A luxurious and agreeable means of recreation for 2/3 of its passengers. An exhausting and poorly-paid means of earning a living for the rest. "In a floating microcosm where two parallel worlds co-exist apart", as Xenia Papaioannou says, "one point dominates: the shore that separates the patricians from the plebeians. The surface of the sea demarcates the "below-stairs" who serve the "above-stairs", traces watery human boundaries and assigns to categories".