There are a handful of things I wish I had known about working on a cruise ship before I started my first contract. While I loved my time working on ships, these things would have helped me set proper expectations of what it’s like to be a crew member. Of course, it’s difficult to completely understand what it’s like until you start working and living onboard. If you are getting ready to head out to sea, here are the things they don’t tell you about what it’s like to work on a cruise ship.

What I Wish I Knew Before Working on a Cruise Ship

Let me be clear: I really enjoyed my time working on ships. However, there are things I wish I had known about that would’ve better helped me prepare for my time onboard. Thus, to help you prepare, here are 9 things I wish I knew before my first contract;

1. Mandatory Weekly Safety Drills

At the start of every cruise there is a passenger safety drill. As a crew member you help facilitates these drills. The department you are in will essentially decide your role.

What I did not know was that there are also crew safety drills that should happen at least once a week, or once a cruise. They take place while the ship is at port and every crew member must attend. While these drills are necessary, it can cut your time in port short.

2. Unexpected Job Assignments

I worked as a youth staff on cruise ships. As a staff member, I was also assigned tasks such as; helping facilitate sail away (i.e. the welcome aboard ceremony) and greeting guests at the gangway when they were done visiting port and saying goodbye when the cruise was over.

Depending your ship, you may also be asked to assist other departments now and then. I helped shore excursion multiple times and had friends who assisted the cruise agents. During Christmas, New Years, and Easter, we would have other staff members assisting us with family celebrations in the atrium or activities in the kids club.

3. Constant Training

Your first contract comes with lots of training that takes a few weeks to complete. You learn where the emergency locations are, basic first aid and CRP, how the lifeboats work, etc.. You even go through a mini fire fighter training. However, this is not the only training you will have.

Trainings pop up all of the time. They will involve anything from updated safety procedures, general refreshers, company information, and more. They are normally pretty quick but you sometimes can’t get off the ship until you complete them. So, if a training is at 1:00pm and you start work at 4:00pm, you may not be getting off the ship that day. All trainings are mandatory and you get in trouble for missing them.

4. In Port Manning (IPM)

Let me introduce you to In Port Manning (IPM). When a ship is docked at port, there still needs to be a set number of crew onboard, so that safety procedures can take place if needed. Each department has members of their team assigned to IPM. When it is your turn, it means you must remain on the ship for the entire time you are assigned (which could be a week at a time).

This means, that you might miss out on ports that you were really hoping to get off at. It also means you don’t get a much needed break from the ship to help you from getting cabin fever for that week.

5. Sea Day are Exhausting

As a guest, I am sure sea days are a blast. As a crew member, it is the longest workday of your life. For reference, here is an example of my work schedule during a sea day;

8:30am – 12:00pm
Lunch
1:00pm – 5:00pm
Dinner
6:00pm – 10:00pm
Late Night Babysitting for Assigned Crew: 10:00pm-1:00am

Now, try having a couple of sea days back to back. It can be long and exhausting for sure!

Normal sea days are built into the cruise itinerary. However, if the weather is too rough to dock, then you may get a surprise sea day. Ideally you will know the night before, but some days you could wake up to a call from your manager telling you that we will not be docking at port that day. Thus, your normal schedule gets tossed out the port hole and you will revert to a sea day schedule.

6. Getting off the Ship Can be a Hassle

As a crew member, getting off at port is not always as easy as it is for the guest.

On some ships there is a separate gangway for crew, and security isn’t happy if you try to take the guest route. At some ports the crew all abroad time is different than the guests. For example, guests might be able to be at port until 8:00pm, but crew need to be back by 6:30pm.

There are ports that ships can’t pull up to so they drop anchor further away and use tender boats to bring guests to and from the ship. It takes time to wait in line, board the tender, and make it to shore. You never know how many tenders are running or how long the line will be to get back, so it’s a gamble when you will get back to the ship. To get to work on time, it’s not always worth it for just a few hours at port.

Depending on the country you are in, there may be extra steps you need to take to get off the ship. For example, when we were in Cuba, you had to put in a passport request in advance (at the start of your contract they hold onto your passport so no one “jumps ship”) and report to HR at a specific time to pick it up for the day. In Russia, crew could only get off if they had a tour booked.

Sometimes it is too much of a hassle to get off the ship and some days you just don’t have enough time.

7. You Won’t Always Want to Get off at Port

This sounds crazy, and I never thought would happen to me, but it did. Maybe it’s because you do not want to deal with the hassle of getting off the ship or maybe you would just rather nap. You have to remember that most of the ports you go to, you will be visiting them about once a week for 3 to 6 months at a time. So, you really are not missing anything that you have not already seen or done before.

8. Your Sleep Schedule will Never be the Same

On ships, you work 7 days a week and don’t have full days off. Your “rest time” becomes the breaks between your shift when you go back to your cabin to nap.

At the end of a long work day, the crew meet in the crew bar to hang out and have fun. The crew bar might close down at 1:00am, but that might not be when you are going to bed. Of course, late nights mean less sleep, which means you are fitting in sleep where you can.

If you are on a ship that regularly crosses time zones, you need to adjust your alarm according to the time your ship follows. This can shave off a few hours of your sleep time, or give you an extra hour or two to get a longer night sleep.

9. Cabin Fever is Real

If there is one thing that would keep me from returning back to working at sea, it is the feeling of being stuck onboard. When you first get onboard, it’s amazing how big the ship is, no matter the size of your vessel. It feels overwhelming and like you will never figure out the floor plans.

However, as time goes on the ship starts to feel smaller and smaller. You realize there is not too much to do besides nap, workout, watch movies in your room, go to the crew bar, and try to get off the ship. You start to miss fresh fruits and veggies and simply having the choice to leave the space you are in when you want. It can be overwhelming, and finding a solid hobby and routine will be very helpful.

Conclusion

I loved working on cruise ships, but there were a lot of things I didn’t know until my first contract. Hopefully this list will help you properly prepare for your first time at sea. Have you worked on a cruise ship? What surprises did you encounter? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.