Fascinated by Cruise Ships and Ocean Liners

Despite the fact that finals week is coming in two weeks, I decided not to do anything exhausting for Thanksgiving. I'm saving up for winter break trip. It would be highly impossible to do homework during the break while on vacation at the same time. So I decided to stay in LA and instead, welcome all my friends who will be coming to visit later.

Anyway, I might have something that I haven't shared to you readers. Don't worry, nothing bad. I've been into cruise ships and ocean liners these days. Yeah, that might sound a little strange for you. Obsessed on cruise ships? Who does that? I do.

I just love the fact that cruise ships and ocean liners are the biggest yet the mightiest and the most powerful vehicle ever roam in the sea. Well, oil tanker ships and aircraft carriers are too, but sorry to say, their structure doesn't impress me much. But cruise ships and ocean liners are definitely magnificent, and the fact that they were almost like a floating city in the middle of the ocean with their majestic, long bow, streamline figures just made them look super cool.

Ocean liners and cruise ships might look the same and they might also have the same features, but the functions are slightly different. According to fodors.com, ocean liners are designed to transport their passengers from point A to point B and often on a longer route that have to involve crossing the ocean, while "cruise ships are built for the purpose of taking passengers on a journey that begins and ends in the same port." Titanic and Queen Mary were ocean liners, while some ships that often end with "of the Seas" or starts with "Costa" are cruise ships.

Allure of the Seas, currently holding the title as the largest passenger or cruise ships
http://superliners.blogspot.com

Disney Dream, the largest ship owned by the Disney Cruise line, just something to prove how rich Disney company really is (in addition to the other Disney franchises and Disney parks). Look at that fancy bow!
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Norwegian Epic. Nice color do!
http://uglyships.files.wordpress.com

Costa Delisioza

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Cruise ships only sail in a much shorter route than cruise ships and they barely even cross the oceans. Judging from the functions, it's fair to say that ocean liners are stronger in structures and stability, because in crossing the oceans, they have to withstand the worst weathers and the roughest seas.

Ocean liners have taller, stronger bows, deeper hull, while cruise ships have shorter and wider bows. While cruise ships' structures - while still strong - aren't designed as strong as the ocean liners. Their structures then are more delicate. In addition to that, I also believe ocean liners have had a very important role in the early to mid 20th century when traveling abroad by plane wasn't so popular yet, and the fact that ocean liners have more historic value than cruise ships.

The currently operating Queen Mary 2
brooklyncruiseguide.com

The retired Queen Mary also by Cunard, the predecessor of Queen Mary 2, now docked at Long Beach
Elda and I were fortuunate to give her a visit
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Queen Elizabeth in 1967

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Too bad, Queen Mary 2 is the only operating transatlantic ocean liner and the largest one among all other cruise ships, unless the currently planned (or constructed?) Titanic II is launched in the late 2016. She's a strong ship, isn't she?

In terms of the colors, most - if not all - ocean liners are of black color in the lower part, and white color in the upper one, and the cruise ships are mostly of white color, though I've seen some blue cruise ships and in some instances, like Disney cruise line ships, they have similar color characteristics as ocean liners. They are rare though.

Below are top 10 largest cruise ships in the world that are currently in service, from Wikipedia:

1. Allure of the Seas (2010) by Royal Caribbean International 
2. Oasis of the Seas (2009) by Royal Caribbean International
   Allure is actually only 2 inches longer than Oasis
3. Norwegian Epic (2010) by Norwegian Cruise Line
4. Freedom of the Seas (2006) by Royal Caribbean International 
5. Liberty of the Seas (2007) by Royal Caribbean International 
6. Independence of the Seas (2008) by Royal Caribbean International 
7. Queen Mary 2 (2004) by Cunard
8. Norwegian Breakaway (2013) by Norwegian Cruise Line
9. Royal Princess (2013) by Princess Cruises
10. MSC Divina (2012)
    MSC Preziosa (2013) both by MSC Cruises

You can check this link for more largest cruise ships.

Royal Caribbean had five of their ships holding the title as the biggest cruise ships on the planet. The largest two they have, Allure and Oasis, have the most complete and extensive features cruise ships have ever had, and even some of those features are pretty record breaking, such as having a central park in the middle of the ship, an outdoor theatre, and a flying fox...all on a gigantic floating vehicle.

The outdoor theatre
cruisecritic.co.uk

The Central Park
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Yeah, pretty cool huh? My fascination towards cruise ships and ocean liners didn't stop right there. After seeing some videos of the ship tour, I decided I would want to have something physical of the ship, some sort of a merchandise or book with info about them. I decided to request two catalogs each from different cruise/ocean liner company: Royal Caribbean International and Cunard. Cunard has currently three operating passenger ships: RMS Queen Mary 2, MS Queen Victoria, and MS Queen Elizabeth, one of which (Queen Mary 2) is still a fully functioning transatlantic ocean liner while the other two are merely cruise ships. I fall in love with the strength that Queen Mary 2 had to possess to withstand the rough weathers in the middle of the Atlantic, as well as the magnificence of Allure of the Seas. Requesting the catalogs gave me more chance to explore in depth about the ship features, the voyage schedules, and destinations.

The ship directory

Royal Caribbean has many different ship classes: Oasis, Freedom, Voyager, Radiance, Vision, and the smallest Sovereign. Oasis-class ships only in the Bahamas and Caribbean while other ship classes like Vision-class ships sail in European region. The upcoming one, a Quantum-class ship - a new Royal Caribbean International ship class - aims to arrive in 2016, probably the same time as Titanic II's launching.

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In the mean time, you can also take a quick tour of Allure of the Seas. 

Yeah, the Oasis-class ships features. It's got everything in it. From clubs, casinos, jazz lounge, etc

Cunard Line, which has been the leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century, generously sent me 2 catalogs: one is a general catalog that sums up about voyages in a whole, and another one that focuses more on transatlantic voyages by Queen Mary 2. I'm just so fascinated with transatlantic voyages and I always feel ships that dare enough to enter the second largest body of water on the planet are so bad-ass. They had to withstand the weather, the waves, and the onboard staff had to regularly manage the food supplies for the passengers as the ocean liner sails 7 days non-stop at sea. Here's a good documentary that covers about Queen Mary 2 transatlantic voyage.

Love that art deco feeling to the book cover

Nice layout design, just saying (I know it's random. Oh graphic designer's problem)

I'm keeping these catalogs as a future reference if I am to go on one of the voyages from either one of Royal Caribbean International and Cunard. So far, Royal Caribbean International is a much easier access for me since they're based in Fort Lauderdale Florida. I really wanted to try getting to either Oasis or Allure. They all have similar features, regardless the slight length difference. My parents offered me a cruise ship voyage as my graduation gift, but that's still coming up in 2 years (2015, please come soon).

But anyway, I did get on a cruise ship before. It was back in Singapore, and the voyage - on a Superstar Virgo cruise by Star Cruises - went to either Phuket or Kuala Lumpur, I forgot. I didn't know anything about cruise ships back then, and the experience wasn't as memorable as it might be today for me, as a cruise ship fans.

Oh, and yeah, I did remember wetting the stateroom's bed. One of the most vivid memories yet the most embarrassing.

Superstar Virgo
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Hope I could grant my wish by getting onto one of these cool, massive floating vehicles!

I just realized I've been doing an extensive research on something that isn't for any homework, nor has anything to do with my major. Oh well...I've been having fun with it.