Life on a Cruise ship Part 1: Crew Behind the Scene

Working on ships is a wonderful opportunity one can procure, not only to get to explore places, meeting people from different parts of the world, enjoying the magnificent sunsets and a promising sunrise but also getting paid to travel. I am one of the fortunate individuals to have had such great experiences, but it’s not as perfect as it sounds, there is always a back stories behind these lavish job.

#Accommodation

Crew accommodations are horrendously small. Most crew cabins are shared cabins with a bunk bed and very limited space, you fight for a mirror, argue with wardrobe space and have a race for the shower. Worse is to share with someone you have just met and you figure out he/she can’t be trusted. Having to take shower in a common bathroom and taking a poop in a very narrow space – you even hurt yourself trying to reach for a toilet paper.

Decent Sleep

Unlike working land-based, people working at sea are somehow on-call workers, each and one of us has our respective Safety duties and that we could be called at any time of the day. You are basically on call 24/7. If something goes wrong and something needs to be doing, you are expected to be called and woken up in the middle of your snooze, the energy you see in us would probably be because of the espressos we have had. Supervisors have 24hr access to you at all times and would wake you up in your cabins.

Out of Trend

You are basically isolated onboard, it can be difficult and expensive to get internet connection while at sea so many of us seafarers completely lose tracks with what’s happening in world, may it be with latest music, world news, fashion trends.

Love & Hate Relationship with co-workers

In any firm, company or workplace, regardless of your position, the team you work with makes a huge difference. Oftentimes you get to have a buddy-buddy on board and perhaps you’d stay with his/her company for the entire contract, you will reach to a point that you’d get pissed off and get annoyed with him/her and that one or the other wished for a Man Overboard scene. You will realize that it won’t make any better keeping this negativity and after all, you are paid to look happy at all times, regardless if you are actually are. Indeed The people you live and work with are the ones that makes your on board experience. Some days are worse than others but you just have to manage and figure out yourself to get through it. And there is no exemption with the managers, you also get ‘Horrible Bosses’ on ships – the All-Knowing and the Racist, You just have to carry with you loads and loads of patience when you join the ship.

Earthly Needs

As we all know, Sex if not the biggest, has one of the biggest chunk in the human’s hierarchy of needs, (I can’t remember by who) and we working on ships are humans as well so we basically have the same needs as you guys do. Working in a nutshell with a bunch of people – attractive and not so attractive in a long period of time will lead to a possibility that our hormones are going to be uncontrollable than the rough seas in ‘Bay of Biscay’ and the Atlantic Ocean. As hard as certain individual tries to be loyal and stay clean and remain ‘untouched’, this could be disrupted at desperate times. What more challenging on this part? Ship is not very conducive for romance, but that is alright really. Privacy could be an issue, as one is trying to make love on the top bunk, the other is certainly trying to sleep but has to put earplugs just not to hear an awkward S sounds happening just inches above him. Worse part is many of these crew are married back home and not even ashamed to admit it. No excuse between men and women, ships indeed is an epitome of hook-up culture.

VIP-Not-So-VIP Guests

While some of the guests are really nice and lovely especially when they have been cruising for quite a few times and have briefly met you, there is always one or two that are really really infuriating. Just because they can afford to cruise, they should be treated as king or queens. We understand that they are on holiday and that they should be enjoying every moment of their cruise, but most of the time they are the ones that ruins it by being a dichead and as*oles. And some repeaters think they own the ship already and that they know the operation better than you do. And what could be worse than a racist and unappreciative guests? All that is left for you is to think about the reason while you are onboard. Often I say to myself ‘I Love my Job, I Love my Job’! to remind me that I am still lucky to have a decent job and of course convince myself with some of the perks of having this job. and this will get me through the day...

And these sums up the major major not so pleasant side when working on a cruise ship.
Hope you enjoy that, on my next blog, I will be telling you the exact opposite of this one, the bright side of working on a ship, on a cruise ship to be precise. Don’t forget to follow me @crisoz2mo for more interesting facts about life at sea and my travels.

Thank you for giving time to read this.
God Bless po!

FYI, some photos above are exerpt from my google photo searches.