Here’s an audio interview conducted by former Cruise Director and Cruising Authority Talkshow Host, Barry Vaudrin who interviews ex-Crew member and Hiring Specialist Neil Maxwell-Keys.  

Neil wrote the best-selling book (the bible), detailing how to Get A Cruise Ship Job which I reviewed here. The book is the most comprehensive, value packed resource available for those seeking a career in the cruise line industry. 

Here is a brief overview of the contents of the interview between Barry and Neil:

• Why they decided to work on cruise ships
• What makes the cruise line industry so hard to get into, and how you can get hired anyway!
• What were the most enjoyable and NOT enjoyable things about working on cruise lines
• Many tips and helpful info for landing a job for a cruise line yourself in no time flat

Most importantly, you’ll hear about the number one reason 95% of those who apply for cruise ship jobs aren’t successful, and how to avoid being part of this crowd.

You can listen to this exclusive interview right now by clicking the link below:

Click Here To Listen

If you’re interested, you can pick up Neil’s book by clicking here.

Okay, lets get right to my review of Get A Cruise Ship Job system. I’m sure you’ve read at least one or two boring “how to get a job” guides before, remember how unbelievingly boring they were? I mean comon, most of these guides are completely outdated, and have no idea what’s really required to get a job today – 2009, amongst all the competition.

Get a Cruise Ship Job by Neil Maxwell-Keys is completely different, and quite frankly blew me away with the quality of the material. It was not boring by any stretch of the imagination and details like no other book exactly how to maximize your chances of landing that dream cruise ship job. 

Neil is an ex cruise ship recruiter for some of the worlds leading cruise lines. Who else would you want spoon-feeding you the nitty gritty details on EXACTLY how to get a job on a cruise ship as quickly as possible. Let me tell you, the competition for these jobs is fierce, make no mistake about it. It’s like trying to get a job in the entertainment industry, they are highly sought after positions. 

Neil covers everything you could possibly want to know about getting a cruise line job,  including how to research the cruise line you’re interested in, and which ones are the best ones to apply with.On page 17, he tells you 2 critical words you should absolutely know in order to get the job. Please make sure you read that if you’re dead serious about getting a cruise ship job.

Did you know some jobs on cruise ships require you to work upwards of 12 to 14 hours a day? Well don’t worry about that, Neil gives up the best jobs to apply for so you can spend the least amount of time actually working, and maximum amount of time enjoying yourself while soaking up the amenities!

He also includes real life case studies, so you can see exactly what it’s like working on a cruise ship before even making the decision to apply. After all, it’s a life changing decision right…

Probably the best part of the book are the contacts however. I’ve written extensively in many articles about how contacts can make or break your chances of landing a cruise ship job, considering the heavy competition. Neil includes a searchable database of all the cruise lines, concessionaires, and staffing agents, so you don’t have to go nuts finding these contacts on your own. In my opinion that alone is worth the price of the book.  How much is your time worth to you?

Essentially, this is a cruise ship employment package. If you need to know something in order to get a job on one of these things, it’s in here. There is no question about that. Neil did a fantastic job with this book! On a scale of 1 to 5, it’s a solid 5.

And I haven’t even gone into all the great bonuses he’s included such as a cover letter generator, resume and interview guidebook, and crew resource kit. Neil has literally left nothing out.

At the very least, go to his site by clicking here and check out what he has to offer. You won’t be sorry.

Many “find you a job” sites require a fee for a service of some kind. These sites range from resume submission services, to cruise line job agencies. One example is the service site I reviewed here. These services are not all that necessary — they just save you time submitting your application package to the cruise lines. Of course, if you don’t mind spending the time and effort to do the work yourself, just go directly to the cruise line sites.

Here are a few of the more reputable cruise lines you may be interested in submitting your resume to:

CARNIVAL:
http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/

Royal Caribbean is the parent company for Royal Caribbean Cruise lines, Celebrity Cruise lines, CDF Croisieres de France, Azamara Cruises and Pullmantur cruises.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN:
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/

Another idea is to contact the companies that run the shops on the ships, such as the souvenir, gift and clothing shops. These are the companies that hire the beauty shop/spa employees for ships. Below are links for you.

http://www.steinerleisure.com/

and

http://www.hardingbros.co.uk/

Other cruise lines that most people go on:

CUNARD:
http://www.cunard.com/

HOLLAND AMERICA
http://www.hollandamerica.com/

NORWEGIAN:
http://www.ncl.com/

PRINCESS:
http://www.princess.com/index.html

With all that being said, if you’d like to save yourself the most time and effort possible while on your search for a cruise ship job, I suggest starting with my product review here.

What do you think of when you envision yourself with a cruise ship career? I’d venture to say you think of a glamourous life on the high seas, amazing food, partying, sight seeing, beaches in exotic locations, and all that exciting stuff.

Most don’t know how much work is required, or how demanding cruise ship jobs can be, mind you. If you’re in the process of researching the possibility of working on a cruise ship job, here are some positives and negatives. I’ll start with some negatives:

• Homesickness – Depending on how independent of a person you are, you may become homesick. This is especially a problem for those that have never been away from family or friends very long
• Lack of personal space – You’ll most likely need to share your sleeping quarters with another crew member and you generally won’t have much personal space.(think college dorm room)
• Lack of time off – Unfortunately, sometimes passenger members don’t respect your off time, and if they see you, they may expect to be served. Long work hours are also quite possible.
• Lack of privacy – Closely related to lack of space, you will also have a lack of privacy as an unfortunate consequence of having to share a room.
• Unless the passengers are off the ship on a port of call, you’ll most likely be working.

