Cruise Ship Jobs- An Overview

We went out with our dear friend D this past Friday to bid him ‘Bon Voyage’ on his next round of adventures.  We first met D on the Holland America Ship the Zuiderdam, which was their flagship of the time.  Between the three of us we covered 3 different departments within the Ship and have so many fond memories.

As we talked on Friday night about the prospect of returning to Ship life I thought it might be a good topic for the blog, since it is how I really started traveling and it is a great option for people, both old and young to travel for free, and actually make a salary whilst doing it.  There are a lot of benefits to working at sea, and doing it on a cruise line is probably one of the better ways (other options include joining the Navy or working on Merchant Vessels, which sound like hard work to me) but make no mistake, these guys work you hard still, and you will not get the same rules and laws regarding your employment as you get in your home country, even if you work for one of the famous US lines.

It is fair to say that your Cruise Line employment experience will be very dependent on your role, and how important that role is seen by the ship you are working on.  The criteria for assessing your job satisfaction will revolve around the following:

Pay

Typically, one of the best paying Cruise Ship jobs is the Captain.  They can earn $80,000-$150,000 per year, and this can be increased through bonuses for saving fuel, and customer satisfaction.  The senior officers (Staff Captain, Chief Engineer, Hotel Director, Chief Purser etc can all also make a decent wage). Cruise Director can earn typically $50,000-$80,000 per year.  There are other positions onboard that have been known to exceed the compensation levels here, one of the most desirable was the Art Auctioneer, back in 2005 when I was finishing off my last contract there were a number of former Cruise Directors who had shifted into the Art Auctioneer role due to the large Commissions that they could earn, and in good months they would pull in between $15,000-$20,000; however my recent cruises have seen the department grow, so there are often several Auctioneers and the commissions are split further.

Most jobs start at the entry level, a Musician can earn $2,000 upwards per month, and can rise to the rank of Music Director (circa $4,000 per month)

For the unskilled Front of House staff the entry roles are Cruise Staff and Kids Club Staff, the pay here ranges from around $1600-$2400 per month depending on line and experience.

A key consideration with regard to pay is that for non US Citizens they will not withhold tax, so if you next cruise and notice how many people are from other Countries, you will see that such positions tax free would be very lucrative to these people.

Onboard Status/ Benefits of Rank

This is probably the single most important factor for an enjoyable Cruise Ship jobs experience.  Even if you earn peanuts in Pay your Onboard Status dictates your quality of life.  Perks that people desire the most would be:

Passenger Area Privileges – Cruise Staff and Officers have these at minimum, and depending on the Line so would Kids Club staff and the ‘Concessions’ of the Gift Shop, Photo Dept, Shore Excursions and Casino.  Sometimes once you hit a certain internal rank, such as Casino Assistant Manager you get access, whereas those beneath you do not.  The privileges make for a nice change as you are allowed to walk around open deck, drink in passenger bars, and dance in the passenger disco.

Even those with privileges have certain rules though, such as being forbidden to sit at the bar stool.  I have one memory of dancing a little exuberantly with one of the Bar Staff that resulted in us apparently standing on the bar (I disputed this, politely at the time) and whilst I was released with a warning, the person I was dancing with was fired and sent home the next port day.

More important than Passenger Area Privileges is without doubt sleeping quarters.  The most desired perk of any cruise ship contract is your own Cabin (not that you plan to stay on your own, they did call it the Love Boat after all…) but having that private retreat is a wonderful perk.  Most people on their first contract will share with one other person if they are in the Front of House Staff roles, if they are in the ‘Crew’ category then sharing can often be 4-6 people per cabin, in bunks, which can get a little tense.

Even if you don’t have the best privileges there is an effort on behalf of the ship to keep you happy, and there are often 1 or more Crew only bars, Crew only deck and Crew Parties to keep you from going crazy (though for the most part people go crazy at such events..)

Time Off

Even in some of my most senior roles I have had contracts that did not have any predetermined time off.  Some lines and departments are run so lean that there simply aren’t enough people to operate effectively whilst also assign time off, and it is the luck of a Late Sail (10pm onwards) or the Holy Grail of Cruise Ship Life – the Overnight that grants this respite.  It really will depend on your itinerary, your line and your department, but you can expect to work 6-8 months without a single day off on some operations.

Port Day Duties

Port Days are rest days for many departments, but some simply have to keep operating.  Housekeeping doesn’t stop making up the cabins because the passengers are in port one day, but some departments are better than others.  For example the Kids Club might operate a port day baby sitting service with a reduced staff, and rotate the shifts so you get to work only one in three ports, but depending on the staffing level and needs of the cruise you could be doing more or less of that.  Personally I enjoyed the rules of the Casino here, since we weren’t allowed to open up whilst in port (baring a couple of exceptions) so we got every one off.  Whilst we didn’t have extra duties there was something called ‘In Port Manning’ where a representative group of each department would have to remain onboard in each port to act as emergency support in the event of fire or other evacuations.

Length of Operational Day

The length of Operational Day is impacted by Ports, or lack thereof.  For example in the Casino if we docked at 9am and sailed at 5pm our Operational Day would be from 5:30pm-Close, which on the busiest ships could be 4am (plus cruise end nights easily being 6-7am.  Sea Days were the hardest, as the ship is operational from early morning til late night, and typically there are only two shifts to cover it, you would work a split and can easily work from 12-16hrs.  Also, US Immigration doesn’t care how long you have worked, so there are times when we would be wrapping up at around 7am after working for 16hrs and have to go stand in line for crew check.

If you plan to work one-two contracts on ships, that can last for 2-6 months each you will likely be sharing a cabin, and earning about $2,000 per month.  Some of the hours can be long, but trust me when I say they can be the best days of your life. I’ll share some more insights about this choice of career over future posts, including some more insights about specific jobs, and how to watch out for the dangers of Rank.