This was all sparked by a swimming pool on
Virgin Voyages Scarlett Lady. Just after I boarded, I was looking at the pool wondering
why on earth it was so small for a 2,770 passenger ship. What were the ship architects and the
line doing? And why on earth had they done it? It got me thinking about other things I have
seen on cruise ships that seem a bit off, or odd, so I went on a mission to find out
why. I’m GARY BEMBRIDGE and I’m going to tell
you what I found out about why things that don't seem to make sense on a ship do, when
you know why. So, why are cruise ship pools, like the one
on Scarlett Lady, so small? On every cruise ship I have been on, the pools
are pretty small, especially in relation to the number of people on board. When I stay
in a Las Vegas resort, the hotels with 5,000 guests have vast pools, but not so on a ship
of similar passenger numbers. At best they will be around 20‘ x 40‘
x 5‘ deep. I found there are three reasons for that.
First, water is extremely heavy, and the water in that modest sized pool weighs around 250,000
pounds. This risks making the ship top heavy and challenging to sail and keep stable. So, size needs to be limited and then the
pools have to be in the middle of the ship and dead centre of the deck to help with balance.
The ones at the rear will be much smaller. That is also why you always see hot tubs mirroring
each other, with one on both sides of the ship in the exactly the same position to balance
out the weight. Second, the more weight at the top of the
ship, the more counterbalancing weight has to be added to the base of the ship to keep
it stable, which wastes more space lower down. To get around this problem, the old cruise
liners from the 40s, 50s and 60s, like Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2, used to have the pool inside
and at the very bottom of the ship. In QE2’s case it was actually around the water line. Nowadays, passengers expect pools to be out
in the sunlight and so they have to be at the top of ship. This magnifies the risk of
throwing the ship off balance in rougher weather when the water starts moving around. That is also why they are often drained and
emptied when seas are rough. And thirdly, real estate and space is at a
premium on a ship, and lots of deck space is needed for guests like me to lie out in
the sun, and keeping the pool small means more space for that. One way cruise lines disguise the small size
of pools is by having that areas around pool that has just a few inches of water. It creates
the effect of having bigger pools, and also practically more passengers can cool off. The next oddity is that any premium cabins
or suites I have stayed in are actually located in some of the worst parts of a ship. The
worst for movement and risk of getting seasick. I once had dinner with a ship architect at
a Silversea shipyard event, and he told me that there are two problems he faces with
adding suites to cruise ships. First, he is required by the lines to put
suites high up and also in the front (forward) and rear (aft) of the ship as that's is where
the views are best, and what premium passengers expect. He said the best place for premium cabins,
which would have the least movement, and the smoothest sailing even in rougher weather
would be low down, ideally deck 6 or 7, and in the middle of the ship. I remember seeing that in action when in rough
seas on Queen Victoria sailing between Hawaii and New Zealand. Our cabin was midships and
we had not really felt it much, but we were invited to a cocktail party in the best cabin
(a Q1) at the rear of the ship and higher up and we struggled to stand as the ship moved
up and down in the waves. The second issue he faced, was that suites
tend to have marble bathrooms and lavish features, all of which are heavy and add more weight
(as we saw with swimming pools) to the top of the ship that need to be counterbalanced
to stop the ship being top heavy and less stable. One cruise ship addition that seemed like
an unnecessary gimmick to me at first, is the so-called "Magic Carpet" that first appeared
on the side of Celebrity Cruise's Edge class of ships . Much was made of its dining and bar features
and that it can move up and down the side the ship to create different dining experiences.
But it did seem a rather unnecessary and costly add on, all while making the ship unsymmetrical
design wise as it is only on one side of the ship. However, I discovered it is really there to
solve a major problem and bottleneck when cruising, and that is getting passengers on
and off the ship when they have to tender. Tendering is when ships cannot dock in a port,
and the ship has to ferry guests to and from land to go on tours and explore. It’s a
time-consuming and frustrating experience both for the crew and passengers. The real role of the "Magic Carpet" is to
solve that problem, not provide new dining and bar options. That is a bonus. It is lowered
to sea level when moored and provides a huge platform to process guests on and off the
tenders at greater numbers, and means the ship now carries larger tender boats to carry
many more guests per trip. As ships get bigger and bigger, and ports
busier, they often have to tender guests and this improves and speeds all that up. Another odd aspect about cruising and cruise
ships is how gratuities, or tips if your prefer to call them, have changed over the last 15
years since I started cruising, from a discretionary reward I gave to selected crew members for
great service, into a compulsory charge. I no longer am left to decide how much, and
which crew members I give tips to. The lines have turned them into part of the cruise fare
effectively, with a fixed rate charge per person per day, and I have to either pre-pay
them before boarding, or my on-board account is charged each day. It is not linked to service
I get, and I cannot say who gets them. This is not how it works on land. I don't
hand over a tip before I get service at say a land-based restaurant, only afterwards. So why have lines done this? Gratuities have traditionally been a key part
of crew earnings. They earn a base salary, but tips increase what they take home significantly. The lines argue they moved from the totally
discretionary approach which meant some passengers would not pay any tips to this system to assist
crew by ensuring all guests were contributing into a tips fund, and also to ensure a wider
pool of crew benefited. However, it means lines have taken control
of gratuity money. They now have a sizeable pot of money to use and allocate as they want
to. Sceptics argue this means they can now keep crew base pay that they cover low and
minimise the cost for the line, as they now have these funds to top up wages. I'd like to think it is the first, but many
crew I talk to say they preferred the old approach. Gratuities have been turned in cruising from
a bonus I can give to selected crew members for good service to a thinly disguised base
salary top up that the cruise line now controls and manages. It may make sense for the liens,
but feels it has come at a cost to us passengers in both money and control. Another feature of cruise ships, even the
ultra-luxury ones, is as soon as I step on board the selling begins to get me to spend,
spend, spend. Tables with goods outside stores, constant
flyers in the cabin offering drinks of the day, jewellery, watches, spa treatments and
it just goes on and on, and everywhere you turn someone is trying to sell you something.
Why do they do this? This is, as I found, because of the way the
cruise business model has evolved. A key chunk of cruise line profits now come from what
people spend on board, not the fare itself. Industry reports say that people like me will
spend between 50% and 100% on top of what my fare is once I am on board. This includes
things like for drinks, Wi-Fi, excursions, spa treatments, shopping, bingo and so on.
These have high margins and is a key part of the cruise line's profits. Lines always try to sail full for that reason.
They will aim to fill every single cabin, even if they have to discount them, because
so much is made on board. You can see just how much they make from these
extras, by the increase in fares when Celebrity Cruises moved to be more all-inclusive and
Holland America brought in their "Have It All" fare, which includes an excursion, signature
drinks package, 1 speciality dining and Wi-Fi, I saw fares increase by up to $350 per person
for a 7-night long cruise in those lines. If you want to find out about other unusual
and little discussed aspects of cruising, I have 2 other videos you can watch right
now in this playlist here. Enjoy.
