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I give the answers to 8 of the more offbeat, unconventional and unusual questions that many passengers, including me at one time, were afraid or embarrassed to ask. I explore everything from what water is in the toilets to how many people die on a cruise and what happens to the body and what waste is (and is not) out into the ocean. Find out the answers to some of the more offbeat questions many cruise passengers have about cruise ships and cruising.
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 74 cruises at time of making this video.
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0:00
you're about to discover the answers to
0:02
eight of the most unusual curious and
0:04
inquisitive questions about cruising I'm
0:08
Gary Bembridge this is another my tips
0:09
for travelers there are eight questions
0:11
I hear people often ask on a cruise ship
0:14
or asking about cruising they really are
0:16
slightly unusual and a little bit on the
0:19
quirky side so I thought I would
0:20
actually answer them right here right
0:22
now starting with this one
0:25
is there a jail on board a cruise ship
0:27
well actually there is there's what's
0:29
known as a brig now if this some issue
0:31
normally passengers will be restricted
0:34
to their cabin but there is on most
0:37
cruise ships a brig this is normally a
0:39
pretty secure room normally near
0:41
security where they can hold up rowdy
0:44
passengers or in fact I guess crew until
0:47
they get to the next port and can hand
0:49
them over to authorities if something
0:50
serious has happened now in reality one
0:54
of the big challenges on board cruise
0:55
ships is crime and how much crime exists
0:58
on board a cruise the statistics would
1:01
suggest crime rates are not particularly
1:03
high however it's quite difficult to
1:05
understand because there's no
1:07
requirement and no sort of central
1:09
registry because of the way that cruises
1:11
are run and where they're registered
1:12
however one of the ways of looking at
1:14
crime is there are eight serious crimes
1:17
which cruise companies have to report if
1:19
they're either embarking or disembarking
1:21
in the United States of those eight
1:24
serious crimes three of them are the
1:26
most reported that's assaults sexual
1:28
assaults and thefts of large amounts of
1:31
property ie high-value property however
1:35
it's not really known how much kind of
1:37
petty crime exists on board a cruise
1:39
ship there are no police on board and
1:41
security will deal with most issues so
1:43
the things you tend to hear about are
1:45
the more serious things saying that in
1:48
terms of the amount of crime per
1:50
thousand or hundreds of thousands of
1:52
passengers it's really low on a cruise
1:55
so when a crime does happen on a cruise
1:57
ship it hits get a lot of publicity but
2:00
it is kind of hard to get the stats but
2:01
if you do fall foul and you do commit a
2:04
crime or caused a disturbance there is a
2:07
brig on board which you will be thrown
2:09
into the second
2:11
question that I get asked a lot and here
2:14
are so loud is how many people die on a
2:17
cruise every year
2:19
well actually the number surprisingly
2:20
small around about 200 deaths are
2:23
recorded on cruise ships now bear in
2:25
mind something like 21 22 million people
2:27
cruise on cruise ships every year it's a
2:29
pretty small number most of those deaths
2:31
are related to age so dying of old age
2:34
on board cruise things to look out for
2:37
on a cruise is if you hear over the
2:39
tannoy system of the loudspeakers
2:41
operation bright star that means there's
2:43
a medical issue on board some sort of
2:46
medical emergency on board and if you
2:47
actually hear operation rising star that
2:50
means there has been a death on board of
2:53
course the cruise line is not normally
2:54
likely going to publicize it if it
2:56
happens because this normally happens
2:57
kind of discretely in a cabin or
2:59
whatever so what do they do with the
3:02
bodies
3:02
well actually cruise ships do have a
3:04
morgue and have to carry body bags so
3:06
normally body we put in a body bag
3:08
it'll be stored in the morgue now what
3:11
happens to their body depends a little
3:12
bit on the port some ports will want the
3:14
body to be disembarked I guess sometimes
3:16
the family will want the body disembarks
3:18
in other cases the body will stay on
3:20
board until the ship gets back to report
3:23
it often started in because that just
3:24
makes it much easier for the cruise line
3:26
and often for the family to deal with
3:28
the third question is is it a ship or is
