If you have worked for two or more cruise line companies you can instantly feel the difference between them. Every cruise company is unique as every ship is unique in some way that only you can experience. There is difference between working on a mega ship or working onboard a small or medium sized cruise ship. Different size ships have some positive and negative aspects. Here are some guidelines for crew members what to expect in some cruise lines in terms of social life, working environment, food, accommodation etc.

Notice: Every crew member experience one cruise line in unique way. Therefore these are general remarks and you could not agree with some of them. That’s why we have comment box below so you can add your experience or disagree with this article.

Positive aspects for crew working on Carnival ships:
•    Crew parties on board Carnival are excellent. Crew bar is packed every night and theme parties are organized once in while for crew in guest areas, such as the disco and the pool open decks.
•    Food in crew and staff mess is pretty good. For breakfast there is an omelet station, while for lunch and dinner the menu may consist of NY steak, tilapia as well as different kinds of fish, cold shrimps, burgers, etc.
•    Male– Female crew ratio is almost 50-50.
•    Crew between each other are pretty friendly.

Negative aspects for crew working on Carnival ships:
•    Carnival fleet consists mostly of big ships, therefore, to get from one point to another is time consuming especially if you have only a 30 minute break. On some ships it is possible to use 15 minutes just to get to crew mess or cabin and back to work. And if the line is long, the possibility of waiting in that very line for 5-10 minutes is high, thus leaving a crew member with only 5 minutes to eat fast. If a crew member was a fast eater before that crew member joined the Carnival fleet that would not be a problem, but if a crew member has a tendency to eat slow and be late at work due to that same reason, then other problems may arise.
•    Some of Carnival Cruise ships are deployed in Europe and Australia, but most of their cruise ships are cruising in the Caribbeans. The cruise ships which are sailing in the Caribbeans normally have the same itineraries throughout the whole year, thus making these cruises boring for crew members.

Positive aspects for crew working on Azamara Club Cruises:

•    Due to the size of the ships, almost all crew members know each other and has a more family-like felling to this small environment..
•    Excellent itinerary and plenty overnights. Azamara offers cruises from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia filler with lots of overnights and less sea days. Therefore, crew members have a chance to visit different ports and experience the local night life of the same.
•    Crew cabins are satisfactory. They are made to accommodate two crew members. Most cabins are equipped with one bathroom. All crew cabins among other features have bunk beds, TV, WiFi, DVD, and some may even have a mini fridge.
•    Working environment is friendly and relaxed.

Negative aspects for crew working on Azamara Club Cruises:

•    Due to the fact that crew members rotation is limited with only two ships, after few contracts everybody knows each other and it can become boring in the crew bar.
•    Food is alright, but not as great. Azamara is working on this matter and trying to implement a themed dinning once a week such as Mexican food, Chinese station, American BBQ, and Indian buffet.
•    There are more male than female crew members.

Positive aspects for crew working on RCCL ships:

•    Due to the fact that RCCL has a wide variety of ships, from medium to mega-ships, crew members have a choice of working in different kinds of ships in their career.
•    When working on the medium size ships, a crew member may have more time to utilize for breaks cause the distance from work to dinning room is smaller, at the same time, on larger ships management takes this in consideration and increases the time for breaks in order to manage the distance between the work place and rest place.
•    RCCL ships sail all around the world, so crew members may have the opportunity to travel more places and experience more cultures within one career, or few contracts.
•    Due to the size of the company and the fleet itself, crew rotation is greater therefore it gives crew member of meeting more people through out their career.
•    Whilst food in crew mess normally in other cruise companies may be considered less quality or various, this is not the case on the RCCL cruise ships as the daily crew mess has a large variety of foods which are pretty delicious.
•    Every RCCL cruise ship has a committee which is composed of a representative from every department. The purpose of this committee is to discus any problems or issues which one department may have, such as food quality, variety, and so on, as well as any other issues connected with improvement of the living environment of the crew members.
•    The larger ships have so many amenities which allow crew and staff a lot more fun and options for themed parties, such as ice skating, and so on.

Negative aspects for crew members working on RCCL:

•    The possibility of one crew member to meet another crew member from the previous contract is very slim as the fleet is very large and one may never know where he or she will end up.
•    Rotation is so frequent that every month for one contract new people come and old people leave, thus not giving one person a lot of space to befriend a close friend and have that friend as a confidant for the entire contract.

Positive aspects for crew working on Princess ships:

•    Princess has a huge fleet, but there are still a lot of people on the ships that you might know from previous contracts.
•    Rotations a quite good. Requests are being considered as much as possible.
•    Princess have a crew club on each ship that has a CC president. Committee meeting takes place every month.
•    There are lot of parties, there is a party every month hosted by a certain department, always themed. Besides these there are game nights, movie nights, karaoke, etc.
•    There are crew tours organized in ports, approximately every month.
•    Crew deck, has both pools and Jacuzzis. There are also deck loungers one can use.
•    Me personally never experienced any issues. Of course, as everywhere, there are always problems, but in general I can say we have a nice big family there.

Negative aspects for crew members working on Princess ships:

•    Very rarely there are crew shows which are held in the Princess Theatre or another bigger lounge that is closed for passengers for that time.
•    Princes fleet consists mostly of big ships,  therefore same like on Carnival to get from one point to another is time consuming especially if you have only a 30 minute break. On some ships it is possible to use 15 minutes just to get to crew mess or cabin and back to work.

Positive aspects for crew working on Seabourn ships:

•    Seabourn fleet consists of small luxury ships and all crew members are friendly.
•    Supervisors are always proactive and onboard crew purser always try the best to satisfy crew needs or requests,
•    Crew cabins accommodate 2 people and have fridge, tv,  dvd, telephone and bathroom. The food quality is great,
•    Short contracts of 4 months and then 2 months vacation 
•    Easy for crew members to request ship change.
•    Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday crew can use the steam room and sauna, and guest gym always after 10 pm
•    Excellent itinerary and plenty overnights in ports. Therefore, crew members have a chance to visit different ports and experience the local night life of the same.