I was at the Guest services Desk last night talking to a guest about Florence and overheard two guests removing their gratuities. I heard the GSA ask them both why and the answer “ personal reasons” baffled me. After they left I spoke with the guest services associate and took their cabin number and made a few calls.

Ever wonder how an officer cabin looks like on a cruise ship? Take look at the video bellow shared by a crew member for inside look of standard cabin of a cruise ship officer. Unlike standard crew member cabin shared with two to four persons, officer has a single cabin with queen-size bed and a porthole (window). The cabin is slightly more spacious compared to crew cabin and the rest is almost the same like the bathroom, TV, chair and wardrobe cabinet.

So when I told people I worked on board a cruise ship, they all had this vision in their head that I was just on a constant vacation. Or I may have been only enjoyng cruise ship, but the fact that I was on a constant vacation made it not as bad. These are incorrect. The fact of the matter is this " Your Vacation is My Life". That was crew memberssecret motto to everyone who seemed jealous of us because we worked on cruise ship. The truth of the matter is yeah we were in some pretty amazing and beautiful places 90% of the time.

Amanda from Get a Life at Sea posted a video sharing basic information for crew members if they end up getting stuck on board a cruise ship. This is valuable info especially for the first time crew who have question on this subject.

Unlike guest staterooms, crew cabins are pretty small and usually located on deck 0, or below the sea level – deck A and B. Most of the crew cabins don’t have portholes (windows) – this luxury is reserved for some staff and officers – so for first-time crew members this might be a little confusing. You will have a hard time determining if it is day or night. Depending on your position or department, cabins are shared between 2-4 people.

Crew members on cruise ship have different hobbies, some collect magnets from all the city’s they visited, others buy souvenir plates, some collect coin’s from all over the world. Every crew member likes to keep some memory from his/her travel adventures. Crew member Alistair Twilley has unusual and unique hobby. He is filming places he have visited with a cruise ship and dances with his fellow crew members or locals. He needed 3 years to shoot his videos while he was working as Casino Dealer onboard Azamara Quest and different Celebrity ships.

Hour-by-hour comparison of one typical working day of a crew member and a cruise ship guests. Six to seven months contract almost every day is the same only ports and passengers change. New crew members come and you will get some extra time off to go outside take some picture and run back to the ship. Other than that routine an everything is the same.

Time        Guests                    Crew

Cathryn Chapman, spent years working on cruise ships sailing around the world but left the ships because she was disgusted by the promiscuity and betrayal that happens onboard. Today she is an author of the book “Sex, Lies and Cruises". This book is inspired by her experience on cruise ship she has picked up the strangest stories which she experienced on cruise ship. 

Royal Caribbean Crew Question & Answer enables you to ask question relevant for crew on board Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. At same time you can answer some of the questions posted by other crew members. In comment box below type your question.If you have answer write in Reply below the question you want to answer.

Letter from a crew member

I was hired to work as a third party in Costa Cruises.