About Cruise Ship Casinos

I had worked in a land based casino for about 3 years before deciding to leave home and work on a cruise ship. At the time, I considered myself a pretty good dealer. I dealt all the normal casino games like Blackjack, Roulette, Poker and Caribbean Stud. I had also gone through about 100 hours of Craps training (all on my own time), but I was still having trouble with the game. Experienced dealers say Craps just comes to you one day and all of a sudden you understand. Now I understand.

Working in a land based casino is a pretty easy job. Generally you have a 7 or 8 hour shift. During that shift, you will work for about 40-45 minutes at a gaming table, then take a 15-20 minute break. Usually most casinos keep their dealers on a 1 hour schedule, So if you worked for 40min you get a 20min break. You break is at the same time every hour. Pretty peachy.

Working on a cruise ship is a different story. The length of your shift really depends on where the ship is for the day. If your in port, the casino opens about 30min after sailing, and stays open until 2 or 3am. If you are at sea for the day, your shift will be a long one, and sometimes the breaks don't come around so fast. On board, the casino has a break list, and is run much more like a real business. Tables are opened and closed on based on how full the casino is. If the place is quite you may get a break every 30min, and during peak times I have stayed at a table for more than 2 hours.

My first few weeks on the ship I felt like a total rookie. Some of the equipment was a little different, and I felt a little out of place. I could feel my supervisor looking over my shoulder a little more than I was used to, and the late night parties, and early morning training was getting to be a little bit too much. Lucky for me, I adapted to the changes (even if it took a little longer than it should have) and after my couple of months I had worked out all the kinks.

Time Of Your Life

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live and work on a cruise ship? Where would you travel to? What kind of job would you have? And most importantly, who would you meet along the way? One of the most common questions cruise ship employees are asked is "Whats it like to live on one of these things?" Imagine it, traveling to exotic places, meeting strange and interesting people in a foreign land.

For about the last 5 years I have been working onboard cruise ships in the casino industry, and I'm here to tell you working on a cruise ship is all of those things and more! A new port every day, a new party every night. If you enjoy the reality show enviroment, this is the place for you. Singers and dancers, musicians, guest entertainers, all mixed in with vacationers young and old, and of cource summer sun and fun year round.

At this point you may be asking "There must be a downside?" and there are. Depending on your position you may have to pay for your own flights, work extremely long hours, live in tiny box, and the food for the staff is not the same as the food for the guests. But I'm not here to tell you about why you shoud stay at home for the rest of your life. I want to share with you my experiences and stories of who I think are some of the most amazing people in the world.

To anyone out there thinking "This could be the job for me." In two short words "Do it.". You never know, you may have the time of your life.