Cruise Ship Worker Opens up About the Downsides of Working on a Ship
There's no shortage of online vloggers who share their lives at sea as cruise ship workers. These vloggers get into the nitty-gritty of cruise ship living, and while it's not always glamorous, they still seem to enjoy their jobs overall.
But does that mean working on a cruise ship is right for everybody? Definitely not, and as cruise ship worker @dannysmartmusic makes clear, there are some serious downsides that prospective applicants should consider.
Essentially, cruise ship jobs aren't really ones where you get an even work/life balance. You live where your work and you work where you live, and the issues surrounding that lifestyle can understandably be a deal-breaker for some people.
The thing that struck me the most was his first negative point: just how long many cruise ship workers have to work each day. It wasn't so much the shift lengths that surprised me, more the excellent point he made about it. A lot of people take cruise ship jobs to travel, but if you're spending literally half of your day working, you don't get much time to enjoy the traveling you signed up for in the first place. That point is a serious reality check for people pursuing cruise ship jobs only for that reason.
Overall, you don't have a lot of the same freedoms you do at home while living on a cruise ship. There's less privacy, more rules you have to follow even while off the clock, and you'll be far away from friends and family at home for months at a time. These points aren't problems for everybody, but if you think your happiness or mental health would suffer trying to live this way, a cruise ship job is probably not for you.
But of course, it isn't all bad, otherwise hardly anyone would apply for these jobs. Danny does make a point to explain that even with these downsides, you still get to make new friends, go on crazy adventures, and set sail all across the world. Pointing out the downsides of cruise ship living isn't meant to trash the idea entirely- it's about having an honest dialogue around what could still potentially be a dream career.
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