Reframing Some of the Misconceptions of Cruise Ship Officer Perks

Sometimes in life it can be a little too easy to think the grass is greener on another side. That job is better, my job is worse, etc. I recently ran into someone with a bit of this attitude in a Facebook group. He had some opinions about cruise ship Captains and Officers “only” working 6 months a year. Well, today I am going to reframe (and debunk a couple) of that guys misconceptions about cruise ship officer perks.

This Random Dude on Facebook said it would be like comparing apples and oranges – comparing life working on a cruise ship and the accompanying benefits to those of a land based job and so it just doesn’t make sense.

When I first saw that comment I was annoyed. I was mentally comparing the apples and oranges. I was thinking about the upcoming three months my husband and I will be apart, and friends who are at home with the kids while their spouses are away on a ship. I compared those apples and oranges and I was annoyed.

And then, I realized that I absolutely hate it when people do the whole “my life is hard and yours is easy”. They aren’t living that life and in that life. Also, why are you so proud that your life is hard? Why is that a badge of honor to wear? Shouldn’t we want each other as human beings to have a good – dare I say it – easier life?

This isn’t to say that I think everyone should have their life dreams handed to them. There is value in hard work. I am not diminishing the value in that hard work. There isn’t a life that doesn’t have some part of it that is challenging.

But, if someone gets to sleep in on a Saturday or maybe they got a random fun bonus from their job – hell, maybe they won lottery – can we just be happy for them?

So, Mr. Internet Dude on Facebook, your negative mind-set shall not win!

The Misconceptions of Cruise Ship Officer Perks

Their reasoning was that a cruise ship job where the actual onboard ship time was only six months a year couldn’t compare to a land based job because on a ship these officers and Captains have access to 24 hour medical care, free family travel, as well as meals and accommodations.

I think it’s safe to assume this person thinks teachers have it easy because of summer vacations.

While he figured it would be like comparing apples and oranges… I was remembering the wedding speech by Papa Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding…

We can compare or not compare apples and oranges all day – but in the end, “we all fruit”!

With that in mind, this post is not about how hard it is for cruise ship crew and easy it is for someone else. No, this post is about gaining a greater understanding of another way of life. Because, after all, “we all fruit!” So, to set the record straight for Random Dude on Facebook, here we go:

The Cruise Ship Officer Perks in Question:

Do cruise ship captains and senior officers only work 6 months a year?

This is sometimes technically accurate – ish. The exact rotation of crew members onboard a cruise ship is dependent on the cruise line. For higher level officers there are three month on and three month off rotations that exist. This would technically give you six months of work per year and six months vacation.

Those same officers on these rotations also need to attend usually 1-2 weeks of training outside of their cruise ship time each year. This is to keep their licensing up-to-date as well as making sure they are familiar with technological advances, changing environmental requirements, and new equipment.

During normal times these trainings are often in another country. Much like when they fly to the ship those days are on their own time (and often on the other side of the world) flying to these trainings is, too.

So, six months isn’t really six months. Most of the time they get to keep their air miles though? So that is pretty sweet.

And, while three months of vacation does sounds super great, onboard a ship most crew – and certainly the officers that are doing a three month on three month off rotation – work every day they are onboard. And, those days are typically at minimum 10 hours. They are also on call whenever they are onboard the ship, whether that be at 2:00pm or 2:00am.

Factor in the “on call” hours of being on the ship and still needing to respond in an emergency and it’s actually a darn lot of work. During normal times they are off the ship for some of those above included “on call” hours, so adjust accordingly.

To put it another way:

26 weeks * 70 hours work per week = 1,820 hours per year
26 weeks * 98 hours on call per week = 2,548 hours per year

While we weren’t comparing apples and oranges, I just want to reframe the concept of “only” working 6 months a year. They aren’t actually working less, instead they just take all their weekends, holidays, vacation time, and sick days and put it into two big chunks instead of the average 50 or so. This is definitely one of the misconceptions of cruise ship officer perks – that somehow it is less work or easier.

