Sunday, May 11, 2008

CRUISE LINE EMPLOYMENT – A FEW THOUGHTS

There was a time when I researched employment on cruise ships in order to find further information about working on cruise ships. I remember coming across a web site, courtesy of Google, where the owner was prepared to, at a price, sell information describing the fun and wonderful lifestyle of working on cruise ships. So much for the free web, but I carried on looking and discovered another site where there were a lot of testimonials and other little snippets about how great it is to live and work on cruise ships. Having read these fragments and after listening to friends who had friends who knew of friends that worked on cruise ships and how their fantastic and hedonistic lifestyles were described in graphic detail, I decided to give cruise ships a skip. Anyway, it is now 2008 and for one reason and another I find myself now working on a cruise ship.

Everyone asks and comments about how great it must be to work on a cruise ship, to see the world, meet new people and so on and so forth…but working on a cruise ship is not as glamorous as it sounds, unless I am just working for the wrong cruise line. Let me make one thing very, very, very clear; if you are not in the “right” job on a cruise ship, then you will work like a slave for your entire contract.

Contracts

Let us start off with this; contracts vary in length and according to profession. Basically, contracts range from three months to 9 months with 3 to 6 weeks vacations. Casino staff, restaurant, hotel and other menial/service positions generally have 9 month contracts. The officers – such as navigators, safety managers, fire fighters, in other words, the professionals – have three months on and three months off. Certain specialised departments, such as surveillance, dancers, etc have 6 month contracts. Contracts can be extended, either voluntarily or due to business requirements (staff shortages).

Vacations range from 3 to 6 weeks or if you are an officer, three months. Once again, you can request an extension to your vacation or a shorter vacation. The company does not look too favourably on you if you keep extending your vacation unless you have a very valid reason, such as getting married or being there for your new born baby, etc.

The company will provide you with paid up flight tickets for both getting home and returning as well as a contract indicating that you have employment on your return. Officers get paid an allowance while on vacation but apart from their allowance, no one is paid for their vacation. So, it is important to budget for your vacation.

Types of Jobs

The biggest employers on a cruise ship are the hotel and restaurant department. Remember, the cruise line industry is intensively customer service orientated and included in this is the constant supply of food. Cruise ships provide a seemingly endless amount of food for the guests’ pleasure and subsequently, a legion or two of restaurant staff are needed to deliver this food. On the hotel side, staff are needed to clean passenger cabins, to wash clothes, to clean, sweep and polish on a hourly basis. Yes! An hourly basis! Guests make mess wherever they go. Food is dropped, drinks spilt, sand dragged off the “tropical beaches”, water dripped from people coming in from the pool deck…you get the idea…and yes, we even have “vomit teams”, rapid response teams, dedicated to cleaning up other peoples puke. So, the ship needs to be cleaned constantly. The reason for this will be explained later on.

There are other departments; casino, photographers, cruise hosts, shore excursions, finance, engine and deck, security, bar, Food and Beverage, chefs, surveillance, port and cruise and IT.

The concessionaires and other members are; musicians, entertainers, spa, fitness instructors, dancers, gift shop, InternetP2130051

manager, tattoo artist, art auctioneers and enrichment.

Concessionaires are not hired directly by the cruise line, they are provided through various organisations which are contracted to provide services, an example would be Steiner, Steiner provide our cruise ships with staff for the spa, gift shop and fitness areas. So the beauticians working onboard, are not direct hires from the cruise line but provided by Steiner in order to fulfil contract obligations.

In my next post/entry, I will discuss onboard living and looking at working conditions...