Cruising 101, Part 3: Behind the Scenes on the Ship
- May 7
- 9 min read
Updated: May 22
This blog series is for travelers who are beginners to cruising.
Cruising 101 Part 3: Behind the Scenes on a Ship
When you book a cruise, you are asked if you want to pay your gratuities in advance or have it billed to you when you clear your account on disembarkation day. Why is there tipping? At the "Other Facts to Know" section of the article, there will be an NYC Traveler Tip For Your Cruise Trip about gratuities on a cruise ship.
Read on and see who are the folks who are making your cruise nice:
How does a Cruise Ship Sail? Since a cruise ship is essentially a full-service floating resort, it can take as many as 1400-1500 people to make your vacation an awesome experience. (First thing to remember: it's always a ship, never a boat!) The captain: in charge of the ship and is the ultimate authority, usually has attended a maritime academy and/or graduate school, is licensed/certified and has to have many years of experience working the way up the ladder, through 3rd, 2nd and 1st mate positions, staff captain/chief mate and taking umpteen exams. This journey can take at least 10 years. Cruise captains often seem very proud of their job and very sincere in giving you the safest voyage possible. To that end, they make unpopular decisions: changing the itinerary mid-voyage to avoid unsafe situations. Sometimes the information does come from the port or the country. Either way, the captain will make an announcement if there is a change in itinerary, a delay in the voyage or other important concerns.
The officers: are usually dressed in the white uniforms or in their dress blacks in the evening. This category includes the engineers, radio officers, oil people and plumbers (not maintenance). Yes, someone who specializes in maintenance can be an officer of a cruise ship. This is the captain's staff. They assist the captain in all aspects of the ship, especially when safe sailing is concerned.
Hotel: the cruise ship is a floating all-inclusive resort. It's a hotel on water. Think of all of the aspects of a first-rate hotel, starting with your room. There's housekeeping, room service, maintenance, the room decor, the amenities, etc. There is an office in charge of the hotel division and the ladder goes all the way to your cabin steward who is your contact for that department. The steward does not only clean your room, you can ask them when you need something when you see them in the corridors, if it is not an emergency. Of course, there is always a button on your stateroom phone to use for other services.
Dining: there is a head chef, and staff (baker, sous chef, etc) and a head waiter and staff. For the wait staff, there may be intermediary positions. Part of being all-inclusive is meals. So the dining staff is obviously important. The chefs and cooks are trying to serve almost 6,000 people, including the staff, too, so making mass meals that seem not to always be gourmet is part of that task. But, there are specialty cooks for the specialty restaurants.
Part of the dining department is the staff that work in the dining room and at the buffets. Along side of these are the bartenders, who work at the various bars throughout the ship. They also work on the private islands owned by the cruise line when you are there for a day. The wait staff will serve you in the dining room and you will have the same person if you are on a cruise that has assigned dining times (which is often a choice on many cruise lines). If you go to a bar at around the same time, you will often see the same bartender. All of these staff members help to make your cruise.
Maintenance and housekeeping: these important people keep our staterooms looking pretty and working properly, from fixing the toilet to cleaning up after the poor people who may get sick (for various reasons...) In fact, they became the star of the show when we had an experience of the ship needing a repair at sea. We also had an experience of boarding a ship after a terrible storm. We saw the minimal damage that was done and all week long, the maintenance department was hard at work. During your cruise, you may get signs from maintenance saying that they will inspect your cabin or clean the windows or balconies. Rather than being an inconvenience, I'm glad they are keeping the ship, um, well, ship-shape, if you will pardon the pun. The Cruise Director: Clubs, casinos, theaters, shows, movies on deck, ugly Christmas sweater night. Where do you find out about all of that and who arranges for it? Your friendly cruise director, of course. The cruise director supervises the entertainment staff, hosts events and makes those famous announcements. The cruise director keeps us informed early in the morning and then parties with us late at night. We often had spoken with them to ask them how they keep such late hours. They do get naps during the day. But, their job is to entertain you, keep you informed about activities, put out the newsletter, and supervise the entertainment staff.
