I just accepted a Gift Shop Sales Associate Position with NCLA.
Are the hours as long as with serving? Any input on this will be appreciated.
Is the training at Piney Point as difficult as I have heard?

when will you start? How tough had you heard about the training? I am considering a job with NCLA, however still looking at it. I would love to here as many pros as well as cons

My friends daughter ,who came ashore for several months, after completing four NCL contracts-found she enjoyed NCL so much-she signed on with NCLA for the Hawaii run. She loves it!!

BillyBuzzy

what is ment when they refer to the USPH/FDA AND SEMS rules and regulations.

I have had my physical and now waiting for a call to when I will take my training.
I know we have to learn to save someone in the water and be able to put a life jacket on them and get them and ourselves into the boat. It is seven days a week.
I would really like to know it the gift shop is 10 hours a day or more. If anyone has any info please let me know before I commit to this.
Lrene

Spoke with our Butler Amit from previous cruise and NCL will now employ up to 30% of an International Staff to bring the standards back up on the Hawaii routes.

Al of the staff that we meet, and I speak to them constantly and always ask how they like their work. Simply put...they LOVE IT.

LOts of travel, lots of ports of call, great passengers, and many, many renew contracts and have been around the world.

If your young, I say Go For It. You will work hard, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Richard & Mary, they must have re-negotiated their contract with the State of Hawaii if the Butler was right. I understand the original agreement was maximum staffing not to exceed 25% no U.S. citizens on any ship that carried the American flag. That means every ship that does the 7 day sailings. Otherwise to comply with the Jones Act all foreign flagged vessels have to hit a foreign port before returning to a U.S. port.

That's why all the ships that leave the west coast have to either hit Vancouver or a port in Mexico before returning.

Cheers, Neil

should read non-U.S., sorry for the typo.

Neil:

Perhaps they did. I discussed the NCLA Operations with the Captain in length over a private dinner with him and 5 five others in Le Bistro on the Monday night of our Alaskan cruise. The staff member who was our Butler on the NCL Pearl 9 day on Feb 2nd, was still on the Pearl for Alaska and Hawaii was a topic of discussion when he saw us in Le Bistro. So the info came from him, who has been with NCL for 7 years and will move to the Gem in the fall.

I also have applied for a job on ncl America and have been waiting for almost a month since my physical for them to get back to me.I just recently found out from my representative from NCL that some candidates can wait for more than two months for them to be sent to Piney Point;I also have been informed from them that they are doing away with the 3 weeks of training and that you will only be sent there for one week to get your mmd card and then you will be sent to the ship in Hawaii for training while on duty.

To hime 06, I am in the same situation as you are. I have accepting a position with NCLA as well, but have many concerns about this cruise line. I have read my reviews about NCL and must tell you that I am not please with what I am reading. I have read about 20 statements about NCLA and only about 3 of them were good. Like you I am a very hard worker and also take excellent pride in what I do, however it can be hard to do if everybody eles have a don't care attitude. The only thing that I can tell you that since we are new employees. then we have to go in and make some positive changes by leading by example.

I was a utility galley (dishwasher/night cleaner on the POH.) The ships are short staffed and the people who are in charge got there promotions through multiple cruise contracts. The facts are as follows. 12hr days. no days off for 5 months when you do go ashore it's to Wal Mart. Your in a cabin with 3 other people who are as unhappy as you are. When she's at sea you can only go on the mooring deck to get freash air, that is where the smokers are. The ship will loose 80% of her crews each rotation. If you are fired you pay your own way back from Hawaii. If you need medical attention off the vessel you will pay for it. If you miss the vessel when she sails you will be stranded and fired. The company wants Gay people to staff their vessels. The recruiters and the whole Pych eval is to see what your sexual orientation is. Hawaii will get about $400 in taxes. Think about the the long hours the double taxation, Your home state and Hawaii. and the fact that once you leave the vessel you will be discharged from the Merchant Marine service, Your MMD will be no good for other vessels. If you quit you will be on a no hire list with the SIU. If your a difficult person who can't be worked like an animal then around the time your contract is up you will be fired and you get to find your own way back from Hawaii. Oh and one more thing the natives of Hawaii hate White people "HULLIES" is the N word in their language. If you have no home, no car no prospects, then by all means work for about $5000 a contract.

