College About to graduate what's my next move?

Jonice

Member
Hey guys, so Im about to graduate with a Theatre Degree with emphasis on all things tech. I have done sound, lighting and set for a bunch of different shows. Any ideas of where to look at for my first job? I have been looking into possibly doing cruises, what's your opinions?
 
Thanks so much! Very informative. Still would like to hear peoples opinions on cruise ships.
 
Thanks so much! Very informative. Still would like to hear peoples opinions on cruise ships.

The only person I've met who did one hated it. On top of all their normal tech duties they had to work in other areas of the ship when they weren't doing tech stuff. Serving customers, working in the kitchens, cleaning toilets, you name it they had to do it.
 
The only person I've met who did one hated it. On top of all their normal tech duties they had to work in other areas of the ship when they weren't doing tech stuff. Serving customers, working in the kitchens, cleaning toilets, you name it they had to do it.

That used to be true but is not anymore. I have been offered numerous contracts with RC and every time it was as an officer with only entertainment related duties. Every cruise line anymore does the same thing, entertainment staff are all officers and are treated as such. I have several friends who are out on different boats right now and none of them have had those type of duties.

One of our CB Mods spent some time with Holland America:

http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/general-advice/7779-working-cruise-ship.html#post91784
 
Thanks Footer, thats good to hear. Do you have any idea of what the pay scale is? I know its not that much but Im curious and can't find any information on it myself.
 
Thanks Footer, thats good to hear. Do you have any idea of what the pay scale is? I know its not that much but Im curious and can't find any information on it myself.

Most start around 1200 a month and go from there depending on experience. By the time they sent me my final offer it was a pretty good deal above that. It is not much, but you have to remember that is all banked, you don't have to pay for anything if you don't want to.
 
What were the hours like? Days off? Did you have time to see the ports or was it mostly work?
 
What were the hours like? Days off? Did you have time to see the ports or was it mostly work?

I never took a contract because I kept finding work. It was always the ultimate back up plan for me. Icewolf would be the one to ask the more specific questions on life on board.
 
Having worked for CCL for three years this is what I could tell you. When I left the pay was 1,050 every two weeks. The stage techs were considered officers but did not have any officer privledges. You had to live in a shared cabin and had to eat in the staff mess. As far as the work 90% of my job was fixing moving lights, dodgey power plus pyro in every show equals sad fixtures. The shows were run on time code so pretty much i would fire pyro cues during the show and watch if anything looked weird to look at it later. I pretty much made my own schedule as long as everything was all good no one gave me crap about anything. I got to see ports as much or as little as I desired. You did not have to do any work in the kitchen and all the other stuff that was mentioned before, If I had I would have walked off the ship. As far as what they would look for in qualification any moving light experience, espescially in repair and maintenance is key, any experience with a moving light console is very important espescially with a Grand MA, to my knowledge the only ships that still use a hog is Royal, maybe 1 disney ship and I think some NCL ships, other wise like a majority of the industry its all Grand MA. I would reccomend it for a recent college grad, I had a lot of fun doing it and learned a lot. The biggest downside is even though you have a tech manager over you ultimatley the cruise director is your boss and they don't have a clue about what you do or how to manage you. Most will stay out of your way and let you do your job, there are some however who are the extreme opposite. The biggest advice I would say is watch your partying. Its a job where you can have a lot of fun but that fun can also get you easily fired. Are there any other specifics you may want to know?
 
The biggest advice I would say is watch your partying. Its a job where you can have a lot of fun but that fun can also get you easily fired.

What he means by that is if you are caught on the boat with a BAC above .08, your gone, instantly. Your dropped at the next port and have to find your own way home. Does not matter if you are on duty or not. All crew, entertainment staff included, have to participate in the event of a evacuation so at all times you have to be ready for that.
 
Thank you so much! Chawalang that was extremely informative! I have just a few more questions now, What years did you work for them? When you say you made your own hours what exactly do you mean by that? About how many a day and when were you haven to wake up? Did you have any days off? Also, do you remember how much pay you were getting when you started? Is CCL Carnival? Do you recommend them over RC? Okay, maybe a little more than a few questions haha. Once again thank you for your time.
 
What he means by that is if you are caught on the boat with a BAC above .08, your gone, instantly. Your dropped at the next port and have to find your own way home. Does not matter if you are on duty or not. All crew, entertainment staff included, have to participate in the event of a evacuation so at all times you have to be ready for that.

Dang thats pretty intense. Do they actually breathalize you?
 