3:32
it a boat a lot of people on cruises go
3:34
crazy when people call a cruise ship a
3:37
cruise boat so what is the right
3:39
terminology well in the whole military
3:43
area and all the maritime worlds one of
3:45
the rules that people use is you can put
3:48
a boat on a ship with your competition
3:50
on a boat so if you look at cruise ships
3:52
they actually have boats on them they
3:54
have lifeboats on them so that does make
3:56
them a ship so it's kind of an informal
3:58
thing another point of view is anything
4:00
over 20 meters ie over 60 feet is
4:03
considered a ship so actually for
4:06
example in river cruising for a long
4:07
time they were called river boats
4:09
because they were shorter than 60 feet
4:12
long however the general view is that
4:15
anything over that size is a ship's own
4:17
in the military world anything over that
4:19
size it's likely to be called a ship in
4:21
practice there's no right or wrong
4:24
however
4:25
people who are into cruising will tend
4:28
to call it a ship and not a boat you'll
4:32
even find some cruise captains believe
4:35
so strongly in it so I have been on
4:36
cruises for example on celebrity cruises
4:38
where captain Kate is renowned for a
4:40
badge that she wears which says it's a
4:42
ship not a boat the next question I hear
4:47
a lot and it's actually one thing I
4:48
wondered about for a long time is why is
4:50
the safety drill called a muster drill
4:53
it's quite hard to find out the reason
4:56
for that but it seems to be it's always
4:57
being called that and it comes from the
4:59
word muster which means to gather and
5:02
it's just stuck it's become one of those
5:03
terms for the safety drill very
5:06
important of course the safety drill has
5:08
to be done within 24 hours of passengers
5:11
embarking since Costa Concordia that's
5:13
become even stricter and now cruise
5:15
lines do that before the ship actually
5:17
sets sail the fifth question is if
5:21
you've ever looked at a daily program
5:22
you'll see there's a couple of people
5:24
have lots of friends bill and Dorothy
5:26
for example have lots of friends so the
5:29
question you get asked is why on earth
5:31
do bill W Dorothy and Jimmy have so many
5:35
friends that they actually have a meet
5:38
up well friends of bill W was the one
5:41
that really kicked it all off and it's
5:43
because cruise lines originally didn't
5:45
want to say that they were hosting
5:46
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings bill W
5:49
refers to William or Bill W Wilson who
5:52
was one of the cofounders of the a a
5:55
Dorothy was the codename way back when
5:58
for the LGBT community you'll find
6:02
nowadays that very few cruise lines talk
6:04
about friends of Dorothy meetings and
6:06
they will just call them LGBT meetups
6:08
nowadays it's the dorothy slang word has
6:11
kind of disappeared in people to escort
6:13
LGBT the other one that you may see
6:15
although it's much less common is
6:17
Friends of Jimmy and Friends of Jimmy K
6:20
refers to the NA or Narcotics Anonymous
6:24
which was founded by James Kenan most
6:28
cruise lines though will tend to direct
6:30
people looking for an NA meeting or
6:32
Friends of Jimmy K to the Friends of
6:35
Bill W meeting so that's why bill Jimmy
6:38
and Dorothy
6:39
have so many friends and meetups on
6:41
board the ship another question that I
6:44
hear a lot is is it salt water in the
6:48
toilets of course no one's going to get
6:49
close enough to actually find out and
6:51
test for themselves
6:52
well actually originally it was salt
6:55
water in the toilets that's before
6:56
desalination plants became really really
6:58
expensive and we're just prohibitive so
7:00
salt water was actually used both in the
7:02
showers and also in the toilets that
7:05
created a lot of problems because it
7:07
caused rust and all sorts of problems
7:08
within the actual equipment but it was
7:10
originally salt water today it's not
7:13
salt water the next question is where
7:15
does all this clean pure non salted
7:18
water come from
7:19
there's actually three places that it
7:21
can come from on a cruise ship the first
7:23
and the most traditional of all is
7:24
what's known as bunkering bunkering is
7:27
the maritime term for loading water on
7:30
board a ship and of course if what is
7:33
bunkered on a cruise ship its tested on
7:35
board to make sure it's all safe to
7:37
drink however nowadays cruise ships will
7:40
tend to make their own water and two
7:42
ways of doing that the first of the
7:43
processes that cruise ships use
7:45
themselves onboard is known as steam
7:48
evaporation so this is where the cruise
