I was never too keen to be a sailor. And never thought of working in a hotel, a restaurant or a resort. I’m not much of a performer so the stage is not for me either. But I do have excellent people skills as well as a penchant for organizing events. So maybe I can still work for a cruise ship.
Considering everything, there’s lots of jobs on a cruise ship, if only you’d want to work on one. And the jobs run a wide-range of services and skill sets. That’s because a cruise ship is a lot of things rolled into one: a ship; a resort; a hotel; lots of restaurants and theaters with nightly shows; and onboard activity centers for the guests.
As a ship, it offers career paths for both seamen. There’s the captain and his crew on the bridge, as well as auxiliary sailors running the ship’s functions and maintenance. And there’s the ships engineer and his crew down by the engine room making sure that the ship runs smoothly and following the captain’s orders on power and speed.
The hotel function is handled by cabin crews who cater to the vacationer’s needs. There’s the front desk staff with the concierge, the chambermaids, laundry, cleaning crews as well as other hotel-oriented staff. These staff ensure that the rooms are neat and tidy and the linen and laundry are clean.
The restaurants are manned by the maitre d’, the waiters, busboys, and the kitchen staff and the chefs. They make sure that the diners are well taken cared of, and that the restaurant offers a unique dining experience. There are of course several restaurants in a cruise ship and it would do well to have each restaurant be unique from each other, not just in the menu but also in the decor.
The performers for the shows would include dancers, costumers, make up artists, choreographers and directors, singers and a band. And to make sure that every passenger has a great time, there are several dance venues in every ship, to cater to passengers of all ages.
There are event organizers and activity directors as well, to take care of onboard daytime activities like games, and dance lessons, yoga lessons and the like. And since there’s a pool, there’s a life guard on duty, with the pool maintenance staff.
Necessarily there would be some staff doing double duty. The cleaning staff would be doing the cleaning and the pool maintenance, for instance. The bartender tending bars on rotation among the ships many restaurants, dance floors, and bars, as not all of them are open at the same time.
There is however, one requirement common for all the jobs on a cruise ship. All the staff has to know how to swim.
