A cruise ship worker has explained the one way on board staff can quickly find themselves without a job with a very abrupt trip back to dry land on the cards.
Working at sea isn't for everyone. It is a unique lifestyle that some love and others would hate. In fact, some love it so much that they choose to live at sea as a passenger, even if they're not making any money working for the vessel.
It can be a really fruitful venture though, with some workers revealing the small fortune they make by working at sea.
If you decide that working on a cruise ship is something you're interested in, one person who already does this has issued some top advice when it comes to making sure you don't get fired.
And that's because it's pretty easy to find yourself in a situation where your job is at risk without even maybe realising so.
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Over on an Ask Me Anything (AMA) Reddit thread, the cruise ship worker answered questions about, well, anything that people were interested in.
Launching the AMA, they said: "I have travelled to over 30 countries and five continents, including Antarctica, while having my dream job: singing and performing! I am a part of the production cast (of 12) as well as the vocal captain for the other five singers.
"I do other small duties on the ship for the entertainment department but overall I work on average less than three hours a day and get paid way more than I would on land to sing. It’s a unique lifestyle that combines traveling, performing, customer service, getting along with 50-plus other nationalities on board and more. Ask me anything!"
One Redditor said: "Can you not drink at all during the whole trip?"
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Explaining the reality of the situation to those interested, the cruise ship singer said you can and are in fact incentivised to do so with punters if the right situation comes about. But there is a risk.
They said: "So because part of the production cast’s job is to socialise, we actually get a stipend of $150 each month to get drinks in guest areas in case the want to spend time with us in a bar area.
"So it’s a little bit a part of our job. But despite that, we can be fired if we are breathalysed and over .05 while off duty or .04 while on duty.
"Basically there’s a culture of 'we know everyone goes over that limit but unless you’re clearly drunk while on duty, or doing something rowdy, we won’t test you'."
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But there is one situation that 'gets people' more than any other. The random breathalyser tests on the morning after a big one.
"What gets people is the random alcohol tests every month at 10am where people are still drunk from the night before. Drinking is a huge part of ship life because of how cheap alcohol is in crew bar. It’s like $1.50 per drink," they said.
Another person commented explaining how her brother was a piano player on a cruise ship and got 'kicked off for getting super drunk'.
"The same exact scenario just happened at the beginning of my contract and we were without a pianist for two months," the cruise ship worker said.
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"It sucked. Unfortunately alcohol is very cheap on ships but even a little bit can send you home if you’re breathalyzed."
Know your limits, then. And maybe only really go all-out when you know you're not on shift the following morning, which goes for anyone working in any job, really, especially if it is customer facing.
If you fancy a career on a cruise ship, you might want to follow the packing advice of one man who has done it for a long time when it comes to taking the top essentials.
Topics: Cruise Ship, Travel, Jobs, Alcohol, Food And Drink, World News
Tom Earnshaw