So you want a job on a cruise ship, eh? Fortunately, there are an enormous number of possible jobs on cruise ships, and moreover, cruise ship jobs are almost always in need of filling. In this article, we’ll look at some of general characteristics of cruise ship jobs, explaining what cruise ships jobs are and how they compare to other jobs.
With very few exceptions, cruise ships are enormous, they carry a lot of people, and they offer a ton of different services. Consequently, cruise ships are operated by a very large crew, sometimes one that numbers in the thousands. (One of the largest ships in the world, Oasis of the Seas in the Royal Caribbean International fleet, has a crew of over 2000 people.) The cruise ship industry also has a higher employee turnover rate relative to other industries, meaning that positions are always available on cruise ships. The cruise ship industry is literally always hiring. When you combine these two facts – the incredible number of jobs in the cruise ship industry, as well as the frequency with which these positions need to be filled due to employee turnover – it becomes clear that are tons of cruise ship jobs out there.
The fact that there is a high employee turnover rate in the cruise ship industry shouldn’t necessarily make you wary of jobs on cruise ships. Other industries that operate on cycles, like ski resorts, also experience high turnover, and this is simply because of the fluctuating demand for employees that is determined by the season. In most season-driven industries, there are definitive “down times” when there aren’t many jobs available. While this is somewhat true in the cruise ship industry, it is less so because there are different seasons for different destinations, and since most major cruise lines offer cruises all over the world, the off season is less pronounced. Furthermore, this doesn’t mean that people aren’t drifting into and out of the cruise ship industry – they are, and hence the perpetual availability of cruise ships jobs. And that’s exactly what is cool about the cruise ship industry: there are seasons, and hence employees are always coming and going, but there is never a period in which there is little need for new employees. The cruise ship industry has the benefits of a season-based industry, but not all the drawbacks.
With no prior work experience on cruise ships, isn’t it hard to land a job on a cruise ship? In a word, no, as there are so many jobs on cruise ships that lots of types of work experience, on a cruise ship or not, is relevant work experience. While a previous job on a cruise ship would surely be helpful, it is far from necessary. Work experience as a poker dealer in a casino is work experience as a poker dealer in a casino, regardless of whether the casino is based on land or a cruise ship at sea. And besides that, there are jobs in the cruise ship industry that are on land, like office positions, and for these positions it is even less relevant if you happen to have worked on a cruise ship.
To recap, there are tons of cruise ship jobs simply because of how large and complex is the operation of a cruise ship. These jobs are perpetually in need of filling because of the high turnover in the industry. Don’t assume you can’t get a cruise ship job just because you haven’t worked on a cruise ships before.