Cruise companies- Can you contact them directly

[jg96ram]

Right, I'm only new so don't shoot me down for only wanting to work on cruise ships, but if you want the full story, have a look on my hello sailor thread. Basically, I know that there is an extremely limited amount of space on Clyde marine for companies like RCI. I also read someone that most cadets for RCI are internally recruited. I've had a look on RCI's careers website, and it says that there is no deck department recruitment team for the UK.

Now, I know I still have 2 years to go but I was wondering:
1) Do RCI take on UK cadets?
2) If so, can you be directly recruited by RCI?
3) Does anyone have a specific contact for RCI's deck recruitment in the UK?
4) Is the medical any tighter? (as I guess you would get an American OOW qualifictaion at the end,) and
5) Could you still train at Warsash or would you have to go to the USA to train?

Thats all, sorry its a bit long, but I'm curious! Thanks for any replies

[Vetinari]

I also would quite like to know this as I've applied to Carnival directly and both CMT and Viking but could find nothing about an RCI cadet program. Which led me to believe that, as you said, there probably isn't one for aspiring UK cadets.

[tlloyd1983]

Right, I'm only new so don't shoot me down for only wanting to work on cruise ships, but if you want the full story, have a look on my hello sailor thread. Basically, I know that there is an extremely limited amount of space on Clyde marine for companies like RCI. I also read someone that most cadets for RCI are internally recruited. I've had a look on RCI's careers website, and it says that there is no deck department recruitment team for the UK.

Now, I know I still have 2 years to go but I was wondering:
1) Do RCI take on UK cadets?
2) If so, can you be directly recruited by RCI?
3) Does anyone have a specific contact for RCI's deck recruitment in the UK?
4) Is the medical any tighter? (as I guess you would get an American OOW qualifictaion at the end,) and
5) Could you still train at Warsash or would you have to go to the USA to train?

Thats all, sorry its a bit long, but I'm curious! Thanks for any replies

To the best of knowledge:

1) Yes, but through Clyde Marine, and good luck trying to get them! There is one Clyde cadet I know of out of 5 phases at Warsash with RC
2) See above
3) See above
4) ENG1
5) I believe it is a UK placement.

Why is your heart set on RC? Carnival/Princess have a great cadet program for UK cadets, as do some of the others. Check these links:

Carnival/P&O/Cunard : http://www.oceanopportunities.com/cadet/

Holland America/Fred Olsen/Windstar: http://www.vikingrecruitment.com/training/cadets

[tlloyd1983]

Also Princess Cruises:

http://www.princess.com/employment/info/shipboard.jsp#deck

[jg96ram]

To the best of knowledge:


Why is your heart set on RC? Carnival/Princess have a great cadet program for UK cadets, as do some of the others.

Thanks for the information. It isn't set on RCI, I spoke to Carnival Uk, Viking and Princess, all of which were very friendly and displayed there companies extremely well. I just want to open my opportunities up, and try and get a broad understanding of the recruitment process for a few companies, and obivioualy RCI are one of the biggest, as is Carnival corp.

[tlloyd1983]

Well, as I said, RC and Disney recruit through Clyde Marine, but places are far and few between, and you'd be taking a gamble by choosing to go with Clyde Marine if you only wanted Cruise, because there would be a high chance of getting some other company. My housemate, also with Clyde, put cruise ships down, and ended up with Zodiac like me. :-). (Zodiac are the opposite to cruise ships in case you didn't know).

[jg96ram]

Well, as I said, RC and Disney recruit through Clyde Marine, but places are far and few between, and you'd be taking a gamble by choosing to go with Clyde Marine if you only wanted Cruise, because there would be a high chance of getting some other company. My housemate, also with Clyde, put cruise ships down, and ended up with Zodiac like me. :-). (Zodiac are the opposite to cruise ships in case you didn't know).

No, i didn't! So do they tell you what company you get before you accept or not? So basically could I put RCI and Disney down with clyde and still apply to carnival and viking, then find out I'm not going to get a cruise company, so accept one of the others instead?

[tlloyd1983]

We got told in the first month of being at Warsash, not before, so had already accepted a placement.

[dannyboy]

No, i didn't! So do they tell you what company you get before you accept or not? So basically could I put RCI and Disney down with clyde and still apply to carnival and viking, then find out I'm not going to get a cruise company, so accept one of the others instead?

But with Clyde you can only pic one cruise ship company as your choice out of the three

[ETwhat?]

If you really want to go for a cruise ship your best bet is to apply to cruise companies that manage their own cadet programs as then you will know who you are working for, you can still apply to training companies like CMT as a fall back but being aware that theres a very small chance of getting what your really want.

[YoungMariner]

Your choices for getting on a cruise ship are generally 'Viking Recruitment', Carnival UK (www.oceanopportunities.com), Saga (not sure who they recruit through) and Clyde Marine manage a few. Royal Carribbean, Disney and the rest don't take direct requests for cadets.

For qualified officers I have a list of e-mail addresses for pretty much every cruise lines crewing manager if anyone wants that?

[tlloyd1983]

Saga Cruises are through SSTG if I remember correct. There is also Thomson Cruises, and they also recruit through SSTG.
The other option is to go with one of the training houses, like Trinity/Chiltern, they can get you on a wide range of ships including Cruise.

[jg96ram]

Your choices for getting on a cruise ship are generally 'Viking Recruitment', Carnival UK (www.oceanopportunities.com), Saga (not sure who they recruit through) and Clyde Marine manage a few. Royal Carribbean, Disney and the rest don't take direct requests for cadets.

For qualified officers I have a list of e-mail addresses for pretty much every cruise lines crewing manager if anyone wants that?

Yeah, I've sent RCI an email but not expecting anything back. Pretty sure I'll apply to Princess, Carnival Uk and viking. Might need your list in about 7 years though!

[jackdb1996]

I had the same questions as you, and I have spoken to a few of RCI's captains in recent years and they asked me what I wanted to do, and I said "exactly what you do" and they said, well us brits have the best chance as nearly ALL of their cadets are from Warsash!
I would love to work for them, they are such a great company from an external point of view

[YoungMariner]

Unfortunately the salaries at RCCI are absolutely beautiful, was given a job offer a couple of years ago that was pitiful.