Who has worked on a cruise ship recently?

Have you ever worked on a cruise ship?

• I'm interested in working on a cruise ship in either childcare or as a cruise director staff(eg, hosting activties/events, talking to passengers - I'd like to act but ...show more

• Answer:

  Get ready for an essay, I've just returned from working for Norwegian Cruise Lines a week into a 3 month contract as a seasonal youth counselor, i was told it would be a sports coaching and it was child care/children's entertainer, learning dance moves, cheesy stage performances, screaming kids isn't for me so i left. I've heard of other people applying for jobs that weren't as advertised, like a head chef who they tried to make a sous chef, he quite after less than a day on board. Make sure you ask the recruitment agency specific questions about what exactly you'll be doing, because the reality may differ. NCL do have a theater which they put on various "productions" with the entertainment crew,cirque de jour, Nickelodeon, musical productions (abba etc) i was friends with the stage manager and he hated them, he was told what would happen and had to roll with it, he's looking forward to leaving and travelling around america and just putting the job down as an experience and nothing more. The pros and cons differ from person to person, i liked ship life, the close quarters with 3 other cabin mates, gym, laundrette, crew mess (canteen) crew bar, work, tv rooms etc all in the same place and once you find your way around it's very easy, the food is nice as well. I had some really good nights in the cew bar and we were lucky enough to have an overnight stay in the bahamas and everyone got wasted. NCL also have a private island called great stirrups clay and we played frisbee, limbo, water games on the beach. The cons, as i said previously was the actual job, wasn't for me, i wasn't going to ask for another contract, or go into child care afterwards so it was pointless. Although i didn't once complain about this the other crew member bitched continuously about the amount of training we have to do, you have health and safety, hazardous chemical, crow management training etc every other day for an hour or so usually in you free time, also you are ALWAYS tired, like ready for bed right now tired, which did my head a bit and my though process and general decision making was a bit hap hazard and my energy was very low. The hours are very long, 70 hour weeks for the youth counselors which can stress people out a little, but you get told about that before you join. Lots of energetic and at times out of control kids and you have to think on your feet and adapt the games as and when required. As for time off, not really. The time for crew to be back on ship in new york (for NCL) is 14:30, so if you finish work at 13:00 then there's not really any time to explore, most people go and stock up at walmart or skype there family at stratbucks or something then come back, that's if you're lucky enough to have time off, i was working when we docked in NY, Cape Canaveral and the Bahamas. There's crew members who have worked 6 moths contracts who never get an over night stay, that's why they were so excited about the over nighter in the Bahamas, so the travelling to nice locations involves you looking that them through glass whilst 3 hours into a 12 hour shift. Personally, if the job was a coaching role i'd still be working there, you meet people from all over the world i sat and had drinks and laughs with people from the us,canada, south africa,australia, nicaragua, peru, south korea, and enjoyed "ship life", some people don't mind the job but hate the close living conditions and not being able to leave the ship all that often, so it's swings and round abouts really.