Five Interesting Cruise Ship Facts

The average cruise ship, on average, costs around ½ a billion dollars to build. Royal Caribbean has a ship on order, due to be finished in fall 2009, capable of carrying 5400 passengers, at a cost of 1.25 billion dollars.

It takes between two to four years to build a ship.

A modern cruise ship goes through somewhere between 100 and 200 gallons of fuel for every nautical mile when moving. This does not include fuel that is used while in port, to keep the generators that are responsible for all the electrical on board.

On any given sailing, there will be 1 crew member on board a cruise ship for every 2 to 3 passengers (depends on ship size and cruise line), with many of the crew doing work behind the scenes that keep everything running smoothly.

Modern cruise ships in U.S. waters are required to carry survival craft (lifeboats, rafts) with seating capacity that exceeds the maximum capacity of the ship itself. A drill is required for all sailings to familiarize passengers with the locations and procedures shall the use be needed.