– “Dušman”!, Indian co-worker liked to call me, since to them the word Dušman have the same meaning as in my language, “On a cruise ship, there are three stages that you will go through.
After each stage, you’ll get something from the company. It’s called Carnival Gifts to crew.
First comes the stage of the body.
The first month will be difficult for you. You’re not gonna be able to get used to work 13 hours straight.
You will not be able to get used to the fact that for lunch you have only 15 minutes .. also, you’ll find difficult to get up from your bed at 4 or 5 in the morning after you just fell asleep at midnight.
Sleepy, tired, angry, … you’ll be going through hell. But after just a month onboard, your body will get used to all these challenges.
After 45 days onboard, you will sleep 4 hours a day and you’ll be rested. You will not be angry or tired. That means you’ve got a “Carnival organism”.
It’s the first gift from the company.
Then begins the second stage, the stage of the brain.
You’ll spent a lot of time thinking in that second month. “Is it worth staying?” “Would it be better if I get of the ship illegally in the harbor and stay in America?” “Is all this worth the money I make?”
Thinking about all this, you’ll get a headache. As an additional problem, your bosses will jump up and down that little bit of brain you have left.
You’ll get brain frenzy times during the day. After four months, you’ll realize that you do not think anymore. You’ll see that nothing leads you to thinking anymore. That is a clear sign of getting the “Carnival brain”.
Then there’s the last stage. “Carnival soul”.
After six months, you’ll get into a routine and you’ll be able to work wherever they tell you. You’ll know all the tricks and all the secrets of the cruise ship waiter’s job.
Then you’ll have only 3 months to the end of the contract. These three months will go very slow, but compared to the previous six, almost three times easier. Why?
Because you’ll turn into robot who will do everything mechanically. The brain will not get involved in what you do, and you’ll be empty inside. It’s called the “Carnival State of Mind.”
You will become one with the boat. Look at these people as they pass by us now.! – he said and I listened.
“What do you notice about them?” -he asked me.
I started to look at their faces and eyes. Some of them have been working for nearly two decades for this company. They became literally part of the ship.
In their eyes one could not see anything but black depths of the sea. And faces? Their faces were all the same. Yellow as wax, with that typical fake smile that stood there and never moved off. These people were full of money, but have nothing to spend it on. They had money, but they had no family, no wife, no children, no dogs or kittens.
They knew only this company and the ships where people knew them and where they feel like they really belong. What an illusion. The ship provides a life that was apart from the real world.
I felt a creepy presence behind my back, a ghost leaning on to my shoulder, with evil smile on his face. I remembered Tan and his death. It was the ship‘s fault that he killed himself.
Then and at that moment I decided not to get back for second contract, only to finish this one. and that’s it.
Source: Cruise Ship Jobs Forum