Cruise Ship Research Articles

Machine learning based method for analyzing vibration and noise in large cruise ships.

Cruise ships are distinguished as special passenger ships, transporting passengers to various ports and giving importance to comfort. High comfort can attract lots of passengers and generate substantial profits. Vibration and noise are the most important indicators for assessing the comfort of cruise ships. Existing methods for analyzing vibration and noise data have shown limitations in uncovering essential information and discerning critical disparities in vibration and noise levels across different ship districts. Conversely, the rapid development in machine learning present an opportunity to leverage sophisticated algorithms for a more insightful examination of vibration and noise aboard cruise ships. This study designed a machine learning-driven approach to analyze the vibration and noise data. Drawing data from China's first large-scale cruise ship, encompassing 127 noise samples, this study sets up a classification task, where decks were assigned as labels and frequencies served as features. Essential information was extracted by investigating this problem. Several machine learning algorithms, including feature ranking, selection, and classification algorithms, were adopted in this method. One or two essential noise frequencies related to each of the decks, except the 10th deck, were obtained, which were partly validated by the traditional statistical methods. Such findings were helpful in reducing and controlling the vibration and noise in cruise ships. Furthermore, the study develops a classifier to distinguish noise samples, which utilizes random forest as the classification algorithm with eight optimal frequency features identified by LightGBM. This classifier yielded a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.3415. This study gives a new direction for investigating vibration and noise in ships.

Skill formation and income: Insights from the Indonesian migrant workers

Indonesia is among the top five countries with the highest number of seafarers globally and this seafaring expertise extends to Indonesian migrant workers on cruise ships. The enhancement of workers' skills on cruise ships is vital as it can bolster their work proficiency, paving the way for future career advancement and increased earnings. This study aimed to examine the relationship between training and the income increase of Indonesian migrant workers on cruise ships. Using a quantitative approach, the analysis involved 320 Indonesian migrant workers. The dependent and independent variables were income increase and training, respectively, with control variables including education, age, and the length of work for Indonesian migrant workers on cruise ships. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between the binary response variables. The results showed that there was a positive relationship between on-the-job training and the income increase of Indonesian migrant workers. Statistically, Indonesian migrant workers who engaged in on-the-job training had a 1.9 times higher income increase compared to those with off-the-job training. Conversely, the length of work showed a negative relationship with income increase. The analysis indicated that as the tenure of Indonesian migrant workers on cruise ships extended, the likelihood of income decreased by .8 times. The significance of on-the-job training for Indonesian migrant workers lies in its role in enhancing skills, competitiveness, and total performance, ultimately resulting in higher income.

Cruise Control: Steering Through the Waves of Customer Satisfaction Across Cruise Market Segments

This study investigates the intricate relationships between overall cruise rating and various experience attributes by leveraging a comprehensive dataset of consumer reviews from two major online platforms. The analysis revealed that the core elements of hospitality, particularly dining and service, are critical for overall cruise satisfaction, perceived value, and ship quality perceptions. A major finding of this study is the critical role of perceived value for money in shaping the satisfaction narratives expressed by cruise patrons in online reviews in all market segments. The originality of this study lies in its examination of various market segments and review samples, which illuminate the complex and multidimensional aspects of customer satisfaction. The results indicate that hospitality strategies should vary significantly across segments, further emphasising the need for a nuanced approach because of the varied expectations across these markets. Furthermore, the study reveals a pattern suggesting that cost-cutting efforts, when involving food costs, result in lower satisfaction levels in dining and multiple categories, ultimately opposing potential savings. This insight emphasises the need for cruise lines to balance cost-cutting measures carefully while maintaining high-quality dining experiences to enhance overall customer satisfaction. These findings underscore the importance of utilising diverse review metrics to develop a multidimensional framework for customer-centric performance management across all hospitality sectors.

Research on the Soundscape Experience Design of Cruise Ship Spaces

Research on the Soundscape Experience Design of Cruise Ship Spaces

A Study on Improving the Efficiency of Cruise Ship Cabin Space Layout Based on Multivariate Statistical Analysis

A Study on Improving the Efficiency of Cruise Ship Cabin Space Layout Based on Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Western North American Cruise Shipping Network: Space Structure and System

Regionalization is the basic feature of cruise shipping network organization. We insist that the cruise networks of Alaska, Hawaii, etc., have developed into a whole with the scaling up of cruise tourism. To prove it, we used complex network analysis methods to explore the port connections and the spatial structure of the cruise shipping network in these regions. We found that Alaska, Hawaii, and the west coast of Mexico all belong to seasonal cruise market areas. Cruise itineraries in these areas are categorized into one‐way and round‐trip itineraries, and more than 70% of the itineraries are short duration and medium duration. These areas build cruise shipping networks used in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Anchorage, San Francisco, Honolulu, and other cruise ports, which can be subdivided into nine single‐core cruise shipping network systems and two dual‐core cruise shipping network systems. The interconnection of different systems forms a T‐shaped cruise shipping network in geographical space.

