Depending on the size of the cruise ship it takes a good cruise ship builder between 12 to 18 months of work to build a new cruise ship from start to finish.
That's pretty fast but they have a lot of workers building the cruise ship and some are working night as well to get the cruise ship built and sold to the new owner.
New cruise ships cost millions of dollars to purchase and build.
A new cruise ship can cost $555 million dollars for a cruise ship that can carry 3,000 passengers and for a bigger cruise ship with even more options and more space for more passengers the cost of the cruise ship can go up to $734 million dollars.
Cruise ships are profitable for the cruise lines but they do have very little margins.
It can take awhile for the cruise ship to even break even after paying for the new cruise ship and then paying for the workers on board.
The time it takes for a cruise ship owner to break even on the purchase of the cruise ship and begin getting a good profit can vary.
But it can usually take at least 10 years for the new cruise ship to have the cruise ship paid for and then the rest is mostly profit for the cruise ship owner.
That 10 years seems like a very long time to profit but most cruise ships last as long as 30 years so the cruise ship owner can make the pure profit for at least 20 years before needing to buy a new cruise ship.
But some cruise ships are sold off and refurbished by new owners before they reach 30 years.