The cruise line market has been growing more than no other in the past decade. During the last first years, all leading cruise lines have doubled their fleets and amount of employees. Many new cruise ship lines have emerged trying to get their share from the cruise market explosion. But with all the cruise ships currently being built the number of cruise line work force internationally is expected to triple by 2010. A cruise ship, for those who don’t know is a self contained floating community that makes recreation available for up to 3,000 passengers. There are hundreds of jobs and skills required to keep a cruise ship operational. Working for a luxury cruise line makes available a variety of rewards, but the most common reasons for working on a cruise line, are: you can learn while saving a great amount of money for a short duration as all of your expenses are handled by the cruise line, including food, housing, medical care, airline ticket to the port of embarkment and back home, regardless of which part of the world you reside in; citizens of specific countries do not need to pay taxes on the income they have earned at sea; you are able to travel a lot without spending any of your own money; discounted cruise rates for relatives and family members.

No other industry has been growing so rapidly in the past seven years as the cruise ship industry.  Just for the last four years all leading cruise lines have doubled their fleets and number of employees. Many new cruise ship companies have emerged trying to get their share from the cruise market explosion. With all the cruise ships currently under construction the number of cruise ship jobs worldwide is expected to triple by the year 2009 meaning over 47,000 new cruise ship jobs. New cruise ships are still coming online at the average rate of seven per year, and almost every ship sets sail near full capacity week after week. Close to a million more cruises are taken every year than the one before, and every year ships get bigger and better.

A cruise ship is divided into several departments and shipboard employees are typically split between these departments. By viewing each department below you will find full job descriptions of all available cruise positions for that particular department. For each position onboard there is a description, job requirements, details of the duties you would perform, employment information and a guide-line to the typical wage you would earn for that position on a cruise ship.

Cruise lines hire staff all year round and are looking for highly motivated, upbeat, outgoing, friendly and professional employees with a positive attitude and strong commitment to customer service excellence. Contract duration tends to vary between 3 and 9 months and in most instances you have the choice to extend your contract. It is not hard to qualify for a cruise line job and it is likely that any background you have in hospitality, or any job where customer service, and working with customers or clients was involved will be enough proficiency for cruise line employment.