Your First Cruise Ship Contract: First Day Onboard

You get off the bus and look up at the ship. It’s going to be your first day working onboard a cruise ship. It’s a magical moment when you think of all the adventures you’ll have. It’s abruptly interrupted by someone telling you to grab your luggage.

Up ahead you can see someone with a uniform and now everyone is walking and you’re trying to drag your suitcase and carry your backpack and you’ve got your purse and your hair got stuck in your backpack strap (long hair problems) and the suitcases wheels get turned upside down and you’re falling behind from everyone. You can hear the person in a uniform saying something but you missed it.

Once you catch up with the group everyone is filling out a form of some sort. There’s another person in a uniform that seems to have noticed you don’t know what’s going on. They bring you a form and explain that it’s a medical health questionnaire – it’s just to make sure you don’t have any symptoms of G.I. or anything else before getting onboard.

The form asks for your employee ID and you slightly panic because you don’t remember it and aren’t even sure you have one? Where was it? Was it on some of the paperwork they sent? That same person in the uniform sees that you’re confused and helps you find your employee ID on the paperwork and fill the form out. This guy seems really nice.

You hand them back the form and then everyone lines up to put their luggage on the x-ray machine. At this point you realize the first person you saw in a uniform is the Human Resources Manager. They are calling out everyone’s names. Once they call your name they give you a little packet of information. They announce that you’ll have a meeting at usually 10:00 or 10:30am. Where this meeting is depends not only on the ship but how many crew are joining. On most ships it would be the crew mess room or the training room. However, if there are a lot of crew joining it might be in the movie theater or a small lounge in passenger areas.

Each person then had to put their bags through an x-ray machine. At that point you then make your way up the gangway and onto the ship.

Curious about how crew members get to the ship in the first place? Check out this post: Your First Cruise Ship Contract: Getting to the Ship

Notes on getting on the ship:

• Sometimes they will use the x-ray machine that is onboard the ship and sometimes it is one shoreside. If it is a large turnaround port it is nearly always shoreside. If you are joining mid-cruise it will probably be onboard. You are expected to put your bags on yourself.
• Some of the gangways are pretty terrible and not fun to bring your luggage up. Some are quite steep, others have the most shallow awkward steps ever invented. Regardless, you don’t have to have Hulk strength and carry it all at once. Sometimes someone will offer to help you with it. Don’t plan on that though, so if you have to make more than one trip with your luggage, just go ahead and do it. Don’t let anyone shame you. If they tell you to hurry up, ask them to help.

Once Onboard On Your First Day:

All new crew are assigned a buddy. Buddies are typically someone from your department that is meant to show you around the ship. They will hopefully also show you the ropes of ship life. To put it mildly some buddies are better than others. To be a good buddy you need empathy, and for a lot of buddies it’s just one more thing to do on what is for a lot of crew the busiest day of the cruise.

It can be hard for someone that’s been onboard for years to remember how overwhelming the first day is. Walk around any ship on a turn-around day and there will be at least one crew member that is lost. They were likely shown to their cabin, dropped their bags off, and then got completely lost trying to find the next place they were meant to go. If you think that finding your way around a cruise ship as a passenger is tricky on day one, as a crew member it’s a whole other level of crazy.

Alright, so you’re onboard the ship, your buddy has shown you where your cabin is. It’s through a whole maze of corridors that mostly all look the same and you know full well you’ll get lost. When you went to your cabin your room card worked but there was someone already in there. Your buddy also usually has a “Welcome Aboard Packet” for you with information on specific rules, schedules, and expectations for your particular job. This usually also has a helpful list of phone numbers on it.

