Royal Caribbean guitarist shares insider tips on crew life

Working on a cruise ship sounds like an adventure.

You get to visit the world, experience different cultures and make friends with people you would never have met otherwise.

The downside, of course, is that you have to leave your home and family for anywhere from 4-8 months. The crew members are literally leaving their lives, family and friends behind. For some, this can mean missing out on important milestones and even missing out on a large part of your child or children’s lives.

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There are plenty of positives to life at sea, but YouTube star and Royal Caribbean lead guitarist Bryan James believes people should fully know what they’re getting into before signing up.

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Life as a cruise ship crew member is not easy

“I want to tell you that if you were thinking about working on a ship, I would
it says you have to really think about what you want to do on the ship and why you’re doing it if you’re here to make money, you just realize a lot of jobs on ships aren’t crazy money,” he said.

As a musician, James works about four hours a day and has one day off. He also has practices, meetings, and other mandatory events that aren’t always conducive to his late work schedule (usually finishing after 1 a.m.).

A crew member, such as a bartender, room manager, or waiter, might work 10 hours a day or more and not get a regular day off.

Money, of course, is relative.

“Now they’re good in the sense that you don’t pay for the food you make
“You don’t pay for accommodation, you don’t pay for things like that, so if you’re really good at saving, make sure you can put away a thousand or two thousand dollars a month, depending on your job,” said he.

But that assumes you don’t spend much of what you do.

“If you really want to get out to these ports and see the sites, that
visit there money can disappear very quickly,” he added.

There are also hidden costs that many people don’t think about.

“Another place where it can disappear quickly is just the internet connection, every crew member has to pay for the internet and it’s more expensive, so if you’re not careful and you like, let’s say you like scrolling on TikTok, you like getting into bed. at the end of the day and it scrolls for 20 minutes and 30 minutes, maybe in the morning you do the same thing, that’s an hour right there, if you did that every day for a month, that’s over a hundred dollars in just one scroll very easy just to pass the time,” he shared.

“So guys, if you want to use it to upload videos like me, be prepared to spend a lot of money,” he added.

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James works in the pub on Royal Caribbean ships.

Image source: Royal Caribbean

Cruise ship life can be lonely

“Honestly socially, it’s like a really great life being on ships, it’s really possible to make a lot of friends and have all these experiences, but it’s also incredibly possible not to you make friends, because if you’re not a super extroverted person, it’s just, yeah, it’s a struggle for me, I’m not a super extroverted person,” James explained.

Royal Caribbean ships have a crew bar where drinks are sold at very discounted prices. This is a kind of social center for the crew in their spare time.

“When I go to the crew bar, I sit there in the corner, nervous and hopeful
someone is talking to me When I got on the ship it took me 50 days to make a friend 50 days I’m pretty much sitting in this room staring at the wall which is crazy to think I’ve done that” , he added.

James is trying something new.

“I’m going on another ship very soon, which will be totally different, it will be a very small cabin, just like the one I described, which is about the width of a bed, I’m doing it because I’m going to be there with friends me and a band,” he said.

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Being in a band, instead of being solo, means some sacrifices.

I decided that while I do a lot more here and the benefits of having my own cabin are great, you just can’t replace friends,” added James.

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