00:00I worked on the ships for five years,
00:01and I have never heard of anyone being in ship jail.
00:03So I was promptly taken to ship jail.
00:06My name is Jake.
00:07I worked on a cruise ship for four years.
00:08Five years.
00:09Eight years.
00:10There are a lot of stories.
00:12We are on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
00:16There are safety rules that you must adhere to.
00:19Nothing goes overboard.
00:21Not a banana peel, not a lampshade,
00:24not an item of clothing.
00:26Please keep everything inside the ship at all times.
00:29The captain is like the president on a ship.
00:31Whatever the captain says goes.
00:33If you don't follow the rules,
00:34you will find yourself in ship jail.
00:36And yes, there are ship jails.
00:38I have been to one myself.
00:40There's no climbing on the balcony.
00:42There's no diving into the pool.
00:44People have thrown their sun chairs overboard,
00:46fighting over that.
00:47It actually sets sensors off on the ship when things go overboard,
00:50because if it were a person, they'd want to know.
00:52So it's a really big deal to not throw anything overboard.
00:55Any form of paraphernalia is definitely like you're out.
00:58Don't do anything that you wouldn't do at like your local bar.
01:01People who get in fist fights, I've seen that,
01:03like get drunk and fight with other guests.
01:05That'll definitely get you in trouble.
01:07And also follow the safety rules.
01:08We are here to help you.
01:10We're here to make your experience seamless and fun.
01:14If you are a threat to someone and a threat to yourself,
01:17you will get kicked off this ship.
01:19The worst thing that could happen to any guest is,
01:22you get into actual jail in a foreign country.
01:26We had a fight in Mexico and 15 passengers had to get kicked off the ship and left in Mexico.
01:32I don't know if y'all know anything about the Mexican police, but they do not play.
01:35And they escorted these 15 guests to a Mexican jail in the middle of a cruise.
01:41I'm not trying to end up like that.
01:42I don't want a child to end up like that.
01:44So don't do any misbehaving in the foreign ports.
01:50There's a lot of stuff I could share about crew life on board.
01:53It's quite an experience.
01:55It's awesome because you meet people from all over the world.
01:57There's a crazy party culture on board.
02:00You've never seen a love triangle until you've worked on ships.
02:03Everyone is sleeping with everyone.
02:05Not to mention, everyone has a spouse at home.
02:09I'm here, but my wife is back in the Philippines,
02:11and I got a girlfriend who's a waiter in this restaurant,
02:15but also I got a girlfriend who's a housekeeper.
02:17It's a mess.
02:19It is basically hedonism on a floating hotel.
02:22From what I've learned, a lot of captains spend, you know,
02:25months and months at sea on these contracts.
02:27And so a lot of times, captains will have families back home,
02:30and then they have secret shipwives.
02:32One of the women in our cast was a sort of certified shipwife.
02:36She never stayed in her cabin.
02:38She was always in the captain's cabin.
02:39She had a pet bird, a pet parrot that she would bring on,
02:43and the captain loved to have that parrot on his shoulder,
02:45walking around, being like, you know, look at me with my parrot.
02:49We have our own bar.
02:50It's called the crew bar.
02:51So the drinks are very cheap, and it's private.
02:54Like, no guests can come in, and we can let our hair down.
02:57We can have a good time.
02:58We still have some rules.
02:59We can't get too turnt.
03:01Now, when we get off the ship when we're in port,
03:03we go to certain bars that are just for crew members
03:05that the guests and the tourists don't know about.
03:08We go to restaurants.
03:09We go to hotels with balconies and suites.
03:13We go to strip clubs, and the crew members are just
03:16letting their hair down and have a good time.
03:18I may or may not have been on stage at a strip club once in my life.
03:21I can't confirm or deny.
03:23Passengers have definitely tried to infiltrate crew night.
03:25They have tried to sneak in the parties and have a fun time.
03:27However, it's like very big no-no and an extreme fireable offense to like mix and mingle
03:33in a sexual way or a flirtatious way with a guest.
03:36When it comes to guests flirting, it's fun to flirt with the guests,
03:39but definitely don't go further unless you want to get fired or kicked off at the next port.
03:44One thing about cruise life and working on a ship is everyone knows everything.
03:49If you want to get away with something, don't work on a cruise ship.
03:53Because you're on the water, you have the risk of running into
03:56some tropical storms.
03:58Once when we were in Catalina, we couldn't dock because the tide was too high,
04:03and the guests were miserable, and everyone was seasick, and there was vomit everywhere.
04:07So guess who had to keep these people entertained?
04:10Me.
04:10Everybody's looking green and purple, and no one is having a good time,
04:14and I'm trying to keep the mood light.
04:16And I'm like, hey guys, electric slide.
04:18And no one was going for it.
04:21Yeah.
04:2230 feet, high waves.
04:24The ship was slanted for a few hours, and it was super, super scary.
04:30We had to close the top decks because the ceiling caved in.
04:34Tables and chairs were knocked down.
