Cruise Ships -
The Floating Hotels
There are more than 230 cruise ships operating world wide. Cruise ships are literally floating cities that provide some of the same services that small cities or towns provide to their citizens. It is not uncommon for the most luxurious ships to have more crew and staff than passengers.
As with any vessel, adequate provisioning is crucial, especially on a cruise ship serving several thousand meals at each seating. Passengers and crew on the Royal Caribbean International ship Mariner of the Seas consume 20,000 pounds (9,000 kg) of beef, 28,000 eggs, 8,000 gallons (30,000 L) of ice cream, and 18,000 slices of pizza in a week. And there is a pollution problem: According to EPA and industry data, a typical 3,000 passenger cruise ship each week generates 210,000 gallons of black water, which is raw sewage; 1 million gallons of gray water, including runoff from showers, sinks and dishwashers; and 37,000 gallons of oily bilge water, which collects in the bottom of ships and contains oil and chemicals from engine maintenance that are toxic to marine life. All ports have some sort of facility to receive ship sewage.
Some big cruise ships are treating their waste waters onboard, but only according to the Alaska regulations, which do not regulate nutrients but only bacteria and organic content of the waste water. But there are advantages as well: No other job markets have been growing so rapidly in the past ten years as the cruise line jobs. Just for the last four years all leading cruise lines have doubled their fleets and number of employees. Many new cruise ship lines have
emerged trying to get their share from the cruise market explosion.
With all the cruise ships currently under construction the number of cruise lines work force worldwide is expected to triple by the year 2009. From 2000 to 2007, major cruise lines launched 84 new cruise ships! Each of these cruise ships employ between 500 and 1,500 crew members and support staff.
That means over the last six years over 85,000 new cruise ship jobs have been created! In addition, cruise lines are planning on introducing another 23 new cruise ships over the next three years creating over 26,000 more cruise
line jobs. All but one of these cruise ships scheduled to launch over the next four years are "mega" ships carrying over 2,000 passengers.
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Cruise Journal Summer Edition 2008
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