[sbarre]

The article talks about the fact that the company did all they could for guests, but for staff, not so much..

Is that a COVID thing or is that par for the course with cruise ship companies?

I had an uncle who worked for years painting cruise ships (back in the 80s/90s mind you), and he had all kinds of stories about how the blue-collar staff on cruise ships were treated like shit, both by the company and by "management" on the ship itself.

To be honest I'm not sure I believed half his stories even as a kid, but I had no one else to ask. =)

[AHASIC]

Let me guess, your uncle is South American? 3rd world country?

Most of the blue collar workers are indeed treated almost slave-like tbh, I mean you are free to leave, but you will pay your own ticket and stay at the hotel and you will be escorted by a literal bodyguard the whole time to ensure you won't stay in the U.S.

If you obey management and don't get to anyone's bad side, you are allowed to stay and the staying part is actually the shitty one. Almost all of them have no choice though, so they have to sacrifice their mental and physical health, as well as their pride.

I was personally technically an officer on the ship so we get a bit better treatment, such as a housekeeper and we have our uniforms cleaned and ironed. Still, the hours even for us happened to be hell, sometimes on the embarkation days (when guests board the ship) it would go up to 13-14 hours.

The blue collar workers, especially in housekeeping normally worked around that 12 hours a day mark, regularly, for 7-9 months onboard.

The article mentions 8-10 hours, but that is an exception, not a norm.

All in all, CCL likes to aim for a 10/10 treatment for the guests and I guess they consistently hit 8/10 with their core customers. Crew however, a solid 3/10 max.

[sbarre]

> Let me guess, your uncle is South American? 3rd world country?

No he's a white guy from Canada but he lived in Argentina for years.. and he was often, according to him, the only white guy on the paint crew. So you're basically correct..

They painted the engine rooms, and even the outside of the boat, during the actual cruises.. He told me once a story about doing the work "in international waters" so they could avoid taxes or something but that always seemed fishy (no pun intended).

He wasn't exactly an accountant so I suspect perhaps he thought that was true?

[AHASIC]

No, he was right. Cruise lines use the international waters to do shit like casino riggings, involuntary and shady gratuities practices and a bunch of other things.