Customer Service: Service desks such as excursions, customer service, the photo area, and your friendly booking agent (there are discounts if you book your next cruise right then and there) will operate with business hours, (except for the photo and spa). Everything that you would find in a full service resort is in this department. The customer service desk is there to help you with the typical issues: general questions, your account or if you lost your keycard. The shore excursion desk will help you with information about the ports of call, but it is best to book excursions before you board. If the ship has a change of port, shore excursion costs will automatically be applied back to your account but if you need to cancel an excursion, this is the desk to visit. If you want to book another cruise, there will be a desk for that, too. Kids Activities: the children's counselors/youth activities directors. Kids' areas are usually divided into 4 areas: infants/toddlers/pre-school elementary age (somewhere around ages 5-9 or 10) middle school (10 or 11-13) and teens, high school age. Drinking and gambling age may be 21, although the late night clubs may admit age 18 and older. While chatting with some of the counselors, we discovered that many of them had a background in education or other similar fields. Feel free to speak with the staff when you register your child for the kids clubs.
Personal services: fitness trainers, spa specialists, stylists in the salon, nutritionists. It depends on the services that the ship offers. The larger the ship, the more varied the services. These persons do perform services that cost extra, outside of your basic cruise fare. They are usually trained and have certifications in their fields.
Salespersons: In addition to selling you another cruise, you have the staff in the stores, the special sales like art exhibits and wine tastings, the photo staff, jewelry, etc. They have all been trained in their areas, especially those in the art galleries, the specialty wine bars and some of the jewelry. The photo staff has photographers that snap photos around the ship and those who will take more carefully composed portraits when you book a session. Tip for your trip: once the ship sails, not much more inventory is loaded. Sometimes, more products are loaded at some ports, but most of the time what you see loaded might be food.
Other Facts to Know:
*Gratuties: You can pay these in advance when you pay for your cruise. In fact, The NYC Traveler Tip for Your Trip is that you should. If you don't, they will bill you at the end of the cruise on the card you have on file. Lately, many cruise lines are making gratuities mandatory.
But, you may want to show your gratitude in a more personal manner once you get to know the staff. If you want to tip a bartender, a server in a specialty restaurant or a server in your main dining room or anyone else, bring cash. If you add a tip to a bar or specialty dining bill, it gets put into the general pool that is divided with the entire staff. Put cash in the hand directly of your favorite staff member.
* The staff and personnel work long hours. The crew (housekeeping, wait staff) will bunk in shared quarters on Deck 1 or below. Staff (entertainment, supervisors) may or may not share quarters and may be on higher decks.
* Your traditional officers (including the cruise director, chef and maybe the assistants) may have staterooms where the passengers are: Decks 4, 5, 6 or higher. Of course, the captain has a nice stateroom, perhaps a suite. Everyone, regardless of rank, works 10-14 hours but they do get breaks and they get to go ashore when in port. * The wait staff works hard: they work the buffets, afternoon tea and meals in the dining rooms and they come ashore with you on the private island days.
* Your room is usually serviced once a day nowadays (since Covid), plus room service is available. But you can contact Housekeeping or your room steward when you need something. * In the morning, around 5AM or 6AM, someone is literally swabbing the deck, lounge chairs are being readied and the pool has already been serviced. * The fitness center usually opens up early and yoga or spin classes may start as early as 6AM.
*There is a medical facility on board. However, these services are not free and lately, I have seen a sign posted outside the medical area stating the prices. Bring your own OTC meds with you, as well as more than enough of your prescription medicine. Carry a small first aid kit. Purchase travel insurance that has a medical part. If the cruise line cannot sell you travel insurance (sometimes the location of the port and the residence of the cruiser forbids it), get your own. Check with your travel agent or do a search. * Many, many positions were not mentioned: the dressed up characters/actors, the sound, light and camera crew, life guards (although signs are posted about swimming at your own risk), security and who knows, there may be a person who is responsible for running the movies on the Lido Deck, not to mention the in-house closed circuit TV channels.
* Hopefully, you will enjoy your experience more when you encounter the hard working staff on your trip. Smile back when they greet you and be nice to them!
Happy Travels!
Articles in this series:
Articles in the "How To Travel" Series
Articles in the "How To Cruise" Series
The NYC Traveler Presents Tips for Your Trips
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