Jobs with Cruise Lines?

Question

What exactly would the difference be between working for differant lines? Like Disney v. Carnival v. Norwegian or something like that?

I should mention I'm specifically interested in the less customer service, more day to day ship operations roles like engineering, security, electronics/computer maintenance, things like that.

Would there even be a difference? Do some lines pay signifigantly better, or have better accomodations for crew, or something else noteworthy?

Answer 1

Definitely a different culture on different lines.  

Carnival - the most friendly and sociable one.  Generally a really happy crew atmosphere and a willingness to treat even the lowest-level guys well.  Strong history of promoting from within.  Invest a lot in training and career development.  Each ship has 1-2 onboard trainers, a dedicated facility, and classes / materials to learn anything from new languages to sales skills.  Several ships have crew hot tubs.

Princess also has a really good reputation for training, crew facilities, and generally running a happy ship.  Several ships have crew pools.

Norwegian - I don't know as much about them, but from what I've heard they don't exactly spend much on back-of-house operations.  A friend went behind reception and the office only had folding chairs and tables for desks.

Disney - no idea

RCI - The deck and engine guys have a really good reputation for running a tight ship. Not sure about the hotel side.

Celebrity - Do you get on well with Greeks?  If so, you'll be fine.  But lots of people can't stand the more, um, emotive style of management.  (I've always been shocked by how willing both crew and officers are to bad-mouth one another to guests.  I think that's a really bad sign.)

Holland America Line - They run a very efficient operation.  Definitely not for slackers. And if you're Dutch, it's great. There are so many Dutch officers they even have Dutch TV and foods.

The other MAJOR difference will be in roles.  If you're an officer, petty officer or staff you'll be much better off than a general crew member on any line.  But crew jobs are, in general, only filled by people from developing countries (other people CAN apply, but they just have better options).

Answer 2

the Disney cruise line has a pool only for the workers when you are off work

Answer 3

I've worked for Carnival, Disney and Pullmantour (now it belongs to Royal) for a few years and later for both concession companies that run onboard shops. (www.hardingbros.co.uk / www.starboardcruise.com)

Disney is very good as far as employee benefits. There's even a beach on Castaway Island for crew only. The bad side of Disney  is that if you are into travelling there are not many destinations and only 2 (3 now?) ships... so you are a bit limited.

Carnival > most ships have a crew pool. Other than that it sucks for crew. Deck privileges that staff had are minimum now (note there's a huge difference between being a crew member and staff, I'd never dream of working as a crew member). The officers are very rude and extremely unfriendly.

Working for concessions you get to go to all sorts of different lines, so I'll give you some examples bellow.

Costa > worst line in the world to work for, food is terrible, there's no respect at all (and I hold an Italian passport like most officers there) - Cabins are ok.

-Cunnard > So, so, bad food, bad cabins

-Silverseas > pretty good, very small ships though.

-Island Cruises > the food is so bad in 3 months I lost 7kilos.

Some of the officers are very friendly.

No formal nights, EVER, so it's more loosen up

- Thomson > even though the ships are old, the food is very good, staff have all meals at pax restaurants. Very friendly officers, decent cabins, overall the best ship I've ever worked. Very laid back as far as rules go.

Pullmantour> very clean, very polite people, cabins are perfect, as far as rules it's a freacking concentration camp.

> Minerva 2 is amazing, everything.

oh, well, now i've seen what you are interested, if you are not a light buld changer you probably qualify as officer working on those duties, you would have cabins similar to staff and all deck privileges. On formal nights a gala uniform would be required.

On some lines like Thomson, Island, Pullmantur, the pety officers cabins were close to mine and similar, not bad really

On Costa, Carnival, Royal the cabins of heads of department are by the bridge, next door to the captain, so if you were the chief engineer, chief electrician, IT manager, you would be in very good cabins, like shop manager...

but on most lines, only the captain, staff captain, hotel director and chief engineer live by the bridge.

Even thouth some ships are passenger friendly, not very uptight, like Carnival, it does not mean they are not strict when it comes to crew/staff/officers.

Some. which may be more high end are very laid back for crew/staff.

anyway, good luck

email me if you need more info

Answer 4

Hi,

I guess you need to do a bit of background searching on which cruise lines pay what for what job...

It can be very difficult to get a job on a cruise ship and the most succesful way is to register with a cruise agency who can find you a job.

I have an interview from a girl that worked on Norwegian Cruise lines as a shore excursions staff member - might be interesting... http://www.insidecruise.co.uk/features/v...

Answer 5

try below -

http://hubpages.com/_coollokesh/hub/Thre...

you cud be working from comfort of your home !!!

Answer 6

The answers to your questions can best be given by the cruise lines themselves.  You need to look on the cruise ship web sites for the link that will take you to their employment page. Each cruise line web site (I listed them below) has a link for jobs, employment, or human resources that will take you to a page where their jobs are listed and the types of positions they are searching for people to fill.

You should also know that some of the cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean have their headquarters offices in Miami, Florida. And Carnival also owns Princess and Cunard Cruise lines so when you contact them you can inquire about all three lines. Also, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are owned by the same company so the same goes when contacting them. In addition, Celebrity has launched a new class of ships called Solstice for which it will be recruiting staff. AND, Royal Caribbean has a new cruise line called Azamara cruise lines which will have lots of itineraries in the Pacific. These new lines and ships should provide plenty of opportunities for a position on a ship.

http://www.azamaracruises.com/07/azamara...

http://www.rssc.com/

http://www.cruisingluxury.com/Radisson_c...

http://www.silversea.com/

http://www.crystalcruises.com/home.aspx

http://www.cunard.com/

http://www.hollandamerica.com/

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

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

http://www.ncl.com/

http://www.princess.com/index.html

http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/

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