More than a century ago, the Titanic was touted as the biggest ship in the world at 882,6 ft long with a total capacity for passengers at 2,435 and 892 crew. Today, the Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas holds that title at 1,188 ft long with a capacity for 6,300 passengers and 2,394 crew members.
While it's true that today's mega-ships are engineering marvels combining cutting-edge technology and entertainment, the predicament of their growing size is worrying safety experts, lawmakers and regulators who are demanding more accountability from cruise lines.
The biggest problem facing this trend is passenger and crew safety. Experts state that the bigger the ship is, the less options there are in an emergency and more evacuation difficulties. For example, safety rules specify that each lifeboat shouldn't have more than 150 passengers, but Allure of the Seas and its sister ship Oasis of the Seas both carry lifeboats for 370 people. On top of not factoring crew members in this number, there is a likely chance the lifeboats can capsize at such capacity.
The pressure on crew members to attend guests is also another problem. Cruise lines fail to increase the number of crew to accommodate the growing number of passengers with the expansion of mega-ships. More complications arise from the lack of communication or understanding of knowledge between crew and guests, hence the high turnover rate of the crew, which is another can of worms altogether.
These mega-ships and the perceived necessity to build them larger exceeds the point of manageability. If new ships continue to get bigger, these preexisting problems and high risks will only escalate.
Bud Darr, senior VP for technical and regulatory affairs at the Cruise Lines International Association, states that today's ships operate under layers of oversight. He goes on to say: "We are subject to very close scrutiny. The standards are universal." His contradictory statements beg the question: if these auditors are aware of the issues related to the growing mega-ship craze, why is nothing being done to remedy the problem?
