Cruise ships

Cruise ships as travel vessels. Cities on the water, swift winged liners, small river boats and tiny excursion yachts - all of them, one way or another, belong to the category of cruise ships.

Today there are three key groups of cruise ships: ocean liners, ships for sea travels and ships for river cruises. The largest class consists of the ocean cruise liners, which are followed by marine vessels and ships for river cruises, such as "meteors" and others, which hold the third place.

Cruise ships: beginning of the story

How could appear such trend in the shipbuilding industry as "creation of cruise ships"? It's simple. Shipyards for cruise ships were built from the shipyards for conventional passenger vessels, which once carried from one continent to another people and goods. While the the aircraft industry was developing in the world, marine passenger industry fell into decay. And since it was very profitable, the question arose: "What to do?" And it was decided to turn everyday travel into a chic entertainment. So, ordinary transport vessels were replaced by luxury liners.

Ocean liners

Since then ocean liner is the most luxurious type of cruise ships. Swimming pools, tennis courts, night clubs and shopping malls, casinos, restaurants, even ice skating rink - entire metropolis for recreation, which is served by thousands of professionals. A classic example of such a modern ocean liner is Queen Mary 2.

Cruise ships for sea cruises

Ships for sea cruises is "the middle brother" in the family of cruise transport and are inferior to ocean liners by size and number of services. Due to the fact that many ports of the Mediterranean are not very deep, sea cruise ships have much lower displacement. In addition, shorter distances can reduce the size of fuel compartments. 2-3 day journeys between cities are not the same as week-long trips in the open ocean.

Ships for river cruises

Ships for river and lake cruises are the smallest. And the biggest of the "smallest" can be found today on the world's largest rivers. They operate on the Nile, the Volga, the Amazon and the Danube.

Classification of cruise ships

As for classification of cruise ships, unfortunately, today there is no common approach in their classification. However, tourists can facilitate their choice as in the world there is one agency, which reputation can help to select a ship. It is «Maritime Evaluations Group» - a company founded by Douglas Ward. The company gives stars to the cruise ships worldwide. Together with Berlitz publishing house it publishes an annual guide called "Complete guide about cruises and cruise ships" - "the bible of cruisers". According to 2011 data in the guide were described more than 300 vessels.

Portal www.cruise-profi.ru offers to get acquainted with different kinds of cruise ships and even book a cabin there. It offers portal users the possibility of online cruise booking on various ships around the world.

Photo: Markus Lenk