Study on cruise speed optimization and refueling strategy considering emission control areas

In order to alleviate the cost pressure caused by navigation restrictions and rising fuel prices faced by cruise companies, on the basis of considering the constraints of emission control areas and the arrival time constraints of each port, according to the relationship between the speed and fuel consumption of ships during navigation, a mixed integer nonlinear programming model with the minimum sum of the sum of ship fuel replenishment cost, arrival delay penalty cost and carbon tax cost is established to optimize the speed and refueling strategy of cruise ships. The results show that with the change of fuel price and time constraints, the fuel replenishment strategy will also change.

Digital Technologies for Sustainable Waste Management On-Board Ships: An Analysis of Best Practices From the Cruise Industry

This article aims to investigate the role of digital technologies for sustainable waste management in the cruise industry to meet the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda. These issues are analyzed through the sustainability disclosure of the major cruise corporations. Under the lens of the corporate social responsibility framework and legitimacy theory, this study construed sustainability reports of four major cruise corporations published from 2015 to 2019 and their website pages by using the Leximancer text-mining software to map the underlying main research topics with the visual concepts range and manual content analysis. The results highlight the increasing commitment of cruise corporations to reduce the environmental impact by meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs) included in the UN 2030 Agenda by investing in digital technologies on-board ships. Using a double level of sustainability reporting analysis, this study, compared to previous studies, seeks to determine best practices on operational processes on-board ships regarding waste issues, including the digital technologies as an enabler to sustainability, especially SDGs. This study opens the way to scholars about waste processes and financial investment in technology issues, as well as the role played by the regulatory framework. In addition, this study highlights the insufficiency of the theory of legitimacy alone to identify best practices related to broader waste issues. Likewise, the practitioners find in this study a key roadmap about the need to involve crew and cruisers in the waste digital process thanks sharing of programs to define the waste practices. Practitioners also find the address to the factors that will make them aware of the current weakness of nonfinancial disclosure in sustainability reporting. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first time an empirical analysis conducted through sustainability reporting and other non-financial documents allows to identify “best practices” adopted on-board cruise ships to meet sustainability goals in digital waste management. Moreover, the use of two levels of analysis, by Leximancer and manual content analysis about the text documents companies make available to stakeholders, allows for identifying the high-level concepts and key ideas without bias, well as being able to define the perimeter of good practices linked to the orientation of cruise corporations toward new technologies.

MmCTD: Concealed Threat Detection for Cruise Ships Via Mmwave Radar

mmCTD: Concealed Threat Detection for Cruise Ships Via Mmwave Radar

Economic and environmental comparison between diesel-electric and mechanical propulsion plants for a small cruise ship

The paper reports an economic and environmental comparison between diesel-electric and mechanical propulsion plants, employed as an alternative to the other one, to the propulsion of a small cruise ship, also described in a previously authors article. The plants prime mover are two versions of the Rolls-Royce Bergen marine diesel engines, employed one as an alternative to the other in all the considered propulsion plants. The engines are characterized by similar rated power but with different power lint curves and specific fuel contours trend in the operating diagram. The diesel-electric propulsion plants are simulated considering the diesel generators working in both constant and variable speed. The economic and environmental (by EEDI and CII index) comparison results, between the considered ship propulsion plants, are presented in tabular and graphical form and commented.

Cruise Port Market Positioning: Making the Case for Including Societal and Environmental Risk Mitigation Strategies

Port Authorities (PAs) are now paying growing attention to the social and environmental risks stemming from their cruise activities. Several of these ports are engaged in a structured and for some already long-standing, approach to reducing the negative externalities of cruise ship calls. However, the content analysis of 36 Port Authorities’ websites showed that very few of them report on such action plans. Based on the review of the literature dealing with PAs’ market positioning approaches, the purpose of this paper is to promote the opportunity and feasibility for PAs to disseminate information about their past, ongoing, and/or future actions supporting sustainable cruise tourism.

