AIDA Cruises Looking to Fill 5,000 Positions Onboard and Ashore

AIDA Cruises has announced that it’s looking for around 5,000 new employees worldwide for jobs onboard and shoreside. 

According to a press release, the offers are not just aimed at qualified specialists and managers.

The cruise company is also opening a broad range of career opportunities to motivated lateral entrants and young professionals.

AIDA Cruises also said that it offers a “wide variety of attractive apprenticeships for the start into working life.”

“Dedicated employees have always been part of our success. Whether on land or onboard – they are the ambassadors of our company. We not only offer varied jobs in an international working environment but also the opportunity to make a career with AIDA and discover the world,” said Vice President for Human Resources Management at AIDA Cruises Haike Witzke. “At our company, the individual skills of each person are valued, regardless of their origin, gender and religion. We encourage every motivated employee in their career planning.”

AIDA Cruises said that it offers many other incentives too. These include a company pension scheme, flexible working time models for family planning, comprehensive training and development programs, as well as attractive employee bonuses.

On land, a variety of diverse positions are currently open in the areas of IT, marketing, human resources, law, and in the AIDA Customer Center. The range of career opportunities onboard extends from the hotel business (for example, bar, reception, kitchen, restaurant) to wellness and activities (such as cosmetics, hairdresser, spa, fitness) to the care of young and grown-up guests.

AIDA Cruises said that it also offers attractive jobs in occupational groups that are not necessarily associated with cruises, such as media designers, lighting, sound or event technicians.

AIDA to Add Capacity from German Citing Cruise Demand

Citing strong demand for voyages from northern German ports, AIDA Cruises will deploy another Sphinx-class ship from Kiel, according to a press release. 

On August 15, 2021, the first four-day short cruise to Gdynia will start followed by a three-day cruise to Gothenburg.

Both voyages will be offered alternately through Oct. 14.

The name of the ship will be announced shortly, the company said, and all cruises are already open for bookings.

On the four-day voyage, the ship calls at the Polish port of Gdynia after a relaxing sea day passing the island of Gotland, among others.

AIDA started operating from Kiel in May with the AIDAprima sailing every Saturday on week-long cruises in the Baltic, calling in Gothenburg, Visby on the island of Gotland, and Stockholm.

Crew Members Go Months Without Shore Leave During Pandemic

Some crew members working back onboard have not stepped a foot ashore for months, according to Cruise Industry News’ research.

Employees of AIDA, Norwegian Cruise Line and Marella Cruises, and other major cruise lines have said on the grounds of anonymity that they have largely not been allowed to leave the cruise ship they’re working on, with one crew member admitting that this left him feeling “pretty depressed.” Some crew interviewed asked not to identify their ships or employers. 

An employee working on the Norwegian Jade said that he and his fellow crew members have been on board for two months with only one shore leave – for vaccination purposes.

“We left the ship escorted with busses to get our vaccinations done where there were military police. Once vaccinations got done, we were escorted back to our bus to go straight back to the ship,” he said.

“Everyone was assigned to a group with a leader and counted before (boarding) the bus and on the bus,” he added.

However, according to him, Norwegian’s no-shore-leave policy will be re-evaluated once the ship cruises with guests for two months.

“Shore leave might be discussed,” he said. “If a crew member is coming to travel, bring a long lens camera because right now it’s about staying healthy while supporting our families.”

A crew member with a major cruise line also said that he was not allowed to go onshore.

“Before the pandemic, crew shore leave was allowed whenever crew member was off duty, with shuttle buses organized more or less every 30 minutes, or you could go on your own,” he explained.

An employee working on a Marella cruise ship for the last two months said that he was lucky to be able to go ashore before shore leave was banned entirely.

“I have been ashore once for 30 mins, which was strictly to buy essentials and come straight back. Shortly after, shore leave was banned entirely by the company because they are restarting operations soon, and they worry that if a crew member brought COVID onboard they wouldn’t be able to have passengers,” he said.

“I’ll be on board for another few months but highly doubt I’ll be able to go ashore again,” he added.

According to him, prior to the pandemic, crew members could go ashore “more or less every day.” Not being able to leave the ship, as well as lack of socialization, is making crew members “pretty depressed,” he said.

However, other crew members were more optimistic.

“Shopping-wise, the cruise lines have brought the necessities onboard to purchase. They also have agreements with Amazon and port agents so that you can still purchase personal items online. Ships need to stay in the guidelines right now in order to keep us up and running,” one crew member said.