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Cruises
Cruise ship, also known as cruise liner or ocean liner, is a traveler-type and pleasure-based ship with facilities like that of a hotel; luxurious beds, fine dining, comfortable function and meeting rooms, lavish swimming pools, and dedicated staffs (in fact, it is usual in a cruise liner to have more crew than its total number of passengers). The average size cruise ship can accommodate around 3,000 travelers. Because of this, cruises are nicknamed as the floating hotels.
The idea of cruise ships was initiated by one of Hamburg-America Line's director, Albert Ballin, in 19th century. Soon after, other transatlantic ships followed Ballin's idea. In fact, some of the shipping lines changed their winter vessel's to summer cruises. However, the cruise ship industry suffered drastically in the 1960s with introduction of the more practical passenger airplanes. Nevertheless, some adventuristic commuters still patronized the cruise liners because of its wide array of entertainment and recreation.
During the 1970s, the cruises made its grand comeback. In relation, other sea routes were opened to accommodate the rising demand. Some of these routes are in the islands of the Caribbean and throughout the Mediterranean. The Love Boat TV show in 1970 greatly helped the cruises' return.
The world's largest cruise operator is the Miami-based Carnival Corporation & PLC. At present, the company has 13 liners serving in North America, United Kingdom, Germany, Southern Europe, and Australia. It currently houses two million sea travelers annually. Some of its cruise ships are Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Swan Hellenic.
Aside from Carnival Corporation, other major cruise companies are Celebrity Cruises, Bora Bora Cruises, MSC Italian Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Orient Lines, Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Coastal Voyage, and Windstar Cruises.
Among the world's top cruise ships are RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, MS Azure Seas, MS Asian Princess, MS Disney Wonder, and MS Enchantment of the Seas.
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