I’m often asked what my hours are on the ship. Because of the nature of my work, my schedule varies. Some things that can affect my hours include if we are at sea, if there are any special events happening, if we are docked overnight, if I’m on duty when we’re in port, what maintenance needs to be done. I usually work a minimum of six hours every day. This includes any daily needs such as the theater being used for lectures, afternoon rehearsal for the act, tech runs for our in house shows, and, of course, the shows in the evening. The absolute longest I have ever clocked was a twelve hour work shift during a dry dock. We were installing a show, so hours were already long. When I went to go to lunch, a drill was called and I had to report to my emergency station. I was not happy. Thankfully, this was an extremely atypical for a work day. The point is, I can guess what my work hours might be, but they do vary a little day to day. Then there are the special events. These will include, but are not limited to holidays. There are also other special events that may happen on the ship. One of those I was able to watch was the ceremony that gets performed when the ship crosses the equator. If you are ever on a Royal Caribbean ship when this happens, there are several guests and crew members who are voluntarilly hazed in honor of them crossing the equator for the first time. As a stage staff at the time, I was not elgible to take part in the ceremony apart from crowd control. Thank goodness because it got pretty messy.

While my work hours are relatively light and generally consistent, I can’t speak for other crewmembers. In fact, there are now international labor laws that apply cruise ship workers specifically because of some of the abusive practices that were being used. We are not allowed to work more than 14 hours in a 24 hour period. This really does mean any 24 hour period, though I tend to use the start time from the last long rest I had. In addition we must have 2 breaks that are at least an hour long and that add up to 10 hours with one of those breaks being at least 6 hours. In addition to the 24 hour rules, a person cannot work more than 77 hours in a week. If you’ll notice, that does come out to 11 hours a day average, meaning you should expect more hours off later on in the week if you have a few 14 hour days. Complicated? Kind of, but you eventually find your rhythm. Ultimately, it’s just there to make sure you get proper rest and that there will be consequences for those companies that abuse their employees in this way.

I’m still stuck at home with no way of knowing when I can get back on the water. If I’m going back to the Serenade, I shouldn’t expect to sail with passengers until at least the beginning of next year.

The first thing you should know is that there is a wide range of talents and positions on a cruise ship. The ships I’ve been on can probably best be described as a floating Las Vegas casino hotel with less emphasis on the casino part. While we do have a casino on the ship, it is usually only open in international waters and has less space dedicated to it than the lounges, theaters, and other entertainment venues. On the ship side, you have your deckhands, engineers, bridge staff, and store keepers. The hotel needs housekeepers, lifeguards, musicians, technicians, chefs, wait staff, childcare staff, and activities staff. Most people can get some experience that will help them in their careers at some point. I tend to view the whole travel and meeting new people as a bonus to doing what I love. For others, that’s the point.

Once the usual job pleasantries are done, you will be required to do a few things depending on which cruise company you work for. While I can only really speak to my experience with Royal Caribbean, I assume that people will get a similar experience no matter which international company they work for. The first thing that needs to be done is getting a complete physical to tell the company that you are fit to work at sea. While you are going to get a checkup from your doctor, you will also need to get another physical exam from an approved office. This is mostly to make sure that you won’t do more harm to yourself while trying to work in an environment where you may have to be helicoptered to the nearest hospital. You will also need to get cleared by the local authorities such as the sheriff or police department. You will need to take a course on maritime safety and security. One of the other things you will need to double check is visa requirements and other paperwork for the countries you will be going to. Sometimes, this will provided on the ship you are traveling on and other times you will need to get it beforehand. For example, we were able to submit an application for a visa when going to India, but I had to get a visa for Australia before I left California. This may come in handy depending on if I go back to the Serenade and when we are there for. My current Australian maritime visa is good until September of next year. There may be other paperwork to hand in before going as well as certificates that are earned once you get on a ship, but these are some of the basics required to work on a ship. There’s probably more paperwork that I’m forgetting, but this is at least a start to let you know what is required.

The first sailing of the Serenade got pushed back a month. I guess that’s more time for me to relax, write, and practice my cooking skills.