The Joy of Cruising Podcast: Recent Episodes
Paul C. Thornton
The Joy of Cruising Podcast is a conversation with one of the dozens of amazing cruisers with fascinating stories that have been featured in The Joy Of Cruising Trilogy—The Joy of Cruising, Cruising Interrupted, and new, The Joy of Cruising Again. In addition, there will be conversations with individuals with great cruising backgrounds who were almost profiled in the books but it fell through due to scheduling, etc., and finally, cruise personalities that come along with fascinating stories who might be great candidates to feature in future projects. Order here: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-joy-of-cruising
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Michele Edington, Certified Sommelier, Wine Writer, and Founder, Cruising With Wine. Michele told me, “I created Cruising With Wine with my dad recently as a stop-by-stop wine guide for European river cruises. It helps travelers understand what to drink in each destination before they arrive, including local wines to try, grapes and wine terms to look for, food pairings, bottles worth bringing home, and wine experiences near the port. The idea came from him booking a river cruise with my mom and noticing that river cruises pass through some of the most exciting wine regions in Europe, but most people still step off the ship without much practical guidance on what to order, what to look for, or what makes that stop special from a wine perspective.”
Michele worked in wine and hospitality for more than a decade, is a certified sommelier, and has spent years helping people feel more confident about wine in a real-world, approachable way. Cruising With Wine is her way of bringing that same kind of guidance to river cruisers. Michele has written a few books about wine and you can see her collection of odd things—books, blog, sustainability, food culture, and much more—at her personal website michelegargiulo.com.
Use code PODCAST20 for 20% off Cruising With Wine at https://cruisingwithwine.com/
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Comedian Kevin Jordan. Listeners know I am passionate about music and stand-up comedy. So, when I get an opportunity to host a top stand-up who performs on cruise ships, I jump at it and am so pleased to have a conversation with Kevin.
Kevin Jordan is an award-winning screenwriter, comedian, producer, and former LAPD police officer. For more than 35 years, he has headlined comedy clubs, casinos, cruise ships, and military bases around the world, with television appearances on The Today Show, Comedy Central, Showtime at the Apollo, MTV, and VH1. His comedy special, Cause I Said So!, is available on Amazon Prime. As a screenwriter, Kevin has earned multiple screenplay awards for projects including Sled Race and Old Patrol, blending humor, heart, and authentic storytelling. Through DemjerdenBoyz Productions, he continues to develop family-friendly and character-driven films that celebrate nostalgia, resilience, and the power of laughter.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Deanne Moses-Wright, Founder, Wheelie on The Waves, an accessible travel and cruise consulting brand.
Deanne Moses-Wright is an accessibility-focused cruise and travel specialist, disability advocate, and founder of Wheelie on the Waves, one of the UK’s leading platforms dedicated to accessible cruising. Her journey began long before she entered the travel industry. At the age of 11, Deanne was diagnosed with scoliosis and spent much of her teenage years wearing a full body brace before undergoing major corrective surgery at 19. The operation resulted in severe complications and was almost fatal. Today, she lives with multiple health conditions and primarily uses a powerchair, although she also uses crutches when able. Despite the challenges she has faced, Deanne has never allowed disability to define her ambitions. Her love of cruising began 26 years ago when she joined her parents on a cruise to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary while pregnant with her first child. The ship was small, and at the time she had no idea that cruising would later become such a significant part of her life.
After a long break from cruising, she returned to sea in 2017 and quickly discovered the freedom and independence that cruise travel could offer disabled travelers when done correctly. Since then, she has completed more than 20 cruises, spent over 160 days at sea, and has several more voyages booked over the coming months. Wanting to share her experiences and help others travel with confidence, Deanne created Wheelie on the Waves. What began as a platform documenting her own adventures has grown into a trusted source of information for disabled travelers seeking honest, practical advice about accessible cruising.
Following changes to accessibility policies within the cruise industry, Deanne became increasingly aware that many disabled guests were not being booked correctly and, in some cases, were being denied travel at the point of embarkation. Determined to help, she became a travel agent specializing in accessible cruise travel. Over the past two years, Deanne has built relationships with cruise lines and accessibility teams across the industry, collaborating to improve understanding of disabled travelers’ needs while providing independent guidance to the disability community. Her work helps people make informed decisions about which ships, cabins, and itineraries are genuinely suitable for their individual requirements.
She has since helped hundreds of people plan and book their own cruise adventures, arranging every aspect of their journey to ensure a safe, enjoyable, and stress-free experience. Deanne’s expertise and advocacy have led to appearances in travel publications, television travel program, industry panels, and award ceremonies. She has been recognized as a finalist in both accessibility and travel awards and has become a respected voice within the accessible travel sector. In September, Deanne will host her own event, The Accessible Cruise Show, bringing together cruise lines, industry professionals, and travelers. The show will provide attendees with the opportunity to speak directly with cruise operators, ask questions, and take part in live Q&A panels focused on making cruise travel more accessible for everyone.
Through Wheelie on the Waves, Deanne continues to champion the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to explore the world with confidence, dignity, and independence.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Comedian Jeff Nease. Listeners know that in addition to my passion for cruising, I am passionate about music and stand-up comedy. Accordingly, on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I love hosting performers from cruise ships, and Jeff has headlined on virtually every major cruise line, so I am excited to have a conversation with him.
‘Hilarious!’ (Entertainment Today Magazine), “A high energy performer able to generate BIG laughs!” (Las Vegas Review Journal) and The Detroit Free Press simply declares “Jeff Nease makes us laugh!”. Observational, Conversational and often, Standing Ovational, Jeff Nease is there whenever ‘You Need Funny!’
Jeff began his career in 1987. The performing ‘bug’ bit while studying film and theater at the University of Toledo. Propelled by his love of the comedy albums of George Carlin, Steve Martin, Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart, it wasn’t long before he found himself stepping on the stage of the local comedy venue ‘The Toledo Comedy Club’. He began to hone his craft anywhere he could find an audience: nightclubs, rock bars, colleges and lounges in and around his hometown in Northwest Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. Jeff applied his theater training as a founding member of the improvisational group ‘The Improvables’. This experience helped form the spontaneous element his show is known for. Jeff soon began touring comedy clubs and theaters in both the United States and Canada. New York to L.A., Vancouver to Nova Scotia. He became a finalist in the National Lampoon Laugh-Off, was seen on Television (A&E, PBS and Comedy Central) and opened up concerts for musical icons The Temptations and jazz great Najee. He also opened up for comedy stars Jim Carrey, Tim Allen and Ellen DeGeneres.
Jeff also ventured out to sea. Today Jeff is currently one of the most sought-after comedians for the world’s most popular cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean. He has performed around the world on vessels for Azamara, Celebrity Cruises, Cunard, Crystal Cruises, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruise Line, Regent Cruise Line, among others.
Las Vegas became home for 14 years. Jeff performed at such iconic venues as The Riviera, MGM Grand, Tropicana, the Stardust, Rio and more. In addition to his nightclub work, Jeff performed for many of the various conventions and special events such as NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), COMDEX and CES (The Consumer Electronics Show). His corporate clients include Allstate, Taco Bell, The Royal Bank of Canada, USANA and Cannon. He is exceptionally proud to be accepted on the roster of performers for the USO. Today Jeff tours continually around the world. His greatest pride come from his three sons Jeffrey Jr., Patrick and Theodore.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Mike Jirout. Mike is one of those entrepreneurs who transcend consumer cruising history. Along with his brother he created Ship Mate, which I’m sure many of us remember: the first mobile app for the cruise industry in 2009 when Apple first opened up its infrastructure for third-party developers. They grew Ship Mate to millions of downloads before selling it. Then Mike virtually invented the "cruise accessories" market with,
Cruise On, a line of 100+ products (lanyards, luggage tags, cruise power strips, hanging organizers, etc.) and sold millions of items before selling that business in 2023. The brand remains the leading cruise accessories line.
Though Ship Mate and Cruise On have been sold Mike continues to innovate. He told me, “We're currently growing our consumer-facing cruise platform Gangwaze (Gangwaze.com) offering detailed cruise port and ship data down to the individual cabin level. We also have some business-to-business offerings, like custom made, vectorized deck plans—the hope is to make it as easy to filter/book a cabin as it is a seat on a flight. We also offer cruise agent products like a "Cruise Quote" tool for providing client quotes and a "Cruise Kit" for all post-booking info. At CruiseKeeps.com we customize cruise keepsakes (mugs, puzzles, canvas prints, etc.) with your ship itinerary map, port list, ship, sail date, etc. We have the Cruise Deals App, a mobile app for easily finding and booking cruises. We are currently launching the Cruise Quest Mobile App. It's a fun way to gamify your cruise experience with Bar Bingo and other fun games. I've built these with my brother, brother-in-law, and cousin as co-founders.
Our family's love of cruising started with annual family reunion-cruises, where 50+ of us would get on a ship with our fluorescent t-shirts, numbered by age. It was our favorite way to reunite.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Jeff Cuellar, Chief Executive Officer, Sixthman, which offers Music Festival Experiences at Sea. I love all my guests, but Jeff is a particularly coveted one because as many of you know, I love theme cruises and thinks ever regular cruiser should put one on their bucket list. Those of you who read The Joy of Cruising know I have long been enamored of theme cruises and in that book wrote an entire section on theme cruising. I featured a number of examples of theme cruises and tried to include Sixthman given their importance in theme cruising. It was not to be, but today I am excited and grateful to present its CEO.
Jeff Cuellar has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment business space, and he offers a unique perspective on the industry–both on land and sea. Jeff assumed the role of CEO of Sixthman in early 2024 and was recently named a Pollstar Impact 50 Honoree for his combined skills of leadership, entertainment and cruise line hospitality. Jeff spearheads Sixthman's creativity with events such as the Chefs Making Waves cruise occurring this November, with Food Network Chefs Bobby Flay, Scott Conant, Ayesha Nurdjaja and more on board.
Check out Sixthman’s upcoming events here: http://www.sixthman.net/festivals
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am honored to welcome Filippos Venetopoulos, Chief Executive Officer, Variety Cruises. Variety has been creating a better world at sea for over 75 years, offering travelers the comforts and unique benefits of small ship cruising while exploring the true identity of a destination.
Filippos Venetopoulos is the third-generation leader of Variety Cruises, one of the world's longest-standing small ship cruise companies, founded by his family in 1949. After graduating with distinction from New York University's Stern School of Business, Filippos gained international experience in banking, adventure cruising, and tourism before returning to Greece to join the family business. In 2021, during one of the most challenging periods in the history of global tourism, he assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer and embarked on a mission to reposition Variety Cruises for a new era of travel. Under his leadership, the company has strengthened its focus on authentic small-ship experiences, sustainability, cultural immersion, and meaningful connections between travelers and destinations. His vision extends beyond cruising itself: to demonstrate that tourism can be a force for positive change while creating memorable experiences for guests, employees, and local communities alike. Filippos serves as a Board Member of SETE (the Greek Tourism Confederation) and was elected President of the Hellenic Professional Yacht Owners Association (HPYOA) in 2026. He is an active advocate for the advancement of Greek tourism, maritime entrepreneurship, and sustainable travel practices. A passionate believer in lifelong learning, personal growth, and people-centered leadership, Filippos is known for combining entrepreneurial thinking with a strong commitment to culture, hospitality, and human connection. His guiding vision for Variety Cruises is simple yet ambitious: "To create a better world at sea." Filippos lives in Athens with his wife, Ersi, and their daughter.
Today, Variety Cruises is the number one fleet of small ships, hosting around 50 guests on board each sailing, giving the company the ability to bring voyagers to smaller, less crowded ports around the globe. With sailings in Greece, Italy, Malta, the Adriatic Sea, West Africa, French Polynesia, the Seychelles and beyond, travelers can discover authentic local and Indigenous cultures, regional cuisine, ancient sites, remote villages and natural wonders only small ships can reach.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome Wayne and Charlotte Carter, first guests I have hosted who can share with guests all about Norwegian Cruise Lines new flagship, NCL Luna. They had a wonderful itinerary: Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic; St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; Tortola, British Virgin Islands; and, Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas, NCL’s private island. I have had guests on to talk about the previous ships in NCL’s boutique hotel-inspired Prima class—Prima, Viva, and Aqua—and even had house performers from Viva on the podcast, David & Stephanie: New Contract, Performing on the World’s Greatest New Ship, NCL Viva Episode 42 Luna is a brand new entrant to mainstream cruise ships, and I didn’t have to go far to find passionate cruisers who could introduce Luna to the cruising community; they were right in my own back yard! You see Wayne and Charlotte are neighbors in the community south of Richmond we moved into in November—some of you may recall me referencing our relocation. We knew them long before the move, as we’ll mention. It’s always good to welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast guest we know personally! Listeners, let’s get to know Wayne and Charlotte and hear about NCL Luna.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Ralph DeFalco, a former U.S. Navy Captain turned cruise ship enrichment speaker, who brings a rare blend of global experience and storytelling to audiences at sea. As a Smithsonian Journeys Expert as well as a speaker with Ritz-Carlton, Ponant and Viking, DeFalco lectures on geopolitics, maritime history, and world affairs—often while sailing through the very regions he’s discussing. With five-decade career spanning five continents, including time on the Pentagon staff of the Director of Naval Intelligence, he offers travelers deeper context on the destinations they’re visiting, from strategic waterways to culturally rich ports. His government career also informs his novel, "The Counterfeit," a geopolitical thriller imagining a fractured future shaped by global conflict.
