What is the best cruise line to work for?

Question

I want to find work on a ship as a stage hand/assistant sound designer or work in the giftshop. I would just like to know what companies pay the most, are most accomodating to the crew, and give the most shore leave.

Answer 1

What I can tell you from personal experience (10 years, reception and gift shops) is that there is not a cruise line that is better. It depends a lot more on who´s running a particular ship (Captain, Staff Captain, Hotel Director) and who will be your boss onboard (a stage manager would report to the cruise director and gift shop attendants to the shop manager).
The gift shops are for sure my favorite department for several reasons, some of them are:
90% of the times the cruises are duty free, therefore you dont work while on port.
you are staff rather than crew, better cabins, better food, better onboard status.
good money
Also, with the exception of Princess and Disney , in which the shops are inhouse, they run it themeselves, all major companies have a concession to run the shops, thats a plus cause you get to go to all sorts of different lines, with different destinations, different kind of passengers, etc...
And if by any chance you like one, you can always request to go to the same or other ships of the same company.
There are 2 major concessions for shops (there are more actually,. but they are really small)
one os
www.hardingbros.co.uk
pays more (160pounds a week + commission)
has some 50 ships in its fleet, from the top like Crystal and Silverseas and Cunnard to the cheap ones like Thomson and Island cruises. They also have P&O which is pretty big.
UK based, interviews over the phone, really easy to get in.
Also, to make commission you need to reach a team target, so people are more likelly to be friendly. There are no individual targets.
And
www.starboardcruise.com
which I didnt like, they are bigger, 90 ships, bigger companies like Carnival, Royal, Celebrity, Costa.
pays less, 500USD a month + commission.
They have individual commissions, which I think are unfair (you can be assigned to a shitty department... )and it also creates a work atmosphere that is not very friendly.
Also, bigger ships are not necessarily better... on Royal, Costa and Carnival shop attendants can not use passenger restaurants for example...
And on Thomson all our means were on the passenger restaurants...
Those things may not seem like much, but once you are onboard for 6 months it make a huge difference.

Its advisable to have "some" retail experience, if you don´t, LIE. Nobody checks.

Carnival is not a good company to work for, neither it´s sister companies (Costa, Cunard)...
or better yet, the Canrival corp smaller ships are good, the big ones are not (Silverseas/Seabourne = good)
And remember that not always the more expensive ships make more money. (more money = more commission)


Good luck
need more info let me know

Answer 2

none of the cruise lines are good jobs! You get a room smaller than a jail cell, hardly any shore leave and your not allowed to mingle with the guests! Sure it sounds great..see the world...great adventure yadda yadda but in reality you see it from a porthole as your running your tush off! Try a hotel for that kind of job...at least you can walk away if you don't like it!

Answer 3

i would say go on and ask for a job with P&O as they are brilliant with staff and there are lots of jobs to do with stage and thearte due to the amount of shows there are on a cruise.

Answer 4

disney
cunard

cruiseclues.com

Answer 5

Carnival if you r good with kids

Answer 6

this site should have your answer
http://allcruiselines.info