Trade Your Expertise For A Cruise

Here’s The Way To Barter For Your Passage

Contrary to what you may think, a cruise ship is not just all drink, dine and dance. It has also become a center of cultural enlightenment; nothing really heavy, but a continuous and varied list of lectures, films, and arts and crafts.

Lectures, as an example, are done on a variety of subjects, such as the ports to be visited, books, current affairs, finance, oceanography, bridge, arts and other topics.

From the ship operator’s point of view, the worst sin of all is to have a passenger who is bored or uninvolved in shipboard activities. They go to almost any end to provide the usual recreation (swimming, trapshooting, ping pong, shuffleboard, and live entertainment).

In addition, they add such diverse elements as the lectures mentioned and special interest classes. One ship may have special classes for bridge enthusiasts, another may be filled with economic experts who spend the cruise discussing higher economics.

The point is, the shipping companies are interested is almost anyone who can offer to teach or lecture or demonstrate something that will help sell tickets on that particular voyage.

What are they interested in? Virtually everything imaginable.

A recent cruise included doctors, a masseuse, youth and child counselors, a rabbi, a self-taught expert on the ports the ship would be calling on, an arts-and-crafts instructor, a weaver, a poet, a banker, a right-wing politician and writer, a bridge expert, and entertainers.
See the opportunity? If you can play the piano in the ship’s lounge for two hours a day, you may be eligible for a free trip.

The usual arrangement is just like that—a trade-out situation. You agree to do something on board in exchange for passage and board. Whether or not you can bring your spouse depends on the deal you work out.

Doctors are in high demand, as are counselors for children. (Doctors work in the ship hospital, and counselors baby-sit as well as counsel.)
If you are interested in bartering for your passage, write to several cruise lines and explain your expertise. Ask them for their policy and potential openings.

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