Emergencies do happen, and when something goes wrong on a ship and you’re in the middle of the ocean – things can get pretty bad.
Just ask Carnival Cruise, who, in 2013, lost power after there was a fire within the engine room. Passengers aboard the ship got stuck in the Gulf of Mexico, and the sewage started to get backed up. The nasty liquid got so full that it started overflowing all around the ship, and smelled so bad that some areas were labeled as toxic, and passengers camped out in tents in an effort to escape the hideous stench. Yuck!
Say Goodbye to Personal Space
“Stay in your lane, dude!” Ah, personal space in five words. Unfortunately, this kind of thing is super common in cruise ship crew living areas, believe it or not. Rooms for crew members often consist of uber-small bunk beds and little to no floor space. It is very difficult to sleep and feel comfortable.
On some cruise ships, the rooms are situated in a “dorm” style, where up to eleven people can stay in the same room. However, most people that work on a cruise ship will tell you that it’s worth it for the rest of the benefits of being on the crew.
Work Relations
Okay, so you can’t hook up with the guests, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hook up at all! Crew member relationships are extremely common aboard cruise ships. Just imagine being around the same people in tight quarters for most of the year – hookups are inevitable!
And romance between crew members is unlike any typical relationship that would happen on land. Why? Well, considering that the crew lives together, works together, eats together, and plays together, it’s pretty hard to get away from your significant other if things get sour. And you can forget about keeping your relationship a secret, as everyone knows everything that is happening on board!
Norovirus Outbreaks
When sickness strikes on a cruise ship, it can be absolutely devastating. This is because it has the tendency to travel super quickly, and passengers can’t do much to avoid getting sick, because they’re basically trapped in a small space with the virus. This is what happened when 100 passengers on a Carnival Cruise ship developed Norovirus – a foodborne illness that causes flu-like symptoms.
The passengers just happened to get sick on their very first day of a ten-day cruise. Norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships are actually fairly common, and happened four times on four different ships over a single year alone!
Hiring Americans Is Not Common Practice
A lot of the time, cruise lines try to avoid hiring Americans. But, why? Well, Americans are spoiled in the sense that we are used to 40-hour workweeks, which is not the case with much of the rest of the world. Americans are also used to working the standard Monday through Friday schedule and taking their weekends off.
Hours can very much exceed 40 hours on a cruise ship, and you can forget about taking an entire weekend off. Most of the time, you would be lucky to get a single day off for your entire contract. And therefore, most people who hired on cruise ships are not American.