Transcript
Speaker: Hi everyone, this is Adam Price.
Speaker: And I'm Emily Jane Acri.
Speaker: And you're listening to the Relative Rhythms Podcast.
Speaker: Adam just got off a six-month contract playing music on cruise ships.
Speaker: So we thought we'd start off the season a little differently and give you a behind-the-scenes peek at ship life.
Speaker: Because of the recent devastating cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, and the drying up of grant money that supported so many dance companies, performing arts centers, and other arts presenters, we thought perhaps it would be a good time to talk about some alternative forms of employment for musicians and dancers.
Speaker: This first episode is really beneficial for anyone considering work on chips, no matter what your career choice.
Speaker: The information in this episode is just as relevant to musicians and dancers as it is to bartenders or housekeepers.
Speaker: This episode was recorded in Adam's cabin on board.
Speaker: Please forgive him if he sounds a little low energy during this first episode.
Speaker: He was at the end of a very long contract.
Speaker: Please enjoy this episode from the high seas.
Speaker: Hello everyone, this is Adam Price, and as I'm recording this, I'm five months into a six-month contract on a cruise ship.
Speaker: Currently, we're sailing out of the Canary Islands, heading to Madeira.
Speaker: This is the first part in a three-part series about cruise ships.
Speaker: The next two will talk about the specific gigs for musicians and for dancers on board.
Speaker: But this first episode is going to talk specifically about
Speaker: in general.
Speaker: So this will cover both musicians, dancers, and any other crew on board.
Speaker: If you work on a cruise ship, this is what you're going to experience.
Speaker: So if you're not a musician or a dancer and you're interested in working on cruise ships, this is also applicable.
Speaker: So, the first thing you have to know about a ship is that you're basically a floating city on the water.
Speaker: Everything you need to make a small city or a town run, you're going to need on a cruise ship.
Speaker: So every job that a small city is going to need, a small cruise ship is going to need as well.
Speaker: So everything from IT to bakers to cleaners to musicians, dancers, and everything in between.
Speaker: there's a job for you on a cruise ship.
Speaker: Now, some specifically in the deck departments or the engine room are going to require a lot more education beforehand.
Speaker: But if you don't have any education and you want to just try to work on a cruise ship, you can easily get a job in the housekeeping departments or the food and beverage department.
Speaker: So like a waiter, bartender, et cetera.
Speaker: So, let's talk about the ship departments.
Speaker: Just in a nutshell, you have housekeeping, which is a very large department, entertainment, which is the department I'm in, you have the front desk, you have shore excursion team, you have the spa team, photography, florist, F&B, which is including all the chefs,
Speaker: all the galley staff, all the bartending staff, wait staff, etc, etc.
Speaker: You have the retail or the shops, you have the casino staff, IT, the deck department, which is like the captain, first mate, all that stuff, security department, engine room, and the medical team, obviously.
Speaker: the deck department, engine room, and medical are going to require a lot more education beforehand.
Speaker: And there's probably some that I'm forgetting.
Speaker: So let's talk about the requirements for any crew on board.
Speaker: The first is the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, basically shortened to STCWs.
Speaker: These are a series of certifications that you get trained in, things like firefighting, basic CPR, things like that, crowd management.
Speaker: And then you get little certifications.
Speaker: You usually do them on land through a seafarer's school.
Speaker: They can be fairly expensive, but you can sometimes get them reimbursed.
Speaker: Medicals.
Speaker: You need to get...
Speaker: cleared by a doctor and each cruise line will have its own requirements for their medical.
Speaker: So if you work on one cruise line and decide to go to a different company, you'll need to renew, you'll redo your medicals for that company because there's different requirements.
Speaker: It's usually a drug test, usually a lot of blood tests.
Speaker: Last time they took like six vials of blood from me.
Speaker: It was
Speaker: ridiculous.
Speaker: But other than that, it's fairly painless.
Speaker: It's just annoying.
Speaker: And again, can be expensive, but usually they will be reimbursed.
Speaker: Visas.
Speaker: If you're not a U.S. citizen, you'll need your C1D visa, most likely, depending on where the ship is sailing.
Speaker: And depending on where the ship is sailing, you might need visas for other countries as well.
Speaker: Uniforms, we'll talk about this a little bit more in the other episodes, but generally they're going to be provided for you by the ship.
Speaker: It's a little different for musicians and dancers, but most departments the ship will provide you uniforms.
