You are only a young lad yet so if I may comment.

My daughter travelled extensively with us as a kid and was travelling independently in the States when the 11th of September shook our world. She has had a few years in travel since leaving school and using that she came back on the QE2 rather than fly.

Whilst she would still tend towards work in travel the low wages, six day working week, dopey public, dopier managers etc have persuaded her that many more avenues exist where she can earn a living and then spend it on travel.

So - get yourself a good IT qualification and if you feel the same when you have finished sixth form or whatever college you are now at you can then refine your job search further and still keep your options open.

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Originally posted by TBirdFrank:
Steve
So - get yourself a good IT qualification and if you feel the same when you have finished sixth form or whatever college you are now at you can then refine your job search further and still keep your options open.

Best of luck, lad your enthusiasm deserves it!

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Steve -
This is great advice. Since Sept. 11, here in Canada, the travel industry has been on the skids - from what we hear, the UK is no different. Layoffs in the industry are at an all time high - talked today with long service (10 years++) employees of three highly respected Agencies - they are being cut back to 3 days next week.
Not only are people (unfortunately and perhaps foolishly) afraid to fly and travel, they are very concerned about where the money is coming from if they should be cut back or even laid off.

With language skills, ITC. etc. you have many options - at your age, you have many years to try out various avenues before coming to a decision. The Travel Industry is not going to go away but I'm afraid it's unlikely to improve much in the immediate future. Competition is fierce and Agency commissions are being cut back on just about everything.....consider carefully TBirdFrank's advice.

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Originally posted by titanicsteve:
Some day I might be looking after you all on a ship! You will all be old and wrinkled and I will be looking after your pensions in my pursers office hhaheh!

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We will expect a discout from you plus an upgrade, in payment for our 'wise' advice!

In terms od age, you will fast catch us up! A 40 year old is obviously twice as old as a 20 year old. However, 20 years later the 20 year old is 40 and the 40 year old is 60, making the older person only one third older! After 20 more years (60 & 80) the the younger person will be three quarters of the age of the older person!

It looks to me that you might be asking the wrong question.... Cruise ship's employees must first want to be of service if they are to be successful. After all it is primarily a service industry, then a travel industry. So, if you want to work on cruise ships first you need to figure out if you have the inclination to be of service to others. If what you are looking for is to travel, then do it as a hobby or you will turn out to be frustrated and unhappy with your choice of career when is too late...... Here is what I suggest to anyone who wants to get into the hospitality end of the cruise business: get you a job in a restaurant as an assistant waiter or busboy and see how you like to be in that environment and how comfortable you feel serving people and doing things for them. Also think about it from the other side: when you go to a restaurant, watch how the servers behave and figure out how would you behave if you were in their shoes and whether you would like it.... This is an easy and cheap way to see if you fit the basic "server" profile. On a ship, regardless of what you think your role is, you will be judged first by whether you enjoy serving and doing things for others, then comes what you do and how good you are at it. It is never the criteria to accommodate your whishes for travel......

Dealing with he general public today can be a real pain.

I suggest that you get a really basic skill such as plumbing where you will always be in demand. Stay out of the ratrace and take well earned vacations to cruise or indulge in any pleasure you may wish and be totally independant.

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What more do I need! [/QB]

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You sound like my dad topgun!