04:36We were sailing in New Zealand, and you have amazing tours.
04:39One of them was to visit the third most active volcano in the world.
04:43They're called the White Island.
04:44I was in a meeting.
04:44I remember that excursions manager got a call saying the volcano erupted.
04:48And then, yeah, fortunately, we had a tour exactly on top of the volcano.
04:53I would say 70% of the members, they never get back.
04:55As a manager, to keep the energy to the rest of the cruise until you go back to Sydney,
05:00to Australia, we still have like five days left.
05:03That was the hardest, I would say, five days of my life.
05:06When an emergency happens, I'd say know your muster station.
05:10Every guest has an area of the ship where they're called to if there is an emergency.
05:15So when boarding a ship, know exactly where you're going, know who to talk to,
05:20and look out for where to go to, and don't panic.
05:23Every crew member is trained in emergency duties.
05:27You have to go to this training before you become a crew member.
05:30There's a ton of exercise and stuff to learn exactly what to do in an emergency.
05:34We have a weekly drill.
05:35So even we've had these really rough sea incidents where the whole ship is like this
05:39and you're holding on to the guardrails.
05:40Like it's fine. We're used to it.
05:45So as part of my role on board, I looked after like food and beverage entertainment
05:48and I would host a dinner.
05:51So I invite 12 sailors.
05:53It could be couples, groups, solos, whoever, and I always like a nice mix.
05:57I invited two solo sailors that I low-key thought would actually get along.
06:02And I sat them next to each other because I totally orchestrated the whole thing.
06:05And they got chatting, right?
06:07And they seemed to get along really, really well.
06:10And then two years later, they came on board back together and they said,
06:14we're now dating since you invited us to your foodie table.
06:19And now they're together.
06:21So I can add that to my CV now.
06:23So we had this family that was cruising together.
06:26Okay.
06:27And this guy was married to this sister.
06:30Well, this guy was having an affair with the other sister
06:33and it all came out on Lido Deck at the buffet.
06:35So then they took the fight from the Lido Deck to the casino.
06:39And then they were fighting on the promenade all in front of the casino on the Lido Deck.
06:43Do not bring your family drama on board the ship.
06:46The craziest thing I've witnessed someone try to take on a ship was in Hawaii.
06:51A woman tried to bring on a live chicken.
06:53When we were in port, the ships docked and then there's like a long line.
06:57And in the line, one of the officers heard clucking.
07:01And we were like, oh, one of the chickens, you know, got into the port terminal.
07:06And long story short, she had a live chicken wrapped in one of the towels from the ship
07:11that she was trying to bring on board.
07:13I'm assuming she was intoxicated, but her business, not mine.
07:17Crazy thing.
07:17Sometimes one day in the morning, like 6 a.m., I was opening the rock climbing wall.
07:21I looked to the top.
07:21There were two guys at the top with no ropes, just doing free climbing,
07:25like under the influence of the alcohol.
07:26I have a great story about a broken rule in which a really heavily intoxicated man
07:32decided to climb up on like the edge of the ship to do the little Titanic pose.
07:37Yeah, he very easily could have gone overboard.
07:40Thank God he didn't.
07:41But he got in big trouble.
07:42He was disembarked the next day.
07:43Eep.
07:46Wash your hands all the time.
07:49Wash your hands as much as you can.
07:50When you're seeing these funny dances, when you go to like the mess or something,
07:53and they're saying like the washi-washy, actually washi-washy.
07:56It's not just for fun.
07:57You need to really scrub your hands.
07:59And when you see like the hand sanitizers throughout the ship, use them.
08:02They're not just for decoration, especially if there's a lot of kids on your ship or something.
08:06You don't want to be throwing up.
08:07It's awful.
08:08The number one tip I have for cruisers is tip your servers and your housekeepers.
08:13A lot of people want to refund the automatic gratuity.
08:18That takes food out of their mouth, their children's mouth.
08:21They're trying to send money back home.
08:23And you think you're doing a good thing because you're going to pay them in cash,
08:27but you're actually paying less than what the automatic gratuity is every time you do that.
08:32And it just affects the morale of the whole ship.
08:35You should just really speak to the crew in a kind way at the reception desk,
08:39the concierge.
08:39When you get there, they're more than willing to help out if they can.
08:42A lot of them are on that ship for months at a time and they want to brighten people's day.
08:46So as long as you approach it in a kind way, you're going to catch more bees with honey.
08:51If you're going on a cruise ship, know that anything can happen.
08:55If your excursion gets canceled and you have to stay on the ship,
08:58know that that's your day to go take that cooking class.
09:01That's your day to make a new friend by the pool.
09:03You're at the will of the elements, right?
09:07If a storm comes in and you can't go in, you're not going to waste your whole day sitting in
09:11your room
09:11because I didn't get to go into port.
09:13So go out and find the thing to do.
09:15Enjoy your day.
09:15You paid for it.
09:16You paid for it.
09:17You paid for it.
09:17You paid for it.
09:17You paid for it.