Listeners, let’s get to know Ralph DeFalco and hear about his life as a cruise ship speaker, how travel shapes our understanding of world events, and the stories behind the ports he’s explored.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul, and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am excited to welcome Reign and Royce, the creators of Life of R and R. Reign and Royce are 10- and 8-year-old cruise and lifestyle content creators from Atlanta, Georgia. They've been cruising since they were just eight months old and have since traveled to 19 countries on 37 and 36 cruises — and they’re still going! They love hosting kids on their group cruises alongside their parents. When not at sea, Reign and Royce enjoy dancing, tennis, tumbling, and swimming. They're rising 5th and 4th graders who genuinely enjoy school, especially math and reading.
These sisters believe kids should see the world early — experiencing different countries in person instead of just on TV. Traveling allows them to explore new cultures, try new foods, and see sights they'd never encounter at home. Their goal? Keep exploring the world together — visiting new countries and experiencing every kind of ship, cruise line, and cabin possible, and inspiring parents to take their kids on vacation.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Reign and Royce’s parents are Rich and Jazzy, creators of the amazing A Rich and Jazzy Life brand — one of the most influential cruising brands in the world. But don’t think that Life of R and R is just some cute, novelty act — they are cute, yes, but they are anything but a novelty act. For those of us on social media, it’s likely that Life of R and R has a following that surpasses most of ours!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Carra Miller, a maritime attorney. I have long wanted to bring to listeners a perspective of matters of law and passenger rights when it comes to cruising. I have been amazed at some of my findings regarding a cursory look at some those matters and I suspect, Carra will share some eye-opening information with you. Her visit is especially timely given the burgeoning Hantavirus crisis. With three passengers dead and 17 Americans among the nearly 150 people stranded off the coast of West Africa, the MV Hondius cruise ship Hantavirus outbreak raises urgent legal questions about what cruise operators owe their passengers when things go wrong at sea. Among other matters you should be aware of as a cruiser, Carra explains these passengers' rights and the duty the cruise ship operator owes them.
Carra Miller is the founding attorney of Miller Smith, PLLC, a firm that represents cruise ship passengers, crew members, harbor workers, and others injured in maritime environments. Her practice centers on vessel incidents, injuries on navigable waters, and claims under the Jones Act, the Death on the High Seas Act, and other federal maritime statutes. Carra earned her JD from Tulane University Law School, where she received a Maritime Law Certificate and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal. She holds a B.S. in Maritime Administration from Texas A&M University. She has written and spoken on maritime law topics and has published commentary on maritime liability issues.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Jason Gelineau. Jason is the answer to a The Joy of Cruising Podcast trivia question, as he is the dad of a previous guest, the lovely violinist and cruise ship performer and Grammy winner, Emily Gelineau, my guest for Ep 199but I certainly don’t mean to trivialize Jason’s appearance. In my view, Jason transcends cruising similar to certain other guests I have hosted like travel and hospitality icons Scott Eddy Ep 29, and Sarah Dandashy Ep 130; or individuals who transcend the history of consumer cruising like Joe Farcus, the designer of Carnival’s fleet from inception through 2011 Ep 30; Richard Fain, Chairman, Royal Caribbean Group Ep 215, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, former CEO, Celebrity Cruises Ep 81, and finally, featured through his daughter, the late Everett Philips, the father of modern cruise ship Food & Beverage Ep 57.
Jason Gelineau is a highly regarded luxury cruise industry expert with more than 30 years of experience across shipboard operations, shoreside leadership, and global cruise brand development. Throughout his career, Jason has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious cruise brands, including Silversea Cruises, Seabourn, Oceania Cruises, and the World of Residensea. He previously served as Head of Product for Explora Journeys, where he led the development of the onboard guest experience for MSC Group’s luxury lifestyle cruise brand, shaping its hospitality concept, service philosophy, and experiential vision from inception to launch.
Based in Western Australia, Jason is the founder of JAG Hospitality, a specialist cruise and hospitality consultancy, and currently serves as a Seatrade Cruise Ambassador for Guest Experience and Wellness. A frequent speaker and moderator at international cruise forums, he is widely recognized for his insight into luxury cruising, evolving guest expectations, and the future of high-end experiences at sea.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Josianne Jocelyn, Travel With Josianne. Josianne worked for several years for different travel agencies.
Josianne told me, “I was born in Haiti. I came to the US 40 years ago. I come from a family of 6 children (like me). I lived in Brooklyn through high school. (Like me, well, through middle school). After earning a bachelor’s degree, I knew working in the Travel industry is what I wanted to do. My first trip given to me by the agency was a cruise on the Big Red Boat, and I realized that I loved cruising.
I got married and gave birth to twin girls. When I moved to New Jersey several years later, I had to work part time, because I was the one taking care of the kids. 2020 change everything. I started to watch YouTube travel videos. Someone told me I should start a YouTube channel, and I did. I did not know how hard it would be. I have been traveling the Caribbean for years by land and sea. Celebrity and Royal are my favorite cruise lines. On Royal I have been on the Icon, Oasis, Quantum and Freedom classes. I’ve been cruising Celebrity for 30 years. Now I’m in love with the Edge Class.
I do travel by land. My favorite Caribbean Islands to go to and spend a week with the family are Aruba, Grand Cayman, Providenciales, Turks & Caicos, and Curacao. My favorite all-inclusive is Sandals, having been to Sandals Montego Bay, Royal Caribbean, Curacao, and Regency Le Toc St Lucia.”
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Tiana, Crew Life On Deck. Tianaworks in a hotel department, on a European river cruise ship called, The Excellence Countess, a Swiss-operated river cruise vessel. I met her on Instagram where her profile said, “Facts about people working on cruise ships.” You know that whenever I get the chance to speak with someone who has worked on cruise ships, I jumped at the opportunity. Just as Tiana jumped at the opportunity even though that wasn’t part of her plan. You see, Tiana graduated with a journalism degree, from the university in Serbia where Tiana is from. Worked three years in that field on tv, radio and newspapers, then moved on into it. She said it was exciting to be a journalist but tiring. Internet journalism, websites and then a got a job in it further. After seven years Tiana “jumped” at the opportunity to work on a cruise ship to work as a bar waitress—for the first time in her life. Bored with 8-4 life and having a sister working on ships. Tiana also worked as a dance teacher with kids of all ages for most of her adult life.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome back Colin Stewart. Colin was a guest along with another Future Cruise Director, Nick Jackson, when I featured the new brand Cruise with Colin and Nick, Episode 88. I featured Nick in my latest book, The Joy of Cruising Again, and when interviewing Nick for The Joy of Cruising Again he mentioned that he and another aspiring cruise director, Colin were partnering to launch Cruise with Colin and Nick, a YouTube channel that chronicles their journey toward a mutual goal.
Colin just told me, “I’ve been taking initiative of doing my travel content and really focusing on high-quality videos. I took five total cruises in the last 45 days of the year. I went on Royal Caribbean as a partner for my first time, additionally, this was my first cruise with them. I am planning to go get my Seafair’s Watch training certificate in Fort Lauderdale along with my small motorboat certification and ENG 2, which allows me to work on yachts as a deck hand. I’m focusing on getting my certifications, so I am able to start to work on cruise ships. I’m still living out in Arizona however I’m thinking about moving to Florida. I’m taking a break in my education to go chase my dreams of what I’ve been wanting to do since I was 12. I plan to continue school online after this year when I get my certifications.”
Today I want to check in with Colin regarding his progress toward his goal, and in general to catch up on what’s been going on in the two years since we last spoke.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Rose Perry, SipWatchTravel.Just being a cruise enthusiast and world traveler means she has the kind of stories that I would like to bring to my listeners, but there is so much more to Rose.
Rose is a certified sommelier and lifestyle creator behind SipWatchTravel, a platform centered on elevated food, wine, and travel experiences with a strong focus on coastal living and day-drinking culture. She has a particular love for cruising and the unique blend of relaxation, exploration, and indulgence it offers, which has become a recurring theme in her content. She is excited to be featured on The Joy of Cruising Podcast and will also be appearing on another podcast later this year, continuing to share her perspective on travel, lifestyle and curated experiences.
Rose Reyna Perry, JD, is an attorney and Director of Contracts & Grants Administration, where she oversees contract negotiations, licensing, and grant strategy across a growing multi-state footprint. She specializes in aligning compliance, reimbursement, and operational goals to support sustainable growth, including work in Medicaid strategy, acquisitions, and justice-involved healthcare programs.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul, and let me introduce my co-host for today’s episode, Cheryl.
Welcome to this episode featuring our reflections on Virgin Voyages newest lady ship, Brilliant Lady which we had the pleasure to sail March 12-21 on a special sailing known as a Red Hot Sailing Club Voyage, special voyages—I think there’s a couple per year—that feature a special guest performance, in our case legendary performer and song writer, Nile Rodgers, and Chic, guest speakers like the Virgin Voyages CEO, Nirmal Saverimuttu, and other special events. In some past Red Hot Sailing Club Voyages, Virgin Group Chairman, Richard Branson made an appearance. He was not billed to appear on ours, but on the last seaday, which was supposed to include a stop at Bimini, Virgin Voyages private island in the Bahamas, Branson appeared onboard.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome back Billy D. Washington. Billy D. was one of my first guests three years ago way back on Episode 8. He also was the first stand-up comedian I have hosted on the podcast, and regular listeners know I have since had several comedians and other cruise ship performers given my love of comedy and music. Now 230 episodes later it is my pleasure to welcome Billy D.back.
I first met Billy D. three-and-a-half years ago when we took my granddaughter LaKi on Carnival Mardi Gras for her 13th birthday. On the first day aboard, we watched Billy D at the family-friendly comedy show and laughed raucously, and then watched every version of Billy D’s uncensored sets in the PunchLiner Comedy Club. He was hilarious, and what set him apart besides his unique delivery, timing, and total unpredictability—was his incorporation of a keyboard in his act. He also had a non-traditional perspective of having had a career in law enforcement.
Our first conversation was funny and thought-provoking. With Billy D., I fully expect that to be the case again.
Welcome back Billy D. to The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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Hello, passionate travelers! This is Paul, welcome to this special episode pertaining solely to our 14-Day Kenya & Egypt—Safaris, Great Pyramids & Nile River Cruise bucket list trip. An unforgettable journey through the wilds of Kenya and the treasures of Egypt! Discover the legendary Maasai Mara Natural Reserve, the scene of the annual Great Migration. At Lake Nakuru, contemplate the amazing landscapes and spot diverse birdlife before heading to Egypt to marvel at the Great Pyramids and experience the wonders of the Nile on a 4-night full-board river cruise!
Joining me today is a special guest, world traveler, the star associate in The Joy of Vacation by Dream Vacations travel agency, and I call her Ms. TikTok, my daughter Shornay. Besides keeping me straight in summarizing this amazing trip, she can provide her perspective. I am both jealous of, and proud of her, for having beat me to some bucket list locations—including the continent of Africa, even though I have been traveling for over 40 years.
A couple of years ago Cheryl, my wife, and I, along with Shornay, pursued a brand extension and started The Joy of Vacation travel agency. In our announcement to friends, we stated a vision of someday leading a group to the Motherland, and we are proud to see this come to fruition.
Questions or to book: pthornton@dreamvacations.com
Online brochure: https://v2.app.moguplatform.com/trips/46015-paul
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Dixie Krystals, of Virgin Voyages. I met Dixie on my first cruise on Virgin Voyages, a transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona, Spain aboard Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady a couple of years ago. Dixie was “The Diva,” on Scarlet Lady. I experienced Dixie in several settings and always enjoyed her. She was funny and can she ever sing! I was delighted when Dixie agreed to be on The Joy of Cruising Podcast shortly after that sailing. Ep 104 I was very pleasantly surprised when her episode became a runaway hit—the fifth most popular episode of my 230+ episodes!
