Cruise Ship Job: Cruise Staff

The position of cruise staff it’s a really fun one. You are the life of the party and you need lots of energy to dance the night away. The job of Cruise Staff is to provide and host a vast range of activities geared mainly towards adults and families, keeping guests entertained and engaged by providing and hosting fun activities throughout the cruise

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What does a Cruise Staff do?

You will be in charge of all the planned activities around the ship such as bingo, pool parties, theme nights, trivia, welcoming guests during embarkation day, and socializing throughout the cruise. Basically anything related to the entertainment onboard- you can bet there’s a crew staff involved.

As part of the cruise staff team, you will serve as master of ceremonies to motivate, inform and entertain cruise ship guests. You will be hosting common cruise ship activities such as:

Pool Games
Game Shows
Bingo

Quizzes
Pub Crawls
Dance Lessons

The cruise staff position falls under the supervision of the Cruise Director and Assistant Cruise Director.

Cruise staff admin is also part of the cruise staff department. The cruise staff admin is in charge of scheduling all of the activities around the ship, creating the entertainment schedule- a pamphlet that is printed every day and distributed it to guests onboard showcasing all the activities hosted on the ship, the ship’s different venues, restaurants and it’s hours of operation, as well as important information regarding the ship and the ports of call.

What are the Requirements to Work as Cruise Staff?

To work as cruise staff you basically need to have some entertainment background and be an easy, outgoing kind of person. If you worked in a resort, hosted activities for guests and have prior experience working with large groups of people and, most importantly, are not afraid of the microphone, you essentially have the skills necessary to apply for a cruise staff a job.

Some companies require a minimum of two years experience working with the public, in addition to being an outgoing person with lots of energy. I am not joking, you do need to have lots of energy because in the cruise ship world, you’re the life of the party. You have to be ready early in the morning for morning trivia, then you might host some pool activities in the hot Caribbean sun, followed by dancing the night away at late night theme parties like “Back to the 80’s” party.

Back to the 80s party — Back to the 80’s party on Cruise ship. Source: CruiseCritic.com

That’s just scratching the surface. There are many other activities that cruise staff do and they all require that you be ready to smile and interact with guests all day long.

Also, contracts for entertainment positions normally last between 4 to 8 months, with around 6 months being the norm.

Cruise Staff Job Description

Some examples of job descriptions you might encounter during your job search:

“Our Cruise Staff make a dramatic impact on each guest’s cruise experience by conducting a variety of onboard activities for them to enjoy.
Activities range from trivia games and contests to themed parties and dance lessons.
This team is also responsible for hosting an array of special events onboard, including guest performers, group exercise classes, and even the occasional conga line. “

Source: Princess Cruise Line Careers

This position is a part of the “Cruise Staff” team, catering to an adult and/or family audience.
Acts as assistant emcee while supporting the Entertainment Activities Manager, Club Host and/or Entertainment Hosts/Hostesses.

Ensures set-up and clean-up of all adult/family activities. Participates in day/evening deck parties, games shows, trivia contests, sports challenges, ship/island tours, bingo, etc.
Assists with the Port Adventures (shore excursion) operation.
Helps with island rentals and activities on Castaway Cay.

Seeks out guest contact and displays enthusiasm and boundless amounts of energy.
This role has high guest interaction and involves some microphone use and onstage activity. Consideration for this role does require an audition.

Source: DCL Careers

Cruise Staff Promotional Videos

Disney Cruise Line

MSC Cruise Line

Cruise Staff Job Requirements

Fluent English, oral and written and at least in 2 of the following languages: German, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Chinese. Any additional language is considered an advantage;

High School graduation certificate
Professional certificates are an advantage;
At least 2 years’ experience as a professional entertainer (Hotels, Camping, Cruise lines, etc.);

Computer literacy;
Enthusiastic and creative;
Excellent communication skills;

Ability to organize and run complex and varied activities with little supervision;
At ease with public speaking;
STCW95 certification is compulsory (Basic fire fighting, personal survival techniques, elementary first aid, personal security and social responsibility);

A recognized medical certification is required before starting to work on board.

Source: MSC Cruises

Side Jobs

As Cruise Staff, you also help out around the ship with some routine activities during embarkation and debarkation day, as well as during the days that the ship needs to tender. You will most likely get to do crowd control, help setting up immigration lines for inspections, welcome guests on the theater before shows, among other duties.

