A good friend of mine worked the cruise ships for a few years, and he loved the lifestyle. He worked on the entertainment side, so provided his work was done, he was often off during the day. He had to put up with a very small, shared interior cabin, but he had a blast.

Another good friend of mine worked as cabin crew, and loved it, but that was back in the day when she got a few days off at each long haul destination (and did some amazing Oz routes which were 13 hour flight to e.g. Hong Kong, 4 days off, then 13 hour flight to Oz, then 4 days off, a couple of days of short haul in Australia, then a few days off, and then the same back again) She loved it! However, since she did that, flights have tightened their belts, they get less time off, and as a newbie, you often have to fly horrid short haul routes, as the senior crew get the good routes! Not sure I could do e.g. Detroit - Pittsburg for years in the hope of getting sunnier climes eventually! Talking to charter airlines, they get to fly to warmer places quicker, but they do out and backs to e.g. Carribean, they often don't leave the aircraft according to the crew on my Dominican flight last year!