For those of us that don’t have enough time to separate work and travel, getting a job on a cruise ship could give you the best of both worlds. Working on a cruise ship is one of the most unique jobs in the world and is a once in a lifetime experience.
You may be concerned that you don’t have the necessary skills to land a job on a cruise ship, however. Not to worry, given the size and scope of modern cruise ships, there is a job for everyone whether that be in navigation, cleaning or hospitality.
Getting to travel the world, meet lots of new friends and take time off on an amazing floating hotel, what could be better? Before you get carried away, working on a cruise ship is a commitment as well as hard work. It usually requires long hours of physically demanding work. Similarly, you are on that ship for the duration of the cruise whether you like it or not, confined to the same place with the same people.
If you have considered the drawbacks and still want to work on cruises, keep reading to see the types of jobs you could be doing aboard a cruise ship.
Sailing and Navigation
Most people won’t have the necessary qualifications or experience to be able to land a job in this field. But, if this sounds like the dream job to you then perhaps with some hard work and a little training, you could be captaining one of these vessels in the near future. These cruises have huge teams of people assisting the captain with navigation, so there are positions available for novices that hope to work their way up.
Hospitality
Most cruises these days will have a myriad of restaurants, cafes and bars. A lot of these ships will also offer buffet and all-inclusive packages incentivising guests to visit the different hospitality venues more than they usually would. Hospitality workers account for most jobs on the ship from cooks, the bar workers and waiters. Most people will have the necessary experience to be able to land one of these jobs on a cruise.
Entertainment
In classic cruise fashion, the ship’s entertainment is a one of a kind attraction that single-handedly draws guests aboard. From magic shows and dance classes to bingo, the evening activities on cruise ships are a thing of legend and surprisingly large events that take hundreds of workers to pull off. While a lot of these jobs are fairly specialist, there are jobs working behind the scenes on lighting, props and management.
Healthcare
If you are a certified medic or have first-aid experience, you could well be working on cruises as a healthcare worker. With thousands of guests confined to a cruise ship with unlimited alcohol, things are bound to go wrong. While there are paramedics on board, there also needs to be a good deal of first raiders to take care of minor injuries.
Maintenance
If you consider that cruise ships are basically floating cities with 20 decks, multiple restaurants, swimming pools, gyms, spas and hundreds of bedrooms, you can imagine the number of maintenance issues that need to be addressed over the course of a cruise. Lightbulbs will go out, vending machines will break and some toilets will get blocked, it’s just inevitable.
Crew Care
While the customers do come first, the hundreds of crew do have lives and want to spend their free time doing things other than staring at the same four walls. The crew care team are in charge of making sure the crew is happy by organising excursions and events on the ship to give them something to look forward to. You would also be in charge of the crew’s general happiness and act as a makeshift HR department onboard the ship.
Administration
If you have experience in admin then this may be the perfect department for you. While the majority of jobs in administration for cruises will be on dry land, there needs to be a few on the ship. Someone needs to organise the sheer amounts of food, the staff paychecks and customer complaints. While this might not sound like the most exciting job on a cruise ship, you will still have time to enjoy the cruising lifestyle during your time off.
Hopefully, this list opened your eyes to the possibilities of working on a cruise ship. There are more jobs than we could name on-board cruises, you just need to find the one that suits you the best. No matter your experience, there is likely a good fit for everyone. Landing a job on-board a cruise can be an amazing experience, but you have to make sure you’re prepared because it definitely won’t be a holiday. It is a job first with the benefit of living on a cruise ship and getting to experience all it has to offer in your spare time.
