Random Cruise Ship Employees Reveal What Day-To-Day Is Like (17 items)

• (#1) 'High School Mixed With Jail'

  From Redditor /u/JMPBass:

  Cruise ship musician here... Ship life is basically high school mixed with jail.

  Remember high school, where everyone knew everything about everyone's business? Who was [with] whom, cheating on so-and-so, doing this-and-that, being a such-and-such? Well, that's ship life in a nutshell. The bar is where we all congregate, it's where we all commiserate, and it's our only meat market option, because sleeping with guests is not tolerated. Oh, and cheap booze is great...

  Now, let's add in the jail factor: you're in a tin can and you can't leave. Some people can never get off in port because their jobs don't allow for it. I was lucky - musicians have an evening schedule that revolves around guest schedules, so we could easily get off in port as long as we weren't working on skeleton crew that day. Oh, and that involved us staying in and doing nothing (or laundry) unless a fire broke out somewhere, and even then we'd stand at a staircase and lead people to a muster station...

  Now, my gig was always easy... We'd go, play for a few hours, then off to the bar or for food.

  Speaking of food - crew mess was always horrible. It's mostly geared toward the crew who are from Asia/India. It's not always bad, per se, but it's not what you always want. We had access to the guest buffet, where we'd normally eat. Some ships give more; some give less. 

  Ships are a very classist system! I can't stress that enough. If you're into social justice, it's a case study worth exploring. Sometimes, the work is exploitative, other times it's demeaning, but these crew have to support their families somehow, and often it's better than what's at home. I've tried to curb my entitlement each time I've been on board.

  My last contract featured the party band doing a '20s/30s-style party. We'd take newer songs and put them to a swing beat and a walking bass line... Another party was back-to-school style, where we'd dress up in stereotypical prep school uniforms and play 1960s-2000s tunes. Sometimes it was a bore; sometimes it was awesome...

  Our job is basically to drive bar sales and make people want to stay. If we failed, they'd have to run extra events in the lounges, which meant more work for the bar staff and the entertainment staff... and then the band would get in some heavy sh*t...

  I made good bank on both ships, more than most musicians and entertainers. I didn't mind it because I knew what other jobs people had and how much they made in other departments, and when you take in to account how few actual hours we worked on board, it was best not to complain...
• (#14) 'There Is A Lot Of Training... Onboard'

  From a former Redditor :

  I worked for two cruise lines and... on seven ships.

  • There are three classes of people on the ship, the top rank which is officers. They have their own dining hall, and better food gets served there than [to] the other two, which are staff mess and crew mess. Staff are the entertainment team, child care team, photography, and shore excursion - any type of nonofficer management and guest service team. Crew are the sh*tty jobs like room stewards, deckhands, bartenders, cooks, etc.

  • The food is not the same as what the guests eat in both messes. In staff mess we have waiters, and if you don't see what you like, you can order an egg on a bun, or a hamburger, or something like that. In the crew mess, the food is more Asian-palate based. Some days there will be fish head soup; some days you will have normal cream of mushroom soup. There will always be some sort of chicken that's been sitting out too long and not hot, and some sort of cold cooked veggies, salad, pasta, dessert, and fruit. This does not sound bad, and for the first month on board it is not. But it ends up being the same food constantly... 

  • When you first get on, you will... get assigned a room. This room will most likely change after a few cruises. They like putting departments together. For example, I was a sound tech, and once the previous sound tech was gone, I moved into his... room with the light tech. The rooms are close to 4 meters by 2 meters wide including a desk, TV, bunk bed, very small closet for two, and a bathroom, which is... super small...

  • There are discounts when working on the ships. In the watch store I got a $700 dollar watch for $350...

  • There are days I have worked for 14 hours and there are days I worked for 15 minutes. It varies by the day and what's happening... A typical day for me would be to wake up around 10 [and] go do a lounge walk to make sure all background music was playing in each area. Go check out the bikinis on lido. Go back to my room to play Xbox. Go get lunch. Set up shop talk for shopping in the ports. Get bingo ready after that. When bingo is done, turn off projector, go back to my room, and have a nap. Once nap is done, go get ready for the show. Replace batteries in microphones, load up show on soundboard... Run down to eat dinner. Run back up to get background music playing, then do show No. 1. After show No. 1, talk to performers, make adjustments, [and] do show No. 2. Run from main theater to back lounge at the other end of ship and set up live band karaoke or comedy, depending on the day. Do that until 12:30 am-ish. Go to crew bar or crew party. Drink, then go to bed.

  • There is a lot of training to do when you get onboard: crowd management, life saving, other ones... I forget. Every three months all crew have to go through immigration. If you are in an American port and are foreign you need a [form] called an I-95 to get off. You get it after your first cruise. It will be renewed every three months. Every now and then you will have to do lifeboat tests and see how many people can fit in the lifeboat. They bring it down to the water... There are random boat drills every few weeks...

