It's All Aboard The Ship

Royal Caribbean's Alaska cruise, which offers the glacier-top ice climbing, also sends passengers by copter to a remote area for some dog sledding. Klondike rappelling is also an option for the willing, as is the basic "heli-hike," in which vacationers are dropped at the top of a mountain by helicopter to hike down.

With its eye on the average age of its passengers, Carnival Cruise Lines, No. 1 in the industry, hosts a singles party aboard its Fun Ships at the beginning of each trip, and the crew makes attempts to group singles together in the dining room.

In addition, the company has added more short cruises in the hope of attracting younger people who may not have saved enough money yet to take one of the longer trips, said Jennifer de la Cruz, a spokeswoman for the cruise line.

And while younger parents may have once worried about containing their children on a ship at sea, many lines now have special off- and on-shore activities for kids.

Staid Beginnings

These floating hotels didn't start out quite so hyperactive. Transatlantic ocean liners, precursors to the modern cruise ships, began hauling wealthy pleasure travelers between Europe and the States in the mid-1800s. Ships were resorts back then as well; it's just that resort stays weren't quite so physically active, and the dress was not what one sees at today's getaways, on land or water. Remember scenes from the movie "Titanic" -- the plush saloons, the dinner jackets and gowns -- and then look at pictures of bikini-clad sunbathers and joggers in shorts on today's excursion boats. What a difference 92 years can make.

The grandes dames of the oceangoing vessels made it into modern jetted times, but by 1972 only four major transatlantic liners remained in service -- the Queen Elizabeth 2 of the Cunard Line, the Michelangelo and Raffaello of the Italian Line and the French Line's France, according to the Greatoceanliners.net Web site, compiled by two young Swedish ocean liner enthusiasts, Daniel Othfors and Henrik Ljungstrom.

The birth date for the cruise industry as it exists today is generally agreed to be 1970 -- in that year 500,000 people took a cruise. The liner as transportation was clearly over. But after the luxurious France made its final ocean crossing in 1974, it wasn't abandoned entirely. It was bought by a Norwegian cruise entrepreneur, refitted and renamed the Norway; in 1979 the ship sailed for Miami to join the Norwegian Caribbean Lines as a cruise ship.

But even cruises have had to bend to the demands of modern North American vacationers who, travel statistics show, take more frequent but shorter vacations than ever before. According to CLIA, from 1983 through 1991 there was a steady decline in the length of cruise vacations -- a reflection of more capacity being added in the short-cruise market. The average cruise today lasts seven days, but the percentage of passengers taking two- to five-day cruises rose from 29.6 percent of all passengers in 1981 to 32.9 percent in 2003. There were higher peak years, though: In 2001 the percentage of short-timers was 37.2 percent; in 1994, 38 percent.

Meanwhile, the overall number of passengers increased, so the number of passengers on those short cruises actually jumped 677.5 percent, CLIA says.

Adding Home Ports

Helping the industry grow are the vast array of shipboard activities, from spa treatments to aerobics to classes and shopping arcades; the growing number of excursions, which can set a passenger back as much as $400 a pop; the freer cruise lifestyle, with cafes and casual dining spots in addition to the formal dining room; and extensive children's programs.