Dixie has a website, is on all major social media platforms, and has a podcast, Spill’n The Tea with Dixie where she chats about her work in the Colorado LGBTQ+ community, her work in theater, reading and baking.
From www.dixiekrystals.com:
Dixie Krystals has been dazzling audiences for 27 years. She grew up in the small town in Pennsylvania and always dreamed of having her name in lights. See where that got her?! You can catch Dixie on Discovery+ in Generation Drag(34TH Annual GLAAD Award Nominee, Outstanding Reality) as well as performing around Denver and beyond.
Her live vocals and tremendous comedic talents are undeniable! She was trained in Musical Theatre and has worked for Walt Disney World, Princess Cruise Lines, Busch Gardens, and various regional theatres.
Her passion for community is what drives her to excellence. She is an ordained minister, bingo queen, emcee, and fabulous hostess with the mostess. She’s won an award for her Podcast; Spill’n The Tea with Dixie where she spills the tea on her life and worldly events! Dixie is currently entertaining on the high seas as The Diva for Virgin Voyages!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Sam Catling, Owner and Host of the unique YouTube podcast, Decktales, and Author, Seems Like Smooth Sailing.
Sam told me, “I've been chipping away at DeckTales since November 2023, have written a book or two myself. I live in London.” The mission statement for his podcast is as follows: Welcome aboard The DeckTales Podcast! The first port of call for anyone curious about the dynamic and adventurous world of working on ships! Whether you're dreaming of a career at sea, an experienced maritime professional, or simply fascinated by life on the water, this podcast offers an inside look at what it really means to work on a ship. Each episode features insightful interviews with seasoned seafarers, ship officers, and maritime experts who share their unique experiences, challenges, and stories from the deck. Discover the highs and lows of life at sea, from navigating international waters to handling tough weather, tight-knit crews, and the evolving technology on modern ships. We dive deep into topics such as: Shipboard jobs and career paths (deckhands, officers, engineers, chefs, and more) Maritime safety, ship maintenance, and the latest technologies. Tips for new recruits on how to prepare for a life at sea. The impact of international shipping, environmental concerns, and sustainability in the maritime industry. Personal stories from those who have spent years on the waves. Tune in every week to gain valuable insights into this exciting industry and join the conversation about life on the open ocean. DeckTales is your go-to resource for everything related to working on ships and the maritime world.
Seems Like Smooth Sailing https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seems-Like-Smooth-Sailing-Catling/dp/1912964244
The DeckTales Podcast: https://www.decktales.co.uk/
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Kathy Lu, Regional Director, Trade Sales, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. When Kathy was here over a year ago, she represented a different luxury brand. I am excited to hear from Kathy now about The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. I perused their website, linked below, and RCYC looks marvelous!
Kathy Lu previously worked for respectively, Explora Journeys and Crystal Cruises. From her beginnings as an administrative assistant, through promotions into a myriad of roles in strategic partnerships, international sales and marketing, and ultimately as Regional Director, Kathy has formed unique global perspectives and valuable insights into all facets of luxury tourism today. A playful and curious lover of travel who began cruising from a young age, Kathy has spent much of her life exploring the world. Her favorite destinations include Greece, Hungary, and Vietnam and her future-travels wish list includes iconic spots like South Africa, New Zealand, and especially Iceland; a broken ankle, occurring hours after stepping onto the land of fire and ice, cut her holiday short in 2021. Whether at home in Atlanta, in a fine restaurant, at a taco truck, or aboard a luxury ship, Kathy enjoys the foodie life and relishes opportunities to entertain. She loves contemporary art and Scotch whisky that is old enough to order its own drink. She’s a friend to all canines, and she loves people, particularly her supportive family in Los Angeles. Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University in Geographical Information Systems with a minor in Business Entrepreneurship.
www.ritzcarltonyachtcollection.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome back Jason Venner. In a section called Specialty Cruising: Fun and Quirky, I wrote about Jason in my book Cruising Interrupted in a chapter titled, Cruise Entertainment Producer, Director, Creator, MC Extraordinaire! And Jason joined me for a podcastof that same name, way back on Episode 26.
I am really happy to have Jason back. I finally got to meet him in person, first last year on the Soul Train Cruise 2025 and then again just a few weeks ago on Soul Train Cruise 2026. Jason is really good at what he does, and I thought I would have him back to get some insight specific to the Soul Train Cruise, and hear Jason contrast it with theme cruises of other genres he has hosted.
Jason got his start in cruising in 2002 as a DJ with Holland America Line (HAL), a high-end cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation. At HAL, Jason progressed through the ranks from a DJ to over 10 years as a Cruise Director, to Corporate Trainer, to three years as Producer and Host of the joint ABC/BBC HAL production, Dancing with the Stars: At Sea. Since 2015, Jason has been self-employed as a Producer, Director, and Host of full-ship music charter cruises, primarily in partnership with StarVista LIVE, a leading theme cruise operator. For StarVista LIVE, Jason hosts Malt Shop Memories Cruise; Soul Train Cruise; The Country Music Cruise; Flower Power Cruise; Ultimate Disco Cruise, and more. Over the years Jason has introduced and interviewed hundreds of star performers. “It’s crazy to be on a first-name basis with the legends of the music industry.”
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome my friend Emery Gill, aka DJ Gilla. I call him my friend as I first interacted with DJ Gilla on a long cruise, our first transatlantic, it was Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady where I would find some shade around the pool and chill, or groove, depending on what he was spinning. There was a lot of that as the first 8 days of this long cruise were sea days. We got to cruise with DJ Gilla again on our last cruise, one of the inaugurals for the new and very attractive Princess Cruises Star Princess. We were on the Star Princess along with several hundred other travel agencies like ours, The Joy of Vacation by Dream Vacations, as Dream Vacations was holding its annual conference. DJ Gilla dj’d a couple of private parties for as some of you might have seen a short video of DJ Gilla spinning in the promo for this episode.
I am particularly excited for this episode. Besides my love of music, I have tried to bring my listeners a perspective of everyone one who works on cruise ships to make your experience great. I have hosted Cruise Directors, performers, comedians, Captains, and various crew and staff, but in all my 230 episodes of so have not brought you the perspective of a DJ, one of the mostly hidden people so key to making your voyage memorable.
Emery Gill, known as DJ Gilla, hails from the Central American Country of Belize. He's an open format Disc Jockey that started out playing for students at his high school some fourteen plus years ago, which was where his fan base had originated. DJ Gilla made it to the International Stage in 2017 when he was highlighted at the International New Orleans Jazz Festival in Louisiana. In 2019, he became a part of a Pro DJ fleet serving numerous cruise lines allowing him to perform sets for audiences of many different cultures, all around the world. DJ Gilla has also performed on Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara Cruises, as well as theme cruises, The Groove Cruise and The Temptation Cruise, both in 2023. Key Clients & Partners have included BPM Supreme, iHeart Radio, and Belikin Beer.
Among DJ Gilla’s significant Events & Venues:
• New Orleans Jazz Festival (NOLA)
• Farah Night Club (Marseille, France)
• The Vault (Miami, FL)
• Club Upperclass (Los Angeles, CA)
• Triple Deuces (New York)
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul, and this is Cheryl, and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast we are pleasedto present our reflections of the Soul Train Cruise 2026 we just experienced the first week of February. It was a welcome respite from a very busy last few months as I think most of you are aware we went through the process of relocating from North Carolina to Virgina.
We want to preface by recalling a podcast episode we did several months ago about our top ten all-time cruises. There were two aspects of that episode that are particularly relevant to this episode about our reflections of the Soul Train Cruise on Holland America Lines Eurodam. The first relevant aspect of the all-time top list is that it was dominated by theme cruises. Any regular listener of The Joy of Cruising Podcast knows how much we’re endeared to theme cruises. And readers of my first cruise book, The Joy of Cruising know I devoted an entire section of the Amazon best seller to theme cruising.
The second aspect of that top ten all-time cruise list that is relevant, is that Soul Train Cruise 2025 was #4 on that list! Well listeners, I’m here to tell you Soul Train Cruise 2025 is now #5 as it has been surpassed by Soul Train 2026!
Let me first give you some background. Soul Train Cruise is produced by Star Vista Live, a company that puts on a series of theme cruises each featuring differing genres including country, rock, disco, 60’s music, even New Orleans inspired music. This was the 15th sailing of the Soul Train Cruise. Up until 2025, the cruise ran once per year—always sold out—in February. Beginning last year, Star Vista Live added a secondsailing in the Fall. The line-up of performers for each of the Soul Train Cruises reads like a who’s who to people who were fans of a certain genre of music which was popularized in homes by the groundbreaking television show Soul Train, which ran from 1971 to 2006 and was created and hosted until 1993 by the legendary Don Cornelius. Most of the acts featured on the Soul Train Cruise appeared on the television (of course many original members of the various acts have moved on or stopped performing.) So, it is no surprise that the headline acts are supplemented by more contemporary performers including stand-up comedians whose music or comedy is geared toward the demographic that makes up the bulk of the Soul Train Cruise passengers.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Jill and Jerry, creators of Cruising Canucks the Canada-based blog, YouTube channel, Facebook Group and Instagram platform. I always enjoy meeting passionate cruisers who are like me, curious about what the cruising world offers and who got out of their way to share their findings with you. That’s what Cruising Canucks is about, and they have a fervent following, "Canucklings," which suggests they are quite good at it.
I first hosted Cruising Canucks a year and-a-half ago on Episode 112
I have enjoyed Jill and Jerry’s videos at the Cruising Canucks channel, and it is now my pleasure to chat with them and update their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Bill, creator of Ritzy Travel Guide. I became familiar with Ritzy Travel Guide during my aimless browsing of YouTube cruise channels. I noticed I would stop on Ritzy Travel Guide because the videos were not only rich in production value but also rich with information. I knew I had to invite Ritzy Travel Guide on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Bill shared an amazing cruise and land-based travel journey with his wife, Ms. Ritzy EP 167
We are glad to have Bill back to catch us up on what they have been up to since we last spoke. Scheduled to start just a week after our previous Ritzy Travel Guide a 6-week Asian trip, including jungle touring in Thailand, staying at a train-themed hotel in the deep jungle, feeding elephants breakfast from a tree-top canopy, staying in a bamboo eco resort on stilts over the water, and taking an overnight sleeper from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Of course, we first want to hear about that.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Rubin Ervin as my guest.
RUBIN ERVIN is the short guy with the big voice! He doubles as the Announcer and the Warm-up guy for the #1 game show in the country, Family Feud. Rubin started his career having the Slime of his life as a child actor for Nickelodeon Studios and later became a show host for their live shows. As his career progressed, he soon became the life of the party, MC’ing and DJ’ing shows for Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Nickelodeon Recreation, and many more. As the “Warm-Up Guy” for many shows such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Little Big Shots, 500 Questions, Password, Judge Steve Harvey, and many more, Rubin gets the crowd pumped and ready to have a fantastic time no matter what. You can also hear Rubin’s voice as the announcer for many shows, in addition to Family Feud, such as Showtime at the Apollo, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and America’s Got Talent.
I first met Rubin when I hosted him on my other podcast, Lucid Driver Podcast Ep 16 as Rubin owns one of the baddest Lucid EV’s on the planet
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on I am delighted to welcome Daniel Edward to The Joy of Cruising Podcast. He shared with me:
“I started cruising with Royal Caribbean, where I was Cruise Director's Staff, then promoted to Activities Manager. I was first a Cruise Director over there in 2018. After the pandemic, I returned to cruising with Holland America Line, where I was a Cruise & Travel Director on their Grand Voyages. I circumnavigated Australia and New Zealand twice, South America once, cruised to Antarctica and up the Amazon River, as well as the usual Mediterranean and Northern Europe itineraries. Over the years of cruising, I've always written for newspapers and magazines (my first job was as a finance journalist at the Daily Mail), and I have just been elected to the board of the British Guild of Travel Writers. After leaving the Cruise & Travel Director role at Holland America I decided to launch a travel podcast, called Destination Unlocked, where I'm joined by a local expert in each episode to unlock their part of the world or travel style for my listeners.”