7:49
ship uses the heat the huge amount of
7:52
heat that's generated by the engines
7:54
they take salt water they heat it up it
7:57
evaporates the water evaporates all the
7:59
salts and stuff is left behind they then
8:01
turn the steam back into water through
8:04
condensation and they have water that
8:06
they can then treat and make ready the
8:09
other process which is the most common
8:11
process is known as reverse osmosis so
8:13
what happens here is salt water is taken
8:15
on board and it's basically pushed
8:16
through basically a microscopic screen
8:19
which then keeps all the salts and the
8:22
stuff like that behind and only the
8:24
fresh clean water goes through of course
8:26
the water is then treated and made sure
8:28
that it's safe to drink and consume so
8:30
those are the three key ways that the
8:32
ship gets water that people can drink
8:34
and use on board so water is perfectly
8:36
safe to drink on board it's processed
8:38
and treated extremely thoroughly before
8:41
it's sent through the ship for
8:43
consumption and use the next question is
8:46
around waste now clearly on ships of
8:49
several thousand people an enormous
8:50
amount of waste is going to be generated
8:52
bus
8:53
human waste and rubbish waste so what
8:56
actually happens to all of that waste
8:57
let's talk first of all about sewage by
9:01
international law ocean-going vessels
9:03
are actually able to put sewage in the
9:06
sea once they're 12 miles out from land
9:10
and they're going to a certain speed
9:12
however cruise ships are however not
9:14
allowed to do it so old cruise lines
9:16
which are part of clear the cruise line
9:18
Association abide by a policy which says
9:21
that no untreated sewage will be put
9:23
into the sea anywhere in the world at
9:25
any time so what happens will it's
9:28
treated on board first of all they take
9:30
black water which is basically the human
9:32
waste and they take gray water so that's
9:34
water that's come out of things like the
9:36
kitchens or the basins or the showers
9:38
those two waters are combined and
9:41
certain ratios they're then treated by
9:45
normally sort of bacterial treatment
9:47
which purifies it it then goes through
9:50
another process and they use UV to
9:52
really treat the water rather than
9:54
chlorine or chemicals because ultimately
9:56
the water once it's treated and is back
9:59
to being completely safe and free of
10:01
impurities it is released
10:04
normally back into the ocean when it
10:06
comes to food waste all the food waste
10:07
is collected and it goes through these
10:09
grinders and turned basically into a
10:10
runny mixture which then is normally
10:13
also able to then be released into the
10:16
sea sometimes of course it is then
10:17
pumped in on land when it comes to other
10:19
waste there's also whole process what's
10:21
important to know is cruise ships have
10:23
an environmental office on board so it's
10:25
in charge of all of these various
10:26
operations so when it comes to waste
10:28
your cabin stood for example will sort
10:30
through all of your waste and sort it
10:32
into plastics into metals into paper all
10:36
of the glass is collected on board it's
10:37
sorted by color it's ground down and
10:40
then is disembarked because it's sold
10:43
off as waste that can be recycled on
10:46
land paper is sorted out it's all
10:47
bundled up and again that's handed over
10:49
and sold for recycling and the same it's
10:53
done separately for cardboard and of
10:55
course for things like metal cans which
10:57
are all crushed down so there's a huge
10:59
big operation one things I would
11:01
encourage you to do if you're ever on a
11:02
cruise ship that offers a full
11:03
behind-the-scene tour now you don't have
11:05
to pay for these
11:06
it will take you right and down as the
11:09
depth of the ship and you get to meet
11:10
the environmental officer and you get to
11:12
see the whole processing plant and it's
11:14
really really interesting to see how
11:16
they take the waste both human wastes
11:19
and the gray water and paper and glass
11:22
and cans and it's really good to see
11:25
firsthand how it's actually dealt with
11:27
so there's a whole big recycling
11:29
operation that takes place on board
11:31
cruise ships those are the answers to
11:33
eight of the most probing unusual and
11:35
slightly quirky questions that I hear
11:37
about cruising have you found that
11:38
helpful I love it if you work another
11:41
one of my many videos packed full of
11:44
cruising tips and advice right now
#Offbeat
#Cruises & Charters
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