Royal Caribbean crew members share onboard secrets

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Royal Caribbean crew members share onboard secrets originally appeared on Come Cruise With Me.

Cruise ship musicians have an easier life at sea than most crew members.

They get more rights than other crew members, and in many cases, essentially are passengers. Musicians still have responsibilities other than playing music, but when they're not working they generally have access to all areas of the ship.

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As people who get to cross between the crew and passenger areas, they also learn a lot of secrets.

Related: Popular Royal Caribbean port finally reopens to cruise ships

Bryan James has been living on ships for years as a Royal Caribbean musician. He has been a solo performer and sometimes he has been part of the country band that plays in Mason Jar on the Oasis-Class ships (Allure, Utopia, and Wonder) that have that bar and restaurant.

The guitarist just got off one ships and is soon heading to Allure of the Seas for what he says is his final contract.

Before he got off, he shared some secrets he learned while working on ships.

Everything Bryan James learned on Royal Caribbean

Transcript:

Bryan James: All right, the question we've been avoiding, where is the action taking place below deck? Are there relations between crew members?

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Yes, lots of relations, and let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it. It's my last day on the ship. This is gonna be following my entire day from packing to meetings to last meals, signing off the ship, getting to the airport, at the airport, there's a lot.

This is the Q&A. You ask me hundreds and hundreds of questions. What are you going to do when you leave ships for good?

This is from Monica Harrington. That is the hardest question, but as you know, I won't be on ships for much longer. I have one last ship.

It's called the Allure of the Seas, and we're gonna be sailing out of Barcelona. Once that is done, my plan is to travel and continue to make videos. It just won't be traveling on a ship.

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It'll be traveling to different countries that I really love, or honestly, probably not even countries I love, countries that I've never been to before and countries that I wanna see and I wanna explore. Here's the tough part, and this answers somebody else's question, is what is going on with Jayden, or who is Jayden? There was probably 50 questions while asking about Jayden.

Jayden is not coming to me. She's not going where I'm going because the weird part about ships is that you take a contract, you get sent to that ship, and that's that. The more specific your role is on the ship, the more difficult it is to get on the same ship.

So if we were both bartenders, sure. You need bartenders on every ship, no matter what, but because she's a dancer, and she's doing a very specific dancing show, and because I am a country music singer, and I'm doing this specific country music show, there's only three ships in the entire fleet that I can work on, so it really restricts where I go. Jayden's going to a really cool ship.

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I don't know if I can say it. I'll leave that up to her. It's just, it's just.

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Does she? Is she? Nope, okay.

I mean, I. She's not, she's. Wait, I, should I just?

Jayden:Cut. Wow, this feels so official, but I'm going to Star. I'm gonna be in the Aqua Theater.

James:Definitely be a change of pace, but one that I'm very excited for. So yeah, that's me.

Star of the Seas, and we're sailing in totally different parts of the planet, so I'll be in Europe, she'll be in the Caribbean, and it complicates things a little bit, but ships are complicated. We've done what we could for now. I have to go to the sign-off meeting, bye.

Bryan James has one last Royal Caribbean ship

Where the heck am I? I've lived on this ship for practically a year. I still get lost sometimes.

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Where am I? All right, sign-off meeting. We just pretty much have to, like, be thanked for what we've done, and make sure that we tell them that we're healthy, and then they give us a sheet that talks about, like, how clean our rooms are, and if we've returned everything, so it's like, has the linen been taken to the laundry room?

Is the equipment working and present, like the fridge, or the remote control for the TV? Garbage been removed. Life jacket present.

So, once you just confirm all this stuff, then you're good. Okay, meeting is complete. So now, I have to shut off my card.

I have to make it so I can't buy anything else on the ship anymore. I'm gonna buy my last Coca-Cola on Utopia of the Seas. The secret is that all the Coke in the back is way colder than in the front, so I always just reach through.

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And then, I'm like Robin Hood. I take all the cold ones from the back, and I put them near the front. So, because someone is moving into my room tomorrow morning, I gotta get all their linens for them.

I just walked up three flights of stairs. I'm winded. We gotta take this to the room, and then we're going out to a fancy dinner.

Can't wait. Oh, wait, before that, actually, I gotta go to financial, shut my card down. I'm just gonna go with my luck here.

Okay, I have $3 left on my account. And the one thing I just realized, though, is I forgot to buy internet. So, I have no more internet access until tomorrow at 7 a.m. Going out. So excited. Guys, this is what I love about Giovanni's. So, they've got a restaurant where you can pay the full price and have a full dinner.

