Cruise ships

[HolyNougat]

Big cruise ships are pretty crap these days to be honest, the vast majority of officers working on them seem to be biding their time until they head off and do something else, usually after getting more senior tickets.
On the swing side I would say:

1. They are great if you enjoy social activities, meeting people and like the idea of being a visibly responsible person.
2. If you are young and single then you have a pretty good chance of meeting members of the opposite sex.
3. The family travel benefits are great if you want to get your mum on for a week or two.
4. The company will pay for you to attend lots of courses which are an added professional value.
5. Modern cruise ships are quite often very interesting in terms of the technology and some ships do carry a certain amount of prestige.
6. You have the chance to work with people from your own country, which is often much easier than being on smaller foreign crews.
7. You often 'turn around' in the UK which is good.
8. You often have a full time contract and 'rights' under UK law, which gives you job security.

On the down side:

1. The crazy rules and regulations will drive you insane in the end. Everything you do is monitored and you will be subject pretty intense scrutiny.
2. The salaries are pretty bad for junior officers.
3. You are subjected to an endless stream of complete BS from 'the office'
4. You are inevitably treated like **** and in the long run you will start to feel rather aggrieved about it.
5. While you may think that being a 'Deck / Engine officer' makes you pretty important, you will soon realize that you actually rate pretty low and will be expected to be deferential to glorified waiters and toilet cleaners.
6. The highly rigid procedures do not prepare you for a life 'after cruise ships' and there are far fewer shore jobs for people with just cruise experience.
7. As a junior officer your responsibilities are terminally limited.

[laura]

Don't swear, smile all time and learn to look interested when pax are telling you stuff you don't give a f about :-)

That's how I survive both project crew and certain nationalities (obviously as a girl they somehow think I want to hear about their grandma/ wife/ children/ dog/ cat/ goldfish/ any illnesses they or anyone else in their family has usually with pictures/ illustrations... honestly no, I just want to get on with my job and my life.... I'm not interested in babies or wifes or looking at endless pictures of them either).

Does that sound mean? I've at least got good at getting away from giving medical advice to certain nationalities onboard... 'your arm's sore? What should you do about it? Have you tried cutting it off?'.

I don't think I would make a good cruise ship officer..... clients and project crew cut too close to the bone already (lost count how many people ask me 'what is it I do onboard? Or... What you're allowed to drive it?'), someone asked me to call them a taxi while alongside in a UK port, I asked them if they thought I was a secretary or if they were unsure how a telephone worked (this was a UK client, not one of my foreign crewmembers who would have genuinely needed the help), at least on a cruise ship you don't find them on the bridge too.. I used to be diplomatic and nice but it just makes the situation worse, better to let them know as soon as possible you mean business.

Went bit off topic there, ah well. Rant over... I'll go back to feeling the effects of last night.

[alistairuk]

Don't swear, smile all time and learn to look interested when pax are telling you stuff you don't give a f about :-)

[gadget123]

Does anyone have any advice for working on cruise ships? Coming from a cargo ship background what are the main differences to expect?