guest service agent

server

concierge

manager

host/hostess

Celebrity Cruises

As an entertainer, we have great privileges, access to guest areas, Ocean View (guest buffet) which provides a variety of decent quality food. Access to the guest gym which has a nice open and fresh atmosphere and great view onto the ocean (from of the ship). We have access to restaurants (provided we pay). The company takes care in keeping the ships in good maintenance which creates a comfortable and fresh atmosphere to live in (even crew quarters). The ship provides indoor and outdoor spaces to relax and socialize (mingles crew bar, deck 0 crew bar for smokers, and an open deck area: deck 6 forward with a seating area, tabes and modern and comfortable sun loungers).

They are strict about maintaining a hygienic lifestyle whilst living on board and train us well for our position as a crew member (fire safety, environmental policy, medical protocols, diversity training etc.)

The ships are modern well maintained, pleasant to be in (both crew and guest areas) and the crew and staff are generally friendly, happy to be there, helpful and open minded. 

It is a very enriching place to work in provided you go in with an open mind and a desire to evolve and learn. 

In the job, I was playing on old musical equipment that was way below professional standard, worn, broken and rusty in the outdoor venues. After half a contract of playing on worn and broken drum thrones (drum seats) I experienced back pain due to displaced hips. I had to visit a chiropractor to realign my hips.

Experienced an ear injury due to unexperienced AV (audiovisual- sound tech) staff. I went to the medical centre to report my injury as I was feeling pain in my left ear when playing. They said that there is nothing wrong, that there is no visible damage. This to me was not enough of an analysis to satisfy my needs as a professional musician. 

The crew mess food provides lots of choice although the food lacks in quality and nutritive value. 

The laundry conditions on board are not good. I have had so many items of clothing (which were brand new prior to my contract) damaged while being on board, the laundry rooms are operated by a crew member who takes "care" of our clothes, although washes them at very high temperature and drys them in a dryer at at very high temperature. This seriously damages clothes (shrunken clothes, broken elastic bands on underwear, lost socks, torn and lost buttons on shirt, faded colors, stained from old washing machines and old dryers). Celebrity will not take responsibility for damaged clothes unless they are taken specifically to the dry cleaners and uniform cleaning department (I have also had some damaged shirts returned from this procedure). It would be great if we could be responsible for our own laundry with up to date machines, and space to hang dry our clothes, maybe a warm, hanging room with a humidity catching machine and good air-condition. 

Living conditions are pretty poor. We have a tiny room with 2 single bunk beds, no window. It is very hard to get proper rest with a proper sleeping pattern due to waking up and living in darkness. Little to no privacy and the showers are tiny, even being of a slim physical stature, I have often caught minor fungal infections on my skin due to dirty and moldy shower curtain rubbing on my skin during showering. Washed crew linen smell old (bed linen, bath towels and hand towels). The only way to get linen that smells at least neutral is by paying a house keeping assistant to clean our cabin. 

I've done two contracts with celebrity and both times I've moved into a dirty cabin laden with previous (even previous-previous) crew member's empty or full toiletry containers, soiled tissues and underwear under the mattress, dirty floor, belongings left in the storage spaces. 

I often get red spots on my chest and itchy skin from sleeping on the mattresses.

A typical day at work:

1. At sea:
Start work at 8:30am.
Checking bookings over night, delivering tickets.
Open desk at 9am for passengers.
While assisting passengers, we work on PowerPoint presentations for the next ports, looking up information on the internet, finding pictures that best represent the tours that have have to offer. As well we have to prepare dispatch sheets for next ports and paper work related with them. Send emails to tour operators with number of buses and requesting more if needed. As well we communicate with them if passengers ask about particular information regarding the tours(e.g.: how many steps are at the museum, do they have restrooms in the bus, etc.).
We have a 30 minutes break at lunch time and another one at dinner time.
The desk hours finish at 9pm.
If all paper work are done, we have 1 hour meeting and then the word day is done.
If we still have paper work to finish, first we have 1 hours meeting and then we(the team) stay until all the paper work is done.

2. In port:
We start work with 1 1/2hr before we get to port, usually would be 5-6am.
Dispatch until 11am. Lunch break.
Going in tour to escort passengers. It could be 2-3 hours or a long tour up to 9 hours.
If short tour, we go back at the desk at 4:30pm and work as per day at sea; if long tours we go back at the desk as per day at sea after the tour is finish with an extra break for a shower and changing in evening uniform.

As you can see in the description above, considering that environment, I have learned how to organize my time to be able to finish things on a deadline. I've worked with people for all around the world and this helped me to understand different typologies and manage to work with every each one of them.

