What It Takes To Be A Cruise Ship Performer 

I went on that cruise last year and the Aqua Show was the one that shocked me the most... the rocking of the ship that night was pretty bad but even in those conditions their performance was immaculate!

"Royal Caribbean wouldn't share how much performers are paid." Not enough I guarantee you that, especially for them working 11 months doing 8 performances a week in an industry that is supposedly as hard to get into as Broadway. Anytime a company highlights health insurance as a benefit (when it's mandated for any company in the United States with as many employees as them) then you know they aren't paying enough.

I worked for RC and actually was in a cast with Mazz. Ship life wasn’t for me and I was SO DEPRESSED and I left early but I can say Mazz was the one person in my cast who was there for me the whole time when no one else was. She’s a really great person and works SUPER HARD and deserves everything she has now! Love that girly!

Imagine you're on a cruise ship, and the Titanic song starts playing

11 months with no vacation days and 8 shows/week....not shady at all.

They forgot to say this is a paid for AD by Royal Caribbean

they say they “get paid to travel” but not having a day off means you don’t actually get to travel and explore the places...

Didn’t say how much they got paid and didn’t show their living quarters.... yeah that’s not sketchy

Free Housing?!!? they are sequestered on a ship where else would they live? What other benefits, free air and water? well maybe not free water.......

I think if they’re not sharing salary details, it’s because they are not proud to offer employees strong wages.

Each time I see this in my feed I watch it and a tear comes down my face. Used to work with this beast, one of the best people to work with. Mazz is rightfully where she is! Insane work etic and physical body strength. I miss your hug after the show friend, and I miss ships more than anything in the world. Just to make it clear, I was part of the stage crew, and with some of these guys it was so nice because they kind of make sure you share their success! Big hug from Nik (Legend of the Seas)!

it seems like she's sending somekind of secret "help me out of here" message

Y’all weren’t allowed to see their cabins...hmm

Being resistant to being sea sick really helps

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As a former crew member, in entertainment, I can say that those performers get paid very well! Also, this video misrepresented when saying they get “no vacation days” for 11 months. True, their contract is long, but they don’t work every single day their onboard. They have “days off” where they can relax and do whatever.

Why is no one talking about the short time when the person was walking with their toes curled up

I worked on Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Princess right through my 20s, 9.5 years in the end! One of the best decisions I ever made was to work on ships, my second best decision was to decide to no longer work on ships lol. A lot of people here are saying it's slave labor which definitely made me LOL. Working on ships is one of the most unique and life changing experiences any young person can do. The community is like nothing you can replicate on land, the friends you make are friends for life and you have to bear this in mind... Most people are in 9 to 5 office jobs and commute to the office for 60 minutes per day, have all the stresses of 'living on land.' Cruise ships sure you work crazy hours, but your 'office' is a 45 second walk away, everything from cleaning your cabin, cooking every meal is all taken care of by the ship. Equally, when they say 'work 7 days per week,' sure you do but... On port days that might be x 2 hours giving the rest of the day to go and explore a beautiful island. Pretty sure if I had my 20s again, I'd take cruise ship slave labour over the 9 to 5 version :).

i bet she gets better payed than all the artists, thats why she wants to continue

Wew. I can't even commit to our Christmas Presentation.

Free housing = a closet shared with another person

I went on this ship in the summer and was talking to a staff member in the teen club. She told me she lived on the ship for 7 months. She doesn't get to eat the food at the free restaurants and only gets the food made by the chefs and has scheduled meals. The teens got her a bunch of pizza from the free pizza restaurant.

They don’t get days off or “vacation” because when the ship docks at any destination they also get to get off and enjoy the islands. I think this video made it seem like they work 24/7 7 days a week for 11 months straight which is definitely not true. They have an amazing job!!!

0:26 OW OW OW OW

Everyone’s talking about work conditions but I find the girl walking on her bare toes most disturbing 😂😂😂

She’s a real superhero! She and the other performers deserve all the success the get.

When i was on this ship back in November of 2019 i had a blast and this show was my favorite. It blew me and my family away.

If they need to abandon ship, they will all score 10/10

I have watched all the shows and the ship a week ago and got home 2 days ago and all of them we OUTSTANDING, some were nail biting and others just make you smile or your heart burst. People work very hard to entertain us, so I appreciate them,

They get paid very little and live in very bad conditions. It’s fun to do for a season when your in your 20s but later on you feel like a servant underdog without any respect. Slavery is their bottom line.

