[I’ve got a fun story for y’all today :) I found out one of my blogging friends, Mel, once lived and worked on a cruise ship (!!), and she was kind enough to elaborate on it for us. Perhaps next time we’ll feature her story on joining the circus for a year?!]
Some people do crazy things like recycle their toilet paper to save a few bucks. I preferred living on a boat.
Right out of college, I landed a job as a stage manager working for a cruise line. This turned out to be a pretty sweet gig. First, because I got a job working as a stage manager – not a lowly production assistant, or even an assistant stage manager. I actually started out as a stage manager in charge of a 16 million dollar theater. This was clearly nuts. Although if you know anything about ship life, nuts is sort of the norm.
Second, I was actually making more than most of my friends with theater degrees on land AND my housing and food was part of the deal on top of my salary. As well as health insurance. Booyah.
The Financials
I started at the bottom of the pay scale for stage managers at $90/day and finished up at $126/day. This created a weird phenomena where whenever I get offered any salary now, I immediately divide it by the number of days in the year so I know what I’m making per day… and only then does it make sense to me. The only problem was that you didn’t get any paid vacation. So the 2-4 months a year that I would spend on vacation, I made nothing and had to budget accordingly to get by (or side hustle – I definitely rocked that as well).
Unfortunately, we didn’t get any cool perks like a 401(k) or any retirement benefits in my position. The nautical department and some of the other positions that were geared towards lifers did, and if you worked in the corporate office on land you did get some pretty sweet benefits, including a pension. Not the case if you were a lowly stage manager like me.
I considered myself lucky to have that health insurance, and if anything actually happened while I was at sea, I was 100% covered medically speaking. No co-pays, nothing to worry about, even when I didn’t have insurance (because, yes, I was that uninsured early 20-something for the first 3 years I spent at sea). The health insurance was really only necessary to get you through your vacations.
The one thing we had available to us was the option to buy company stock at reduced rates, which I actually should’ve taken advantage of – but my personal finance knowledge in those days consisted of “never carrying a balance on your credit card” and “paying off your student loans.”
Life & Work on a Cruise Ship
Do you ever remember seeing movies like Animal House and thinking “yeah, that’s what college will be like!” Well, I don’t know what your college experience was, but mine wasn’t like that at all. I remember thinking back on those movies and wondering where the heck those schools were? Maybe they were never really based on colleges, but cruise ships instead. Because when I said nuts was the norm, I meant it in more ways than one.
Within a week of joining a ship, a person knows whether or not they’re a ship person. If you’re not, you either wind up quitting or you’re a “one and done” type where you finish that contract, return to your normal life and never look back. Most of the crew you’ll meet are “ship people.”
Personally, I used to drink a little too much in the Officer’s Bar after a bad day and loudly tell everyone that “this is my last contract.” Multiple times a week, starting with my second week ever on the ship. It wasn’t until five years later that it actually became true.
Despite the fact that days could be rough, I wouldn’t trade my ship experiences for anything. Here was what a typical day out on sea looked like:
- 9:00 AM – Travel Guide Talk
- 10:00 AM – Port Shopping Talk
- 11:00 AM – BINGO
- 12:00 PM – Rehearsal for evening show.
- 2:00 PM – Travel Guide Talk
- 3:00 PM – Shops Talk
- 4:00 PM – BINGO (cruisers love their BINGO)
- 5:00 PM – Check e-mails. Attend to paperwork. Make next day’s schedule.
- 6:45 PM – Check house. Open doors.
- 8:00 PM – Showtime
- 10:00 PM – Showtime
- 11:00 PM – Strike current show. Build next night’s show.
- 1:00 AM – Go to the bar.
Not all days were smooth though. If you want a detailed look at a rough one that is ingrained in my mind forever, you can check out this post I wrote here on what a day in the life of a cruise ship stage manager was like. It’s pretty crazy.
