A wonderful Journey
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are a part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way. Transportation is not the prime purpose, as cruise ships operate mostly on routes that return passengers to their originating port, so the ports of call are usually in a specified region of a continent. There are even "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages" where the ship makes 2-3 night round trips without any ports of call.
By contrast, dedicated transport oriented ocean liners do "line voyages" and typically transport passengers from one point to another, rather than on round trips. Traditionally, an ocean liner for the transoceanic trade will be built to a higher standard than a typical cruise ship, including high freeboard and stronger plating to withstand rough seas and adverse conditions encountered in the open ocean, such as the North Atlantic. Ocean liners also usually have larger capacities for fuel, victuals, and other stores for consumption on long voyages, compared to dedicated cruise ships.
Although often luxurious, ocean liners had characteristics that made them unsuitable for cruising, such as high fuel consumption, deep draught that prevented them from entering shallow ports, enclosed weatherproof decks that were not appropriate for tropical weather, and cabins designed to maximize passenger numbers rather than comfort (such as a high proportion of windowless suites). The gradual evolution of passenger ship design from ocean liners to cruise ships has seen passenger cabins shifted from inside the hull to the superstructure with private verandas. The modern cruise ships, while sacrificing qualities of seaworthiness, have added amenities to cater to water tourists, and recent vessels have been described as "balcony-laden floating condominiums
On a recent cruise vacation I took the picture, included in this post, while in St. Thomas one of the US Virgin Islands. While in this port of call Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas, the ship I was on, was joined by Carnival's Magic and NCL's Norwegian Breakaway. This day my wife and I decided not to take any cruise ship sponsored excursions and simply have a nice walk and stay fairly close to the port and ship. There are a lot of small kiosk type setups and huts near the ship where local artisans and others sell their wares to the tourists. We picked up some gifts while enjoying the comfortable but a bit windy day. After doing a little more shopping we walked around for about an hour or so before heading back to the ship. There are several sites we would like to see on this beautiful island but it will have to wait for another visit. We spent the rest of the day on the ship, having lunch in the Windjammer then taking stroll to Two70 to enjoy the beautiful view from the aft section of the ship from this living room atmosphere venue. We left this port of call in the early evening as we were going to spend two days at sea as we made our way home to Cape Liberty in New Jersey
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