Speaker: And English is a requirement on almost all ships.
Speaker: So if your English isn't great, you need to work on that.
Speaker: On the flip side of that, it's also a great place to get your English better, to improve your English.
Speaker: One of my colleagues came on knowing nearly nothing.
Speaker: He could get away with that because he was a musician.
Speaker: But now he's basically fluent.
Speaker: So if you want to practice your English, this is a great place to do that.
Speaker: We already covered drug tests in the medicals, but they'll need a drug test before you board, and then once you board, they'll do a drug test again, and drug tests will be done randomly throughout your contract.
Speaker: I think that covers most of the requirements to get on board.
Speaker: Let's talk about the living conditions for crew.
Speaker: And let's start with the cabins.
Speaker: So let me turn this around here.
Speaker: If you're watching on YouTube or Spotify, you'll be able to see it.
Speaker: Otherwise, I'll try and describe it for you.
Speaker: So currently I'm sitting at my desk while I record this.
Speaker: It's a small desk.
Speaker: It's got a little phone, which is internal to the ship.
Speaker: Got some outlets there.
Speaker: Got a couple drawers that we can split
Speaker: with me and my roommate.
Speaker: Also some shelves that we share between me and my roommate.
Speaker: Here are our beds.
Speaker: My roommate is on the bottom.
Speaker: I'm on the top right now.
Speaker: As you can see, the top one is less desirable because there's a couple inches less headspace room.
Speaker: But they're pretty small, as you can see.
Speaker: Not very big.
Speaker: I've got a light up there for reading, etc.
Speaker: And curtains for a little bit of privacy.
Speaker: Here are our suitcases.
Speaker: I use a collapsible duffel because if you don't, it gets a little crowded in here.
Speaker: Little chair.
Speaker: Here are our closets.
Speaker: We each get one closet.
Speaker: Let me open it up for you.
Speaker: Again, not very large.
Speaker: We have a safe in there.
Speaker: And there's my laundry bag at the bottom.
Speaker: It's pretty tight.
Speaker: We each have a life jacket stored in the top there.
Speaker: We're lucky, this room has a fridge.
Speaker: We don't really use it because we're not technically allowed to have perishable food.
Speaker: But we can use it for a beer fridge if we want.
Speaker: Some more hooks.
Speaker: And here is the bathroom.
Speaker: Very tiny.
Speaker: Shower is enough to stand in.
Speaker: That's about it.
Speaker: Bathroom or the head.
Speaker: We have a little bit of a mirror with some storage in here.
Speaker: Again, very tiny.
Speaker: And that is about it.
Speaker: And here is the door.
Speaker: And there's me.
Speaker: So I can cover this whole cabin in about five steps.
Speaker: Very tiny.
Speaker: We also have a little TV that we can get a couple TV channels, some news, and that's about it.
Speaker: So as you can see, very tight quarters.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Depending on your rank or your position on board, you might have a better room.
Speaker: So for instance, the MD, we call them the bandmaster on board, they'll have a single cabin.
Speaker: with a porthole which is bigger and only has one bed which is also bigger so that's very nice.
Speaker: On the other hand, I know some other departments that don't have it as good as we do and they shove about four people into a cabin this size which is very very tight.
Speaker: So again, very cramped quarters.
Speaker: But you don't
Speaker: spend a lot of time in your cabin.
Speaker: Musicians and dancers have a little more downtime than other departments, but many departments use it primarily for sleeping, and that's about it.
Speaker: Water.
Speaker: You don't want to drink the water from the tap.
Speaker: We spend a lot of money on bottled water, so we have to pay for the bottled water.
Speaker: We get it from the crew bar.
Speaker: I had one colleague, the water is pretty harsh here, there's a lot of chemicals in it, for obvious reasons.
Speaker: I had one colleague who spent over $50 a month just on bottled water because she used it to wash her face.
Speaker: So the water can be pretty, pretty harsh here.
Speaker: So bottled water.
Speaker: The food you'll get down in the crew mess.
Speaker: It's very variable.
Speaker: Some ships are better than others.
Speaker: I'm lucky this ship has pretty good food.
Speaker: But yeah, there's set times for each meal.
Speaker: So there's usually about two hours per meal.
Speaker: You can go down there.
Speaker: During those times and get some food the nightlife If you're on board, it's it can be okay.
Speaker: Again, this is dependent on the ship depending on the company I'm on a fairly small ship right now The bigger ships I've heard it gets kind of wild in the the crew bar
Speaker: This ship is pretty tame, but the crew bar will stay open until 2 a.m.
