End Lines: Sun decks and Sea Breezes

The map: Matthew Sweet navigates the many levels of luxury available on your average high-class cruiser

The "fun ship" Destiny is one of the largest civilian passenger ships in the world. The $400 million, 12-deck cruise liner weighs 100,000 tons, and has to remain in the Caribbean all year round because it's too big to fit through the Panama Canal. It's n ot, however, too big to fit on this page. So join us on a Dantean descent from the sun lounger zone to the bilge pumps.

Sun Deck Where the Destiny's 2,642 passengers can slowly broil themselves under the Caribbean sun.

Spa Deck Houses the 15,000-foot long Nautica Spa with a gym, aerobics room, sauna and massage, beauty parlour and juice bar. All of which will probably be a dire necessity for the more indulgent passenger (see Lido Deck below). Also an excellent place to view the Rotunda - an enormous glass dome that tops the Lido deck.

Lido Deck The centre of the ship during daylight hours, it houses the main swimming pool, an Italian trattoria, a Chinese restaurant, a 24-hour pizzeria, a burger joint and a patisserie. And if you can still walk after all that, there's round-the-clock complimenta ry room service. Sheer heaven for the budding Homer Simpson.

Verandah Deck Contains 40 340ft-long suites, not quite as grand as the accommodation on the deck below, but quite plush enough to convince yourself that you're in an episode of The Love Boat. Just add kipper tie and flared slacks to complete the effect. This is also w here the Bridge is located, and consequently where the Officers have their berth. So if you want to turn up in the Captain's room at midnight with a bottle of Champagne, book here.

Empress Deck Where the smartest cabins are, including eight 430ft? penthouse suites concentrated toward the stern of the ship. All have a balcony overlooking the water, a full-size bar, a Jacuzzi, and a TV that you can use for electronic gambling. Prices vary, depend ing on how far in advance and through whom you buy your ticket, but a 14-night holiday that includes a week in one of Destiny's luxury penthouses shouldn't cost too much over pounds 950 per person.

Upper Deck Mid-price accommodation, but the best place for one-armed bandit twitchers and Andrew Lloyd Webber fans to stay. Put your ear to the deck, and you might just hear the sound of cascading dimes or some belting chorus from Phantom issuing from the Promenade Deck.

Promenade Deck The hub of the Destiny's nightlife. You'll find dancing girls, songs from the shows, but probably no Harold Pinter in the Palladium Theatre. Most of the dancers, apparently, are British. The Casino is also here - with the breezy name of The Millionaire' s Club - where the rounders? and the slot sluts go to squander their holiday spends. They can even compete against passengers on board other ships in the Carnival fleet for the "Mega Jackpot". A mainframe computer at the company's Miami HQ co-ordinates p ayouts via a satellite link.

Atlantic Deck Here you'll find the photo gallery, where, during an average week, the official photographers on the Destiny will shoot over 1,750ft of 35mm colour film, and use 8,500ft of developing paper to print over 15,000 pictures. The ship's library is here, too, where you can torment the librarian by asking for a copy of The Poseidon Adventure.

Lobby Deck The dining rooms and galley are located here, where the Destiny's paying passengers are provided with their eight meals a day. In an average week, they'll guzzle their way through a gargantuan amount of food and drink, including 2,800 pounds of steak, 6, 000 pounds of chicken, 1,200 Cornish game hens, 800 ducks, 56,000 slices of bacon, 600 pounds of sausage, 22,000 shrimp, 800 pounds of veal, 6,800 hamburgers, 5,200 hot dogs, 1,200 pounds of ham, 600 pounds of salmon, 300 pounds of smoked salmon, 42,000 eggs, 1,400 pounds of butter, 1,100 gallons of milk, 1,620 pounds of lard, 2,300 pounds of pasta, 1,160 bagels, 6,200 individual boxes of cereal, 1,970 pounds of cake mix, 8,200 pounds of flour, 16,000 tomatoes, 16,700 potatoes, 7,220 heads of lettuce, 1 ,800 peppers, 1,100 cucumbers, 6,320 bananas, 3,500 apples, 1,430 melons, 1,560 pineapples, 920 gallons of fruit juice, 1,800 pounds of coffee, 26,300 cans of soft drinks, 1,530 bottles of Champagne and sparkling wines, 4,102 bottles of wine, 900 litres of tequila, 815 litres of scotch, 825 litres of vodka, 750 litres of rum, 600 litres of whisky, 521 litres of gin, and 900 litres of vermouth. Bring your own bucket.

Main Deck More mid-price accommodation, and its proximity to the galley makes it the best place to stay for those who want to be first in the line for dinner. It's only one level up ??- and if you've put on too much weight to take the stairs, you could zip upin o ne of the Destiny's 18 elevators.

Riviera Deck Not steerage, exactly, but this is where the cheapest cabins are situated. Towards the stern there are even some berth cabins with bunks attached to the wall. So if this were the Titanic, you'd have your best chance of finding Leonardo DiCaprio downat t his level. Book at the right time for the right agent, and you'll get a week in one of these for around pounds 279 per person.

Crew Decks

Where the 1,000-odd staff and crew members have their berths.