Our crew

We've done the job. That's the whole qualification.

Cruise DJs exists because we all learned this the slow way — by getting it wrong, asking around the crew bar, and figuring out what the recruiters were really looking for after we'd already been turned down once.

Deck 10, sail-away.
Two thousand people, one mic, and a dance floor that doesn't stop.

Founder

Mario

Mario started at sea the same way most people do — as a shipboard DJ with a bag of tracks and no idea how any of it worked. He moved up to Cruise Director with Holland America Line, which meant he spent several years on the other side of the desk: running the entertainment schedule, working with the acts, and watching a lot of talented DJs miss out on contracts for reasons that had nothing to do with how well they could mix.

These days he's an entertainment director for full-ship music charters — programming artists, hosts, and DJs across whole sailings. He's read the applications. He knows which ones get opened. It's also why the course has a chapter on the charter circuit that you won't find anywhere else: those weeks are the best DJ work at sea, and they're staffed from an entirely different direction.

Why we built this

There's no school for this. There's no clear path from a wedding gig in your hometown to a six-month contract on a ship in the Caribbean, and the information that does exist online is mostly guesswork, or worse — people charging desperate DJs a "placement fee" for a job that was never real.

So we wrote down what we actually do. Not theory. The set list template, the CV format, the questions they ask, the paperwork order, the timeline. Put it in a workbook, and made it something you finish rather than something you watch.

Join the crew

We're looking for instructors

Cruise DJs works because it's taught by people who've done the job. If that's you, there's a place for you here.

Teach a chapter

You've sailed

One contract or ten. If you've been through the application, the medical, and the first night on deck, you know something a beginner needs. We'll help you shape it into lessons.

Review tapes

You've got an ear

Audition tape teardowns are the part students say helps most. If you can listen to twenty minutes and say exactly where it loses a recruiter, we want you on them.

Sit on a panel

You've hired

Cruise directors, entertainment managers, casting contacts — a short interview from your side of the desk is worth more to a student than a month of guesswork.

Email info@cruisedjs.com

How we work

Four things we won't do

We won't sell you a job

Rule one

We're a training company, not an agent. Anyone who offers you a guaranteed cruise ship contract in exchange for a fee is running a scam, and we'll say so every time.

We won't take a cut of your pay

Rule two

Agents get paid out of your wages for as long as you keep sailing. We charge once, for the training, and then we're out of your bank account for good.

We won't pretend it's easy

Rule three

It's months away from home, it's shared cabins, and it's playing music you might not love. We'd rather you know that now than three weeks into a contract.

We won't leave it vague

Rule four

Every lesson ends with something you've actually made — a mix, a document, a list. If a chapter doesn't produce something, it doesn't belong in the workbook.