Notes on Cruise Ship Crew Cabins:

• Crew cabins are turned over on the same day, just like passengers. However, as they need to get crew on first thing in the morning most of the time they haven’t been “re-made” and cleaned yet. A lot of trust happens as you inevitably end up leaving all of your belongings in a room with a total stranger – either your roommate that you might not have met yet, or possibly the person leaving your cabin and going home. It’s weird, but as of yet I’ve never had any issues and I’ve had this situation happen quite a lot.
• If your cabin still hasn’t been made up or have clean sheets by the evening, go ask the Human Resources Manager, HR Clerk, or pretty much anyone that seems like they know what’s going on what you should do. Most situations can usually be dealt with by one phone call to the right person.
• Crew cabins are not (usually) big!
  • Most likely for your first contract you will be in a bunk cabin with a roommate. There are bunk beds.
  • On each bunk there would be a curtain you could pull for privacy, it also cancels out light pretty well so if you were asleep before your roommate or if they weren’t back yet closing it is really helpful.
  • Under the bottom bunk there are two drawers (you would get one) – or it is left open – and then under the rest of it the bed could be lifted up to put your suitcases under – huge space saver right there!
  • There is usually a small desk with a few drawers and a shelf. Usually the TV goes somewhere on this desk, although newer ships have them attached to the walls.
  • There are usually two closets. These closets are usually about a foot and a half wide with a shelf, hanging bar, and two drawers.
  • Each roommate gets a closet and this is where the bulk of your storage would go.
  • The mirrors in the bathrooms were always medicine cabinet style and so there would be some storage in there.

9:00am-ish on Your First Day

At this point it is likely around 9:00ish in the morning depending on how everything is going. Your buddy might suggest you work on unpacking in your cabin for a bit or maybe take you on a tour of the ship, maybe they take you to get uniforms from the tailor shop. The best buddies, even if they don’t take you around the ship right then, will come back to get you to show you how to get to where the welcome aboard meeting is.

The Welcome Aboard Meeting

The welcome aboard meeting is what you’d expect I suppose. It’s usually before this meeting that you hand in a bunch of paperwork – your medical information and/or certificate is the big one. You’ll sign your name to an attendance sheet saying you were there. They may also have you sign your contract either before or after this meeting – make sure that your wage, as well as embark and disembark dates are correct.

You are given a “lifejacket card” or the information as to what your emergency function is – and told when you’ll get trained on that function. There are also the basics onboard rules and where you can find the list of all of the rules. The videos shown at this meeting tend to be truly excellent. They are usually about workplace rules, being good stewards to the environment, and emergency procedures At some point various higher up people will come in and talk to your or introduce themselves for a quick minute.

Safety Walk-Around

If it is your first contract or if you are unfamiliar with the class of vessel that you are on, one of the Deck Officers will take you on a walk-around to show you how things like water-tight doors work, where the lifeboats are, basics of emergency alarm systems, etc.

Newly Embarked Crew Paperwork Fun

There is also likely another document of some sort that you need to get signed off by your buddy, by the Officer showing you around, and by a few other various people saying that you’ve been familiarized with different parts of the ship. For each cruise line this document is a bit different, and while there are people that will help you figure out who you need to see to get each part signed (hopefully your buddy). At the end of the day it’s your responsibility to get it signed. While it might be scary, asking questions is not a bad thing.

Getting Your Uniform

After your walk around it is likely close to lunch time. If you haven’t gone to get your uniforms it’s probably darn close to time to get that done. One of my friends said about their first day “I was told I would get a uniform for my position, but when I got onboard the tailor’s shop said I wouldn’t, so instead I got to wear jeans and a company hoodie until I could go ashore to get the right clothes.” Now, overall I would say that is a rarity to not get issued any sort of uniform. It could be that they are out of your size in a uniform though, so be prepared that might happen.

Typically uniform pick up will be with the tailor shop. Usually this is somewhere down in the depths of the ship – I recommend having your buddy show you how to get there. At this point the tailor will give you a whole bunch of uniform pieces. If you can, try them on.

I have literally tried uniform pieces on in the uniform store behind a rack of clothing. There wasn’t anyone that could see me. However, if you would like to try clothing on and don’t want to be in your bra and underwear (or boxers) doing it without a closed door, either wear shorts, a tank top, or leggings underneath your clothing when you go to get your uniforms. Do what you’re comfortable with, but it’s easier to get the piece that fits the first time rather than having to try to go back.

Lunch

Let’s not forget to eat on the first day. Depending on your position (and how much time you have) you will either eat in one of the crew mess rooms or in the passenger buffet. You should have a buddy or supervisor that lets you know where you should go, how much time you have, etc.

