Excercise on the Disney Cruise Line

I'm love to know the answer as well. That way I can pretend I'm going to run if I go on a cruise.

I was going to let someone who has been on a Disney cruise answer this; but since it's been a few days I'll share what I know.

The tracks are 1/3 mile long (looked that up) and are typically are made out of a synthetic material which does absorb some shock. DCL ships also have a fitness center apparently.

1/3 mile is actually quite long. Amazing what they can fit on ships these days. Thanks for the info LifeisforLiving.

Glad to help.

Aren't most track & field tracks 1/4 mile?

Outdoor tracks are typically 400m, or .248548477 miles. In other words; yes

Some unique challenges are posed building a track on the deck of a ship. I'm sure some tracks on large cruise ships are at or near 400m, but not on DCL.

Wow! Thanks LIFL! I'm amazed they can fit such a long track on the ship. Hopefully it's either open air or has a good view (I'd hate it they stuck it in the lower decks where you can't see anything during your run).

It's deck 4 on the Disney ships,also has deck chairs and shuffleboard.You see a lot of the cast members late at night after the shows jogging.If you look at a pic of the ship,its the deck with the life boats hanging above it.

Thanks for the info! I'd think the CMs would get plenty of exercise running all over the ship all day. Does anyone know how long they spend on a ship at a time?

Great information mmmagic! Do you generally get some running in?

Don't know if DCL is different, but with cruise ships in general it's months at a time (sometimes more than a year).

Which once again brings up how cruisers deal with limited Internet access!

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they find *ahem* other things to do. The type of things people find to do at coed dorms in the Navy.

Swimming?

Heh, Go Fish?

Speaking of, I wonder how many husband/wife teams they have on boats these days.

I've known some. Both those that were married before and those that met on the ship. I'd say they are definitely a minority though.

That's how I look at it. The hardest part is being away from your home and loved ones. Having your DW/DH there would be great. Plan accordingly, and you have no mortgage, no bills to speak of; just traveling, seeing the world, meeting new people, and spending time with your honey. Granted there is some hard work in there as well, but acquaintances of mine that did just that had a great experience. They worked for me at a restaurant almost ten years ago and spoke highly of their cruise line experience, overall. There were parts they were not fond of, mind you.

Seems like you could save a ton if you went to sea for 6 months and had no real expenses.

Pay varies greatly. Cruise lines, like much of the hospitality industry, utilize a lot of foreign workers. That said, the 'standards' are very loose. I've known people that made six figures and those that I would assert were way underpaid for as hard as they work.

I've heard this and I wonder how they get away with it!

Probably has a lot to do with the local economy of where they're from.

Well, they establish relationships with the labor entities in various countries and prearrange work visas. The workers are "shipped over" (literally, not just in the case of cruise lines), then are worked without the rigors and standards applied to working citizens. They are paid a 'fair wage', when you consider the fact that they don't have to pay any (or perhaps very little) taxes. Companies that do this normally arrange housing for the immigrant laborers as well. What do you think happens when those work visas run out? You guessed it; most often, nothing.

Interesting information LifeIFL. So do folks go back to their home countries after a cruise, or do they stay where they end up now that the Visas are expired?

Sounds like MY kind of exercise

I find that watching people run is largely as healthy as running myself, don't you?