Editor’s Note: Monthly Ticket is a new CNN Travel series that spotlights some of the most fascinating topics in the travel world. In April, we’re setting course for the diverse world of cruises.

What looks like a longer curved path on a map is often the shortest route across the Earth’s surface. This explains great circle navigation, map projections, and why global ship routes bend to save ...

Publicly available data helps monitor ship traffic to avoid disruption of undersea internet cables, identify whale strikes, and study the footprint of underwater noise. As we run, drive, bike, and fly ...

Navigating a colossal ship is no mean feat under any conditions, but certain routes, like the sandstorm-prone, narrow Suez Canal — infamously blocked by a container ship last year — or the windy, ...