In reality, the money these people can earn on cruise ships is enough to support an entire family in

This week CruiseMates is doing a three-part series on careers in the cruise industry. Our first article, contributed by an accomplished travel agent, tells us what her life is like, advising clients and selling cruises, on a daily basis. Article number two will be about working on a cruise ship, and number three will be about working for a cruise line in the role of president of a company.
Everyone dreams of earning a living by doing something they love, so as a part of our series on cruise industry jobs, I wanted to share my own experience working on a ship. The other topics include working as a travel agent, and working on shore for a cruise line. All three articles are written by people with plenty of experience.
I worked on five different cruise ships during two periods of my life. During the first, I celebrated my 30th birthday somewhere in the deep southern Pacific, about as far from terra firma as one can get. My second stint at sea included my 39th birthday. My job each time was "stage manager," but the job description changed a lot from the first term to the last.
Most experienced cruisers know there is a management structure on cruise ships, but they don't know how it works or how strict it is. Men who went to Europe in the Navy on a commissioned ocean liner like the Queen Mary may have noticed sting broken music tour the officers have stripes, just like the Navy, as a symbol of rank.
A cruise ship's captain is the ultimate authority on the ship for the entire staff and crew. He has the final word in all matters, just like in the Navy. Would he go down with the ship if it were sinking? Maybe if that was the only way to save other people, but any respectable cruise ship captain today would at least be the last one off the ship, or near enough to it to see who the last person was.
Also like in the Navy, cruise ship officers adhere to strict, almost military-like rules, such as keeping a tight watch and following onboard procedures for maneuvers and maintenance that are well documented and rehearsed. But for the non-officers -- i.e., the rest of the staff and crew -- it is much more like working in a hotel.
Notice I use both "staff" and "crew" to refer to ship workers. There is a difference. In general, the staff includes people who tend to have managerial duties, and the crew refers to the worker bees who get the chores done.
Another common way to categorizing workers is whether they work for the "ship" or the "hotel" departments. In both, there will be staff members who are managers, and crew members who work beneath them. This staff in ship operations includes the officers, responsible for navigation and operations on the ship; the ship's crew will include deckhands, painters, greasers, window washers, and others. On the hotel side, a Hotel Manager is at the helm -- technically an officer but mostly not involved in operation of the ship. His staff includes sting broken music tour chief pursers, the head chef, the chief housekeeper, etc. The crew on the hotel side includes waiters, sting broken music tour cabin attendants, assistant chefs, galley workers, and so on.
The captain of the ship is ultimately in charge of the hotel department, sting broken music tour which means the hotel manager, known on most ships as the "hotman," answers to him. But in reality, hotel-related concerns are usually not a high priority sting broken music tour for a captain, and he tends to respect an experienced hotel manager's opinion and direction.
Many of the captain's duties are honorary -- i.e., he is often invited to the parties of important guests, he is asked to host a "captain's party" where he will greet the guests, and he may dine with some passengers at the captain's table. However, this doesn't sting broken music tour mean a cruise ship captain is merely a figurehead. They are highly skilled in their jobs, usually coming to the cruise lines after working as captains of other vessels such as container ships or ferries. Many find their niche in the cruise industry and stay at the helm of passenger vessels for years. Some do not.
Also in the hotel department, answering to the hotman, is the Cruise Director, who is in charge sting broken music tour of onboard entertainment. sting broken music tour The CD also manages communication between the cruise sting broken music tour ship and the guests. The CD will create the schedule of events for a cruise, including show times, enrichment lectures, distribution of tender sting broken music tour tickets, bingo, sting broken music tour art auctions and everything else. The cruise director has a large staff (no crew-people per se) working under him that includes hostesses, assistant cruise directors, entertainers, stage managers, teen counselors and sometimes fitness instructors, bridge (the card game) and golf experts, and sometimes dance hosts.