Management: I had different experiences. Working on a cruise ship the contracts were 4-8 months, so we were constant changing our team as well as our managers. If managers were experienced, work load and efficiency was a lot better. If they were new, or just there for the money, we were always delayed and overall more stressing.

Working in tourism department, we had to work with all other departments as well with the tour operators from each of the ports. So, within this job, team work is a skill that I have learned and developed.

The hardest part of the job is when dealing with complains that don't have a true reason(e.g.: the museum was not interesting, or the food was horrible); but, since the customer is always right, I have learned how to listen to this passengers and manage to make them happy at the end of the conversation.

The most enjoyable part of the job was meeting all this people from all the places in the world, as well as traveling and visiting the ports.

Was excited at first but soon discovered the schedule for performing was disorganized and I had to cover for others almost on a regular basis with no extra compensation for my additional performing times. I was expected to know everything perfectly with no tolerance for mistakes. Things were always changing and there was hardly any communication from management. I had to quickly learn new repertoire on the spot and I did not receive the proper guidance and mentorship to help me adapt. I would have appreciated support from management. I was told to stop complaining and accept the life at sea. I couldn't believe that I only had 1 hour of wifi per month and was really upset that I had to pay for extra wifi over and above the one hour which I needed to help me do my job properly. I was embarrassed and felt terrible that I couldn't always perform well as equipment was frequently breaking down and the sound was so bad at times that I couldn't even hear myself. The sound technicians didn't know what they were doing half the time as they were not professionals and the loud feedback was another embarrassment. Some of the AV guys were transferred from other departments on the ship and had no experience with sound. I was also shocked that some of my expensive clothes that I bought specifically for my job that I was told I had to wear got ruined in the laundry. Some of it shrunk and got ripped and I had to buy new clothes on a port day to replace what got ruined in the laundry. One of my suits was also mysteriously lost in the laundry and was never found. Yes I made new friends and had some good times but the cons outweighed the pros for me and it definitely was not worth it for me. I would not return or do another job like this again.

•	Developing, implementing and maintaining quality standards for all food outlets and banquets.
•	Participating on menu engineering and implementation based on collected daily feedback.
•	Interviewing, training, supervising, promoting and counseling restaurant staff for the efficient performance of the service.
•	Positively interact with Guests, promoting hotel-vessel facilities or activities.
•	Resolving Guests issues to their satisfaction in a prioritized manner
•	Maintaining profitability of the department to support overall hotel operation and expected goals. 
•	Control payroll, C&R, food cost and stock of the different par levels to achieve financial quotas and total Guest satisfaction
•	Facilitating pre-shifts with Executive Chef and Chef de Cuisines to educate the Service Team on the different techniques, flavors, ingredients, amounts, specials of the day and events
•	Estimating food, wine, liquor and other beverage consumption in order to anticipate amounts to be requisitioned in order to create the data needed for forecasting.
•	As a Project Manager I took the responsibility to create SOP’s for the opening of the Solstice Class Ships in regards of the restaurant operations, stock pars, selecting and interviewing staff. In addition to the project I provide all material needed to T&D to create the training material used to educate our Team in a successful way as scheduled

Effectively coordinates, monitors, and supervises fuel consumption to maximize efficiency with Senior Staff, Senior Officers, and Management  Initiates, implements, and trains engineers on the Advanced Wastewater Purification system which purifies wastewater and enables effluent to be discharged less than 12 nautical miles Protects the Celebrity fleet against environmental violations, adhering to environmental national, international and company policy and procedures Regulatory expert and adviser for environmental, safety, and standard operating procedures and regulations Collaborates, enforces, and trains crew members, staff, and managers, on the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System program, which resulted in zero environmental violations  Executes and monitors the waste management program which resulted in waste reduction and, maximizing recycling potential and earning the 2007 Environmental Ship of the Year Award Manages, monitors, and supervises the Chemical Management program which resulted in reduction of hazardous and non hazardous disposal Increased marine engineer awareness of environmental compliance with engine machinery and equipment by effectively inspecting, monitoring, and auditing Clean Bilge and Oil Water Separator operations

Definitely an experience I’m glad I took, the travel is amazing and the people are too, but two contracts was enough. Long hours and never a full day off. My average work week was at least 70 hours. Burnout happened really quickly and then every day just becomes progressively more exhausting, working towards that magical day off after 6.5 months. The workload depends on the itinerary. The more stops you have in ports, the more opportunity you have for a little downtime (less people on the ship = less entertainment offered during the day). Sea days are going to be very busy and very long. You can occasionally trade duty with one or two coworkers (depending on ship size) who agrees to take multiple people’s duties on port days so folks can go off ship together, which is really nice seeing the world. Coworkers are great which makes it fun, but when you calculate the monthly pay rate you get by how many hours you’re actually working it ends up being a very low wage. Some people absolutely love it, but the constant work and little downtime/escape/privacy wasn’t enough balance for me. Cabins are tiny (though I hear larger than other lines) and usually shared unless you are a higher rank. As an AV Tech, you have to share a cabin. When promoted to lighting or sound technician you get your own cabin, but still have to share a bathroom, which is not great.

