What happens to old cruise ships after they enter giant 'graveyards'
Cruise ships are some of the most technically advanced creations humanity has ever put together.
Massive floating hotels, complete with shopping centres, swimming pools, theatres, cinemas, and thousands of people enjoying life at sea.
One of the latest vessels, worth a staggering $1.2 billion (£964 million), even has a swing that hangs passengers out over the ocean for those who are after a thrill.
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But not every ship lasts forever.
In fact, most only really stay in service for between 20 and 30 years before they are sent to cruise ship heaven.
The cost of putting together a cruise ship means it's never just a case of abandoning the vessel. There is money in those boats.
One of the main things cruise lines do is rip the once stunning ships apart.
According to one report from 2021, materials alone can bring in a business around $4 million in revenue.
Cruise historian Peter Knego told inews: "Older ships tend to get eliminated when steel prices are on the rise, when economic conditions are poor for the second and third tier cruise lines operating older ships, after the implementation of more rigid safety regulations that some older ships no longer can meet and due to rising fuel costs or international crises such as the Covid-19.
"The most recent purge of ships has been largely due to the cruise industry shut down in the wake of Covid."
In these cases, cruise ships are often sent to 'graveyards' where they'll lined up and ripped apart, piece by piece.
The practice, called ship breaking, happens most commonly in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India where the business is booming.
There, locals will take up the task of scaling these massive ships that have been grounded, which is a risky job in itself.
They'll then use tools to cut away pieces of the vessel to sell locally, starting at the bow section of the ship and moving through the ship until they reach the stern.
All in all, it can take eight months to rip a ship apart. Which doesn't actually seem that long when you see the size of them and the methods undertaken to cut pieces off.
This doesn't always happen, though.
On rare occasions, they are turned into attractions in their own right - just look at Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2.
Retired from sailing back in the 1960s, the iconic ship first took to the open seas in 1936.
It has now been permanently moored at Long Beach in California.
Now a hotel with 347 rooms and suites, it also has restaurants and a museum on board.
Topics:Â Business, Cruise Ship, Environment, History, Holiday, Money, Travel, World News
Tom Earnshaw