Cruise Jobs

As cruise ships proliferate, the major cruise lines are constantly looking for qualified staff to fill a variety of positions in their shipboard casinos. More than 3,000 dealers and assorted personnel are now employed in these floating casinos, and while a friendly, outgoing personality is a clearly stated job requirement for cruise ship dealers, many seem genuinely happer in their work than a number of dealers we have come across in land-based casinos.

The major fringe benefit of the job is the obvious: the chance to visit a variety of  exotic destinations that cruise passengers pay thousands of dollars to see. And when ships are in port (where the ship’s casino is almost always closed), most of the casino workers generally are free to go ashore and sightsee, snorkle, sunbathe (or even visit the local casinos as a player).

Another major attraction is the ability (for those who choose) to save most of their pay and tips, since room and meals and pretty much everything they need while onboard ship is provided at no charge.

Onboard ship, casino staff generally live two to a small cabin, and dine and relax in crew areas. (Be sure to check: one major cruise line bunks casino four and even five to a cabin on some of its ships — not, from several first-hand accounts, a pleasant experience.)

Unlike many cruise ship employees, casino staff often are allowed to use the ship’s guest recreational facilities in their spare time.

Cruise casino staff generally enter into a four-to-six month “contract” to work on a given ship, after which they take a few weeks off before entering into a new contract to work on the same or another of the cruise line’s ships.

For the most part, the major cruise lines are looking to fill casino positions with men and women with casino experience. Dealers in particular are expected to have experience in dealing several table games.

Among the positions available on cruise ships are:

• Casino managers and assistant casino managers;
• Casino dealers (blackjack, baccarat, roulette, craps, poker);
• Casino technicians (responsible for maintaining slot machines and other casino devices);
• Casino cashiers;
• Casino hosts.

Below are links to several companies that hire casino staff for cruise ships.

Carnival Corporation

Norwegian Cruise Line

 

try Royal Caribbean as well

Worth a read!

Don’t limit your chances of success by only applying directly to the cruise line companies themselves. You might be surprised to know that concessionary companies and staffing agents are actually responsible for hiring a large percentage of cruise ship employees.

Too often job seekers miss this opportunity because they mistakenly assume that applying through a hiring agency or concessionary company is not the best way to get hired. For this reason the applicant ‘pool’ tends to be much smaller.

You can use this knowledge to your advantage and greatly increase your chances of success by making sure that you apply to as many concessionaires and staffing agents as you can, as well as applying directly to the cruise line companies.

If you’re unsure what the difference is between a cruise line, concessionaire and staffing agent, then here’s a quick overview:

The cruise line is the company that actually owns and runs the cruise ship. However an onboard concessionaire has a contract with the cruise line company to operate a particular service across their fleet of ships (e.g. the duty free shops and the fitness/beauty salons onboard, etc).

This is similar in the way that a large shopping mall will have lots of retail stores inside. The retail shop provides the particular service and the mall provides shoppers and the outlet.

It’s important to know that if you’re employed by a concessionaire, then you are employed and paid by that company and not the cruise line (although you still follow the same rules and regulations and get the same privileges onboard as all other staff members).

A staffing agent is someone who works on behalf of the cruise line company (or concessionaire) to provide staff for usually a wide range of departments onboard. Once you have been placed by a staffing agent, their job is usually done and all the rest of the details are handled directly between the cruise line and the employee.

Cruise Ship Jobs for International Staff?

A question I get asked quite a lot by cruise ship job seekers is:

“Is it more difficult for a non-American to get a job on a cruise ship?”

The answer of course, is a resounding “NO!”

And if you’ve ever been on a cruise ship and met some of the staff who work onboard, you would probably laugh at this question! For non-American cruise ship job hunters this seems to be a fairly common concern.

In fact, sadly, some people actually write and tell me that they’re giving up on the idea of working on a cruise ship because they’re not American…

Cruising is one of the fastest growing leisure sectors. It’s a huge industry worth billions of dollars – and the biggest cruising market is… yep, America!

For this reason most of the world’s cruise line companies at least have a presence there (mainly Miami). And of course, it’s fairly close to the Caribbean which is the most popular cruising destination.

But does this mean that it’s mainly Americans who get to work onboard and have all the fun?

Nothing could be further from the truth!

The cruise line industry is an international industry that employs tens of thousands of staff from the world over. What’s more, this is probably one of the few industries that employs people from virtually any country you can think of. And many more from Countries that you didn’t even know existed!

On my first ship (Carnival Fascination) there were SEVENTY TWO different nationalities of people working onboard ONE ship. This was split over about 900 crew (which also gives you a little glimpse into how much fun it can be working and socializing with all these different people from so many different backgrounds!)

And this is fairly typical.

There are tens of thousands of staff from English speaking countries working on cruise ships right now, including; Americans, British, Irish, South African, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand.

Not to mention the tens of thousands of staff from Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, South America & the Caribbean, Russia and many more.

So I’m always amazed when people tell me that they can’t get a job onboard a cruise ship because they’re “not American”!

I hope this has dispelled that “myth” and will prevent you from giving up and missing out on a fantastic and life-changing opportunity.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• CRUISE LINE EMPLOYMENT – A FEW THOUGHTS
• Cruise Ship Jobs – Work on Cruise Ships, Cruise Ship Jobs for Everyone
• Onboard Ship Security

Tags: and the, cruise, cruise line, cruise ship, onboard, people, staff, staff from, staffing, the cruise

This entry was posted on December 20, 2009 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Cruise Ship Job Made Easy

Job Description:

We are urgently looking for a Licensed Hotel/Resort Technician Sailor for a 5* Resort in the Maldives.

The right candidate will take care of the repairs, maintenance and upkeep of inboards and outboards of diving, cargo and passenger vessels. The candidate should have at least a minimum of 5 years experience, can operate, maintain, and repair the mechanical systems of ships. Pumps, engines, gears, heaters, or deck machinery, estimate costs of the equipment needed for approval by management. Able to help the ship officers to select tools and spare parts that may be needed for emergency repairs.