Christine Kesteloo is a former cruise director and has lived on ships for more than a decade.
After losing her job in 2020, she became a “wife on board,” as her husband works for Holland America.
Kesteloo said she’s not allowed to gamble on board or disembark with paying guests.
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A woman who’s lived on cruise ships for more than 10 years has said there are two things she’s not allowed to do on board.
Christine Kesteloo, a former cruise director, told Newsweek she had lived on cruise ships “on and off” since 2012. In an article for Insider last year, Kesteloo said she typically spent half the year living on a cruise ship.
She also said in the Insider article that she lost her cruising job in 2020 because of the pandemic but was continuing to live on cruises as her husband worked as a staff chief engineer for Holland America, a subsidiary of Carnival.
“So in 2021, I started sailing as wife on board with my husband, and we are on the ship three months and then off the ship for three months,” Kesteloo, 42, told Newsweek, adding that the couple most recently lived on Holland America’s Koningsdam cruise ship.
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Kesteloo said in a viral TikTok posted on August 7 that as “wife on board,” her accommodation and food on board were free. In the Insider article, Kesteloo said she and her husband typically spent less than $100 a week on WiFi, tips, and specialty dining.
In the video, while applying her face makeup, Kesteloo shared what it was like to live on a cruise ship. “I can do most everything that the crew can do, and I can do most everything that the guests can do,” Kesteloo said.
But she went on to share two things she wasn’t allowed to do while cruising: gambling and disembarking with paying guests.
“I am not allowed to go sit at a slot machine and play my heart out until I win,” Kesteloo said in the video, which has since garnered 14.4 million views and 1.2 million likes.
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She said it could look weird if she won a big jackpot, considering her husband is a staff member.
“It is outlined. Spouse on board is not allowed to gamble,” Kesteloo told Insider in an email. ” The crewmember knows the rules and tells the family,” she added.
In the video, Kesteloo also said she could only leave the ship when the crew disembarked.
“The guests get off first, and the crew usually get off the ship about an hour after the guests,” Kesteloo said.
Woman Who Lives on a Cruise Ship Says She Never Gambles on Board
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