Exploring cruise experience through actor-networks of the cruise ship environment

The cruise ship environment contains multiple human and non-human characteristics that together contribute to the cruise experience. Although many of these characteristics are identified separately, less research attention has been paid to the investigation of the cruise experience as an entity, and interconnectivity between its various characteristics. A qualitative study was conducted in an authentic passenger ship environment in order to document the characteristics passengers perceive as contributing to the cruise experience. Instead of seeing experiences as belonging to the human domain, this article also brings in non-human actors by drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT). ANT is applied to illustrate how experiences emerge and are being constituted within the passenger ship environment. Three actor-network illustrations are used: social experiencing, everyday distinction and predictability. This article proposes that people and things become entangled via processes of translation and that the shared aims that concurrently bring actors together can be used as design drivers of the ship environment.