Royal Caribbean Cruises is operating a training facility in Maragondon Cavite, Philippines, managed by PHILCAMSAT - Philippine Center for Advanced Maritime Simulation and Training. The company currently employs around 11.000 Filipino crew members working on board the world’s largest cruise ships and plans to hire up to 30.000 Pinoy crew in the following years. Therefore Royal Caribbean is investing in state-of-the-art training facility in Maragondon Cavite.

Ladies and gentlemen all the way from Castries, Saint Lucia, currently NCL freestyler, we like to introduce the rising music star Josiah Willian a.k.a. BIG Vybe. Combining Reggae, Dancehall, and Soca this talented crew member started singing and writing songs at the age of fourteen. In 2009 he recorded his first song, and today with the album “The Dream has began” he spreads positive vibes not only in the Caribbean but also on Norwegian Cruise Line ships.

One of the main attractions among others in St. Maarten is Maho Beach. What makes this beach special is the nearby international airport located next to the beach. Cruise ship passengers and crew can make spectacular photographs when planes land to this airport. Airplanes fly just 20 meters from the beach before they land on the runway. The video bellow shows the cockpit footage of the Air France Airbus A340-300 airplane for a flight landing in St Maarten.

There are number of things you need to know before you start your first adventure as a crew member. This guide will help you during your first couple of months on board. It is better to know these important pointers than to learn it the hard way. 

Back in 1991 Carnival Cruise Line introduced its latest cruise ship Carnival Ecstasy. With the new ship came the new uniforms for the dining room waiters and assistant waiters. The dining room concept was each night with different dining theme and overall waiters had seven uniforms.Here are Carnival Ecstasy retro uniforms from the early 90s:

International night head waiter and waiter uniform

The most respected travel magazine, Condé Nast Traveler in partnership with Princess Cruises presented the most breathtaking cruise ship destinations in the world.  This fascinating video shows the beauty of our planet, from Fiordland national park in New Zealand, to large constructions created by man, the Panama Canal. You can check out all this beautiful and fascinating destinations and visit them on a cruise ship.

Crew members work hard and play hard. When off duty we like to party in crew bar or if the cruise ship stays overnight we like to party all night in the port. These are some of the stories we collected by ex-staff and crew members and their drunk experiences at sea. Some of their actions led to dismissal some .. well you need to read thier drunk stories.

Princess Cruises partnership with chef of the original Umami Burger, Ernesto Uchimura has brought The Salty Dog Gastropub at sea.  Organized in a comfortable, pub style atmosphere to offer distinctive dishes, with drinks from around the world with live music on select nights to enhance the guest’s experience. The following are Salty Dog service procedures from the moment guest enters the gastropub until he/she have finished dining.

On land or at sea people do dumb things. I don’t know why, but the dumber tings you do on cruise and post it on internet you can become some kind of local celebrity. This was the case with the 17-year-old girl Annie Schwenker from South Carolina. She took an ugly fall on a stair railing (some media say hilarious fall) on a cruise ship while her friend recorded the video.  Believed or not, Annie ended up as a guest star on the Comedy Central for her epic fall. 

Here is our top 5 list of dumbest things people do on cruise ship.

Love life for the crew is unique just like the entire working and social environment at sea. Unlike on land when you have much more time for dating, crew romance is unique. From our experience, we selected five pickup lines that only work on a cruise ship combined with photos. Some of them work, some not, some are cheesy other romantic. For the ex-crew members, this pickup lines will put a smile on their faces and bring back old memories. We hope you enjoy.

1. Pickup Line - Wanna go on open deck and watch the stars.