Socially, I’m a pretty hardcore introvert. There is no such thing on a cruise ship. Everyone is together all the time. You can stay introverted and hide in your cabin, but you’re likely to be miserable. Because after a 16 hour day where everything possible crashed and some cast member with PMS just screamed at you for thinking she’s fat when you were just trying to help her zipper her costume, vodka becomes your friend. And so does whoever is sitting next to you on the other bar stool too who needs to vent about their crazy day and what madness happened in their department.
Also, everyone rotates out of there on different schedules. So once you’ve finally made great friends with that girl from the Shore Excursions team, inevitably she’ll be disembarking the following week and you’ll have to start making a new friend again. This helped break down a lot of my social anxiety, although I never really knew the extent of it until I left ships and realized that just chatting up total strangers in a bar comes across totally different on land.
Another reason why cruise ships are nuts is that Animal House-esque atmosphere I mentioned. The fact is that there isn’t much for crew to do after work. We watch a LOT of TV. In my position, and for the majority of entertainment department staff, passenger areas were places we could go, but you always needed to put the passengers first and be on your best behavior. You also had to be in your uniform (or a formal outfit on formal nights).
Sometimes you just needed to throw on a pair of jeans and drink a little too much. Which was good, because the only place to hang out on my ships was the Officer’s Bar- where beer was $.90 and a mixed drink would run you $1.40. It always made me laugh to see the painfully hung over Youth Staff at 8 AM, trying to pull it together and look responsible while parents are dropping off their kids for the day. Seriously parents, you have no idea what that chick was doing 4 hours ago – it was hilarious.
What Being a Stage Manager Entailed
Professionally, I got a head start in my career. Coming back to land and returning to assistant positions has actually been driving me insane.
My job duties at 23 included being fully responsible for all aspects of running all entertainment venues on board our 2,000 passenger ship. That included a 900 seat theater with 80+ moving lights, an automation system and a digital sound system. That kind of theater technology isn’t that easy to break into. And now I can claim to be proficient with a fair bit of it.
I also called shows with insane automation cues that literally endangered people’s lives if I ran the show incorrectly. It was a world of difference from Waiting for Godot in a college theater. I was also responsible for the 200 seat theater and about 10 music venues around the ship. Furthermore, I learned a lot about OSHA regulations because I was responsible for making sure all those venues were complaint. I learned how to do purchase orders and payroll too.
I learned how to do all these things through trial by fire, because I’ll be one of the first to admit they were nuts to hire me. I did not have the experience they actually needed, but I worked my butt off to gain it quickly.
How I Got The Job
Part of why cruise ships are nuts is the high turn over rate. People who hate it will literally just walk off the ship sometimes. That leaves the company in a pickle and lots of times they wind up hiring whoever has a valid passport and can fly to Spain for 3 months the following day (err, don’t be too alarmed, the Captain and his crew don’t fall into this category – although the people watching your children do).
To get my first contract, I emailed my resume in through their website on Tuesday, was interviewed on Wednesday and got on a ship in Alaska on Friday. It was that quick. The previous stage manager had been let go and they needed someone to finish the last 2 months of her contract. I later found out from a friend in the corporate office that they were mostly just hoping I wouldn’t accidentally kill anyone trying to call the production shows. They had no intention of keeping me. Like I said above though, I worked my butt off to make sure that wasn’t what happened.
Other Awesome Perks
Financially, cruise ships helped me pay off most of my college loans, pay exorbitant rent in San Francisco for the better part of one year and travel the world for free. I’ve been to 5 continents without spending a dime to get there. Our company also had this awesome system where you could defer your flight home. You would submit a paper 2 months in advance and just ask them to change your flight date. I could disembark a ship in Rome or London or Australia and stay a few days, but then the company would schedule my flight home for whatever day I picked.
