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.