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Nikki and Tommie Jones. Nikki and Tommie are the owners of Jones Getaways by Dream Vacations. Travel agency. They are instrumental in my travel life in a couple ways. They introduced me to Dream Vacations and as many of you know we are the somewhat new owners of our own travel agency, The Joy of Vacation by Dream Vacations. I have watched them grow and have emulated them and consider them travel agent mentors. The other way they have been influential in our travel life relates to the first time I hosted them on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, August 2024, to talk about Jones Getaways, Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise on AmaKristina, Episode 123. As many of you know we subsequently went on that same cruise, and coupled with our land excursion to Paris, we selected it as our #1 all-time cruise in our recent podcast, Paul & Cheryl’s All-Time Top Ten Cruises, Episode 203.
In 2025, Nikki and Tommie fulfilled what is #1 on my bucket list—a trip to Africa, specifically Ghana. On their YouTube channel, Jones Getaways, they chronicled the trip, in a 4-part series, Our Ghana Journey—From Accra to Ancestry. If you are a lifelong learner like me, I urge you to check it out. And if Africa is in your future—and I am booked— Our Ghana Journey—From Accra to Ancestry is a must. In the meantime, we want to hear all about the trip.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Alan Shapiro to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, to talk about what it was like 20+ Years Working and Living on Over 15 Cruise Ships. Alan shared with me:
“I worked on 7 different cruise lines and probably at least 15 ships. Some of my more exciting cruises included going to Antarctica, cruising down the Amazon River, going on a Nude Cruise to Alaska. I even was on a ship that hit an iceberg in Alaska. I worked on cruise ships as small as 500 passengers, and the largest 4000 passengers. I worked for Holland America Line for five years as an onboard Cruise Consultant, and three of those years, I also had my girlfriend/fiancée/wife on board. For a very short time I was with the Royal Olympic Voyager in 2003, which was starting a world cruise, and immediately after sailing from Fort Lauderdale, the line declared bankruptcy. This led to us being held in limbo in St. Thomas for more than a month. I was the Art Auctioneer, and had 300 paintings onboard, some pretty valuable, being held hostage. After about 4-5 weeks, we were moved to Ft. Lauderdale. And there is an intriguing story about what happened to me, the paintings, the passengers, and the crew, who were held in limbo for several months off Ft. Lauderdale Beach.
I started working on ships around 1989, when cruising was quite different than it was when I retired, and certainly much different than the way it is now. I did work on some contemporary, large ships, such as the Carnival Glory and Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas. But I preferred working and sailing on the smaller ships like the Costa Riviera, or The Marco Polo. I also spent six months sailing transatlantic on the old Queen Elizabeth 2—the QE2— before it was taken out of service. Quite a different sailing experience from the other cruise lines.”
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Damion & Quanda EXP, Travel with Us to The Joy of Cruising Podcast. They shared with me:
We’re Damion and Quanda, a couple whose love story started fast and hasn’t slowed down since. Damion moved from Jamaica in 2012, met Quanda, and just three months later, we were married. More than a decade later, we’re raising our two adventurous boys (10 and 11), building careers we love, and exploring the world together, mostly by sea.
Both of us are proud to work with Royal Caribbean Cruises. Damion, originally from Jamaica, is part of the Executive Escalations team, where he responds to communications sent to executive leadership from directors all the way up to the CEO. Quanda, who proudly carries both Jamaican and Turks Islander heritage, works on the Accessible Needs team, helping guests with physical, emotional, or mental challenges enjoy a cruise that’s not just possible, but unforgettable, because everyone deserves an amazing vacation.
Outside of work, you’ll find us doing what we love most: cruising with our kids. We believe there’s no better way to see the world than by ship, since you get to experience multiple destinations in one trip while creating unforgettable family memories. While Royal Caribbean is our home at sea and our first love, we’ve also enjoyed sailing with Celebrity, MSC, Carnival, and most recently Virgin Voyages.
For us, cruising isn’t just travel. It’s a way to teach our boys about different cultures, show them the beauty of the world, and remind them that adventure is always just a boarding pass away.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back my cohost Cheryl. For the first time since we moved into our new house, we are doing a podcast together. Some of you know the past several weeks have been quite hectic for us. We have been slowly moving from North Carolina to Virginia during that time. Weekly we would drive a load of stuff to the home we bought in September. Right in the middle of this moving process, we cruised for 3-weeks straight on 2 cruise lines. Terribly inconvenient timing but badly needed. Of course, both of these cruises were planned long before we decided to move. The first leg of our side-to-side cruises was on Holland America Line Rotterdam, about which Cheryl and i shared our reflections on episode 218 November 27. The second leg of our side-to-side was on the new Princess Cruises Star Princess—5-days stopping at Amber Cove, Dominican Republic, and Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Gail and Mike, from UK and creators of the Sail With Gail and Mike YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook group. Check out their previous episode at where they were present at Cunard’s Queen Anne’s official naming ceremony at the Liverpool waterfront. Gail and Mike are from Liverpool, UK, and Cunard had announced the unprecedented decision to choose the city of Liverpool as “Godparent” of Queen Anne.
We want to catch up with Gail and Mike and see what they have been up to. I know just from the title—a lot.
Welcome back, Gail and Mike to The Joy of Cruising Podcast
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Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome Wayne Schell as my guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Wayne is the 89-year-old owner of Laguna Del Sol near Sacramento, CA, one of the largest, most well-known clothing optional resorts in the us. He also owns Mira Vista, another clothing optional resort in Tucson, AR. I first met Wayne on my other podcast, Lucid Driver Podcast, which is about my dream car, the electric vehicle and one of the fastest cars in the world. Wayne is the owner—maybe the eldest in the world, of a Venus Red super luxurious Lucid Air GT.
Wayne told me, “I see you are also into cruising. I have traveled the world and have been on at least 100 cruises.” I knew then he would be a future guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
Wayne told me that just returned from their most recent and most upscale cruise. “It was on a 550-foot-long cruise ship called the Scenic Eclipse II, a yacht holding only 225 passengers and 225 crew. The cabins are large and well appointed. There are two helicopters on board and a submarine. There are seven different eating venues. We had the honor of being invited to the Chef’s Table. It was an over-the-top experience with nine courses, and I lost count of the number of different wines offered. What was the highlight of this cruise? Because of the many Bare Necessities cruises we have been on half the people know me and I am a pretty good stand-up comedian. They asked me to do stand-up one evening in the theater and I got a standing ovation. I am very blessed at my age to still be able to travel and tell jokes without forgetting the punchline. How many total cruises have I been on in total? I lost count but it’s well over 100. What’s the key? Work hard when you’re young and live to be old. I’ll be 90 in July of 2026”
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Welcome passionate cruisers. Our brief thoughts about our dream cruise to the Panama Canal on Holland America Line Rotterdam.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Kenneth Jarvis. Ken is a confirmed Global Traveler (he’s visited 6 continents); Frequent Flyer (1.5 Million Miles on American Airlines and it’s One world Partners); Frequent Floater (118 cruises all in suites, Pinnacle with Royal Caribbean / Zenith with Celebrity); and Business Traveler (Senior Director in Global Networks and Technology for a major telecom company).
Ken is also a retired social media influencer. He has numerous cruise reviews on Cruise Critic. Ken is a former co-leader of RCPeriscopers which was a Facebook group for people who used the live streaming app Periscope to broadcast live from cruise ships and would host an Annual Super Bowl Group cruise. Ken still hosts the YouTube Channel, Kcjarvis Suite Life.
We have been social media friends for a couple of years and I have always found Ken’s posts to be interesting and even intriguing—for instance his infamous “Post of the day,” whereby he highlights naïve, asinine, or outrageous cruise line posts made by prospective travelers; or references to #KJsAmazingSummer which I now know relates to major spring and summer vacations Ken goes on. And, he is from or at least works in my original hometown of New York City. So, I am delighted to now get to ask Ken about is travels directly and am so glad he agreed to come on The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast i am delighted to welcome back a special guest, my cohost Cheryl.
As you know we are largely in the bucket list checking stage of our lives, and just got the opportunity to check one off. We recently traveled to Las Vegas. That’s not the bucket list check I am referring to—we have been to Vegas a zillion times. An aside, we used to own a chain of video stores—memba them—and the annual conference and trade show of the Video Software Dealer’s Association was held in Vegas and were can’t miss events. What made this trip to Vegas a bucket list checking opportunity was the allure of the Sphere, the iconic spherically shaped venue built by the owners of the NY Knicks and Madison Square Garden. The Sphere, costing about 2.3 billion opened in 2023 with a 40-night residency by U2.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Roland and Emma, certainly worthy to join the handful of guests who have been on the podcast for three times. I first met Roland and Emma a couple of years ago on the 119,000 member Melanin At Sea, created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities A Rich and Jazzy Life, and I anointed them as my new travel role models, after they posted photos and description of just an absolute bucket list trip, Ep 63 40-Day Enchanted Princess European. I had to invite them on. Then they did it again the following year with an epic Ep 142 European adventure covering 61 days!
Well, they have outdone themselves themselves with their Grand Asian Invasion Holiday!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am honored to welcome a special guest, Richard Fain, Chairman and former CEO of Royal Caribbean Group (RCG). Mr. Fain’s new book, Delivering the WOW: Culture as Catalyst for Lasting Success(October 21, 2025; Fast Company Press), reveals actionable lessons from Royal Caribbean’s rapid growth: a culture that motivated employees to deliver WOWs to customers, transforming the customer and employee experience all at once with electrifying energy. RCG’s trademark culture and dedication to delivering wows also catalyzed innovations including the world’s first and biggest megaships, beginning with Sovereign of the Seas in 1988—Cheryl and my first cruise, also in 1988—peerless onboard experiences, including soaring atriums and unexpected ice-skating rinks at sea; and unforgettable offboard experiences including Perfect Day at CocoCay, a private island resort owned by RCG.
Proceeds from proceeds from Delivering the WOW will be donated to the Fain Scholarship Fund, a scholarship program Richard Fain established in 1999 to support the education of Royal Caribbean Group employees and their children, which he has been contributing to at an average of $200,000 in annual support.
Richard Fain served as chairman and CEO from 1988 to 2022 when he transitioned to his current role as chairman. Under his leadership, the company grew from a small cruise line to its current place as one of the world’s most valuable vacation companies. Recognized for his “visionary leadership”, Mr. Fain was named one of the 30 World’s Best CEOs by Barron’s for three years running and received the Ultimate CEO Award from the South Florida Business Journal. His international awards include the rank of Officier in the Légion d’Honneur of France and Commander, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland. He and his wife of 56 years have four children and eight extraordinary grandchildren.
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This week I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Iris MacBeath creator of the blog Life of Iris. I wrote the story of Life of Iris in my latest book The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON in a section called “Ship life,” which followed the career of four past and present crew, staff, and officers from three different cruise lines.
At the time, I wrote that In the community that comprises onboard life, Iris is a dual member: first, not only is she a longtime crew member on various ships for Holland America Line. Secondly, Iris is what is known in cruise ship parlance as a “traveling spouse,” or a “Spouse-On-Board.” Specifically, Iris’ husband Stuart is a ship officer, and Iris has lived on ships with him. Those distinct vantage points afford Iris a unique perspective of onboard life, and she chronicles that on her blog, Life of Iris. The chapter I wrote about Iris in The Joy of Cruising Again was easily the most poignant in the book as I chronicled how Iris’ ship life directly intersected with two of the major world events of the 21st century—Covid and the cruising shutdown; and the refugee crisis in Ukraine due to the unanticipated war with Russia.
Iris came on The Joy of Cruising Podcastalmost 2 years ago to recount those events, Ep 62; her story was also featured in Ep 77, Most Memorable, Funniest, Embarrassing Moments of the podcast’s 1st year. Iris also broke some news during her podcast—she was pregnant with her and Stuart’s first child. When we reconnected for this episode, I was surprised to learn she had just delivered their 2nd baby. Congratulations Iris and Stuart!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Gary Bembridge, the embodiment of the successful Tips For Travellers blog, podcast, and most notably, YouTube channel. I have to be careful introducing Gary, lest you think of me as being sensationalistic. I’ll just give you one opinion, and one fact about Gary. It is my opinion that Gary is the smartest person out there when it comes to cruising; regardless of what I think, the one fact I will share is Gary is the most followed cruise personality in the world.
I featured Gary and Tips For Travellers inCruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “The Cruise Communicators.”You can read all about the development and growth ofTips for Travellers in Cruising Interrupted, and listen to his previous visits to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 49 and Episode 118. Today we want to catch up with Gary about his thoughts on some luxury cruise lines, including one we just experience—Explora Journeys.
Gary epitomizes the kind of individuals I sought when wrote I began writing the The Joy of Cruising books, and subsequently The Joy of Cruising Podcast—passionate cruisers who act on their passion in fascinating ways. From a businessman who blogged about his travels part-time, to full-time most popular cruise influencer, content creator, knowledgeable cruise resource in the world!