I could also escort shore excursions for free; I ate so much free crab in Alaska that way. Man. I miss that crab. And I mentioned how much it cost to hang out in the bar. While on board, I would receive a weekly bar bill. On average, I spent about $30 a week and was making more than $700. I’d often spend another $50-$100 going out in port with my friends, but I was still coming out pretty far ahead.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, cruise ships aren’t for everyone, but if you’re looking for an adventure, or even a weird way to spend just a few months of your life, look into it! There are all sorts of positions on board from performers, youth staff, librarians and fitness instructors to IT technicians, carpenters, plumbers and waiters. Just Google a few lines and click through their career links.
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Mel blogs at brokeGIRLrich where she explores topics like how to not panic over adulthood, working in the arts, and retirement strategies that don’t involve living in a cardboard box under an overpass. She was also once a member of the circus.
Like interesting jobs like this? Check out the one we did on being a mortician :)
Or if you’re looking for more part-time stuff, our side hustle series.
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Pretty awesome. Every time I go on a cruise ship I daydream about what it might be like. But in the end I’m pretty sure it’s not for me… maybe when I was in college, or right after if I hadn’t entered the workplace, but especially now with a wife and two kiddos around — unless they start allowing families to come along for the ride (without buying tickets, of course:) )!
Yeah, I’m in the same boat there (pardon the pun). Much easier to do w/out a family! Or at least wee ones… But man I’d still give it a shot for like a month if I could :) Would be nice to downsize and minimize!
Oddly enough, you can bring your family onboard with you – but you all have to cram into one little cabin. I have no idea how some folks do it. You’re right though, it’s much easier to pick up and go without all those attachments.
Good to know, Mel. I’ll have to let my wife know… hm…. do they need marriage keynotes and busy professional business/life/relationship coaches on cruise ships? We can cram if it gets us out for one month during the next Snowmageddon….
And J$ I totally agree… one month would be sweet!
Actually, they need keynote speakers on all sorts of topics, but they don’t usually get paid. It’s more of a barter for a free vacation.
That would still be cool!!!
My father used to work on a cruise ship before, but that was lasted for only a year. He said working in a cruise ship was extremely fun, where you can meet different people and visit lots of countries.
I bet! That would probably be my favorite part – meeting all the people :) And then, of course, all the different countries and ports.
I think your dad nailed the highlights. Usually when you think you want to join a cruise ship and wander the world, you sort of stick out among the people you know, but on the cruise ship, that’s actually everyone’s story.
I have a friend who used to dance on a cruise ship. I think she had the same love/hate relationship with it.
Mel – I definitely want to hear the full version of your circus life someday as well!
I used to be so jealous of the dancers. They definitely worked really hard to get where they were and they had to go to the gym every day to stay in shape, but they were pretty much the only people on the whole cruise who only worked 4 hours a day/3 or 4 days a week.
I was a drummer on a Royal Caribbean ship. I only worked 2 hours a day. 8pm and 10pm shows. I was 21 at the time, so I partied 24/7. In the officers bar back then beers were .10. It was crazy fun.
That sounds glorious :)
I think this sounds like a great job! I met someone recently on an airplane who said she lived on the island of St. Thomas, but she also lived on a cruise ship because she was a singer. She made me extremely jealous of her life!
So neat!!
That’s funny that you now break down pay in terms of days instead of an hourly rate. I have always wanted to try a cruise ship but just can’t get over the fact that I am on a boat all the time. Plus the shows about the “rogue waves” scares the heck out me. Oh, and the stories I’ve heard of people coming back and even though they are on land, they say it feels like everything is still rocking back and forth.
I’ve only actually seen one of those shows and it was the night before I was boarding a new ship. I watched like 45 minutes and then was like “what am I doing!?!?!” and turned it off.
I actually like that I break my pay down to what I make per day because when I’m spending stuff it’s sort of easier to instantly track it too.
I love that you think in daily terms too :)
A librarian on a cruise ship traveling the world — My dream job! Hmmm….. What would I do with the husband and kids????
Heh, I wonder if this is the librarian Kelly that I know?!
If I was to work on a cruise ship it’d definitely be a library position too :)
Never been on a cruise ship. I can only imagine the gossip on one of those cruise ships. Great story and thanks for the heads up with the drunk babysitters. I will not leave my kids until after lunch time.
