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My wife and I are considering throwing away our lives as English teachers and departing for the high seas for adventure and I tried to locate the Ask thread about working on a cruise ship but I guess it's been archived and I don't feel like hunting through the archives to find it. What we want to know is the following: 1) How can we get a job on a cruise ship aside from applying directly? 2) Being a married couple if we both went to work for the same company would we be able to get a job on the same ship? 3) What sort of jobs are the best easy to obtain jobs for people that haven't worked on a cruise ship before? 4) Will our age be a problem, we're both in our mid-30's? 5) Any other useful information you can give us. TIA.
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Jun 13, 2015 02:26
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| # ? May 6, 2024 05:48 |
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What do you think you're going to do on a cruise ship? Not a lot of demand for at-sea English lessons. Cruise ships are giant floating hotels and the jobs are hotel jobs. So I guess imagine being a waiter or a maid, but not being able to go home at the end of the day.
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Jun 13, 2015 02:44
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I always assumed that cruise companies existed to skirt around labor laws and squeeze every ounce from their employees since they basically live on a great big floating company town in international waters.
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Jun 13, 2015 03:11
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Rent-A-Cop posted:What do you think you're going to do on a cruise ship? Not a lot of demand for at-sea English lessons. No we didn't have any allusion to teaching English as we realize that's not something you can really do on a cruise. We are however looking for suggestions about what kind of jobs are available and don't require a ton of experience.
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Jun 13, 2015 03:56
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Bip Roberts posted:I always assumed that cruise companies existed to skirt around labor laws and squeeze every ounce from their employees since they basically live on a great big floating company town in international waters. From my understanding it's not quite that bad and the pay is pretty good, considering you are being housed, fed and clothed(uniforms) at no cost.
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Jun 13, 2015 03:57
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Going on ~10 years ago I went to a little recruitment seminar put on by a rather large Cruise line where I learned a little about how they operate. I've also known a few people and acquaintances that have worked for cruise lines. Of the few people I know who've worked on cruise lines, they absolutely loved it, but keep in mind they were all single, in their early 20's, and had nothing at all to tie them down to home. I don't think it helped them with anything in life other than pushing off adulthood for another year or two. There are some big distinctions between international cruise lines and American based cruise lines. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only way you'll be earning overtime is through an American flagged vessel. There are generally two major job paths for those without specific qualifications, hospitality and entertainment. If you don't have a fairly extensive background in playing an instrument, dancing, or performing arts of some kind, you will be limited to hospitality jobs. Within hospitality, you have front-facing positions and back-end positions. All your front-facing positions place you in direct contact with people, customer service attendants, hostesses and waiters, bartenders, etc. Back-end positions are generally filled by low-skilled, non-english speakers, and these are the house-keeping and custodial type positions. If you can't see yourself being happy, energetic, and customer-oriented for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for months at a time, the job will crush your soul. When you are off-duty, you will not be allowed to participate in any of the public activities on board and you will be relegated solely to employee-only areas. I've heard that down-time is mostly just drinking and hooking up with other staff members. Pay is probably at or near minimum wage, but if you get overtime it would likely be paid out on a 60+ hour work week. You generally contract for a few months, get a month break or so, and contract again for another few months (4-6 months). I would venture a guess that doing this would be literal hell on your marriage and I wonder if you might find more enjoyment on moving to a resort village somewhere and working together there? For what it's worth, the people I know who've done the cruise-line gig worked for Norwegian and enjoyed their time there.
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Jun 13, 2015 09:43
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Are you and your wife having an early mid life crisis?
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Jun 13, 2015 09:52
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Cmdr. Shepard posted:If you can't see yourself being happy, energetic, and customer-oriented for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for months at a time, the job will crush your soul.
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Jun 13, 2015 18:28
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The ship I just got off, the staff were working 7 days a week on 7 month contracts, but they were light on staffing so everyone's contracts were being extended. I was led to believe that hotel (room steward/maid) and foodservice (cook/waiter) jobs paid a pretty good salary once converted to third-world rupees, but in American greenbacks it was pretty miserable, especially for somebody working (no poo poo) 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week, for almost a year straight. The non engineering/hotel/food jobs are far fewer, but pay better and are made up of American/British/Europeans. Kids club seemed like an easy one to get into, and we had a lot of interaction with them on our recent cruise. I was led to believe that it's possible to come in as a married person and have a contract with your spouse on the same ship. There is a facebook page called "Cruise Law News" run by a lawyer who specializes in cruise law, and it's fascinating. I was led to believe that given the food (leftover food that the cruisers eat), living conditions (sleeping 2-4 to a room), pay, schedule, and morale, working for a cruise line is not a great gig.
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Jun 14, 2015 05:21
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Have you looked into teaching English abroad? You'd get a lot more adventure than being stuck in a room with 4 Filipinos for half a year and if you're already qualified teachers you can get a decent paying job with low hours pretty easily.
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Jun 14, 2015 07:03
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Why not just...go on a cruise as a passenger? If money is an issue and you're this gung-ho about sailing the high seas, just go down to your local shipping dock, beg to speak with the captain and beg to be taken on as a deckhand. Or just book passage legally on a cargo ship. Or do literally anything other than work long hours in cramped quarters serving annoying vacationers. Seriously, unless you're certified to crew aboard a luxury yacht, cruise ship hospitality is the loving worst.
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Jun 14, 2015 08:24
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Jimmy Little Balls posted:Have you looked into teaching English abroad? You'd get a lot more adventure than being stuck in a room with 4 Filipinos for half a year and if you're already qualified teachers you can get a decent paying job with low hours pretty easily. I actually am already doing this, I teach English in Mexico City in one of the words largest financial services firms, as does my wife. Really even if the pay is poo poo, it's probably still better than the pesos(yeah, loving pesos) I make now.
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Jun 14, 2015 16:39
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why the gently caress would you ever do this as a married couple
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Jun 14, 2015 19:23
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oliwan posted:why the gently caress would you ever do this as a married couple At this point it's just an idea we are throwing around and trying to get some information about.
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Jun 14, 2015 22:13
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ModeSix posted:At this point it's just an idea we are throwing around and trying to get some information about. What are your expectations seeing as you are considering giving up what most would say is a good job, for a minimum wage 12 hours a day job?
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Jun 14, 2015 22:44
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ModeSix posted:I actually am already doing this, I teach English in Mexico City in one of the words largest financial services firms, as does my wife.
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Jun 14, 2015 22:56
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It will be very unlikely that you will both end up on the same ship. It is possible but you have to realise that each department has limited size. I believe the easiest would be to come in as Guest Services. Life on board is easy and straight forward and you could end up saving some cash. But the hours are long and you do work every day. It's still fun for atleast a contract or two, best way to apply is on the cruise lines website itself the majority of them have a careers section. Goodluck!
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Sep 10, 2015 17:42
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ModeSix posted:No we didn't have any allusion to teaching English i should hope not
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Sep 10, 2015 19:08
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| # ? May 6, 2024 05:48 |
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Goddamn thread necros.
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Sep 10, 2015 20:34
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