How cool or practical is a swing-out deck on a cruise ship?

[LandlockedCruiser01]

First off, friendly reminder that this idea came to me in a dream.  Dreams don't follows laws of physics or financial constraints.  And yet... it seems like everything is about profits these days, cruise ships in particular.  In early days of cruising, it seems like mantra was "Build cruise ships people will enjoy, and make some money off it."  Today, the mantra is "Make some money, and find a way of leverage that out of a cruise ship."  BIG difference.

 

Or maybe I'm just idealizing the past, I don't know.  But I would like to have seen the heyday of cruising, rather than today's bells and whistles.

 

[DirtyDawg]

17 minutes ago, LandlockedCruiser01 said:

First off, friendly reminder that this idea came to me in a dream.  Dreams don't follows laws of physics or financial constraints.  And yet... it seems like everything is about profits these days, cruise ships in particular.  In early days of cruising, it seems like mantra was "Build cruise ships people will enjoy, and make some money off it."  Today, the mantra is "Make some money, and find a way of leverage that out of a cruise ship."  BIG difference.

 

Or maybe I'm just idealizing the past, I don't know.  But I would like to have seen the heyday of cruising, rather than today's bells and whistles.

 

 

You are idealizing the past. It's always about the money and it's always been about the money.

The ships are so expensive to build or buy that cruise operators have always had to  rely on outside sources of capital, be it, bankers, or bond holders or outside shareholders. These investors can invest there money anywhere, therefore the returns from their investment in a cruise operator (equity or fixed income) must be equal to another investment of the same risk, whether it is investing in pig farms, steel manufacturers, slide rule or computer manufacturers. Money isn't romantic - cruisers are.

Edited August 16, 2019 by DirtyDawg

[chengkp75]

10 hours ago, DirtyDawg said:

 

You are idealizing the past. It's always about the money and it's always been about the money.

The ships are so expensive to build or buy that cruise operators have always had to  rely on outside sources of capital, be it, bankers, or bond holders or outside shareholders. These investors can invest there money anywhere, therefore the returns from their investment in a cruise operator (equity or fixed income) must be equal to another investment of the same risk, whether it is investing in pig farms, steel manufacturers, slide rule or computer manufacturers. Money isn't romantic - cruisers are.

Bingo.  Everyone talks about how much profit a cruise line makes, but the real measure of how well they are doing is return on investment.  Shipping, of all types, is a very capital intensive industry, and that capital is tied up for a long time in a risky thing that crosses oceans.  The ROI for most cruise lines is right about mid-stream for industry overall, meaning you could make a lot more money investing in other enterprises.