Oh gosh, it occurs to me that a responsible cruise ship youth staffer may read this blog and be really irritated at those comments – some of them do exist! Usually the slightly older ones or the program coordinator. ;o)
Yeah, you’ve officially freaked out my wife w/ that statement, haha…
Seems like a blast! It’s something that definitely is only for a group of people. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to live on a cruise ship for months and years on end.
Great story Mel! Family and I when on a 5 day cruise a few years back. I think I still full from the amount of food I ate on the trip. We had a great time.
Mel already knows this, but I had a 9 month contract on a ship as a performer and had to quit after 2.5 months because of how unhappy I was and the fact that I was being harassed by both cruise ship staff and guests. I did get to see South America and Antarctica, but it was so bad that I was willing to give up the entire Mediterranean and the Middle East.
I totally meant to tell J that if he wanted the other side of the story he should talk to you about a guest post too! ;o)
WOWWWWW that sucks!! Good for you for a) Giving it a shot though, and b) Dipping out when you knew it was a bad environment. I don’t know if I could have done that…. Then again, I’m a guy and we rarely get harassed in the way I’m sure you’re talking about :)
I applied for a cruise position once, but no one ever called! When I got older, I realized how much it seemed to be a party culture, and I realized that I probably would have hated it! But, I wanted to see the world for cheap, which is what you say you got to do! That’s a pretty big perk!
You know, it could really be either. If you were just set on seeing the sights, you probably would’ve partied a lot less. Or just done one or two contracts and gotten out. There are a few spots I’m still kicking myself over missing because of something so stupid as a hangover.
I had always heard how little the staff were paid onboard cruise ships and how the mandatory tip applied to the bill would “offset” that wage. I understand but would opt out. Personally, I’ve felt that when I received great service, I would go out of my way to say 1) thank-you and 2) tip. This just confirmed those stories.
Mel, just for you… Thank-you & where do I send the check?
Hah. You know, I never once received a tip from a passenger. Sometimes some companies would rent out our ship for a week and usually their production staff would tip me and my crew though and that was always awesome.
I disagree with mandatory tipping too. I think it makes everyone lazier. I knew plenty of INCREDIBLE waiters and housekeepers who deserved excellent tips and plenty of terrible ones who didn’t deserve a penny extra. I think it was also easy for Americans and Europeans to not realize how far an extra $5 or $10 tip would go for a Filipino or an Indonesian sending their paychecks home.
What a cool story!! Sounds like exactly the adventure I need right now. Haha.
Thanks for sharing it,
S.
Yeah! I always advocate for adventure. Go for it!
It does sound like an awesome experience for someone right out of college. I did something similar- spent 3 summers working in a cruise ship port town in Alaska, which has it’s own crazy culture. You meet people from all over the world, plenty of characters. I’m pretty introverted too, like Mel, but that kind of environment really makes you become more open and outgoing.
This is pretty cool. I’m not sure I could do it, but I would give it a shot. We’ve been on 3 cruises, and 2 of those were nightmares. Our most recent one was awesome. I’d love to travel for free and have few expenses to make saving easier. I didn’t realize they could bring their families – is there a charge for that for employees? I also wondered, after paying $89 for 4 hours of internet, if workers were able to use it for free or not.
No, the internet was incredibly frustrating. Right before I quit I made a list of all the things making me angry and that was near the top. It was like $40 for 10 hours… which was better than passenger rate, but still. Really? And it was horrible quality. You could pretty much check Facebook and write emails with it. On a good day. It was slower than the dial up my parents had in 1994. Most of the time you’d find crew using free wi-fi in port. If you’re ever on a cruise and wondering where in port you can find that, just ask. All of the crew will know.
Actually, employees can cruise with their family, but the family has to all fit in the one cabin. The highest officers have pretty large cabins that make that more feasible. Also, if your children are under 18, one adult must be onboard with them and not working.
