{"id":34,"date":"2012-01-26T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/blog\/?p=34"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:09:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:09:03","slug":"basic-cruise-ship-terms-for-novices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/2012\/01\/26\/basic-cruise-ship-terms-for-novices\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic Cruise Ship Terms for Novices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Being on a cruise ship for the first time can be extremely exciting&#8230;and confusing all at the same time. Talks of port or starboard sides, tenders and much more can make your head spin quickly if you aren&#8217;t familiar with basic nautical terms.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ll be cruising for the first time soon, here&#8217;s a list to help you get around:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Beam:<\/strong>\u00a0 The width of a vessel at the widest point<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bow or Prow:<\/strong>\u00a0 The front of a ship<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bridge:<\/strong>\u00a0 The command control center and navigation center of a ship<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disembark:<\/strong>\u00a0 To leave a cruise ship, especially at the end of the voyage<\/li>\n<li><strong>Draft:<\/strong>\u00a0 The depth of a ship\u2019s keel below the waterline<\/li>\n<li><strong>Embark:<\/strong>\u00a0 To board a cruise ship, especially for the first time at the beginning of the cruise<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gangway<\/strong>:\u00a0 The covered entrance\/exit (just like an airplane jet way) between land and ship<\/li>\n<li><strong>Knot:<\/strong>\u00a0 1 nautical mile per hour, unit of speed<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lee side:<\/strong>\u00a0 The side of a ship sheltered from the wind<\/li>\n<li><strong>Midship:<\/strong>\u00a0 In the middle portion of the ship, along the line of the keel<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nautical mile:<\/strong>\u00a0 One minute or latitude or 6,076 feet; about 1\/8 longer than a land mile<\/li>\n<li><strong>Port:<\/strong>\u00a0 The left side of the ship<\/li>\n<li><strong>Starboard:<\/strong>\u00a0 The right side of the ship<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stern:<\/strong>\u00a0 The rear part of a ship<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tender:<\/strong>\u00a0 A smaller vessel used to transport passengers from ship to the shore when anchored<\/li>\n<li><strong>Weigh anchor:<\/strong>\u00a0 To bring up a ship\u2019s anchor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>ADDED BY READER SUGGESTION<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lido Deck:<\/strong>\u00a0the generic term used by many cruise lines for the deck with the swimming pools and the main casual dining venue.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Buffet:<\/strong>\u00a0the type of dining service that is usually found in the main casual dining venue on the Lido deck.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Formal night:<\/strong>\u00a0the night everyone going to the main dining room is encouraged to dress up.\u00a0 Ladies sometimes wear evening gowns and men could be wearing tuxedos. But, over the years, it\u2019s become somewhat toned down.\u00a0 A man in dark suit or even nice slacks, sports coat and tie would also fit right in.\u00a0 Women can be comfortable in a nice dress outfit.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t want to dress up you can always go to the \u201cLido Deck\u201d and enjoy the \u201cBuffet\u201d or some other casual dining venue on the ship.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>If you&#8217;re a cruising pro, what other terms would you add to help fellow cruisers with less experience?<\/div>\n<p>P.S. A special thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cruising.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CLIA<\/a> for putting together this list and allowing us to share it!<\/p>\n<p>For more helpful advice contact the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CruiseExperts.com<\/a> at 1-866-361-3405! Don&#8217;t forget to like us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CruiseExperts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> and join our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/innercircle.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Inner Circle<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being on a cruise ship for the first time can be extremely exciting&#8230;and confusing all at the same time. Talks of port or starboard sides, tenders and much more can make your head spin quickly if you aren&#8217;t familiar with basic nautical terms. If you&#8217;ll be cruising for the first time soon, here&#8217;s a list <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/2012\/01\/26\/basic-cruise-ship-terms-for-novices\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Basic Cruise Ship Terms for Novices<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-did-you-know","tag-cruising-terms-language-vocabulary-travel-novice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56186,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/56186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruiseexperts.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}