Hemispheres Magazine....

CRUISE NEWS
15 FACTS

Waterborne travel is better than ever, thanks to a greater number and variety of ships and itineraries. No matter what your preferred cruise style, here are some nautical notes we bet you didn't know.

1 / With more and more time constraints hindering today’s travelers, cruise lines dramatically increased the number of two- to five-day cruises. Between 1980 and 2004, these shorter and more flexible itineraries grew by more than 700 percent.

2 / As recently as five years ago, South Florida cities accounted for a large majority of cruise departures. Today, 30 North American cities are “home ports”--places where travelers can embark on a cruise.

3 / Unless you have an emergency, it’s generally best to resist the urge to phone home while at sea. Phone rates from your cabin can run US$6 to US$10 per minute. If you want to stay in touch, check out the Internet cafes now available on most ships (they usually cost about 75 cents or less per minute; rates for 100- and 200-minute packages are even less).

4 / Norwegian Cruise Line's U.S.-flagged Pride of Aloha (launched in 2004) and Pride of America (launched this summer) are the only two ships permanently based in the hot cruise destination of Hawaii. These ships take American Pride to heart, with a large majority of staff being U.S. citizens (something highly unusual in the cruise industry).

5 / Princess Cruises is currently the only line to offer couples the opportunity to get married at sea by the ship’s captain. As a bonus, a “wedding cam” allows the ceremony to be viewed via the Internet.

6 / While Disney Cruise Lines is great for kids and kids at heart, each of Disney’s ships also offers a surprising range of “adults-only” areas, including a pool and hot tubs, a gourmet cafe with Internet connection, a sports bar, and access to a long and incredibly quiet stretch of beach on the line’s private island (including open-air cabanas for massage treatments).

7 / Royal Clipper, the 42-sail, five-mast flagship of Star Clippers, is the largest full-rigged sailing vessel afloat. So much Dacron was needed during construction that the supply in the United States was exhausted and more had to be imported. It was the largest sail order ever placed for a single ship. Royal Clipper’s sister ships, Star Flyer and Star Clipper, are the tallest sailing vessels in the world.

8 / With 21 ships, Carnival Cruise Lines has the largest fleet in the industry. Average fleetwide weekly food and beverage consumption aboard the “Fun Ships” includes: 736,240 eggs, 765,140 bacon slices, 24,150 pounds of lobster, 86,200 hot dogs, and 80,195 bottles of wine.

9 / The only planetarium at sea is on the Queen Mary 2. It also serves as the ship’s theater and lecture hall. The ship has the largest library at sea and the largest ballroom at sea (to dance away the cuisine created by Todd English). Offering the only regularly scheduled transatlantic service, the ship is as long as 36 double-decker London buses.

10 / Marco Polo would love sailing on the Marco Polo, the namesake ship of the famed world traveler and the only ship currently in the Orient Lines fleet. From Antarctica to the Aegean, this well-loved old ship (a former Russian ice-breaker) roams the world. The ship's itineraries range from 10 to 38 days, longer than the standard seven-day cruises offered on many ships.

11 / According to research from the Cruise Lines International Association, cruises to Africa and the idyllic atolls of the Indian Ocean grew more than 250 percent between 2004 and 2005.

12 / The 112-year-old Norwegian Coastal Voyage line provides passengers with a number of standouts: a visit to Europe’s northernmost lighthouse; the most port calls--34-- in a cruise of seven days or less (the line delivers mail to remote communities); a stop at the world’s most northern town; travel through the strongest ocean currents; and a stop at the world’s most northern brewery to wash down all those superlatives.

13 / On February 1, Seabourn Cruise Line’s yachtlike Seabourn Pride will carry 208 fortunate guests around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. Then it will  round Norway’s North Cape--the northernmost point of Europe--on June 12th. The route taken is similar to the annual migration of Arctic terns.

14 / Last year’s movie After the Sunset, starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, and Woody Harrelson, was filmed on the Seven Seas Navigator--part of the elegant Radisson Seven Seas Cruises line. Brosnan played a debonair jewel thief lured out of retirement by an exhibition aboard a luxurious cruise ship by showcasing the world’s most magnificent diamond. This waterborne motion picture took The Love Boat to another level.

15 / In 2003, Silversea’s 382-guest Silver Whisper was docked in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the Neva River for three days, hosting the largest gathering of world leaders since World War II. The guest list included Jacque Chirac, Tony Blair, and Gehard Schroder, who were attending tricentennial celebrations in Russia's cultural capital. Today, guests can dine in the same restaurant where Russian President Vladimer Putin hosted the world’s power elite ata gala gourmet dinner.