How is working on a cruise ship, any tips?

Question

I have a friend interested in a cruise job, said it was hard to find a real recruit office to begin with, anyone do it before or are doing it that can advise.

Answer 1

go on cruise line websites and apply.

Answer 2

I have not worked on a cruise ship but I have been on about 20 cruises and I usually talk to the staff, and usually about how work is going.  A few things I have learned are that if you are hired you have to sign a contract to work for 8 or 9 months straight.  And that means 7 days a week and usually 10 to 12 hours a day and sometimes with a split shift that starts early in the morning and does not end until 10 or 11 PM.  There are no Saturdays and Sundays off and you may get to go ashore in port stops on  on occasions but not at every stop.  After you complete your initial tour then you get 2 or 3 months off before you are to report back to the ship.

All of the cruise lines operating out of the US have jobs information and a link on their web home page.  So You need to contact the cruise lines directly. On their web sites you will find a link to jobs, employment, human resources or some such link that will give you information about their positions. Some sites even have current vacancies they are recruiting for. Several cruise lines have new ships coming out soon so opportunities will be there. Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Disney and some others will have new ships launched in the next couple years.

Here are some links:

Carnival Cruise line is the parent company for several cruise lines including Princess, Carnival, Holland America, Cunard, Seabourn Cruise, and Costa Cruises.  Carnival's Corporate offices are located in   Miami, Florida.  So if you contact carnival you can also ask about the others.

CARNIVAL:

http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/

PRINCESS:

CUNARD:

HOLLAND AMERICA

COSTA:

http://www.costacruise.com/B2C/USA/Def.....

Royal Caribbean is the parent cruise line for its partner cruise lines, Celebrity, Azamara, and some others. Their corporate offices are located in Miami, Florida.  So in contacting RC you can ask about the others

ROYAL CARIBBEAN:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/gohome.d.....

AZAMARA:

CELEBRITY:

http://www.celebritycruises.com/home .

NORWEGIAN:

http://www.ncl.com/

DISNEY:

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/dcl/.....

Then there are some that operate out of Europe:

P&O:

http://www.pocruises.com/pocruising/Ho.....

STAR:

http://www.starcruises.com/newweb/main.....

MSC:

http://www.msccruisesusa.com/

Answer 3

I will give Tinkertoy partial credit for his answer.    

Most positions on-board are staffed through hiring partners.  These are companies that work directly with cruise lines to staff cruise ships.  In the U.S. and Canada some of these are Just Cruis'n, Cast A Way and C-Deck.  I was hired for Royal Caribbean through Just Cruis'n.  

There are a limited number of positions hired through the cruise lines website.  Most of these are officer positions, or senior staff positions.  And most of these positions are staffed from within.  Very very rarely would a new hire be put in a senior staff or officer position unless they had previous cruise ship experience or a lot of experience in the position.

Now I can only speak for Royal Caribbean, but I would imagine Carnival, Princess, NCL, etc... are all pretty similar.