How do the cruiseship show dancers get paid?

Question

I recently returned from a Carnival cruise. I enjoyed everything but I'm wondering, how do the dancers, on the shows that they give during the evenings, get paid? Is it salary? Or do the perform a couple of shows for an amount of time in the yr. and based on that they get paid?

Answer 1

It's actually a contract.  All of the singers and dancers sign on the ship and sign off the ship together.  I don't know about Carnival, but for Royal Caribbean they select the cast for a ship.  They all go to Rehearsals in Hollywood, FL together for a few weeks, then they all sign-on to the ship together.  They preform as a cast for the duration of their contract (usually 6-7 months) and at the end of their contract they all sign off together.

They are salaried, so they get so much money per month, regardless of the number of shows they do.  Generally there are two pay days per month.  So if there salary was $2000 per month, they would get about $1000 each pay day.