Blonde, come on, Summer in North America means slow tourism in the islands of Hawaii. NCL needs abled bodied hard work, go getters like your self during peak season, Fall, Winter,
Holidays like Xmas and Spring Break. One reason for the wait is so they can put a Crew Bill together for staffing the vessels then, That's one of the reasons for the wait. Be patient. Soon you will be in Hawaii where every day is exactly just like the day befor.

Utility Galley,
You point out some intresting information. Some of which I heard from the recruiter. I am looking to work on a vessel. I know the 12 hours days seem long, but you will get 5 weeks off. Are still on board or between contract. The part the I found .... intresting lack of better word, They want Gay crewmembers? why is that? That could lead to an intresting crew space.... people are worried about gays anyway.

Doing the math you should make at least $12,000. before taxes. Most states have whats is called piggy back taxes. Meaning if you live in one state and work in another it works out so you taxes is only equal to one states taxes rate.

I was waiting for my call to go to training when I fell and broke my ankle. I am still healing. I wonder if they will take me off the list or if they will still hire me. Any information on this anyone?

I have just received my phone call from NCL last week to go get the physical/ and drug test. Please share with me the wisdom that everyone has. I, like others, has read some pretty scandalous stuff about working on NCLA. I am not expecting it to be easy, but are the living conditions that bad. I read that people on the POH, are bitter, and jaded. This upsets me since I have wanted to work as a bartender on a cruise ship since I saw the love boat. I hear the traing in Piney Pt. has been changes to a week and a half, does anyone know why, and overall what is the training like there.

out of all the blurbs I have read, your seem to be the least exxagerated, I was wondering if you are still working and what are they ultimately looking for other than gay, cause if that is the case, than I have one strike against me; I dont want anymore.

okay here's some stuff that might be of use to you, coming from someone who is fresh out of piney point. I graduated as member of class 134 and I actually got printed 2 days after I left, which makes me think i should have stayed and waited but oh well! I've been home a week and still haven't gotten a call back, I think it may be because of hurricane Flossie... no hurricanes since 1992 and now there's one the day I'm supposed to be heading out there, go figure.
The training takes 4 weeks for people that are cooks/galley/housekeeping, and 3 weeks for everyone else. After you graduate, you can choose to stay at the training facility and wait for your MMD, or pay your way home and wait for it there. Waiting for your MMD to get issued can take an additional couple weeks, but in some cases it can take much longer (there was a girl there that was 12 weeks deep when i got there, and was still there when i left 5 weeks later... you do the math). It takes on average 6 weeks, but the company will pay for you to go home and wait if you're there after 10 weeks, HOWEVER: The training has been moved from Piney Point straight to Hawaii, so I'm not sure if they are still paying to send people home, since it's much more expensive.
The training itself was fun in my opinion. You make alot of friends and learn alot of practical things like crowd management, fire fighting, personal survival, etc... It's pretty much impossible to not-pass any of the classes, just make sure you stay awake and listen to what they're saying. After you graduate it gets kind of boring because you're not allowed to actually leave the campus (there's literally barbed-wire fences surrounding the place), and they bus you over to the local Target for a 45 minute shopping spree (you'll never be so glad to see a target in your life). The food is good, and they provide you with stuff to do like sports, games, movies etc...Also if you're an alcoholic this is NOT the right job for you! At Piney Point they had a pretty nice bar with cheap drinks.. but the .04 BAC rule applies to training as well!! this is the number one reason people are kicked out of the program, and if you are kicked out then you have to pay your own way home. I can't stress it enough, be really careful with how much you drink they have local sheriff's there every night to breathalyze people. I know because several people i was friends with were fired because of this.
To clear up some other stuff, the pay at training is $50 PER WEEK, not PER DAY. and that's before taxes... I don't know who wrote that but they were wrong. either that or they used to pay trainees better, I don't know. So be prepared for that. And to captainjoe: they're looking for people who can work relentlessly and are sociable enough to be able to live with 3 room-mates in a very small space. It's also worth noting that almost half the guys at training were in fact gay, so if you're homophobic you might want to find a different job.
So I hope I shed a little light on the subject for you. any other questions about training just ask me!