Given, those two big chunks can be quite nice, but the days onboard can certainly get pretty long. In addition to those days being long, a lot of those jobs carry a lot of responsibility and a lot of them are somewhat dangerous. When they need to call 9-1-1, they are the 9-1-1. It’s not feasible to fly crew back and forth to ships every week or every other week. So they came up with this system. Lots of stress followed by chunks of time off to recoup.

And, last year it was a whole extra barrel of stressful when crew were genuinely stuck onboard a ship with no concept as to how many more days they had to work and when they could go home.

There are also a lot of missed birthdays, anniversary’s, and weddings with being onboard for three months at a time.

There’s also a lot of missed snuggles – with spouses, kids, animals. There are missed bedtime stories and missed nights out with your friends.

There’s also really cool places and countries around the world and then a chunk of time off to maybe go visit your friends later.

I suppose this misconception of cruise ship officer perks is more about reframing how you think about those 6 months – and also realizing that it’s not truly “just” six months.

“Accommodations Are Included”

Yes, while officers are onboard the ship accommodations are included. They aren’t paying for their room like passengers are and most even include some amount of housekeeping. Aspects of this are very nice. That part is totally correct. I want to reframe this on the list of misconceptions of cruise ship officer perks though.

Most Still Have Homes On Land

While onboard accommodations are included those people need to live somewhere when they aren’t on the ship. For some (like me in my early 20’s) I lived at home with my mom when I wasn’t on the ship and I was able to save a ton of money. However, Officers and Captains are not typically doing this job just to travel a bunch in their twenties, a lot of them have families at home, and even if they don’t most want their own place, and as such still have to pay for housing even in the months that they aren’t on board.

I would personally love to be able to call the mortgage company and be like, “hey, so it says here that when my husband is on the ship his accommodations are paid for, so… that includes our mortgage for the next three months?” That’s not how it works.

Most Officer Cabins Are Pretty Nice…But, You Don’t Really Get a Say In It

The Captain’s and higher ranking officers onboard tend to have fairly nice cabins. On the scale of cruise ship crew cabins they are nearly always the best ones.

However, they are what they are and you don’t really get a say. A lot of cabins have tiny bathrooms… but, some don’t. Maybe you’d rather have a bigger room and smaller bathroom – on land you get to choose your housing (most of the time). Maybe you like a bigger bathroom and smaller room. You can do a lot to make a crew cabin (even the nice officer ones) feel like home, but you can’t actually change anything.

But… You Don’t Have to Buy Toilet Paper!

Now, there are totally money saving elements to living half your life onboard a ship. While you might still be paying the mortgage for your house on land, you don’t have to pay for toilet paper, you are extending the life of your sheets, pillows, and bed at home. There’s actually quite a few savings if you really get right down to it. Take a look in this post on the theoretical extra savings from living onboard.

“Meals Are Included”

This one is a bit of a solid argument most of the time in a lot of ways. It’s really nice to not have to buy groceries and there is certainly a money saving component to it.

While there is a financial benefit to this one, it doesn’t mean it’s great or easy. This past year has changed so much of working at sea. For the last year crew have been onboard ships without passengers eating a very limited menu with absolutely no option of going to find and/or make other food. Onboard ships right now the crew have to eat what options are provided to them.

My experience being onboard during the pandemic I would say 9/10 meals there would be something that I really enjoyed, and I certainly didn’t suffer malnutrition. The culinary team on the ship I was on did a great job of balancing the tastes of crew from quite a few different countries in the situation that they were in. And, if you didn’t like what their was you could almost always get a sandwich. It wasn’t ideal (none of the situation is ideal). But, it’s the situation that currently exists.

And, for crew that join ships now (or some ships that are in the red category with the CDC) crew are confined to quarantine in their staterooms and thus their food choices are even more limited.

Now, on the other side of that, during normal times people pay a lot of money to go on cruises and eat the delicious food onboard and that was literally just a part of every day life onboard for most officers (for some meals anyways).

