5 Questions About Cruises and Crew Life, Answered
Over the years I have been asked a lot of questions about what life was like working on a cruise ship. Now that we’re in a pandemic there seems to be a whole new set of questions going on. There are a lot of questions, and over time I will work to answer them (except maybe some of the, eh-hem, rude ones). For today though here are 5 randomly selected questions about cruises and crew life, answered. Without further adieu….
*Disclosure: All views are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.*
What Are Cruise Ship Crew Doing Now?
*This question was asked mid-pandemic.*
Holy moly this is a complicated question. There are still crew working onboard in a few different departments, keeping the ships ready, safe, and getting COVID protocols put in place. They are in the minority of cruise ship workers though.
Right now there are A LOT of cruise ship crew that have been laid off. For instance: on a ship that would normally hold 800 crew there are only about 100 onboard right now. Take that amount times all the cruise ships in the world. Needless to say there are a lot of people navigating some serious career shifts during the pandemic.
In addition to all of those laid off because they weren’t part of the “minimum non-operational manning” requirements for the ship to operate during this lay-up period, there are all of those laid off because of the massive amount of cruise ships sold during this pandemic. Yup, this pandemic has been a doosey.
For those crew that were laid off some have found temporary jobs until cruising starts up again. There is a large number that have changed career paths entirely, and some are doing their best to wait out the storm. It’s definitely been a mentally challenging (and super financially challenging for so many) year as their careers come to a screeching halt.
Where Are the Cruise Ships Now?
Over the course of the past year cruise ships have ended up anchored in various places around the world. Usually they end up somewhat grouped together. This eases up some logistics in terms of transporting crew to the ships as well as ease of getting goods and services to the ships as needed.
Right now there are a slew of ships hanging around the Florida/Bahamas area, quite a few outside San Diego, a bunch near Cyprus, and a bunch near the UK. In addition to that there are handfuls scattered throughout the globe.
When I was stuck onboard during the initial lay-up and repatriation of a literal boat load of crew there were 20+ ships in Manila Bay, Philippines for literal months on end. Cruisemapper.com is a great resource for finding ships around the world and figuring out where ships of various cruise lines are.
While the crew onboard these ships are working to both maintain the ships as well as get them ready with COVID protocols they are largely sitting at anchor, calling into port to get supplies on occasion. Sometimes supplies can also be delivered to ships while at anchor as well.
Do Cruise Ship Crew Pay Taxes?
Absolutely! Cruise ship crew pay taxes wherever they are a resident – or more specifically they have to file their taxes – how much they pay is dependent on the laws of that country. For instance, I am a resident of Vermont, USA, so that is where I was required to pay taxes. The company would take out my federal income taxes and then I would end up paying my Vermont income taxes when I filed my taxes each year. Crew pay whatever taxes they need to pay to their respective countries/states/wherever they are a resident.
How Do Cruise Ship Crew Get Paid?
It depends a bit on which country you are from and how your contract is set up. I was always paid once a month by direct deposit to my checking account. The way my contract was set up I was paid per day that I was onboard. Some contracts are set up as salary where the crew member gets paid each month regardless if they are onboard or not.
There are a lot of crew that are paid on various “pay-days” onboard. They will get their pay in cash and then send it home using companies like Western Union.
Where Does The Crew Sleep on a Cruise Ship?
I used to work in the kids department onboard and I would regularly tell the kids that we all slept in the lifeboats. I would tell them the truth at some point, but it was always fun to see their minds try to figure out, “wait, does that make sense?”.
Cruise ship crew do not sleep in the lifeboats. Instead they have cabins. Some of these cabins have roommates with shared bathrooms. Others have their own inside cabin, or their own room with a porthole, to rooms with king sized beds, couches, and even a few with balconies.
Which cabin you are assigned is dependent upon your job onboard. Some of the cabins are below the water line and most are set up with bunk beds and do not have a window. Some are by the bridge and there are even some scattered throughout the ships in passenger hallways. If you are walking down a passenger hallway and notice a cabin with a weird number on it – it might very well be a crew cabin hiding in plain sight!
Where Are You/Were You Stationed Out Of?
This one gets asked quite a lot. I think people are most likely thinking there is a simple answer like “Florida” or “Italy” or something. Needless to say for people that work on cruise ships there might be one answer for one contract and something totally different for the next. If you are working on a longer voyage (months or longer) there really isn’t anywhere that you are “stationed” out of even for that month.
I’ve joined cruise ships everywhere from Hawaii to Canada to Italy to the Netherlands. It’s not uncommon for crew to join ships in Australia, New Zealand, or even join mid-voyage in places like Peru or Hong Kong. Cruises are very much a world-wide adventure and crew members fly to join these ships all around the world.
