1. Forget about the rent

When you work on a cruise ship you don’t have to worry about looking for a place to live because the ship is actually your home. At least for a while. It might be hard to get used to such a small cabin, but the fact that you don’t have to pay the bills makes you very happy. By the way, you don’t have to spend money in daily commute, because your job is located a few meters away. You can save all your pay check if you want, which is enough a good reason to work on a cruise ship, but it depends on you: it’s quite easy to let yourself go in the shops ashore or in the crew bar (beer at $1!).

2. You will make life long friendships

Working on a ship means you spend between 6 and 8 months in the high seas. In that time you meet people, mostly other crew but also passengers. You live on a floating hotel and you have experiences that you might never live on land. For example? The chance of going out to explore new places in every port, eating exotic food everyday or going to a party with your mates from England, Italy, Peru and Australia. Every week you see new faces signing on, but you also have to say good bye to old friends that are going home.

3. Free food

Doesn’t matter if you are the captain, a watch seller or a waiter: food is free. Apart from the personnel food mess, some positions are allowed to eat in the passengers restaurants or the buffet. Imagine never having to cook again and have the chance of eating specialties every day during 6 months. And if you don’t have that privilege and you don’t appreciate the food in the crew mess, you can always befriend some guys from the kitchen. They have their techniques to have perfect and delicious meals.

4. Travel the world

Some people might argue that working on a ship is not real travel. Most of the crew onboard have a limited time to go ashore but they are a some positions that are allowed to spend most of the time in port. As a shoppie, I could go ashore an average of 9 hours —even more, if there is an overnight—, but sometimes I had trainings or some extra duties to do. You are able to explore places what people just dream about.

5. Welcome experience

On board you live surrounded by 70 different nationalities. This might give you an idea of all the things you can learn from another cultures. Sometimes the crew celebrates other countries independence days, were you have the chance of experiencing their typical food and have an approach to their customs. Also ship life gives you some tools that will help you dealing with any land job where human relationships are involved. You might be working onboard to save money or to gain experience, but working on a ship it certainly has it benefits, you just have to find them. I don’t want to romanticize ship life. You also have to keep in mind that certain privileges —like eating in passenger’s restaurants— are limited to only a few positions and they are different in each company. And if you don’t like this job, you can go home after your 6-month contract.