Introduction to
Cruise Industry
CSO 1
Introduction to Cruise
Industry
Lesson 1
Prepared by:
C/M Santiago J. Delfin, MME
CHTM - Faculty
Lesson 1.1: History and the Beginnings
After reading this lesson, you’ll be able to:
1. Define the term cruise.
2. Explain the history of cruising and how it affects today’s cruise vacation experience.
3. Describe the contemporary cruise experience.
4. Distinguish among different types of itineraries.
Pretest
Multiple Choice:
______ 1. A leisure vacation experience, with the ship’s staff doing all the work is called ______.
a. cruise c. trip
b. travel d. sightseeing
______ 2. On early days of cruising, a third class accommodation for masses is called _________.
a. lower class c. steerage
b. higher class d. stowaways
______ 3. A package that includes lodging at the cruise arrival port after the cruise is called _____.
a. pre-cruise package c. shore excursion
b. post-cruise package d. shore trip
______ 4. A day when the ship is travelling a long distance and doesn’t stop at a port of call
is called ______.
a. at-sea day c. navigation day
b. sea cruising day d. sea trip day
______ 5. An itinerary with the ship leaving from and returning to the same port is called _____.
a. close-jaw itinerary c. open-jaw itinerary
b. one way itinerary d. circle itinerary
Introduction
When historians of the future look back to the way people of our time travelled, they’ll almost
certainly zero in on one remarkable phenomenon – the success of cruising, They’ll cite the fact that the
number of people who took a cruise vacation increased by about 10% each year – a growth unmatched
by any other segment of the travel industry. They’ll note that the vast majority of cruisers said that they
were very satisfied with the cruise experience. They’ll marvel at the great, graceful vessels – both large
and small – that carried just about every kind of person – married, single, young, old, wealthy or just
getting by – to virtually every place on the globe. And, most of all, they’ll be astonished by the level of
service and spectrum of activities – both on and off the ship – that these passengers enjoyed. Once
people have been on a cruise, they rate it higher than other types of vacations – and find the
experienced better than they thought it would be.
We live in exciting times, when more and more people discover how truly wonderful a cruise vacation
can be. And as a member – or a potential member – of the vast travel community that makes such cruise
dreams come true, you should justifiably be proud.
As important as the present and future of cruising is, however, you should also know a little about it
past. The cruise industry’s genealogy is important. And it’s a fascinating tale indeed.
Definitions and Beginning
Before exploring cruising ancestry, How about the definition of cruising?
A cruise is a vacation trip by ship. It’s that simple. This definition
excludes traveling by water for purely business purpose (e.g. cargo
ships). Sailing on one’s own small pleasure craft, or travel on a vessel for
primarily transportation purposes (e.g. a short ferry ride). A cruise is
primarily a leisure vacation experience, with the ship’s staff doing all the
work. Some cruise ships also transport cargo, and all of them carry
people from place to place. But at the core of cruising – from the
perspective of the traveler – is the desire to relax, to get away from it all, to experience, to learn, to be
pampered, and to have fun. Today that almost always takes place on a vessel custom-built to satisfy
these goals, though it can also take place on a freighter, a ferry-like ship, or doing a transatlantic sailing.
So long as the emphasis is on the passenger’s desire to have a great time, it’s cruising.
And that’s exactly what was going on in an ancient times, to a limited extent, in the Mediterranean.
Of course, ships sailed this legendary sea mostly for practical reasons; exploration, commerce,
migration, and warfare. But there were always a few hardy souls who come aboard just to experience
the far-flung ports that these vessels visited, the most famous being Herodotus, who during his sailing
compiled a list of the most interesting manmade things he saw. Today we call them the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World (see figure 1-2). And there’s a reason he did it; to provide other pleasure travelers
of his time with a sort of guidebook to where to go and what to see. And like him, most of them did it by
boat.
After about A.D. 500, “leisure” travel virtually disappeared. Certainly, some awesome seagoing trip
took place (e.g. people from Tahiti sailed 2,000 miles to Hawaii, the Viking reached North America, And
controversial evidence exist that the ancient Chinese crossed the Pacific all the way to California). But
these and other sailing were to explore, to trade, to conquer, or to settle “tourist” aboard these ships
were a rarity. Pleasure was only an afterthought.
FIGURE 1-2: The seven Wonders of the Ancient World
● The Pyramids (Giza, Egypt)
● The Hanging Gardens of Babylon ( Baghdad, Iraq)
● The statue of Zeus at Olympia (Greece)
● The Temple of Diana at Ephesus (Turkey)
● The Mausoleum (Helicarnassus, Turkey)
● The Colossus (Rhodes)
● The Pharos Lighthouse (Alexandria, Egypt)
The Arrival of Leisure Sailing
In 1800s, shipping companies rediscovered that they could increase their profits by booking
passengers aboard their merchant ships, A few of these travelers were wealthy patrons looking for
adventure in faraway lands. Most of the others were relatively poor people looking for a new place to
live.
