Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

[Micken]

Hello,

 

Sorry if this is in the wrong part of the forum.

 

I have been offered a stage crew job by RCCL and currently waiting to be placed on a ship (April is my estimate). I was wondering if anyone here has worked with them in the past and could share some experiances of what to expect as this will be my first time away at a sea working. Even then I've never been on a cruise before so I am totaly in the dark of what to expect of life on board.

 

Even if you have worked for other companies I would appreciate any stories of your experiance, good or bad.

 

I was hoping to find a blog from any cruise staff online just to see what to expect day to day ect.. but so far I haven't been successful.

 

I'm in the process of getting my new passport (it ran out last year) then will need to get my C1/D visa, medical, police check ect.. so I am right at the start. Any help or advise during this part would be great.

 

My contract is 6months and 3weeks on with 8 weeks off before I head back out again if interested.

 

Also advice regarding the tax situation would benefit me geatly. I know I get paid on the ship which they say is tax free, but how do you avoide being taxed upon entering the UK again?, I will be away for more than 6 months so my understand is I don't need to pay anything, is this correct?

If so if someone can point me in the direction of forms that will surely need to filled out explaining where am at would be greatly appreciated.

 

Either reply or PM.

 

Thank you

Trevor.

[ryandell]

Hi There,

 

THIS should give you an insight about life on a cruise ship, Bryson's blog has even persuaded me to start thinking and researching about a career on a ship.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Ryan

[Chris Beesley]

I dont have any experience but do know a man who has worked for RCCL for the past 5-6 years in various roles. I will highlight this thread to him and see if he has any thoughts...

[Andrew C]

Also advice regarding the tax situation would benefit me geatly. I know I get paid on the ship which they say is tax free, but how do you avoide being taxed upon entering the UK again?,

Talk with an accountant. AFAIK, you are correct (or that is how things stood some time back when a friend worked as a personal tax adviser) but things change and you need the current info BEFORE you start earning abroad.

[David Lee]

I worked for RCCL may years back (mid 90's). They are a very good company - their Safety is probably one of the best out there (also worked for Carnival and Costa and their safety officers appeared to be box tickers with no real experience. RCCL employed ex emergency service personnel who knew what they were talking about).

 

It is a good life when you are young. Don't break the rules (too often :unsure:) or they'll sign you off the ship in whatever port you are in.

 

As Stage Crew, you will probably have to share cabins, my least favorite part of ship life.

 

A lot of your experience on board will be dictated by your Cruise Director. If you get a good one its great. Bad ones can make your life a misery, but if you keep your head down then it ain't so bad.

 

Which routes do you expect to work. From my own experience, I enjoyed the Caribbean as the ports were better set up for Cruise Liners. Even the ones you have to tender to (where the Port hasn't the depth for the ship to dock and you use small boats to transfer ashore_. The Mediterranean ports always felt like cargo docks , except Venice which is marvellous when you have 76000 tonnes of ship going down the canals.

 

My best experience was the first day when I saw my first ship I was going to work on. It was - to me - enormous.

 

I would have liked to do the West Coast and Alaska routes, or as my Partner done, the World cruises.

 

Good luck and enjoy.

[TaliaS]

Hi,

 

Can I just ask if you went to the interviews in January in Addlestone for the Stage Staff position? I went and it's almost been three weeks and I'm still waiting for a reply. I think that everyone who went with Crown Recruitment have had their replies but from Seven Seas Group haven't. Did you go with Crown?

 

Thanks

[mac.calder]

I am writing to you now from RCCL. I have worked on the Freedom of the Seas, Independence of the Seas and Legend of the Seas. I am moving to the Liberty of the Seas at the end of the month.

 

RCCL are a good company, but there are quite a few things to watch out for. First, are you being hired as "Stage Staff" or "Technical Stage Staff" - there is a fair difference (TSS work only on the larger ships and the position comes with an extra $500 or so a month in the pay packet). Secondly, your starting salary is a fixed rate - everyone starts at the same rate, there is a small pay rise after a year, then it basically plateaus.