Speaker: usually.
Speaker: So it's a good place to meet other people from other departments.
Speaker: I really enjoy going to the crew bar.
Speaker: There's also an officer's bar, which is obviously less.
Speaker: Rowdy, very chill.
Speaker: If you're an officer, I'm technically a petty officer.
Speaker: If you're an officer, you're allowed to go to the officer's bar, but the crew bar is where most of the parties happen.
Speaker: IPM.
Speaker: We have something called in-port manning.
Speaker: So every five days, four or five days, something like that, depending on your rotation, you'll have to stay on board.
Speaker: So every fourth or fifth port, you will not be able to get out.
Speaker: Sometimes you're able to swap those days with other crew members.
Speaker: If there's a port you really want to get out, then you can usually swap with someone else.
Speaker: But other than your in-port manning days, you're allowed to get out into the port as long as you don't have your duties.
Speaker: And as long as the country you're in allows you to.
Speaker: So depending on your nationality, sometimes you're not allowed.
Speaker: For instance, I was not allowed to get out in Russia or China because I'm a United States citizen.
Speaker: So again, has nothing to do with you, just international relations and politics and all that stuff.
Speaker: Drills and continued training.
Speaker: While you're on board, you will occasionally have continued trainings.
Speaker: And if your STCWs are expiring, you will have to renew them on board.
Speaker: It depends on the ship, depends on how recently you had a training, but they'll happen periodically.
Speaker: If you need something,
Speaker: like toiletries, etc.
Speaker: They have something called a slop chest on board.
Speaker: Again, depending on your ship, it will be open certain times.
Speaker: Some ships have it more frequently than others.
Speaker: It can be a permanent little shop in the crew area, or it
Speaker: can just be a pop-up shop.
Speaker: It's usually better to get your stuff out in port, but if you can't do that, if your schedule doesn't allow it or something like that, they'll have like shaving cream, toothbrushes, snacks, things like that, that you can get in the slop chest.
Speaker: It's basically a ship store and it's usually pretty, pretty cheap.
Speaker: It's not, it's, they're not taking huge cuts out of that.
Speaker: Internet.
Speaker: Usually sucks for a crew.
Speaker: Guests get the good internet, we get the throttled internet, if you will.
Speaker: Also, you usually need to pay for the internet if you're a crew.
Speaker: Again, it depends on the company, how expensive that's going to be.
Speaker: In a previous contract, it was about 11 cents a minute.
Speaker: to pay for the internet, so it makes it very difficult to do emails.
Speaker: Scrolling Facebook is kind of expensive if you're trying to do land work on board.
Speaker: It's next to impossible.
Speaker: For me it's very difficult to deal with booking gigs on land because the internet's terrible, it's slow, it's not reliable, it's expensive, and the time change depending on where we're at in the world is chaotic.
Speaker: You also need internet to phone home.
Speaker: you're away for a while, you're obviously going to want to call your family.
Speaker: Again, it gets expensive and the time change thing makes it hard.
Speaker: And especially you'll notice it in certain times of the day.
Speaker: Uh, it's usually like 11pm around there when people are getting off of work and everyone's trying to get on the internet to try and call home.
Speaker: It's just the internet just tanks.
Speaker: So it sucks, especially if you're on a long contract, you really miss your family, your girlfriend, whatever it is.
Speaker: Um, it can get really, really frustrating.
Speaker: But it is, it is what it is.
Speaker: There are phone services that offer international plans.
Speaker: I would definitely recommend looking into something like that if you're going to do a cruise ship.
Speaker: Again, you can't use it at sea, but it makes it easier to like send emails and stuff when you're in port.
Speaker: The pay for crew is very variable.
Speaker: So depending on what your position is, not only do your privileges change, but your pay grade changes as well, just like your cabin will change.
Speaker: And we'll talk about this a little later, but it can range from anywhere from seven, $800 a month to like five, six, seven, $8,000 a month.
Speaker: So again, it depends on what your position is.
Speaker: Just full disclosure, mine is just under three grand a month.
Speaker: After all my charges,
Speaker: are taken out, it's usually closer to like two.
Speaker: Two and change.
Speaker: So if I buy something in Slop Chest, that'll be taken out of my account, my pay from the end of the month.
Speaker: If I buy a beer in the crude bar, that'll be taken out of my pay from the end of the month.
