1. the bar
   under your bed
2. muster station

Every passenger on a cruise ship is assigned to a specific muster station, which is where you will gather to board a lifeboat in the event of an emergency. Most cruises kick off with muster drills, where passengers meet at the muster station to learn what they should do if disaster strikes.

1. balcony
   whirlpool tub
2. a cabin with multiple bedrooms

On a cruise ship, veranda cabins are staterooms with balconies. This gives you your own private outdoor space to take in the views and get some fresh air.

1. potholes
   portholes
2. boltholes

If you want an ocean view from inside your stateroom, you'll need a porthole -- that's cruising lingo for a window in the cabin. Rooms without a porthole are typically classified as interior.

1. boring
   sea days
2. sail-aways

Cruise ships are like miniature cities, with restaurants, shows, shopping and all kinds of entertainment. Plenty of cruises include sea days where the ship doesn't stop at a port, and passengers find ways to entertain themselves aboard the vessel.

1. gangway
   plank
2. keel

Cruise ships are awfully big. To make it easy for passengers to enter and exit the ship, staff set up a walkway known as a gangway, which may consist of stairs or a ramp.

1. art shows
   cooking
2. nightly shows

A galley is another word for kitchen -- and you'd better believe that the galley on a cruise ship is busy 'round the clock, preparing meals for thousands of passengers.

1. get off the boat
   get on the boat
2. head for the lifeboats

In nautical lingo, disembarking or debarking means to get off the ship. That means you should have your bags packed, say goodbye to your stateroom and head for the dock.

1. hands
   feet
2. thumbs

Ever heard the saying "All hands on deck"? It means that all crew members are needed ASAP. The term "hands" is another name for crew members at sea, both in the cruising industry and in other nautical settings.

1. the bridge
   the bilge
2. the engine room

Cruise ships are typically navigated from the bridge -- an area that's off-limits to everyone but the captain and his crew.

1. elementary voyage
   primary voyage
2. maiden voyage

Cruisers who are obsessed with being the first to sail on every new ship that hits the seas look for maiden voyages -- the first trip a ship makes once it's newly built and ready for passengers.

1. captain
   butler
2. purser

While the captain is in charge of the ship, the purser is the man behind the money. He and his team can be found near the reception desk to answer all questions related to your bill.

1. dining table
   pool on a cruise ship
2. bed

Built-in beds or bunks on a cruise ship are known as berths. They range from the tiny chambers where the crew sleeps to the bunks built into staterooms for children.

1. purser
   steward
2. captain

Stewards are the ones who help guests in and around cabins or staterooms. They keep the room clean, help with luggage and make those cool towel animals that mysteriously show up on your bed while you're out of the room.

1. anywhere other than the main dining room
   a restaurant for crew members only
2. a kid-free restaurant

Cruisers once had few choices about where to eat and were resigned to feasting in the main dining room or MDR for every meal. Today, many lines offer a range of alternative restaurants, though many require an extra fee.

1. pitch
   density
2. gravity

Got seasickness? The motion of the water tends to make nausea worse and comes in different forms that team up to keep your belly rumbling. They include roll, or the side-to-side movement of the ship, as well as pitch, which is the front-to-back movement of the vessel.

1. tender
   jet ski
2. canoe

Some ports are so shallow that a giant cruise ship can't pull up to the dock. When that happens, the ship loads passengers into a small boat called a tender, which carries them to shore and returns them to the ship at the end of the day.

1. wind
   temperature
2. sunlight

In cruise speak, leeward refers to the side of a ship that is out of the wind -- it's usually a good place to park yourself on a deck chair while reading the newspaper. If you prefer to feel the wind blow, head for the windward side of the ship -- that's the side the wind is blowing from.

1. speed
   distance
2. depth

When the captain makes an announcement over the loudspeaker, he'll often update passengers on the speed of the ship, which he may give in standard miles or kilometers per hour -- but he may also reference knots, which are another measure of speed. A knot equals one nautical mile per hour, or around 1.15 miles per hour.

1. cabins on higher decks
   cabins near the middle of the ship
2. cabins at the back of the ship

If motion sickness keeps you from enjoying your cruise to the max, try to select a cabin in the middle of the ship -- preferably one on a lower deck. This is the best position for minimizing the sensation of rolling and pitching as the ship moves through the water.

1. Alaska
   Europe
2. Australia

While many associate cruising with sunny skies and clear blue water, Alaska's Inside Passage -- a stretch of islands between Washington and Alaska -- ranks among the top cruising destinations in North America.

1. run for the lifeboats
   get off the ship
2. get on the ship

All aboard! Every cruise starts with embarkation, where passengers climb on board and settle in for their much-awaited vacation.

1. chimney
   funnel
2. rail

Exhaust from the giant engines on a cruise ship exits through the enormous smokestack, known as the funnel, on top of the boat.

1. main dining room
   pool
2. casino

Lido is Italian for beach or shore, so cruise ships have adopted the name to describe the pool deck. While the lido is often near the top of the ship, it's not always the very top level, as it was in the past, but it is largely exposed to the sun and other elements.

1. bow
   aft
2. stern

The back of a boat is known as the stern, while the front is the bow. Areas towards the back are described as aft, while areas closer to the front are forward.

1. port
   starboard
2. aft

Sailors must be specific when describing the parts of the boat, so landlubber terms won't work on board a ship. When you're cruising, the right side of a boat when facing forward is known as starboard, while the left side is port. You can remember with this handy reminder -- left and port each have four letters.

1. dating service at sea
   extra money solo travelers pay
2. vitamin that eliminates motion sickness

The majority of cruise cabins are priced at double occupancy -- that means two people sharing the room. If you're traveling solo, you may still have to pay for two tickets to cover the cost of the cabin, or you may be able to pay a single fare plus a little extra, known as a single supplement.

1. port cruises
   repositioning cruises
2. transitional cruises

Cruise lines often move ships each season, so a specific ship may sail in Alaska in the summer and the Caribbean in the winter. When the cruise line moves the ship from one of these locations to the other, they often offer one-way repositioning cruises, which typically come fairly cheap compared to traditional round-trip fares.

1. a really big balcony
   a really tiny balcony
2. a two-story balcony

French balconies are so small that some may not consider them balconies at all. They consist of French doors that open along one wall of the room, but there's really no room outside of the cabin to sit or stand and take in the view. This option is a good compromise for those that want to bring fresh air into the stateroom without splurging on a veranda stateroom.

1. hair salon
   casino
2. jogging track

The promenade deck is one with enough outdoor space that people can actually walk around a bit. Most now feature a dedicated walking or jogging track so passengers can keep fit in between trips to the buffet.

1. port-free cruise
   sea cruise
2. cruise to nowhere

There's so much to do on modern cruise ships that you could stay busy even if you never leave the ship. Some companies take advantage of this with a cruise to nowhere -- a trip where the ship visits zero ports of call and simply sails back to its port of origin while people party on board.