24 Unexpected Things Aboard Cruise Ships - mental_floss on YouTube - List Show (316)

Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube. And did you know

that every cruise ship contains a morgue? Every year about 200 people die on cruise ships

so the ships need a place to store the bodies. There are typically some body bags and a room

with six to ten refrigerated storage units. Because, you know, if you die, just to be

clear, the cruise is not turning around. You might be dead, but Grandma's still going

to Venice. Anyway, that's the first of many weird things aboard cruise ships that I'm

I'm going to share with you in this video today

Many cruises have a brig or jail cell, although it's really just a small room and you have

to do something very bad to get locked up in there. Depending on what the offender did, they may be arrested at the next port of call or just

returned to their cabin and put on home arrest. The MSC Davina cruise offers aquacycling lessons, so there are pools that contain actual under

water bikes for exercise. I don't want to generalize, but those pools also probably contain norovirus

Anyway, any ship that has over 50 passengers is required by law to contain a hospital and at least one doctor

This is primarily for minor issues, though, like, you know, norovirus. If there's a serious medical emergency, helicopters can be sent to airlift passengers to a hospital

Many cruises including Royal Caribbean and Carnival sell really expensive pieces of art on board In fact paintings and prints by artists like Picasso Rembrandt and Dali have been sold on cruise ships In addition to like the rock climbing and swimming most cruise ships also have really quiet spaces like libraries

In fact, a few ships employ full-time librarians to manage their library rooms

On a few cruises from the Norwegian Cruise Line, there are ice bars. The bars provide coats and gloves for the 25 guests that are allowed in at one time

The room is rarely warmer than 17 degrees Fahrenheit. And boy is all that ice and coolant a good use of our world's resources

A few Royal Caribbean ships contain a 23-foot tall glass chamber which you can enter to feel like you're skydiving

In the chamber there's an upward flowing wind of over 100 miles per hour, so you get lifted off the ground

I guess Royal Caribbean is really the brand for daredevils because they also have zip lines on their ships, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas

They're 82 feet long and 9 decks tall. Those two ships, along with a few others, also have surf simulators so people can learn how to surf while 34,000 gallons of water pump through the machine per minute

There's also a hand-carved carousel on the allure of the seas. Basically, you're not gonna get bored there

You might get norovirus, but you won't get bored. Many cruise ships host regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for passengers

You might not realize it because they're often announced as a Friends of Bill W meeting. He was the co-founder of AA

And because people can spend a seven day cruise without a desperate need to go ice skating some modern cruises are equipped with ice rinks Some even feature ice shows There are sometimes dogs aboard cruise ships Service dogs have been allowed for years but as of 2013 some cruises have added kennels

for pets. You can't bring your pet into your cabin, but you are allowed to go play with it in

the kennel. Norwegian Cruise Lines makes it a point to celebrate many holidays, including Festivus

from Seinfeld. According to their website, we can't promise a Festivus poll, but we will have gingerbread

making contests and special menu items. On the MSC Divina there's a Formula 1 race car simulator

It's a single seat car with video screens all around so the guest can get the full race

car experience, except for the smell of the exhaust. The MSC Divina also contains a 4D cinema promising a virtual reality experience that is not just

3D through glasses, but also things like vibrating seats and wind gusts

And there are some Royal Caribbean cruises that have robot bartenders in what's known

as the Bionic Bar. The robots are programmed to get liquor from the right bottle and then add it to a cocktail mix

Of course, they always add the exact right amount, which, you know, on a cruise ship

is never quite enough. I do genuinely like cruises, but boy do they underserve

Anyway, some cruise ships also have blind date programs in which people can be set up

on dates. Even weirder, some have what's known as a gentleman host program in which women are

taken to dinner and dancing by single male employees of the cruise ship

Speaking of things that make me shudder there a ropes course on the Norwegian breakaway cruise It has over 40 elements including a plank that brings you eight feet over the ship side And underneath the ropes course there mini so that our descendants can look

back at us and be disgusted by our excess. There's a cruise ship named The World, which travels, wait for it, The World, and sells

condos on board. There are 165 total residences, including apartments and studio apartments

Some live on the cruise full time, others just hop on and off for vacations

Speaking of living on cruises, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, students at Tulane University in New Orleans moved onto cruise ships for temporary housing

Some professors also moved on board so they could keep teaching. Royal Caribbean boasts that it has the first food truck at sea

It's called the SeaPlex Doghouse, and it serves hot dogs. You can find it over by the bumper cars, because, you know, why not

And finally, I return to my salon to tell you that some people choose cruise ships over nursing homes when they reach a certain age

One woman who does this, Leigh Wachstetter, says that it costs about $164,000 per year

which is comparable with a fancy retirement home, and it has better service and tons of programs, like dances and entertainment

Plus, there's a morgue! I feel bad if Leigh Wachstetter is watching this now, she's gonna be bummed out

You know, they do have Wi-Fi on cruise ships now. Anyway, thanks for watching Metal Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people

As we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome