FAQ's About Living and Working on a Cruise Ship

FAQ’s About Living and Working on a Cruise Ship

ByIris M. Posted on Updated on

By far what I get asked about the most is what it is like living and working on a cruise ship. There are some questions that I get asked over and over. After working on a cruise ship for years in various positions – and being married to an engineering officer – I have spent a huge bulk of my life onboard cruise ships. I also quite like cruising and have been on probably 20 or so cruises just for fun.

With that in mind, here are the most frequently asked questions that I get about living and working on a cruise ship.

Cruise Ship Working Conditions & Labor Laws

Q: How many days a week do cruise ship crew work?

A: The majority of crew work every single day of the week while working on a cruise ship. The day of the week becomes unimportant as there is no weekend!

Not having a day off is hard. Some crew members work 9 months on and then have 2 to three months off. There is always a trade off though. I never had a day off while working on a cruise ship – but the advantage was I would get months off for vacation.

In the various jobs I’ve had onboard I usually worked about four months on and two months off. Depending on which job I was doing my days would fluctuate between 3-4 hours and 10-12 hours depending on if we were in port, at sea, what itinerary we were on, various trainings, drills, and meetings. It certainly always averaged out to at least 8 hours every single day though.

There are other jobs onboard such as technical and deck officers that will work three months on and three months off. These are considered pretty much the best of the best contracts though and are only for higher ranking officers. It’s kind of like if you saved up all of your weekend days, vacation days, and holidays and then used them in two big blocks instead of split up 52 times throughout the year.

Everyone’s contracts are different and everyone’s jobs are different. Some jobs sound great – three months on three months off sounds pretty good – but nearly everyone in those functions works at minimum 70 hours a week. For the most part I’ve been able to keep my work load closer to 60 hours a week aside from one brutal summer in Alaska and a hugely challenging contract between the Mediterranean and Amazon.

It is definitely tiring but is still an incredible opportunity to earn money and see the world.

Here’s a little comparison for those who like to work in numbers:

Average land job is 40 hours/week * 52 weeks in a year = 2,080 hours per year
Average job has 2-3 weeks paid vacation/sick days = 80-120 hours off
Average job has 5-8 paid holidays: 40-64 hours off
Average job hours worked = 1896-1960 hours worked per year
3 on/3 off cruise ship job: 70-75 hours/week * 26 weeks in a year = 1820-1950 hours per year
3 on/3 off cruise ship job has one week of required training off ship = 40 hours
3 on/3 off cruise ship job = 1860-1990 hours per year

Q: Is work onboard a ship regulated by labor laws?

A: Yes. There are various international maritime labor laws that regulate both the working conditions and hours that crew members are allowed to work. It goes so far as to designate how many rest hours crew members are required to have.

The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 is a giant document that goes into detail about working conditions for crew onboard. It is not a light read but if you are interested in what governs cruise ships, this is a big one. This regulates how many hours crew members are allowed to work as well as a huge amount of other aspects of life onboard.

These labor laws affect everyone onboard. In my job as a supervisor I had to schedule my staff and it was my responsibility to ensure that I was not scheduling them in violation of any work/rest hour requirements. Hour forwards (when the clocks would go forward by an hour) was the biggest extra challenge that would come up to making this schedule work.

For the ships to be able to sail they are regularly audited and inspected to ensure that they are following these international labor laws.

Q: Are cruise ship employees treated well?

A: Working on a cruise ship is hard work. Very hard work. But, as long as you don’t mind hard work, it’s not so bad. In general I think that the crew welfare onboard has been continually improving over the years. There are various crew events – like parties, Bingo, raffles, and tours – to help improve crew welfare onboard.

In addition every ship has a Human Resources Manager, as well as dedicated staff to help manage crew life. Whether that be reprogramming your cabin key, making sure you get paid, or ensuring you’ve got flights home, there are dedicated crew onboard the ship to help the crew. As with any job though, some of those people are more dedicated to their work than others.

What rank you have onboard has a huge affect on what privileges you get.

But, in pretty much every job there are good days and bad days. In the passenger facing positions there are days when you go to work with a fake smile plastered on your face and you have nothing left once you get back downstairs after a passenger shouts at you about something. Each position comes with its own set of perks and rules that you need to follow. The higher ranking you are the more perks and privileges around the ship you have, but usually the more responsibilities, too.  Overall in my experience the crew are treated well.

Where Do You Go?

Q: Where are you stationed out of?

A:  In cruise ship world you don’t have a place that you are “stationed” out of typically. There is the port that you embark in, either a home port or a turnaround port, and where you disembark the ship.

For Alaska season for instance it is typically in Seattle or Vancouver. Sometimes you will join the ship in one place and then the ship will reposition for the winter season and you might disembark in San Diego.

Note: When I originally wrote and published this post in January, 2020 my last line of this section was: “This time when he goes to join his embark port will be Santiago, Chile, there is no homeport as it is a World Cruise (a 4 months long cruise), and he will disembark in Fort Lauderdale.” We really had no idea what was coming, did we?

Q: Where Do You Sail When You Work On a Cruise Ship?

A: It depends on what cruise you’re on! While I was working as a crew member I spent a summer in the Baltic and Norway, including crossing the Arctic Circle, a couple in the Mediterranean, several in Alaska, I went to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada/New England, as well as the South Pacific, Asia, cruised on the Amazon River, have sailed through the Panama Canal many times, the Suez Canal a few times, and even spent a summer in Rotterdam on a ship that was being used to house refugees. Cruise ships literally go everywhere that water goes and you really can end up all over.

Q: Do you always go back to the same ship?

A: Most crew members do not return to the same ship again and again. They might go back to it a few years later, but usually it’s a different ship every contract.

It is common place for officers to return to the same ship for several years though. And, in my case as my husband was getting assigned to the same ship they worked to assign me to that ship as well. Pre-pandemic it was the same ship for nearly 5 years, after restarting from the pandemic it’s now been the same ship for two years.

That is not the norm though, and most crew will go to different ships for each contract.

Q: Is Working on a Cruise Ship a Real Job?

A: The short answer to this is – yes. For whatever reason there is a preconceived notion that people that work on cruise ships are all people in their twenties and they all only do it until they get a normal person adult job. There are so many different jobs onboard a cruise ship. Some people only go work at sea for a few years and for others it is truly their career.

Think of it a bit like an airline pilot. The Officers onboard – like the Captain, Deck Officers, Chief Engineer, and Engineering Officers, as well as many Officers in the Hotel Department, and the Doctors and Nurses have gone through a lot of schooling and training to get where they are.

Check out this post to help understand which cruise ship officer ranks wear which stripes.

For the Deck and Engine Officers to hold one of the higher ranks they have had to pass exams similar to a Professional Engineers or Pilots license exam on land. They are professionals doing professional jobs. Yes, the pictures of us enjoying a beer ashore may be a bit misleading, but alas, this is many of their professional career paths and they plan to do it until retirement (which is usually at 60).

Q: Can crew members get off the ship?

A: It depends. While working on a cruise ship you can generally get off the ship while the ship is in port if you aren’t working, have a safety drill, or are on in-port manning. Some cruise ship crew even get days off.

I have been able to see so much of the world while working on a cruise ship – 70+ countries (and I’ve stopped counting). It’s kind of incredible how many places cruise ships go.

Now, everyone’s job has different working hours and different requirements.

What is In-Port Manning?

Now, for everyone that works onboard that is in the “crew” category (not guest-entertainer status basically) there are times that even if you aren’t at work you might still not be able to go ashore. This is because of something called IPM or In-Port Manning.

Regardless of the whether the ship is at anchor (for tendering) or docked, there needs to be a certain number of crew members on board so if there was an emergency it could be responded to. That means that every crew member is a part of a group of people with similar responsibilities and every day there needs to be a set number of people from that group that are onboard. As an example: stairway guides! If you have ever been to a passenger muster drill you remember the people in the brightly colored hats on the stairwells telling you where to go. Even when the ship is in port a bunch of those crew members have to stay onboard, just incase there is an emergency.

Every Job Onboard a Cruise Ship Has Different Working Hours

The rest of the story of shore time is that every job on board is different. When I worked in the Entertainment Department I could be off the ship if I wasn’t working up in the kid’s club (and we didn’t have any inspections or additional trainings). So, I was technically able to get off the ship in nearly every port (unless I decided to take a nap instead!). Sometimes it wouldn’t be for long – maybe just an hour or two, but I could.

Everything is a compromise. I had way more shore time than my husband does in his engineering job, but I wasn’t guaranteed my own cabin, didn’t have a window, and made less money. Basically the job was designed for people that wanted to travel but weren’t looking to do it for a long term-career. Life is all about balance.

Living and working on a cruise ship includes great travel benefits.
On a crew tour in Hobbiton, New Zealand

Another note though is that sometimes if the ship is going to a particularly cool place, or to organize something cool they will have a “crew tour”. These are basically shore excursions in specific ports that are offered so the crew are able to go with just other crew members. Places I have gone on crew tours: Hobbiton (pictured), Petra, Great Wall of China, Bora Bora, and Swimming with Dolphins in Puerta Vallarta, and my husband has gone king-crab fishing in Alaska, and to the Borobudur temple in Indonesia. Every once in awhile they will do a beach clean-up in an effort to give back. Contrary to popular belief amongst some people this is not a new thing, years ago I did a beach clean in Sitka, Alaska after a tsunami in Japan had sent tons of garbage across the ocean.

Day Work

Many Deck and Technical Officers that are on “day work”, will work from 7:00am-6:00pm, with a break for lunch. After that, assuming things are going okay (meaning there isn’t a major project going on and/or something on the ship isn’t literally breaking at that moment) they can get off the ship in the evening. Sometimes if there is a specific port they really want to do something in, or if it is a special occasion they can arrange their schedules to explore a bit more.

Weird Hours

Most jobs onboard happen during normal waking hours. Think 7am until 10 or 11 at night. There are some jobs that need to happen throughout the night. These are jobs like security, front desk, as well as personnel on the bridge and in the engine rooms.

There are all sorts of regulations to how many hours crew members are actually allowed to work though – so even though the hours are sometimes weird they are regulated.

While working overnight can be a bummer, it usually means that those crew members can get more time ashore than a lot of their counterparts. The just have to remember to get some sleep sometime!

Q: Do you work on your very first day onboard?

A: Yes! It is expected that crew will work their very first day onboard. Take a look at these posts about what to expect on your first cruise ship contract:

Q: Can the crew date each other?

A: Absolutely! You really aren’t supposed to date your direct supervisor, but aside from that, yeah, it’s pretty much okay, practically expected, and very much so done.

Take a look at these posts about falling in love at sea:

The North Cape of Norway
The North Cape of Norway – in the Arctic Circle

Q: How much do cruise ship crew get paid?

A: Why do people ask this? I get that they’re curious but honestly it’s rude. I feel like the next time someone asks me this I will ask them that same question back.

Anyways, The answer: It depends on what job you do on board.  My experience is that people are paid somewhat in accordance with what their responsibilities are as well as what their qualifications are. I will say that jobs that are more “career” jobs (officer positions) typically pay better than those jobs that people do in their twenties and then head off. 

Working in the kids club I would not make enough to pay rent in the majority of cities based off of that pay alone; however, I opted to live at home those first couple years right out of college, and since my mom didn’t make me pay rent (I recognize my privilege in this situation), and I waitressed while I was at home, that kids club money ended up being my down-payment on a house. So… it is what you make of it.

My next job onboard was a mid-level management type position and that job paid a little better for money but also came with things like a 401(k) and extra benefits onboard like a better cabin and being eligible for more things like room service and specialty restaurant perks.

In general I would say that you could see pay depending on position of $1,200 – $10,000 a month. Those are super rough numbers (and is a somewhat educated guess). There is a massive range. Take an office building – the CEO is not making the same as the housekeeper – it’s kind of like that on a ship – but then everyone lives in the same apartment building. Also, some crew are paid out throughout the entire year – not just when they are onboard, so while their monthly salary might be lower than someone else’s, their yearly take home might be greater.

Q: What does a crew cabin look like?

A: A quick answer to that: it totally depends on your jobs onboard.

When I was working onboard to start out with I had a small bunk cabin, although I usually didn’t have a roommate. This cabin had a small bathroom with a shower, a desk, and two closets. For the next role I did onboard I had a cabin to myself with a double bed, a couple of closets, a mini-fridge and a desk, every once in awhile I’d get a window, too. Then, there are crew cabins with roommates and two cabins will share the same bathroom (so four sharing one bathroom). There are inside cabins, and there are cabins with portholes and windows.

My husband, has a pretty nice room. It’s big – for perspective it’s big enough for me to do yoga in. There is a a large desk, a couch, a tiny bathroom (my biggest issue – can’t they make the desk smaller and the bathroom bigger?), a mini-fridge, a very comfortable bed, and a glorious big window. Aside from me my husband never has to have a roommate.

The majority of crew members do not have a window and quite a few of the crew cabins are actually down below where you can have a window as they are either at or below the water line.

The Basics

Q: When do the next passengers get onboard?

A: A cruise ship operates 24/7/365. Some years it has dry-dock, which means that it won’t have passengers on it during that time and will be undergoing necessary maintenance and upgrades, but other than that, there are always passengers on board (except during COVID).

Passengers will typically come onboard at lunchtime (11:00-1:00pm is the busiest time, with some more coming on for the next couple hours), and then on the day they disembark it is between 7:00am and 9:30am(ish). So, that means that in just a couple of hours the crew needs to get the ship ready for new passengers, and get ready to make those passengers feel special, and not like you just did this exact same cruise last week.

Note: Obviously this is not during COVID time. Last year I was onboard with no passengers for three months. Here’s a post on the Top Ten Things That Were Different without passenger and about being on a very empty ship.

Q: Do a lot of American’s work onboard cruise ships?

A: There are a lot of passengers from the United States. Crew? Not so many. There was one summer over the Fourth of July with a crew of about 600 we counted about 15 US crew members. In the past few years though that number has dropped down to just 3 or 4 sometimes. However, what is fun is that in that crew of 600 there are typically about 40 nationalities represented with just as many languages spoken. However, all crew members need to be able to speak English (on US based cruise lines) to both be able to talk with guests, but also to respond to instructions in an emergency.

Q: How old do you have to be to work on a cruise ship?

A: Most of the main cruise lines require crew to be 21 years old. However, there are times that there will be cadets or interns onboard will be as young as 18 years old. Different parts of the maritime industry will bring on cadets as young as 16. The majority of positions on a cruise ship require crew to be 21 years old.

Q: Isn’t working onboard a cruise ship just like being on vacation?

 A: As crew – no, you aren’t just on vacation. There are different jobs that allow you more time ashore and there are some jobs that require you to stay on board a lot more. Overall everyone that is working on a cruise ship is working very hard.

Remember, the pictures you see posted are from the good days – the fun dinners, or the great times ashore. They aren’t the days when everything went wrong and you have nothing left to give.  It is not a vacation.

Think for a second about the people you have seen while traveling. Think of them complaining about this or upset about that. Now, deal with that for somewhere between 3 months and 9 months every single day and tell me it is not work to keep smiling. Wondering what the crew wish passengers would stop doing? Honestly, it’s one of the hardest parts of living and working on a cruise ship. Check out this post about things people need to stop doing onboard.

I will say that those days are the outliers, and that the staff and crew on board love their jobs. They love helping people have these wonderful adventures. But, like with any job, there are days that are just plain hard. However, when I am sailing as Wife-On-Board, I am for the most part on vacation. 🙂

Crew Bar

Q: Can passengers go to the crew bar?

A: Absolutely not. Hell to the no. The crew love the passengers, but they don’t love them in the place where they can actually relax and unwind. The crew bar is a crew only (plus spouses and friend-on-board!) area. Also, there is no point trying to sneak in. Passengers stick out like a sore thumb and you will get subtly booted very quickly.

Q: What’s the Cruise Ship Crew Bar Like?

A: It’s a great place to meet your spouse! Well, at least that’s where I met my husband. It is a place full of rumors and gossip and lots of fun.

There is always music, sometimes theme parties, sometimes trivia nights or bingo.

Cruise ship crew do have strict alcohol guidelines – basically crew have to be able to respond to an emergency regardless of the time of day or whether they are “on-duty” or not. While onboard the ship you can get called to work at any time.

The crew bar is overall a lot of fun. It’s a place to let your hair down and relax and lament about things that happened – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Crew Benefits

Q: Can Crew Bring Their Families or Spouses Onboard?

A: There are policies in place for some crew to be able to bring some family onboard.

The majority of cruise companies offer the benefit that if you are a high enough ranking officer you can have your spouse or your children come sail with you on the ship. There are also some policies where you can bring other friends and family onboard. Over the last year my mom came to sail for a couple weeks in the Mediterannean and one of my friends came as my plus one for just over a week along the West Coast.

I have also sailed as a plus-one of my husband or as “spouse-on-board” and am free to participate in the majority of passenger activities, as well as most crew activities. There is one caveat to this: while there is always room in my husbands cabin for me, there needs to be enough capacity in the lifeboats and life rafts for me as well – so, if it is a particularly full ship of passengers (with many cabins having a 3rd or 4th person in them) then this could possibly be an issue. This same concept exists for the children of the crew member as well. However, it’s never been an issue for us, yet.

This is a huge benefit. In general whoever comes to stay onboard needs to stay in the crew members cabin. (So, no, you aren’t bringing 10 people onboard).

There are also limits to how much friends and family can come sail. For spouses and children it is usually most of a contract. For friends and other family it may be for a few weeks or a month or two depending on the companies rules.

On paper this sounds pretty great – and so much of it is – but it is also really hard. You do not necessarily “fit” anywhere on board. You are not a crew member so you can’t lament with the other crew about your day – you don’t have a “team” that you are a part of. You are not a passenger, and you can’t most of the time truly be yourself around the passengers.

One big thing though is that the family you are visiting still has to work. You don’t get to spend an inordinate amount of time with your spouse/parent/friend, and most of the time when you go ashore you will be going ashore alone or with other friends that you make, as whomever brought you on as a plus-one will probably be working. There are great parts of it and I am so grateful that these policies exist.

Q: When Sailing As Wife-On-Board On a Cruise Ship Can You Go Ashore?

I can get off the ship basically any time that I want as Wife-On-Board. I always have a guests first mentality so I rarely get off the ship first thing in the morning (to allow the guests time to get off the ship first) but I can spend nearly all of the time that I want off the ship.

Conclusion: Cruise Ship Crew Life FAQ’s

Overall living and working on a cruise ship is an incredible experience. I have been able to travel around the world and meet people from so many different places that I can now call my friends. It is also where I met my husband.

It is not for everyone and it is super hard work. But, if you can deal with the long days, and the sometimes hard days, what you get is an incredible and rewarding experience.

Iris is the owner and author of Life of Iris, a cruise and travel blog dedicated to exploring the world of cruises (and World Cruises), crew life, and unique travel experiences. With 10 years of experience as a cruise ship crew member, she shares insider insights and practical tips for travelers and crew members alike. Alongside her husband, a cruise ship engineer, and their child, she travels extensively, having visited over 75 countries. When she's not writing, Iris lives in Vermont and is lucky to visit Scotland often.

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