A typical day at celebrity, if we had a show day, the cast would meet for a technical rehearsal, where i would brief the cast on the day ahead. during the rehearsal i would sit out and watch, and make notes and make corrections at the end of the run. we would have a quick debrief, until call time for the shows. where i would make check attendance of the cast, make any last minute adjustments depending on sea conditions, injuries or illness. 
After the 1st show, i would meet with the cast if there was any issues. also during the brake after the 1st show, i would go to the office and prepare the schedule for the next day. check through my company email, and reply according. and inform the cast of any important info. 
i would also prepare any rotations or extra duties for the cast.
at the end of the cruise i would fill out a end of voyage report, letting the head office in Miami know about all the performances of the week, and any issues regarding cast. i i was dealing with the production manger and cruise director everyday, and replaying any info to the cast.
i had a great cast of co workers and was pleasure leading them. 
hardest part was dealing with an injury or sickness just minutes before a show, and having to re block an entire hour show in just minutes. 
i loved all of my job, even the hard parts.

As I've been working like a dj on my last 4 month on a cruise ship,the life was so cool as you still young to perform this kind of job.I was working as celebrity cleaner when I join the ship in 2016 and start a cross training as DJ and after 4 month training i got the promotion(my four month training is in my rest hours).There's a big difference between these two department,the entertainment department was so cool, no pressure of work like housekeeping and you have a nice team like two activity host and one activity manager who been leading by a cruise director.The hardest part of the job is when you have specific title party for ex 80's party and you've also many young people who is crusing together and to make sure everybody is happy at the same time, its not easy to make young people to dance on old music and to make old people to dance on new tunes.But overall I really enjoy this job,everytime a cruise start the first day is my favourite one to play on a bar where there's is some flair bartender doing live show and chilling with my live music.My best part of being a DJ on cruise ship was the eve of new year where you've around 4000 guests onboard and doing the countdown on the poolside with a big party and everybody shouting happy new year together and my second best part working on the cruise ship is you travel a lots and discover the world.

Usually day routine start with the breakfast, lunch and dinner and cleaning the working plays ready for the next day!
Meeting the same guest hole day! Creating a friendly relation with the guest which  lead to great business and the end! Treating the guest in the wright way make them trust and buying everything from you! 
Amassing place where you can learn a lot about the business sales skills knowledge  and keep forcing you to proof and develop yourself every day!
Great environment and co workers . The TEAM is the hard of this huge operation! Help each other  at all the time! You cant do it alone. Because its made to be done from the TEAM.
The hardest time is when you hardly trying to do the wright things and its does not work ! There is the time when your co workers come to assist you to done the job! Every situation is related and affect the overall  and everyone  business!   Of course and the end of the day, everyone have fun after the hard day, and talking about what happened  and realizing where was the wick point during the operation!
There is a lot of events (parties, cinema ,game room gym saloon and a lot of courses helps to proof or learn add.language, dance classes ) to please every one needs! 
Great place you can learn a lot! Environment including everything in one !

In charge of a group of my co-workers when it comes to duty allocation
 Assist on making and preparing the mis-en-plus and raw materials to be used for cooking
 I was involved in the operational level of the actual cooking and working on the line as well as al ‘a carte orders in the fine dining restaurants
 I was responsible in managing and running a station (saucier) and the grill
 I used to train my co-workers on any changes made on the menus and how to prepare ne dishes
 Making and coming up with menus during special occasions or during menu adjustments
 I used to make requisition of raw materials and ingredients on the station I was allocated
 Assist the Chef in food cost control by monitoring waste products, planning and stock rotation of raw materials by using first in raw materials first and last in raw materials last
In celebrity cruises I was exposed in rotating around their specialty restaurants where I got knowledge in French, Italian, Chinese, International cuisine and the sea food restaurant.
The only challenge was working with different nationalities because of the difference in culture,beliefs,lifestyle and communication.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Guest service agent 3 salaries reported	$1,878 per month
Server 4 salaries reported	$1,933 per month
Concierge 5 salaries reported	$2,240 per month
Manager 3 salaries reported	$4,233 per month
Host/hostess 3 salaries reported	$3,733 per month

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