Did you know you can track cruise ships? There is a cruise ship tracker! Here’s everything you need to know for cruise ship tracking.
As an avid traveler (and a bit of a geek!), I love tracking flights when my family travels. For air travel, our go-to is FlightAware. To track a specific flight anywhere in the world you simply go to the website and enter either the flight number or route and voilà…you can see where an aircraft is in real time along with all the data that goes along with it!
Cruise Ship Tracker
I have been using FlightAware for YEARS, but up until recently, I was unaware that there is a cruise ship tracker for cruise lines around the world!
The website I use is called CruiseMapper, and it’s essentially real-time cruise ship tracking of ships actively sailing or in port.
You can search by the cruise line to see the location of all ships of the specific line; by cruise ship name, to see the location of that specific vessel; or by cruise port, to see which ships are currently docked at that location. The technology here is SO COOL!
How to Track a Cruise Ship
CruiseMapper is not the only cruise ship tracking tool. I use this website because it is very user-friendly and hones mostly on cruise ships versus every vessel at sea.
The data on CruiseMapper and similar websites for ship tracking come from the ships’ AIS (automatic identification system) transponders — The International Maritime Organization requires cruise ships and other large vessels to broadcast their positions with this system to avoid collisions.
If you want positions and data for ALL vessels using AIS, MarineTraffic is for you. Personally, this gives me TOO MUCH data, especially if I’m only looking to track a specific cruise ship or line. Still, a VERY COOL (and completely free) tool to play around with.
Why Track a Cruise Ship
Honestly, it’s just fun! I tend to use cruise ship tracking when my friends or family are sailing and I’m curious to see their real-time location. If I’m getting ready to sail on a new ship I might take a peek and what other ships are nearby on the same route.
In addition to location, you can access ship speed, number of passengers, where the ship is headed, and full route including all ports of call.
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