Speaker: So all of that is taken out of your account.
Speaker: The other thing with the pay is it's really interesting to see how the demographics on the ship change depending on international politics and relations.
Speaker: and depending on exchange rates.
Speaker: So for instance, you will see a lot of a certain nationality on board for a while.
Speaker: And then when the exchange rate doesn't get as good because we're paid in dollars, at least in this company, the demographics of the ship will slowly start changing to other nationalities.
Speaker: So yeah, we're getting paid in dollars.
Speaker: So if you're getting paid in dollars and your home currency is
Speaker: Just as an example, Brazilian reais.
Speaker: Right now, that exchange rate is pretty good.
Speaker: It's like 5.7 reais to one dollar.
Speaker: So you're living pretty good in Brazil if you're getting paid five times that US dollar, if that makes sense.
Speaker: This is why you don't see a lot of Americans on board, because we're getting paid in dollars, so it's not great.
Speaker: The pay isn't great.
Speaker: um again this is why you don't see a lot of europeans on board except in like higher ranking positions because if you're getting paid in dollars and you're exchanging it to euros which is like
Speaker: not great right now.
Speaker: It only makes sense if you're getting paid really well.
Speaker: Last things are privileges.
Speaker: What I mean by privileges is like certain positions are allowed in certain parts of the ship and others are not.
Speaker: Certain positions are allowed in the officer's bar or the officer's mess and others are not.
Speaker: So for instance, someone who is working in the galley has a
Speaker: Dishwasher is not going to be allowed in the officer's bar.
Speaker: They're not going to be allowed in any guest areas.
Speaker: They're kind of stuck in crew only areas.
Speaker: I'm a petty officer, so my privileges are a little better.
Speaker: I'm allowed in the officer's bar.
Speaker: I'm allowed in certain guest areas.
Speaker: But again, it can change and only on certain days and it's
Speaker: It's a thing.
Speaker: Obviously, the captain is allowed wherever he wants to go.
Speaker: Most officers who are above me are allowed pretty much wherever they want to go.
Speaker: And they are not going to get yelled at if they're seen in those areas.
Speaker: I have been yelled at.
Speaker: So there's that.
Speaker: It's very annoying.
Speaker: And again, we'll talk about the privileges and the pay a little later on.
Speaker: So we're talking about living conditions for the crew, sunlight, exercise.
Speaker: Basically, self-care gets harder on board, especially like sea days.
Speaker: You're not going out.
Speaker: You're working extra.
Speaker: It gets extra difficult.
Speaker: So if you want
Speaker: to take care of your body.
Speaker: You have to be really intentional about it.
Speaker: I struggle with this.
Speaker: There have been, I've gone days, four or five days without seeing the sun.
Speaker: I've been in a kind of a perpetual state of dehydration since I've gotten on board.
Speaker: to take care of your body, it gets more difficult and you have to be really intentional about getting fresh air, going to get some sun for a little bit, you know, drinking water, getting enough sleep, these things, exercising, walking around, getting your body moving, these things that are kind of second nature on land,
Speaker: become harder and you need to be intentional.
Speaker: And last thing is that you're in a strange environment that is kind of a mix between military and corporate.
Speaker: It's very weird, but at the end of the day, the captain is the master of the ship and you have to do pretty much whatever the captain tells you.
Speaker: whatever your superiors tell you to do, especially if it's coming from above, you're kind of required to do it, even if it's not in your job description and even if it's not normal.
Speaker: Again, like if it's crazy, you can take it to HR.
Speaker: You're technically only supposed to be working
Speaker: a certain amount of hours per day, a certain amount of hours per week, a certain amount of months per year.
Speaker: But if there's an emergency on board, you have to do whatever the captain tells you.
Speaker: Alright, let's talk a little bit about interpersonal relationships on ships.
Speaker: The first thing you need to realize is that on a cruise ship, you're going to be working with a lot of international staff.
Speaker: Actually right now I'm one of very few Americans on board.
Speaker: There's a lot of Filipinos, there's a lot of Brazilians right now actually, there's some Italians, there's
Speaker: one or two Japanese.
Speaker: There's a couple South Africans.
Speaker: So just all over the world, Venezuelans, everything, any country you could possibly imagine.
Speaker: So you're dealing with a lot of different nationalities, different cultures.
Speaker: You're dealing with a lot of different races.
Speaker: You're dealing with a lot of different religions.
Speaker: On board, they'll have Catholic mass for crew.
