Jess Battison
It’s always nice when the love of your life comes with a few perks of their own.
Yeah of course, their unconditional love and affection is more than enough.
But a cheeky discount at your favourite restaurant or a few freebies from the store they work in can be a great little bonus in the relationship.
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And this American woman is lucky enough to live on a cruise for free, thanks to her husband.
Christine Kesteloo sails as a ‘wife onboard’ with her husband, who is Staff Chief Engineer on a cruise ship.
Living as a guest ‘but also as crew’ she gets a lot of perks, being able to do pretty much everything both the crew and guests can – with just a few exceptions.
She documents a lot of her life onboard a cruise ship on TikTok, outlining some of the things she cannot do in her videos.
With over 680,000 followers on the platform, she’s ‘not allowed to film guests or crew just whenever’ while they’re onboard.
She points out ‘it’s disrespectful’ as they’re enjoying their holiday but does add that it’s a ‘different story’ if they happen to appear in her videos off ship.
Christine also explains she can’t gamble on the ship, so she’s not allowed to spend free time sitting at a slot machine to ‘play my heart out until I win’.
She explains: “Because it would look a little weird if I, as the wife of the staff chief engineer, won a big jackpot.”
A pretty strict rule she must follow, which is typically the same for regular guests too, Christine is ‘not allowed to be late to the cruise ship’.
“No, they will not wait for us,” she says. And the same goes for her husband too, because if they ‘miss ship, someone else will take over the role’.
She also explains one thing that ‘is not something that I’m not allowed to do’, but she opts not to out of respect.
“If there is a crew member or guest that has gone overboard and we do a search, I am not showing you videos of the medical evacuation.”
A former cruise director herself, she also chooses to give up her space in guest areas like round the pool when it’s busy, because ‘it’s just the right thing to do’.
While Christine gets to eat in the various dining areas for free, she does have to pay for soft drinks and alcohol – but with a pretty 50 percent discount.
Plus, she also gets a discount in the shops, spa areas and for the internet access.
Doesn’t sound like a bad life if I say so myself.