How to Structure Your Day Working Remotely from A Cruise

I was pleasantly surprised to have a super productive week the first time I attempted working from a cruise. In this post, I’ll walk you through what works for me during at sea and port days.

How to Structure Your At Sea Days

I know that what works for me won’t always work for everyone else. But in case you’re wondering, here’s how I structured my sea days.

6:30 AM: Wake-up call from room service. Continental breakfast is freeeeeeeee on Royal Caribbean. I had hot coffee, a banana, grits (hey, I live in the South), and a blueberry muffin brought to my room every single morning. It got me up and caffeinated without ever leaving my room.

7:00 AM: Start my workday. I’m the most focused in the morning, so this is when I do all my deep work. My goal is to spend these first 2 hours doing the absolute essentials so that if the rest of the day goes off the rails, I have at least kept up with my client work.

9:30 AM: Break. There is usually some type of free fitness class going on around this time, whether it’s stretching in the gym or Zumba on the Promenade. I tried to attend these every morning to make sure I moved in the morning and to give myself a little mental break.

10:30 AM: Back at it for a few hours.

12:30 PM: Lunch. If I’m done working by this point, I’ll head to the Main Dining Room (MDR) for a relaxing sit-down lunch. If not, I’ll typically head to Central Park for a salad or whatever cafe is on board (Lattitudes on Serenade of the Seas) for a sandwich. These grab-and-go places are perfect when you don’t want to waste time getting food.

2:00 PM: I’m done working for the day. Time to hit the pool!

How I Structure Port Days Working Remotely from A Cruise

Port days are a different animal. The Wi-Fi is way worse when you’re docked. I can’t explain why, but I assume it has something to do with being surrounded by other ships, buildings, etc. Someone techy can feel free to explain it to me.

Plus, you’re in port! You don’t want to sit in your room when there’s a whole new city to explore. So, I try not to work too much on port days.

Now, sometimes you won’t port until later. This happened on my Pacific Coast cruise in the spring of 2025. We didn’t dock into Victoria, British Columbia until 1 PM. So, I still did my 6:30 AM wake-up call, but I took it a little easy on myself. I left super light work for that day, so I was able to enjoy the gorgeous view as we pulled into dock with a tomato smoothie (aka Bloody Mary).

When I’m back from port, I am typically done for the day. I might head to the pool, take a long nap, find a quiet spot to read, or do whatever the heck else I want because this is my vacation day!