Speaker: They don't really have any
Speaker: like Muslim services or anything, but there are certainly Muslims on board.
Speaker: There's certainly people who practice Judaism on board, just everything.
Speaker: So you have to be able to get along with everyone.
Speaker: So if you're someone who happens to be racist, it's not a great place to work because you're forced to interact with people of different races.
Speaker: If you're someone who just for some reason hates Muslims, it's not a good place because you're going to interact with people who are Muslim.
Speaker: And really for this reason, I think,
Speaker: everyone should do at least one cruise contract in their lifetime because it's a great learning experience and I think it would be especially good for Americans right now.
Speaker: I feel like, you know, some people take gap years.
Speaker: I think people should do a gap year and work aboard a cruise ship.
Speaker: You learn a lot and you learn empathy very quickly.
Speaker: You become friends with people who you never thought you would become friends with.
Speaker: You learn about different cultures, different people, different perspectives.
Speaker: You learn about how different people and different nationalities view Americans, which is also very enlightening.
Speaker: So there's that.
Speaker: You have to be empathetic.
Speaker: You have to have an open mind and just be a good person.
Speaker: You know, roommates can be tricky because you're shoved in this tiny little space.
Speaker: Again, you might have different hours of work, different hours of being awake or asleep.
Speaker: So you have to be respectful of your roommate as well.
Speaker: Just don't be an asshole.
Speaker: Relationships on cruise ships, romantic relationships are also interesting.
Speaker: If you are just looking for casual relationships, you can certainly find that on ships, but you can also fall into very serious relationships as well.
Speaker: One thing to look out for is a lot of people, well, maybe not a lot, but certainly a few people have relationships on land
Speaker: and have separate relationships on sea, on the ship.
Speaker: So they might have a wife back home and then when they get on the ship they have a different relationship.
Speaker: I'm not here to judge that.
Speaker: I would encourage people to just be honest and if you start getting into a serious relationship
Speaker: And that isn't something you're okay with, make sure you ask about that.
Speaker: It's tricky because a lot of people are on the ship for six to nine months at a time.
Speaker: And then you're back home for a couple months and then you're back.
Speaker: So it's almost like two separate lives sometimes.
Speaker: There's also a perception of cruise ships and how there's like a big hookup culture on them.
Speaker: A lot of sleeping around and stuff like that.
Speaker: I mean, it certainly exists.
Speaker: I haven't seen anything more than normal on land.
Speaker: You're on a little tiny city in the water, so of course there's gonna be people that want to hook up.
Speaker: Just like on land, there's people who want to hook up.
Speaker: They want to go to a bar and hook up with someone.
Speaker: In general, I haven't found it to be crazy at all.
Speaker: Especially because if you're on a boat, and you're all on a boat together, if you're like an asshole to someone and never call them back in the morning kind of deal, you know, it's... People are gonna find out.
Speaker: what kind of person you are very quickly.
Speaker: So again, it just goes back to respect.
Speaker: Be a good person.
Speaker: Be clear about your intentions.
Speaker: You know, be transparent.
Speaker: You know, make sure everything is, is, uh, consensual.
Speaker: And then, you know, everything's fine.
Speaker: You can certainly find someone to hook up with on a ship.
Speaker: You can find someone to fall in love with on a ship.
Speaker: You cannot participate in that at all.
Speaker: There's also like rumors about prostitution on ships.
Speaker: I have not seen that.
Speaker: I've certainly seen it out in port, but I have not seen that on the ship.
Speaker: Certainly if you're the kind of person who is looking for that, you can find it in most ports, especially in certain parts of the world like Thailand or Philippines where sex tourism is a big thing.
Speaker: Just like on land, if you want it, you can find it.
Speaker: Drugs, if you want it, you can find it.
Speaker: Don't do it.
Speaker: But if you want it, you can find it.
Speaker: Team dynamics, you're going to be in your team, in your department, so obviously you want to have a good relationship with your immediate supervisor, your boss, and your boss's boss.
Speaker: Sometimes it's difficult.
Speaker: There can be small people who find themselves in positions of power and like to remind you of the small power that they have over you.
Speaker: So that can be very difficult.
Speaker: I've been pretty lucky with my supervisors, but...
Speaker: that certainly exists.
Speaker: So being able to navigate just ship politics can be tricky.
Speaker: It's extra tricky because of the almost military-style hierarchy.
