The promenade deck is a deck found on several types of

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

s and riverboats. It usually extends from bow to stern, on both sides, and includes areas open to the outside, resulting in a continuous outside walkway suitable for ''promenading'', (i.e., walking) thus the name. On older passenger ships, the promenade deck was simply the top outside deck below the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

, and was enclosed by a railing. Lifeboats are typically kept on

davit Boat suspended from radial davits; the boat is mechanically lowered Gravity multi-pivot on Scandinavia'' file:Bossoir a gravité.jpg, Gravity Roller Davit file:Davits-starbrd.png, Gravity multi-pivot davit holding rescue vessel on North Sea ferr ...

s accessible from the promenade. On a

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

riverboat, the promenade deck is the second deck, or floor, up from the

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...

, above the

main deck The main deck of a ship is the uppermost complete deck extending from bow to stern. A steel ship's hull may be considered a structural beam with the main deck forming the upper flange of a box girder and the keel The keel is the bottom-mos ...

, and below the Texas deck. On modern

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

s with

s as high and broad as the hull, the promenade deck is often largely enclosed, with railing-lined "cutouts" and wooden decking to recall the old days. The promenade may be used for jogging as well as walking, and signs indicate the mileage.

Centerline promenade

Many

s and

cruiseferries A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while o ...

built by

Aker Finnyards STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding companie ...

and its predecessor Kvaerner Masa-Yards have a wide, multi-deck promenade running along the center-line of the ship through most of the superstructure, also referred to as a horizontal atrium. This allows the majority of cabins on the upper decks to have a window, either to the port or starboard side or to the promenade. This design was first used in the cruiseferries and , built in 1990 and 1991, respectively. This was notably carried onto the , and the cruise ships operated by

Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flo ...

, where it is referred to as the Royal Promenade.

References

External links

Video clips of various Promenade Decks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Promenade Deck Shipbuilding Ship compartments