Hi!

[jg96ram]

Hi there guys, I'm jg96ram. I'm currently starting my A levels, but hopefully in 2 years time I will be starting my deck cadetship. I've had an interest in Cruise ships and Ocean liners ever since I was 7, when I read a book on the Titanic (I know) and saw the scene in the 1997 movie where Yosser Hughes (Captain Smith) told Murdoch to 'put her to sea' and the following engine scenes. Needless to say, the sinking didn't put me off and my interest evolved from Titanic via the original Queen Mary, the QE2 and teh Qm2 (which was launched just as I got into ships.) I've been on ten cruises, and whilst I know they bare no relation to actually MN life; speaking to officers, captains and cadets has got me even more interested in achieving my goal of just under 10 years. I know from reading the forum that some will moan that I haven't given other ships a decent chance, but I went to this January's Warsash open day and spoke to most of the companies, but they didn't seem to excite me as much as the cruise lines do. I'm people person, and would much prefer the responsibitly of passsengers and meeting them than being on a carrier of some kind (sorry!)

So essay over, got of couple of questions that I'll post in the relevant sections, and hoepfully I can help in a couple of years time!

Thanks, jg96ram

[GuinnessMan]

Hello and Welcome...

(I can't be bothered to give the whole spiel about cruise ships, but good luck and I hope you have a decent A-Level grades in some proper courses because you will need them)

[Clanky]

OK, as a senior officer on a cruise ship I think I can possibly give a fairly balanced view on this.

As a deck cadet there are a lot of advantages to being on cruise ships - lots of port arrivals and departures, generally quite high standards of bridge team management (although I have been on cargo ships where the standards are much higher than some cruise ships that I have been on), more opportunities to go ashore and see a little bit of the world, amongst others.

There are also a lot of disadvantages - No cargo work so limited experience, many cargo ship companies are reluctant to employ officers with only cruise ship experience, some of the people who tend to gravitate towards cruise ships can be arrogant, obnoxious and overbearing (although by no means all of the people), there is often an attitude amongst passenger ship people that they must be doing it right because they are the creme de la creme and no-one can question their methods, there is a huge opportunity to get yourself into career ending trouble, using either your boy or girl bits or your drinking arm. I have seen a few passdenger ship careers ended because of a young officer taking a shine to an even younger passenger who maybe didn't look quite so young after 6 beers.

That said with a little self discipline and a serious dose of application to the job at hand there is a great career to be made in cruise ships, just don't think that it will be the romantic life that you see in films, you will be working long hours, doing what seems like meaningless (but often actually very important) tasks, lots of paperwork, and if you happen to sail with the wrong bunch of senior officers not always being treated with a great deal of respect.

I amk not trying to put you off, but you need to go into this career with your eyes open and not because you watched Leonardo Di Caprio and some really fit bird get it on in Titanic.

[Clanky]

As an aside, as an engineer cadet there are less advantages and more disadvantages.

[GuinnessMan]

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