Speaker: So if someone has a higher rank than you, even if they're an asshole, you kind of have to listen to them.
Speaker: And it...
Speaker: Seems like often these people tend to get promoted up the chain, so...
Speaker: Being able to figure out the politics of your ship and navigate them smoothly is tricky and can be challenging sometimes.
Speaker: But soon you'll be able to figure out who the people are, who you kind of want to avoid, and who the people are who are just good people.
Speaker: This is the relative rhythms podcast, and you're listening to our first episode in our three part series on cruise ship work.
Speaker: If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you are listening.
Speaker: And if you'd like to support our work, you can join our Patreon where we catalog our full unedited episodes and share extra content, including unreleased music and videos.
Speaker: You can also check out our brand new store where you can get relative rhythms, merch, pick up a t-shirt and show off your nerdiness.
Speaker: Go to relative rhythms.com.
Speaker: Thanks for listening.
Speaker: And now back to our episode.
Speaker: Okay, let's quickly talk about some of the sucky parts of the job.
Speaker: The negative things that you're going to inevitably run into while you're working on board.
Speaker: The first thing is seasickness.
Speaker: If you struggle with it, maybe cruise life is not the right path for you.
Speaker: Most people get used to the movement of the sea after a week or two.
Speaker: It takes you, you know, like a week or two to get your sea legs and then you're... most people are pretty good.
Speaker: But, you know, occasionally you'll find someone who just never gets their sea lakes and it can be pretty hard on them.
Speaker: For me, I don't really struggle unless the sea is really, really rough or unless it's like, you know, my first day or two on board.
Speaker: But for the most part, I'm pretty good at sea.
Speaker: Another sucky thing is a lot of times, especially depending on your department, you can have some really long contracts like six to nine months.
Speaker: So it's a long time away from your family, from your girlfriend.
Speaker: It can be really hard on your mental health, especially if you're at the end of the contract, you know, you haven't seen the sun in a couple of days, you haven't been able to get off the ship.
Speaker: That can really wear you down.
Speaker: Especially, you know, the longer you are on board, the shorter your patience gets.
Speaker: There's, you know, just like on land, you can run into racism, especially if you happen to be black or Filipino.
Speaker: There tends to be some racism there, depending on the culture of the ship and the culture of the company.
Speaker: Some ships are worse.
Speaker: But again, just like on land, you know, just something to be aware of.
Speaker: Misogyny.
Speaker: Ships are, there's a lot of men on ships.
Speaker: It's a very male-dominated industry.
Speaker: There's more females in cruise ships.
Speaker: But again, most of the deck crew, most of the stripes are going to be male.
Speaker: Engine room crew.
Speaker: mostly male.
Speaker: There's really, other than like housekeeping and waitstaff, barstaff, the majority of people on board, working on board are going to be male.
Speaker: So with that comes a certain amount of misogyny.
Speaker: Also, we talked about hierarchy and your supervisors having power over you.
Speaker: Going along with that, that can lead to worker abuse and even sexual abuse if you're a female.
Speaker: That's something to look out for.
Speaker: It's especially bad depending on your nationality.
Speaker: Sometimes if you're coming from a bad situation and you get on board,
Speaker: And it might be your first contract.
Speaker: You have a lot of debt because you had to pay for your SDCWs or whatever.
Speaker: And usually you don't get reimbursed for those things until the completion of your first contract.
Speaker: So if you don't complete your first contract...
Speaker: you kind of get screwed really, really bad.
Speaker: And if you're not in a position to be able to be screwed, then that can lead to abuse, especially if you have a real dick of a supervisor.
Speaker: So just being aware of that, these things can happen.
Speaker: I don't want to say that it's common.
Speaker: It's certainly not like super prevalent, but it certainly exists.
Speaker: And the HR department is there.
Speaker: But it's really there to prevent a lawsuit against the company.
Speaker: It's not really there for your well-being.
Speaker: So if it's a case of he said, she said kind of deal, they're going to usually listen to the person who has a higher rank than you and usually listen to your supervisor before they listen to you.
Speaker: So that's something that can be really dark and just to be aware of.
Speaker: Again, not super prevalent, but it certainly happens.
Speaker: Especially if you're a woman on board.
Speaker: That's something to be aware of.
Speaker: So, misogyny, having an old boys club on board, the occasional sexual abuse.
Speaker: Again, not prevalent.
Speaker: But it happens.
Speaker: And depending on the culture of your ship and the culture of the company, it can be better or worse.
