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

[cosmobrown]

DD is applying to work as a kids club worker on Disney Cruise lines.
She had an interview recently that confirmed she would be expected to work 7 days a week, 10hours per day. no days off for the whole 4 month contract
I was quite shocked to find out the hours they are expected to work. AIBU?
Is this even legal??

Same here. I used to travel with my husband on cargo ships and oil tankers. You get time off but not whole days off.

If you can;t do 70 hours a week at that age, when can you - and plenty of people do for years. It's going to be great money great experience a good CV job, shoes resilience, adaptability etc etc - absolutely 100% take it and be proud.

I'm not sure about the legal side, but a standard workweek is always 40 hours with 2 days off. This is totally wrong and insane.

Agreed it's all about the pay offs
I wish I'd done it when I was younger.
I have friends who did and they loved it

4 months without one day off seems insane to me but I appreciate many PP seem to be saying it's the norm in the industry.

Is it very well paid?

Is it based in Singapore by any chance?

The latest Disney ship sails out of Singapore and then goes in circles for few days then goes back to Singapore.

Practically OP what would she do on a day off? If she is at sea she would not be able to go ashore.

Her room will probably be shared with someone else sleeping in bunks.

She will be limited to the crew areas, which usually have various canteens, a gym and often a pool.

If I was young again I’d do it!

It's pretty standard for ships. I had a friend who worked on ships as medical support. She absolutely loved it ! Definitely something to do before having kids and commitments. I also have another friend who works as a cruise entertainer and does very well (He is on Disney at the moment) He is flown all over the world to board the ships at dock and then does a full on stint for a few weeks then has some time off. He met his partner on cruises too and they have a fantastic life ! I say go for it ! You'll only regret the things you didn't try.

Working on cruise ships can be incredibly challenging.

I believe the idea is to work long hours with no/few days off but then you have a couple months off, which for some people works better.

They would have less rooms available if they hired more staff to do fewer hours.

If I was younger/had no DCs then I’d definitely try it.
But as an adult, working isn’t the issue. Working is the easy part.

With the commute on top I do over those hours anyway but then I need to come home and be a mum, clean, cook, shop, do life admin etc whereas she will literally just be working and then everything else is on hand - that would be luxury for someone like me but for her she may struggle if she’s not used to it.

If she’s working eg 8am-6pm then she’ll have the evening to relax.

There will not be much for her to do on a cruise ship as a staff member and so she may be thankful that she’s working as it will make the days go much faster.

I do think staff have parties and things but I can imagine getting quite bored if you weren’t kept busy.

It would be nice to have 1 day or even have a day off but I’d swap not having a day off for not having to cook, clean and go shopping etc any day.

I once went for an interview for cruise ships in hospitality
No days off, a tiny tiny shared cabin and you weren’t allowed to use the ship’s facilities for entertainment
They seemed shocked when I told them that I wasn’t interested

@cosmobrown What would her salary be??

Clearly the 4 months is going to be intense work but if the wage is good she might feel it’s worth it but she’s going to need to go in being very clear m re what she’d be doing and in exchange for what.

Maybe let this be known on review sites for Disney cruises. Not that many people will think about how staff are treated when choosing a holiday or indeed many of their spending choices.

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.

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.

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!

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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!

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 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.

YANBU.