Is it true cruise line jobs only hire caucasians as front line staff & the rest to do the menial work?

Question

I've noticed that majority of front line staff in Cruise line jobs are caucasians, and the Asians do all the dirty work like housekeeping, cleaning, laundry etc. Is this the norm?

Answer 1

No it is not the norm. They are hired and trained for each job that best fits the person. Some if you talk to them do not want the so called front line jobs because they either do not want or like dealing with people.
I have been on 19 cruises and have seen people of all colors doing different jobs and all were happy.

Answer 2

Wow I'm sorry but thats one of the dumbest things I've read on here. My waiter was fluent in 5 languages.

No they don't hire only caucasians. In fact, the reason many Europeans get hired for front line positions is b/c of the requirements that you must speak several different langauges. Due to Europes proximity to other nations and school system, yes they tend to learn multiple languages. However, due to the fact that the largest populations in the world are located in China, India, Indonesia and Brazil--they always have someone at the front desk speaking those languages and someone will speak those languages in the restaurants are well.

Now in entertainment--most definitely. Most entertainment comes from America. Americans are mostly white or black. This for some reason is what people blame America for even though most of China is made up of Chinese!

Are there a lot of Asians in housekeeping? Probably. But just as many as Americans--since mostly they only speak English. The norm is to put the people with the best customer service skills and the best grasp of languages at the front positions--since one bad interaction with a rude person can sour a customer on an entire cruise line.

Answer 3

It depends upon the cruise line and ships. A few years ago I noticed this same thing (as a minority you tend to do that) and so I wrote a letter to the cruise line. They responded that, NO we don't discriminate. But my experience (and it was on several Princess ships) was that all of the faces on ship were white, all of the waite staff, all of the entertainment, all of the crew, except those who did maintenance. That's what I saw, regardless of what they said. Now these were not my first cruises and that's why it stood out so much with me. One of the cruises was in the Caribbean, where there are usually a number of islanders, and the other was to Alaska. On the Alaska cruise all of the bus drivers for tours and tour guides were white.

Since then I have been on Celebrity, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean ships where I did not encounter this. I will be watching this the next time I take a Princess cruise.

Answer 4

The only true criteria is that some "front line" jobs require a command of the English language (or German on a cruise, etc). After many, many cruises I have talked to many, I noted that some eastern Europeans with weak language skills were studying hard to get different jobs on later cruises.

My weak Croatian allowed me to converse some with a few Russians & Poles and such. All the Croatians spoke better English than I did. :-)

Answer 5

On my RCCL cruise, I noticed MANY different ethnicities in the front end jobs.

They do not have specific jobs for certain ethnicities.

Answer 6

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes.

It is because all the rich people expect to see English types, it's part of the fantasy. The menial workers are paid at the same rates as they would get in their home country. That is why they employ them, it's very cheap labour.

Answer 7

It is a language barrier NOT an ethnicity barrier.

_ est um língua barreira mais do que um étnico barreira. _

Answer 8

If your suspicion is correct - the ship(s) must be of foreign registry.