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Cruise Ship Blues
The Underside of the Cruise Industry
By Ross A. Klein

Cruising is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Attracting over 12 million passengers a year, cruise ship companies are merging to become behemoths. And cruise ships themselves have swollen dramatically in size, now sometimes carrying over 5,000 people on board. Not surprisingly, this growth is causing huge problems -- problems that the industry would rather not acknowledge, and the potential cruiser would have a hard time discovering.

Cruise Ship Blues reveals the dark under side of this industry. Author Ross Klein first examines the contrast between passenger expectations of luxury and romance fostered by rosy advertising, and the seedier reality of meals, accommodations and facilities on board. He then:

- explodes the myth of the cruise as an all-inclusive vacation, demonstrating that the industry's expectation is to generate an additional 0+ per day per person;
- examines cruise ship safety, ringing the alarm about accidents at sea, passenger security (including the incidence of sexual assault), on-board illnesses, and medical services;
- juxtaposes the industry's environmentally friendly image against its actual behavior and the difficulties of effective regulation;
- exposes the workers' experience in these "sweatshops at sea;" and finally
- contrasts the industry's consumer-friendly façade with its attitude that "everything would run smoothly if it were not for the passengers."

Concluding with a discussion of what can be done to make the cruise business socially and environmentally accountable, Cruise Ship Blues offers a harsh critique as well as a call to political action. It will appeal both to those considering a cruise vacation, as well as to activists and students.

Since 1992, Ross Klein has taken more than 30 cruises in all parts of the world, comprising over 300 days. An Associate Professor of Social Work at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, he has written widely on the cruise industry.

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...Pulling into Cozumel, on one of my earliest cruises, one of the officers said: “You see that ship over there? The last time we were in the harbour, they took seven bodies off the ship.” He explained that the crew’s dining room had run out of rice and a food riot had erupted. People had died. That’s a whole different perspective from what you read about.

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Anybody know more details about the food riot on a cruise ship in Cozumel that left seven crew dead?

Hmmm....

I'm afraid the credentials of the author automatically put him way down my list of credibility. You note how he likes saying they sat at the Captain's table etc. and his complaints strike me as being self induced.

As someone said a lot of his stuff is dated and quoted from biased sources.

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Originally posted by Grant:
[QB . We should count ourselves fortunate, and be glad that we are able to better the lives of those less fortunate by spending our disposable income on cruise ship vacations. I always leave a ship happy knowing that my fare and my tips have helped others less fortuate than myself.[/QB]

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Originally posted by koch:
...what nobody considers is that these people spend 25 % of their sallary for phone calls in order to stay in touch with their families ...

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I can never believe that the cruise lines do not give their crew free or at least discounted phone calls, which they can make onboard.

The sight of crew members gathered around every phone box, at every dockside, presents a rather bad image for the line, in my opinion.

The book: Firstly, Ive not read the book, but I am still going to have my say, even though Im in danger of sounding like a radical Marxist!

Most (all?) business contains an element of exploitation. All business wants to maximise profit by keeping all their overheads as low as possible, such as wages. Much of the travel business and many other service industries give staff low wages and poor working conditions, while we pay high fares, by comparison.

It is good that the darker side of cruising is exposed from time to time, but it is hard to imagine that it will ever be eradicated.

Without getting too political, I favour the British legislation of a legal minimum wage. When it was introduced lots of small bvusinesses said it would break them - yet, it did'nt. It is hardly set at a generious level.

However, a minimum wageis of course is unlikely to apply at sea, under current laws. I also think the Tipping philosophy allows cruise lines to keep wages low.

I can see that Ive opened up a whole tin of worms, now!

[ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:

I can never believe that the cruise lines do not give their crew free or at least discounted phone calls, which they can make onboard.

The sight of crew members gathered around every phone box, at every dockside, presents a rather bad image for the line, in my opinion.

[ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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We all work, passengers do have a job otherwise they don't have money to cruise don’t they? When I spend money on a cruise I don’t really want to hear about problems, I want to relax and have fun. This is my vacation and I expect to be served well as well as I serve my clients back home. There are sometimes bad passengers but there are also sometimes bad crew members with bad attitude towards passengers.
There are also very nice passengers who make friends with the crew.
I think that the crew members welfare is not dependent solely on the passengers. Passengers come and go. If a crew member has a really bad passenger he will eventually get rid of him after a week or two. The real problem is to be stuck with a bad boss such as the employees' supervisor because he doesn't leave at the end of the cruise.

Sam

[ 01-31-2003: Message edited by: sam ]

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:

...Without getting too political, I favour the British legislation of a legal minimum wage. When it was introduced lots of small bvusinesses said it would break them - yet, it did'nt. It is hardly set at a generious level.

However, a minimum wageis of course is unlikely to apply at sea, under current laws. I also think the Tipping philosophy allows cruise lines to keep wages low.

[ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by KansasK:
Minimum wage in the United States is set by the federal government, not the states. It is set at $5.15 per hour, which, in any case, is working for peanuts.

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Our cabin steward had crossed over to the ship from Holland America Cruises. He claimed that he had a better deal with the new ship and liked the way the passengers treated him. Thats as far as he would go.

Most crew members use cellphones to call home. I took our busboys ashore at his request to get it reloaded.

I have recently given my notice to my present employer (of 4 years) due in part to the fact that giving them 10 months notice for time off I was requesting to go on my cruise was seemingly not enough and they were not going to allow me the time off. Right now (until Feb. 14th) I work in the video rental business. I am an assistant store manager with a major video chain. I won't say which one but (coughflockclustercough) it has to be the WORST working experience of my entire life. Bar none. And I have done just about everything. Telemarketing, food service (both fast food and sit down restaurant), grocery store, drug store, convenience store. And I have never in my entire life waited on a ruder, meaner, and generally nastier group of human beings than the one's who rent videos.

I have had my nametag ripped off my shirt, been verbally (and physically)abused, been accused of theft (because they had a late fee, I must have surely taken the movie home with me because they know they returned it on time), and in general treated very badly. I get that one customer who I know, and who knows me, who I can talk to, chat with, laugh with, and have fun for the 5 minutes or so they are in the store, and it will just make my day. However, on the flipside of that, I can turn around to see a particularly nasty customer just pull up in the parkinglot and my day is shot. Perhaps the next couple of days.

I now go out of my way to make sure that when I am the customer, I treat that employee better than I would hope to be treated. I never want to be the customer who, when the employees see you coming, run for the back and whoever's the pokey one gets stuck with the sale. I realize that it's me who's spending the money, and it's me who's on the vacation, and it's them who are supposed to "serve" me. But I also realize that it only takes just a smile, just a little patience and understanding to realize that maybe, just maybe, the last person they "served" before me was the one that they got stuck with because everyone else headed for the back.

So, short of the wait staff coming to my table, dumping my food in my lap, then laughing and pointing at me while informing me that I have to wash the late sitting's dishes, there will be no way that they will get anything less than a couple of dollars over the "suggested" tipping amount.

And as far as how the employers treat them, and their subsequent good or bad attitudes because of that, well, IMHO the staff have no more control over that than the cruise line does over the fact that the weather for the entire length of the trip was hurricane winds and rain.