Numerical study of slamming and whipping loads in moderate and large regular waves for different forward speeds

This paper describes the development of a time-domain hydroelastic numerical model for investigating the slamming and whipping loads imposed on a ship traveling at different forward speeds. The numerical model integrates a beam model, the 3-D Rankine panel model, and the 2-D modified Logvinovich model. The tilt angle of the 2-D profile in the slamming model is determined by the direction of relative velocity, which takes the forward sailing speed into account. The computational results are validated against a segmented model test of a large cruise ship. The convergence of the model with different numbers of elastic modes and slamming profiles is studied to ensure that the numerical results are stable. The main contributor to the whipping response is found to be the vibration of the first-order elastic mode. The slamming force is sensitive to the longitudinal interval of the slamming profiles, especially in the stern. The characteristics of the slamming pressure under bow flare and the whipping response at midship are also investigated. The numerical and experimental whipping responses are found to be in good agreement, and the local slamming pressure based on the slamming profile is more accurate when considering the effect of the ship's forward speed.

The Role of Zone Models in the Numerical Prediction of Fire Scenario Outcomes Onboard Passenger Ships

Fire models are categorised as zone models and field models. Field models excel in accuracy, whereas zone models outperform field models in terms of computational time and cost efficiency. Through comparison between Consolidated Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST), representing zone models, and Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a benchmark field model, the research discussed in this paper investigates the feasibility of employing zone models to predict the consequences of a potential fire scenario on an accommodation deck of a reference small passenger ship. Such a comparison is the first attempt to study the differences between the two modelling techniques for cruise ships. The findings of this research indicate that CFAST predictions align well with FDS results in the room of fire origin, the cabin. However, the agreement between CFAST and FDS results gradually weakens when continuous spaces are modelled as contiguous compartments like in connected corridors. This study suggests that zone models can serve as a tool for conducting fast conservative comparisons between established rule-based designs and potential alternative designs, particularly concerning the life safety of crew and passengers of small passenger ships. Such simplified models adapt well to their possible future application to extensive safety risk analyses for passenger ships.

Comprehensive Assessment of Hull Geometry Influence of a Modernized Ship on Maneuvering Performance and Propulsion System Parameters

The necessity to preserve economic efficiency of cruise ships operation stipulates fleet modernization in order to avoid expenses on ordering and construction of new ships. In this paper an approach based on hull length increase in the process of ship modernization is discussed. The method of evaluation of changes in maneuvering characteristics of ship after modernization is developed taking into account the operational parameters of propulsive electric power plants. The calculations are based on the analysis of transient modes of propulsive power plants operation during the corresponding maneuvers. The parameters influencing the characteristics of ship motion during turning circle are revealed; their significance is estimated, comparative analysis of the effect of ship hull length on maneuvering parameters before and after modernization is carried out. It was shown that in some cases the characteristics of the ship’s controllability and operating parameters of the ship power plant after modernization remain within the permissible limits. The comparative results show that the increase in hull length leads to insignificant deterioration of the main maneuverability characteristics while the electric power plant indicators practically do not deteriorate, which confirms the expediency of such modernization.

Innovative Optimal Control Path Planning for PMCU in Cruise Ship Construction: A Kinematic and Obstacle Avoidance Model

In cruise ship manufacturing, it is common practice for prefabricated modular cabin units (PMCU) to be assembled in the workshop and transported to a designated installation location on board the ship. This paper proposed a Radau pseudospectral method based on a probabilistic roadmap (PRM) for PMCU path planning in complex deck environments. Firstly, a kinematic model is constructed, and the continuous-time optimal control path planning problem is established. Among them, an area-based obstacle avoidance constraint is applied to the approach. Then, the continuous-time optimal control problem is discretized into a nonlinear programming (NLP) problem using the orthogonal collocation method. For the initial value-sensitive NLP problem solving, a strategy using PRM combined with a heuristic rule is used to obtain a high-quality initial guess. Finally, experiments under two operating scenarios of PMCU pushing demonstrate that the method is capable of generating a better path while ensuring that the whole process is collision-free. The results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper can effectively solve the PMCU pushing path planning problem in the complex deck environment, and the path considering kinematic characteristics can be used for cabin installation, which has strong operability and applicability.

Voyage of Learning: Cruise Ships Weather Routing and Maritime Education

The cruise ship companies place the highest emphasis on the safe operations of the vessels and safety of both crew and passengers. The ship’s captains are subsequently encouraged to use weather routing services for optimum route throughout the intended voyages. By providing guidance on the safest and most efficient routes, these systems help prevent accidents caused by unpredictable weather conditions. In this regard, the implementation of weather routing systems in maritime education and training has become crucial in ensuring the safety of cruise ships and their passengers. Moreover, weather routing systems have helped improve fuel efficiency, which is essential in the current environmental climate. Maritime education and training programs have adapted to include courses on these systems, ensuring that future captains have the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate through the ocean safely and efficiently.

The value of universal screening for COVID-19 cases on cruise ships during outbreaks.

