History
History of Cruises
While sea voyages and transatlantic ocean liners have existed far back in time, they were primarily used for the purposes of transporting passengers from one place to another as opposed to entertaining them with a luxury vacation. It would not be until 1900 that the world’s first luxury cruise ship would be completed. This ship was designed by the general manager of Hamburg-America Line, Albert Ballin and was called the Prinzessin Victoria Luise in the tradition of naming ships after women.
The concept of cruising was developed from the fact that in the early days of large transatlantic ocean voyages, it would take several days to cross the Atlantic. Since ship companies wanted to attract more passengers to their lines, they began to add extra luxury amenities in order to draw them in. They would create attractions such as fine dining or luxury rooms to appeal to their guests and before long, the tradition expanded into building specialized vessels that would cross during winter or summer.
When the age of huge jet aircraft first hit in the 1960’s, travelers would find that they wanted to go by the faster aircraft rather than by sea. This meant hard times for the passenger shipping lines and so those that wanted to cater to average passengers eventually died off, with 1986 being the final year for that type of crossing except for the Cunard Line which offers a more vintage style approach to travel for its specific audience. This meant that there would a new industry emerging catering just to those who wanted to cruise for luxury reasons. It would be a slow build throughout the 1960’s and 70’s, but eventually an industry would emerge that would start with the SS Norway, a converted passenger vessel that cruised the Caribbean. Although it was considered a super ship in its day, today there are much larger ships and there is serious competition in the cruise industry to up the ante on ship sizes.
One thing that definitely must be noted is the American TV show The Love Boat that featured a ship called Pacific Princess from Princess Cruises’. This show raised the profile of the cruise industry and did much to let people know about the experience that these vessels offered. The industry rapidly expanded from the traditional Caribbean cruises to Mexico, Alaska, the Pacific Islands and other destinations, but now it has gone global and one can freely travel nearly anywhere they wish on one ship or another.
No matter what type of cruise a person may want to take these days, there are plenty of options and having survived for 50 years now, the cruise industry shows no signs of slowing as the ships just keep getting bigger.