There is a lot of information out there when it comes to what it is like working on cruise ships, but no matter how much you read about it, there always seems to be something you weren't prepared for. Moreover, you don't really completely understand what it's like to be a crew member until you start working on a ship yourself. While I loved my time working on cruise ships, and there are tons of perks, there are some not so fun things that it's best to be prepared for. So, to help you feel a bit more prepared, here are 8 unexpected things no one tells you about working on cruise ships.
*Note: This is not meant to be viewed in a negative light, but to speak honestly about the realities of the job. Experience will differ depending on what company you work with, the ship you are on, and your job onboard. *
1. You are apart of Every Weekly Safety Drill
At the start of every cruise there is a passenger safety drill. As a crew member you are now apart of the team that facilitates these drills. The department you are in will essentially decide your role. For my team, we were the ones standing in front of the guests, demonstrating how to properly wear a life jacket.
What no one tells you is that there is also a a crew safety drill that should happen at least once a week, or once a cruise. It takes place while the ship is docked at port and every crew member must attend. The procedure you need to follow might be slightly different, and to be honest it feels like a lot of standing around just waiting to get the thumbs up that you are good to leave. While necessary, it can cut your time in port short.
2. You may have Unexpected Job Assignments
Depending on how staffed your ship is and how many guests are onboard, you may assist other departments now and then. I helped out with shore excursion multiple times and had friends who assisted the cruise agents. During Christmas, New Years, and Easter, we would have other staff members (usually from the dance team and cruise staff) assisting us with the larger family celebrations in the atrium or the kids activities in the kids club.
As a youth staff, a few other things I personally was not expecting, but became regular role for me, were tasks such as; helping facilitate (and dance) during sail away (i.e. the welcome aboard ceremony) and being stationed by the gangway to welcome guests back onboard once they were done at port for the day. Of course, it was not just me and my department doing this, but cruise staff, the entertainers, and other departments.
3. There is a TON of Constant Training
When you board a ship for your first time contract, you will have to go through a mandatory safety training that takes a few weeks to complete. It is essentially all the important details you should know as a crew member; where all emergency locations are on your ship, how to use a water hose and fire extinguisher, basic first aid and CRP, how the lifeboats work, how to survive at sea, and more. You even go through a mini fire fighter training. This training will have several written exams you need to pass. Don't worry, they are not too difficult and if you fail you can retake them. However, once this training is completed and you are certified, it is not the only training you will have.
During your time on ships there will be many more trainings you will need to go to that pop up all the time. They will involve anything from updated safety procedures, general refreshers, company information, and more. While they are not super fun to sit through, they are normally pretty quick. They are mandatory and you will get in troubble for missing them. This means if one is scheduled when you were hoping to get off at port that day, you are pretty much stuck onboard till it ends.
4. IPM: In Port Manning
Let me introduce you to IPM (In Port Manning). Even when a ship is docked at port, there still needs to be a specific number of crew members onboard. This is so that safety procedures can effectively take place if needed. To make this fair, each department has different members of their team assigned to IPM every week. When it is your turn, it means you must remain on the ship for the entire time you are assigned (usually a week or so).
This means, that you may miss out on some ports 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. Depending on what ship you are on, and the rules they have about IPM, you might be able to trade weeks with a friend, but not always.
5. Getting off at Port can be a Hassle
As a guest on a cruise ship, to get off at the majority of ports, you just head to the gangway and walk right off. If you are a crew member, it is not always that easy.
On some ships, crew use the same gangway with the guests. On others, there is a separate crew gangway that you need to exit from, and security isn't too happy if you try to take the guest route. Another thing to note is that when you get off the ship, make sure you know the crew all aboard time. Some ports and ships may have a different all aboard times for their crew, than what they have for their guests.
Let's talk about tender ports. There are some ports that ships can not pull right up to because it is too shallow. Therefor, they drop anchor further away and use a small lifeboat-like boat, called a tender, to bring guests to and from the ship. It can take time to wait in line, board the tender, be shuttled to land, and make it to shore. It will also take time to repeat this process to get back on board. Since you never know how many tenders are running, or how long the line will be to get back, it can be a gamble as to what time you may be getting back on the ship. If you need to make the crew all aboard time, or make it to work on time, it may not be worth it for just a few hours at port.
Also, depending on the country you are in, there may be a few extra steps you need to take to be granted access into the country. For example, when we were docked in Cuba or Russia, in order for crew members to get off, you had to put in a passport request in advance, and report to HR at a specific time to pick it up for the day. (Yes, once you board at the start of your contract they hold onto your passport so no one "jumps ship.") Once you did this and got off the ship, you then went to the "crew entry" into the country where you showed a special ticket that proved you were working on the ship and went through crew member security.
The main take away is that sometimes it is more of a hassle to get off the ship than you want to deal with that day. Or, some days, you just may not have enough time.
6. There will be Days you Won't Want to Get off at Port
This sounds crazy, I know, 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. It also might be that you are at a port that is just a glorified shopping area, a beach you've swam at a million times, or you have done everything there is to do in that area.
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 giving up anything that you have not already seen or done before.
7. Working a Sea Day is Absolutely Exhausting
As a guest on board, I am sure sea days are an absolute blast. You partake in activities, eat and drink, lay by the pool, and basically have the ship as your playground. 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! And you can bet when we were on our meal break, we would book it to the crew mess (usually on the other side of the ship), scarf down a meal, and then book it back to work.
Sea days are built into the cruise itinerary, so you will have an idea of which days will be longer work days. However, that does not help you plan for a surprise sea day. If the weather is too rough to dock, or there was a miscommunication between your ship and the port you were meant to be at, then you may just have a surprise sea day. Ideally you will know the night before, but some days you could just wake up to a call from your manager or someone on the bridge making an announcement over the speakers 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.
8. Your Sleep Schedule will Never be the Same
When you work on ships, you work 7 days a week and you don't have full days off. Thus, no weekends to rest and recuperate. Instead, you may find that your "rest time" becomes the breaks between your shift when you go back to your cabin to nap. And if you weren't someone who napped before, you most likely will turn into someone who will.
You probably have also herd that it is a party life style on the ship. Yes it is. The crew hang out together once the work day is done, and people tend to get off later in the evening. So, everyone meets in the crew bar to hang out and have fun. Usually the crew bar will close down around 1:00am or 2:00am, so you tend to be there late. 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 be very careful to adjust your alarm according to the time your ship follows, so you are not late for work. 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. However, some ships with just stay on "ship time" and not adjust their clocks, it all depends on what works best for the ship you are on.
Conclusion
I loved my time working on cruise ships, but there were a lot of unexpected, not so fun surprises I never knew about until I officially became a crew member. Of course, there will be more you will come across, especially during your first contract, but hopefully these will help to prepare you for your first time at sea. If you've worked on ships and have had the same, or a different experience, please share your thoughts in the comments below!