What It is Prefer to Work and Stay on a Cruise Ship

• Alessandro Menegazzi has labored on cruise ships since 1997 and has all the time felt a name to the ocean. 
• He’s now the overall supervisor for the $450 million Regent Seven Seas Explorer.
• Menegazzi shares what it is wish to work and dwell aboard what he calls a “floating five-star resort.”

This as-told-to essay relies on a transcribed dialog with Alessandro Menegazzi, the overall supervisor for the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, about his job at sea. It has been edited for size and readability. 

Certainly one of my first jobs within the resort trade was in Palma de Mallorca — a well-liked vacationer vacation spot in Spain. Working by the waterfront, I’d see these huge cruise ships coming out and in of the port. I used to be transfixed. I bear in mind saying, “Someday I might be engaged on a kind of ships.” 

Now I am the overall supervisor on the $450 million Regent Seven Seas Explorer. 

The primary time I joined a cruise-ship crew was in Los Angeles in Could 1997. It was a brief cruise to Alaska, however the second I stepped on board, I used to be amazed. 

I began as a junior purser in reception answering friends’ queries. Through the years, I labored my method up the profession ladder. I labored on MSC Cruises for 4 years till I grew to become the food-and-beverage director for Regent Seven Seas in 2014. 

I’ve all the time been drawn to the ocean

I left the cruise trade a few occasions for hospitality jobs on land. I labored on the iconic resort Villa D’Este in Lake Como, Italy, however the sea would all the time name me again. In Italy, we name it “iron fever,” as a result of the ship is sort of a magnet.

In December 2021, I used to be promoted to basic supervisor for Regent Seven Seas Explorer. 

On the Explorer, the captain is answerable for crusing, and I’m chargeable for something associated to the resort aspect of the ship, from customer support to meals and beverage. I oversee about 75% of the 550-member crew. 

The Explorer is a floating 5-star resort

Our Regent Suite, the costliest cabin on the ship, is adorned with works by Picasso and a Steinway piano and has an in-suite caviar service. In one among our eating places, we use Versace tableware, and there are greater than 500 crystal chandeliers hanging all through the ship. 

My workplace is within the atrium – the beating coronary heart of the ship – the place the crew welcomes friends on board with a glass of Champagne, and there are sweeping staircases that result in one among our eating places.

The ship makes journeys all all over the world. This yr now we have traveled across the Mediterranean, via Asia, and are actually heading to Australia. From there, it is going to transfer on to Canada. 

I might be crusing with Explorer for the subsequent two years. You may say which components of the world you’d like to work in, however you may by no means select. There are two basic managers on the Explorer, and we alternate. I work three months on board the ship, after which have three months off. 

I go away the ship in Bangkok in January, then I’ll fly residence to Japan to spend time with my household and revel in my three-month break. After I go residence to Tokyo, my spouse and I normally go on trip. She is going to generally be part of me on the ship.

I’ll normally begin my day on the ship at 7 a.m.

I all the time get espresso from the on board café for my breakfast. Then I’ll go to my workplace and test my emails. As our headquarters are in Miami, there might be loads of requests which have are available in in a single day I must motion. 

Nonetheless, my job shouldn’t be 10 hours sitting at a desk. I have to be seen to the friends and crew. I’ll have conferences with the managers and say hey to the friends. 

Within the night, I’ll do a variety of internet hosting with friends, whether or not that is at dinner or for welcome drinks. All of the senior crew members need to host friends. We are going to introduce ourselves after which sit down at a desk and be part of them for dinner. We do not have a captain’s desk as comparable to now we have so many eating places. 

Tomorrow night time, we’ll host a desk within the Prime 7 Steakhouse. I do not have a tendency to complete work till 9 p.m. Even then, I’ll generally go and watch a present within the theater, so I can inform the friends about it. My days are lengthy, however I’d relatively socialize than sit alone in my cabin. Everybody I meet is fascinating.

It isn’t straightforward working aboard a luxurious ship 

To work on one, it is advisable get expertise working in a luxurious resort. You additionally need to be prepared to dwell on a ship, and it isn’t straightforward. Once you work onshore in a resort, you’ve gotten your days off, and once you go away the resort, it is finished. On board a ship, we’re on obligation 24 hours a day. 

After we pull into port, I normally hop off the ship and go for a jog. I will test Google for operating route if I do not know the port. 

I’ve had many superb experiences engaged on board the Regent Seven Seas, like crusing into Rio De Janeiro and seeing the Sugar Mountains and visiting the corporate’s personal island, Harvest Caye in Belize.

I keep in contact with the friends. We just lately had a pleasant couple keep within the Regent Suite. They’re becoming a member of the Explorer in Tokyo in November. I requested them to contact me after they arrive and we’ll most likely have dinner collectively.