Q&A with Sheenagh Walker-Ayers, Acting Cruise Director on Enchantment of the Seas, Royal Caribbean International

Q: Can you tell me your name, age, where you’re from (what county and town/village in county please)? A: My name is Sheenagh Walker-Ayers. I’m 33 years old and from Kilpedder, County Wicklow, Ireland.

Q: What is your current role? A: I’m currently working as Acting Cruise Director at Royal Caribbean International onboard the Enchantment of the Seas.

Q: How many years have you been working on cruise ships? A: I have been working on cruise ships for 9 years having started in May 2016!

Q: How did you get into it? It would be great to have a big of background on this; how did you hear about the opportunity / what made you want to join / what did you study. A: I first discovered the cruise industry back in 2007, when I went on a family cruise at 15 years old, onboard Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas. The energy of the crew and the hospitality I experienced made me want to be a part of this industry and from the day I stepped on the ship, I said that one day I wanted to work onboard a cruise ship. I continued to go on family holidays on cruises and began looking into working in the industry once I started studying for my degree.

Whilst studying for my bachelor’s degree in Event Management at Dublin Institute of Technology, there was a requirement of an internship placement – I researched Royal Caribbean and found that they had a Summer Internship Program in the Head Office in Miami, Florida. I applied for an internship position within the Entertainment and Guest Activities Department and was accepted for the Summer Internship Program of 2013. I was fortunate to complete the internship and following graduating, I spent another year and a half in Miami working again in the Entertainment and Guest Activities Department.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Head Office and learned so much – it was a great time to then transition to growing my onboard experience, as I had always intended.

I started working onboard in May 2016. Beginning my ship career as Cruise Program Administrator, then moving to Cruise Director’s Staff (Entertainment Activities Staff) in 2018. I was promoted to Activities Manager in 2021 and in December 2024 was promoted to Acting Cruise Director.

Q: What does your average day look like? A: The exciting part about the job is that every day is different, no day is really copy and paste, which keeps it exciting and fresh. Typically, my day begins with a morning meeting with the Division Heads of each area onboard of the Hotel Operation.

Throughout the day, particularly days at sea, my day consists of hosting various events and in between this, there is continuous planning for the upcoming cruises. Working with the great management team, within my area of Entertainment and Guest Activities, is a big part of each day as we work together to plan and prepare for each cruise. Part of every day is recording an informative morning TV show with our Broadcast Team, which is called Entertainment Today, where guests tune in to get all their daily information whilst onboard.

With days in port, we have the opportunity to explore off the ship and enjoy the local area. The evenings are very exciting with amazing theatre productions each night, and I am fortunate to be the person to introduce world class performers and also speak directly to the guests with all the information they need.

Q: How many months on the seas are you at any given time? A: The usual contract for my current position of Acting Cruise Director is 4 months onboard followed by 2 months off. A total of 8 months working onboard per year.

Q: What are the benefits of what you do/Why do you like your job? A: Being a part of the cruise industry provides such a fantastic opportunity to travel around the world. In my time working with Royal Caribbean, I have been fortunate to have travelled to 80 countries and counting.

One major highlight of my career was to be onboard Royal Caribbean Internationals first ever World Cruise on Serenade of the Seas as Activities Manager. This was a 274 day voyage around the world, which I have the most incredible memories from.

In addition to travelling and seeing amazing places around the world, a great benefit for crew members is also that we have all food and board included, so we do not have these additional expenses which makes working onboard a great way to both see the world and save.

Growing up, I had no confidence, public speaking was a genuine fear, and I had no experience in presenting or being in front of an audience. Throughout my years onboard, I began to grow and be encouraged by my colleagues to take bold steps in developing my confidence and in embracing my personality to be able to take to a stage. That is one of the best parts of my job, I can look back on where I began and now see a huge growth in professional development and now encourage others to do the same.

For me, working in Entertainment is also very exciting, each day I get to experience a wide range of entertainment and get the pleasure of working alongside a variety of world class performers. A huge benefit of working for Royal Caribbean International is the training provided, not only within each individual work area but a wide scope of training for overall hospitality and customer service, which makes it a very unique environment.

Q: Is there anything that you miss when you’re at sea? A: Of course, with any person living away from home, missing family and friends is a natural feeling. There are milestones at home that family and friends have which you can’t be there for, however this is the lifestyle and for me personally being able to dedicate 2 months back home to the end of a contract is an amazing amount of time work-free, to catch up and is something that becomes a norm.

Q: Tell about one or two of your favourite places and why? A: There are so many places that come to mind. Japan is somewhere I was fortunate to travel to on the ship and I would love to go back. A combination of the culture, the food, the kindness of the people and the amazing sights was a great experience and being lucky enough to be there during the cherry blossom season was such a bonus.

Another memorable place was when we cruised down to Antarctica, it was breath-taking. Experiencing the raw nature and enormous ice bergs were sights I will never forget. The wildlife too, seeing penguins and whales in their natural habitat was something that I never imagined would be something I would experience as part of my work life.

Q: It would be great to hear about your team and how you work together? A: My team is made up of a wide range of talented individuals, all who have many different skill sets. From musicians, singers, dancers, entertainment activity staff, youth staff, sports staff and of course our amazing technical team, the scope is broad and each area has an individual manager who I work with each day. We plan each voyage, and each individual day based on many factors, for example if it is a sea day or a day in port, if it is a specific holiday to celebrate, if we have various new team members finishing their contract or joining, and of course the weather is always considered. My team and I work together to plan a full program of offerings and variety which comes together to entertain guests of all ages, from all over the world.