WHAT's THE 411 on WATER?

Question

So my sister and I were thinking about working on a cruise ship for the summer, maybe 2 months or so.

I was wondering if anyone has or does work on one.

If you do please tell me if you recommend it, your experiences, the wages (if it ok with you), and some different jobs. Can you give me some good cruise lines that you dealt with or heard about.

I also wanted to know when the boat stops does the crew get to go explore the island/destination or not.

I would really appreciate it thank you.

Answer 1

You cannot use a cruise ship as your summer job.  Most cruise line jobs require you to sign a contract to work for 9 to 10 months and you work 7 days a week  10 to 12 hours or more per day, depending upon your job.  Crew members do have time off and if that falls during a port stop you can get off the ship.  But you cannot have the same amount of time in port as passengers and in many ports you may not be able to get off at all.  It all depends upon your work schedule.

You need to just contact the cruise lines directly to see if they have positions, when they are available, how much they pay, and how long your commitment would be.

Occasionally people who work, or have worked on cruise ships respond to questions on here.  Hopefully for you one may respond to this question.

The luxury cruise lines are:

REGENT SEVEN SEAS:

http://www.rssc.com/

RADISSON:

http://www.cruisingluxury.com/Radisson.....

SILVER SEAS:

http://www.silversea.com/

CRYSTAL:

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

Other cruise lines that most people go on:

CUNARD:

http://www.cunard.com/

HOLLAND AMERICA

http://www.hollandamerica.com/

CELEBRITY:

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

ROYAL CARIBBEAN:

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

AZAMARA:

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

NORWEGIAN:

http://www.ncl.com/

PRINCESS:

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

CARNIVAL:

http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/

DISNEY:

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

Answer 2

You have to work about 9 months on the boat and you get 3 months off. You dont get to get off the boat and it is not a very well paying job. You work very long hours about 10 hours a day.  I would really look into it a lot more before deciding to work on a cruise ship.