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| THE CREW OF BELOW DECKS ABOVE DECKS |
Ever since I was very young I always wanted to run away to
sea. I was born in Charleston, S.C.
and love the ocean. I did finally join a cruise ship as a croupier and
everywhere we sailed to, there were yachts. At the Cannes Film festival there
were gorgeous yachts filled with beautiful Europeans. In the Caribbean
the yachts moored in secluded coves too small for cruise ships. I was always
curious what would it be like to be part of the crew on a private yacht.
Now I have my answer. Bravo has recently debuted a reality
show about the crew on a private yacht. In the pilot the show sailed out of Saint
Martin which holds a special place in my heart because my future
husband and I had our first date there. It is a beautiful island divided into a
Dutch side filled with duty-free shops and a French side filled with fantastic restaurants.
We both worked on a cruise ship and the
best part of a cruise ship is that you have much more time off than the crew of
a private yacht. They work with fifteen other crew members we worked with over
six hundred.
In the show the crew is on call twenty-four hours a day. The officers are trained professionals, but most of the
cast is a group of attractive people doing essentially service and maintenance jobs; you won’t
need your college degree here. But since the pay is all in tips and room and
board is included what a great place to save up money to pay off those loans.
The cost of the cruise can run up to $100,000 a week, and the average tip is
between 10 to 15%v of the cost, so tips for each crew member averages around $1,000
a week. That being said some of the guests are very difficult, the chef has to
change his menu on a guest’s whim, and the stewards might have to not only
unpack but iron all the passengers’ clothes. You would think they would go on
vacation to relax but to type ‘A’ personalities making demands and finding
fault are part of a good vacation. Since most people bring their friends it is
also a way to try to impress your mates with your importance. It really does
show how hard the work is and that you have to have nerves of steel, to handle out
of line comments such as ‘how great your tits are’.
Because this is a reality show, the focus is definitely on
bad behavior. I often wonder do these people have parents? On their one day off
a week it is all about getting pissed and hooking up. It was like that on a
cruise ship we even had a crew bar, but we had some time off everyday, so when
we got to port our major focus was sight seeing - and then getting pissed. As
for shipboard romances, I am all for them I met my husband when we both worked
on a cruise ship, and with no commute to work, or bills to pay for rent or
food, it was a wonderful experience, a vacation from the real world. We
computed everything in ships time, a week at sea is like a month on land for a
new romance.
The crew has their issues, Sam hates Adrienne her boss
because she is very demanding. CJ is upset because the captain keeps telling him
to put his shirt back on. I can tell you if Sam was on a cruise ship she would
have been booted of before the week was over for insolence. On a cruise ship an
officer is to be obeyed.
This show will be interesting for anyone who loves to
cruise. The setting is beautiful and there are facts to be gleaned between the
cat-fights. The crew works hard and parties hard, but the work is the main
focus for any crew. I just wish the show was more focused on the mechanics of
the cruise world but alas the show is on Bravo not the Discovery Channel. I
left cruise ships with wonderful memories and a Scottish husband, and thought
not everyone can be that lucky I am sure the crew of Below Decks will cherish
this experience for the rest of their lives.
Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Her novel is really a travelogue, a narrative, a romance, a self-help manual for gambling and cruising, and a real-life story all rolled into one funny, obsessive, and entertaining story of two people whose separate life journeys meet at a crossroads. Kindle Fire Dept. says, "This novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation in a book!" She would be happy to Skype with any book club reading Cruise Quarters. Contact her at ray92262@yahoo.com.
Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships
Click the link to find at
Amazon.com
Click here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany
Click the link to find at Amazon BrazilClick here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany
Click to find at Barnes and Noble
Ray and Cara have also produced the number one guide on walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Desert Woman calls it inspiring.
Click the link to find the DVD Camino de Santiago a Walkers Guide at Amazon
