I’m a general manager on a $450-million cruise ship. I’m on duty 24 hours but it is really truly worth it to journey the world in a floating 5-star resort.

• Alessandro Menegazzi has labored on cruise ships considering the fact that 1997 and has usually felt a contact to the sea. 

• He is now the general supervisor for the $450-million Regent Seven Seas Explorer.

• Menegazzi shares what it truly is like to perform and are living abroad what he phone calls a “floating five-star lodge.”

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed dialogue with Alessandro Menegazzi, the typical supervisor for the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, about his occupation at sea. It has been edited for size and clarity. 

1 of my very first work in the resort field was in Palma de Mallorca – a preferred vacationer vacation spot in Spain. Operating by the waterfront, I would see these significant cruise ships coming in and out of the port. I was transfixed. I recall expressing, “just one day I will be doing work on 1 of all those ships.”

Now I am the typical manager on the $450-million Regent 7 Seas Explorer.

The first time I joined a cruise ship crew was in Los Angeles in May perhaps 1997. It was a short cruise to Alaska, but the 2nd I stepped onboard, I was astonished.

I began as a junior purser in reception answering guests’ queries. About the decades, I worked my way up the job ladder. I labored on MSC Cruises for four several years until eventually I grew to become food and beverage director for Regent Seven Seas in 2014.

I have often been drawn to the sea

I left the cruise market a few of instances for hospitality employment on land. I labored at the legendary hotel Villa D’Este in Lake Como, Italy, but the sea was always calling me again. In Italy, we get in touch with it “iron fever” for the reason that the ship is like a magnet.

In December 2021, I was promoted to normal supervisor for Regent 7 Seas Explorer.

On the Explorer, the captain is in charge of sailing and I am dependable for anything at all associated to the resort aspect of the ship, from buyer provider to foods and beverage. I oversee about 75% of the 550-member crew.

The Explorer is a floating 5-star lodge

Our Regent Suite, the most high-priced cabin on the ship, is embellished with performs by Picasso and a Steinway piano and has an in-suite caviar provider. In just one of our dining establishments, we use Versace tableware, and there are additional than 500 crystal chandeliers dotted through the ship.

Story carries on

My office environment is in the atrium – the beating coronary heart of the ship – where the crew welcomes guests on board with a glass of champagne, and there are sweeping staircases that lead to a person of our eating places.

The ship does journeys all all-around the planet. This year we have traveled all around the Mediterranean, by means of Asia, and are now heading to Australia. From there it will shift on to Canada.

I will be sailing with Explorer for the subsequent two many years. You can say which elements of the entire world you would love to operate in, but you can in no way decide on. There are two basic managers on Explorer, and we alternate. I operate three months on board the ship, and then have a few months off.

I go away the ship in Bangkok in January, then I will fly property to Japan to commit time with my family and get pleasure from my 3-month break. When I go property to Tokyo, my spouse and I ordinarily go on family vacation. She will sometimes be part of me on the ship.

I will ordinarily start my working day on the ship at 7 a.m.

I always get espresso from the onboard cafe for my breakfast. Then I will go to my business office and look at my emails. As our headquarters are in Miami, there will be plenty of requests that have occur in right away I need to action.

However, my job is not 10 hrs sitting at a desk. I have to have to be seen to the attendees and crew. I will have meetings with the managers and say good day to the friends.

In the evening, I will do a lot of web hosting with guests, no matter if that’s at meal or for welcome drinks. All the senior crew customers have to host company. We will introduce ourselves and then sit down at a desk and be part of them for evening meal. We don’t have a captain’s desk as these kinds of as we have so numerous dining places.

Tomorrow evening, we will host a table in the Prime 7 Steakhouse. I do not are likely to end operate right up until 9 p.m. Even then, I will sometimes go and view a clearly show in the theater, so I can notify the attendees about it. My times are lengthy, but I would fairly socialize than sit alone in my cabin. Everyone I meet is interesting.

It is really not easy doing the job aboard a luxurious ship

To operate on a single, you want to get practical experience performing in a luxury resort. You also have to have to have the willingness to reside on a ship, it can be not simple. When you perform onshore in a lodge, you have your times off, and when you depart the lodge, it is really finished. On board a ship, we are on responsibility 24 hours a day.

When we pull into port, I normally hop off the ship and go for a jog. I am going to look at Google for a fantastic working route if I really don’t know the port.

I have had a lot of wonderful ordeals operating on board the Regent Seven Seas like sailing into Rio De Janeiro and viewing the Sugar Mountains and going to the company’s personal island, Harvest Caye in Belize.

I stay in contact with the company. We just lately experienced a friendly pair keep in the Regent Suite. They are joining the Explorer in Tokyo in November. I requested them to get in touch with me when they arrive and we will probably have supper collectively, as I are living there.

Browse the original short article on Enterprise Insider