One of the most popular cruise crew members on YouTube, Bryan James works on some of the biggest cruise ships in the world. He just finished four months on Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas, the cruise line’s newest ship.
James is a pub guitarist, which actually means that while he’s a crew member, he also gets a lot of passenger-like privileges. He can eat at the buffet or main dining room (although it’s customary to tip because crew members did not pay the same daily gratuity that passengers did).
Related: Royal Caribbean guitarist shares secrets of crew member life
However, while he has a lot of onboard freedom compared to many passengers, James lives in a crew cabin and can eat in crew areas. It’s not uncommon for solo musicians to end up in passenger cabins, but, on the large ships James works on, there are usually enough crew rooms.
He showed off his cabin on Odyssey of the Seas, a Quantum-class Royal Caribbean ships that’s huge, but not quite as large as Utopia of the Seas.
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Solo cabins are rare for crew
“I’m giving you a room tour of the cabin that I’ve been living in for the past four months on Odyssey of the Seas. It’s a solo cabin, and it’s my very very very very last day on the ship so I’m going to show you what it’s all about before I pack up everything and I’m out of here,” he shared.
While solo musicians are entitled to not have a roommate, they still often end up in rooms built for two.
“Now this is like one of the most common styles of rooms that you will find on a cruise ship at least when it comes to Royal Caribbean ships…You’re always going to have two beds. It’s not necessarily going to fold up like this,” he added.
“You’re going to have a desk area. You’re going to have a wardrobe and you’re going to have a bathroom to my right,” he said.
Some newer Royal Caribbean ships offer more crew members solo rooms, but they’re smaller and they have a shared bathroom. James gets his own bathroom and acknowledges how much better his situation is than many crew members.
“So yeah, two people living in this space right here for upwards of six, seven, eight months. It just really depends on your contract. For me, I’m a musician. So, my contracts are normally a little bit shorter,” he shared.”I’m really lucky that I get all of this space to myself.”
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Image source: Daniel Kline/Come Cruise With Me
James shows off his bathroom
“Aall right let’s go into the bathroom there’s storage in here for a whole host of things and your sink. This is great because having a sink in your actual bathroom is ideal. There are plenty of cruise ship cabins that have your sink in the room like truly next to your bed right next to your bed right here would be a sink where you would brush your teeth and get things done,” he said.
Some solo cabins, as mentioned above, you have your own sink, but share a shower and toilet with another crew member.
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“Those are called single-share cabins so you technically have your own space it is just hilariously small,” he added.
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