  • The days we go by are not Monday to Sunday. It's home port, sea day 1, Cozumel, sea day 2, home port, for example. It's very easy to lose track of [the] day and month. You will get fired if you get caught sleeping with a guest. To get around this you just get a hotel room in port...

  • Speaking of people falling overboard, it happens more than you think. One cruise we had a production singer thinking it was a great idea to do a handstand on the railing. He fell over, we spent hours looking for him, and he was never to be seen again... Drunk people fall off the balconies into lifeboats or into the water about one per contract. It's sad.
• (#12) 'Work Weeks Are 70 Hours'

  From Redditor /u/teddersman:

  I worked on a major cruise line out of a port in Florida.

  [The] crew bar has cheap drinks, but you're technically never supposed to be drunk. You can find most crew there usually always smoking..., drinking beers. and getting a little too drunk (not much else to do when the ship is at sea). Most crew members have families back home and a lot have girlfriends on board as well. That is just a part of ship life.

  Crew members are super hardworking, and work weeks are 70 hours... without a single day off for six to eight months at a time. Most crew members rely on tips for their wages. My position was salaried for $58 a day. I was an officer on board working in the guest services office. Came out to roughly $1,400 a month after taxes. No one else is taxed besides Americans on board.

  The best way to describe no days off is [that] waking up to your alarm... every single day feels like a Monday morning...

  [Y]our position on board determined if you had guest area privileges. I was allowed in guest areas, but after spending all day with the guests that's the last thing I wanted to do. You're always on duty and your supervisors have 24-hour access to you at all times by just ringing your phone and waking you up in your cabin. Sleep was very limited, so every off hour was spent trying to catch up...
• (#9) 'I Was An Officer, And This Brought The Benefits Of A Large Cabin'

  From a former Redditor:

  I worked on cruise ships as an engineer for three years and it was some of the best fun I've had in my life.

  I worked 10 hours per day every day for four months, but the social life was enough to keep you going. My first trip was largely uneventful, however, as I spent my time focused on work. I wanted to make a good impression, but in my last month of that contract I met a cool Italian guy who was an absolute player and he took me under his wing.

  I was/am an officer, and this brought the benefits of a large cabin with double bed and windows (windows are rare for crew as they mostly have internal cabins)...

  The traveling was fantastic and I traveled the world. My favorite part [was] the very north of Norway, where in the summer the sun didn't set and there was sunlight all day long.

  Alcohol (including spirits with my company) was very cheap, and you would often find yourself buying drinks for an entire room of people for very little cost.

  I could, as an officer, order room service, and there were even some crew cooking in their cabins and selling it to other hungry crew members.

  All in all, it's a hard lifestyle to maintain, and sleep is limited if you're social and want to go ashore at the same time, but in my opinion, totally worth it - if for a few years...
• (#13) 'Fighting For An Open Washer Or Dryer In The Laundry Room Is Hell'

  From Redditor /u/too-tsunami:

  Worked on a cruise ship for three years. Some key points:

  • If you're American, you are a minority. My ship had over 2,100 crew members, and only about 40 of us were American...

  • Fighting for an open washer or dryer in the laundry room is hell on earth... 

  • Food is provided, but the two most common ethnicities on my ship were [Filipino] and [Indian], so the crew cafeteria was usually full of food I wasn't used to... I ate a lot of salad and mashed potatoes on my contracts.

  • Think of a time you did something embarrassing while drunk at a bar. Now imagine having to see every single person who saw you do that embarrassing drunk thing, every day for months and months. That's what ship life is like.

  It was awesome, though. You travel for free, drink for cheap, and save a lot of money since you aren't really paying for anything unless you want to. I'd suggest it to anyone who has no strings attached, and is willing to work hard for six to eight months at a time.
• (#8) 'US Citizens... Aren't Paid Well'

  From Redditor /u/MirtaGev:

  Everyone sleeps with everyone.

  The food for crew is nearly inedible.

  You will never find a free washer unless you camp out in the laundry room for a few hours. There are usually about five to 15 washers/dryers, and anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 crew members.

  The rooms are tiny, and your shower curtain will always be trying to get to know you biblically.

  [United States] citizens aren't paid [very] well, but some countries, where the conversion rate is really good, make some serious bank. South Africa, especially.

  We do get to get off in port and go have a good time. Many ports have crew discounts for food and drink. However, most contracts last for around six to eight months, so after a while, the same old ports every week start to really wear on you.

  There is a crew-only bar, and beers are $1.50. Some ships have a crew-only hot tub.

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