(GRT—gross registered tonnage—refers to the volume of public area available to passengers). This megaship is so large it can’t sail via the Panama Canal, and yet because of onboard satellite know-how it doesn’t require an anchor. Passenger diversions include an ice skating rink, a mountain climbing wall, a full-sized basketball court docket, the world’s largest roulette wheel, and a shopping mall. From 1990 to 2000 cruise tourists expanded in quantity from 3.5 million to over eight million per year, with Americans accounting for eighty % of cruise passengers worldwide. In this similar interval, the variety of cruise ships plying worldwide waters elevated from 97 to 170, and the variety of cruise ship berths almost doubled from sixty eight,474 to 127,943. Nineteen new cruise vessels have been delivered in 2002, to be adopted by one other twenty-one new vessels by 2004 (CLIA, 2000; McDowell).
Pools, evening leisure and kids clubs for …