CMA is still advertising for licensed officers for their 2 upcoming cruises. Anybody have a thoughts on whether this would be a good gig or more of a pain? On the surface it would seem good but what’s the 411 from those that have done this type of cruise?
I don’t know about a CMA cruise, but I did a Schuyler cruise as an officer and it was pretty good. I stood a watch and taught some classes. If you like to teach kids, then it’s a good time. No matter what you do on the ship, you’re probably teaching, whether it be watch or class. Plus, you get some pretty good time off in ports - the Empire State stays in about 4-5 days, and, with the exception of 1 (maybe 2) 8 hour watches in each port, the rest of the time is yours. I’d definitely do it again.
But, the pay is probably crap. Or at least wayyyyyyyyy less than you’re making now for the same time onboard.
Working on the Golden Bear won’t pay well. The 3rd mate we had last year for the second cruise donated his pay check back to the school. But if your looking to have fun, visit a lot of interesting ports in South America (you get 3 days of shore leave in each port), gain good sea time, and give back to the academy then its a great job. Make no mistake dealing with the CMA bureaucracy is a pain but from what our last third mate said, its worth it.
It is basically what Merchant Marine said, low pay, but you get to go cool places. Not to mention you don’t have to deal with any cargo. I graduated from there as an Engineer in 2008 and a couple of the watch officers I had on my senior cruise have returned because they enjoyed it so much. True there is a good deal of bureaucracy involved, but once you get passed that I could see it being a lot of fun. I used to work on the ship as a student worker and the engineer officers that work for CMA used to tell me the stories of when the faculty would go out on the town. It sounded like some crazy times.
Well one thing is you will get to go to places you wont see when working on a merchant ship. Pay is low, but the ports are nice. I have a family and could not afford to work aboard the TSGB, but if I didn’t I would do a cruise just to see. I have a friend who I sailed with who goes back and does the bear cruises and teaches a diesels class as well. He really seems to enjoy it. You get paid more if you teach a class as well
One good cruise ship to work for…NCL Pride of America. MEBA deck and engine. 2/O pay was running about 8K a month with overtime. I did six years there with MEBA in the deck department in one of the non-watch jobs they had. Very good time.