SHIZZO, Regarding shipboard salaries ... Years agI knew a couple of guys from the Philippines who worked on one of those Hawaii cruise ships as bar backs, cook's assistants, waiters, etc. and a few other decent paying shipboard jobs and they said that they could return to the Philippines after ten years of service and live the life of luxury.
And I bet that G04 knows a few employees from the Philippines who work for the lines until they retire and are hailed as conquering heros when they return to family members where they speak Tagalog.
And I've never been aboard a US Naval ship that didn't have a ship-load of sailors from the Philippines who did nothing but wait on and serve meals to to the ship's officers.
With 20 years in .... they live very well when they retire and return home.
Shipboard salaries and all those benefits make for serious income but many quit early because they miss living close to home and grow tired of the confined shipboard lifestyle.
Yes Stunt, the cruise industry in general is made up of around 70% Filipino, I have employees that work for me that are from Philippines, South America, India, Jamaica, etc.. my last girlfriend on the ship was from Peru, and the one before her was from Chile. These people have huge homes in their countries, I never knew this until I became a manager, I started trying to hook up the international guys with some extra hours because I knew that had families back home to provide for, a lot of these guys are barbacks and waiters, as I got to know them more, they are showing me photos of there homes in their countries I couldn't believe it, huge homes, but a house in the Philippines is 30,000 just to put things in perspective.
Sidenote: Philippines are hands down absolutely machines when it comes to work, never seen anything like it, I've worked construction with Mexicans and Italians who are known for their work ethic, but Filipinos are unreal, they never get tired and they eat mountains of rice literally thousands of grams of carbs a day, just white rice, they have a universal saying "more rice, more power" ...think of Manny P boxing style, he never gassed, tons of energy and ate the exact same way tons of white rice.