Joining a cruise ship as Safety Officer

The aim was to describe the process of joining a cruise ship and starting to act as a safety officer for the first time during authors career. The Author had years of previous sea going experience as an 2nd and 3rd Officer on passenger vessels. Basic information about cruise ship hierarchy was studied together with ship’s particulars. Cruise Ship Astoria Grande (ex. AIDA Cara) was built in Turku in 1996 and was bought by a Russian company in late 2021 from Costa cruises German subsidiary AIDA cruises. The new owners were new to cruising business, so all the safety management onboard had to be built from scratch. The journey took us from joining the ship and getting familiarized until implementing a fresh safety system onboard and monitoring it. Safety system was based on codes, laws and guidelines in force during that time. The safety officer should familiarize himself with company policies, instructions and procedures relevant to his position and he acts as a Staff Captain’s deputy, hence there were details describing that position. The study can be used as guide for students or ship personnel, when they are making choices of their career path