It’s a Busy Day

Have you noticed that you don’t have a lot of down time? Get a good nights sleep (or the best you can) the night before because this first day is going to be busy! And, remember, jet-lag is a thing! If you flew across several time zones to get to the ship your inner clock is going to be struggling right now.

Time to Get to Work

Most likely it is time to go see about this whole work thing. There are some technicalities about needing to have certain parts of that welcome aboard sheet signed off on before you can start work. In theory if you’ve attended all of your meetings thus far you should be okay at that point. For the purposes of this we are going to assume you are okay to go to work, so off we go!

Alright, what happens next at this point is dependent on which job you have. For the job I had onboard this was actually when I had my ships tour. Buddies are not required to show you around the entire ship, but it’s nice when they do.

My initial “buddy” for the day was my supervisor, so for the tour she passed me onto one of my coworkers. That coworker and I only worked together for 2 weeks and 9 years later are still friends. She’s awesome. She gave me the best tour. It wasn’t just the, “this is where this is” tour. It was the, “this line is the shortest at breakfast so if you’re running late go here.” And, “this is easiest way to get from your cabin to work without going in passenger areas.” etc., etc., etc., She didn’t just give me information it was useful information. It was like getting 5 years of ship experience all tossed into one tour on my first day working onboard a cruise ship.

Passenger Lifeboat Drill

After this was the passenger lifeboat drill. Luckily I didn’t have an active participation role in this but I was able to see what would be required of me in the weeks going forward. Following that was a bit more work and a department meeting. Finally at some point around 4:30ish in the afternoon I was then able to go back to my cabin to unpack a little bit. The sheets had been changed and the bed made up. My buddy told me when she was going to dinner and I found my way up to meet her. She introduced me to people and included me and made me feel welcome.

Evening: More Work and Paperwork

We went up to work (my work was on one of the higher decks onboard) and then part way through work I had to go do more paperwork. This was down in crew areas. This was also when I got my official employee ID as well as my name tag. Patience is a virtue as if there were a lot of crew joining that day the lines will likely be a little long.

After this it was back to work for a little bit. At about 10:00pm the regular work was done, then it was cleaning, sanitizing, and a team meeting where we reviewed the schedule for the coming week and talked about issues from the week before.

And, Just Like That, Your First Day Working Onboard is Over

After all of that, it was done. There are more meetings and trainings the next day, and more still over the coming weeks, as well as oh so many computer trainings. But, that was it, my first day was done. My coworkers invited me to go with them to the crew bar and the rest, as they say, is history.

The First Day Working Onboard Isn’t Always Easy…

While for the most part everyone really is trying to do a good job, there are definitely first days that don’t go nearly as well as mine did. I had a great first supervisor and I had an insanely amazing buddy to help me find my way. I also know how to read floor plans and have a pretty decent sense of direction. And, lastly and maybe most importantly, I am not even remotely shy about asking for help or advocating for myself.

A Good Buddy Makes the Difference

A good buddy is I think the best thing that can be done for new crew joining. But, most likely the buddy you have has been onboard for months. That means they are tired. You might also very well be the 20th person they’ve had to show around, and this is likely in addition to their regular job.

If you end up with a buddy that seems a bit jaded and exhausted, don’t worry. There are nice people onboard. Your buddy might even be one of those nice people, they’re just having a crappy day. If you end up lost or confused find someone with a friendly face in the main crew hallway and they’ll help you or they’ll help you find the person that can help you.

The Most Challenging First Days Onboard Are Usually For One Reason…

The biggest stories of challenging first days are from people that had to join the same day they flew in. Whether that was because of flight delays, cancellations, or it all came together at the last minute, those days tend to end up with very hard first days. You end up missing all of the morning welcome-onboard meetings, you have to find a lot more people around the ship to get various paperwork signed. It ends up feeling a lot more like getting thrown in the deep end versus wading in from the shallow end. However, those times you get thrown into more than you planned on, sometimes literally on day one, is also when you learn just how capable you are.

Congrats! You Just Finished Your First Day Working Onboard a Cruise Ship

There is a lot to take in on your first day onboard. Between ship rules, learning your job, and understanding what to do in an emergency it’s a lot to take in. Some people literally quit in their first week onboard. But, if you stick with it, life onboard can introduce you to amazing people (possibly even a future spouse) and take you literally around the world.

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