Most of the time, I don’t even know what day it is. Monday, Tuesday, the 28th, the 29th; I couldn’t tell you. Onboard in my division, we orient our days by counting Turnaround Day (Day 1), Day 2, Day 3 and so on and so forth. Each cruise is a restart of the week before and this goes on with minimal changes for the duration of our contracts. Sometimes, weeks seem like days and other times just a few days seem like months.
I wanted to write a simple day in the life onboard article to give a little perspective, but I can’t really do so without comparison simply, because life onboard now is completely different than what it was like before. For many, most of the qualities that attract us to this lifestyle are no longer prevalent. Unfortunately I have to say, I am one of the many.
Let me preface this with: I am grateful for a job I love to do, for my health, and to have had the opportunity to be a part of the restart of the cruising industry. It’s not that I wasn’t aware of what I was signing up for by joining during a pandemic, I just wasn’t aware that living it everyday would this mentally taxing.
Before deciding to take a contract onboard, I think it’s extremely important to determine why a person is choosing this lifestyle. It’s not the normal way to live and for many crew members the contracts are very long, between six months to just under a year. For me, the appeal of working on a cruise ship was simple:
- I would be able to perform and do what I love as my main responsibility onboard
- I would be able to travel to and explore many countries I had never been before
- I would meet, live, and work with people from around the world and enjoy the “onboard lifestyle”.
Making money was not even on my list of reasons to pack up and move my life to the middle of the ocean, it was just a bonus. Before the pandemic, at almost every port, I was able to go ashore and explore that country freely, my only requirement was returning back onboard before the ship left. The crew welfare department and management used to organize all sorts of gatherings, promotions, and crew activities for us to participate in to give variety to each day and create an environment for crew to mingle. So I was able to get paid to travel and to perform, this was literally, a dream come true.
Now, two of the three reasons for me to continue to choose life at sea are temporarily postponed. Life onboard is a world of strict protocols, privileges are minimized, crew activities are closed down, and the allure of life onboard has diminished. Crew shore leave, meaning the ability for us to get off at each port is also temporarily postponed.
That leaves me with one: I still get to perform and do what I love as my career. I waited so long to be back doing this and trust me when I say, I really am grateful. Once I got back onboard, I got an injury that sent me ashore and all I wanted was to be back. I pushed through and overcame quickly what could have been the end of my career and I was counting my blessings every day. The feeling of performing still gets me every time, even when I’m exhausted to no end. This is my biggest reason for choosing to accept a contract and have continued to keep a positive attitude during this one. However, the drawbacks and hardships that come with the lifestyle of being onboard during a pandemic and for such a long period of time take more of a toll.
Without getting into specifics of life onboard during the pandemic, all I’ll say is this: just look around at the news. The cruising industry has been raised from a Level 3 to a Level 4 risk by the CDC due to the omicron variant. Imagine the effect of not only the lifestyle, but the mandates that crew members need to abide by to do their best to ensure their health and safety.
Of course, I am writing this during a surge of cases in the world with the rapid spread of this new variant, which I know is altering my tone. This is a difficult time to be onboard, navigating a rapid-spreading variant that is surging through society.
I know that things are only temporary and waves will pass so now it’s a matter of shifting my perspective. For me, I need to analyze the facts and reasons to continuously choose a life that is mundane in a living environment with strict protocols and assess my next steps.
Is it like this everywhere or is life extra strict here onboard because the cruising industry, from the beginning, has been under such scrutiny? Am I thinking that the grass is just greener on the other side? Well maybe it’s not greener, but at least it seems there are more moments to stop and smell the flowers.
Here’s to hoping the current slows and the waters get smoother soon. I’d like to refocus my brain on what I love to do once again. I will say that there are two reasons keeping me here: one is because I’m still getting to perform and the other is because I met someone that is worth staying for (and that’s a first for me in a long time)… more on that later.