Some basic answers from me are below. I worked for Royal Caribbean for 2+ years in various positions, both shipboard and shoreside. Currently I work for a company that does sound, lighting, video and a/v design, installation and integration on cruise ships and mega yachts. During my time shipboard, I was a Stage & Production Manager with Royal Caribbean International.
Some basic background on the industry: There are only a few major players. Disney is not yet a major player as they only have two ships (with two more under construction in Papenburg, Germany).
Carnival Corporation - Owns and operates Carnival Cruises, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard and P&O cruises. There are others but they are smaller and not of significance for this discussion.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL herein) - Owns and operates Royal Caribbean International (RCI herein), Celebrity Cruises, and several other smaller lines that again are not of significance for our discussion.
Norwegian Cruise Line - As far as I know they are their own entity. You may want to verify that elsewhere though as I'm not 100% sure.
As you can see, there are many different cruise lines operating under different corporations. So my questions are basically from the viewpoint of one line under one corporation, though where applicable I've tried to answer from a broad point of view. Many of the questions you've asked are very broad and difficult to answer completely and accurately. Other questions invite subjective answers and you may not get information that's a true representation of a specific line, or life at sea in general.
Your questions:
- A: Broad question. Different lines have different requirements, and different ships within each line have different requirements. Generally, cruise ship SMs tend to lean towards the technical side. This is for a few reasons. One, the SM is usually the one to operate the automated rigging system, so background in rigging and automation is helpful. Two, the SM is sometimes responsible for supervising the maintenance and upkeep of the theatre and other venues onboard. In these cases it's necessary to have a technical background to understand what the venues require to stay operational.
A lot of SMs onboard ships have prior experience in the theme park industry or in Vegas. These shows tend to include more technical elements than "traditional" theatre, and generally are a good progression to working onboard a ship. - B: Broad question. Again, different lines have different requirements, and different ships within each line have different requirements. Check with the individual cruise lines for this. Mac's link below to Royal Caribbean Productions is a good start. Generally, RCI has higher requirements for technicians and SMs. This is because their ships are among the most (if not the most) technically advanced in the industry.
- C: Loaded question, very subjective. You'll get a different answer from every person you speak to. Lots of travel, meeting new people from across the world, hard work, save money. I loved the lifestyle. One of my favorite stories to tell people when they ask what ship life is like: where else can you sit in the bar and have a drink with a Mexican, Canadian, Russian, Turk, Brit, Aussie and South African at the same time? Generally, good to do while you're young and unattached and definitely opens your eyes to the world.
- D: Varies. If you're right out of college, most likely work your way up. If you come with prior experience in automation, rigging, budgeting and management, you may be hired right in. Mac mentioned hiring partners get a bonus if someone they hire gets promoted - this is actually not the case, at least with RCCL. Hiring partners get paid per crew member they hire. They get paid once the crewmember has been onboard for 90 days.
- E: Not sure other than RCI, which you have the answer to already.
- F: 0. This will be the case for all cruise lines.
- G: Varies. For RCI you manage your technicians and dancers from a personnel point of view. You're also responsible for budgeting for several accounts, ensuring maintenance is kept up and the venues are kept in good shape, scheduling the venues. In addition you also run the production shows, schedule rehearsal, and run the headliner/guest entertainer shows. As far as paperwork, voyage reports (this takes the place of the performance report that is common on land), performance evaluations of staff, disciplinary forms if necessary (not a fun one, but part of the job), purchase orders for commodities and services, maintenance logs.
- H: Such as?
- I: Varies by cruise line and ship. A ship with a short 3 or 4 day cruise will usually have two production shows in rep. A ship with a 14 night itinerary could have up to 4 production shows in rep. This is in addition to welcome aboard show, farewell show, and headliner and guest entertainer shows on other nights.
- J: Varies by cruise line. Generally speaking, the productions are designed and built as long running shows. You'd be hard pressed to find a production show in the industry that lasts less than five years. They're costly to produce and the companies want to get some serious mileage for the investment.
- K: Sure.
- L: There are no guarantees in the cruise industry, ever. If you're thinking about going into this industry, embrace that and be ready for change!
- M: Loaded question, very subjective. Travel, save money, meet interesting people, get a lot of experience very quickly. Away from home, friends and family, miss the little conveniences of land.
I hope this was helpful, good luck on the thesis.