Australian Maritime Safety Authority Probes Carnival Following Crew Whistleblower Allegations

My wife and I are just back home after one of the most amazing trips and cruises ever that took us first to New Zealand and ending in Sydney, Australia. I will have a full trip report up after a bit, but while down under a news report that filled my feed I just had to key in on and some things that few think about when cruising.

First up the link to the story is here and the cliff-notes is that an anonymous source complained that the water onboard for crew to drink was not safe. The rest of the story has nothing to do with the water but touches on another subject I have lots to say about.

The story, and the complaint, really confuses me. The reason being is that ship water from all the taps is safe to drink on cruise ships as I blogged about here. The water is sea water that is purified via reverse osmosis and all the water is the same for crew and passengers alike. I don’t get how crew water could be bad and the rest of the ship’s water OK (or brown like touched on recently in a weekend news post). There has to be more to this and Carnival, the target of the investigation, is saying they have nothing to hide. It will be interesting if more comes from this story.

The rest of the AMSA gripe is a familiar one to lands like Australia where everyone is paid a living wage and can not grasp the idea of crew ship life, pay and other work conditions.

I also blogged not to long ago about how much or little each crew member makes on average. The lowest ranks make very little per month. The report says the whistle blower makes just $600 PER MONTH but that seems very low per averages I have found and the lowest ranks making around $800.

Even at $800 per month that means working an average of 70 hours per week, 7 days a week, with no holidays or other such days off you are making around $2.67 per hour during your 8 month contract. Yes, that is a brutally low salary even taking into account health care is free while onboard as well as food, laundry and lodging. While most reputable cruise lines provide uniforms for the crew a few scummy ones (hello MSC) make crew pay for them. Even so even this low wage is likely much higher than what they could earn at home and the reason they take the job and as they work up the ladder with the cruise line they can earn much more.

Another big complaint was about accommodations. They can be tight and make a passenger interior cabin seem spacious in comparison. Yes, you may have bunk beds and 4 (or more) crew in a cabin and they all share one bathroom. That is on smaller ships. On larger or mega ships many may have their own small cabins and then share a Jack -n- Jill bathroom setup. Again, not great, but the way ship life is for crew.

The AMSA rep claims exploitation but they do not mention the fact that crew choose these contracts. They can, if they want to, break the contract and leave the ship with generally the only penalty being they have to pay for their own travel home that normally is provided when they complete the contract with the cruise line.

Overall it clearly is a one sided post and one that most who read will be shocked over what life onboard is like but this is from those who never cruise and don’t get the reality of ship life. But it does remind us how important it is to thank the crew who work so hard for us and tip well for all that they do! – Rene