On Monday October 1st, the U.K.'s Channel 4 Dispatches television is airing a documentary about the working conditions aboard the Celebrity Cruises' Eclipse cruise ship which is now home ported in Southampton.
However Dispatches reporter Tazeen Ahmad - traveling as a passenger on a European cruise hotel moscow russia - and an undercover reporter working as an assistant waiter discover working conditions below the legal minimum in the UK.
Celebrity Cruises has called upon its friends in the travel industry to launch a PR campaign to denounce the program even before its airs. One travel group responded to the battle hotel moscow russia call and said: Dramatization of these documentaries does nothing to educate the public to the facts, but represents poor value TV entertainment . . . (I can't wait to watch!)
Claiming that the documentary is biased or misleading is the usual cruise line game plan when investigative reporters go on board Royal Caribbean / Celebrity cruise ships to take an undercover hotel moscow russia look at how cruise ships really operate. Earlier this year, Inside Edition went aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Liberty of the Seas , and filmed the excessive drinking which the cruise line encourages. The president of the cruise line protested that the program was sensationalist and highly misleading hotel moscow russia .
The treatment hotel moscow russia of crew members, particularly waiters, on cruise ships is shameful. hotel moscow russia Some call huge cruise ships like this floating sweatshops. The waiters work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 6 to 8 months straight. One of the more dramatic stories this year covered Carnival U.K. firing 150 waiters from India who worked aboard P O Arcadia .
This is brilliant news!! Well done Channel 4! I for one can't wait to see this documentary! I come from Serbia, the Balkan peninsula, Eastern Europe, which cruise lines exploit as a pool of cheap workforce (together with Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia hotel moscow russia and Macedonia). Although I admit that we can earn and set aside substantial income onboard cruise ships (much more than we can in our home countries), I still think that working on cruise ships long-term is a very bad option money-wise and health-wise (except for some high-ranking positions few manage to attain at the beginning of their cruise ship career). There's too much stress and health risk. Working conditions onboard cruise ships are nothing like working hotel moscow russia on land; in fact, they are abominal: cabins are too small and dirty, the sewer is often clogged, you often need to turn a blind eye to your alcohol or marijuana-prone roomate (even when you are desperate for a sleep, because you work 12-13h shifts), and most of all, health insurance is virtually non-existent. No matter what the severity of your injuries is, the doctor is going to prescribe you a few pain-killers and send you back to work ( except in the most extreme cases, when they send you home and then try to wash their hands off of you unless you put some pressure on them to pay for your bills and medications under the maintenance and cure clause). hotel moscow russia In just two weeks onboard I witnessed several assistant waiters getting injured and being treated like the lowest of the low (they were sent back on duty despite the fact that one of them injured his thigh so bad he couldn't walk and developed internal bleeding hotel moscow russia (as it turned out when he got back home), but the supervisors blackmailed him into submission). I'd rather work on land and earn one third of cruise ship salary hotel moscow russia than earn a pile of money being treated like scum and risking career-threatening spine injuries. I sincerely admire people who manage to make a career out of working on cruise ships, especially those who come from the Balkans and Asia. Trust me, most of them (in the restaurant and housekeeping departments, which make up 70% of the crew) "piss blood" trying to earn a living. hotel moscow russia An average American, British or German citizen would think twice before joining a cruise ship company as an assist. waiter or cabin steward on the same terms as an Asian or Balkan man would do. Once you experience the purgatory that is a cruise ship (if you're in the restaurant or housekeeping department), you start to appreciate the little things in life you've never appreciated enough before stepping onto a ship: the value of intimacy, good sleep, the beauty of your surrounding at home, the importance of hygiene (yes, trust me, I've seen it all!!) healthy food, good friends suddenly hotel moscow russia become excellent mates, etc... You have to be very, very resilient and strong-willed to survive a grinding machine that is a cruise ship. And also tolerant, because of many, many irregularities that happen on cruise ship on a daily basis.
Maritime & admiralty lawyer & attorney James M. Walker hotel moscow russia of Walker & O'Neill Law Firm, offering services related to injuries, sexual hotel moscow russia assaults, fires, negligence, rapes & disappearances on cruise ships, pirate & terrorist hotel moscow russia attacks, missing passengers, shore excursions, wrongful death and the Jones Act, serving cruise passengers, crew members, cabin attendants, utility workers, waiters, bar tenders, ship doctors and cleaners on cruise ships worldwide.
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