Disney Kids Club job. 70hrs a week. No days off.

usually paid in US dollars but it works out at around 2-2.5k pounds per month, but no accommodation or food costs etc so it would work out well I reckon

The laws are different. My best friend works for them having worked for another Major Cruise Line. Working conditions and pay are much better!

This is standard practice on cruises.

I’m assuming she’ll earn tens of thousands of pounds over the 4 months working those hours, which is a lot for a very young person with limited qualifications. 18 year-old me might have done it.

I’d absolutely do that at least once - a great experience and some stories to tell, and it beats working in Tesco for the summer - added to which to get Disney to put on your CV. Tell her to go and make the most of it - it’s only 4 months if she decides she doesn’t like it.

I’m not sure the nmw applies for cruises and how they operate. I couldn’t do it, but if a young person with no kids wants to get paid to travel the world then it could be worth it. I used to work for an airlines selling flights. I had free standby flights as a benefit and discounted hotel stays. It was minimum wage but always worked past my shift meaning I was earning well below the nmw if I factored it in. For me it was well worth it at the time. I left and went into travel technology earning more than 6x as much but honestly miss travelling on a shoestring budget, seeing places I can’t afford to travel to now !

Goodness, it certainly sounds full on. Ultimately I guess it’s up to her but unless the pay was incredible, I wouldn’t be that interested, not least because of how claustrophobic I gather the staff areas are. So crammed in and all living on top of each other!

Very rude to assume that the OP’s daughter has ‘limited qualifications’

Hm I’m not sure I’d be happy putting my kids into that club if I knew about the staff working conditions

I've worked on cruise ships albeit in a different role, but yes this is fairly standard to be honest. I worked retail which allows for a bit more time off as shops close in port, but you'd still work in the evening when they sail so yes it can be months without a full day off.

Ask her to check what shift patterns look like, what facilities she's able to use and what crew facilities are provided. On the ship I worked on we were allowed to use customer buffet restaurants and bars, and speciality restaurants if there was space. We could use the pool and gym on the understanding that if guests were looking for space we'd move. There is a difference between what 'staff' and 'crew' can use - staff are generally given more options. This was a very small ship, bigger ships often have dedicated crew decks and a crew gym as well as a bar and library.

It's very hard work but I came home with lots of money saved, met some great friends and generally had a blast!

I’ve known of a few people who have worked on cruises and they’ve all said it was the best experience.

I wish I had done it. Good luck to your daughter, it’s ‘only’ four months and she’ll earn enough to buy herself a car/go travelling/give herself a decent cushion before starting the normal 24/7 grind.

Even if she hates it, it is 4 months and it is an experience she can moan about forever.

Is it a High Season position or permanent ?
as if it's high season she will only be paid for the 4 months and not be paid for any annual leave when she leave.

This is the reality of Kids Clubs on cruises.

It will be 10 hours over the working day, which could be 8am - 11pm - this allows for a babies session in the morning and a teenagers club in the evening.

So one day she may work 8am until 6pm and have the evening off, another day she may not start until 1pm thus having the whole morning off.

She may find that if no teenagers turn up to the teenagers club within 15 mins of it's start time i.e. 9pm she doesn't need to work that session so essentially it becomes a 8 hour working day,
or if x amount of teenagers turn up she may not have to do the session as there will be too many members of staff for the quota of teenagers etc. yet again that becomes an 8 hour working day.

Why did she choose Disney cruises ? is it the ' prestige of the name Disney ?
or do they pay more than other cruise companies ?

Will she be ok sharing a cabin with 1 or 2 others, it's very possible it will be a cabin with bunk beds and no windows - not everyone can cope with the lack of windows.

Do Disney pay for the ENG1 certificate ( it's a seafarers medical ) or is she required to pay for it - £115 approx.

@cosmobrown

Yes, I do remember some young people being very excited at getting a job at EuroDisney when it opened (early 1990s,) and it was bloody awful. They were run ragged, and treated like shit.