Eventually, shipping companies began building vessels
(“steamship”, they were called) whose primary purpose was to
transport people, not cargo. Technology helped make it
possible, as wooden ships with sails were replaced by steel-
hulled vessels that were driven by coal, oil, and steam – not
wind. (The early steel ships also had sail riggings, which were
only there to reassure passengers.) These transport become
larger and larger, with names like Aquitania, Leviathan, and, yes
Titanic. Surprisingly, a few of the “steamship” companies that built the great turn-of-the-century vessels
are still around today: Cunard, P&O, and Holland America.
Ocean liners were among the most astonishing creations to appear in the early 1900s. Their exterior
were majestic and boastful, their interiors as lavish as the great hotels of Europe – or at least parts of
them were.
The major purpose of the ocean liner of those times was to carry immigrants, not the well-to-do. That
was where most of the money as made. Ships were usually divided into two or three “Classes”. In first
class were the wealthy; second class accommodated people of modest but sufficient means; third class,
or “steerage”, was for the masses. On any given sailing, there might be 100 passengers in first, 100 in
second and 2,000 in third.
In contrast between first class and steerage was striking, in first class, passengers dined in elegant
surroundings, were entertained by tuxedoed musicians, and slept in the poshest of stateroom. (Though
there’s controversy about this, the word posh is said to come from the words port out, starboard home,
which described the best side of the ship to have your cabin on when sailing between England and
India.) In steerage, passengers ate soup and boiled potatoes, were entertained by their fellow
passengers, and slept in vast dormitories on cots bunked to or three high. Nowhere on the ship were the
two groups allowed to mix.
This sort of travel seems alien to us today, but consider this: About one out of four North Americans
has at least one ancestor who arrived via one of these ships. There’s a good chance, then, that you
wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for an ocean liner.
The Birth of Contemporary Cruising
Though plenty might be going on aboard
ship, it would be wrong to call transoceanic
crossing “cruising”, as we know of cruising
today. The primary purpose was
transportation, with no intermediate stops to
see what was along the way. But even in the
early 1900s, a few (usually smaller) steamship lines devised a product that was closer to a “cruise “.
During winter (when ocean crossing were least popular), they would concede the transatlantic business
to their bigger competitors and “reposition” their ship to warmer places, like the Caribbean. (It was a
nice way to avoid iceberg, too.) The experience – often called an “excursion” – become purely leisure.
People would book a cruise to visit a series of exotic port, to profit from the “health benefits” of bracing
sea air, and to do interesting things while on board their ship. Even a few around-the-world cruises
appeared.
This vacation cruise business was a minor one – transoceanic transportation still dominated – until
June 1958. During that month, airlines started the first commercial jet service across the Atlantic. Ocean
crossing become a matter of hours, not days. And the cruise lines were instantly in trouble.
People bound for another continent suddenly found ships to be a slow, boring option. Within one
year, more people were crossing the Atlantic by air than by sea. Only those who feared air travel or were
looking for a very leisurely, away-from-the-ordinary experience continued to book transoceanic
crossing. The joke was that ocean liners were only for “the newly wed and the nearly dead”. Though
they continued to sell their ships as transoceanic transportation, steamship lines – or at least some of
them – concluded that they had to rethink their business dramatically. Crossing diminished, and cruising
as in.
Modern Crossing Develop
Those smaller ships cruising the Caribbean became the
business model nearly every company pursued. Let’s think of
ships as floating resorts, they said, that offer pleasurable
activities, great food, superb service, and – yes- convenient,
no-packing-and-unpacking transportation from place to place.
The Blue Riband no longer resonated in the minds of consumer
– “fun ships” and “love boat” did.
A few new liners, built primarily for ocean crossing,
appeared in the 1960s. There were still enough passengers to
justify them, and it as believed that more “modern” vessels
would bring the passengers back.
But the emphasis on leisure cruising led to the rapid conversion of many existing ships into cruise
vessels. The cruise lines tore out the bulkheads separating the classes, installed air conditioning,
expanded pool areas, put in casinos, and converted staid function rooms into discos. Cruising become a
major phenomenon, with cruise companies building new ships in the 1970s designed specifically for
cruising.
Cruising gained even greater momentum in the 1980s and especially the 1990s “megaships”
appeared that far exceeded the size and scope of the biggest ocean liners, while smaller super-luxury
vessels targeted people who sought the very highest of experiences. There were high-tech mast sailing
ships, too, and small expedition vessels that provided “soft” adventures. Massive paddle-wheelers once
again plied the Mississippi, and one ships, a super-sized catamaran-like vessel, carried over 300
passengers. Soon there was a cruise experience for just about everyone.
