Cruise ship vacation is getting more popular than ever. Each year bigger ships are built, with larger passenger capacity. No wonder that often they are referred as “small cities”.

Accordingly passenger and crew safety become an issue that getting more attention. To have perfect vacation absolutely means to stay trouble-free.

Recently organization called International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL) sets standards and guidelines for all their members (all major cruise lines). These standards apply on cruise ships and meets U.S. and international laws.

Each ship, by those standards, has at least 4,000 smoke detectors, 500 fire extinguishers, 5,000 sprinklers and 400 fire stations. Total capacity of lifeboats and life rafts must exceed number of total individuals onboard.
Additionally there are more than 170 trained firefighters among ships crew as well as 24-hours available emergency and medical crew.

Being as small city, cruise ship like every city needs “law enforcement” personnel. In this case that job is done by highly trained security guard officers. They are on duty also 24-hours a day. American passengers are protected by U.S. laws. The FBI and federal authorities investigate and prosecute alleged crimes involving Americans in international waters.

When it comes to sanitation standards, they significantly exceed those of any land-based facility. All Ships are subject to unannounced inspections by CDC (U.S. Public Health Service's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) officials and must meet industry's standards. Subjects that are inspected are quality of water, spa and pool systems, and all aspects of food management, service areas, general hygiene and waste management.

There is also list of measures that are recommended to every passenger to do before boarding, in order to avoid any unnecessary health risks:

Get the immunizations you may need and any preventive medicine for illnesses such as seasickness.
Take your medications with you and keep them in your carry-on luggage.
Prepare for medical emergencies by having a traveler's medicine kit and check if your health insurance covers medical emergencies abroad.
If you have a specific medical condition takes your medical documentation with you and, if necessary, let ships doctor aware about it.
While onboard wash your hand often.
When in foreign ports avoid drinking tap water or eating food that comes from unsafe sanitary conditions.
Protect yourself from insect bites with insect repellent.
Be aware with swimming. Sometimes there is hazardous marine life active but authorities usually issue warnings about that.

If you have any unexplained symptoms when you get home contact your doctor and describe him all areas where you've been and activities you've did.

When it comes to personal safety it is also important to do some precaution measures. Cruise ship is by definition friendly and warm environment but unfortunately, there is no such thing as perfectly safe place. As we said earlier today mega-ship can accommodate up to 5000 individuals and among those smiling faces there is always slight chance to be someone with bad attentions.
On the other hand, common type of incidents on cruise ship is ones caused by heavy alcohol drinking.
No matter what is cause of problem general rule is that in case of any trouble first thing to do is call ships security officer and inform him about that.

Getting off board in some exotic foreign port is also situation that requires certain safety precaution measures. Tourists from cruise ships are often attractive targets of local scam artists and thieves. Preparing yourself can save you from troubles in unknown environment and provide you with the best experience that exotic ports can provide.

So what would be those precaution measures?

Make copies of your passport, driver's license, and credit cards before getting on ship. Keep the copies in a safe place on your ship. So in case that you lost any of your documents you will have a copy and that can be very helpful.

Use an under-the-clothing style money wallet. Waist packs and handbags are prime targets for “cut and run” thieves.

Do not carry unnecessary amount of money with you. For example, if you go out just to enjoy the day on the beach, you will not need too much money, maybe just few dollars for drinks, right?

Do not exchange dollars for foreign money on the street on suspiciously good rate. It is probably a scum.

Never leave your camera or any valuable item on a chair in a restaurant or any unsafe public place. Keep it with you whenever is possible.

Taking excursion trips from unauthorized local providers is not recommended, especially if you are taking it alone. It is always better idea to explore unknown area in large group. Excursion trips should be planned in advance, from authorized cruise line's local partners.

And finally, do not let this guidelines above discourage you from traveling. The fact is that according to FBI's research cruise ships are statistically safer than U.S. average in terms of crime of any type.

Just few simple preparation measures and you are ready to have time of your life on state-of-art vessel.