Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterline: Where the Crew Lives, Eats, Wars, and Parties. One Crazy Year Working on Cruise Ships
Under Books
- ISBN13: 9781932361605
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In Cruise Confidential, Brian David Bruns spills the dirt — or in this case, the dirty water — on those romantic, fun-filled vacations at sea. His hilarious chronicle of the year he spent working for Carnival Cruise Lines takes readers down into the areas where the crew works and lives, leaving readers gasping with laughter as they’re assaulted nonstop with events that range from the absurd to the utterly bizarre. Stewards fighting over food. Cutlery allowances and other nonsensical rules. What the crew calls those onboard (no, it’s not “passengers”). And of course, the sex. An abundance of ready, willing, and able bodies eager for action on a vessel replete with nooks and crannies leads to love in some mighty strange, and seemingly impossible, places. Breezy, entertaining, and informative, Cruise Confidential is essential reading for those planning a cruise or for anyone who just needs a good laugh.
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I love to cruise and read this book with the hope of finding out what it is like to work on a ship. The author covers only employees working in the food and beverage department. His characters and shallow and undeveloped. The whole experience seems like a wild, drunken fraternity party. The author goes into detail abut the sanitation procedures on the ship and this is interesting and appreciated. However, he spends most of his time detailing his own personal difficulties and it seems as though he has a real axe to grind. This book was interesting in spots but overall a very dull read.
Rating: 2 / 5
I often read books that involve a personal journey with added adventure.
Bruns novel included well written anecdotes that confirmed our suspicions that life below the water line is a college dorm room existance.
I found a few of the chapters to be engageing and others to be stomach turning As many of the main charectors (who were supposedly quite intelligent) would drink to excess when given only a few moments before it was time to work. These crew members had much to lose by poor performance but would take the risk every time. I longed for the one (or possibly more!!) crew member who would be a good worker AND be a lovely person on their down time. Someone who could keep integrity (and sobriety) while working. I went to college and am not against the occassional party or drink. But a good work ethic would seem to keep a person from choosing drink over sleep (or a good book) on at least some occassions.
And, while we all know that Americans are an unhealthy lot on the whole, I would like to think that it is possible for the crew to like and enjoy the company of some of the guests, and , not only the beautiful young college aged ones. There are nice people amoung all races no matter if they are thin or if they are the size of a cow. Even though Bruns is from Iowa, the constant American bashing left an unpleasant aftertaste.
I am sure this book shows some true sides of this job. But I think there is still another side. Someone who truely enjoys working with happy people who are hopeing to have a truely wonderful vacation/holiday. That story would be more satisfying.
Rating: 2 / 5
I read reviews about this book and had to read it myself. It takes you behind the scenes of working with Carnival Cruise Lines. There are so many great details that I’d love to talk about, but don’t want to be a spoiler. This is a great book for the Cruising Enthusiast. There will also be sequels to this book.
Rating: 5 / 5
While there is a certain inexplicable if voyeuristic tug that makes one want to continue reading Cruise Confidential, there is also a somewhat nagging sameness to it all. The book is a seemingly never ending whine about Bruns missing his girlfriend and being faithful to her, reportage on repeated if random, drunken couplings of the crew, and a continuous patter about long days and slovenly sleeplessness, courtesy of an uncaring management committed to extracting profit out of overworked employees.
There is also Brun’s rather obnoxious stylistic tendency to use the word “cat,” over and over again, as in “cat-damnit,” etc, which gets really old very quickly.
Certainly, the story could have been told in far fewer pages, but I suppose that there is also the possibility that the endless drudgery of shipboard roles might well have failed to come through had it all not been repeated so endlessly, in which case, then, there are probably nobler pursuits in the history of literature with far more important stories to tell than this one.
Rating: 2 / 5
I do not regret buying this book, but I can say I had a different idea as to some of the things I might learn from it.
I’m not exactly sure what the book lacked for me, but there was something. It was a good book though.
The story is almost shocking at how the author, being a minority American crew member, is discriminated against by the superiors and mocked by peer workers on the ships. I will say all ship life in this book is from the stand point of Carnival Cruise Lines.
Even though I had already read a little and heard that crew life is difficult, I learned from this book that the life on a cruise ship is a coninual hardship, with very few perks and little pay for the most part.
I also learned that as a frequent passenger on these ships, I should see the people that make my vacation smooth as much harder workers than I thought, even before. They will defintely be getting larger tips from now on!
Americans are not viewed, by foreign crew members, as a society as we might snobbishly think. This book might make you feel a teensy bit edgy about how you are seen by crew members on your next cruise…I know I’ll view the whole scenario differently from now on.
Rating: 3 / 5