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Hello passionate cruisers. This week I am delighted to welcome Matt Hochberg, creator of the Royal Caribbean Blog, indisputably the leading unofficial source for all things Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. To say he dominates his space is an understatement. The Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube channel is the second most popular cruise channel in the world, with 378,000 subscribers, its blog is the third most visited in the world and the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is a consensus top three in the world—all the more amazing when you consider Royal Caribbean Blog exclusively covers a single cruise line.
How popular, and influential is Matt’s brand: search “Royal Caribbean” and one of the top results—the first result after Royal Caribbean Cruise Line will be Matt’s blog. He has become almost synonymous with the cruise line! There is no one better equipped to provides his thoughts of Royal Caribbean’s brand new flagship Star of the Seas!
Icon of the Seas vs. Star of the Seas: Which ship should you choose?https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2025/08/26/icon-of-the-seas-vs-star-of-the-seas
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Chris Gray Faust, Executive Editor of Cruise Critic, the world’s largest online cruise resource. Former travel editor of USA Today, and the winner of a Lowell Thomas travel writing award, Chris has visited more than 100 countries. She speaks frequently on the topic of cruising, and her expertise has been featured in dozens of media outlets, including Forbes, NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Conde Nast Traveler.
“30 Cruises, 30 Days” Giveaway to Celebrate Cruise Critic’s 30th Anniversary
Needham, MA -- Cruise Critic®, the world's leading cruise planning site and online cruise community, is gearing up to celebrate its anniversary month with the largest giveaway in the company’s 30-year history. The “30 Cruises, 30 Days” giveaway runs from October 1-30, 2025, and will award more than $200,000 worth of cruises – one per day, for 30 days – with prizes ranging from cruises on mega-ocean ships and intimate luxury ships, to bucket-list adventures on expedition vessels and sailings on quaint river ships.
Launching October 1, 2025, Cruise Critic’s “30 Cruises, 30 Days” giveaway will award one cruise per day through October 30, 2025. To enter, visit https://www.cruisecritic.com/sweepstakes each day to enter to win that date’s prize. Contest open to legal US residents, 21+ years of age only.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ilana of Life Well Cruised. Ilana is one of my best friends in the cruising blogosphere, having been featured in my second cruise book, Cruising Interrupted http://amzn.to/3seFU8y, and on the podcast twice before. Life Well Cruised was the second episode ever of The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 2, Life Well Cruised; Life Well Cruised was also on Episode 95, Ilana, Life Well Cruised. Let me be clear, all my guests are great. However, I think I would be remiss, if I didn’t acknowledge that both of Ilana’s episodes are firmly entrenched in the top five The Joy of Cruising Podcast episodes all-time!
That really should come as little surprise as Life Well Cruised is in the top five of cruise YouTube channels along with a massive presence on Instagram and Facebook. I am proud to welcome back one of the most influential cruise brands in the world. And I am especially eager to hear Ilana’s thoughts on her first river cruise.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome James and Tracey, making memories one trip at a time, and creators of The Traveling Type YouTube channel, and Instagram. As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly as I work on the podcast seemingly every waking hour—often with the sound down. When a The Traveling Type
video comes on, I turn the sound up because I know they are likely going to chronicle a cruise (or land trip) I can relate to because Cheryl and I have done it—Dubai/Abu Dhabi, Aruba, Venice, Cannes, Maxwell Cruise—or James and Traceyare sharing experiences we long to do, e.g., Icon of the Seas, Carnival’s new Celebration Key!
James and Tracey said, “Our channel is The Traveling Type. Our channel allows viewers to experience the world through our eyes. Our channel is our way to share us exploring the world, sharing the beauty, culture, and experiences encountered along the way. We try to provide helpful information, practical tips, or simply an escape through vicarious travel. We were bitten by the travel bug early on while our children were young. Vacations allowed us to create lasting memories while exposing them to diverse cultures and show them that the world has so much to offer. We travel for Family, Friends, Food & Fun, while making memories one trip at a time.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Jessica Jane Peterson, embodiment of Jessica Jane Magic, a dazzling magician, daredevil, and an experienced sleight-of-hand artist with more than 10,000 shows under her belt—many while performing on the ocean. Jessica has performed on cruise ships sailing to over 42 countries and has also entertained on tours for the men and women serving in the armed forces overseas.
Jessica Jane is a magician, powerhouse performer and exceptional entertainer! She is no stranger to the stage, with more than 10,000 shows under her belt. Just back from starring in the national tour
Penn & Teller Present: The Foolers. Known for her versatility across all areas of magic, she will surprise with her sleight of hand, shock with her daring illusions, and delight with her spirited onstage persona.
Having performed for major corporations worldwide, at private events for the Hollywood elite, and headlined on top cruise lines around the globe, Jessica brings years of experience and accolades to every performance. She has been seen on Penn & Teller Fool Us, Netflix’s Prince of Peoria, Penn & Teller: Try this at home and was recently in the film The Queen of Magic.
The Show: It's Magic. It's Stories. It's Danger.
It’s a show jam-packed with magic mastery. Jessica Jane performs daring illusions and mind-bloggling sleight of hand … all linked with incredible stories from her own life and career.
A complete magic showcase. The perfect headline act for audiences young and old, this fusion of classic and modern magical moments truly has something for everyone, and all delivered by one of the most charming stage personalities working internationally today.
Fun fact: I also work as a Houdini and Magic Historian.
Here's what people are saying:
“A very very talented magician.” David Copperfield
“One of our favorite magicians” Penn & Teller
“Jessica Jane Commanded the Stage!” USA Today
“That was amazing!” - Ben Affleck
“You read my mind, it’s incredible!” - Jennifer Lopez
“You must have had a traumatic childhood…because you’re really entertaining.” - Dana Carvey
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back RacQuelle and Ron, creators of the fast-growing MH Family Adventures, YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook Group. How fast is MH Family Adventures growing? We then were on the podcast well over a year-and-a-half ago YouTube channel had 15k subscribers, impressive especially give that less than 2 years prior, RacQuelle was a full-time educator. Now their channel is up to over 34k subscribers!
RacQuelle Major-Holland is a Cruise Content Creator/Travel Influencer & Travel Agency Owner. She spent 19 years as an educator, Dr. Major-Holland—before stepping out on faith to establish with Ron, Major Adventures Travel which focuses exclusively on cruise travel. Ron has worked in accounting for the last 27 years and has served as a business consultant for small to medium sized businesses.
Passionate cruisers like MH Family Adventures epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world!
It is my pleasure to catch up with RacQuelle & Ron again, and to share their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Welcome, RacQuelle & Ron to The Joy of Cruising Podcast
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Ben & David creators of Cruise with Ben & David, one of the top cruise brands in the world, certainlywhen it comes to content creators and cruise influencers. They have a massively successful YouTube channel with over 320k subscribers—in the top five of all cruise channels. This is the 3rd time Cruise with Ben & David has been on The Joy of Cruising Podcast—you can count on one hand the number of guests appearing on the podcast for the third time. Their two previous episodes were Ep 35 Cruise With Ben & David and Ep 89 Cruise With Ben & David Fun fact, their two previous appearances onThe Joy of Cruising Podcast are the top two most listened to episodes we have ever had. Is that a humblebrag?
It's been over a year, so I wanted to catch up with Ben & David. Besides, I recently watched one of their shows and learned much to my surprise, given their prolific cruising, that they have just cruised for the first time on Holland America Line. It gets better; their cruise was on HAL’s flagship, the Rotterdam. Cheryl and my next cruise…Rotterdam to Panama Canal!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Anwar and Lametrius Arif, creators of the Mete and I YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook page. As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly as I work on the podcast seemingly every waking hour—often with the sound down. When a Mete and I video comes on I turn the sound up!
Their channel is described as follows. “Our channel is dedicated to love, fun, weight-loss, travel and honesty. This platform will be used to show the world how great married/family life can be. We want to motivate people like us, create memories and to keep our content as transparent as possible.”
Mete and I says,“Our cruise adventure began in 2004, and we’ve been hooked ever since. Over the years, we’ve set sail on more than 20 unforgettable voyages—each one adding new memories, friendships, and destinations to our journey. For us, cruising is more than just a vacation… it’s a lifestyle. Through our YouTube channel, we love sharing that joy with our community, inspiring others to relax, explore, and live fully—one cruise at a time. As of recently we have been exploring other cruise lines. Our latest cruise was aboard MSC Seashore for our 25th Anniversary this past May. We also sailed the Celebrity Ascent for Reconnecting at Sea in February. Our upcoming Group cruise to Celebration Key sailing 7/29. In February 2026 we are sailing Virgin Voyages (which ship) for my wife’s 50th birthday.
Based on Mete and I videos, they always appear to be to be fun-loving and purposeful. So, I am delighted to finally have them on the podcast and increase my circle of cruise community friends.
Find Mete and I online
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@meteandi?si=U68ixHZl5GEcOjTr
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meteandi365?_t=ZP-8xrDXD0ztvz&_r=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meteandi365?igsh=dDhraW1ja2t1NTlr&utm_source=qr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FCMsFDEkX/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Email: aesleeve@gmail.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to host Hugo Ortega a multi-talented seafarer who can bring a multitude of perspectives to the listeners of the show.
Hugo Ortega is a Superyacht Captain 500T, educator, and founder of Superyacht Sunday School, a global platform helping aspiring crew enter the luxury yachting industry. From his humble beginnings in the Bronx to captaining superyachts around the world, Hugo now mentors’ newcomers through accessible, expert-led courses that break down industry barriers. He also appears on Below Deck Season 12, as the new Bosun, bringing his experience and passion for adventure to the screen.
Find Hugo/Super Yacht Sunday School online
Website: https://www.superyachtsundayschool.com/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@superyachtsundayschool
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@superyachtsundayschool
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superyachtsundayschool
Facebook: https://facebook.com/Superyacht.Sunday.School/
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In the last couple of years, we have started checking off some bucket list cruises. Given that they are bucket list destinations, vessels, or both it is of little surprise that several of those bucket list check offs made it on to this list. And as we have a number of bucket list cruises in front of us, i suspect this list will evolve over time. Like later this year, our next cruise is a bucket list trip to the Panama Canal on Holland America Lines flagship, Rotterdam, and if what I have researched turns out to be the case I suspect it will crack our top ten.
This is an absolutely subjective list, not just that it is our opinion only, but offered from the perspective of non-professional reviewers. We don’t have a YouTube channel, so we don’t go over ships anywhere near as comprehensively as many of those content creators. We just thought it would be fun to do. Exactly half of the top ten were before The Joy of Cruising Podcast was created, and the other half have been since the podcast, and thus we have done a reflections podcast for each of the five on the list that we have done since the podcast started two and-a-half years ago. So, you could check them out if you missed them.
Paul’s article about the AmaWaterways AmaKristina Soulful Experience cruise at Quirky Cruise https://quirkycruise.com/amawaterways-soulful-experience-cruise/
- AmaWaterways, AmaKristina by Friends of Festival At Sea
2. Fire & Ice, Hawaii to Alaska to Vancouver on Norwegian Spirit
3. Celebrity Beyond Mediterranean
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Soul Train Cruise on Holland America Line Nieuw Amsterdam
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The Smooth Jazz Cruise on Celebrity Millenium
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Explora Journeys, Explora I
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Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady Transatlantic Cruise
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Festival At Sea On Celebrity Equinox
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Carnival Mardi Gras
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Royal Caribbean Symphony of The Seas
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to welcome Alissa Musto, Recording Artist, Singer, Pianist, Actor, Miss America Finalist. And Alissa performs as a guest entertainer onboard cruise ships. I am as passionate about music and comedy as I am about cruising so when I get a chance to have a conversation with an entertainer who also has performed on cruise ships, I am in my glory.
What a resume! Alissa’s website describes her as “Retired pageant queen playing piano around the world,”
A Musician, Singer-Songwriter, Actor, Miss Massachusetts 2016 & Miss America Finalist, World Traveler, Vanlifer, Sailor, Reality TV Contestant, Harvard 2016, University of Miami (MM?) 2019, and, 30 under 30. Wow, I want to hear about it all.