Woahhh really???? Okay, I guess I have to 100% strike this down then…. would be hard to still blog on the side w/ crap internet :(
Pretty neat about the family living situation though!
That sounds like an awesome job for someone right out of college. I don’t think I could live on a boat, though. Ugh, that sounds awful. I’m actually surprised that they let the crew drink at all, although I guess it would be really hard to stop people.
There have been movements towards going dry… but I honestly think there would be riots. I’m pretty sure alcohol is the only thing keeping the crew sane. The line I used to work for banned hard liquor for the crew about a year after I quit, which seemed ridiculous to me. Drunk is drunk. The only thing that it really achieved was a large loss in revenue in the crew bar.
I enjoyed my time cruising in Alaska, but not sure if I would want to work on a ship. I do think some of the perks are pretty awesome, like being able to travel the world without paying much and the deferment of your flight home.
ummm this sounds amazing!
“There are all sorts of positions on board from performers, youth staff, librarians and fitness instructors to IT technicians, carpenters, >>>>plumbers<<<< and waiters."
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I happen to hold a Red Seal in plumbing up here in charming Canada. Crazy ideas are creeping in to my head.
GO FOR IT!! :)
I’ve met some of the nicest cruise employees onboard…maybe they have to be but don’t kill my vibe. There was the husband & wife servers, who were from Antigua and after that contract, were transferring to a ship that was in New York. There was also the bartender from the Philippines, who was a HUGE Twilight fan because of his teen daughter. I learned how they celebrate Christmas in the Philippines and how he couldn’t wait to be with his wife.
I’m glad brokeGIRLrich shared her experiences.
I’m glad you enjoyed the article :)
Crazy job! It sounds like it worked out for you. I think I’d rather stay on the other side:P
How was work condition for Information Technology guys?
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They worked really long hours. Actually, the first guy I dated out on a ship was an IT Officer and we barely managed to see each other. On my line, there was 1 for the entire ship, so you can imagine it was a LOT of computers to be in charge of. They’re responsible for setting up the terminals that check passengers on and off the ship each day and for the general maintenance of all the computers. They’re also on call 24/7 for emergencies.
They also have officer privileges, can eat wherever they wanted onboard and had their own cabins.
I’ve always been interested in Stage Managing on a cruise ship. There are so many mixed reviews of people who have been through the experience, but I guess in the end, everyone is different! I’m not sure if it would be right for me, but I’d love to try. I’m also worried that while I am on the ship, I wouldn’t be making connections on land. Did you find it an issue trying to find work afterwards?
Yes, it’s definitely kind of difficult to get off the ship initially. Pretty much everyone I know who made the transition was unemployed for 2-4 months before moving to their next jobs.
On the flip side, since leaving, I’ve found former co-workers to be some of my best networking connections. Assuming you feel confident recommending someone, we usually go to some pretty good lengths to help each other find work.
Great article. I also work on a cruise ship and I am an american citizen. I do not have health insurance on land right now ( but i have full coverage on the ship while I am working) and I was wondering what you did when you came home for health coverage. I am not home very much in the USA but I am just thinking about when I do my federal taxes and the government sees that I had no insurance on land. I’m wondering if I will be fined or not.
Oh gosh, that is super tricky. I used to do the same thing – I didn’t have health insurance the entire time I worked there and would just cross my fingers when I was home on vacation (not very wise, I know).
Well, technically, when you go home, you’re on vacation – so maybe look into vacation insurance? Based on what I did on my taxes this year, you can just check that you had coverage all year then. Or you can say you were partially covered and just pay the fine for the months you weren’t. OH – although you can also have a 2 month gap in coverage without being penalized, so unless your vacations are really long, you might squeeze in under that.
Such a nice article. I consider myself an introvert as well, & was unsure if I could handle life on a boat. Hearing your explanation or the social aspect kinda put me at ease. I’m sure it will be more exposure than I get current;y, but That what I’m looking for from the experience. Thanks for your insight!
