Cruise ships serve many purposes, but the two main aspects are transportation and leisure.

Leisure

• Modern cruise ships now offer many amenities that cater to tourists so that they enjoy their experience. Ships are now used for leisure activities more than ever before.
• Cruising for leisure has become one of the major aspects of the tourism industry. In 2011, cruising accounted for nearly $30 billion from a total of 19 million passengers.
• The food and beverages quantities that are consumed on cruise ships are extremely large. On average, in a single week, passengers on one cruise ship consume 28,000 eggs, 20,000 pounds of beef, 18,000 slices of pizza, and 8,000 gallons of ice cream.
• A cruise ships’ restaurant, typically, schedules two dinner services and then determines which passengers go to which dinners: the early dinner or the late dinner. More recently, however, passengers are being allowed to dine whenever they want.
• Many cruise ships offer buffet-style dinners that are open 24 hours a day that switch meals throughout the day as well, ranging from breakfast to late-night munches.
• Every year since 2001, the cruise ship industry has seen nine or more ships added to their clientele.

Transportation

• Cruise ships mainly voyage on routes that return passengers to their original port. Usually, the ports of call are all in a specific region of a continent for drop off.
• Spare part supply transportation is a very important aspect of a ships’ cargo. Not having enough of a spare part supply can be detrimental to the entire ship if something were to go wrong with the cargo vessel parts and equipment.
• Ocean liners typically have much larger areas for victuals, fuel, and other cruise vessel parts and equipment needed for long voyages.
• Cruise ships usually stock up when it’s at its home port. Designated suppliers have arrangements in advance at various other ports if anything were to go wrong at the home port and the ship needed marine services or extra equipment.
• Although many ships are designed for accommodating the needs of passengers, many large vessels are designed for maximum storage and transportation, placing less importance on comfort and convenience.

Whether a large ocean cruise liner is pulling into port for spare part supply, or a disco night is being held on a leisure cruise, these ships are specifically designed to get either person A or item A to point B, and sometimes there is a little fun involved.