Cruise Ship Jobs Blog

We’re not talking about big ships versus small ships. We’re talking about the number of cruise ships that each cruise line has, also known as their fleet. Getting to know the size and type of the company’s fleet for where you are applying is advantageous for a number of reasons.

Cruise lines with large fleets mean that you have the opportunity to work on different cruise ships throughout your career. And, the more ships that a cruise line has, the better the chances are for advancement.

But don’t expect that all the ships in a fleet are identical. Older ships have fewer amenities for passengers and crew. On the other hand, the newer, bigger ships have all the bells and whistles.

But these ships are also busier and less intimate.

One example of a large cruise line with a varied fleet is Royal Caribbean International. With the new Oasis of the Seas beginning her first cruise in December, the company now has 21 ships in their fleet and six classes of cruise ships.

The Oasis of the Seas is the biggest of Royal Caribbean’s ships at 220,000 tons, 5,400 guests and 1,650 crew members. But they also have smaller and older ships such as the Monarch of the Seas built in 1991 and the Legend of the Seas which is only 70,000 tons.

But small cruise line fleets have plenty of opportunities as well. For example, Disney Cruise Line currently has only two ships but by 2012 they will have four ships.

To see more pros and cons of working for large cruise lines versus working for small cruise lines, check out two of our latest ‘must read’ articles:

=> Do You Want to Work for a Large Cruise Line?
=> Do You Want to Work for a Small Cruise Line?

Also get to know which lines are bringing out new cruise ships for 2010.

Whether you’re interested in working for a small cruise line or a large cruise line, www.WorkOnCruiseShips.com features employment contact information for every major and minor cruise line.

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Apart from sending your employment package out sooner rather than later, there are some tricks to decrease the time it takes to get started working on a cruise ship.

This is not a ‘get-rich-quick-scheme’, though. The application process takes effort. And the better the effort, the better the chances are to get hired to work on a cruise ship.

Extra effort starts in the form of tweaking your resume and cover letter. If you’ve been waiting for a long time for the cruise lines to call, it may be time to re-look at your resume and cover letter.

The Getting Hired department of WorkOnCruiseShips.com has numerous articles to assist members in getting their cover letter and resume ready to send out. For example, Top 10 Cover Letter Mistakes Cruise Ship Applicants Make and 10 Biggest Resume Mistakes Cruise Job Seekers Make both give inside tips that have helped our members successfully modify their employment packages for the cruise industry.

Another important tip is to get the resume and cover letter to the right person. So while you may have sent your resume through an online application, have you mailed it as well? Do you have the right contact information?

WorkOnCruiseShips.com maintains A-Z Directories that contain valuable physical addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and various contact information.

You won’t get hired if you can’t land an interview. You won’t land an interview if your cover letter and resume are weak. And no one will read your resume if it doesn’t end up on the right desk. By getting started today, you will be one step closer to being hired for your dream job of working on a cruise ship.

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How long should you wait for a cruise ship job is one of the most common questions that we get on our discussion forum. Unfortunately, there is no standard time frame for how long the hiring process takes from start to finish.

In fact, we’ve had members who were hired in a matter of days but we’ve also heard from some members who’ve reported waiting over a year to finally getting hired and placed on a ship.

One of our members, Jaime from Australia, just posted last week that she just received her flight details.

She writes:

"But to anyone getting discouraged, please don’t. It took me a year to land this job, and then another 5 months to get scheduled, but I can honestly tell you right now, I have never been more proud of myself. I can’t wait to start this new chapter!!"

Her journey has been long with a few bumps in the road. In February she had explained on our Discussion Forum about her experience dealing with one agency that had interviewed her and 3 weeks later told her she didn’t get the job.

In March, Jaime discusses an upcoming interview for a job as a Steiner receptionist. And then and she writes on the forum in April about what happened at her interview…Fast forward to June, and Jaime posts on the forum about being offered a job, but not with Steiner.

She writes:

"I finally got offered a position with Holland America as a Librarian".

As you can see Jaime’s persistence and patience paid off in the end and she will be joining the Prinsendam which will be sailing the Caribbean and then South America. It’s people like Jaime that simply refuse to give up and keep going until they land their dream cruise ship job.

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The internet has made it easy to apply for cruise ship jobs online. On the other hand, it has also made it easier for criminals to trick you into the latest employment scam.

We’ve just posted a great new article called Cruise Ship Recruitment Scams which you should read right now.  You’ll also get to see a REAL example of a fake cruise ship job offer letter that you should look out for. .

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