 

Stage Staff get a bit of a raw deal. I was one of the lucky few who was hired straight into the technical role (LX Tech). Stage Staff are the bottom of the Cruise Division food chain - 1 stripe (so still 'staff') but outranked by pretty much everyone within the division. What that means in real life - things like delivering the daily 'compass' for the cruise division falls on their backs (basically the duty guy spends 15 minutes delivering the "whats on today" newsletter to people within the division). You also get to do fun jobs like pick up requisitions for other cruise division departments, not just the theatre. Day to day, you work along side the technical team running shows, just as stage staff would on land. The bonus being that scenery is highly automated (how well it works depends on the ship), so there is a lot of 'spotting'.

 

Stage Staff share cabins - almost always with someone from the same division - that is Cruise Staff, Sports Staff, Adventure Ocean Staff (day care), musicians, dancers or singers.

 

The eventual goal for most Stage Staff is to move up the ranks. Techs get their own cabin, almost double the salary and are pretty much on par with the rest of the division as far as stripage goes (1 stripe for stage staff, 1.5->2 stripes for cruise staff, sports staff, signers and dancers, 2 stripes for techs, 2.5 stripes for production manager, 3 stripes for cruise director). Generally stripes don't mean much - it just affects your privileges as far as access to guest areas etc and whether you get your own cabin.

 

RCCL has 5 classes of ships (this is testing my trivia), Sovereign, Vision, Radiance, Voyager and Freedom and are building the Oasis class now. I have only worked on Vision and Freedom classes, although Voyager and Freedom classes are similar. Each class is basically a different design of ship, so within a class, not too much is meant to be different. Between classes though there is generally a large jump.

 

RCCL mainly sails in the Caribbean with a few ships in other places. The Independence sails out of Southampton, the ship I am on now sails out of Singapore and Shanghai. A lot of people dislike the Caribbean runs because they are generally shorter (7 days and less) and because they are largely there for tourists to buy cheap things. They are great for saving money. My current run is shocking for that as Asia is full of places to visit, eat at, drink at etc.

 

All in all, the lifestyle is great though. Just make sure you do your work, because whilst we may party hard, we always do the job first

[mac.calder]

Just a few things I forgot to add - would not let me edit my post:

 

RCCL produces it's own shows in house. Cast size is 4 male + 4 female dancers and 2 male + 2 female singers on the smaller ships, and goes up to 6 male + 6 female dancers (two of which are "Tumblers" - adept at flying and tumbling) and 3 male + 3 female singers. Shows are generally "Revue style" - most have no plot, they are just 'themed', be it Circus theme, British invasion, Journey through the ages, shows that have gone from broadway to the theatre or vice versa and various other tenuous links like that.

 

Most ships have 3 shows, some ships have 2, and at least one has 4. The rest of the nights are filled with guest entertainers and movies. Quality varies greatly. One day you will have a great act like Bjorn Again or Crazeehorse, the next you will have a ventriloquist who does his entire show in three languages to flesh it out to 30 minutes and uses the same voice for everything.

 

The Voyager and Freedom classes have "Studio B" - the ice rink. If you are given the opportunity to work there, embrace it. It is a good place to be if you wish to move up to Production Manager, as you can arrange to sit in with the theatre PM during the evening shows, as the ice rink and theatre rarely run against each other time wise.

 

Finally, make sure you talk to your production manager about where you want the job to take you after you have been on board for a few months. ie: do you want to become a technician (Lighting, Sound, Rigging/Flying) or a PM?

 

And finally, be prepared to embrace other cultures. Being in Asia it is always really sad to see some people who get really excited because the port has a McDonalds or a California Pizza Kitchen, and they walk past all of these great places with food they have never tried, shops they have never visited before and sights they have never seen before.

 

See the world and enjoy it, because if all you're after is the money, there is a good chance you would do better on land.

[sameness]

I am also joining RCCL shortly as a Lounge Tech. I should hopefully be getting my start details in the next week. Im looking forward to it as I have just finished 6 months on Ocean Village. I have been told good things from people I know onboard and this thread has confirmed a few things for me.

[Micken]

Can I just ask if you went to the interviews in January in Addlestone for the Stage Staff position? I went and it's almost been three weeks and I'm still waiting for a reply. I think that everyone who went with Crown Recruitment have had their replies but from Seven Seas Group haven't. Did you go with Crown?

