaning and general maintenance of all cabins and
interior areas on the ship, for passenger laundry
and dry cleaning, and for cleaning all cabin linens,
table linens, towels, and the crew’s uniforms.
• The housekeeping department’s cabin stewards are
responsible for loading and unloading luggage and
delivering it, and for cabin food service.
Slide 20
Turnaround Day

• The busiest day for the housekeeping

department is turnaround day—the day a ship
finishes a cruise and starts another one.
• A 70,000-ton vessel may have 2,400–3,600
pieces of luggage to be unloaded and loaded in
a single day!
• Moreover, all of the ship’s cabins must be
completely cleaned, linens changed, and all
major public spaces vacuumed and polished in
the space of a few hours.
Slide 21
The Cruise Director
• The cruise director and his or her staff direct
all of the passenger-entertainment activities.
• An important part of the cruise staff’s job is to
sell and coordinate the shore excursions.
• Before a ship arrives in port, a member of the
cruise staff usually gives a destination-and-
shopping talk to interested passengers. All of
the large cruise lines recommend certain
onshore shops whose merchandise they know to
be fairly priced and reliable.

Slide 22
The Daily Activity Calendar
The daily activity calendar typically includes the
following information:
• Arrival and departure times (when in port)
• Tour departure times (when in port)
• When the ship’s meals will be served and where
• Activities on board the ship
• Library hours
• The times that movies will be shown
• Other news of interest to passengers
Slide 23
The Human Resources Manager
• The human resources function of recruiting and
hiring staff is done by land-based, not
shipboard, human resources personnel.
• Background checks, medical exams, and visa
requests must be done before a crew member is
hired and placed with a ship. Land-based human
resources staff must also arrange getting crew
members to their ship assignments.
• Once the crew is aboard, the ship’s human
resources manager is responsible for ongoing
training and crew welfare.
Slide 24
The Physician

• All cruise ships carry a physician and at least

one nurse.
• Physicians onboard ships have emergency-room
training, and their equipment includes cardiac
defibrillators, x-ray machines, operating tables,
hospital beds, and enough prescription drugs to
stock a small pharmacy!
• The lead nurse is responsible for a perpetual
inventory system to control the drugs.

Slide 25
Environment, Health, Safety,
and Security

• Cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers and

crew must be concerned about spreading sickness.
Standards for food handling, storage, and
preparation must be followed with care.
• In order to minimize slips and falls, warning
notices are placed throughout the ship, calling
attention to steps and wet decks.
• Fire prevention and the capability to repress any
fire that might occur is another major concern of
all cruise lines. Accordingly, smoking policies are
strictly enforced and fire-extinguishing equipment
checked on a regular basis.
Slide 26
Slide 27