Working on a cruise ship has many visible advantages and disadvantages compared to working on land. As they always say, the grass looks greener in the neighbor's lot. I have spent nearly ten years working on a cruise ship, and I always tried to focus on the positive aspects. One of the main differences between working on the cruise ship and working on the land is that you don't need to commute to work. That is a huge advantage; you don't have to spend 1 hour traveling to get to work.

When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, which resulted in the confinement of a large part of the world’s population, a string of consequences not seen since the Second World War shook the social and economic structures of most, if not all, countries, prolonged confinements, limited mobility, and border closures affected all economic sectors to varying extents, however, hospitality and tourism were possibly the hardest hit of all despite their years of steady growth.

What's behind the increase in cruise ship violence? There are a few possible explanations.

More People Onboard

Work on a cruise ship is hard to generalize by someone's subjective experience. Someone back home might ask you- how is it to work on the cruise ship? Some friends may need advice on which cruise line is the best to apply for. Is it better to work on ocean cruise ships or river ship?

There was a time when I was a crew bartender on a cruise ship sailing out from Florida. It's nice to be a crew bartender, most bartenders would disagree with that, but I really enjoyed it. It was hard because I had no one else to help me set up or close the bar; I was opening and closing it and serving the crew members. Some bartenders did not like to work there because they wanted to go to the crew bar to drink when they were off duty.

I remember the time when I started working on cruise ship and saw couples fighting between themselves. What instantly came to my mind was," How are they going to have a healthy relationship on the land if they can't have a healthy relationship on the cruise ship"?

If you have ever worked on a cruise ship especially sailing in the US, you know the true meaning of the USPH inspection. Regardless of the cruise line or the ship, we are expected to maintain high standards of cleanliness. If you work on a seven-day cruise with the two American ports, that means that you are required to do two special cleanings per cruise.

Sometimes, you get fortunate during your contract. Depending on the ship's management, sometimes the HR coordinator is innovative enough to create some awesome crew activities that will certainly boost the happiness of the crew members. While I was working on the ship in Australia, I met my two best friends and colleagues from the bar department.

We often struggled to maintain our physical and mental health during long contracts on the cruise ship. Physical health could be maintained much easier than our mental health. Indeed, both are extremely important for keeping our sanity and healthy state of mind. Our physical and mental health mainly depends on hours of sleep, the amount of stress we are exposed to, how often we exercise, and our preferred diet. 

The Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports - MedCruise, has introduced a Crew-Friendly initiative to support crew members of cruise ships across 151 ports in 22 countries around the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas. The program's primary aim is to create a welcoming environment that caters to the unique needs of the crew.