Speaker: The other sucky thing going along with the hierarchy, the hierarchy and the stripes tend to create a kind of class or caste system on board.
Speaker: Obviously the people with more stripes have more power and more privileges and the people with fewer stripes or no stripes have less.
Speaker: They get paid less, they have less privileges, they have to work more.
Speaker: They tend to be from countries
Speaker: that they don't have great opportunities back home, or the exchange rate allows them to have better pay on board than at home.
Speaker: So that fuels this kind of classism slash racism thing.
Speaker: So like a lot of Filipinos will work in like the galleys, you know, as like housekeeping and things like that.
Speaker: Because even though the pay sucks for us, the exchange rate makes it that it is okay for them.
Speaker: But that in turn fuels this kind of classism-racism thing that goes on on chips.
Speaker: Obviously, if I was getting paid what, you know, one of the galley guys gets paid, I would not be able to make a living.
Speaker: It's abysmal.
Speaker: Which is why you only see Americans and Europeans in, like, either the entertainment departments or, like, bridge crew, like,
Speaker: higher ranking positions where they can get paid a wage that makes sense for where they're living.
Speaker: So that kind of leads to a kind of caste system.
Speaker: where certain nationalities work certain jobs that get paid very little.
Speaker: That, for me, is probably the hardest thing.
Speaker: And obviously, you're always going to have people who enjoy putting others down and enjoy that feeling of superiority.
Speaker: So there's that.
Speaker: Again, sometimes it's not bad, depending on the culture of your ship, the culture of your company that you're working for.
Speaker: It's a crapshoot, really.
Speaker: The ship I'm on isn't terrible, but there are certainly one or two stripes that enjoy that feeling of superiority and make others aware of that.
Speaker: how quote unquote superior they are.
Speaker: It's kind of sad, you know, because I'm sure they go back home and they're just nobody, you know.
Speaker: But here on a ship with the fancy little stripes on their shoulder there, they can feel like, I don't know, like they're special.
Speaker: Anyway, those are the those are the real sucky parts of of working on board.
Speaker: The other kind of bittersweet thing about working on board is that you will make friends, make relationships, fall in love with people.
Speaker: And you can have a great time with them and you may never see them again after your contract is up or after their contract is up.
Speaker: Nobody really wants to work on a cruise ship.
Speaker: It's a means to an end.
Speaker: It's a job, despite the good things that I'll talk about.
Speaker: The majority of people who work on cruise ships are there to make money.
Speaker: And they're making the best of their life on board.
Speaker: But at the end of the day, everyone kind of wants to get off and be able to have a better life on land.
Speaker: And so you can make, you can become best friends with someone from Latvia.
Speaker: You know, you can become really close with people from like South Africa, from Brazil, from Venezuela, Philippines, pick, pick the country anywhere in the world.
Speaker: And then once you stop or once they stop, you might never, never see them again.
Speaker: It's sucky, but the times you have with them are amazing.
Speaker: And you can become lifelong friends even if you never see them again.
Speaker: And who knows, maybe you'll make your way to Estonia one day and meet up with them again.
Speaker: So let's talk about some positive things.
Speaker: Although the racism and abuse and misogyny, they all exist on ships.
Speaker: I wouldn't call them super prevalent.
Speaker: They exist on every ship.
Speaker: However, you know, it's not.
Speaker: I think a lot of the positives outweigh the
Speaker: the few assholes that you have to work with.
Speaker: First of all, you can save a lot of money working on ships.
Speaker: You don't have any expenses other than, you know, doing your own thing when you go ashore or if you want to go to a crew bar.
Speaker: Your food and your...
Speaker: room is all paid for.
Speaker: So you can save a lot of money that way.
Speaker: You're not commuting to your gig, so you don't have to pay for gas.
Speaker: You can just bank all that money.
Speaker: So it's not a huge paycheck, but since you don't really have many expenses, you can save up money pretty quickly, especially if you are intentional about it.
Speaker: You get to meet other people, you get to work with other people from different cultures, which is amazing.
Speaker: You get to, you know, learn a little bit of different languages.
Speaker: You might learn some Filipino words or some Ukrainian words.
Speaker: You can make friends on ships and on your vacation, you can go visit them in other countries.
Speaker: Not to mention the travel that you're already doing with the ship.
Speaker: You get to explore places that you would never be able to get to otherwise.
Speaker: I've been to places I didn't even know existed before I stepped foot on them.
