My mother took me on a cruise. In all honesty I felt guilty about the contrast between my time there and the employees’ time. Me, dining on very fine food three times a day, our cabin tidied twice a day, strolling the decks and watching the passing seascape, the the stewards and waiters so polite and smiling. Them, working 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, sleeping in windowless cabins, near the rumbling engines. Away from home and family six months at a time. Most of them were Filipinos, and maybe they were making good money for Filipinos, and it’s probably better than farming or factory work. They’re Christians, and the man who led the Sunday worship service was a lay pastor.
The officers, the medical staff, the entertainers and activities directors were Westerners.
But the truth is, my mother could never have afforded this luxurious treat if all the crew were Westerners, being paid Western wages.
Bear in mind they are making ten times what they make in their homeland and that’s a conservative estimate. The crew we spoke too always expounded on how lucky they felt to have landed their job and how much they appreciated the people cruising!!!
With that said, yes the majority of the crew are from third world nations. However, the majority of those we deal with are not dumb or stupid. Most have a higher education but are unable to find work in their own country. Most, when hired on, start at the bottom and work their way up the chain. But just like everywhere else, you treat them with dignity and respect, and they treat you the same. Also, if you tip them, they go out of thier way to help you or give you great dinner seats, etc.
Most of the officers we have met have been non-Americans. The same with the ship entertainers. You are probably correct about the cost of the cruise if the crew were all Americans but the reason you do not see many American crew members is that - in my opinion - most young Americans today do not want to work that hard. And it is hard work - long hours, day in day out.
On a Hawaiian Norwegian cruise, I did run across one American female officer in charge of the stewards. She dressed down one cleaning crew - Philippine females - in front of my wife and I. Treated them worse than dogs and in my opinion did so only because of race. We reported her. Do not know what happened to her but we did report her.
I do not feel guilty about being on a cruise. It is part of life. Like going to a fancy restaurant. You eat the great food while others serve you. That's their job. And considering the many WestPacs and Med cruise I have been on, I like these cruises better.
You may be interested to know, we had many Filipinos working our cruise. The company let 15 of them go home after the typhoon to try to find family they were unable to contact. The passengers donated funds for relief, as did Holland America. We had a 5K walk around the deck and raised more money.
To show appreciation, some of the Filipino crew put on a talent show.
Well, as far as the guilt goes, this was leisure time for you and work hours for them. You were paying in while they were deriving money from the exchange so it should be more pleasant for you than for them. Naturally what people do on their free time will be more pleasant than what they do for work. They’re doing it by choice, not necessity.
Say you’re a waiter in a restaurant. If you got done with your cruise and came home and had to serve to people dinner as your job, do you then think your customers should feel guilty for being your customers?