From Aristocracy To Spring Break: A Brief History of Leisure Cruising
Cruise ships are getting bigger and more lavish than ever so how did we get here?
Modern cruising is big business. The act of leisurely sailing around on massive floating cities through sunny waters generates billions of dollars in revenue each year. The profits from cruising were so good before the COVID-19 pandemic that cruise companies were investing billions in bigger and more extravagant ships. The largest cruise ship in the world was recently completed for a hefty price of over $1.3 billion.
How did we get here? Is cruising a modern invention or a holdover from ancient times? Have people always been willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for the chance to spend some fun in the sun?
Ancient Cruising
Cruising was never an activity for the average person. The origins of cruising go back thousands of years to the days of ancient Egypt. Pharaohs would take long slow river cruises on so-called pleasure barges. These large opulent flat bottomed boats would ferry the pharaohs around the Nile in luxury. However, even then pleasure cruises were often taken as a form of transportation.
Before fossil fuels, boats were a common way for people to travel. For…
