Cruise ship worker explains reality of 'free-for-all' dating between employees onboard

A cruise ship worker explained the reality behind the cliché that dating between crew is a 'free-for-all' while on board.

Some people board specific cruises with the intention of getting their rocks off amidst the rolling waves, but even on regular ones which transport folks around various holiday hotspots the boat isn't the only thing that's rocking.

It turns out if you put a bunch of relatively young and physically capable people in one place together for an extended period of time some of them will start to do the horizontal bop.

Whether it be the cast of a theatre production, students in their university halls of residence or some of the world's finest athletes in their village at the Olympic Games, some of them will end up doing the no-pants dance with each other.

Cruise ship workers are not supposed to be making eyes at the guests, but YouTubing cruise ship worker Wanderlust Alley said she had some light to shed on this particular topic and it wasn't all the way people might expect.

Alley and her co-workers said the reality was a bit different than you might think (YouTube/Wanderlust Alley)

"Well, let me tell you what it’s like,” Alley said as she added that some of her ‘personal experiences’ would be informing this explanation.

“I would like to note that ships are a very expedited environment, if you enjoy someone’s company, it is beyond tangible to spend so much time together and get to know each other.”

She explained how back ‘on land’ you might meet someone for dinner on a Friday night, and then not see them again until the next weekend.

It was different on a cruise ship as you might meet them for dinner and then find yourself having ‘breakfast, lunch, dinner’ with them the next day and so on.

“So maybe on the outside looking in, it may look like the situation is a bit rushed,” Alley added, “But you can just form relationships super quickly here.”

The cruise worker says that plenty of people marry someone that they meet on board but ‘that doesn’t mean that casual relationships aren’t happening as well’.

One of her co-workers chimed in to say he reckoned ship life is a bit like ‘college at sea’, another said dating on board ‘is nice’ but it becomes difficult when work ends and you’re getting off the boat.

A worker says he even had a ‘ship relationship’ where it was agreed that it would come to an end when he left.

“You have to control yourself,” another said, “For me, if you have a girlfriend, you’re not having a girlfriend to just play around – if you are committed, you have to be committed.

“But I know that other people have families at home and they have agreements where they get on a ship and then they have ship wives, ship husbands.”

Alley said ‘there is a lot of opportunity’ on a cruise ship if you ‘want it’, and that doesn’t ‘vary too much from what happens on land’.

“I think the major difference here is that the bar is as easy as a four-minute walk from your house and that just means it’s simple to meet people,” she says.

“And on top of that, because we’re in a confined environment, everyone just may seem to know about it.”

Additional words by Jess Battison.