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“At the passenger bars they were charging like $15 for a drink and we’d go down into the crew bar and you could get a beer or mixed drinks for $1.25,” Sam says. Employment found on ships is not typically glamourous, as one might expect. Additionally, they work longer hours, which means more income if your wage is hourly. Highly discounted cruise ship rates are also available for workers and their families.
What Departments Are Typically Found on a Cruise Line?
The chief engineer ensures everything from propulsion systems and fresh water to air conditioning and life-saving equipment functions properly and meets safety standards. This role also requires managing a team of engineers, ensuring tasks are completed efficiently, and maintaining the ship’s operational readiness for inspections. It gets worse as Bruns calls his time working aboard the Carnival cruise ship as the loneliest he’s ever felt in his entire life.
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Working on cruise ships allows individuals an opportunity to gain experience in a multitude of industries and the ability to encounter diverse cultures. Living expenses are minimal, which allows many workers to save a high percentage of their income. Nataly Vargas, a Holland America Line photographer and videographer from Colombia, said she typically works nine to 10 hours a day, but may only get three to four hours of sleep during busier cruises. Her base salary is $700 a month, with additional wages earned through sales commission, she told Insider. Less than 1% of commercial vessels are US-flagged, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. Several cruise lines headquartered in the US, including Disney and Carnival, have ships registered in the Bahamas, for example — meaning crew onboard are not protected by the US justice system.
Long Working Hours
"If you really want to meet new people, travel a lot, see different cultures, it's the perfect job — but it's not going to be easy at all." With shifts as long as 14 hours, the grueling schedule below deck can easily cause employee burnout and mental health issues, cruise workers told Insider. Pay varies drastically by position — as of this January, the minimum wage for international seafarers has been raised to $658 a month.
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Many staff members put up with seemingly endless shifts, are separated from their families for months at a time, and share cramped cabins. Working aboard a cruise ship is an appealing alternative for individuals looking for an unusual career path because of the combination of cost savings, special advantages, and the chance to explore the world. Prospective workers should consider these advantages in light of the particular difficulties presented by this workplace, which include long hours, stringent rules, and little personal space. Cruise ship nurses are responsible for responding to emergencies, treating passengers and crew members, and providing medical care. They require an ACLS certification, a minimum of three years of pertinent clinical experience, and a nursing license. Cruise ship doctors are in charge of overseeing the ship’s medical facilities, addressing medical crises, and providing medical care to both passengers and staff.
Sam, who worked on Princess Cruises for two years, says her monthly salary of $1100 was higher than that of her Filipino boss. According to Sam, the official reason the ship gave was that the dollar is worth more to people from developing countries than it is to Americans. This category addresses the crew members that do not receive gratuities.
“For most people, their salaries are quite low and they rely on those bonuses,” Kat says. So if you leave a bad review and mention someone by name, you can be sure they’ll feel the impact on their paycheck. For example, if you include gratuities, an assistant waiter could range from $900-$2,220 monthly. Experienced dining room servers can generate $3,200 per month, with the assistant maître d’ earning $4,000-plus in pay. Good bartenders can earn $1,800-$2,500 with wait staff receiving $1,200-$2,200 per month. Even with that, however, there’s no doubt that by American standards, shipboard crew work extremely hard and for wages that many of us would not be willing to take.
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That can have advantages, like short "commutes" and close bonds with co-workers, but it also presents potential downsides, like poor food quality and a sometimes excessive party culture. There's nothing like bringing people together to share unique experiences and see the world, making them feel special and becoming part of the stories they tell for years to come. While recreation workers are not required to have a bachelor’s degree, a degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies or a related field certainly helps. After the pandemic, she considered leaving the cruise industry for good, but decided to return mainly for professional development, she said. Whether you cruise multiple times per year or you're new to cruising, the goal of Royal Caribbean Blog is for it to be a useful resource for keeping up to date with what's new and exciting with Royal Caribbean.
Although salaries are low by European standards, they are significantly higher than in the home countries of these crew members. That's why they put up with the "very, very harsh working conditions," he says. Although the eight-hour day and six-day week generally apply to work done at sea officially, the reality is often different, she says.
Romantic relationships among employees develop and end much faster than on land, which, along with frequent turnover, can make long-term relationships difficult. The hours can also be intense, from about eight to nearly 20 hours a day. The employees Business Insider spoke with reported an average of about 12 hours. Bruns told Business Insider that the stress and loneliness of working on a cruise ship made alcohol an attractive coping mechanism.
"If you want a job that will let you see the world, there are better options that don't involve living in a cramped space with hundreds of other people," writes another user. "Cruise lines typically hire workers from Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe," writes one user. "That is because they can pay them a little as possible, the money does translate for them to be fairly good, and they aren't going to quit because they are far away from home." Well, damn. Cruise ships have a reputation for fostering a party culture among employees fueled by long hours and cheap drinks available at crew-only bars.
Working up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, is the rule rather than the exception. This is all the more true the lower the position of the respective employee in the labor hierarchy on board. As with most jobs at sea, cruise workers spend months away from their family and friends back at home, a challenge every person handles differently, Vargas added. "There's no work on land compared to working onboard a ship," Vargas said.
Free room and board, meals, and medical care allow individuals to save money while working. Between 2001 and 2020, the average passenger capacity of cruise ships increased by 60%, but the number of crew members only increased by 44%. The Aida fleet of cruise ships popular in Germany, for example, is registered in Italy. It also allows cruise ship companies to take advantage of more favorable tax conditions in such countries. In this way, it is possible to reduce personnel costs by as much as half, according to tourism professor Angela Teberga.
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