You can usually turn your room into a retreat, even if you’re in a position with one roommate. Those beds have curtains around them you can pull when you just need to get away from everyone for a little bit. I’m definitely an introvert too, but I think ships helped me out of my shell a lot.
Do you know anything about the standard accommodations/ working conditions for the art associates on ships? I am considering a position but would really prefer my own room. As a former New Yorker I can’t imagine sharing a room with a stranger and not worrying about my laptop, tablet, phone, or jewelry being taken.
Well, they couldn’t get very far with it ;o)
With Holland America, the lead art auctioneer had their own room and I believe they had an assistant who may have had to share with one other person.
Just curious about how often you got to go off the ship and explore on your own or with friends? I’ve never been on a cruise or even a ship but this actually sounds like it could be fun.
My position was really fortunate, actually, most in the entertainment department are because people want to be entertained while they’re stuck on the ship. That means most of the activities were scheduled for when we were at sea. So I really just had to run rehearsals or maintenance calls during port time as necessary – that meant I could get off the ship in most ports, outside of our in port manning schedule (a rotation of a minimum number of crew that have to stay onboard in case of an emergency).
The lovely thing about #cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.
Really enjoyed reading your story,I am interesting in looking for a cruise ship job,I have over 7 years housekeeping experience in hotels and 2 years in hospital..only thing missing is the chance to travel places and meet many people,that’s what interests me the most..if you apply and live in Canada or another country,do they just do phone interviews for hiring? And do you know how many cabins housekeepers clean per shift? Thanks your very inspiring :)
You might want to consider looking into a different job. Housekeepers have one of the toughest jobs onboard, often working 12-14 hour shifts EVERY DAY. They usually hire people from places like Indonesia or the Philippines for those jobs and they are very low paid (although the conversion rate to their local currencies is very favorable – it probably wouldn’t be into Canadian dollars). They do interview over the phone. You might have an easier time looking into the child care areas. Their pay is much better and they actually have some time to get off the ship.
Hello! I’m currently waiting to hear back on a stage management job with a cruise line. Do you have any tips for straight out of college first timers, and how did you pack? Did you bring your SM kit?
Hey! Sorry it took me so long to see this (and you’re probably already done with that first contract)! I actually did bring in SM kit on my first contract, but it was totally unnecessary. Cruise ships have plenty of office supplies and several first aid kits in your theater. Leave the kit at home. You may want to bring your own blacks, even if they’re going to issue you a uniform. My first ship only had boy sized clothing, so they let me wear whatever pants I wanted and a cardigan along with the logo-ed black polo shirt.
I actually have an entire post on packing to work on a cruise ship over on my site. You can check it out here: http://brokegirlrich.com/what-to-pack-to-live-on-a-cruise-ship/
Hello , great story, if its okay im currently writing an assessment at college about cruise ships, and i hope you wouldnt mind if you could just answer one question for me? As you said you went straight from college, what qualifications did you have and need to get to the next step out of college? thanks :)
Hi Mathilda,
When I graduated from college, I had a B.A. in Theatre Production. 1 years experience working in a scene shop and 1 year working as a stage hand for the local performing arts center. I then went to grad school and studied religion, but I worked for 2 years as the stage manager/sound tech for a small theater company near that school that did education theater (don’t do drugs, make good life choices, etc.) that toured schools, prisons and juvenile detention centers on evenings and weekends. I also spent 2 summers working as a sound and lighting technician for a small theater. So that those were the qualifications I had when I applied to the cruise line.
Hello, I read your entry and am reading the comments and it seemed like you had a wonderful experience! I have been wanting to work on a cruise ship for a while now, I am a massage therapist do you know how that job works on a cruise ship? I am also living in Argentina and can’t really go to the States. Do all cruises go to the states, do you know? Thank you
My girl is philipine, in this december 7 she will work on crusier ship in australia, i just worry when i read news and article about cruiser life, its a true story when u work on cruiser ? I just worried about her. Thank you.