Cruise ship blues - Rose A Klein

Cruising is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Attracting over 12 million passengers a year, cruise ship companies are merging to become behemoths. And cruise ships themselves have swollen dramatically in size, now sometimes carrying over 5000 people on board. Not surprisingly, this growth is causing huge problems -- problems that the industry would rather not acknowledge, and the potential cruiser would have a hard time discovering. This book reveals the dark under side of this industry. Author Ross Klein first examines the contrast between passenger expectations of luxury and romance fostered by rosy advertising, and the seedier reality of meals, accommodations and facilities on board. He then: explodes the myth of the cruise as an all-inclusive vacation, demonstrating that the industry's expectation is to generate an additional 0+ per day per person; examines cruise ship safety, ringing the alarm about accidents at sea, passenger security (including the incidence of sexual assault), on-board illnesses, and medical services; juxtaposes the industry's environmentally friendly image against its actual behaviour and the difficulties of effective regulation; exposes the workers' experience in these 'sweatshops at sea'; and finally contrasts the industry's consumer-friendly faade with its attitude that 'everything would run smoothly if it were not for the passengers'.