The promenade deck is a deck

Deck (ship)

A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull, which both strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface...

 found on several types of passenger ship

Passenger ship

A passenger ship is a ship whose primary function is to carry passengers. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is...

s and riverboat

Riverboat

A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...

s. It usually extends from bow to stern, on both ddd,çsides, and includes areas open to the outside, resulting in a continuous outside walkway suitable for promenading, (ie, walking) thus the name.

On older passenger ships, the promenade deck was simply the top outside deck below the superstructure

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...

, and was enclosed by a railing. Lifeboat

Lifeboat (shipboard)

A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...

s are typically kept on davit

Davit

A davit is a structure, usually made of steel, which is used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship....

s accessible from the promenade.

On a Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

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

Waterline

The term "waterline" generally refers to the line where the hull of a ship meets the water surface. It is also the name of a special marking, also known as the national Load Line or Plimsoll Line, to be positioned amidships, that indicates the draft of the ship and the legal limit to which a ship...

, above the main deck, and below the Texas deck

Texas (nautical)

A texas is a deckhouse immediately below the pilothouse of a straight-deck freighter. It is named Texas because Texas was at one time the largest state, and the captain's cabin is usually the largest cabin. Other areas were also named for states....

.

On modern cruise ship

Cruise ship

A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...

s with superstructure

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...

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 cruise ships and cruiseferries built by Aker Finnyards 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 M/S Silja Serenade

M/S Silja Serenade

MS Silja Serenade is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink Group, operated under their Silja Line brand on a route connecting Helsinki, Finland to Stockholm, Sweden via Mariehamn. She was built in 1990 by Masa Yards, Turku, Finland....

 and M/S Silja Symphony

M/S Silja Symphony

MS Silja Symphony is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink Group, operated under their Silja Line brand on a route connecting Helsinki, Finland to Stockholm, Sweden via Mariehamn...

, built in 1990 and 1991, respectively.

External links

• Video clips of various Promenade Decks