Sure i can answer your other questions, first i would like to add on to what footer said. You are subject to random drug tests and breathalizer tests while on board, you can and will get a random call from your boss to report to the infirmary at a certain time to be pee tested and to breath into a tube. Now I worked with alot of people, who for lack of a better term were complete alchohaulics. The thing is as long as you are not publicy drunk in a guest area and causing a distrubance, authority tend to turn a blind eye to that, im not saying i agree or disagree with those actions but that's the culture aboard. Also if terminated, you as a U.S citizen are walked off in the next U.S port and you have to pay your own way home. Now if your ported out of a place other then the U.S they will fly you home but it will be taken out of your last check, the reason for this is that if the company drops you off in mexico it turns into an immigration issue, if they drop you off in the ships home port which may be tampa, that will be it. So for example you may be from seattle but being walked off the ship in tampa means your back in the country and there wont be an immigration issue arising. CCL stands for Carnival cruise Lines, also keep in mind they own princess, holland america, P&O, Costa and a few other cruise lines. Royal Carribean also owns Celebrity, Disney is independent and so is NCL. So keep in mind if your fired from one your back listed from all they own. I worked for them from 2009 to february of this year. As far as making my own hours I was refering to my maintenance schedule, you have a set schedule as far as the shows and needing to be there to oversee their operation. As far as hours a day I worked, again I made my own schedule 95% of your work is maintenance, which you do when it works best in your personal schedule to how you operate. I would get up and do stuff when I wanted, there was no set schedule where I needed to get up and punch in for work at a certain time. As far as days off you dont get an entire day off per say it all depends on your run, you may have a port and have the whole day free and may have a fly on act that night where you need to sit in the booth and cycle thru 4 cues. WHen I was out of Puerto Rico we were in San Juan form 8 am to 10pm and the theatre was dark that day so it was cool. Id work in the theatre to maybe 1 or 2 then go out the rest of the day, or if I was looking good on stuff i needed to do I could take that whole day to myself. As far as pay It started at $980.00 every two weeks and in that time I got circumstantial raises because things were changeing in the company, no one I knew ever got a raise based on performance, your good performance guaranteed they would invite you back when your contract was done. As far as working for RC personally I have nothing to say about it because I have never worked for them. I did interview with them but did not get to the part where an offer was going to be made, even though they were going to. The reason being is because I have a long hair down to my shoulders, they told me at a certain part in my interview that I would have to cut my hair and i was not willing to do that so I choose to not pursue it. I know RC is very much focused on image even for people who work in the theatre. No one cared at CCL that I had long hair a beard and 3/4 of my arms were covered in tattoos. I also know they are more strict with crew as far as their daily lives. I know you will get your own cabin with RC and Im pretty sure get paid more. I chose to stay with Carnival because everyone was cool and no one messed with me, they knew i was good at my job and that al that mattered to them. So there are pros and cons to it it just depends on the type of person you are, personally I would work for Disney cruise lines because they pay is very very nice and you get your own cabin, Im just not willing to cut my hair or shave. None the less these gigs give a young person the opportunity to get their hands on the same high end technology used in Las Vegas and Broadway shows and The opportunity to get proficient at it. It looks good on your resume and can open up a lot of doors as far as a good resume and networking, for example Im going on my first broadway tour as an assistant head electrician this January after working on cruise ships for three years.
 
How do things like Internet access and other contact with the outside world work when you're on a cruise ship? Sorry for the thread-jack, but I'm curious and looking into this kind of thing as well later on.
 
No apology needed Josh, I was hoping others would ask questions aswell
 
As far as internet you need to purchase an internet card much like a phone card which you can also purchase. The speed is about the same as dial up thought, I also had a entertainment tech email account shared amongst everyone so if someone needed to get in touch with me fast they could send an email there, keep in mind it is a company email account. If there is a family emergency the tech manager or the cruise director have a direct line to dial out if need be. In every port you'll have a lot of places with wifi though, its big buisness for restaurants and bars in ports because they make a lot of money off the crew when they go their to skype or whatever they need to do since you'll go their for food and drinks and you can get online as well. There's a bar in Cozumel called no name bar that was actually opened by a couple who used to work for RC. They opened the bar with the idea that it was made for crew by crew so you had good drink specials, food, pools and wifi.
 
So a friend of mine just started working for RC, he posted this to his FB today this should give you a good idea of life aboard RC.

Loving Royal Caribbean on Voyager of the Sea's. Was eating dinner yestoday next to the Captian. Studio B is great, only do one show there. Also do Dreamwork's Parade :D Love finishing work at sensible time's and not having to load in/out show's!! So many great thing's. We have our own Tech Stage Hand's (Dont Use Ruddy Deck or Engine) Use the Dance cast to spot the Ice Show's and Ice cast to spot the Dance cast. There is 3 Crew/Staff Bars and 2 Crew/Staff Lounges. Aswell as Our onboard mini mart to get supply's. 2 More Cruise then start relcoation to Australia. So no more Chinese people and more Aussies. Back to Busan, South Korea tommrow but cant get off have training. Then after that Jeju :D Oh and food is soo nice here had a proper breakfast today (With Baked Beans!!!) today found strawnberry jam and all the time you can get orange juice. On last thing love having my own cabin Whooo!!!.

he seems to be really enjoying it.
 
I have a few friends who did Cruise Ships. The two I know who currently do them tell me not to even start, the half dozen I know who have left told me don't even consider it.

An old A2 of mine worked for RC and was made to deliver food to the actors when Norovirus hit his ship - they were quarantined and entertainment/musician staff had to do the errands for "the talent" so their chances of getting sick were lessened.

Norwegian extended a contract to me about a year ago, 10 hour days 7 days a week with a monthly salary that amounted to around $4 an hour when all was said and done (mind you, 10 hours a day were the minimums). I don't mind working hard - I was on a tour at the time, but that salary is just insulting. Additionally, Norwegian makes you front $600 to pass a battery of health and drug tests as well as get various national and international ID's. If you fail any of your tests you forfeit the money, if you pass you get it back in your first pay check - I hear this is common of the big cruise ship companies.

For a while I hear RC was running PM1D rigs with "ProTools" playback - some brilliant system designer threw tracks into the studio version of ProTools and they were running playback that way, coupled with failing 1D systems my buddy who did ship-to-ship maintenance said it was a nightmare.

----
Anyhow, if you do go that route I was given one piece of advice: Do not quit. If you quit they drop you off at the next port and it is up to you to get home. Get fired, if you get fired it is stated in your contract that they will fly you home.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back