This post is about and was prompted by talk of perks for officers and captains. There are a lot of crew that don’t ever get to eat the passenger food and the crew food is certainly not the same.

For a full breakdown of what dining is like for the crew onboard, take a look at my guest post for EmmaCruises all about cruise ship crew dining.

But, as with most things in life, there is a balance. Sometimes to get that nice food you had to “host” a table. Table hosting is usually an enjoyable experience – it’s when certain crew are invited to act as a host for a table in one of the onboard restaurants. Most of the time it is great – but, sometimes it ends up with good food in exchange for 2 hours of people complaining about their cruise.

“24-Hour On-Site Healthcare”

I will say being able to go to the doctor when your sick without fear that it’s going to cost a lot is really awesome… it also comes standard with the whole “life” thing in most first world countries through their national health care systems. It might not be on-site, but it’s available.

Also, the onboard health care isn’t meant to take the place of primary care physicians, getting routine physicals, or regular visits like going to the dentist or gynecologist. They are to deal with situations that arise and to ensure the general well-being of the crew and passengers. The doctors I have personally seen for medical treatment while onboard have been excellent and they take you seriously.

Do Cruise Ship Captains and High Ranking Officers Families Get to Travel for Free?

The short answer for this is, “sometimes”, and “it depends”.

This one might be the biggest on the list of misconceptions of cruise ship officer perks that there is. There seem to be a lot of assumptions about what the travel perks of being a high-ranking officer type or the family of a high-ranking officer are. I think people have it in their minds that it is just free cruises all the time and you can just show up in port and be like, “well, I’m here! Free cruise for me!” Not to burst the bubble but that’s not how it works. (Although I’ve never tried it, so maybe?)

There are some travel perks – most jobs for major cruise lines will list “Cruise and travel benefits for you and your family” as a benefit of the job. But, let’s go ahead and break down the two most common types.

Travel Perk Version One – Cruising While the Officer Type Person is Working Onboard

This is very dependent on the cruise line, what rank the officer is, and how many passengers are onboard.

For the most part this privilege is for officers and at minimum is for people with their own cabin. In addition the joining family members nearly always have to pay for their own flights.

Any of this kind of sailing needs to be approved from the head office, and depending on the rank, some officers can bring a friend, partner, spouse, or children onboard with them.

Each of those categories includes different amounts of time that they can spend onboard. For instance, a friend cannot stay onboard as long as the officer’s spouse or children. I have been super lucky to enjoy this privilege quite a lot and am now going to be experiencing it bringing our baby onboard, too.

And, lastly the number of passengers onboard matter because there needs to be enough space in the lifeboats and rafts for every person onboard. I haven’t personally run into this as an issue but have heard of it being an issue for some on very full sailings.

Travel Perk Version Two – Cruising While the Officer Type is On Vacation

There are some cruise perks for most officers and crew on cruise ships. It’s literally in the job description (just search for nearly any job with a major cruise line). The truth is though that a lot of crew members don’t want to go on a cruise during their vacation time – a cruise is their work. The other part is that for the most part they are non-transferrable, so the eligible crew member or employee has to be on the cruise (and in the same cabin) to get any of the travel privileges.

These benefits of the job don’t usually include airfare – although maybe they do for company executives. These cruises are also entirely dependent on space availability and you most definitely can’t just show up in port and be like, “I’m here for a cruise!”

How often you get to use this perk is dependent on what rank the employee is, as is what cabin you might get onboard. This perk is not just for sea-going employees either, a lot of land based positions with the major cruise lines will also include some cruise and travel perks.

While specifics are different between each cruise line I think it is very safe to say that a lot of employees rarely (if ever) take advantage of some of the cruise perks – often because they simply don’t want to cruise on their vacation time from working on a cruise ship.

There Are Misconceptions About Every Job

There are a whole host of misconceptions of cruise ship officer perks, but then there are a whole bunch of misconceptions of nearly everyone’s jobs and life. Hopefully you learned a little bit more about some of those cruise ship officer perks and can think about it a little bit differently.