To describe the impact of universal screening for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on passengers on cruise ships docking in Sydney, Australia, during 2022 that experienced a significant outbreak of COVID-19. Type of program or service: Cruise ship disease surveillance Methods: Case series, based on analysis of cruise ship voyages where universal screening of passengers was requested by a NSW health authority and undertaken by the cruise ship. Of 111 voyages in 2022, three fit the definition for this study. Universal screening during these voyages resulted in the detection of up to 1.8 times the number of existing COVID-19 cases, increasing attack rates of the three voyages from 14% to 24%; 13% to 28%; and 3% to 8% respectively. Case demographics showed an even gender distribution, with a majority 70 years or older. Asymptomatic case percentage ranged from 2% to 54%, with age and gender not associated with symptomatic status. Almost all cases were reported as being fully vaccinated. Genomic testing of cases showed multiple lineages of COVID-19 circulating in all three voyages. Public health authorities, the cruise industry and passengers should be aware that a large number of unidentified cases of COVID-19 may disembark from a cruise ship that has experienced a large outbreak of the virus. These cases can seed the infection into vulnerable communities. Universal screening as part of the response to a significant outbreak will help identify cases and limit the spread of COVID-19.

Vulnerability analysis of cruise shipping in ASEAN countries facing COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the cruise shipping industry, disrupting ports and shipping. However, current research predominantly focuses on the impact on individual ports or vessels, leaving a gap in understanding how these disruptions propagate across cruise shipping networks. To address this gap, a novel vulnerability assessment methodology that offers a comprehensive perspective on the broader impact of COVID-19 on cruise shipping networks is developed. It first uses a new weight social network analysis approach to quantify the vulnerability of each cruise port in a shipping network and then combines the curie port local pandemic risk to generate a new index to reveal the COVID-19 impact on the whole cruise shipping network systematically. The new methodology is applied to analyse the ASEAN cruise shipping network. This real-world COVID-19 pandemic case study yields valuable insights that bridge theoretical and practical domains. Integrating local port-level vulnerabilities with shipping network-level vulnerabilities creates a unique index. This index quantifies the individual and collective influence of COVID-19 risks at different cruise ports on the entire regional cruise shipping network. The results directly impact cruise lines seeking to enhance their operations' resilience in the face of COVID-19 challenges. The vulnerability index explains how risk exposure at various ports shapes the network's dynamics. This insight empowers cruise lines to optimise ship deployment schedules, lowering the network's overall COVID-19 pandemic risk. The research method and outcomes offer a pioneering perspective on the vulnerability of cruise shipping networks to COVID-19 disruptions, and other possible disruptions (e.g., climate change) in a broad sense. By elucidating interconnected vulnerabilities, cruise lines are equipped with actionable insights to navigate the complexities of global challenges.

Evaluation of the Effect of Using Viral Marketing Techniques on Cruise Shipping Companies from The Customers' Point of View

Evaluation of the Effect of Using Viral Marketing Techniques on Cruise Shipping Companies from The Customers' Point of View

The Epidemiology of Maritime Patients Requiring Medical Evacuation: A Literature Review.

This literature review aims to provide an analysis of the current trends in at-sea medical evacuations (medevacs), with the objective of providing insights to decision-makers to improve patient outcomes. Sixteen sources spanning diverse research methodologies were employed for data collection. The findings point to medical disease processes outweighing trauma and psychiatric conditions as the primary justifications for medical evacuations in the international maritime community. In particular, suspected cardiovascular pathologies emerge as the most prevalent grounds for recommended evacuations, underscoring the impact of their diagnosis and treatment in maritime healthcare scenarios. Enhancing the capabilities of on-site maritime healthcare providers to obtain cardiovascular diagnostic data to facilitate shoreside interpretation is proposed to mitigate the speculations inherent to long-distance medevac decisions. Furthermore, existing research indicates that sustaining a proactive approach focusing on pre-voyage health screenings for seafarers and passenger vessel patrons holds promise in minimizing the risk of emergency evacuations resulting from the exacerbation of chronic medical conditions. This review reveals that while a limited portion of the cruise ship industry possesses established tactical medevac data on crucial aspects of patient care (such as transportation delay, pre- and mid-transport level of care, and ultimate patient outcomes), there exists a dearth of equivalent informatio-n for comparable maritime communities. This knowledge gap necessitates further exploration and research to understand and address diverse seafaring populations' unique challenges. In conclusion, this literature review holistically examines the landscape of at-sea medical evacuation statistics. By assimilating the collective knowledge gleaned from internationally sourced data, this study underscores the urgent need for continued research, comprehensive data collection, and strategic interventions to optimize patient care, enhance tactical decision-making, and ultimately shape a more resilient and responsive healthcare network for maritime communities worldwide.