Of course, what we on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, most want to hear about is Alissa being a guest entertainer for Holland America, Princess, Celebrity, MSC and Norwegian Cruise Lines. Alissa has dazzled audiences while sailing through over 50 countries. The song quickly hit 20,000 views on Facebook and Alissa's story was featured in Conde Nast Traveler, GEN (a Medium publication), The Washington Post, the cover page of The Herald News, NBC Boston, Good Morning America and ABC's national lifestyle network, Localish.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome freelance travel writer Ashley Kosciolek. Ashley is a former editor at Cruise Critic for 12 years, but I really got to know her work during her time writing mainly about cruises but also some general travel articles wrote about cruises for The Points Guy. Ashley can address virtually any cruise-related topic from the consumer side, and even make topics about as exciting as watching grass grow—like travel insurance—worth reading about. On numerous occasions over the past couple of years in response to one of her articles, I considered reaching out to her regarding visiting us on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. I finally get a chance to welcome Ashley.
Ashley Kosciolek is a travel writer with nearly 20 years of experience covering the cruise industry. Following more than a decade as a staff editor at TripAdvisorcompany Cruise Critic, she spent four years as a senior writer on the cruise team at The Points Guy, with coverage ranging from ship reviews, destination reports, and industry news to tips articles, planning pieces and first-person features. You can also find her freelance work on Cruise.blog, Royal Caribbean Blog, and Cruise Radio. Ashley has sailed with every major cruise brand (and most of the lesser-known ones, too) and has been quoted as an expert by USA Today, the Associated Press, CBS, Forbes, NBC News, the Miami Herald, the Huffington Post, "Good Morning America," The New York Times, and more. You can follow her adventures on Instagram: @slyjabroni.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Janet Bava, Chief Commercial Officer, Windstar Cruises. We have had several small ship specialists on the podcast as well as leaders from some of the lines, and of course passionate cruisers providing us their cruise reports from their time on various small ship and river cruises. This is the first time we have exclusive focused on Windstar Cruises, and I am excited to meet Janet and learn about Windstar.
Cuban born and Miami raised, Janet Bava found her love for travel at a young age. She had her first taste of cruising at the age of 15 when she celebrated her quinceañera onboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and never looked back. She describes herself as a cruise lifer and internationally travel driven — she even met her husband while traveling through Italy during her college years.
Prior to joining Windstar Cruises during the summer of 2023, Bava was most recently the Chief Marketing Officer for AmaWaterways River Cruises, and she has spent upwards of 20 years working in the travel industry. Most notably, prior to AmaWaterways, Bava was the VP of Marketing (The Americas) for Silversea Cruises where she fell in love with small-ship luxury cruising. Graduated from Florida International University with her Marketing and International Business degree, she always dreamed of working for a global brand poised for expansion and that would allow her to focus on bringing people from all over the world closer together. As a member of Chief [Professional Network for Women], she enjoys connecting and supporting women executive leaders and emerging future female leaders in the corporate world.
She prides herself on being a results-driven professional who is able to lead by example and set a clear vision for her team. Bava values collaboration, creativity and innovation. She sees the advantages of leveraging new emerging technologies to consistently deliver results and she looks forward to further elevating the Windstar experience ensuring every touch point with our guests can be 180 degrees from ordinary.
There's one thing Bava has that never expires — her passport. If she could, she would explore the whole world on a ship with her beloved colleagues, family & friends. With an already accomplished travel portfolio, Bava is most eager to experience Tahiti and the Middle East the Windstar way, on an intimate private-yacht style cruise delighting in the culinary experiences this award-winning global travel brand is renowned for.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to welcome Emily Gelineau, a Grammy award-winning Violinist, Pianist, Vocalist, Composer and Arranger who is known for interpreting modern styles of music from jazz to country, pop to rock, and world styles such as French and Brazilian music. Emily performs as a guest entertainer onboard luxury cruise ships. Listeners know I am as passionate about music and comedy as I am about cruising so when I get a chance to have a conversation with someone who has performed on cruise ships, I am in my glory.
Residing in the USA for 4 years, Emily is a graduate from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. She has performed live and recorded with many infamous and influential artists across the world, including recording Violin for the 8-Bit Big Band on their 2022 Grammy-Winning arrangement of “Metaknight’s Revenge”. Today, Emily is a well sought-after musician on the Jazz scene in Australia and overseas, whilst regularly earning composing commissions, arranging for orchestras and organizations such as RWS Entertainment and the Perth Symphony Orchestra, composing for media, and performing at sea.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Justin Sorrell aka MrBucketlist. Justin is a video creator and influencer and the creator of the 19k subscribers MrBucketlist YouTube channel where you get to follow his adventures not only on the seas but anywhere else. You see MrBucketlist is a certified thrill seeker, never He cruises exclusively solo, which is relatively atypical for men, and has done 30 Solo Cruises—3 of which involved leading MrBucketlist group cruises.
As suggested by Justin’s brand name, cruising is only one aspect of his adventure seeking lifestyle. He has checked off over 150 items on his bucket list in numerous forms. Justin is a confirmed thrill seeker having visited over 80 Theme Parks; 49 of 50 States—and that will soon be 50/50 as he just booked a Hawaii cruise for this Spring; and 5/7 Continents.
And then there was this statement on the MrBucketlist homepage, and Justin became a new travel role model of mine: “I vacation every 2 weeks!”
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to host Christian McBride, multi Grammy-winning jazz superstar bass player! We talk about performing at sea, and hear about Christian’s inaugural charter cruise, Christian McBride's World at Sea, January 20-27, 2026. The cruise will be on Celebrity Summit from Ft. Lauderdale, stopping at Jamaica and Grand Cayman.
Christian McBride is creating a new kind of experience for jazz fans while breaking new ground for artists as he takes on a "captain" and completely immersive role on his upcoming cruise, Christian McBride's World at Sea (produced by Signature Cruise Experiences whom we hosted on the podcast when they were called, Jazz Cruises, Ep 113). Music cruises have gained in popularity in recent years and give fans an incredible opportunity to personally engage with their favorite artists (running into them all week long on the ship...at the buffet, the pool, during shore excursions together, seeing concerts in smaller venues than they would on tour) but Christian is in a unique position where he's not simply one of the acts booked onto a festival at sea. Instead, he curated the cruise, building a completely personal environment and atmosphere to share with jazz fans by inviting his friends and peers like Samara Joy, Angelique Kidjo, Ledisi, Jose James, Cecile McLorin Salvant and 40 more musicians to join them. Plus, he's a prolific musician, in several bands at any given moment so it's no surprise that his time on the cruise will be no different than on land: He is bringing three of his bands onboard and will perform with each of them separately.
Christian has performed on over 400 recordings, leads six different bands, has been the Creative Chair for Jazz at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is the artistic director for the world-renowned Newport Jazz Festival, curates the James Moody Jazz Festival and he hosts the popular NPR show "Jazz Night in America."
Christian McBride's World at Sea: https://mcbridesworldatsea.com/
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back a special guest, my cohost Cheryl.
As some of you know we are largely in the bucket list checking stage of our lives and just got the opportunity to check one off. I will warn my listeners from the cruise community that this episode is about a land trip—don’t want to be accused of inviting you here under false pretenses. Yes, we cover cruising 99% of the time but this was a rare land trip to a place that was on the bucket list to visit whether by land or sea—Dubai. You likely have heard me point out that while I live and breathe cruising, Cheryl appreciates the occasional land trip, so we have a couple planned this year. In addition to Dubai, we are going back to Vegas for the umpteenth time but this a little bit of bucket list checking because we want to see the Sphere, the $2.3 billion state of the art music and entertainment arena characterized by the venue's exterior featuring 580k sq ft of led displays.
We experienced Dubai, one of the 6 emirates of the United Arab Emirates along with a 2nd Emirate, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates about a 45 minute drive from Dubai. Our itinerary was called Dubai & Abu Dhabi: Beauty Among the Dunes, an 8-day, 6 night journey booked via The Joy Of Vacation by Dream Vacations. Our package included air from Charlotte, accommodations, all breakfasts, 2 dinners, 4 guided tours and excursions, entrance fees to certain venues like the largest Mosque in the UAE, and the Kings Palace, and transfers and transportation. For that we paid $4300. As we’ll discuss, this amount did increase unexpectantly before we ever left home, so the total price turned out to be $5000.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Judi Cohen, travel writer extraordinaire known in the cruise community as Traveling Judi.I featured Traveling Judiin my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me... Sort Of.” Traveling Judi is an ardent world cruiser with a penchant for nontraditional, smaller, and even tiny ships relative to mainstream cruise ships. I met Judi through my association with Quirky Cruise online magazine, for whom she is a significant contributor.
Traveling Judi was on the podcast a year-and-a-half ago Episode 64 It is good to catch up.
From travelingjudi.com: Judi has traveled the world in search of unique experiences and off-the-beaten-path destinations. She is also a connoisseur of small-ship cruises that pack big adventure, and local cultural and dining experiences. Judi became a full-time traveler and travel advisor in 2015 following her 35-year career in engineering and transportation, and today she writes about her experiences to inspire others to step outside their comfort zones and embrace new kinds of adventures. Judi has been to over 90 countries on six continents and enjoys sharing her stories along the way. Her training and experience as a Health Coach and as a Travel Advisor allows her to plan trips and seek out wellness destinations and experiences. Combined with her story-telling skills, she has become an accomplished Travel Writer accredited by SATW, NATJA and IFWTWA, and her work has been published on travel websites such as Quirkycruise.com. She is also a Board Member on the Travel Media Association of Canada's (TMAC) National Board and Board Secretary.
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Insightful interviews with Africa’s tourism professionals - Great giveaways from 5* guests
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Jennifer Halboth, CEO for the Americas, Riverside Luxury Cruises. We have had several small ship and river cruise specialists on the podcast as well as leaders from some of the lines, and of course passionate cruisers providing us their cruise reports from their time on various small ship and river cruise. This is the first time we have exclusive focused on Riverside Luxury Cruises, and I am excited to meet Jen and learn about Riverside.
Jen Halboth is the CEO of Riverside Luxury Cruises, Americas. She believes that title really stands for Chief Engagement Officer. Travel, after all, is a business built by and for humans to get out and discover the world and each other. To do that, you have to be engaged. Before she joined Riverside in 2022, she was with Avalon Waterways and the Globus family of brands for 19 years, most recently in the Senior Director – National Accounts role. She held various sales and marketing positions during her tenure and even sharpened her teeth on operations, planning and hosting successful charter programs for travel industry partners including Virtuoso, Signature Travel Network and Travel Leaders. Halboth’s initial foray into the world of travel began in 1998 when she worked in advertising and marketing for one of the very first internet travel sites, Trip.com. Though her career is quite varied. Before diving into travel full-time with the Globus family of brands, she was a founding member and account executive at PR & Marketing agency LH3 in Denver. Prior to exploring the agency world, she was Trade Marketing Manager at Airwalk, which manufactured and marketed snowboarding boots and skate shoes. She graduated from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business in 1995 before moving to Colorado where she began her career in professional sports. She worked in public relations for the Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche in 1995. And yes, she does have a Stanley Cup ring.
When Halboth isn’t out creating preference and excitement for Riverside Luxury Cruises she spends her time in Evergreen, Colorado with her son Hank, sweet puppers Daisy Cakes and an amazing tribe of family and friends biking,
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Carlene Reid, creator of the See It With C YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook page. Carlene starts each video, “Hi, my name is Carlene. I work a 9-5 but travel the world as if I don’t.”
Carlene is a lifelong traveler and educator who has turned her passion for traveling and teaching others into a growing community of travel aficionados. She has visited almost 40 countries and taken 35 cruises mostly solo and shares those experiences as well as tips from her adventures on her YouTube channel See It With C in hopes to motivate and encourage others to explore the world.
As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly as I work on the podcast seemingly every waking hour. Carlene’s, with her over 4k subscribers to See It With C YouTube channel is on repeat.
We are friends/followers on social media, and I occasionally see Carlene in videos of other cruise friends—always appearing to be fun-loving and adventure seeking. So, I have long planned to invite Carlene on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, and I am so pleased she was agreeable.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome Helena and Dustin, two “cruisers” with a once-in-a-lifetime harrowing tale with a happy ending on Carnival Splendor. Another one of those world-wide new human-interest stories I love bringing to the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
Dusty and Helena are two Australians in their late 30s who have been living off-grid for the past three years. Their journey began with a motorhome adventure around Australia — accompanied by their three beloved dogs. After completing the full lap of the country, they asked themselves, “Why not take on the world?” That question led them to their next big chapter: life at sea. Eight months ago, they bought a catamaran, La Vita, and set sail, trading roads for open ocean and embracing a new kind of freedom. Along the way, they decided to document their sailing adventures — the highs, the lows, and everything in between — in a YouTube vlog called Sailing Barking Cat." Back at home in Australia is the wine company, Little Ripples, that Dustin founded and is the CEO of, and is so instrumental to their story.
