Cruise ship passengers are all too familiar with the extra costs that come with cruising. But what do crew members pay extra for?
Krista Joselyn is a cruise ship singer onboard Freedom of the Seas.
She performs in onboard shows such as the Welcome Aboard show and Once Upon a Time.
The Freedom Class vessel has about 1,365 crew members onboard, and each employee has the freedom to determine exactly what they spend extra on.
In a recent YouTube video, Krista shared a breakdown of her current weekly expenses as a crew member living onboard.
"A top perk of this job," she says, "is getting to save a lot of the money that you make. We have very limited expenses."
Budgeting is entirely up to each crew member, according to Krista.
"If you wanted to spend $0, you could."
What's free for crew members?
First, Krista explained the items that she doesn't have to pay for while living onboard.
These include:
- Accommodations
- Living expenses
- Laundry
- Gym memberships
- Crew parties
Crew members don't pay extra for cabins and the resulting water and electricity bills. Living expenses aren't taken out of paychecks, either.
The laundry room is free to use onboard, but Krista does have to bring her own laundry detergent. She buys one big package at Costo, so estimates she only spends about 50 cents a week on laundry.
Crew members can also use the crew gym for free.
As a matter of fact, cast members are required to log gym hours.
"As a cast member we are required to do five gym hours per week to keep up stamina for the shows," Krista says.
Krista explains that, back home, she would usually spend anywhere between $10 and $50 a month for a gym membership.
"So it is really nice to have such a beautiful gym to use for free."
Royal Caribbean HR also throws free crew parties weekly. These parties have fun themes like White Night, Beach Party, and School vs. Drool.
According to Krista, alcoholic drinks are provided free of charge, and it's a fun opportunity for cast and crew members to enjoy a night together.
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What do they spend in a week?
Crew members do get access to a crew mess hall for free, so food isn't a necessary extra fee.
However, Krista says that the menu options and rotation "get a little boring," so she and her boyfriend sometimes splurge on specialty restaurants.
Specialty dining: $50
Crew members can go to the same restaurants cruisers are familiar with onboard: Giovanni's, Chops Grille, Izumi Sushi, Playmakers, and Johnny Rockets.
Krista says they usually get a 20% discount—or more. Even with this discount, specialty food is one of her biggest expenses onboard.
She estimated that she spends about $50 a week on specialty dining.
Water: $3
Bottled water is sold once a week—on sale for $3 a pack.
When it comes to alcoholic drinks, Krista says she saves a lot of money by purchasing liquor from the crew bar and making her own beverages.
However, drinks are very cheap at the crew bar.
According to Krista, you can get a margarita for $4, whereas on land it would be $10. In comparison, passenger bars onboard Freedom of the Seas charge $14 for a margarita.
WiFi: $0
Crew members only get two free hours of WiFi per week, so most crew members pay extra for more time. The WiFi costs $3.99 per hour (depending on the package purchased).
However, Krista invested in a side job so that she wouldn't have to pay extra for more hours of WiFi.
She works an hour or two a week at the WiFi desk onboard. For one hour of work, she received 300 free minutes of WiFi.
Thanks to her job there, she gets between 5 and 10 hours of free Internet each week.
Krista spends about $200 a week onshore
Freedom of the Seas currently sails alternating 7-night itineraries in the Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In a typical week, the vessel visits destinations such as St. Thomas, San Juan, the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Jamacia.
Krista says that excursions in the Caribbean cost more than she expected.
"A lot of the places that we're going to in the Caribbean here are very touristy and so they are just more expensive and so I really did not expect that."
On many port days, Krista does grab lunch off the ship, visit a nearby beach, or splurge on an exciting shore excursion.
On turnaround day, the ship disembarks in Fort Lauderdale.
Krista and her boyfriend usually head to Publix to purchase groceries, and then a cafe for food and WiFi.
The ship WiFi isn't always strong enough to download everything Krista wants for the week, so she spends her time gathering new music, podcasts, and Netflix shows.
When the ship stops at Perfect Day at CocoCay, most activities and dining are free for the crew, so Krista never spends money on Royal Caribbean's private island.
However, if there are particular activities she wants to experience she will splurge, for example, visiting a waterpark in Nassau. It's worth it for a fun day with the crew!
However, there are also some weeks where Krista doesn't get off the ship, so every cruise is different.
Since Krista doesn't have expenses back home (such as rent and bills), she's usually willing to spend a little more money on experiences like excursions.
She only spends $253 total each week
Every week is different, but according to Krista's calculations of an average week, she would only spend about $253 on both onboard and shore expenses.
Krista is aware that her costs of living on a cruise ship as a crew member are less than what she'd spend living on land.
"Every once in a while I get a little nervous for the day that I'm going to have to start paying rent again," she joked.
"[I'll have to] live in a house and deal with all of those adulty things that I haven't had to deal with in my 20s."