The final category of workers on a ship, somewhere between crew and staff, are the concessionaires. These are the people who staff the casino, gift shops, the spa, the medical center, the art auctions, onboard sting broken music tour shopping and photography. These people usually do not work directly for the cruise line. They work for a company that has a contract with the cruise line to supply certain services.
sting broken music tour Concessionaires usually sting broken music tour report to a manager on board who works for the outside sting broken music tour company. That manager must report to his home office, but he/she is equally responsible -- as are all people working aboard a cruise ship -- to follow the guidelines sting broken music tour and rules set down by the cruise line, the captain and the hotman.
Most ship's sting broken music tour officers come from European countries that have seagoing traditions; for most lines, the officers are usually from the country that played a part in creating the cruise line. Foremost among these are Norwegians, British, Dutch, Italians and Greeks; sting broken music tour each cruise line has a different history that reflects its heritage.
For example, Holland America Line has been around for more than 150 years; it began with regular crossings on ocean liners between Rotterdam and New York. Princess Cruises was a subdivision of a large British company called Peninsular and Oriental Lines (a.k.a. P & O), which still owns shipyards and container vessels throughout the world. Cunard Line, owner of the Queen Mary II, the Queen Elizabeth II and soon the Queen Victoria, is also of British heritage. (For the record, all the above mentioned lines are now owned by Carnival Corp.)
sting broken music tour NCL stands for Norwegian Cruise Lines. It was started by Norway's Kloster family. NCL was acquired by the Malaysian company Star Cruises. Unrelated, but also originally of Norwegian derivation, is Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Celebrity Cruises was started by the Chandris family from Greece, but is now part of the Royal Caribbean family.
Cruise ship workers come from literally all over the world. One ship I worked on was primarily Norwegian (Royal Viking Line), but it had several other European nationalities working onboard. Another ship I worked on, NCL's Norway, had 50+ nationalities represented in its crew -- from Chinese workers in the laundry to Caribbean islanders and Turkish nationals working as stewards and waiters. Most of the officers were Norwegian.
I have heard a few detractors say cruise ship workers are exploited because they work long hours, seven days a week, and are paid a low wage calculated on an hourly basis. I think these detractors are dead wrong and I bet you not one has ever worked on a cruise ship.
In reality, the money these people can earn on cruise ships is enough sting broken music tour to support an entire family sting broken music tour in their home countries. And many of them are doing exactly that. If you calculate the number of tables a waiter serves, or the number of cabins a steward cleans on every cruise, and figure in their weekly tips per person, for their country they are making very respectable wages. And when you work on a cruise ship you have virtually no expenses. Your housing, utilities, food and medical and dental care are provided by the cruise line.
Many crew members from developing countries work in these positions for years because it is vital to their families. A bar waitress on a ship told me recently that most of her friends had been with the same company, in the same jobs, for about five years on average, and that someone from their country who wants to get a job with that line must be recommended by someone already working for the company.
The entertainment staffers under the cruise sting broken music tour director almost always come from English-speaking countries like Britain, South Africa, Canada and the U.S. This is the one job category where you commonly find Americans (and frankly sting broken music tour not in too many other areas, though some concessionaires are hiring more Americans these days).
Speaking of concessions, different cruise lines sometimes choose to take these services in-house, meaning that instead of contracting with a concessionaire, they manage it within the company. This is especially true of casinos and gift shops. One area where the lines rarely meddle is the spa, which on most ships is run by Steiners Leisure Ltd, originally a British company. Steiners hires a lot of Brits, but they also hire other nationalities. The gift shops are usually concessionaires, and workers are usually British or Americans.
Nationalities aside, it is a common rule on all cruise ships catering to the North American market that the official language onboard is English -- and every worker, regardless of job title, must speak it if they ever come into contact with passengers. It is the language used for all communication between sting broken music tour ship workers above and below decks. Naturally, whenever workers of the same nationality get together sting broken music tour in private they will speak their native language, but it is generally not acceptable for any crew member to speak anything but English in the presence of passengers.
sting broken music tour What is it like to work on a cruise ship? The answer depends on your job. For some people it is a dream job, while for others it is hard work and long hours. Every job comes with a salary and all the other life necessities: food, shelter, water, medical and dental care. But each of those things sting broken music tour vary according sting broken music tour to your job.
Bottom Rung: At the lowest level are the entry-level jobs, mostly taken by