Refuse to say how much they are paid, but tHeY hAvE hOuSiNg, tHeY cAn EaT aT oUr ReStAuRaNt, and no day’s off for 11months, 8 shows a week.... Some slavery is involved here.

I saw this show last week on Symphony, and it was absolutely amazing! By far my favorite show on the ship!

I was just there a week ago and watched HIRO it was amazing and even got to go back stage for sitting at the very front in the splash zone

She's highly talented! Saw the Hiro Performance! Truly awe-catching 😲 Kudos to the team!!

All of that money poured into this cruise line and the higher-ups can't even afford these people a makeup artist? smh

Watched them last year, it was amazing!

I LOVEEEE THIS CHANNELLL

Number one quote from cruise line dancers "When you go to do a jump and the stage goes from this level (low) to this level (high)." and there goes your knees.

I loveeeeee royal Caribbean! I’m going on the symphony this summer and I’m sooo excited

when you think of all of the jobs that you could have, this one wouldn’t come to mind, but it definitely seems like a pretty cool one!

Despite all of this I was there to see the aqua show and they’re so amazing!

I think for these guys performing is a life long passion and dream and to many of these people just the fact they get to do it sharing their art while being able to travel the world is enough for them. Pay is likely poor but at the same time when they don't have to pay for accommodation, food or drink it means their pay starts to add up nicely, not to mention the fact they will receive tips which on a lot of cruise ships (At least the ones I've been on) are charged automatically to the passengers.

Oh I’ve been on this shop twice already! I loved it.

When I went on royal Caribbean I remember seeing there amazing show at night time and the next day I sat there seeing them practice it was so amazing

OMG we just sailed on this ship and these performers were AMAZING!! The Aqua show was one of our favourite things.

The fact that there are so many things they're not sharing and letting us see is really indicative of how shitty the conditions must actually be. Not sharing wages, even a salary range is a huge red flag. Emphasizing that they get housing and get to travel is simply insane. They're on a ship that moves! Where else would they sleep!?! Of course they're gonna travel! And they mentioned a grocery store, which means meals are almost certainly not free. They mentioned "other safety duties," which means that in addition to dangerous performances, these people are forced to do some other type of labor, likely for no extra pay. No letting us see the equipment is probably less because it's "proprietary" and more because it's shoddy and possibly dangerous. And finally worst of all was the mention that no other ship employees can use the passenger gym or eat at the special restaurants. None of those Filipino laborers earning pennies a day are given those opportunities! Not that they could afford to take them anyway, with the slave wages they earn. What a sham. You guys should've snuck a hidden camera in there and gotten a real story instead of this fluff piece with some paid off company shill who talks about how bad her body is bruised every night, then insists she loves her job. She probably didn't get that private cabin till she agreed to spread that propaganda.

i’ve been on this cruise twice and it rlly is amazing

We have been on this cruise ship and have watched this in summer! I really loved the show! My kids for wet because they were on the front row!

A friend of mine does this once a year. He is an expert in the card game Bridge and gets a free cruise to teach beginners in the morning and more advanced in the afternoon. From his perspective, he gets a free holiday in passenger quarters, with teaching the hobby he loves. From the cruise line, they get a top player and also passengers who have booked just because he is on board. So not all performers do the full 11 months.

It's sad to think that all these performers very likely lost their jobs due to covid :(

I went on this cruise a bit before COVID started the water show was beautiful and the food was really good, they had a great amount of activities and shops, i would definitely go again some time, when I watched the girl walk on the guys foot it was awesome and the diving was ✨ Also the slide, zip line, water park, super fun✨👌🏼

I went in August 2019 and saw Mazz its actually amazing!

They knew what they were doing with that thumbnail

As someone who had the option to work on a ship, you'd be sharing a small interior/lower deck cabin ie. no windows and *small* with 3-5 other people. Shared bathrooms. You'd only be allowed to use crew stairways and hallways, crew cafeteria etc. I didn't hear anyone say that you could mix and mingle with guests or even think about eating in their buffets. For the backstage crew, it seemed like you had to be invisible while on board. You could get off the ship when you were in port when not working which would be rare with 8 shows a week, and you were paid roughly $500/week. Same as on land at the time which was the early 2000s.

just went on this cruise- it was AMAZING

i was just on that cruise. the shows were amazing

Performer doing a full split on thumbnail: Me: ok. I’ll watch

I was on Symphony of the Seas earlier this year, and the HiRo show is absolutely incredible. All of the shows were amazing, but HiRo was crazy good!🤩

Wow. One of the most fascinating and professional things I've ever seen. Bravo for this.

