Working on Cruise Ships

The food doesn’t seem so great anymore, not because of the quality, but just because it’s the same food every week. Many of us go out just to have something to eat, something that is not crew mess food. The work becomes boring just because we do the same things every day. Some of us are lucky enough to have a job where new things happen all the time and we have different challenges every day, but it’s not the case with all of us. We go to the same places every cruise, so you can imagine that going out to see things is not appealing anymore. I, personally, prefer to go to sleep or to the gym rather than to go out, for two reasons: 1. the dollar/euro conversion is a disaster; 2. I’ve already seen those places before and it’s not fun anymore. Yes, Europe is beautiful, no doubt about it, but how many times can one go visit the Pisa tower? Or Rome? My ship sails 7 months a year in Europe and this is the third season I spend here. This is not appealing to me anymore so I rather do something useful like the gym or writing on this blog (which I actually am doing right now, then I’ll go to sleep for a couple of hours).

What about the people? This is a good and a bad thing at the same time. Just like me, there are many that have this ship as a permanent assignment. It can be good if you make real friends, which in my opinion, is not possible on ships, but others tend to think otherwise, or if you have a permanent boyfriend/girlfriend. But what if you break up with your partner? What if it all goes wrong between you two? You are cursed to see him or her every day, a daily reminder of your failure. Believe me, it is painful. You start avoiding certain places, go straight to your cabin, and just because you see that person almost daily, it is very hard to move on. Another bad thing that happens is to run out of discussion topics. You meet up with your friends and you basically have nothing to talk about but your work. Working in such a closed environment limits your experiences and after you go through all the stories from your life back home, there is nothing left to talk about except your work and who pissed you off or who’s dating who.

And this brings me to the main story I wanted to tell you. Royal Caribbean has quite a few traveling positions. Each department has its own auditor, a guy who visits the ship for a week or two, reviews the operations and prepares a report with the findings. Some come onboard to train us, some come to be trained. Because we are in Europe, most of them use their jobs to come visit it. I think this is one of the reasons why this ship had so many auditors onboard. The Galley Department alone had 7 traveling guys (as we call them) onboard in the last 2 months.

But I must admit, to me they are always welcome because they are like a fresh breath of air. New stories, new jokes, new faces, I love it and always take advantage of it. All of the sudden, going out for lunch or visit places when in the company of these people, sounds like fun. And going for a beer and a smoke in the back deck isn’t just a necessity anymore, it’s something that you are actually looking forward to at the end of the day, because they have all these stories and experiences that are new to you, therefore interesting.

Of course, not all the traveling guys are fun. We had our share of obnoxious, irritating people coming onboard, which picked on things and tried to justify their work hours with nasty, unfair reviews. But also we had pleasant, fun people coming onboard as well. Like the last guy who is still here onboard. He’s a culinary trainer from New Zealand who came here to train all the cooks and part of the galley management. He’s always in a good mood, smiling and always has something funny to say. Having lunch together or going for a smoke is always a pleasure for me and he’s one of the fewest I am actually going to miss when he goes away. He actually made me decide to go with him and other friends to visit Rome, something I wouldn’t do if he wasn’t here because the tour takes about 10 hours, but I know it’s going to be fun, just because of him.

He’s my fresh breath of air and I will take advantage of it as much as possible. Saturday he’ll go to a different ship and again things will become dull until the next one will join the ship. But definitely I’ll be missing Wim and I will look forward to his return in December.