Every month Harding Retail, the world’s biggest on-board tax- and duty-free outlets operator on cruise ships, awards two employees for their outstanding and dedicated work. The awards are dedicated towards an outstanding performance in line with Harding Retail Corporate Values Trust, Spirit and Professionalism. Last month awards went to Mitko Stamenkovski who was awarded “Harding US, Manager of the Month” and Dimitar Kjosevski taking “Employee of the Month award”.

Carnival Cruise Line has introduced new internet prices for crew members on their latest cruise ship Carnival Horizon. Unlike previous plans where Carnival crew was charged per minute, the new plans include charges by Megabyte. The good news is that the new prices are lower than the old ones. Now the crew will have an option purchase $5, $10 or $40 internet card with prices ranging from 10, 9 and 6 cents per MB.

This year at the 6th annual DC Web Fest the Gold Award went to the Virtual Reality 360-degree short film entitled “The Crew”.

Hi, I am Vanja from Ship to Shop. As a former Crew member for NCL and Royal Caribbean, like you, I was very busy on board with little time off in port! 

I always appreciate when I could find a quick and easy crew shuttle, like in Miami.., so that I could do all my shopping and relax with a cup of coffee in a very short time, and get back on board to work on time.

Holland America Line, the luxury subsidiary of cruise industry leader Carnival Corporation, says it will hire some 400 Filipino seafarers for the company’s newest cruise ship named Nieuw Statendam. Set to debut in December this year the Pinnacle Class vessel Nieuw Statendam, will have a capacity of 2650 guests and 1300 crew.

After almost nine years in service Mein Schiff 1, the cruise ship that inaugurated the TUI Cruises brand leaves the fleet. TUI Cruises said goodbye to Mein Schiff on April 11, 2018, having been part of the company from May 15, 2009. The first TUI ship, that launched the German brand with capacity for 1,924 passengers, was purchased by Celebrity Cruises under the name Celebrity Galaxy. 

The Caribbean Season is over Hello Mediterranean. More than 100 cruise ships are making their Transatlantic cruise this year from the Caribbean to the Med. The transatlantic voyage is a long one, sometimes up to six days at sea before reaching the land. For those lucky ones who are working on cruise ships setting sail to Europe this season I’m sure you are looking forward to the adventure.

Cruise Lines have a different working environment, policies, and services for their employees onboard. There are numerous positive aspects that some Cruise Lines have already implemented on their cruise ships that should be an example for other companies to follow. A happy crew can make the working and living environment more pleasant and more productive, thus consequently make guests happier which is always good for business.

Even the most committed couples can grow apart especially if they are for a long period of time separated. This is the most common issue of married crew members who spent 6 to 8 months away from home and away from their spouses. There are numerous cases when these couples decide to break the wedding vows because they are becoming strangers due to the distance.

It is early Sunday morning at the Port of Miami. Today some 200 new sign-on and returning crew members from different courtiers around the world will arrive at the Miami International Airport ready to join the cruise ships. Once they pass the migration they will board the ship and off to different trainings, orientation and on duty. All of them (without exception) no matter if they are first timers or returning crew will suffer from Jet Lag.