Working on a cruise?

RightClawSouth · Post by **RightClawSouth** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 5:33 pm

This was mentioned very briefly on an earlier thread but not really discussed - does anyone have any experience working on a cruise?
This webpage makes it sound awesome...

http://www.howtoworkonacruise.com/
- You basically have zero expenses because your rooming, food, and medical expenses are covered so you get to save basically your entire pay package.

- You get to travel around the world to exotic locations and have a seemingly pretty amazing time while doing it.
Have I missed something? This seems too good to be true... If it really is like this I'm gonna be pissed I didn't just do this immediately after graduating college...

RightClawSouth · Post by **RightClawSouth** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 5:50 pm

Now I got to the end of that webpage I see why they made it sound awesome - they're selling an e book... Well, just *because* they're selling a book doesn't necessarily mean working on a cruise isn't a good idea... Any thoughts?

il-besa · Post by **il-besa** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:12 pm

a friend of mine is going it now and she's on her second assignment...

she does 4 months on a cruise + 2 months off, and I've seen her before/after each phase.
I can say that it really depends on the crew you're working with, it can be real fun as well as hell, but always very hard work.

Keep in mind that cruises are organized with military-style (she has stripes and a title) and that you'll have to follow a looooong list of strict rules, including say "good day how are you doing?" with a huge smile every time you run into a guest, and possibly working below sea level with no window 6 days a week.
I'd say that is not something for everyone, but can be an amazing experience....
Ciao

Daniele

RightClawSouth · Post by **RightClawSouth** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 2:35 am

Thanks il-besa... Yeah, the 6 days a week below sea level with no window thing doesn't sound like fun... I would hope that wouldn't be too likely or that they'd at least rotate ppl in and out of that role to stop people going crazy...

Matthew · Post by **Matthew** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 2:46 am

I have heard there is not much downtime while working on a cruise unless it comes out of sleep time.

ktn · Post by **ktn** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 1:21 am

You may want to check how much free shoretime you get at the ports. As far as I've observed, it isn't much. It is when ships dock and guests disembark that much of the cleaning, repairs, loading and unloading happens.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 2:23 am

I met a guy in Thailand that worked on a cruise ship in Hawaii as a navigator after graduating from a merchant marine school of some sort
As a low level officer, he had shifts of 4 hours on / 4 hours off for a 6-day shift, with one day off when they were at port. He did this for 4 months straight, and then had 4 months of paid time off
It sounded like life on the boat pretty much sucked, but the time off was enjoyable. Apparently not too enjoyable though, as he's now living on a sailboat in Southern California doing sunset sails for tourists

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 5:51 am

From what I have heard, it is a lot of hard work, long days, and very little sleep. I found this read interesting: http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1059