I have done a few courses with foreign cruise ship deck officers in the Florida carribean stuff.
All said the Captains were Americans and assume well paid, all other deck crew foreign and paid very low, Captains all said no future here you need to go elsewhere.
There’s some good, not dated evidence to suggest that a college degree does increase your earning potential over the course of your lifetime. So if you did ever want to return to a shoreside role, the maritime degree probably won’t hurt. Maritime academies do offer good roi, assuming you graduate at the right time and sail on your license. Your two year degree might get you some credits at the academies as well, thus shortening your tenure and cost. If I had to spend two years at MITAGS or three at an academy, I’d take the academy all day…
I think you misunderstood me. I am not advocating for the academies here. It’s only you who decides.
For shipboard jobs? None.
For office jobs? The degree would likely help quite a bit.
In general, learning the same amount of material over a longer time frame results in better long term retention.
Non-mariner friends have asked me why I didn’t want to work on a cruise ship and I would tell them: “…because the cargo talks back and complains!”
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I did a 3 month contract on a cruise ship, one of the major ones. From an engineer’s point of view it was interesting but I wouldn’t do it again. At the time they gave officers $100/week for spending money to fraternize with the guests at the bar but you had to wear your whites. Not worth it after a long day.
Didn’t misunderstand, just weighing all options to make the best-informed decision.
Those days are longggggggggggggggggg gone. Just like everything else, the boomers had all the fun, and pulled up the ladder behind them.
So there is some sort of differentiation between pay due to differing nationalities on cruise ships? It exists elsewhere too.
Cruise ship is a lifestyle choice. And it can be very appealing, especially if single and want to party OR have the other half working on board with the same schedule AND one of the two is high enough up to score a nice stateroom with a balcony.
With that said, if I were starting out right now, I’d probably try to make my way into non-cruise ship jobs, because the cruise industry is likely about to implode.
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Cruise lines are built different, if they survived the pandemic, they’re not going to implode any time soon. They weathered the storm just fine in 2008 “poop cruise from hell” and all. They were forecasted to have record demand in late 2019 before the wheels fell off, and I think that demand is still there for folks who can afford it. Avid cruisers are on par with Disney adults in my opinion. While we see things from the back end, and think “why would anyone do this” its a very economical and easy way to travel and see different parts of the world.
No “boomer” pulled up the ladder behind them. It was the companies that adopted the shareholder first ideology which in reality means the CEO first as their bonuses and compensation are based on share price.This began during the late 1980’s and has resulted in the general decline of workers pay and benefits since then. Wages adjusted for inflation have gone down since the idea of shareholder first promulgated. No working “boomer” made the decision to cut pay, increase the work load for the same money. Quite to the contrary, many said fuck this, retired and left things to the younger generation to fight. Remains to be seen how much fight they have in them.
I wasn’t referring to pay, I was referring to fun.
Look at their financials. Issue massive debt/shares to make it through the pandemic. Likely there will be massive overcapacity of expensive financed ships. I heard once that a ship needs to be 80-90% capacity just to break even.
BS. It depends on the cabin choice. Also, the cruise lines make a LOT of money booking shore excursions. When I was working with them I was surprised to find shore excursions returned more revenue than the casinos. These cruise lines have some creative accountants but they did lose during Covid. They are quickly getting back to over a billion dollars a year in net income. They were making over one BILLION a year in net profit when they increased workload and cut benefits. I never worked with Carnival…bottom feeders.
Some of us, years ago, called passengers on freighters “squawk cargo”.
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What’s wonderful about this debate is that it will be solved in 12-24 months…
I went to workboat academy back in 2012, as I had already a degree in biology. It was worth it and MITAGS is a great school.
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Hi - my name is Mark and I am from MITAGS. Our MAP program is USCG and IMO STCW compliant, but usually focused towards specific companies who may sponsor / part sponsor some of the training. Depending on your current sea time, our AB to Mate program is also a way of advancing licenses.
Those graduating from Academies, besides a degree, do not always have the full IMO STCW Unlimited endorsed credentials. MITAGS provides training to upgrade those licenses.
But not every officer needs a degree. Vocational training, and license advancement are very valid entry ways into the industry. For example, qualifying as an AB, gaining the requisite sea time and then completing an AB to Mate program before tackling the USCG Licensing Exams are well tested routes!
Really? How many do you know personally?
What is it that they don’t have?
As impugned by @Capt_Phoenix and @jdcavo , your statement is misinformed. I know of no (unlimited) license track program from any of the Academies that does not include all STCW requirements in addition to the national license.
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