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During the early 1800's, mail was the most common way of communication between different countries and/or companies. They opened up the first Transatlantic cruise from New York to Liverpool and carried mail as well as passengers. A few of these ship captains were said to be commanders from the war of 1812 therefore one year later they managed to record the first ship arriving on time, this opened up cruises having a specific time of departure, instead of just a date. This allowed direct communication between the USA and UK in terms of transporting mail and people across the Atlantic.

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In the year 1900, the German Empire had the Prinzessin Victoria Luise on the seas specifically for giving leisure cruises to people wishing to pay the price for a ticket. The Hamburg-America line was the largest shipping firm at this time in the world and this was their next big idea for a source of revenue. In 1901, the cruise ship completed its first Transatlantic crossing from Hamburg to New York, revolutionising cruising across the Atlantic. After completing this trip, the cruise went south to the West Indies, then back over to Europe for trips around the Mediterranean, Black Sea and the Baltics. The cruise was originally constructed with yacht-like aspects, consisting of 120 cabins, staterooms and were all first class. Although the cruise had a short commission time, being less than a decade, it marked a starting point for tourism built cruise ships across the world.

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In 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail from England to New York and unfortunately ended up becoming the worst accident to take place on a ship in human history. After the analysation of the cause of the crash and the ship staff's response, it was decided that new health and safety measurements had to be put in place to prevent this happening again. Subsequently in 1914, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was implemented to improve safety regulations and emergency procedures, as well as requiring ships to have of up-to-date equipment and constructions. This has become the cornerstone for safety on board ships and has been updated many times throughout the course of the past 100 years to keep up with the consistent technological developments of the cruise industry.

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Only two years after the tragedy of the Titanic, the entire construction of all cruise ships was stopped so all could focus on working for the military, mass constructing personnel for navies. Cruises were used for battles at sea and transporting soldiers to countries in need all around the world. This commenced the temporary halt to leisure cruises across the globe. After the second world war, popularity for leisure cruises were negatively impacted. The Cold War limited cruising destinations, to a lot of customers' displeasure, and many also thought it was the end of cruise holidays until the 1960's.

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Despite international tensions, Transatlantic cruising became increasingly popular amongst holiday makers and even rebranded the name of cruising to be prestigious and high class for quite some time, holding fancy dress parties and other functions with celebrity guests becoming increasingly popular on-board. Small entertainment theatres were also being introduced to keep people pleased at sea which held shows of many variations to suit their audiences. This era is what brought back cruising from the horrors of war and eventually turned it into what it has become today.

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Cruises between 1970 and 1980 began to introduce deck chairs for more comfortable sitting for passengers, as well as installing lifts across all decks on all newly manufactured cruises coming into commission. Games like shuffleboard were popularised because of cruises and provided further entertainment for those passengers who required it. Moreover, people also were introduced to more activities on-board like discos and arcades when they got installed to upkeep happiness throughout the journeys whether they be long or short.

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In 2009, TUI Cruise's entered its first ship into commission which was named Mein Schiff, but is now known as Marella Explorer. Due to the lack of construction of new cruises, the cruise was originally acquired from Celebrity Cruises, which was known as Celebrity Galaxy. After a complete 50 million euro refurbishment, the ship set sail in the Baltics departing from Kiel in late May of that same year. Now, the cruise liner holds a capacity of 1,924 passengers with the main dining area capable of holding 1,088 of them, and also has 10 bars and 10 restaurants on-board.

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2010 - Disabled accessibility regulations.

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2010 - Disabled accessibility regulations.

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Back in 2010, the United States Department of Transportation released regulations that enforced the practice of procedures for people with disabilities on-board cruise ships. This includes embarking and disembarking cruises, even for non-flagged foreign ships docking in the US ports. These regulations branch off from plans originating in 1996 from the United Nations which was constructing facilities and accommodation on board passenger vessels to better fit those passengers with disabilities on cruises.

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The revolution of technology and social media has taken the cruise industry by storm now and has granted passengers much easier ways to do things like booking a cruise holiday, checking in and booking off-shore excursions. Nowadays, all of the above can be done from your phone and prepaid to help you work by a budget a lot better, whereas back in time these extras would be adding on to your billing total which was paid after the cruise, and gave many customers a big shock when it came to spending. Moreover, artificial intelligence is beginning to be used more on board, a great example of this would be ships having a screen displaying an ocean view for guests unlucky enough to end up in an inside cabin. AI has also been used for development of advertising cruises, cruise liners like Virgin Voyages introduced AR headsets where you can take yourself in and around the ship like you're really on-board to explore if its the right cruise holiday for you.

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Exactly 100 years after the Titanic, disaster struck once again at sea. In 2012, the Costa Concordia had sailed off its planned route and struck a rock, concluding with the demise of both the ship and 32 people on-board. The event shook the industry and immediately prompted new health and safety regulations to be put in place. 10 new policies were implemented which addressed a variation of features to keep people safe during emergencies at sea, such as bridge access & procedures, life jacket availability and their locations across the ship, lifeboat loading drills, securing of large and heavy objects and many more. This disaster highlighted the danger at sea still, as it saw the end of one of the most modern cruises at the time.

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Carnival Corporation introduced the Ocean Medallion on-board ships which replaced old ship access cards, used for previous decades. The medallion is a small waterproof device that allows customers to do basic things such as boarding or unlocking staterooms and can be either worn around the neck, wrist, or kept in the passengers pocket at all times. The Ocean Medallion is powered by 7,000 intelligent sensors and cameras with two miniature antennas (Near Field Communication and Bluetooth low energy) spread throughout the ship, granting signal to customers wherever they may be on the ship.

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In the 5 years leading up to the first lock down, the popularity of cruises increased by over 20% across the world and over 32 million people had a cruise holiday booked for 2020. The Diamond Princess was the first cruise ship to report cases of Covid-19 on-board, and resulted in over 700 cases with 14 deaths. This was badly damaging to cruise ship reputations worldwide, with people claiming they could have been better prepared for a situation like this. Smaller cruise ships resumed operations later on 2020, but the industry didn't see close to normality until mid-2021 when cruise ships worldwide also followed suit to resume operations.

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Founded by parent organisation Virgin in 2014, Virgin Voyages is Virgin's own subsidiary cruise liner company with ships in construction and expected to be in commission by the early 2020's. Their first cruise, Scarlett Lady, debuted in February of the year but the near lockdown in March stopped its due commission date, and was pushed back to August 2021. The ship has 17 accessible decks and holds a capacity of 2,770 passengers.

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Q: Why did TUI and Virgin started their own cruises?
A: To earn more money by selling their own cruise holidays.