used to work on ships and met a passenger a few years ago who was confided to a wheelchair. cruising was the way to go. apparently, there is even a company that arranges shore excursions for wheelchair bound passengers so this passenger had a tour guide in every port with a wheelchair van. this was in europe, they…

no. depending on your position on board up to 10 months straight. there are no days off. on turn around, typically guests leave in the morning and embarkation for the next cruise begins around noon, and the ship sails for a new cruise around 5pm. it’s amazing the amount of work that happens in those few hours.

i can tell you that i am personally 100% convinced that most cases of norovirus are due to passengers. common sense is left on shore...

you can almost always find the exact same excursions on shore for a fraction of the cost - often with the same providers. the only benefit of booking through the ship is that the ship will wait for a late shore ex tour. they won’t wait for late passengers otherwise. i don’t remember exactly how much it is for a ship…

there are plenty of available condoms for crew - free. STDs are a big issue on board...

depends on the cruise line. one i worked on had a wide variety of nationalities and on another most were from the same country (indonesia in one case). the crazy thing is, you get paid based on the value of your currency so two people in the same job could make widely varying salaries - up to 3 times difference.

spent two years onboard -3 different cruise lines. and american with a masters degree so a rare breed on ships. i have tons of stories so what do you want to hear? i do get disappointed in the way guests treat the crew - they work 14 hour day for so little salary and live off tips. it breaks my heart to think of what…