Thanks to TikTok we’ve had plenty of industries demystified by camera-equipped workers, from pizza artists at Papa Johns to crew members on cruise liners.
A major benefit of working on a cruise ship is the free stuff that crew members get, going some way to assuage the fact that they’ll effectively be at work for months at a time.
If you’re keen to take a cruise as a civilian, you can expect a ticket to set you back by well over £1,000, or potentially multiple thousands. The ticket price might only cover your room, too, although all-inclusive packages tend to be available and recommended.
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For staff, bed and board are part of the job. The rooms might not be the grandest, but when they’re free it’s hard to complain. As long as they’re clean and well-provisioned, anyway.
Food is another matter, with crew members typically getting grub for free provided they eat in the crew mess. Not everything is covered there though, and one particular cost has shocked some social media commenters.
Bryan James, @bryanjamescruises, is a musician who’s worked with Royal Caribbean on various voyages, and he’s posted plenty of TikTok videos detailing his experiences whilst working on a cruise liner.
Whilst working on the Odyssey of the Seas over six months, he served as a solo guitarist providing entertainment to the 4,000-strong passenger count.
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Along with other insights into working life on a cruise ship, he shared what crew members can expect from the food.
You might be expecting some proper school dinner fare, but you’d be wrong: most of it looks pretty damn good.
"Here's what a typical lunch looks like for crew members on cruise ships,” Bryan said in one of his videos. “It's actually pretty good.
"Number one: rice. Every single meal - breakfast, lunch and dinner - rice.
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"And in the mornings for breakfast, fried rice [thumbs up].
"Secondly, you're always going to find a salad bar. And it's a very typical salad bar.
"It's really similar to what you'd find at a Pizza Hut or something.
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"And then on every single ship you're always going to have Indian food. And then of course Filipino dishes because the majority of workers on cruise ships are Filipino.
"On Royal Caribbean ships you're always going to get two choices for soups. This one [picking up a ladle in the soup] actually looks pretty good but I didn't eat it, maybe next time.
"And then every so often you see items that you've just never seen before like boiled yucca - which looks very yucca to me. No I'm just kidding, it looks delicious.
"This ship is a lot smaller than my last ship and so we just have two little seating areas. It can get pretty packed during the lunch hour but that is only like a 20 minute rush.
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"So if you don't have to eat at that very specific time then you can kind of avoid all the craziness."
Various holidays get special spreads too, such as a Valentine’s Day meal Bryan shared that featured a tonne of fresh fruit and a heart-shaped cake.
There’s clearly some love going into those crew member meals, at any rate.
Other shared dishes include: a Dahi Kadhi curry, Filipino Bistek Taalog, pepper pot soup, boiled yucca and bean stew.
Commenters couldn’t believe how good the food looked.
"Honestly, I would prefer the crew mess to the passenger buffet if I were cruising," said one TikTok user.
Another said: "This is actually pretty decent. I've been told something much worse, more like a prison food. Did they just exaggerate things up?"
"It looks pretty damn good to me,” added another, with another saying: "Thanks for sharing this, it looks delicious."
Rachael Davis