6 Business Lessons I Learned Working (…7 Days a Week) on Cruise Ships
It’s been over 10 years since I worked on cruise ships. Would I do it again? Probably not…
But looking back, there were a few “lightbulb moments” that I still think about today. And they helped me out big time when I started my freelance copywriting business in 2016.
Spoiler alert: these aren’t profound lessons. Heck, maybe they’re less than that – maybe just common sense.
They’ve been said many times before by people much smarter and wiser than I is (I wrote it like that on purpose, relax). They might even be a bit cringe. Maybe I’ll wake up at 2 am one morning and delete this post.
Oh well. I better post this now before I talk myself out of it.
1. It’s all about the customers, not you
My first day at sea was a disaster.
In my head, working on a cruise ship was going to be a constant feel-good adventure – like one 6-month-long Instagram reel filled with nothing but #goodtimes.
I’ve never been so wrong about anything in my life.
It was a MESS.
On day one, my contact lens got so dry it scratched my cornea and I had to wear an eye patch for three days.
Fancy that, a new guy on a cruise ship and he turns up wearing an eye patch. The pirate jokes were relentless.
I sulked for days moaning about how awful the food was, how gross our cabins were, how rude people were, and how everything was a million miles away from what I thought it would be. Everything.
…
“YOU’RE AN IDIOT!” That’s all I could think. Why did I think this would be a good idea?
Then, one night I had a chat with an officer in the crew bar. I started moaning and I couldn’t stop. (Misery loves company and all.)
He laughed as he said, “I hear you. But it’s not about you. You’re on a 5-star cruise ship. It’s about the guests.”
Word.
It snapped me out of it. I stopped acting like a diva and focused on what I could control. After all, I was there to work – it wasn’t a holiday.
Things got better fast.
Whenever I feel lost in my business, it’s usually because I’ve been naval-gazing for too long. But…
What do my clients need?
What kind of content could I create that would help people?
How can I leave my next client thinking, “Wow – that’s my copywriter! I’m going to keep working with him!” ?
“It’s all about the guests, not about you.”
(Just swap guests for clients and you’re good.)
2. Keep it at a level that works for you
I was walking around the ship with my colleague one night as we passed the onboard Zumba instructor.
My friend ran up to her and peppered her with questions as she wanted to be a freelance personal trainer after her contract finished.
She fired off question after question while I stood beside her eavesdropping on their conversation. (…hullo.)
The Zumba teacher calmly answered her questions and said, “Relax – just keep it at a level that works for you.”
Being freelance is awesome. I love it. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made – even if it gives me the occasional existential crisis. That’s fine. (I had them long before I went freelance anyway.)
But spending time online, where the noisiest and most successful people are shoved in your face 24/7, it’s natural to start comparing yourself to others.
Plus, other business owners, friends and family may ask you…
“Why don’t you hire a team?”
“Why don’t you start an agency?”
“Why don’t you just go in-house for a while?
“Why don’t you get a ‘normal’ job?”
“Why do you work so much?”
These people mean well: they want you to succeed but sometimes their words aren’t what you need to hear.
So if they’re not helpful, brush it off. Say “We’ll see” or “Maybe” – and keep on your path if it’s working for YOU.
“Keep it at a level that works for you.”
When you ignore your intuition and start doing things that you don’t want to do – burnout comes knocking. I’ve done that once and I’m not doing it again.
3. What you’re looking for is not out there, it’s up here
(“It’s up here“ = your head.)
I was profoundly bored when I chose to work at sea.
My cousin was working on cruise ships at the time and he was posting pictures on Facebook. The envy melted me; it looked incredible.
I romanticised working at sea and thought how could you possibly feel unhappy working on a cruise ship? Getting paid to travel the world and visit beautiful beaches, yes please.
And the first few weeks on those beaches were amazing. I couldn’t believe the life I was living.
But it got old. Fast.
After a few months, I kinda dreaded time off the boat. The first few weeks on beautiful beaches quietened my mind but after a few weeks they had the opposite effect.
I felt like I was running away from life when I should have been running towards it.
They call it “doing a geographical” – thinking that the external will magically change the internal. Well, it didn’t for me – not saying it can’t for you.
“What you’re looking for is not out there, it’s up here.”
You might not need to pack your bags and fly away to find what you’re looking for.
Maybe the things you want in life can be found in many places. Maybe even your hometown.
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.”― Seth Godin
4. People are everything
Turnaround day was a trip. And by that, I mean pure chaos.
From the moment you woke until you went to bed – every second was manic as thousands of passengers and crew offboarded and onboarded.
It was always a stark reminder that people are everything.
Working long days with people that you get on with, great! You couldn’t beat it. It made me want to work on cruise ships for many years to come.
Working long hours with people that you don’t get on with so well, not so great.
Having some drinks in the crew bar with great company, great.
Getting ill and being quarantined away from people for three days with nothing but trash TV to entertain you, not so great.
People are everything.
If your business always feels like a drag, it might be because you’ve isolated yourself or you’re working with the wrong people.
5. It works until it doesn’t
There wasn’t really a plan when I first joined cruise ships.
I didn’t know what I was looking for but I was getting it more days than not. Whatever it was.
Having completed my first contract, I accepted a second contract a few months later.
The itinerary was tediously repetitive for the first few weeks, constantly bouncing back and forth between Puerto Rico and Saint Martin. Both are magical places but you can only do so much there when you have a few hours off work each time you go.
But after we crossed the Atlantic, the itinerary got a lot more exciting with lots of overnight stays in places like St. Petersburg and Helsinki.
Everyone was thrilled about crossing the Atlantic: they were counting the days. Except for me, as I had made plans to quit and get off at Southampton.
It was time to go home.
“WHAT? Why now, Will? We’re about to go to Saint Petersburg! There’s this awesome bar with table dancers and they spray you with beer!” – said every colleague.
While getting my clothes destroyed by a beer cannon sounded tremendous – yet kinda stupid and gross. I was done. Time to go home and try something new.
Everyone thought I was crazy, and so did I at times. But it felt right.
It works until it doesn’t.
Working on cruise ships was an amazing experience, but overnight… I was done with it and had something new on my mind. I wanted to move to London and get into web development — which I did.
Looking back, I’m so glad that I had the guts to leave and go back to ground zero to start something new.
It’s scary going back to ground zero. Nobody wants to do it.
I know that feeling but you’re not really going back to “ground zero” as so many of the things you’ve learned will be applicable to your new mission – whatever it is.
6. You might look back on the hard times with fond memories
Have you ever had a job so bad that minutes felt like hours?
I have. (Quite a few actually.)
But I remember the worst days on cruise ships were something else.
Going to bed at 2 a.m., getting out of bed at 8 a.m., no days off, rough seas, cabin fever – at times you questioned why would any sane person choose to do this.
Yet, as crazy as it sounds – I miss those days. They were so different from my days today. And even when I was tired, anxious, stressed, lonely or whatever I was feeling that day – it was still a crazy chapter of my life that I won’t forget.
Looking back at the early days of “William Lyth | Copywriter”, my old business name, there were some rough times.
But I kinda miss them in a weird way.
You might look back on the hard times with fond memories.
If you enjoyed reading this and want to know more about what it’s like working at sea…
I sat down in 2017 and wrote 3000 words about it: 20 Reasons Why I Loved (and Hated) Working on Cruise Ships.