Thinking About Working Onboard A Cruise? Read This First

For those not in the know: One Spa World is the name of the company which employs personal trainers on over 200 cruise ships.

This thread serves as a hub for those who’ve experienced it and those who are interested in the job.

TL;DR

In this post, I will be sharing only my personal experience working with this company.

You are promised high earnings and a great opportunity.

In reality, you pay for medicals and flights, live in rough accommodation, and work around 70 hours a week.

The job is not really about fitness. It is mainly about selling detox products and arch supports using strict sales scripts and emotional pressure.

The base pay is 800 dollars a month if your commission does not reach that. Commission is hard to earn. My first week I made 200 dollars.

It is possible to make money, but in my experience, it requires selling in ways that did not feel ethical.

THE RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING

Before going to London, I had to do medicals, which were difficult and expensive. I even traveled across the country for one. The recruiter kept pushing me to hurry. After that, I paid for my own flight. They put me in the YMCA, which didn’t feel safe. There were shady characters and unpleasant smells. You only get dinner. I had to buy my own food otherwise, and London is expensive, especially if you’re coming from abroad.

My training was 10 days. The first day, they told us not to trust negative reviews and hyped up how much we’d earn. This felt like brainwashing. They didn’t really care about service or fitness. It was all about selling supplements. We learned scripts, seminars, and sales tactics, not actual fitness instruction. The sales materials were outdated, and we were judged harshly during public speaking. In the end, it wasn’t about being a good trainer. It was about selling, no matter what.

WORKING ONBOARD

When I got on board, I was taken to a tiny cabin. It made a prison cell look luxurious. After meeting my boss, I got into the routine. We worked about 70 hours a week. You get two half days off, meaning on two port days you finish early or start late. Otherwise, it’s 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. with two meal breaks. On embarkation day, we introduce ourselves and push guests to sign up for classes, seminars, and consultations. Free classes are just sales pitches for our products. Paid classes rarely fill up, and they pay us very little.

We sold detox products from Elemis, claiming they solve everything from weight loss to arthritis. In seminars, we made people believe they couldn’t lose weight without these products. After that, I did back to back consultations, using scripts to dig into people’s emotions. We were even told to ask them if they wanted to be around for their grandchildren. It felt ethically wrong.

Once the sea day is over, you sell overpriced arch supports at the buffet. In the end, I was either promoting, lying in consultations, giving misleading seminars, getting yelled at, or overwhelmed in my cabin. That was my reality.

When it comes to pay and commission, in the interviews and academy, they told us we could make a lot, like $1,000 to $2,000 a week. In my first week on board, I made $200. It did improve, but that was a shock. The basic wage is $800 a month, but only if your commission is below that. If you earn less, they top you up to $800. That’s far below minimum wage in most countries we came from, especially for the stress and extra duties. We joked that we were part-time trainers and full-time FedEx workers because of how much we had to carry and stock shelves.

The commission is on products that are hard to sell and only have value if you convince people they do. Is it possible to earn well? Yes. I did it. But you have to sacrifice your ethics. You cannot make real money here without breaking your morals. It is toxic for both employees and customers.