Of course, a cruise ship career isn’t the worst thing in the world either. Here are some of the perks of having a cruise ship job:

• Get paid to travel – The most important benefit of having a cruise ship job for most who are seeking a job on a cruise ship.
• You can save a much larger percentage of your income since room and board, plus meals are free.
• Never a dull moment – With all the locations you’ll be visiting around the world, you certainly won’t get bored of your lifestyle.
• Cruise liners typically hire staff from all over the world, so you’ll be able to meet all kinds of new people.
• Possibly find your soulmate. Quite often romantic relationships are developed among crew members, so who knows, maybe you’ll find your future soulmate?
• Other perks include reduced rate travel for you and your family, free laundry service, medical insurance, and discounts on cruises

Hopefully these lists of pros and cons helps you assess whether or not a cruise ship career is right for you. If so, you’re in for an exciting chapter in your life working out on the high sees!

Unlike Get a Cruise Ship Job, Cruiseworking.com is a resume submission service to all the major cruise lines for $34.00.When you reach the site it’s actually quite difficult to tell what it’s all about, and not organized very well. Nonetheless it’s a decent resource if you’re serious about getting a job on a cruise ship. After all, there’s no such thing as exhausting all your resources when it comes to finding jobs. It’s a numbers game.

They have a list of job types, lots of articles, explanation of the industry, and other resources. It’s definitely not the treasure trove of hard hitting, “get a job now” material that “Get a Cruise Ship Job” is, but it may be worth digging through. 

But if you want the gold standard for getting a job for a cruise line, I highly suggest checking out my review for Get a Cruise Ship Job. Neil really packed a ton of into into his product. It will certainly shortcut your job search, and the price is an absolute pittance compared to the actual value.

Have you been fantasizing about getting a cruise ship job while traveling the world visiting exotic locations? I’ll bet. But there’s a lot of competition, especially in today’s struggling job market. People with a wide array of backgrounds are beginning to seek out new careers, and the thought of life at sea is glamorous to many.

Oftentimes, average jobs keep us from enjoying ourselves and traveling the world as much as we’d like. That’s not the case with a cruise ship career. By combining the excitement of travel with a career, one can often lead a much more rewarding life, especially single people who won’t be leaving anyone behind.

But venturing off into the cruise ship career is a lot easier said than done. Here are some great strategies for how to get cruise ship jobs despite the fierce competition:

Appearance – Make sure your appearance is crisp and professional. Wear dress clothes to your interviews. Cruise lines want to make sure you will represent them well to passengers and won’t put them off. So your first impression, as with many other areas of life, is of course very important.

Skillset – If you have experience in the hospitality, hotel, restaurant, or any other area requiring personal customer service, make sure you document your experience, and even better, achievements in your resume and cover letter. Though experience in these industries is not necessary, it will tip the odds in your favor among the competition.

Network – If you know of anyone, or someone who has a friend or family member whose had a cruise line job, give them a call and interview them about how the experience was, and even if they have a contact who can give you a referral.

Hire an Agency – An agency will have a database of available jobs you may be interested in, and they can also help with your job preparation. Additionally, most hiring agents are ex-crew members themselves, so they have industry friends and contacts that you won’t. They are also commissioned, so they have a vested interest in your landing a job. If you make a good impression on a well connected cruise line agency rep, you’re chances of getting a cruise ship job skyrocket. Some agency fees can be expensive, but the up front expense will pay off. After all, cruise liner jobs limit your expenses, so you’ll recuperate the investment pretty quickly.

Hopefully these tips have given you some great insight on how to get cruise ship jobs. Above all, make sure a cruise ship career is compatible with your desired lifestyle. After all, career moves are significantly life changing.

So you may be asking yourself, why would I want to work on a cruise ship? I keep hearing how many hours and how hard you have to work — so what in the world would I put up with that crap for?

Well, you’re correct, there are some negatives which I’ll touch on later, but let’s first take a look at some of the positives, and by the end of this post, you should have a reality check on cruise ship jobs.

Working on cruise ships is the job that…

• Allows you to visit some of the most exotic locations on the planet, such as; the Caribbean, Bahamas, U.S. Austrailia, New Zealand, Europe, Hawaii, Alaska, Africa, Canada, the far east, the Mediterranean and even Antarctica.
• Pays well, and allows you to save up most of the income (depending on your country of origin, possibly tax free)
• Allows you to meet a very diverse group of people from a wide range of countries
• Gives you the opportunity to work in a five star environment
• Allows you to escape the day-to-day grind you’ve been working at for so long
• Gives you the chance to enjoy one of the most exciting adventures of your life

I’m sure if you’ve been researching the idea of working on a cruise ship, so no doubt you’ve heard all the positives I’ve just mentioned, but have you heard about some of these negatives?

• Of course you’ll have to be away from family and friends for long periods of time, anywhere from 6 – 9 months. Homesickness can be a problem for new crewmembers
• You’ll have to work varied shifts, and sometimes for extended hours. 
• Relationships you make onboard will likely suffer, or be completely sacrificed once your contract ends. With crewmembers from all over the world, usually a large percentage from outside the U.S. it can be hard to maintain these relationships.
• You’re always on duty – the passengers need to be waited on continually.
• If you make a career of working on cruise ships, you may feel like  you don’t have a home after awhile. Family and friendships will suffer.

That’s it for this post, hopefully these gave you a bit of the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to cruise ship life. Just keep in mind, you don’t HAVE to make a long term career out of working for cruise lines — many workers view it as a temporary adventure to break up some of the monotony in their lives.

Just wanted to say welcome aboard! This is my first post upon establishing GetCruiseShipJobs.com. It’s our goal to be one of the most informative, resourceful, info packed blogs on the net regarding the subject of landing a job on a cruise ship.

In addition we’ll be doing some product reviews that we hope you’ll enjoy and benefit from. Hopefully you find the site useful.

You can also check out the About page by clicking here.