Crew Members Share What Happens if They Get Fired
No one accepts a job expecting to get fired – especially when they live at their job like crew members who work onboard cruise ships do.
However, sometimes a crew member’s performance simply isn’t up to snuff or they break a strict rule – resulting in the termination of their contract. So, what happens next in this unfortunate scenario?
Contrary to some myths going around, the cruise lines will not throw their ex-employees overboard and most likely will not evict them at the next port of call – especially if the port is not located within their home country.
The cruise brands have a legal obligation to repatriate their employees, including those that are fired, when their service at sea has come to an end.
According to those who lived it, news of their termination came as an early knock on their cabin’s door when the ship arrived in its homeport to disembark current guests and embark a new set of passengers.
This turnaround day is also when crew members beginning and ending their contracts on normal terms would arrive or leave the ship.
“I work for cruise ships and what they do is when you are getting fired, the next turnaround port (where all the passengers leave) they will have security knock on your door at 5 am and tell you to pack up your stuff and you leave within a half an hour,” one crew member explained in response to a question on Reddit.
What makes this especially jarring is that the now-fired employee likely wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye to the friends they had made onboard. When you spend months living and working with these people, those friends can feel more like family.
“The cruise line wouldn’t tell you that you’re fired until that day. So you could be onboard for another seven days or more, working without knowing if you’re fired or not. They do this, because some people in the past would cause a big scene and a lot of problems,” they continued.
While there are obviously situations where immediate action would be taken – such as confining a crew member to their cabin or the brig until they could be removed from the ship – less serious offenders may be left in suspense, especially if they had already been given a warning.
Ex-crew members then offered conflicting reports on if they were provided with transportation home after they got the news – as some said they were escorted to their airport and others said they were left to figure out their own next steps.
“I was fired from a cruise ship. In my case they simply told me that I would have a hearing with the Captain and staff captain when we got back to our home port, and they fired me that morning. I was escorted onto the plane in Miami and flown back to the UK which was my home country,” another former cruise employee shared.
Especially among those who disembarked for the final time in a country in which they were not a citizen or permanent resident, the cruise line did secure their transportation home – but some had to pay for the airfare because they did not fulfill the obligations of their contract.
Why Crew Members are Fired
As Lucy Southerton points out on her YouTube channel, Cruising as Crew, it can be both “easy and hard” to get fired from a cruise ship. It all comes down to the nature of the offense.
With nearly a decade of working on cruise ships under her belt, Southerton has seen it all over the years. In her experience, firing either comes after repeated warnings surrounding poor performance or in response to breaking a strict safety rule.
“So, like with most big companies nowadays, you don’t get fired after making one mistake. There’s a process that you go through,” she explained in a recent YouTube video.
For example, an employee who is consistently late or doesn’t complete their assigned tasks may receive warnings, which eventually leads to more severe punishments if the behavior isn’t fixed.
“You need to get three warnings before you get a disciplinary, and you need to get three disciplinaries before you have a hearing where they discuss whether they might fire you or not,” Southerton continued.
Read Also: Which Crew Members Will You Meet on Your Next Cruise?
The exception to this rule is if a crew member is caught violating safety rules – such as getting caught with a blood alcohol level above 0.04%.
This is because crew members are required to be ready to act in the unlikely event of an emergency at all times, and can’t do so if they are too intoxicated. In this case, the cruise lines would likely take a zero tolerance approach.
Similarly, if a crew member is caught breaking the law, they will be fired and handed over to the appropriate authorities.
Most recently, a crew member working onboard Norwegian Encore was arrested in Alaska on May 6, 2024, after allegedly attacking other people onboard – and of course did not have a job to come back to after that.
Earlier in the year, a male stateroom attendant working onboard Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas was also fired and taken into custody for placing hidden cameras in several cruise cabins.
That said, criminal offenses by crew members are quite rare. Based on Southerton’s content, it seems like poor performance or overindulging in the crew bar are much more likely reasons for a career at sea to meet it’s abrupt end.