The Real Reason Why Many Ships Miss Deck 13

If you’ve taken a cruise, you may have noticed that many cruise ships will miss out on deck thirteen.

I’ve been on many cruises. On some ships, I have found deck thirteen – on others, the deck numbers jump from number twelve to number fourteen.

Why do Cruise Ships Not Have a Deck 13?

Many ships do not have a deck thirteen due to superstition surrounding the number. Thirteen is considered by many to be unlucky.

There are many reasons for this.

• One is linked to Christianity. There were 13 people at Jesus Christ’s last supper. He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot – who was the 13th to be seated at the table.
• In Norse mythology, Loki, the god of mischief and deception, is the 13th guest at a dinner of the Gods. He tricks one of Odin’s sons into killing another.

The fear of the number 13 is officially called triskaidekaphobia.

Ships decks will skip from deck twelve straight to fourteen. However, some cruise ships have deck thirteen – but might skip deck seventeen for similar reasons. 

You may find a similar thing in hotels and other buildings on the land, which will often skip floor thirteen, and planes will also often skip row thirteen too.

Where is Deck 13 on a Cruise Ship?

Technically speaking, deck fourteen on many cruise ships is deck thirteen, but it has just been named fourteen.

This can be quite confusing, but I always enjoy it when I walk up the stairs on a cruise.

If I am walking from my cabin on deck ten to the buffet on deck five, in my mind, that is vive decks – but in reality, it’s usually only four! I love that!

Some cruise ships do have a real deck thirteen, which they use for things other than cabins.

The idea is that guests would not like to book a cabin on deck thirteen but would be happy doing other things there – like playing sports.

On Royal Caribbean’s cruise ships Voyagers or The Seas and Freedom of The Seas, the sports court is on deck thirteen.

This is a good option for smaller cruise ships that don’t want to rename deck thirteen completely, but for bigger ships, deck thirteen is often within the cabin space, so there isn’t an option to put anything else there.

P&O’s newest ships, Iona and Arvia, don’t have a deck thirteen. They just go from deck twelve to fourteen.

Arvia and Iona are very large ships with twenty decks in total. I would get lost finding my way out of a paper bag – so find out how I got on with my two-week sailing on Arvia here:

Which Cruise Lines Miss Deck 13?

It isn’t the case that if one ship for a cruise line misses deck thirteen that the rest of them will.

Royal Caribbean, for example, has deck thirteen on some of their cruise ships but not on others. It often depends on what is going to be on that deck, if the deck is going to be for cabins the cruise line will often miss it but if it is for other things they will leave the deck.

Most Oasis-class Royal Caribbean cruise ships don’t have the deck – but Quantum-class cruise ships do. The newest Icon class ships don’t have a deck thirteen, either.

There are also cruise ships for many other cruise lines which include a deck thirteen – such as Cunard and MSC cruise ships.

Do Cruise Ships Have a Lifeboat 13?

Many people, upon hearing that deck thirteen is unlucky, wonder why there is usually still a lifeboat number thirteen on most cruise ships.

Nobody really knows this but cruise lines do have to draw the line somewhere, you can’t realistically remove all 13 numbered things from a cruise ship.

Do Cruise Ships Have a Cabin 13?

On a lot of cruise ships you won’t find a cabin thirteen on any deck, it’ll simply skip.

For example, if you were on deck 10 you may have cabin numbers 10012 and 10014 – but no 10013.

This can be a little confusing but as long as nobody is looking for the cabin, it isn’t a problem. It’s often a joke that if you were to win a cruise, it would be cabin thirteen on deck thirteen.

Why do Some Cruise Ships Not Have a Deck 17? (MSC)

Some ships do not have a deck seventeen because the seventeen is considered to be unlucky – such as Italy. As a result, many Italian cruise lines will not include deck 17 on their ships. 

The ships that miss deck seventeen will go straight from sixteen to eighteen.

Evidence of this can be seen on MSC cruise ships. Many of the newer MSC cruise ships, MSC Meraviglia, MSC Grandiosa, MSC Bellissima, World Europa, etc, all nineteen miss the 17th deck.

Find out what I thought of MSC’s huge ship, World Europa here:

Interestingly, deck seventeen is rarely a deck that holds cabins as it is too high on the ship.

Unlike many cruise lines that omit thirteen when cabins are on the deck, the decision to remove deck seventeen seems to happen regardless of what is on that deck.

Costa Cruises are also an Italian cruise line – but they haven’t renamed deck seventeen on their ships.

Why Is Number Seventeen Considered To Be Bad Luck?

Seventeen, when written in Roman numerals, is XVII – which is an anagram of VIXI. In Latin, this translates as ‘I have lived’ – which implies death.

In other countries, four and nine are also considered unlucky numbers, but no cruise ships omit these decks.

Before You Go:

Make sure you are up to date with cruise lingo when you go on your cruise by reading the article below:

Cruise Lingo Exposed: Don’t Fall for These Tricky Terms!

Find out why ships are red below the waterline here:

Why Are Ships Red Below The Waterline? – I Went Under One to Find Out!