During embarkation day, you will welcome the guests on board, answer general questions (“Where’s the Buffet” is one of the main questions you will be asked during embarkation day), and general questions about locations around the ship and events, how to signup for dining reservations, etc. You as the cruise staff, need to know where most of the things on the ship are since you will be the main face to the guests when they step onboard.

During debark days, you help with crowd control, showing the guests where to disembark, what’s the process and order of disembarkation (each cruise line has its unique disembarkation procedure), as well as assist with immigration screening when the ship arrives in a foreign port that requires immigration inspections. All of these activities are coordinated by the cruise director and its staff.

You are one of the most recognizable faces on the ship, since nearly every entertainment activity that the guests will participate you will most likely be there. There will be guests who will come up to you to just say hi or chit chat, for them you are like a mini-celebrity. Since you will be visible to so many people around the ship, it is very important to always have a smile on face because the guests will notice if you don’t, and whats the fun about being a grumpy entertainer.

How Much Money does Cruise Staff Make?

Cruise Staff, Youth Staff, Cruise Admin Staff, Sports Staff, Dancers, Musicians,DJs are all part of the entertainment department onboard, under the umbrella and supervision of the Cruise Director.

Salaries vary from company to company but here’s is what you can expect to make as a cruise staff:

Cruise Director

$4,000 - $5,000

Asst. Cruise Director

$1800 - $2500

Cruise Staff

$1,500 - $1,750

Do Cruise Staff get Commission/Bonus?

Although the cruise staff position is a non-tipped position, is not uncommon to receive tips from certain guests that you interacted throughout the cruise. There will be some guests that you will definitely remember on board, perhaps you had a great conversation or you really went above and beyond, in cases like this guests will tip you just for being awesome.

There are also opportunities to make extra money while onboard, activities that require guests to sign up in advance and pay a fee, like Bingo, raffles, pub crawls, ship tours, are all ways you can earn some commission from these sales in some companies. Not all companies will pay commission since your job is not heavily sales focused like a cruise consultant or shopping consultant, so keep that in mind.

What is the Typical Schedule Like?

Working as Cruise Staff you can expect to work a lot. Depending on the size of the ship and itinerary, you might work longer hours. If a ship has a lot of time in port, your hours might be fewer as compared with an itinerary that has more sea days.

Sea days are your busy days, mainly because all the passengers are onboard the ship ready to be entertained, so expect to work longer hours on sea days.

On port days there are few were guests on board and the assistant cruise director, or ACD for short, don’t usually need all hands on deck to run the activities. Most of the team will have a big chunk of time off in port to explore or just relax onboard while one or two staff (depends on ship size) must remain onboard on duty, famously called All Day Duty or ADD for short.

During ADD You are essentiality stuck hosting activities for guests that decided to stay on board instead of going ashore. It will be usually small group activities like trivia games, origami classes, video game contests, etc. For the most part, it’s an easy day, with a lot of mini breaks in between but you are on call all the time, until sail time. Normally once the ship set sail, you have the evening off, but again, that depends on which company you are working and within the same company, it can vary from ship to ship.

Some Examples of Cruise Staff Activities

Below you will find a short list of some activities that are hosted on a cruise ship. The most popular activities, like the game shows and bingo, are hosted by either the cruise director or the asst. cruise director, but the staff is always available to assist when needed, so you will need to learn the activities.

Love & Marriage game show on Royal Caribbean

Battle of the Sexes Norwegian Cruise Line

Final Words

Working as a cruise staff can be a lot of fun for the right individual. If you are an outgoing kind of person, don’t have stage fright and can handle hours on your feet dancing, moving around all while smiling for contracts that last over six months, the cruise staff job might be the right fit for you.

For some people, working as cruise staff doesn’t feel like a job at all, but like everything else in life, too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing. There will be some days where you go crazy if you hear the YMCA song or the Cha-cha slide song or you might get tired of saying the same joke every cruise. Even though you might love dancing, when you have to dance for the 100th time the same songs, it wont be cool anymore.

As long you keep a positive attitude and know your WHY ( See this post) you will be able to enjoy all the fun this position provides.