Ever wondered how is it like to work on one of the biggest cruise ships in the world? This is my experience, my life and my view as an employee on one of the many cruise ships sailing around the world.
It is just me or everybody just went crazy? All my life I dreamed of visiting Asia. I was and am in love with its culture, food, religion and I promised to myself I will one day visit it, country by country.
Finally I decided to start with Thailand simply because my boss lives there. He’s an American married with a Thai girl who settled there years back. He was telling me about his home there, the country and habits and I just had to see it.
So I booked the flight and the hotel, 5 nights in Bangkok, 9 in Pattaya with a plan to visit all the palaces, temples and whatever else is to see in each of the locations. I would have thought my parents would be happy for me, but no, they are more worried about me being alone there. I am alone everywhere I go anyway, when embarking the ship, when visiting my friends…
Talking about friends….I got a strange reaction from them too. They all think that Thailand is the land of sex and that’s it. When I tell them about the things you can see there all I get back are smiles and the annoying “yeah, yeah!” reply. Last friend I told about it advised me to buy a lot of condoms and have fun…. What’s wrong with you guys???
Can I help but thinking this is the same situation that happens to Romania as well. Foreigners who never visited it imagine that Romania is a poor country where everybody abandons their kids because they have nothing to feed them with and the women sell themselves for pennies. How wrong!
Anyway, just had to relieve so steam, that idiot friend of mine with the condom comment really pissed me off.
Yesterday we got the new car. It’s not much, just a Dacia Logan, local car, but it does the job. Our vacation house it way up in the mountains and the road is bad, to say the least. What feels great is that you realize your hard work pays off in the end. Last vacation was a new apartment, this vacation is another one and this car. Yeah, I have a big bank loan, but I can pay it and I would have never got so much money from the bank if it wasn’t for this job of mine. Long live the cruise ships!
Some achievements should be kept for yourself, some should be shared. It’s never a good idea to brag about the things you own or do to your colleagues. Why? Because, even thought you might think they will be happy for you, you’ll get the opposite effect, meaning, they will be jealous of you, start avoiding you, or even worse, they will start talking bad about you.
It doesn’t matter you are smart and do your job well, the only reason you got your promotion is because you slept with the boss. Who cares if the boss is gay (happens a lot on ships)? Doesn’t matter, your “friends” will still say you slept with him/her.
Got new expensive stuff? Of course, you must have done some shady business! It’s impossible for some of them to realize that you can actually save some money. Most of them just spend their wages on silly things such as dinner in the best restaurants, clothes from the best brand shops, taking the most expensive tours and end up home, after 6 months of hard work, with a big bag of clothes and an empty pocket. Then, after the vacation is over, they start all over again.
You’ll see a lot of them working on the ships. Irresponsible people who took that job just to have some fun. Having fun is ok, but remember, you’re there for a reason, and that is to make some money and settle comfortable home. Make an habit to put aside part of your salary and send it home to your bank account or family. If you don’t have it, you won’t spend it, right?
So, I was saying…it’s not good to show off, but sure feels great to do it. And I just couldn’t help it…
It’s been one week since I got home and I had time to review my previous posts. Was funny to notice that they all are complains and it seems that I am mostly moaning about this or that. Well, it wasn’t my intent. My true intent was to let you know how it is like to work on a cruise ship, the unwritten rules as well as the written ones, the people and places you’re going to meet if you ever decide to take this road.
So I am making a commitment to you. From now on I will try to be as objective as I can possibly be so you will get a true picture of how ship life is. Might seem different from the other posts, but it is a beautiful adventurous life if you want to. It all depends on you and the choices you make and I am here you guide you and share my experience.
On the bright side, guess what? After 6 months of hard work, I finally “won” my reward. For two weeks I will be the guests and others will serve me. Where? In the land of smiles – Thailand. I will reach Bangkok on April 7th, will stay there for 5 days, them I’ll go to Pattaya for 9 days. I’ll let you know how all will work out.
I’ll keep it short today and I’ll try not to forget my commitment I made today
And here we are near the airport when the driver asks us which terminal we’re going to. I am trying to find the terminal number in the sign off papers that I got from the Crew Administrator, but there’s nothing. I look around and see quite a few disorientated people shuffling through the papers from the crew office… “Damn you Jitendra, you forgot to print out the flight details again!!!” is the first thing that goes through my mind. Well, I don’t blame him entirely, he is overwhelmed by the amount of work he has to do, plus, that day, we had full crew immigration inspection and we could have checked the flight details, but still…
Lucky me, the airline’s name was written on each terminal and I could find mine, but that was about all the luck I had. I get in the line for luggage check in, when my turn comes, guess what? I have 7 kg over and I need to repack. I ask the lady how much is the overweight fee and she replied that there’s no fee, but I need to repack. I paid $30 for a new bag, repacked, checked in my luggage and I go for the custom check.
