Cruise Ship Tracker: Real-Time Locations, Route Details + More!
Wow. There’s a whole lot of cruise ships out there, and it’s hard to keep track of ‘em all. There’s a lot of cruise ship tracker websites too, but we found one we wanted to share!
Why do we like it so much compared to all the other options? It’s a real-time cruise ship tracker!!
Check it out:
Tracking a Cruise Ship
Now that's A LOT of ships to look at and it can be overwhelming so let me walk you through how to narrow it down to track only cruise ships.
We're gonna need you to click on the filter on the left-hand side and uncheck everything but 'Passenger Vessels'. You can also select 'Underway' for current status if you only want to show cruise ships that are sailing and not at port:
More than a Cruise Ship Tracker
The map doesn't just tell you where ships are. It gives you more information than you ever dreamed of. It's a marine vessel enthusiast's dream.
It's not just a cruise ship tracker, it tracks all ships. (If you only want to check out cruise ships, select the "passenger vessels" and "ships underway" options (see the above screenshot).
You can search the database by port, vessel, or area. You can even make your own fleet (this requires a MarineTraffic account).
How could this be helpful? If you're only interested in Carnival Cruises, you can create your own fleet of only Carnival ships and your tracking just got a lot easier.
It's a marine-vessel-enthusiast's dream.
How MarineTraffic's Cruise Ship Tracker Works
The real-time cruise ship tracker allows you to browse what cruise ships are at sea. But if you're looking for a specific cruise vessel, it's easy to find. Not only can you find where the ship is in a jiffy, but you can also see other fun info on it as well.
Here's how.
Find a Specific Cruise Ship
If you're looking for a specific ship, I suggest using the search filter to type in the cruise line you want to track.
The nifty thing is that it will list all the cruise line's vessels. If you use the filter to show only trips underway, it might limit what you find (especially when so many cruise lines are in port).
First, enter what cruise line you're looking for in the search area:
Just for funsies, I looked at Celebrity.
When you enter what cruise line you're checking, the search will populate a list of different vessels. If you want to see ALL vessels, regardless of whether in port or at sea, make sure your filter is set to show "underway" AND "Anchored."
BEYOND TRACKING: Get More Details on Cruise Ships
Any information you need on a cruise ship, MarineTraffic's cruise ship tracker has a good share. If you're using their freebie site you can find info on:
- Trip Progress
- Starting point
- Destination (and ETA)
- Speed
- Weather conditions
Here's how to look up that info. When you find a ship that interests you, click on it and the info box below appears full of cruise ship, pictures, and route details.
Since this is a cruise ship tracker site, if you want to track the cruise ship's path, click on the "Show Vessel's Track" button and you'll see something like this:
Another great aspect of the cruise ship tracker is its capacity for real user engagement. Photos of the ship can be uploaded and rated by users. I was pleasantly surprised to see 27 user-uploaded Carnival Panorama photos. :) A beaut, ain't she?
There's loads more data to uncover on the map and cruise ship tracker application, we just scratched the surface in this post.
Hello Marketing. Share Your Cruise Tracking Link With Your Clients
Okay, so maybe becoming an amateur marine nerd might be more appealing to travel agents if you can use this information with your clients. Can the cruise ship tracker be a fun client touchpoint between booking and departure? I've gotcha covered!
With the real-time cruise ship tracker, one nifty thing you can do is create "fleets."
What does this mean?
Say you primarily sell Royal Caribbean, Viking River Cruises, and Celebrity. For each cruise brand, you can create a "fleet." Within that fleet, you can save the vessels you book the most often so they're info is always at your fingertips to share with your clients!
Here's the breakdown:
How to CREATE a Fleet to info with your clients
One of the nifty things about the cruise ship tracker is that you can share the links of the vessel's information and/or location with your clients!
Here's how to create a fleet:
- Register for a free account on Marine Traffic. The limit for a free account is 3 fleets with 5 vessels per fleet.
- Hover over the profile icon in the top right corner to see the drop-down menu.
