Friday, April 12, 2024

What Working on Cruise Ships is Really Like: Pros & Cons

how much do you make working on a cruise ship

For service-oriented positions, there will be tips and gratuities on top of their basic pay. Gratuities will be divided amongst the service staff, either monthly or quarterly, depending on the cruise liner’s schemes. Waiters, bartenders, casino workers, and housekeeping workers usually depend a lot on tips, which can easily double up their salary.

how much do you make working on a cruise ship

What Benefits Do Cruise Ship Workers Get?

An executive chef on a cruise ship can make up to $6,500 per month, depending on the ship. Honestly, being a captain on a cruise ship seems like a high-paying and prestigious job. According to the table below, the average salary for a cruise ship captain is $98,000. However, this varies depending on the size of the ship and the captain’s experience.

What Do Housekeeping Do on Cruise Ships?

Mental health support is essential to combat these challenges and ensure a fulfilling work experience. So, when they do have time off, they often make the most of it partying at the various crew bars aboard the ship. In fact, most cruise ship servers have to take care of up to 30 diners at the exact same time. Brun shares that it’s super hard to get used to working such long hours. At the same time, he also says that you barely have the time to think about your hectic schedule. Auto-gratuities are a way of sharing gratuities among all crew members who don’t have front-facing roles, such as laundry attendants or kitchen staff.

Watch: The world's largest cruise ship just landed in Miami — here's what it's like on board

These are situated below the guest decks, normally just above the waterline. Officers and the Captain sometimes have their own accommodation close to the bridge. Most cruise ships have spas, beauty salons and hair salons that offer services such as massage, hair styling, nails, acupuncture, teeth whitening and skin treatments. Cruise ship doctor salaries range from $7,500 per month for a cruise ship physician to $12,000 per month for a chief doctor, depending on the cruise line and the level of experience. On top of their salary, cruise ship captains may get bonuses of up to $40k per year, as well as profit sharing of up to $3k. When you think about it, it is indeed a dream come true for many people.

Cruise Ship Housekeeping: Responsibilities, Salaries and Benefits

Take all of these benefits into major consideration if you want to work on a cruise ship. You can’t get these benefits from other employment opportunities. Many experienced cruise ship employees say that they were able to save most of their basic pay because of these benefits and perks. If you total that over the years, it will add up to a substantial amount of savings. Like every organization, the salary of cruise ship employees varies by position, experience, and skills. The recruitment process for cruise ship employees involves rigorous screening, background checks, and interviews.

I left my 9-to-5 job to work on a cruise ship — here's what it's like - Business Insider

I left my 9-to-5 job to work on a cruise ship — here's what it's like.

Posted: Tue, 18 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

It is common for most cruise liners to provide meals while working onboard. It includes three meals a day in a crew mess hall plus snacks and coffee in the afternoon, and usually at midnight, too. In some ships, they have mess halls that serve specific types of food or cuisines. However, there is no room service onboard for staff and crew members. According to Business Insider, the median annual earnings of cruise ship workers is between $16,000 to $20,000. A cruise ship crew member for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian Cruise Line can earn an annual average between $16,000 to $20,000.

Michelle is a freelance writer who has traveled to all seven continents and 60+ countries through various forms of employment. Over the last ten years, she’s worked as an ESL teacher in Japan, a youth counselor aboard cruise ships, and a hospitality manager in Antarctica. Of all the jobs I’ve had that paid me to travel or let me see the world for free, my time working on cruise ships is the one chapter in my journey around the world that I look back on the fondest. Most cruise line contracts typically require a four to six month commitment for new employees. Some cruise lines allow you to take a limited amount of vacation time during a contract and other do not.

Despite this fact, there have been cruise ship employees who lasted 10 years or more aboard the boat. I get paid around $1,700 a week (pre-tax) and that includes my vacation pay. Officers also get a merit-based percentage increase each year if the company does well. Having that responsibility of 3,000 people while you're navigating obviously makes it a little bit more intense.

When it comes to housing, most cruise ship employees are provided with accommodation while they work on board. The type of accommodation depends on the position and the ship, but it can range from shared cabins to private rooms with a balcony. Some cruise lines even offer housing for employees in between contracts, which is a great benefit for those who want to save money on rent. For instance, a cruise ship captain can earn an average salary of $98,000, while a newly-appointed cruise director may make around $45,000. When negotiating pay, it’s important to consider the discrepancies that may exist between different positions. Most cruise ships are foreign flagged and do not need to operate under the strict US labor laws.

how much do you make working on a cruise ship

Gratuities are charged per person per night and go towards paying the crew. This does range by cruise line, but typically it’s around $15-$25 per person, per night. Supervisors and other similar roles get paid more annually than the average attendant, because of their experience and responsibilities. This is a wide range, which includes management personnel, so the majority of housekeeping staff earn on the lower end, or even lower than this. In many situations, housekeeping is considered to be an entry-level job, so the salary can be lower than other ship employees. On some days, such as turnaround day where guests disembark and embark, the housekeeping teams may be required to work longer hours.

This can be extremely difficult for introverts such as myself especially if your job is a front of the house position. Unless you’re a higher ranked staff or officer, your room will be generally small. And once the emergency was over, I still had to go to work at the regularly scheduled time just a few hours later.

The pay for cruise ship jobs varies widely from housekeeping jobs that are low by western standards to top-level management positions with pay comparable to other industries. Food and board are included in the contracted price for each position. Yes, most cruise ship workers share a room with one or more colleagues. Accommodations for staff are typically more compact and less luxurious than guest cabins.

Not all cruise lines charge an auto-gratuity and many are moving towards including this in the cruise price. An extra percentage of gratuity is also added for services at the bar, spa and sometimes meals in speciality restaurants. A cabin attendant’s salary usually ranges between $650 to $1,150 per month (that’s $7,800 to $13,800 a year). The statistic above includes Cabin Attendants, Butlers, Laundry Attendants, Supervisors, and all other positions. Of course, many crew members do purchase additional food and snacks in port, but they don’t need to if they would rather save the money.

No comments:

Post a Comment

125 Koi Fish Tattoos with Meaning, Ranked by Popularity

Table Of Content Black and Red and White Koi Fish and Gold Koi Red Koi and Japanese Maple Leaves Fish Tattoo Designs Japanese Koi Tattoo Sle...