This was my home for about four months last year. My job title was a steward, and I did numerous tasks including housekeeping, serving meals, serving horderves, cleaning, and restaurant prep/setup. It was a fun yet challenging experience!

The Good! :)

Pretty views! You will see some of the best scenery and sunsets that you have in your entire life. It is nice just to sun bathe on the employee decks while you are underway, and take in the scenery!

Traveling! The ship I was on cruised up and down the Mississippi River. All the way from Saint Paul, MN to New Orleans, LA. We also traveled along the Cumberland river a few times! My favorite stops were the biggest cities, such as New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, and St. Louis. There are a lot of other ships and itineraries though. If you work your way up and gain enough experience, then you can literally travel the world for free!

Meeting new people! Since you are working and living on a ship with your coworkers, along with exploring the different ports with them, you will grow very close friendships in a short amount of time. I met some of the greatest people working here, and still keep in close contact with most of them!

The money! Since your room and board and meals are provided for free, it is possible to save as much or as little of your paychecks as you would like. I was able to save up a good chunk of change, more so than a lot of my previous jobs- and in only four months too!

The Bad! :(

Hard work! Expect to work anywhere from 65 to 90 hours a week. Most weeks I logged in about 80 to 90 hours. It is like working two full time jobs, and since you work so much your time to explore the ports is kind of limited.

Cramped living quarters! Expect to be living in a very small room with 2 to 3 other people, and sharing a bathroom with them as well. Since you work so much and when you're off you want to explore the ports, as a result things get messy in the crew cabins very quickly. It can be a bit of a challenge, especially if your roommates are messy. If you are a neat freak, as am I, then expect to be cleaning up after your roommates constantly.

Crappy managers and corporate rules! You are pretty much stuck with your managers, so it sucks when they are mean and very demanding. Some of them are really cool though! Some cruise lines have a curfew where you have to be back on the boat by 11 PM or so, and this severely limits your time to explore the ports. They also have strict uniform standards, and all of them have alcohol policies. Some don't allow alcohol consumption whether you are on or off the clock, and some allow it to a certain extent if you are off the clock (normally half the legal driving limit). With alcohol at least, mostly everyone "looks the other way" and you can still go out and have a good time with your crew members. However, you have to be careful and smart about it because this is the number one reason people get fired from cruise ships. Just be smart about things and you will be fine! Most also do a drug test at hiring, and it is possible to get randomly tested throughout your employment (although I didn't know of anyone that got tested on my ship).

So you want to go cruising?

If you want to look into working on a cruise ship after weighing the pros and the cons, and I highly recommend you at least try if for the experience, then I have a couple suggestions as to where to apply. These are unfortunately the worst cruise line companies to work for, but they are a good place to get your foot in the door and get some experience. Then, if you like "boat life" you can look to advance your career with other cruise lines!!

The easiest to get a job at is American Cruise Lines. They are always hiring. There is an 11PM curfew however for stewards and deckhands (the entry level jobs), and alcohol consumption is technically not allowed at anytime.

The second easiest, and a little more lenient than ACL (but pays less), is Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of The America ship. This ship sails to the different islands of Hawaii. There is no curfew and a crew bar, but you are only allowed to consume alcohol off duty, and you are only technically allowed to get to half of the legal driving limit... which is not very much alcohol at all. NCL also has a longer hiring process, as you need to get a TWIC card and an MMC.