Thanks

 

I applied via the Stage, it was Crown Recritment I have went through. Never attend an interview, instead got a phone interview from Miami as I'm in Scotland and they said it was too far to travel. Suited me. Took about 3 weeks or so for the phone interview as originaly they were going to wait until the Recruiter was back in London, after 3 weeks she decieded to just phone from the States.

 

The only thing is I'm not quiet sure what role I've been employed for, I'm sure its Technical Stage Staff but I have my doubts.

Placement for ships is slow at the moment so I don't know which ship I'll be on. April is when they reckon I'll find out, gives me enough time to get my passport renewed anyway!

 

Was wondering if its possible to wire money back to the UK? I have overdrafts ect.. from the student days that I want paying off without paying nearly 7 months of fines. I spoke to my local Bank branch (Bank of Scotland) and they haven't a clue how to do it and never been asked such a thing, they are only a small branch so could just be dafties, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mac.calder]

Money transfers can be done on board for a small fee (about $7 per transfer from memory), however they are no where near instant. Because of the low fee, Citibank (who process it) hold the money, usually playing the money market for about a week, then it ends up in your account. Setting up the wire transfer also takes a fair bit of time... One thing you will learn very quickly is that nothing is instant on a ship.

 

The crew office will also do money orders for $1 each (from memory), although they are not that keen on doing them. You can then send the money orders home to be deposited.

 

Just for comparison - Western Union transfers can cost around about 60 pounds, some banks will charge up to 15% for currency conversions on wire transfers + a $20 international transfer fee, so the $7 fee and the waiting time is worth it, as citibank converts the currency before wiring it in and will hold the money for a "reasonable amount of time" to get a good rate (usually no more than 2 weeks), meaning it is treated as a local wire transfer.

 

Be sure to bring a bank statement as well as the banking details (including SWIFT code) with you, so that you can set it up right away.

[DRG]

Be prepared for mucho training during your first 2 weeks. Mostly safety, company policy, that sort of thing.

Don't forget that stage staff get the "fun" extra duties, like rock wall on seas days; helping shore ex; wheelchairs in some ports; and pretty much anything else you're asked to do.

As for tax, check out the inland revenue website for information on that. I fill out a self-assessment tax return, and if you're out of the country a certain number of days in the tax year (never remember how many, although if you search this forum you might find the answer here, and you definitely will at the inland rev) you wont pay tax.

I think the wire transfer will take at least 6 weeks to set-up, so you'll likely be best served using money orders at first.

As for if you're stage staff or tech stage staff that will depend on which ship they place you on. You won't find that out until they give you a ship name that you'll be working on.

Oh, and beware of Steiners that come knocking in the night!

 

On an unrelated note for mac.calder, how were Bjorn Again? I just signed of RH and we had them first. I was at about 250 cues and about 10 hrs of programming.

Say hi to Santa Rick for me.

[mac.calder]

Hey David - Rick says hi, as for BA - they were fine, bit of a step down from the Rhapsody to Legend, and they came on during a Hong Kong overnight to perform the last day of said overnight - we were all hung over for the tech run - they did not get my full attention, and I did not have time to program a full out show - I ended up with a cue list of about 50 states, then busking over the top of that.

 

The ammount of training is ridiculous - you will have the company line beaten into you six ways from sunday, and will be dreaming safety videos for weeks.

[David Lee]

"The amount of training is ridiculous" - You may well appreciate that if the worst happens. Trust me, other companies training is a quick walk around and check off some boxes. In an emergency it would be a nightmare. As a generalisation - Norwegian run ships - I.e RCCL and NCL = good training, Italian run ships training is box ticking.

 

As for the company line beaten into you - that's the same on all cruise ships that I worked for.

[merlin24]

Don't forget that stage staff get the "fun" extra duties, like rock wall on seas days; helping shore ex; wheelchairs in some ports; and pretty much anything else you're asked to do.

 

Wow thats horrific..... I speant many years working for Princess, I know many people that still do. Production staff are production staff, in no way would they ever be asked to do anything outside of the dept... Other than Emergency duties.. And possibly the odd favour. But shore Ex, Rock climbing... !!! What the ----------- !!!!