I take all my jewelry, shoes, jacket and laptop and put them in one of the containers, another container for my backpack and my carrier, all went through the scanners. And guess what?? They saw something suspicious in my carrier and now I have to open it. It’s been already an hour since I stepped in the airport.
“No problem” I say to my self again while opening my luggage. First thing that was checked for explosives was my hard drive, the next one was the carrier itself. Apparently, perfumes over 100 ml are not allowed in hand luggage, but the lady was nice to me and just gave me a warning.
Long story short, after waiting almost 6 hours in the Huston airport, I get into the airplane and try to sleep through the 9 hours flight to London. Another 8 hours in the Heathrow airport and here I am in the airplane to Romania. After more than 41 hours I step in Otopeni, my home Airport.
We all pray for a fast contract and some of us get it. I was one of the lucky winners and my 6 months onboard felt like 6 weeks but now I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open writing this.
The last week of the contract is the worst. Your friends are constantly reminding you you’re going home, you try to remember who you forgot when you went shopping for presents, you need to write your handover notes for your reliever, and the list can go on and on. I tried to keep a low profile on my last week onboard, partly because I knew I will end up drinking all night with my friends, partly because I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my boyfriend before going in vacation. Of course it didn’t end up as planned, it never does, and now I am suffering the consequences.
Signing off in Galveston is a pain in the bum. From the first second you step on the pier you can see and feel the lack of experience and organization needed to properly run an operation of that size. Long lines at the custom check, both guests disembarking and crew signing off, long lines at the luggage pick up due to the poor organization of the luggage into quadrants by color (Royal Caribbean is using the color tag system to disembark the guests), the pier staff running around like headless chickens and on top of all that, the layout of the pier adds up and make it look like we are running a mad house. You might wonder what’s wrong with the layout of the Galveston pier. Well, I have 2 words for it: GIANT BARN. That’s all it is in my opinion and I really hope they will upgrade it by the time we are coming back on the next season because it really makes our work harder and longer.
Finally I made it through custom, I put my luggage in the complimentary shuttle the company provided for us, and then the wait begins. And we wait, and wait and wait, until you start thinking “what the hell are we waiting for???”, then you realize you’re not alone, there are quite a lot of sign off crew (each week around 40-50 in average) and some of them are still in the line for custom check. “No problem”, you think, “I can have a smoke until everybody gets here”. After half of pack and 2 hours later, finally the bus leaves for the airport which is one hour away.
It’s very easy to become another person when you’re away from home and the people you know. You can chose to be married or not, to be single or not, to have kids or not, so on and so forth.
Royal Caribbean does not disclose personal information about its employee and anyone who does that is immediately fired. We did had a few cases when people working in the shipboard offices gave personal information about one employee or another, sometimes out of naivety or because the one who requested was a good friend, but those people are home now, looking for another job. This is good news for some who have things to hide, like many I personally know, but bad for others who have no means of finding who the loved one really is.
It happened to me too and for a while I was ashamed, blaming myself for not seeing it coming, but then I realized it’s not my fault, I did not do anything wrong. I met him on my first contract; he was charming, smart, educated, and quite handsome. He told me he was single and I fell for it, maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he acted like one. No calls from home, no strange emails, we kept in touch daily when he was on vacation. And time passed, and we were seeing each other for almost a year when he told me he’s divorced and has a daughter. I should have slapped him and go away right on that moment for lying to me, but instead I understood his apologies and moved on. A few months after, finally he feels guilty enough to tell me he’s still married to his daughter’s mom, but they don’t live together for years.
That was enough! Even I knew that no Indian will ever divorce his wife, no matter how horrible she is. It’s just not in their blood and culture and their family won’t speak to them ever again. Valentine’s day, while he was sleeping, I packed my bags, left the key on the living room table, and moved back to my cabin. Nobody can imagine how much it hurts; I have no words to describe it.
But we all move on sooner or later. He showed up in the crew bar (we call it “back deck”) with a German girl after a couple of days, I met this wonderful man who makes me laugh and who I can actually relate to in terms of tradition and habits because we’re both European. But at least I didn’t show him off, I kept him to myself and enjoyed him and I still am.
I just hope he’s not married or in a serious relationship because I really like him and believe me, I can be pretty picky when it comes to men.
Royal Caribbean has a very friendly policy regarding couples onboard. A happy person is a happy worker so managers onboard are closing their eyes when it comes at who’s sleeping with whom and where.
If you’re husband and wife you’ll get your own cabin where you can live together. Also, you can transfer to another ship if your other half is there already. The company seems to care about families so you don’t need to worry, you’ll always be together and work together. Even your work schedule can be accommodated to fit the other’s schedule. All you have to do is tell your supervisor about it.