Speaker: I've been to places that I don't think I would have...
Speaker: in my wildest dreams thought I would ever get to.
Speaker: So that's been really quite a blessing.
Speaker: And this travel that you get to do, even people who go on cruises all the time, rarely can go on them for the amount of time that a worker would go, even if they're a millionaire.
Speaker: So
Speaker: That gives you a unique opportunity to be able to relate to people who are in a different economic echelon than you are.
Speaker: You can relate to poor people and really rich people alike.
Speaker: You can relate to people from almost any country.
Speaker: I'm sure if you haven't been there,
Speaker: after working on a ship, you will have worked with someone who has lived there or is from there.
Speaker: So that's really, really cool.
Speaker: And that can open conversations and open relationships with people on land, outside of ships, once you stop.
Speaker: And it's really cool to be able to share stories with people.
Speaker: Even if you come across some rich asshole who, like, you know, I don't know, summers in Monaco every year, you can say, oh, yeah, I've done that.
Speaker: Monaco's nice.
Speaker: You know, people, like, go spend every summer in Hawaii or something like that.
Speaker: And you can say, oh, yeah, Hawaii's nice.
Speaker: I prefer the Seychelles, you know.
Speaker: I like the Maldives a little better.
Speaker: You know, all these...
Speaker: There's nothing that they can say to you, at least travel wise, that can impress you anymore, you know?
Speaker: And that's kind of cool.
Speaker: Like they can say, oh, I've got a billion dollars in my bank account.
Speaker: And OK, you might not have a billion dollars, but you will have probably been to every place that they brag about going times 10, you know?
Speaker: And that's a...
Speaker: It's really, that's a really nice feeling.
Speaker: And you can make lifelong friends from all around the world.
Speaker: It's pretty cool.
Speaker: And I think I mentioned this earlier, but when you work with people from different cultures and different countries and different parts of the world, you get different perspectives.
Speaker: You can get different ideas.
Speaker: You can get different thoughts.
Speaker: And it breaks you out of your kind of little info funnel that everyone creates for themselves.
Speaker: Working with...
Speaker: people from all around the world really helps break that.
Speaker: And it challenges your beliefs about not only international politics, but about yourself and your own country too.
Speaker: It's really eye-opening to see what different people from different countries think of the United States and think about people from the United States.
Speaker: And it's interesting, if you work on ships, you will for sure have lots of guests from the United States.
Speaker: And working for guests from the United States can certainly change your perspective of people from the United States as well.
Speaker: You know, not just the U.S., all around the world.
Speaker: It's...
Speaker: It's a really eye opening experience.
Speaker: And if I have sounded dark about working on ships in this episode or in the following episodes, it's definitely not all bad.
Speaker: There's some really amazing things about it.
Speaker: And you're catching me at month five and a half of a six month contract.
Speaker: So it's after spending this long on a ship, musicians tend to get a little dark.
Speaker: In general, it's a pretty good gig.
Speaker: And the consistency of pay is really nice.
Speaker: That's a big reason why a lot of artists, musicians and dancers do
Speaker: ships is because you can count on a paycheck every single month, a certain amount of money in your bank account every single month, which is really nice.
Speaker: And that's one reason why a lot of people get stuck on ships too.
Speaker: It's hard to go back to that, you know, freelance lifestyle, just hustling each gig
Speaker: it can get tiring.
Speaker: So doing a ship contract every once in a while is a nice way to just build up that bank account and get some more unique experiences under your belt.
Speaker: So yeah, I think that's about it.
Speaker: I'm gonna go get some dinner in the mess and then I'm gonna go play a show and then I'm gonna go have a drink.
Speaker: So I'll catch you next episode.
Speaker: You've been listening to the first part in our three-part series on cruise ship work.
Speaker: If you liked our conversation today, please follow and leave a rating or review wherever you are listening.
Speaker: If you'd like to support our work, you can join us at patreon.com slash relative rhythms, where you can gain access to all of our uncut episodes and extra content.
Speaker: Our theme song is For the Love of It by the Adam Price Group.
Speaker: Featuring Emily Jane Acree on foot percussion.
Speaker: Our mid-roll music was A Rainy Night at the Inn, and our outro music is A Pirate Lullaby, both unreleased tracks by a carousing consort.
Speaker: Don't forget to follow us on all the socials at Relative Rhythms and feel free to send us a message.
Speaker: Check out our merch on our website, relativerhythms.com.
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next episode.
