Working on a cruise ship seems like an adventure.
You get to visit the world, experience different cultures, and make friends with people you otherwise would have never met.
The negative, of course, is that you have to leave your home and family for anywhere from 4-8 months. Crew members literally leave their lives, family, and friends behind. For some, that can mean missing out on major milestones and even missing large chunks of your child's or children's lives.
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There are a lot of positives to life at sea, but YouTube star and Royal Caribbean solo guitarist Bryan James believes that people should fully know what they're getting into before they sign on.
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Life as a cruise ship crew member is not easy
“I want to tell you that if you were thinking about working on a ship I would
say you need to really think about what you want to do on the ship and why you're doing it if you're here to make money just realize a lot of jobs on ships aren't crazy good money,” he shared.
As a musician, James works about four hours a day and gets a day off. He also has trainings, meetings, and other mandatory events that are not always conducive to his late-night (usually ending after 1 a.m.) work schedule.
A crew member like a bartender, room steward, or waiter might work 10-hour days or longer and not get a regular day off.
The money, of course, is relative.
“Now they're good in the sense that you're not paying for your food, you're
not paying for your lodging you're not paying for that kind of stuff. So, if you're really good at saving sure you can put aside a thousand or two thousand dollars a month depending on your job,” he said.
But, that assumes you don’t spend much of what you make.
“If you're actually wanting to go out into these ports and see the places that
you're visiting that's where the money can disappear really really fast,” he added.
There are also hidden expenses many people don’t think about.
“Another place that it can disappear fast is just internet connection every crew member has to pay for internet, and it's on the pricier side," he shared. Sometimes, a crew member climbs into bed and scrolls on TikTok you like to get in bed at the end of the day and scroll for 20 minutes 30 minutes, maybe again in the morning. Doing that every day means "that's over a hundred dollars just in really really light scrolling just to pass the time,” he shared.
“So boy if you want to use it for like uploading videos like I do get ready to spend a lot a lot of cash,” he added.
Image source: Royal Caribbean
Cruise ship life can be lonely
“Honestly socially it's like a really really cool life being on ships it's really possible to make tons of friends and have all of these experiences but also it's incredibly possible to not make friends because if you're not a super outgoing person you just yeah it's a struggle for me I'm not a super outgoing person,” James explained.
Royal Caribbean ships have a crew bar where drinks are sold at heavily reduced prices. That’s sort of the social center for the crew in their off-hours.
“When I go to crew bar I kind of stand there in the corner nervously and hope
somebody talks to me. When I got on the ship it took me 50 days before i made a friend 50 days of pretty much sitting in this room and staring at the wall which is crazy to think that I did that,” he added.
James is trying something new.
“I'm going to another ship very very soon which is going to be totally different it's going to be a really really small cabin just like the one that I described that's about the width of a bed I'm doing it because I'm going to be there with my friends and a band,” he said.
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Being in a band, instead of being a solo player, means some sacrifices.
"I’ve decided that even though I'm making a lot more here and the benefits of having my own cabin are great you just can't replace having friends,” James added.
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