Cruise with Entertainer Employee?
 

So my friend is heading off to sea shortly with Holland America as one of the entertainers (singer). He told me he would be able to sign me onto the ship during one of the cruises. Has anyone done this before? Any experience as in what the costs would be, what is included, the experience, etc? He said he was going to find out more information but has been pretty busy lately getting his life together to move onboard for a number of months.

Thanks in advance! :)

One of my actors from a film I just directed is on the Disney Dream now as an entertainer. I was going to go on the ship in the capacity that you are talking about with my boyfriend, but I guess they just got more strict about signing multiple people on the same trip. But from what he has told me there are two ways that it can happen.

1. He can sign you into the ship and you can stay in his room and he can request a meal pass for you so that you can eat in the dining halls (otherwise you would be eating from the staff area). This would all be free unless Holland America has a different policy.

2. You can sign up for extra room space and pay a certain cheaper fare and get whatever room is left on the ship before departing. I'm sure that the timing varies per company as to when you would find out you could get on the ship.

Thanks for the insight! He's leaving today so I'm sure he'll have more information and what not once he's onboard and gets settled in. Sounds exciting. :)

When I worked for HAL I brought my then girlfriend onboard and she stayed in my cabin, and then my parents came onboard later on a reduced rate cruise for family and friends and stayed in a veranda cabin just underneath the bridge (so I could keep my eye on them!).
The girlfriend quickly discovered she didn't like my life at sea, and so a few weeks later I met a new girl who was working onboard and is now my wife!

There are two types of entertainers with HAL, there are the permenant staff assigned to a ship for I believe around 8 months from a company called Stiletto, but unfortunately they share cabins and live in pretty harsh conditions.
The 'Guest Entertainers' who tend to be higher profile entertains tend to come onboard for much shorter periods of time, and often rotate around ships and even companies or brands. They tend to be treated much better, have excellent cabins or guest cabins and completely seperate from the crew. My suspicion is that your friend is in this catagory, and if so will have plenty of space to accommodate you and I'm sure you'll thoroughly enjoy the experience.

Just to note this information might be outdated, as it's been a few years since I left HAL to drive cruise ship sized yachts.