Terminology
Like any industry, the cruise industry has its own unique terminology and acronyms. This list of cruise-related terms will help you better understand CLIA’s content, research, and data.
- Berth: Refers to a space where a cruise ship can be docked in a physical port
- Lower Berths: Refer to the standard, fixed beds in a cruise ship cabin that are designed for primary occupancy. These are typically the main beds in a stateroom, often found at floor level
- Upper Berths: Additional pull-down or bunk-style beds used for extra passengers in the same cabin.
- Available Passenger Cruise Days (APCD): CLIA’s measurement of capacity and represent double occupancy per cabin multiplied by the number of cruise days for the period
- Occupancy: In accordance with cruise vacation industry practice, is calculated by dividing Passenger Cruise Days by APCD. A percentage in excess of 100% indicates that three or more passengers occupied some cabins.
- Passenger Cruise Days: Represent the number of passengers carried for the period multiplied by the number of days of their respective cruises.
- Flag State: The country where a ship is registered and whose laws it follows.
- Dry Dock: A maintenance period where a ship is taken out of service for repairs or upgrades.
- Port of Call: A scheduled stop at a destination during the cruise.
- Source Market:
- On-Shore Power Supply (OPS): OPS allows vessels to plug into a land-based electrical grid in order to shut off the main engines, thus reducing or eliminating emissions while docked at port.
- Shore Side Electricity: An alternative name for Onshore Power Supply and High Voltage Ship Connection
- Advanced Wastewater Treatment System (AWTS): Technology that ensures wastewater is processed to standards surpassing those of many coastal shoreside treatment facilities.
- Gross Cruise Costs: Represent the sum of total cruise operating expenses plus marketing, selling and administrative expenses
- Gross Yields: Represent total revenues per Available Passenger Cruise Days (APCD)
- Net Cruise Costs: Represent Gross Cruise Costs excluding commissions, transportation and other expenses and onboard and other. In measuring our ability to control costs in a manner that positively impacts net income, we believe changes in Net Cruise Costs to be the most relevant indicator of our performance. We have not provided a quantitative reconciliation of projected Gross Cruise Costs to projected Net Cruise Costs due to the significant uncertainty in projecting the costs deducted to arrive at this measure. Accordingly, we do not believe that reconciling information for such projected figures would be meaningful.
- Net Yields: represent Gross Yields less commissions, transportation and other expenses and onboard and other expenses per APCD. We utilize Net Yields to manage our business on a day-to-day basis and believe that it is the most relevant measure of our pricing performance because it reflects the cruise revenues earned by us net of our most significant variable costs. We have not provided a quantitative reconciliation of projected Gross Yields to projected Net Yields due to the significant uncertainty in projecting the costs deducted to arrive at this measure. Accordingly, we do not believe that reconciling information for such projected figures would be meaningful.
- Indirect Impact: A component of economic impact, this captures supply chain effects that follow on from direct impacts, for example, purchases by businesses of goods and services from other businesses.
- Induced Impact: A component of economic impact, this captures the income effect and flow on to household consumption.
- Direct Spend: A component of economic impact, this relates to the economic activity supported by expenditures directly linked to the cruise industry. This includes passenger spending, cruise line operational and capital purchases, and wage-linked consumption by cruise line employees.