About six months after I came back from speaking on my first cruise, I heard about a speaker who taught speakers to speak on cruises. Of course I listened to the teleseminar and was impressed with his information.
He suggested one of the ways to get on a cruise as “on board entertainment” was to offer to speak for free, let the cruise director see what kind of a audience draw you might have. When they are pleased with your turn out, they will offer you a cruise and at no cost to you. You also get to bring along a guest with each of you only paying port fees.
He also suggested you could develop material by researching what ports the cruise is going stop in and create a program to inform the passengers about the history of each port of call or the history of the various countries or tourist attractions.
I was surprised to meet Martha on the first cruise I went on. She lived aboard and worked 100 days cruising the same 10-day cruise, then she got 10 days off and changed to another cruise destination. Her job on the ship was to teach pottery classes. She worked from 10 am until 4 pm every day and had the same days off I did and was able to go into the ports with me.
I remember thinking it was a good thing I hadn’t discovered speaking on cruises when I was in my early 20’s or I would have made it my career.
If cruise speaking interests you, take the time to prepare a program and start calling the cruise activity directors.