I’m a general manager on a $450-million cruise ship. I’m on duty 24 hours but it’s worth it to travel the world in a floating 5-star hotel.

• Alessandro Menegazzi has labored on cruise ships since 1997 and has at all times felt a name to the ocean. 

• He’s now the overall supervisor for the $450-million Regent Seven Seas Explorer.

• Menegazzi shares what it is prefer to work and reside overseas what he calls a “floating five-star lodge.”

This as-told-to essay is predicated on a transcribed dialog with Alessandro Menegazzi, the overall supervisor for the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, about his job at sea. It has been edited for size and readability. 

Considered one of my first jobs within the lodge trade was in Palma de Mallorca – a preferred vacationer vacation spot in Spain. Working by the waterfront, I might see these large cruise ships coming out and in of the port. I used to be transfixed. I bear in mind saying, “sooner or later I will probably be engaged on a kind of ships.”

Now I am the overall supervisor on the $450-million Regent Seven Seas Explorer.

The primary time I joined a cruise ship crew was in Los Angeles in Might 1997. It was a brief cruise to Alaska, however the second I stepped onboard, I used to be amazed.

I began as a junior purser in reception answering visitors’ queries. Through the years, I labored my manner up the profession ladder. I labored on MSC Cruises for 4 years till I turned meals and beverage director for Regent Seven Seas in 2014.

I’ve at all times been drawn to the ocean

I left the cruise trade a few instances for hospitality jobs on land. I labored on the iconic lodge Villa D’Este in Lake Como, Italy, however the sea was at all times calling me again. In Italy, we name it “iron fever” as a result of the ship is sort of a magnet.

In December 2021, I used to be promoted to normal supervisor for Regent Seven Seas Explorer.

On the Explorer, the captain is in control of crusing and I’m answerable for something associated to the lodge aspect of the ship, from customer support to meals and beverage. I oversee about 75% of the 550-member crew.

The Explorer is a floating 5-star lodge

Our Regent Suite, the costliest cabin on the ship, is adorned with works by Picasso and a Steinway piano and has an in-suite caviar service. In one among our eating places, we use Versace tableware, and there are greater than 500 crystal chandeliers dotted all through the ship.

Story continues

My workplace is within the atrium – the beating coronary heart of the ship – the place the crew welcomes visitors on board with a glass of champagne, and there are sweeping staircases that result in one among our eating places.

The ship does journeys all world wide. This yr we have now traveled across the Mediterranean, via Asia, and at the moment are heading to Australia. From there it should transfer on to Canada.

I will probably be crusing with Explorer for the subsequent two years. You possibly can say which components of the world you’ll like to work in, however you possibly can by no means select. There are two normal managers on Explorer, and we alternate. I work three months on board the ship, after which have three months off.

I depart the ship in Bangkok in January, then I’ll fly house to Japan to spend time with my household and revel in my three-month break. After I go house to Tokyo, my spouse and I normally go on trip. She is going to generally be part of me on the ship.

I’ll normally begin my day on the ship at 7 a.m.

I at all times get espresso from the onboard cafe for my breakfast. Then I’ll go to my workplace and verify my emails. As our headquarters are in Miami, there will probably be loads of requests which have are available in a single day I must motion.

Nonetheless, my job shouldn’t be 10 hours sitting at a desk. I must be seen to the visitors and crew. I’ll have conferences with the managers and say howdy to the visitors.

Within the night, I’ll do a number of internet hosting with visitors, whether or not that is at dinner or for welcome drinks. All of the senior crew members need to host visitors. We are going to introduce ourselves after which sit down at a desk and be part of them for dinner. We do not have a captain’s desk as resembling we have now so many eating places.

Tomorrow evening, we’ll host a desk within the Prime 7 Steakhouse. I do not have a tendency to complete work till 9 p.m. Even then, I’ll generally go and watch a present within the theater, so I can inform the visitors about it. My days are lengthy, however I might quite socialize than sit alone in my cabin. Everybody I meet is fascinating.

It isn’t straightforward working aboard a luxurious ship

To work on one, you could get expertise working in a luxurious lodge. You additionally must have the willingness to reside on a ship, it isn’t straightforward. Once you work onshore in a lodge, you’ve gotten your days off, and whenever you depart the lodge, it is executed. On board a ship, we’re on responsibility 24 hours a day.

Once we pull into port, I normally hop off the ship and go for a jog. I am going to verify Google for an excellent operating route if I do not know the port.

I’ve had many superb experiences engaged on board the Regent Seven Seas like crusing into Rio De Janeiro and seeing the Sugar Mountains and visiting the corporate’s personal island, Harvest Caye in Belize.

I keep in contact with the visitors. We lately had a pleasant couple keep within the Regent Suite. They’re becoming a member of the Explorer in Tokyo in November. I requested them to contact me after they arrive and we’ll most likely have dinner collectively, as I reside there.

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