Officer Life!

A brief post to explain the differences between being an officer, a petty officer and a crew member as I realize that I refer to these terms a lot but with no explanations!

So, the ship is very hierarchical. The "lowest" level, as such, is a crew member. Whilst we all refer to each other as "crew", not all roles are theoretically crew members. These roles are mostly the ones which are not seen below deck - engine wipers, maintenance, deck hands for example - but also housekeeping host/esses, food & beverage host/esses including servers and custodials which are in guest areas - for example, pool hosts. All crew members in these roles share a cabin with either 1 or 2 other people and most of them do not have "guest privileges" which means they have to stick to using the crew areas when they are not working and cannot use the guest areas unless they are at work.

Next up is the "petty officers" - this is pretty much everyone in Youth Activities, Merchandise, Cruise Staff & Entertainment and Guest Services. It's pretty much the same as being a crew member except you get certain "privileges" meaning that you can use some of the guest areas such as seeing a movie in the Buena Vista Theatre or the evening show as long as the guests go first and there is available space - and of course you're dressed in appropriate Disney Look clothing. It does not mean you can eat the guest food or use their restaurants or restrooms. You also cannot use the main pools or the Aquaduck.

Finally there are "officer" positions. This starts at 1-stripe (on each shoulder!) and goes to 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 (steering committee) and 4.5 (captain!). The main differences between petty officers and officers is that the officers mostly wear the white uniform that people are accustomed to seeing sailors wearing! Also, they get to eat in a different 'mess' which serves (slightly) more Western/rich food as it feeds less people than the crew mess. So, instead of getting pitta bread and hummus in a big bowl... you get stuffed pittas with a choice of chicken or beef ;) You also get a different type of cabin depending on how high up you are - one stripe officers get the same as petty officers but once you get 1.5 stripes you get a bigger room and then certain positions at 2 stripes and all 2.5+ officers get their own rooms, sometimes with a shared bathroom. Once you get to the 2.5+ level you might even get a window in your cabin!

Ultimately though, we all live under the same roof and everyone is very respectful of each other. You can all go to dinner in Cabanas - you just have to have the right form signed and sometimes be accompanied by a manager that's all! That's one of the things I love about where I work - everyone gets to enjoy themselves, even if it's just crew volleyball at the crew beach or an all-crew event in Cabanas. If you put the hard work in, you'll get fun out of it!