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Like, what you think of when you go on a cruise ship, you pay for the fancy dinner, it costs like 50 bucks, or you go to Giovanni's where they have a la carte stuff. This, right in front of me, look at that. I'm gonna zoom in so you can really see it.

This, $3, $3, everybody. And because I'm a crew member, it's 20% off, not even three bucks for all of this.

Jayden:I got three of these for $12, that's so good. And how much did we get off, 20%, 25?

James:What a life we're living. Anybody ever ask me why do I like working on cruise ships? It's stuff like this.

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Miss Alicia P. asked this. Do I ever get tired of cruise ship food?

The answer is yes, but because of my job on the ship, which is really, really unique, I can pretty easily go to the other restaurants on board. So anytime that I am absolutely sick and tired of rice and chicken and like the typical stuff that you get in the crew mess, I can come here and get something like this instead.

But if I was gonna answer really honestly about the crew mess and how I feel about the food, this is by far the best ship that I've been on when it comes to crew mess food.

There are plenty of times where it's really, really bad, especially on other cruise lines. I've been on other cruise lines where it was like I had to drag my feet to a meal because I knew I had to eat. I was hungry, but nothing was good.

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And you knew walking in there that nothing was gonna be good. Cruise ships also have like a very particular flavor to them like each cruise line has a taste. If I had a blind taste test, I would be able to tell you like, oh shoot, that's Carnival, that's celebrity, that's Royal Caribbean, that's Norwegian.

Do I get sick of it? Yes and no. There's always ways around it and you can make it work.

Dinner's done and maybe the most important question is up next. I was asked why do I always wear a hat? It's been made very clear to me that I look better with a hat on my head than just my bare head.

Can you take my hat off? See, look at that. Purposely under the light for you so you can see how shiny it is.

Not so good, not so good. So that's why the hat's on. Okay, we've got to get a few things done.

I have work in about 40 minutes so I need to warm up my voice a little bit. Also, somebody just told me that I have a package being delivered to the ship on my last day. So I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna get that package and also get off the ship at the same time with that package.

So we're gonna go down below deck and see what we're gonna do about that. I'm really confused who would have sent me a package. I've never given out this address.

Even my mother doesn't know the address to send me stuff. So yeah, what could it be? Maybe it's just a mistake.

It is closed. So, whoever sent me a package, thank you. I don't think I'm gonna have a chance to get it because I leave tomorrow morning.

I'm going to drop by Jaden's room, see if she's there. Hey.

Jayden:Oh my gosh, Kiara has a gift for you.

James:You're reading on the floor?

Jayden:She has a gift for you.

James:Oh my gosh. It's a reality for right now. Thank you so much.

Jayden:This is it.

Are you kind of in packing mode right now?

I just keep finding things. The new cast is gonna be so excited about this.

James:You're just passing this all along?

Jayden:Yeah, look, I'm even getting rid of her.

James:Are you gonna leave it in the room or are you gonna put it like backstage or something?

Jayden:I think I was gonna do backstage, but it gets a bit crowded back there.

James:This is the room from the famous, famous TikTok. Hey, how much do you pay for rent on a cruise ship? Where Jaden showed you this perfectly cleaned room.

I see this now. And how- This is sign off.

Jayden:Oh my gosh, this is amazing.

James:This is what you got instead. I can't believe it. It's still not bad, honestly, for- It's an organized chaos.

Two people live in here. It's pretty bad. You got underpants, underwear just hanging.

Bye, so nice to see you.

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Bryan James goes home (for a while)

Okay, spoiler alert, guys. I've made it home safely. There's still so much to talk about in this sign off day video.

But before I do that, I want to fast forward us to the airport because I want to tell you a little bit about all the gear that I've been using to make this very video. Finally made it to the airport. The company sends us here at like 10 in the morning, but my flight isn't until 8 p.m.

So there is so much time to kill. So more questions and answers. What is my ultimate travel accessory? Right now, for sure, especially for a day like today at the airport, it's the Anker laptop power bank.

I feel like the airport is a never ending rat race of people trying to find outlets to charge their devices. You've got people sitting on the floor just to get a little bit of electricity. So I completely avoid this by setting up shop in a chill, relaxing, normal environment.

Just basically not sitting on the floor. What I love about the power bank is that it already comes with two cables built in. One is retractable, so super easy, just slides right back in.

The other one kind of doubles as a lanyard so you can carry it around. Really strong, very durable. And did I mention this has a 25,000 milliamp battery?

This thing is an absolute beast, but it can fit in your pocket and it easily slides into your backpack. I've got YouTube videos running on my laptop. I'm editing through the Vision Pro.

