The Very Best Time to Apply for a Cruise Ship Job!
Believe it or not, there are certain times of the year when you actually have a better chance of getting a job on a cruise ship. But before I tell you when those times are, let me let you into another, perhaps more important little secret:
There is NEVER a ‘perfect’ time to apply for a cruise ship job!
What? Am I contradicting myself?!
Not really. You see, cruise liners operate all year round. That’s 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. And they recruit staff all year round too. So for this reason you can see that ANY time of the year is a good time to apply. So the most important thing is to…
JUST GET STARTED!
You see, if you wait around for the ‘perfect time’ it will never arrive. This is called procrastination and is the death of dream jobs! So start right now – even if you’re not quite ready to go at this moment, you can at least begin the simple application process while at the same time getting a good ‘feel’ for the industry.
At least then when you are ready to ‘up and go’ you’ll have done all the hard work and then getting a cruise ship job at the right time will be a snap!
Just please do me a favor and don’t make any excuses about the time ‘not being quite right’. I’ve heard it all before from friends and colleagues who wanted to do it so badly… but then always had a much better excuse for NOT doing it!
Right let’s get back to our main discussion; the very best times of the year to apply for a cruise ship job that can almost double your chances of success…
The “Christmas Period”
The months leading up to Christmas and the weeks following it is the best period of the year to start applying for cruise ship jobs.
Why?
For three main reasons:
It’s an extremely busy time of year. Most ships are fully booked out during the winter months and they absolutely must ensure that they are fully staffed in all departments to cope with passenger demand.
Many experienced crewmembers sign-off just before Christmas to spend time at home with their family and friends during the festive period. In fact many crew actually time their contracts to end right before Christmas!
The ‘world cruises’ begin in January through to the end of March. Again, for this reason it’s very important for the ships to be fully staffed and prepared for this change in itinerary. Best of all, this also gives you a very good chance of getting on a world cruise on your first ship!
Imagine visiting the Caribbean, Europe, the US, Australia, the Far East and maybe even the Artic — in one fell swoop!
Get on a world cruise and you could easily achieve this.
For these three reasons alone, a great time to start applying is from September onwards. But keep in mind our previous comments. If you’re reading this in January then don’t sit around waiting for Christmas to come!
Start applying right now.
The “Summer Season”
The second best time to apply are the months before the peak summer season (May to July). Not quite as many crew sign-off for the summer as they do for Christmas, but the ships are often fully booked out and hence must be fully staffed.
And once you’ve worked on a cruise ship experiencing glorious weather for the majority of your contract you tend to get a bit of a phobia for the cold and dread going home in the winter months.
It’s much better to arrive home during the mid-summer months when you can show off your nice golden suntan and be in the weather that you’ve become accustomed to!
This is what many crew members do and this is what you can take advantage of by ensuring that your application is timed to arrive around the end of spring.
Let me just repeat this again: the most important piece of information I want you to take away from this lesson is that cruise line companies operate and hire staff all year round – from January 1st to December 31st.
Sure, there are certain periods of the year when they tend to hire more people more often – and yes, I want you to take advantage of these two periods that we have discussed – but I also want you to just get started safe in the knowledge that there is always a constant stream of new people being hired on cruise ships, week in, week out.
In other words, don’t wait for the time to be right!