I have never seen the love boat, but if working on a cruise ship is anything like the theme tune I'm sure its awesome town.

My cousin's friend worked on one as a singer. I don't know much more about it than that. I imagine the hours were better.

alls i know is that its a 24 hour boink fest. try applying for the disney one! if they're low on applicants they might consider you even without experience.

There alot better a friend of mine got a crew as a dancer, the shows at night, they re hearse for a couple of hours and thats about it. They can pick up some extra cash by teaching old people how to dance but thats optional.

lol, sounds fun, actually I'm only half interested in the disney one, part of me thinks the shows will be great (so require alot of technical expertise) but the other part of me wonders if I can cope being surrounded by other peoples kids for 8 months?

The majority of 'unskilled' cruise staff seem to be from more deprived countries, I presume because they are more used to the crappy pay & horrific working hours/conditions.

I thought about being a cruise ship photographer, but I quickly realised that it would be chock full of Jane Macdonald singing types and general nitwits FOR 24 HOURS A DAY!!!!!!! which would send the common man insane in a matter of hours. Not for me.

That might be a problem.



To be honnest its probably more of a passing idea at the moment, I'm broke and in debt (so any job is looking pretty appealing) I'm trying to move to Canada so any job where I can save alot of money fast is sounding pretty good even if its crappy.

I dont know I've put up with some pretty terrible jobs in the past and if I did get an entertainment technicians job I wouldnt be dealing with the public.

Do they cruise to Canada from Britain? I know there are cruises in Canada that go up north around the Arctic islands and up the Alaskan coast. These ships are probably based in Canada. I don't know what sort of Visas would be required. (That's something I've always wondered about actually.) So it could be a back door into Canada.



Of course those cruises are full of old people, so it probably won't be as fun (even though it probably still is a 24 hour boink fest) so if you just want the money to save for Canada cruising around the Mediterranean would be pretty damn awesome in my opinion.

Honnestly I've no idea how the cruises work, I know my friend might end up on a cruise to alaska but he's flying out to florida for training so I imagine it'll set off from there.



As for visa's, the company gets you a special type of work visa but if the cruise is in international waters they dont need one.



If I did the work and was very careful with my spending on minimum wage (UK £5.20) I'd come out with about £10,000 which would be enough to cover my education for a year in canada.



As for the 24 hour bonk fest, bonking free passengers is strictly off limits you can get sacked for it, but hey theres always crew.



Tonteau, I'm glad somebody else considered it though I understand why you wouldnt want.

I reckon it would be fun but fucking hard work. I know that doing long hours mean that even on your days off you're probably gonna be to fucked to do much but just rest.

£10k for 8 months work? That's not that good money.

I know and I might of got my maths wrong £5.20 an hour for 70 hours a week for 8 months but its better than working in a shop at home paying rent to the parents and the goverment taking its cut.

£5.20 an hour. Fuck that. Not worth it if you're doing 70 hour weeks - unless you have a lot more endurance and patience than me.



Get a regular bar job. Pay's probably not much better but if you get a decent pace to work it'd be a good laugh and you're not committed to 8 months.

True, to be honnest the £5.20 was just a guess (they dont have pay info on the sites) but its probably not far off the actual amount, I know dancers get paid £500 a week and its always more than un skilled staff.



Like I said its probably more of a fleeting idea, the problem is at home theres no jobs, almost every shop in the town centre has closed down and the other major cities are an hour away, commutings possible but thats gonna get tedious after a while.

It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you think that your food and accommodation are paid for your outgoings will be minimal.



Most of that £10 grand would be money saved, whereas even earning double that in London you'd be lucky to come out with anything saved...

Would they pay overtime at all? 70 hours does seem excessive to be making a flat rate, or at least such a low flat rate. There has to be some sort of concession (perhaps it's the free meals and accommodation.)

In defense of the cruise, one of my ex colleague said working a cruise ship was the best gig he ever had. Mind you that was in the seventies, or a russian owned ship in the med........and I'm pretty sure it would have closely resembled a carry on film.

or = on

you do get living and food all paid for you though, so £5.20 an hour is not that bad

Valid point.

I tried writing out a pro's and cons list before but it came out equal, working 10 hours a day seven days a week for eight months seems pretty tough, I've heard the only days off you get are when the ships in port which isnt often, though I guess it depends on the cruise.



For those that are interested here's a couple of videos on life aboard a disney cruise:



check out crew area's to see how small the rooms are