Now, with couples is a bit different. The company policy doesn’t say anything about it, BUT, your supervisor usually understands these things and will try to help you. If you have a long-term relationship that everyone knows about it shouldn’t be a problem, you’ll get your cabin together and your work schedule changed. If you met the love of your life recently, there are 2 things you can do about it:
Sneak out every night in your other half’s bed
Find another couple and switch without your supervisor knowing about it
Supervisors are cautious when it comes to fresh relationships because of 2 reasons:
Berthing is limited onboard the ship
If you just met the other one, the chances of you breaking up are high and reassigning you to different cabins can take up to a week. So you find yourself living with a person you don’t like anymore
All in one, love life onboard the Royal Caribbean ships is encouraged and as long as you find somebody you like, everything will be made as easy as possible by your supervisor.
That’s the easy part. Now, the hard part comes…how do you know the other person doesn’t have anybody else onboard, or worse, how do you know if it’s married or not? Well, the sad news is you can't...just follow your instinct, LEARN their culture and most important, listen to your friends.
“There’s no such thing as love onboard!’ is what you hear most of the time, mostly from the guys and the occasionally heart broken girls. I don’t believe so, even though I got burned recently. I think it’s possible if you use your head and don’t believe everything that you hear around you.
But make no mistake, love life on a cruise ship is not an easy one. Why? Here’s why…
One of the main reasons is because, if you’re a crewmember or a staff member, most likely you’ll get a roommate. Roommate equals no privacy.
Some guys are so desperate around here to get a woman that they will say anything to get you in their cabin. Don’t fall for it, it’s not worth it. As a new hire, take your time to look around, see who’s a player and who’s a good guy, don’t jump on the first guy you see because, usually, the aggressive ones are the bad ones. And ASK! Ask around about the guy or girl. Most of the relationships here onboard are not public ones. Not because one of the partners is ashamed with the other or because the guy or girl is dating someone else at the same time (which happens, but not all the time), but because privacy is high valued here.
Alcohol plays a big role in how and where you’re going to end up at the end of the night. Sounds like fun, but really it isn’t, especially when you have to take the famous “Walk of shame” in the morning.
To understand the “walk of shame” concept, you first need to understand the layout of the ship. All Royal Caribbean ships have a main, big corridor, named I95 (don’t ask me why, I have no idea). This corridor crosses the ship from one end to another and it’s packed with surveillance cameras every 50 feet. To get from the crew areas, work areas or other people’s cabin to your own cabin, you MUST go through I95. And believe me, when you meet your colleagues at 6 or 7 in the morning, and your hair is all messy, you’re make up is all over your face and instead of your uniform you’re wearing the party clothes you had on last night, you’ll think twice doing it again.
Same big rule apply onboard just like in any other place: if you’re a girl and sleep around you’re easy, to say the least; if you’re a guy and sleep around, you’re a cool guy. The difference between the ship life and land life is that here you’re stuck with these people. You have to see them every day, which is not always a good thing, so be careful who you choose to spend your free time with.
You will be amazed to know how much people can drink on a ship, both crew and guests. Some drink because it’s fun, some to forget, some because they miss their families, because it’s hard to sleep, frustration, stress and the list can go on and on.
They drink during the day, during their break, during the service, any moment is just as good as any, it does not matter as long as it makes you feel numb and another day goes by.
I am trying not to drink that much, but once I get to the back deck (that’s the crew bar onboard), I find myself in front of a Jake and Coke I cannot refuse. I ended up not being able to sleep unless I have something to drink….how pathetic…. I said to myself then “Ok Oana! If you must drink something, at least have a Corona, it’s less alcohol”. Yeah, right! It lasted 1 day and I was back to my good friend Jake.
Seems that there’s always someone or something to celebrate, and if you’re in the wrong company, you’ll most probably end up drinking every night, just like my friends. I figured it out that, if I want to slow down on the drinks, best thing to do is to avoid my friends and go straight to the cabin. And this is what I am doing!
But hey! I promised I will teach you guys about the life onboard ships, so…. Today’s lesson is about the alcohol consumption.
Royal Caribbean policy on alcohol consumption is zero tolerance. If a crewmember is found having more than 0.04% while on-duty or 0.08% while off-duty is most likely to be fired. Once they’ve tested you, there’s no going back. So what’s the solution? Quit drinking? You must be joking! Just get along with your supervisor and try and stand up straight while you’re on duty. Nobody will say anything as long as you don’t create any problems. All managers know what’s going on, they were doing it when they were crewmembers, and they are doing it right now.
It’s sad, but this is the reality onboard. Try and don’t get caught in this bad circle, stay away from the heavy buzz, don’t make it an habit to drink every day, try going straight to your cabin for a change. Believe me, it will be well worth it in the long run, and maybe you’ll make it to the end of your 6 months onboard…Maybe!
Name: Ariana Home: About Me: Born in a small town, ended up working around the world. I love to socialize, see places, make new friends. Always there to help, even when nobody is asking for it :-)And now I am learning graphic design as well, check out my other blogs.