I'm having a FaceTime with my girlfriend. I'm able to keep all of my devices fully charged for the entirety of my stay at this airport, which again, is a very, very long time. Now I'm not in the airport forever.

Eventually I will make it onto the airplane, but I'm gonna need more than one plug. So I switch it up and use the Anker laptop charger. But just like the power bank, it is compact.

It can power up to four devices at once. And the real-time smart display shows me exactly how much power is being put into each device. You can find both of these at Anker.com or check the link in my description. All right, back to the video. There's always this snack table on the way to work. And I never know who it's for, but it always has a fresh plate of pineapples.

Okay, sneaking outside for a quick second. And I'm realizing I'm never gonna see this again. Like, this very specific pool deck with the lime and coconut and yada, yada, yada.

I know this ship better than any ship I've ever been on because it's exactly like the last ship I was on. So therefore, I feel like I've been on this boat for- Three years. Yeah, three years.

Anyway, somebody asked me a question. The question was, oh, what inspired me to work on cruise ships? That's the question.

What inspired me to work on cruise ships? And what's inspiring me to leave cruise ships? Because as you know, I'm not gonna be doing cruise ships for much longer.

Hence why I'm kind of documenting all of it, documenting my life. What inspired me to work on a cruise ship? It's a long story to make it really, really short.

I went on a cruise myself with some friends and I saw this girl singing in the background. The atrium, this was on a carnival ship and she just sounded incredible. She was really, really good.

So we started to follow her around the ship and watch her shows. And then it clicked one day. All my friends that were traveling with me, we were musicians.

And so we were like, let's talk to her. Let's ask about this. And she just told us that it was the best job she'd ever had.

She wished that she started 10 years sooner, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I just kind of kept it in the back of my mind for a while. Years and years and years, I thought about it, but I didn't think I was capable to do it.

I looked for other jobs and I knew I wanted to travel. So I thought, oh, maybe I'll join the airlines or something like that. And then one day I just said, what am I doing?

I should at least try. I should at least just see what they say. And if they say no, then I know I can move on.

And I submitted a video of me singing. And I think it was truly within 30 minutes, they wrote back and said, oh, this is great. We've got options for you.

And I was like, no way. So eventually I decided to call some friends because it felt nerve wracking to do it by myself. And I joined a ship with friends back in 2017.

Been doing it pretty much nonstop ever since. And that's the answer for why I need to take a break is because I've been doing it nonstop ever since 2017. And it's time to have a slightly more normal life because as great as working on ships can be, it is exhausting.

And it's socially exhausting. And it's, yeah, it's just harder than it looks. And I'm one of the lucky ones with a really great job that isn't too taxing.

I can't imagine if I had a, I don't wanna say it, like a real job on ships. Oh my gosh, I don't know how I could handle it for as long as I did. So yeah, that's a really long answer to a question that could probably have an answer 10 times as long.

But that's it. Now you know, now you know the story. It's the end of the night, guys.

We have to clean up the stage and get it prepped and ready for the next band. Cause they come on tomorrow and they just, they've got a show. It's Friday and it's like, people are ready to go.

So they have to like come with this excitement. Like they've been here and they've been gigging and they've been doing it this whole time and ready to throw the biggest, fattest party for all the new guests on board. But truly, they'll just be showing up probably exhausted and trying to get through four straight hours of live music.

First days are tough. So off to, what are we doing next? What are we doing now?

Packing still?

Jayden:Going to bed?

James:More packing and going to bed.

Jayden:Mainstream!

James:Mainstream time! Guys, this is my favorite bathroom on the ship and this is the last time I'll get to use it. The reason it's my favorite bathroom is because here's a crew area and here's the bathroom.

If I need the bathroom quickly, but my bathroom is occupied, since you know I'm sharing it with somebody, here we go. It's the next best thing. And the reason I like it so much is because bathrooms on cruise ships are so clean.

They are washed every 15 minutes. So every single bathroom you ever step into on a ship, you can pretty much guarantee you could eat a steak off that floor.

Jayden:You could.

James:See, look at this. So nice. Everything's prepped, ready, perfected.

Great vibes in here. And artwork. Last thing I gotta do is drop off old sheets and towels and stuff.

And then I'm a free man. All right. Let's check out the room, make sure everything is taken care of.

Ooh, captain.

"Morning, Utopia of the Seats crew. This is a message from the bridge."

James:All right, I have to go to studio B, which sends me to elevator A. Sometimes we get off the ship in a hurry. Other times it takes hours.

So I'm going to assume that it's gonna take hours. Doors closing. Doors closing.

Oh, not yet. Doors opening. Going up.

