Video:Career Profile: Cruise Director

Transcript:Career Profile: Cruise Director

Hi, I'm Ken Mills for About.com. We're here today on the Norwegian Gem and I'm going to tell you what it's like to be a cruise director.

"And a very good morning ladies and gentlemen; this is Ken, your Cruise Director."

Becoming a Cruise Director

After high school, I went to college for music education. I always thought that I was going to be a teacher, a band director or an orchestra conductor. However, I went on a vacation one year with my friends and I went on a cruise, and basically it changed my life. From that point on, I said, "I can do that, I want to do that, and know I do that."

Cruise Director Duties With Guests

A cruise director basically has two jobs on board: the front of the house job, which is what the guests see, the guests see me onstage hosting the game shows, hosting the late night parties, hosting the main show, hosting events all around the ship. It's my job to make sure that everyone is in good spirits, they're having a good time and that they know that I'm here from them that I can offer them the best vacation possible from the entertainment side.

Administrative Tasks

The second part of my job is actually the back of the house side. I manage the entire entertainment department here onboard. I manage all the cruise director staff, the youth counselors, the musicians, the technicians, the singers, the dancers.

So, basically, we have a department of a little over a 100 people, and I'm in charge of making sure that all of that runs smoothly, we follow our daily activity grid and make sure that everything starts on time, that the ambience of every room is taken care, that everyone is trained properly, and that we're communicating with each other and making sure that the entire department is running smoothly. So I have back of house job, plus my front of house responsibility with the guests.

Must Be an Extrovert

I wouldn't say you need a special degree to be a cruise director, but you have to have a special type of personality. You have to be 100% extrovert, you have to be willing to get out there in front of the huge crowd, you have to be able to capture their attention immediately, you have to be able to communicate effectively and deliver information precisely, because you don't want to leave anything for question.

Cruise Directors Must Be Organized

You have to be able to put a smile on people's faces, and it takes a very specific personality to do that, for you also have to be very organized to manage your department on the behind-the-scenes side. So you have to be a two-part person, and we're a very unique and diverse group of individuals, so I think we're special in many ways. Being a cruise director is the absolute best job in the world.

"Alright, everyone have a great day, we'll see you around the ship, bye for now."

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