CRUISING TODAY
Each year millions of travelers choose to cruise. And far more
intend to do so soon. One Cruise Lines International Association
(CLIA) survey determined that half of all people in Canada and in
United States who are over 25 and who have a household income
of at least 20,000 USD would like to cruise. That represents nearly
70 million potential cruisers.
What are their choices? Many people try out cruising by
selecting a short itinerary such as a three-day Bahamas cruise out
of Florida or a four-day journey from Los Angeles to Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. Some may even
sample a one-day “party cruise” before actually taking a multiday sailing.
Among the more popular itineraries, however, are five-to-twelve-day cruise, with seven days being
the most common. (In cruise terminology, a Saturday-to-Saturday sailing is called a seven-day cruise,
even though eight days are involved in the itinerary. Even more confusing; since the ship probably
leaves Saturday evening and arrives the following Saturday morning, passengers are actually sailing on
the ship for six-and-a-half days!)
The ships agenda can be a round-trip or circle-itinerary, with the vessel leaving from and returning
to the same port. For example, a ship could sail from Vancouver, head northward through the Alaskan
Inside Passage, turn back at, say, Skagway, and return to Vancouver (stopping, of course, at interesting
ports along the way).
In other situations, the cruise might start at one port, but finish at another. A ship could leave
Vancouver, but finish its trip in Anchorage. This is called a one-way itinerary. In all probability, the vessel
would take on a whole new set of passengers in Anchorage and repeat the same itinerary, in reverse, to
Vancouver.
During the cruise, passengers experience a wealth of onboard activities (e.g. meals, shows, contest,
lounging at the pool), which take place primarily on at-sea days (when the ship is traveling a long
distance without stopping at any ports). On port days (usually the ship docks early in the morning and
leaves in the early evening), passengers have the option of going ashore (most do) or staying on the
ship. During most itineraries, port days far outnumber at-sea days.
The cruise experience can extend well beyond the cruise itself. Cruise clients sometimes arrive at the
cruise departure port a day or two early and/or stay at the port afterwards. Their lodging can be
purchased from the cruise line or booked separately. (These are called pre and post-cruise packages). In
a few cases the cruise line may even bundle and sell pre- and post-cruise hotel stays and at least some
sightseeing for one price, as part of a larger cruise experience, or cruise-tour.
For instance, a cruise line could start its cruise-tour in Istanbul, with a two-night stay and one all day
city tour. The cruise itself would then begin, visit several Eastern Mediterranean islands, and finish in
Athens, where another two-day hotel stay and city tour await the passengers. The entire experience
would be sold at one price (though the option might be available to buy a cruise-only package, at a
lower price). Another example; A family could purchase a package that includes, among other things, a
three-night stay at an Orlando hotel, several theme park admissions, transfer to Port Canaveral, and a
three-day cruise to the Bahamas, with transfer back to Orlando.
And what of flights? Here are three possibilities. Let’s say a couple living in New York wishes to take a
cruise that follows a circle itinerary, departing from and returning to New Orleans. Their travel agent
could book a flight for them to and from New Orleans. (In airline terminology, a flight to and from the
same city is called a round-trip or close-jaw itinerary). Or the agent could purchase the flight directly
from the cruise line. (The cruise line contract with the airlines for space and resell that space to
passengers.) In a few case, the flight might even be included in the cruise price, but this is becoming less
common.
What if this New York City couple wants to visit the Western Mediterranean? They would fly into, say,
Rome, Italy. From Rome’s port, their ship would sail westward and finish a week later in Barcelona,
Spain. The couple would then fly home from Barcelona. (They could also continue on an extended land
vacation in Spain.) When an air itinerary features a return from a different city than the one first flown
to, it’s called an open-jaw itinerary
There’s a third possible scenario. A couple who resides in New York City decides to take a cruise to
and from Bermuda. The cruise begins and ends in New York City, so there’s no need for air at all. (This
could be booked as a cruise-only trip).
This discussion of the various shapes a cruise experience can take may have a triggered other
questions in your mind; What other places do cruises go? How does a typical cruise unfold? What kind
of people actually take cruises? All these, and more, will be answered in other chapters to come.
SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. How did a transoceanic sea voyage differ from a modern cruise?
2. Explain why a seven-day cruise might be viewed as either six, seven, or eight days long.
3. Differentiate close-jaw itinerary and open-jaw itinerary.
4. Define the following:
At-sea-day
Port day
Circle itinerary
Close-jaw itinerary
Open-jaw itinerary
5. Differentiate Ocean liner, Ferries and Cruise ship?
ANSWER ONLY THE SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS 1-5 :
REMINDER: Answer only all the needed questions in Microsoft word…..
Don’t send the entire lessons….
Deadline of submission: not later 6:00 PM , Tuesday, October 12, 2021
