I recently had dinner with a cousin I hadn’t seen in years and as we were catching up on our lives, she asked me what I’d learned from working on cruise ships. I was a little taken aback, especially since my cruise ship days ended more than five years ago, but as a I reflected on it, I was surprised by what stood out.

For the most part, I loved working at sea. By the end, I was totally burnt out on it, but overall, I wouldn’t trade those years of my life for anything. A lot of lessons I learned there have made me who I am today, both personally and professionally. 

I’m Only as Good as My Team

The only reason I was as successful as I was at my job on the ship was because most of the people who worked for me over the years were incredible. However, the most important group of people who were incredible were the first few technicians I worked with. All of them were terrific at their specific jobs, so I never had to worry about that while I was figuring out how to do mine. They were patient and endlessly helpful, especially my first two Riggers. The very first one was pretty much the person who took the time to explain my job to me, since I didn’t have much training when I joined the ship. The second one took the time to explain his job to me, since it was the position I understood the least that I was trying to oversee.

Good technicians meant easy contracts. Less skilled technicians meant I was going to spend the months putting out a lot of fires. Surround yourself with the right people whenever you can and management gets a lot easier.

The Rule of Three

It usually took me three tries to master something. The first time I would try to do something new – a new schedule, a new event, a cast changeover, a cast chat, ordering supplies, you name it – I would bumble through it in a state of terror and, thank goodness, somehow get it done.

The second time, I would be real irritated there just wasn’t some kind of handbook or something with a list of steps on how to do something in existence. So I would write down everything I did to get the results I got for whatever I was doing.

The third time I did something, I would follow my step by step instructions from the last time and see if I could streamline them better, add any helpful hints to the instructions, etc.

By the third time, whatever the thing was would usually wind up going well – whether it was just something small like ordering printer ink (which was the incident that was the catalyst for me starting to write down all the steps on how to do everything I did at work – it really shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was) to something really complicated like a cast changeover or charter cruise.

You usually can’t master something overnight, at least, I usually can’t, so when I get really frustrated about how something is going, I try to remind myself that I probably haven’t done it at least three times yet, so just keep moving.

I’m Tougher Than I Thought

Along the lines of just keep moving, cruise ships taught me that I need less sleep and less days off and less freedom than I ever would’ve guessed and I can still be pretty ok.

Cruise ships teach you how to work hard. Don’t get me wrong, I spent a lot of days on the beach and exploring cities in Europe and eating crab in Alaska, but I also spent three week stretches of time working 10-16 hours a day and never getting off the ship because so much stuff kept breaking or because there was a cast changeover into a partial charter while we had to inventory every piece of lighting equipment onboard on deadline or some other nonsense like that. I’ve been so exhausted I could barely remember my name and still run a show at 3 AM during a cast changeover rehearsal before having to get up at 8 AM to go to a safety committee meeting because the officers don’t care it’s cast changeover and I will have to explain that there are X number of accident reports in the theater again this month because old people will keep falling down the stairs on a moving ship with strangely spaced stairs. And I will have to be polite while I do it.

So cruise ships taught me a lot about patience and the importance of keeping your temper in check under all conditions too.

Different Cultures Are Really Cool & Incredibly Frustrating

One of the best perks about cruise ships was working with people from all over the world. One of the most frustrating things about cruise ships was working with people from all over the world.

Working with a bunch of Filipino’s pushed me to learn a lot of Tagalog, which was pretty cool. They’re also about the nicest people you will ever meet. Working with a bunch of Filipino’s also meant that a bunch of men would just touch me all the time, which was not cool at all. I don’t mean in wildly inappropriate ways or anything – they’re just people who touch you as you’re having a conversation – but I really hated it. Not because I hated any of them, I really, really liked all of my Filipino co-workers, but because it was really not my culture to touch much.

Then you had the pretty abrupt and surprisingly crude Dutch. The hot headed South Africans. The cold Slavic folks over in the casino. The British girls in the spa who would natter on about incredibly vapid topics. There were tons of stereotypes but there was definitely a reason they existed.

On the flip side though, the Dutch could be hilarious. My favorite South African watched over me like a little sister whenever we were in the bar together. The casino people were always full of crazy stories. The spa girls were usually kind of nice.

I learned you could learn something from almost everyone. And that ensaimada is delicious.

The Stars in the Middle of the Ocean Are Beautiful

I spent about five years at sea and could tell stories for hours about life out there, but the very first thing I think about whenever people ask me about ships is how beautiful the stars are in the middle of the ocean, when you’re days from land in all directions.

I have trouble believing I’ll ever see anything more beautiful.

This reminds me that what matters most in life usually requires slowing down a little and paying attention.

It also reminds me that you never know where you’ll find the moments that really matter.

What are some lessons you’ve learned from your jobs?