Thank you. Thank you, elevator. Doors closing.

It's really hard to film and carry things at the same time. Deck four. All right.

The one place we're not allowed to go. So this is where we are going to wait to get taken off the ship. I don't really know how long it's gonna take.

I'm guessing it's gonna be like an hour at least. So we're just gonna be chilling in an ice skating rink. It's kind of cold.

I probably should have had my sweatshirt a little bit easier to access, but what can you do? So these people here are doing immigration.

Jayden:Oh shoot, we're really going.

James:They're cleaning the side of the ship, like way, way, way up on the top deck. And it's pouring down onto the gangway. So anybody that wants to leave the ship is rained on right now on a otherwise really sunny day.

I am never coming back to this port again, I'm pretty sure. So I'm just trying to soak it all in while I still can. The industrialness of it all.

The forklifts, everything that reminds me. Yeah, everything that reminds me of Port Canaveral. What time is it?

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Bryan James signs off Royal Caribbean

It's 9.55. This is not bad. We had to get there at nine. It's 9.55. Not only is this not bad, this is the fastest sign off I've ever been a part of. So to answer the question of what's my favorite ship in the world that I've ever worked on, it's now this one. If you can give me a fast sign off, you're suddenly upgraded to the best ship on the planet. Made it out.

Normally I would go on this bus right over here. This is the bus and all crew members have to go on that bus to be taken to the airport because there's a lot of laws, I guess, about repatriating people to their country. So Royal Caribbean is like responsible to get them to the airport and make sure that they're there.

But since I'm an American, I can just go. This is it. That's all I own.

This is weird. Normally when I leave a ship, I know I'm coming back. Never.

Okay, got a question from Snobbish. Would you ever work for another cruise line?

Jayden:As a dancer, no. I feel like Royal Caribbean is the best when it comes to entertainment.

James:You wouldn't work for Disney? Not for Carnival? Virgin?

Free internet? The perks of Virgin and all that. And I think you can walk all over the ship.

You have the freedom of doing whatever you want.

Jayden;This is what you have to ask yourself. Are you there for the lifestyle and the perks of the job? So the room, the internet, the food, things like that.

Do you want to be living as a guest? Or are you there for what I'm there for?

The dance, more of the dance. More like career side of it. And from a performer's standpoint, I think this is just where the best of the best is.

So definitely Royal Caribbean.

James:Okay, because it's my last Florida, we're gonna do things that Floridians do, which is go to the beach. So we're at, I think we're in Cocoa Beach right now. And if you know anything about Cocoa Beach, this is the place where I Dream of Jeannie was based.

A very popular TV show. Have you ever heard of I Dream of Jeannie? Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.

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Do Royal Caribbean crew members hook up?

All right, the question we've been avoiding. Where is the action taking place below deck? Are there relations between crew members?

Yes, there's a whole world down below deck. Over 2,300 crew members. I'd say if you want the best chance of getting boom boom action, you'd go to crew bar.

I think anybody. At crew bar. No, if you want to meet somebody.

Oh. No, no, no, it doesn't happen at crew bar, but if you want to meet somebody, everyone that you see around you, you know you're gonna see every single day for the next six months.

Jayden:See, I don't go to the crew bar, so I agree with you, but at the same time, there's other ways.

James:The nicer your room is, the higher the likelihood of you meeting somebody that wants to come back to your room with you. So if you've got a porthole or a big bed or you get room service, it's just magic. It's just magic.

Somehow, it's just somehow people think you're funnier and nicer and more worth spending their time with, but if you've got a bunk bed, I don't know, yeah, it's just a little bit tougher to convince somebody to hang out with you at the end of the night. I do.

Jayden:You have a really small cabin.

James:I do. All right, TLDR, if you want boom boom action, just get on a ship. Everybody's stuck here for months at a time, and you'll put your ship goggles on, and somebody that you never would have considered on land suddenly will seem like a great, great lifelong partner for you on a ship.

Jayden:I don't know, I mean, they're so.

James:All right, it's been a long travel day. I left the ship at 10 a.m. My flight was at eight o'clock. I'm now in San Francisco at 2 a.m. Florida time, so it feels good to be home. And I'm home, but not for long, though. In three weeks, I'm flying out to Spain. I'm gonna join my last cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, and so I'm gonna be making a new video about that.

Instead of a sign-off day, it's gonna be a sign-on day. So a lot to look forward to. Thanks for watching the video, guys, and a special thank you to Anchor, the sponsor of this video.

See you in the next one.

(The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.)

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This story was originally reported by Come Cruise With Me on Jun 29, 2025, where it first appeared.