They had to work around 55-57 hours a week at the time, and they would get 1 full day off. (Either a Tuesday or a Wednesday, never a weekend day.)

So the 55-57 hours would be over 6 days. (About 9-10 hours a day,) And it would be like 10am to 2.30pm, and then 4pm to 9.30pm or 10pm. (All on the same day.) Or 11am to 4.30pm, then 6.30pm to 10.30pm, SIX DAYS A WEEK, so there was very little reprieve or opportunity to do anything else. They got (in today's money) about £65 a week to themselves, everything was paid for but they got paid peanuts.

Sounds like it's even worse now!

YANBU.

I think people expect it being similar to a holiday but it’s not, it’s work.

You of course can’t use the ships facilities, as these are for paying guests.

You don’t get your own room and the rooms are going to be small because they need to fit in as many people as possible within a certain space.
Even the guests cabins aren’t huge.

Some lines let you have a day or half a day off but the idea is that you work constantly and then have a couple of months off.

Yes, this is standard for cruise ship staff; they have to have 10 hours not working each day, but this can be split into shorter periods and they do get 2 months paid leave at the end of each contract (usually 9 months)

Basically it's take it or leave it; the conditions aren't always popular with western staff, but there's an endless supply of people from other nations who queue up for the opportunity, and as long as that's the case I doubt much will change

I think it’s not totally crazy in context - they kind of don’t want employees to be off and being guests on the ship and muddying the waters and they need everyone to work as much as possible given limited staff cabins. But the money needs to be good!

Son worked six weeks on six weeks off 12 hour shifts. He did save a lot of money

Don't discourage her if it's good money that she can save for a house. Life is hard and there will be many more challenges on the way. 4 months is nothing and it all sounds like a lot of fun.

I did a bit of cruise stuff years ago. My advice is to check what she is allowed to do and where she is allowed to go when she isn't working. She may be allowed in the passenger areas but may not. Some personnel are banned from ever going on deck or anywhere where the passengers are.

Childcare and kids clubs will be very well organized if it’s Disney. There will be lots of staff overlap and I’d expect a 3-4-3 hour working day with 1-hr breaks. So even if she takes an hour to get ready she still has 11 hours a day to sleep and relax. In your 20s that’s fine, as long as you enjoy the company of children!
Has she not received a job description?

Well she doesn’t have to do it! No-one is forcing her!

As others have said, I think it’s pretty normal for things like this - ship work and such. Same with something like working on an oil rig. Is it fair? Perhaps not, but at the same time those that do this sort of work as their career usually do a long period on a boat or wherever and then get a long break before the next period of work. And they usually / hopefully get paid decently to allow for that. And get bed and board and food one hopes… Hard work but would be an experience!

DP had a similar experience when he looked into work at Eurocamp or similar, which was advertised in an industry forum he's part of.

It sounded good on paper, a few weeks at the start of the season putting up tents and fixing any problems like broken fences etc. Quite similar to his normal job at the time, in the entertainment industry and was at a quiet time of year when he doesn't normally have much work on.

However, staff accommodation was 6 to a caravan and the weekly pay for about 60 hours was less than he got for one shift normally (and he quite often gets paid for two (short) shifts in one day or could earn 10 times the amount on offer in a week the main summer season). Clearly they wanted to exploit young people without any ties or those desperate to earn money.

So they were wasting their time and taking the piss trying to get experienced professionals to do the work when what they paid would have barely covered travel and basic food/entertainment. At best it was a cheap holiday where you had to spend a good proportion of the time you were there working, but perhaps earned enough to pay to go out each night as long as you drunk beer not cocktails.

I would suggest she looks at other cruise liners. I'm on a practitioner face book group and yesterday someone said they were having an interview for Disney cruises and quite a few people suggested different cruises, often working less hours. From my understanding it's really difficult, obviously long days, no days off, often new children everyday, so they'll be unsettled. Doesn't sound fun at all.