Little Ripplesis wine with purpose. Crafted in Australia’s most celebrated wine regions, every bottle of Little Ripples delivers more than just great taste — it provides one year of clean drinking water to a person in need. So far, we’ve helped over 750,000 people with 1 year of clean and safe water, and we’re on a mission to reach 5 million lives within 10 years. From bold Shiraz to crisp Sauvignon Blanc, our wines are made to be shared, savoured, and remembered — not just for their flavour, but for their impact. Drink well. Do good. That’s the Little Ripples way.
Dustin Leonard, Founder & CEO
Suite 3, 23-24 Belgrave Street, Manly, NSW, Australia, 2095.
(m) 0410 599 682
www.littleripples.co
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to welcome Josh Christina, Recording Artist, scene-stealing, piano-wielding frontman, and veteran headliner of several cruise lines. Listeners know I am as passionate about music and comedy as I am about cruising so when I get a chance to have a conversation with someone who has performed on cruise ships, I am in my glory.
Josh Christina is a dynamic and passionate musician whose love for piano rock has taken him on an incredible journey. His musical story began at the age of 7, inspired by the iconic sounds of Elvis Presley in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. It wasn’t until age 15, after seeing the Broadway show Million Dollar Quartet and discovering the electrifying Jerry Lee Lewis, that Josh began playing piano, igniting his path as a pianist and performer. Josh’s talents caught the attention of Grammy-nominated producer Kent Wells, who has worked with legends like Dolly Parton and Reba McIntire. Kent describes Josh as “such an old soul,” praising the way “the music just pours out of him.” This connection led to Josh recording in Nashville, creating music that resonates with the soul of classic rock and boogie-woogie.
His single “Kayla Ann” topped several independent radio charts, and Josh’s album Instincts (recorded at the historic Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN) was a testament to his mastery. Produced by Josh and Grammy-winning pianist Jon Carroll, Instincts received high praise, with Jon calling Josh a performer who “does it real well and means every note.” Josh’s high-energy performances have taken him across the globe, including a UK tour where he graced the stage of Ireland's Late Late Show. He’s headlined major cruise lines, bringing his piano rock show to fans of all ages worldwide. He’s also shared the stage with some of the world’s top boogie-woogie and rock ‘n’ roll pianists, earning admiration from both peers and fans for keeping the genre alive.
His latest album, UFO’s Over Phoenix, recorded live at Stages Music and Arts in Maryland, has already captured attention for its unique sound. Daryl Davis, former bandleader and pianist for Chuck Berry, describes the album as striking “the perfect balance of a scent of the familiar while being creatively and refreshingly new.” Josh Christina’s infecti
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome Gian and Angie, two cruisers living out two amazing stories on a cruise ship. That’s right, two amazing stories. The first is living on a cruise ship, Villa Vie Odyssey for the next three years, circumnavigating the globe and in the process visiting 147 countries across all seven continents—425 port stops in all. Anyone who is a regular listener of The Joy of Cruising Podcast knows I wouldn’t hesitate to host Gian & Angie on the show atsome point during their dream voyage. There’s a second amazing story Gian & Angie are a part of—it became world news—and it is how they came to my attention.
For background, Villa Vie Odyssey was originally due to sail from Belfast, Ireland in May 2024. Two passengers, who did not know each other, Angela Harsanyi from Colorado, and Gian Perroni, from Canada were awaiting sail away day when shortly before, an urgent need for some major repairs were uncovered, that would take several months. Some of the passengers chose discounted vacations around Europe; others remained in Belfast and worked remotely—including both Gian and Angie, who still had not met. Some time during the ensuing months Gian and Angie found each other; then they found love. Villa Vie Odyssey finally sailed in September 2024. When the ship stopped at Costa Rica, a couple of dozen friends and family members joined the several hundred passengers aboard the Villa Vie Odyssey for Gian and Angie wedding.
Gian Perroni is from Vancouver, Canada, and prior to embarking on the Odyssey spent the previous 6 years living in Costa Rica. He is still working full time in the online marketing space and has a dedicated office with a great view onboard the ship. Gian has 2 adult children from a previous marriage, both of whom were in the wedding party. Angie Harsanyi, now Perroni, is from Colorado, and was a successful salon owner for more than three decades. She’s an avid outdoors person that loves to spend winters snow-biking, and summers exploring nature, including living for a time in both Yellowstone and Alaska. Neither Gian or Angie were cruisers in the past, and neither joined the Od
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Jodi Murphy, Director, Strategic Partnerships,Regent Seven Seas Cruises. I have long had desire a desire to sail Regent Seven Seas, stemming from my research in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/3lAfyON, where I research an organization, Friends of Festival at Seawhich organizes very high-end group cruises to exotic locations, many on Regent, which at the time I wasn’t very familiar with. Since then, Regent Seven Seas has been on my bucket list.
Jodi Murphy is a seasoned travel industry professional with 25 years of experience at Regent Seven Seas Cruises, where she currently serves as Director, Strategic Accounts. In her role, she collaborates with travel advisors to bring Regent’s ultra-luxury, all-inclusive experiences to discerning travelers. Regent Seven Seas Cruises is truly Unrivaled at Sea, offering immersive exploration, world-class hospitality, luxurious space, and exceptional cuisine—qualities that define its new brand campaign, Nobody Does It Better.
Jodi is passionate about luxury cruising and believes in the transformative power of travel. One of her most memorable Regent experiences was sailing to Alaska aboard Seven Seas Explorer with her children in July 2024, an adventure that deepened her love for exploration and the unparalleled service Regent provides.
Find Jodi, Regent Seven Seas online
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RegentSevenSeasCruises
TikTok: @regentsevenseascruises
Instagram: @regentcruises
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/regentsevenseascruises
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back again to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Rich and Jazzy, creators of the amazing A Rich and Jazzy Life brand. A Rich and Jazzy Life is comprised of their top ten 110K cruise channel on YouTube; Melanin at Sea (MAS), their 115K Facebook affinity to group known for its legendary group cruises and, in my opinion the most influential cruise croup on Facebook; companion Instagram accounts and more.
You can learn more about why I think so highly of Rich and Jazzy in my latest book release, The Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyONwhere I wrote a feature about them, or listen to their two previous podcast episodes, Ep 15 and Ep 80. We love A Rich and Jazzy Life. You can count on three fingers the The Joy of Cruising Podcast guests to appear on the podcast three times! And I am confident there will be more!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Paul and Carole, creators of one of the top cruise brands in the world, Paul and Carole Love to Travel. They are dominant on every social medium platform they are on, and whether you classify them as cruise influencers or cruise content creators they are among the world’s leader as either. Most importantly to me is that Paul and Carole are passionate cruisers, and just about every time I read about them on social or see them on YouTube, they are cruising to one of my bucket list destinations! Like the topic of this podcast; we’ll be checking off Dubai from our bucket list in a few weeks, and when I found out Paul and Carole had recently cruised there, I had to get them back on the show. They are no strangers to The Joy of Cruising Podcast—you can count on a few fingers the number of guests appearing on the podcast for the third time. Ep 27 Paul and Carole Love to Travel, and Ep 99 Paul & Carole Love To Travel, Mekong River Cruise, AmaWaterways, AmaDara, Japan!
By the way, you can count on a couple of fingers the passionate cruisers who have been in more than one of my books, and Paul and Carole Love to Travel was featured in bothThe Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF, and Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y.
It's been over a year, so I wanted to catch up with Paul and Carole, and especially to get their thoughts on their cruise to Dubai and the Emirates, which Cheryl and I will be visiting in a couple of weeks.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Linzi and Mark Cowgill, creator of the UK-based Suite Natured blog, YouTube channel, and Instagram platform. Over a year ago, I reached out to Linzi and Mark to come on the podcast to talk about transatlantics, in advanced of our first transatlantic cruise around this time last year on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady Ep 91. Suite Natured, Transatlantics. It was a fun conservation which ended with a hilarious anecdote. (Sure enough, I included it in my second annual end-of-the-year episode of the The Joy of Cruising Podcast year's "most memorable, funniest, and most embarrassing stories.” It won!)
Linzi and Mark are back to share with the cruise community their reflections on their recent bucket list on Windstar Star Legend.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Presley Pfereka, a crew member for Azamara luxury cruise line. I have long observed with awe and fascination cruise ship crew from the Captain to entry-level crew members and have hosted on The Joy of Cruising Podcast a cross-section of ship crew, both former as well as active over the past years. I would love to delve into their lives in an in-depth manner both on the home front as well as at sea. I have often noted that if I had the resources this is a book project I would love to pursue. While I can’t begin to do justice to that in an hour or so podcast episode, my discussion with Presley affords us a brief, unique look at ship life through her eyes. The variety of crew, staff, officers, and guest performers who have guested on the podcast range from childcare associates to maitre d’ to Captains, acrobats, magicians, to guest singers and comedians from all over the world. Presley is my first guest from Zimbabwe, in the Southeastern part of Africa. I first found out about Presley by way of an article I read in Conde Nast Traveler, “What It's Like to Be a Waitress on a Cruise Ship,” by Ashlea Halpern.
Presley isa 37-year young lady from Easten Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province. She finished high school and started working at a young age as an organizing secretary for a non-governmental organization). This was after her parents passed on. Presley has two daughters aged 17 and 6. She moved to South Africa in search of greener pastures and worked a variety of jobs. In 2012 Presley met a fellow Zimbabwean who introduced her to Open Distance Learning with the University of South Africa. She enrolled with the University and attained a Higher Certificate in Business Management and then Registered for Bachelor of Commerce In Business Management which she is still pursuing. After coming across an advertisement on LinkedIn regarding cruise ship job interviews to take place in Cape Town in 2023, Presley applied as it was her wish to travel and work on cruise ships. This led to her being hired by Azamara January 2024 as Assistant Waitress. In November 2024 she got promoted to Administration as a Payroll Purser.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special group of guests, The Chefs: Jerome Brown aka Chef Rome, the chef to the stars with over 35 years of professional cooking, the go-to chef for celebrities worldwide; Chicago Chef George Outlaw specializing in elevated soul food with bold and unusual food combinations; Chef Sondra (Dra) Rhodes bringing creole and southern country cuisine to your table; and, Chef Ricky Simpson, Jr., an Atlanta resident whose credo is “To enlighten people to a healthier way to make their favorite foods.”
We were introduced to The Chefs on our recent bucket list cruise, the Soul Train Cruise, which we raved about in our reflections of the cruise several weeks ago on Ep 165 The Soul Train Cruise. It was our first Soul Train Cruise; we enjoyed it so much that we booked for 2026. Immediately after we boarded the Holland America Line Nieuw Amsterdamwe became aware of The Chefs albeit in an indirect way. In the buffet we noticed some soul food items; for instance, there was Rick’s Ribs. Then at the main dining room, throughout the menu was soul food and New Orleans favorites. Things came into perspective when we read the tent card on our table mentioning The Chefs return to the Soul Train Cruise (for the third year) along with short bios of each.
I have hosted several fascinating celebrity chefs on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. This is the first time I get tohost a team—each a celebrity chef in their own right.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Sheri of Cruise Tips TV. Sheri is a special friend to me, having been featured in my first two cruise books, The Joy of Cruisinghttp://amzn.to/2EAMddF and Cruising Interrupted http://amzn.to/3seFU8y, and then being my first choice for the initial episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcastwhich shegraciously accepted Episode 1. Sheri returned to the podcast for Episode 93. Today Sheri becomes the second podcast guest to make a third appearance on the show. Cruise Tips TV has its own podcast, Cruise Tips TV Unplugged, as well as blog, You Tube channel, IG and more. In fact, across all platforms Sheri and Cruise Tips TV is one of the mostly followed and influential cruise brands in the world.
It's been over a year, so I wanted to catch up with Sheri, and especially to get her thoughts on her cruise to United Arab Emirates, which Cheryl and I will be visiting this spring on a land trip.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to welcome Dr. George Alexakis, a former colleague of mine from Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. George is a Hospitality Professor at FGCU, and he did some work some collaboration with the organization I led, which was the Office of Continuing and Off-Campus Education. George and I always had a good rapport given our mutual interests—not just in continuing ed but hospitality, which I had taught at my prior institution. George taught cruise management classes and led several cruises with students. He also garnered a reputation for putting together annual land trips to his homeland of Greece, popular with students, faculty, and the southwest Florida community.
