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Cruise Critic is the leading cruise reviews site, which hosts the largest cruise community in the world. More than six million people, from first-time cruisers to avid cruise fans, visit Cruise Critic each month to research and plan their cruises, connect with other cruisers and share their passion for cruising.
With the aim of helping people to find the right cruise, Cruise Critic features more than 350,000 cruise reviews as well as advice and information from our team of cruise experts on everything from choosing a ship to planning your time in port.
The site also offer itinerary and pricing information, deals and money-saving tips. The popular Cruise Critic forums are a place for people to post questions and share insights with other cruisers, and chat with others who share their love of cruising.
Cruise Direct are offering to customers an easy booking process, a Best Price Guarantee, Flexible Payment Plans, Low Price Assurance, No Booking Fees, eTickets, freebies, and discounts. We only sell cruise bookings, so our dedicated and experienced cruise experts are ready to share their in-depth knowledge.
Award-winning Uniworld—the world’s ONLY authentic boutique cruise line™—offers itineraries in spectacular destinations throughout Europe, Russia, and Asia. The company’s European fleet features luxurious ships with an average capacity of 130 guests, the highest staff-to-guest ratio in the river cruise industry, enticing shore excursions, world-class gourmet cuisine, impeccable hospitality, and numerous other all-inclusive benefits.
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Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as “shore excursions”. On “cruises to nowhere” or “nowhere voyages”, cruise ships make two- to three-night round trips without visiting any ports of call. Cruiseferry MS Galaxy at the port of Mariehamn, Åland, in February 2016 Modern cruise ships tend to have less hull strength, speed, and agility compared to ocean liners. However, they have added amenities to cater to water tourists, with recent vessels being described as “balcony-laden floating condominiums”.
As of December 2018, there were 314 cruise ships operating worldwide, with a combined capacity of 537,000 passengers. Cruising has become a major part of the tourism industry, with an estimated market of $29.4 billion per year, and over 19 million passengers carried worldwide annually as of 2011.
The industry’s rapid growth saw nine or more newly built ships catering to a North American clientele added every year since 2001, as well as others servicing European clientele until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 saw the entire industry all but shut down. As of 2022, the world’s largest passenger ship is Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas.
Italy, a traditional focus of the Grand Tour, offered an early cruise experience on the Francesco I, flying the flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Built in 1831, the Francesco I sailed from Naples in early June 1833, preceded by an advertising campaign.
Nobles, authorities, and royal princes from all over Europe boarded the cruise ship, which sailed in just over three months to Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Malta, Corfu, Patras, Delphi, Zante, Athens, Smyrna and Constantinople, delighting passengers with excursions and guided tours, dancing, card tables on the deck and parties on board. However, it was restricted to the aristocracy of Europe and was not a commercial endeavour.
P&O first introduced passenger-cruising services in 1844, advertising sea tours to destinations such as Gibraltar, Malta and Athens, sailing from Southampton.
The forerunner of modern cruise holidays, these voyages were the first of their kind. P&O Cruises is the world’s oldest cruise line.[9] The company later introduced round trips to destinations such as Alexandria and Constantinople. It underwent a period of rapid expansion in the latter half of the 19th century, commissioning larger and more luxurious ships to serve the steadily expanding market. Notable ships of the era include the SS Ravenna built in 1880, which became the first ship built with a total steel superstructure,[10] and the SS Valetta built in 1889, which was the first ship to use electric lights.