Cruise-ship workers face some challenges that rarely come up on land.
If your boss quits, for example, you may have to take on some extra responsibility or even take on their job for a while, but extra help can usually easily be hired.
Related: Royal Caribbean confiscates tech items some passengers love
Cruise lines can't easily replace workers because of the large amount of paperwork involved in getting someone on board. For positions that are common, like bartender, waiter and room steward, the cruise line can usually ask someone already close to joining to stay on longer or to join a ship sooner.
For more specialized positions, however, cruise lines sometimes have to use battlefield promotions when a position becomes open. That means whoever is there has to step in and do the job whether or not they've trained for it.
That's what happened to Chris Wong, a Royal Caribbean crew member who hosts a popular YouTube channel.
Dan's note: Having talked to hundreds, maybe thousands, of crew members over the years, I find it's not uncommon for someone not to want a promotion. Many crew members have told me that the added work of being a boss is not worth the added hours and money.
Sign up for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter to save money on your next (or your first) cruise.
Royal Caribbean has a new casino host
Transcript:
Well, I kind of got promoted at work. What's up, you guys, welcome back to Chris Wong Vlogs. All right, no messing about, this is not a clickbait video.
Here's my old name badge, I hope you can see that. Yeah, camera, are you going to focus? Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, you can all read that.
Chris, Assistant Casino Host. For those of you who didn't know, that was my job prior to this moment, and here is the new name badge. Let me explain to you exactly, well, what's happened here, because this is kind of an awkward, not awkward situation, it's kind of an unusual situation is what I'm trying to say.
Basically, on board Quantum of the Seas, there was a Casino Host and Assistant Casino Host, but due to some — I don't even know how to describe it — due to business needs, let's say, the Casino Host who was on here has had to transfer to another ship. And I, as the Assistant Casino Host, [have] now stepped up to the Casino Host role but without an assistant, so I'm kind of doing this gig on my own again.
Now, for those of you who were following me last year, I had a similar situation like this, where I was transferred halfway through my contract on Symphony of the Seas as an Assistant Host to Explorer of the Seas on my own to cover and be the temporary Casino Host. I was essentially temporarily promoted because of, again, because of business needs.
Royal Caribbean's new casino host may not want the job
So here I am again. I found myself in a situation where I've kind of had to step up and be promoted without me asking for it, or not that I don't deserve it, but I've mentioned this before in the past, stepping up, promoting from Assistant to the Senior position. Because a lot of you have asked me in person, and commented on my video, Chris, it feels like you've been an Assistant forever, when are you going to get promoted and step up?
Well, I've kind of made the conscious decision that I wanted to remain the position that I had, because obviously a promotion, it's great news in terms of my career on board, obviously it's a higher salary as well. But the main reason why I was hesitant to go for promotion in the past is because, well, taking on more responsibility, taking a higher role, will ultimately mean more work for myself, and it will naturally take away time from my YouTube channel, which is just as important to me.
So what does this mean moving forward? Well, I'm not sure, okay, I'm gonna see how my first few weeks on board go as a solo casino host. I'm gonna try and manage my time as best as I can, and I will do my best to continue to create YouTube content for this channel. There's a possibility it may go dark for a little bit as I'm just adjusting to my new role.
This is the cards I've been dealt with, and you know what, in times like this it's okay, everything happens for a reason. I'm more than capable of doing this role. Me being a solo host, I guess that kind of makes me like Superman. Anyways, guys, that is the news and update I have for you all.
ALSO READ: Top travel agents share how to get the best price on your cruise
A lot of you have mentioned my one-hour videos, some of you like it, some of you don't like it. For me personally, I love making long-form content. It's definitely the way forward in my personal opinion and, yeah, for those of you who've continued to support me up until now, thank you so much. I've had one hell of a year so far as we are slowly coming towards the end of this year.
As for now, I've been Chris Wong, your friendly casino host here on board the Quantum of the Seas. Thank you.
Are you taking a cruise or thinking about taking one? Visit our Come Cruise With Me website to have all your questions answered.
