Cruise ship worker reveals 'real life behind the scenes' and the best part about the job

A cruise ship photographer has revealed what the job is like, insisting that the role is 'nothing like what you see on travel ads'.

The idea of living on a cruise ship is a dream to most people, with some people genuinely ditching their homes and mortgages to live a life out at sea.

Ryan Gutlidge, for example, was living on a cruise ship for most of the year (as of 2024) because it was a cheaper alternative to renting.

Meanwhile, Sharon Lane is living out her retirement by residing at Odyssey Villa Vie Residences.

As well as holidaymakers and long-term residents there's, of course, the staff that live onboard a cruise ship and a photographer took to Reddit in recent months to share their experiences of working – and residing – on a cruise ship.

A cruise ship worker shared the pros and cons of the job (Getty Stock)

This particular Redditor started off their post detailing the downsides to the job, listing off the long hours (10 to 12-hour shifts), no days off 'for months', low pay, and living in small, shared cabins.

"Guests can be shockingly rude, entitled, and clueless," they added of the cons of their role.

They opened the floor to questioning and, in light of them reeling off the bad parts of the job, someone else asked what some of the best parts are.

"You travel around the world and it is not like guests that go to a port for one day," the cruise ship worker replied. "When you're making a route you go every week or every 15 days so you start making friends with locals, you have your favorite stores and of course when you have the time you can go to amazing places and see beautiful things like whales, northern lights, swimming with stingrays and sharks you know the main cities."

They continued: "Depending of the route you can go to great places like my last contract I visited Hobbiton on NW after crossing from Alaska and passing for Hawaii."

Customer service wise, the cruise ship worker said it's not all rude and awkward customers.

"You see the best and the worst of everyone," they shared. "One day you're having a nice conversation with a sweet granny telling about her grandsons and the other you are trying to calm down an obese guy with a stinky breath who thinks you're his slave."

I guess the same could be said with most customer-facing roles, though...