- Select My Fleets
- Select Create Fleet
- There will be a popup. Enter the fleet name (e.g. RCCL) on the top field and enter the vessel you want to add to the fleet (e.g. Wonder of the Seas) in the second field.
- Select Create Fleet (again). This will bring you directly to the new fleet.
- Select the vessel you want to explore.
- Copy the URL to share with your clients and spread the love! (You can also share copy and share link TO "SHOW ON LIVE MAP" or "ROUTE FORECAST" (my personal favorite!)
Visual learner? Here's a quick video!
Cruise Ship Tracking Goes Mobile
Marine vessel fanatics, rejoice! While you're sitting and waiting for the bus in zero-degree weather (we're in Minnesota so this is fresh on our mind), you can kindle your cold heart with jealousy by tracking cruise ships (or any ship!) around the world!
Information on the world's ships is at your fingertips. The best part is, the MarineTraffic cruise ship tracker app has fabulous reviews. For all platforms, it's 4+ stars.
Download MarineTraffic's Cruise Ship Tracker:
Google Play (4.6 stars of 67.5k ratings!)
iTunes (4.8 stars of 53.5k ratings!)
Who Created This, Anyhow?
You can find the original map at MarineTraffic.com, but the more in-depth story is that it comes from some lovely folks over at the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece. The site is part of an open, community-based, academic project. Learn more.
And if you really love the cruise ship tracker and want it for your very own website (we're with ya!), I've got good news for you! The folks at Marine Traffic are super generous and have no problem with you embedding it on their site. Here's the embed code:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.marinetraffic.com/js/embed.js"></script>
Just plop that code onto your site and a cruise ship tracking embed will magically appear!
Too broad for you and do you want to show only specific fleets or a specific ship? Maybe your yacht, you fancy sailor you? Marine Traffic can do that too. :)
Here's the code for those who want to customize the cruise ship tracker embed a little bit more:
<script type="text/javascript">
width='100%'; // the width of the embedded map in pixels or percentage
height='450'; // the height of the embedded map in pixels or percentage
border='1'; // the width of the border around the map (zero means no border)
shownames='false'; // to display ship names on the map (true or false)
latitude='37.4460'; // the latitude of the center of the map, in decimal degrees
longitude='24.9467'; // the longitude of the center of the map, in decimal degrees
zoom='9'; // the zoom level of the map (values between 2 and 17)
maptype='1'; // use 0 for Normal Map, 1 for Satellite
trackvessel='0'; // MMSI of a vessel (note: vessel will be displayed only if within range of the system) - overrides "zoom" option
fleet=''; // the registered email address of a user-defined fleet (user's default fleet is used)
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//www.marinetraffic.com/js/embed.js"></script>
Selling Cruises for a Living
We're glad you ended up here, but the truth is, this site isn't focused on cruise ship tracking, it's about helping people start a travel agency. What we've found is that people who track cruise ships as a hobby are people who LOVE cruising and eat, sleep, and breathe all things cruise.
They also make amazing travel agents!
If you're thinking you might want to make a living by selling cruises (and you can track them to your heart's desire), you've found the right site!
It's probably not going to make you a millionaire (although you can check out income potential in our travel agent research reports) and it's hard work (you’re starting a business, after all), but if you love cruising, helping people plan travel, and want to sail on every ship possible, this site might turn out to be your new best friend. 😊
We've even got a program that walks you through your travel agency setup and becoming a travel agent. Check out our 7 Day Set Up Accelerator program for more details!
If you still have questions, drop us a line, join the conversation in the comments below, or connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn (preferred), and Instagram.
⭐️ Don't Miss HAR's Other Cruise-related resources! ⭐️
- Make the Most of a Cruise Ship Inspection
- What is a CLIA Number?
- How to Get Accredited by CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association)
- Travel Agent Chatter podcast with Deb Fogarty of Be Well Travel (group cruises specialist)
- Find the latest cruise events on HAR! (Under “niche,” select “cruise” for all cruise-related events)
