23-year-old has lived on and off cruise ships for years: ‘It’s been the best time of my life’

Growing up, Payton Martin’s family went on a lot of cruises and she became fascinated with them. The now 23-year-old Oklahoma native says back then she’d dreamed about working and living on one.

“I always wondered about what the guests don’t see and what was going on behind closed doors,” Martin tells CNBC Make It.

Fast forward to the summer of 2021, Martin was getting ready to go on yet another cruise with her family. This one had been rescheduled several times because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Martin’s experience on that trip made her realize that if she was ever going to make her dream a reality, now was the time.

“I always had the idea of working aboard a cruise ship but never thought of it as something possible for myself,” Martin says. “And after covid, I think we all learned that life is short and anything can happen at any time, so I applied for a job as an entertainment host aboard a Carnival cruise.”

Martin says one of the things she learned during her transition from guest to crew member is just how many different kinds of jobs and opportunities there are for people who want to work aboard a ship. A quick browse on Carnival’s careers site shows listings for a photographer, a baker, a wiper, a bar server, and more.

Martin was offered a job as an entertainer aboard the Carnival Horizon ship in October 2021, and after extensive training, she started in January 2022. Martin left college for the job.

“I wanted just to travel the world and meet people. I left school because it wasn’t going anywhere, and I’m only young for a certain amount of time, and this was the time to try something new,” Martin says.

Carnival flew Martin to Palermo, Italy to board the ship, where she shared a cabin with a coworker. Room and board were covered under Martin’s contract. But while she didn’t have to pay for rent or food, she says it was an unspoken rule to give a weekly tip to the person who cleaned their cabin.

Martin was part of Carnival’s fun squad from January to July. The ship’s six- and eight-day cruises departed from Miami.

While working on the Horizon, Martin applied for a position aboard the Carnival Pride. By September 2022, she was on her way back to Europe.

After a week aboard the Carnival Pride, Martin met Salvatore Giglio, a 31-year-old second electro-technical officer.

“I saw him and remember thinking he was so cute. Then we saw each other again and briefly spoke, and my first thought about him was how friendly he was,” Martin says.

The two kept running into each other, and after about two weeks of chance encounters, Martin stopped to pay him a compliment, and Giglio asked for her Instagram.

“He slid into the DMs. I still give him a hard time for that, so it’s funny. It’s a modern romance with the twist of a cruise ship, of course,” Martin laughs.

In October 2022, a month after meeting, the two “linked their IDs,” as Martin calls it. It meant they went to HR to get permission to live together.

“Something we say on the ship is one week on board is equivalent to one month on land. You spend so much time with people, you live together, you work together, you have dinner together. It speeds things up, for sure,” Martin says.

Martin moved into Giglio’s cabin, a one-bedroom he lived in alone. It was big enough to have a full-size bed, a couch, a desk, and four small closets.

Eventually, Giglio transferred to another ship. Martin stayed aboard the Carnival Pride and was able to continue living alone in the one-bedroom cabin.

Martin’s contract ended that December and she flew home to Oklahoma before setting off to meet Giglio aboard the ship he was working on — but this time as crew family instead of a crew member.

One of the perks of Giglio’s position is that he can have a family member stay with him for several weeks at a time.

She stayed aboard for four weeks until Giglio’s contract ended. After that, the two spent time traveling between visiting Martin’s family in Oklahoma, sightseeing in Los Angeles, and seeing Giglio’s family in Italy.

“At the time, we weren’t engaged, and we had kind of just met, but we knew it was something serious. We were still trying to figure it out,” Martin says.

In March 2023, Martin resigned from her position as an entertainment host with Carnival and after seven months of dating and traveling the world together, Giglio proposed to Martin in June.

That November, Giglio signed another contract to work aboard the Carnival Pride, where they first met.

Martin’s time aboard cruise ships has taken her to over 20 destinations, including Honduras, Dominican Republic, Spain, England, France, Croatia, Turkey, Malta, Greece and Portugal.

While Martin did love her time as a member of Carnival’s crew, she does also enjoy the flexibility of just being a guest again: “I don’t think I’m done sailing but I was tired of being away from family,” Martin says.

“If an opportunity came up and I wasn’t gone for months at a time, I would probably take it, but right now, I’m seeing what happens.”

The couple are now back in Italy and building their own apartment above Giglio’s parent’s house. They aim to complete the work by May next year. The hope is to be able to split as much time between the U.S. and Italy as possible.

“I really prioritize family time, whether it’s my family here or my Italian family in Sicily. If I’m with either one of them, then I’m happy,” Martin adds.

Martin says she would recommend working on a cruise ship to anyone because even though you work hard, you get to travel and see the world.

“It wasn’t easy to leave everything I knew behind and go live on board a cruise ship for months at a time,” Martin says.

“I got to learn how much bravery and courage I had. You just never know your full potential if you don’t put yourself outside of your comfort zone.”

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