CRUISING: DESTINATION NOWHERE - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 93

The Last Night; we could choose from the Final Jackpot Royal Bingo, the Farewell
Variety Showtime, the Farewell Dance Party, the Farewell Pajama Party, the Finish That
Lyric Game Show, or the final Holiday Street Parade. It was fun, but was this foreign
travel?
Just before dozing off that night we got news of a snowstorm moving up the east coast,
threatening Washington, D.C. By the time we got home, the Christmas blizzard had
dropped more than 16 inches of snow. Once home, I realized the one thing I missed on
our cruise was the touch of the ocean: perched so high above the water, you never felt the
spray of a wave, could never jump into the water for a swim.
Now I had a sense of the appeal of cruises. It is effortless travel aboard these ships, tak-
ing all of the risk out of foreign travel. Once you buy that single ticket, you don't have
to lift a finger again. No planning, no moving from one hotel to another, no navigating
buses or taxis to find a café that proves to be a disappointment. The excursions on land
are tightly programmed, requiring no understanding of foreign languages or cultures. You
unpack your suitcase once, sleep in the same bed, and read an activities bulletin each
morning to decide whether you want to enter the “Men's Sexy Legs Competition,” attend
a complimentary slot machine lesson or take a merengue dance lesson for “fun fitness,”
which were all offerings on our second day at sea. It is the ultimate package tour.
How the cruises made their profit was less obvious: onboard sales of everything from
photographs to Internet service to yoga classes was the cash cow. But a lot didn't add up:
these are American cruise line companies, but we didn't meet any American employees.
And the wages paid were definitely below the American minimum.
• • •
Behind the carefree holiday of a cruise—the dancing waiters, the constant shows and
events, the spreads of great food and the escape from daily drudgery—is a serious industry
that has changed what people expect out of a vacation. It was built by several entrepren-
eurs who took advantage of changes in American lifestyles, married the design of a resort
with the rhythm of a theme park, put it on a boat and won sweet deals through giant loop-
holes in American laws.
Understanding how these businessmen cobbled together the new industry—where they
bent the rules, how they designed a ship to match social behavior—goes a long way toward
explaining why the cruise industry is both admired and reviled today and why it is con-
sidered a harbinger of where mass tourism is headed.
The 2012 disaster of the Costa Concordia , an Italian cruise ship, brought some of these
issues to light. The pilot ran the ship aground off Italy's coast, capsizing it, killing 32
people and destroying the 54,000-ton vessel. The Italian line Costa Cruises is owned by
the Carnival Corporation, headquartered in Miami, where multimillion-dollar lawsuits