I got off the oasis of the seas today and saw a different aqua show but with the same stage and set up. they were amazing!

I can hardly imagine how hard it must be to do those flips at 2:58. Running through water is so hard AND they have a whole cape that looks like it's soaked. It must be pretty heavy.

How they talk about working reminds me of that South Park episode “student athletes”

It seems very difficult, probably with less than ideal conditions, but I imagine the sense of accomplishment performing on shipboard is something they never forget.

I went on this ship dec 7-14 the show hiro was amazing. I also saw flight which was like a broadway show and it was also incredible

I know a guy who was a performer for disney cruises Supposedly disney treats them pretty well, at least on the ship he was on He said one scary thing though was that he started off playing one character, but then became the new Jack Sparrow after the original actor got hurt doing a stunt He was like yeah obviously I loved playing that role, but it’s not as cool being told that you get to play the part some other guy almost died doing lol but he said otherwise it was great

Omg my friend Danielle does this! We did gymnastics performance in college? *looks in background for her “

Thanks for sharing the video!

I saw this show in December it was amazing

I went on this ship before, it was pretty dope

When I worked as a performer on a cruise ship we were paid really well. In fact the minimum for a dancer on Royal is advertised at 700/week... not bad

Holy crap this is the exact show I saw on this ship lmao. We stayed in one of the rooms right by the stage (you can see the balcony’s of the rooms at 2:37) got to watch straight from the balcony, the show was great!

one of my dance teachers is a cruise ship performer, he is absolutely phenomenal. Cruise ships in Australia are abt to take off soon, yay

I went on this cruise last year the entertainment is incredible

I’m starting my audition process for Royal this upcoming June and I’m hoping to be signed to a contract around July or August :)

Best business insider episode ever👏🏼

It's Magical. . . Thank You

4:48 That video compression though...

The hardest job ever to perform 8 times a week more than the days of the week

Saw that exact show Hiro, they do a great show !

I went there, it looks amazing its more than worth it, props to them!

Won't say how much they're paid? Suspicious.

“She flies over the crown with only wires” what else do you want her to hang on other than wires

This video was great!

I saw this show It was AMAZING!

0:26 oh god that killed me

Yeah I was on Symphony in spring . The shows were indeed awesome, and the ship is beautiful. However, I think I enjoyed the “smaller” Liberty of the seas a bit more, which I did last year . I feel like there needs to be a limit on number of people on ship. Waits for shows, waits for food, waits to get on & off ship, crowds at pools... you get the idea. I can’t imagine the work the crews have dealing with all these people

I saw this show it was absolutely amazing! Looked rly hard to do tho

I was on the symphony last week and it was pretty dope

Not only do they get treated like slaves, they have to also pay for WiFi, and that shit is $100 a week. Royale Caribbean over prices a LOT of stuff

Wow a 40 ft diving pool that must be scary and mostly because it is in a ship 😬

Mazz props to you! But whatever they are paying you you deserve more because you’re amazing!!

Literally just watched their show an hour ago. absolute professionals and I respect their work ethic and incredible athleticism.

0:26 I'm not the only one who can do this....right?

I assume that the requirements of these performers are similar (give or take) to what is required for Cirque du Soleil performers? Either way, these guys are very impressive. I've never had the money, time, or means to go on a cruise so something like this is not likely something that I will ever see in person.

My high school and college friend, Jeff Lind, did an 11 month cruise ship gig as a top 40 guitarist / tenor, lead singer. He enjoyed all the performing / guitar playing time. He could take or leave the singing.

Bro I went on Symphony of the Seas and this show was awesome

"What It Takes To Be A Cruise-Ship Performer" Just like most performers,.

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Great video very interesting I love cruises so when ever I watch video that talked about history about cruise or much more about a cruise ship I love them. I got it from my grandma lol

I wish I could see this show !! Looks super cool 😎