Dr. George Alexakis is a lifelong tourism and hospitality professional who began his career managing his family’s restaurant and banquet operations in Ontario, Canada. He went on to serve as a hospitality consultant and marketing manager for the renowned firm, Cini-Little International. Today, he is a full professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he teaches courses in culturally responsible tourism, sustainability, and a variety of other courses. An accomplished speaker and educator, Dr. Alexakis has presented across the globe on topics such as dynamic communication, exceptional customer service, and human resource development. He has taught in Italy, the Caribbean, Israel, and aboard major cruise ships. He holds a doctorate in higher education with a concentration in hospitality, a hospitality master’s, and a hospitality and tourism bachelors.
A prolific scholar, George has authored numerous articles and book chapters in the fields of tourism, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Each summer, he plans a tour for travelers to have an authentic experience of Greece—off the beaten path and beyond the postcard views. Very fluent in Greek and deeply connected to his heritage, George collaborates closely with a professional tour director and local guides to create unforgettable cultural experiences filled with heritage, storytelling, and—of course—fun. He proudly refers to himself as the “Mayor of Fun.”
Find Dr. Alexakis Online
Email: george7alexakis@gmail.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Belencia Wallace, creator of Ladybug Travel of Facebook, Instagram, and with its 55k following on TikTok, which is where I met her. I was amazed to learn Belencia decided last year to leave her professional career to embark on a full year at sea. Belencia sails on a variety of Royal Caribbean ships and estimates her one-year journey to cost approximately $100k. When Belencia’s The Joy of Cruising Podcast episode airs, she will have completed more than half of her yearlong journey. We not only want to hear all about what the adventure has been like but—inquiring minds want to know—what’s next after her one-year adventure is over!
Ladybug is a passionate traveler and former healthcare administration professional who has embarked on an extraordinary one-year sabbatical to explore the world by sea. Starting her journey in October 2024, she meticulously planned every detail of her grand adventure without the assistance of a travel agency, showcasing her organizational skills and love for exploration. Over the course of this year, Ladybug will cruise along the East Coast, the enchanting Caribbean islands, and the rich cultures of Europe and the Middle East. Her voyages encompass popular destinations and hidden gems alike, allowing her to indulge in diverse experiences while connecting with fellow travelers.
Ladybug brings a unique perspective to her travels. Her dedication to service and attention to detail enhance her journey, as she navigates new environments with a keen eye for culture and community. Follow Ladybug on her continuous cruising adventure as she shares insights, stories, and breathtaking photographs from around the globe, inspiring others to pursue their own travel dreams.
Find Ladybug Travel online:
YouTube: @officialladybugtravel
TikTok: @ladybugtravel
Instagram: @officialladybugtravel
Facebook: @ladybugtravel
Email: officialladybugtravel@gmail.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome Racquel and Vincent, two cruisers who have never been on a cruise ship. Yes, you heard that right. All of you, well the vast majority of you—I know we have listeners who aspire to take their first cruise—the vast majority of you have been on cruise ships, yet unlike most of you Racquel and Vincent have cruised around the world. Confused?
Well, with respect to mainstream cruising, it is true that Racquel and Vincent have never been on a cruise, however, people who live a lifestyle similar to theirs i.e., sailing around the world, are also called cruisers, hence the confusion.
For background, Racquel had a nomadic upbringing and has always been passionate about authentic living and marching to the beat of her own drum. Little did she know that her life journey would lead to living on a boat and circumnavigating the globe. After working as a therapist in London in 2021, Racquel found herself in a challenging position when the clinic she was working at lost funding. This setback pushed her to start her own private practice online, and move back to her native home of Mallorca, Spain. Not long after, she met her partner, Vincent, who had been living on his boat for the past several years. She made a bold decision to join him and try digital nomadism at sea. Racquel began working remotely while living aboard a sailboat.
Since then, Racquel and Vincent’s life has been a whirlwind of adventure. They spent one summer sailing the Balearics, then a winter surfing in Portugal. They then bought a larger boat, completed a full refit over the course of a year in the Canary Islands, and in November 2024, she and Vincent crossed the Atlantic Ocean and are now traveling through the Caribbean as part of a circumnavigation journey. Their experiences combine remotely maintaining professional careers—Racquel as a therapist and Vincent as a software engineer—with the realities of full-time cruising, including adapting to different cultures and managing life at sea. Now, they’re in Martinique, exploring the Caribbean, and plan to spend the next two years discovering the islands before heading into the Pacific Ocean. Racquel and Vincent are slowly travelling, enjoying learning new cuisines,
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome JD Harbor, author of the new seafaring novels, Emerald Tide, and Sapphire Seas. They are both set aboard a luxurious cruise ship and were inspired by JD’s own experience. You see, he met his wife onboard a singles cruise in 2014, and they have sailed together ever since. Man, that sounds fun! As JD notes, “Meeting my wife on that cruise is proof that the magic of the sea really can lead to unexpected connections!”
JD Harbor is an author and long-time cruise enthusiast. His own love story started onboard the Carnival Sunshine, and it’s been a huge inspiration in his writing. He says, “There’s something about being at sea that allows people to leave behind the stresses of life and open themselves up to adventure and possibility. That’s the energy I wanted to capture in my novels, pairing romance with personal growth against the dreamy backdrop of the open sea.”
JD’s debut novels, Emerald Tide and Sapphire Seas, are two interconnected stories following Aidan Murphy and Harper Brooks, who meet onboard the Elysian Serenade during a hosted group voyage for single sailors.
The two books explore themes of self-discovery, second chances, and how love can flourish when we allow ourselves to embrace change and vulnerability. Cruising provides such a unique and romantic backdrop—it’s a world where you can truly leave everything behind and focus on the moment. There’s a special kind of magic onboard a cruise ship that brings people together in ways they don’t expect, and JD tried to infuse that same feeling into these stories.
The books are the beginning of a series, RomantiSea Serenades, with each installment exploring new characters and love stories, all tied together by the romance and adventure found at sea. It’s a project JD is deeply passionate about.
Find JD Harbor online:
TikTok: @jd.harbor
Instagram: @jdharbor (send me a DM with the keyword “Joy” and I’ll send you a free sample)
Facebook: @jdharbor.author
Website: www.jdharbor.com
Email: author.jdharbor@gmail.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back a special guest, my cohost Cheryl.
We are largely in the bucket list checking stage of our lives, and just got the opportunity to check one off—a cruise on a luxury cruise line, specifically Explora Journeys and its first ship, Explora I. Let me preface with a brief overview oo the main categories of cruise lines:
Mainstream-Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL
Premium-Celebrity, Holland America, Princess, Virgin Voyages, Disney
Luxury-Regent Seven Seas, Seaborne, Crystal, Windstar
You can argue with those classifications but that is accepted in the cruising industry. Where you are more likely to get arguments is about these cruise lines on the edge between categories. When we decided on explora journeys it was not on our luxury cruise radar—the luxury lines just mentioned were.
This aspiration to cruise in luxury was decidedly low on the list simply due to affordability; we have so many more affordable bucket list items; like going to the Panama Canal this fall. Then Explora Journeys surprisingly dominated the luxury category of the Cruise Critics Awards just a short time before I hosted Colleen Mc Daniel who happens to be the Editor-in-Chief of Cruise Critic. Not only did Colleen pique my interest by sharing her own experience on Explora Journeys but she turned me on to some Explora promotions—still going on—that had me researching as soon as the call ended with Colleen.
That research confirmed Colleen’s mention of attractive pricing, and it led me to several podcast guests who could talk about Explora Journeys including Kathy Lu, an executive with Explora Journeys, before we boarded in March.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Shelton and Ke' creators of the YouTube channel, Your Favorite Couple. As frequent listeners know, I enjoy watching cruise YouTube videos and from time to time I get introduced to potential The Joy of Cruising Podcast guests. That’s how I met Shelton and Ke'. I enjoyed their fun, informative video style and their diverse choices in terms of cruising and sensed similarities to our own cruise choices. They have cruised on a number of my favorite ships and several others that are on my cruising to-do list. So, I invited them to come on the show so we can compare notes on cruise ships we have experienced in common and to get their impressions on ships they have experienced that I have wondered about. It is always fun to meet new cruise friends I am glad they agreed to come on The Joy of Cruising Podcast to talk about their growing channel.
Shelton and Ke' note, “We are a couple who loves traveling by land and sea. Come along as we share our adventures in cruising and other forms of travel, provide honest reviews, and showcase love. Our mission is to allow our marriage to be a display of God's love as we share what we love with the world, one trip at a time.”
Find Your Favorite Couple online
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@yourfavoritecouple?si=iBCfUghiKMe5Moc3
TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@yfc.ke.shelton?_t=ZT-8vHeTzJfGxO&_r=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yfc_ke_shelton?igsh=MWkzMzFsdDM3cnNicQ==
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1PBVygENSo/
Email: yourfavoritecouple11@gmail.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back again to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Mikkel and Dan, creators of the Sometimes Sailing cruise website and Instagram. Mikkel and Dan are special friends, thatI got to know when I wrote about Sometimes Sailing in my latest book release, The Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyONwhere I wrote about their penchant for small ship cruising as well as “ship-within-a-ship” spaces, for instance, Celebrity Cruises The Retreat, Norwegian Haven, Princess Cruises Medallion Class, and MSC Yacht Club.
With today’s episode Mikkel and Dan, Sometimes Sailing, are the first The Joy of Cruising Podcast guests to appear on the podcast four times! I hosted Sometimes Sailing onThe Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 28in 2023, and Episode 101, and then Episode 149 in 2024.
➡️ Mikkel and Dan have created a complimentary river cruise planning resource for our listeners.
Download their Essential River Cruise Budgeting Guide here.
Listen to Small Ship Cruise Talk wherever you tune into podcasts.
They have a lot of AmaMagna content on their Instagram, @sometimessailing
Learn more about their in-depth Viking Torgil Douro River review.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Cheryl Cooper, creator of the SIG the Solo Cruiser YouTube channel, Instagram, and website. As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly. Cheryl has carved out a solid niche as a specialist in solo cruising with high quality content and reviews from a solo cruising perspective of a diverse array of cruise lines and cruise ships—many I have sailed or plan to sail. Accordingly, her channel is on repeat. While I have never done a solo cruise, if I were considering a solo cruise, SIG the Solo Cruiser platforms would be my first stop when starting my research process.
SIG the Solo Cruiser: Welcome to my world of solo cruise travel! With over 50 cruises, 43 solo across 11 cruise lines, l am here to share my tips, tricks, and personal experiences to help you confidently navigate the world of solo cruise travel. On this channel, you'll see my solo cruise experience and find advice and tips on solo cruising and cruising solo as an introvert. My goal is to empower you to make the best decisions for your solo travel adventures, whether it's your first trip or your next unforgettable journey. Also, as a travel agent, I'm here to guide you through every step of the process-from choosing the perfect cruise to booking and customizing your experience.
I have long planned to invite Cheryl on. Then she posted her latest videos, and they were about her recent experience on Explora Journeys. As this episode airs, I am onboard my first luxury cruise on Explora I! I decided to “jump the line” and welcome Cheryl on The Joy of Cruising Podcast now, and am pleased she was agreeable.
Find SIG the Solo Cruiser: YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@SIGtheSoloCruiser
TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@sigcruiser
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sigthesolocruiser/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/groups/sigthesolocruiser
Email: cheryl@sigcruiser.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Prof Cruise. I first met Prof Cruise featured her in my 3rd cruising book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON, to The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Yes, Sarah really is a former university professor—but her passion for cruising not only contributed to her decision to move on from teaching, but also directly influenced her family’s decision regarding where to live after she did so. You see, Prof Cruise absolutely loves Alaska; she seemingly travels there monthly. The US port of departure for trips is Seattle—yep, Prof Cruise and her family moved to Seattle and can see the port from their high-rise apartment’s window! By the way, if you are a newbie cruiser to Alaska, you owe it to yourself to visit Profcruise.com I can’t imagine a more knowledgeable Alaska cruise expert than Prof Cruise (when you are ready to book, visit us at Thejoyofvacation.com).
Learn a lot more about Prof Cruise by checking out her earlier visit to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Episode 12
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Emma & Jack, creators of the YouTube channel, Live A Little. As frequent listeners know, I enjoy watching cruise YouTube videos and from time to time I get introduced to The Joy of Cruising Podcast guests. That’s kind of how I met Emma & Jack. I say kind of because normally I just watch videos and then perhaps transfixed by someones video style, or sense of humor, comprehensiveness of their video. In Live A Little case it was a little different. I was recording an episode with Colleen McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief of Cruise Critic and we got to talking about Explora Journeys, a newcomer in the luxury sector and a big winner in the recent Cruise Critic Awards. By the end of the interview, Colleen had influence me to move a luxury cruise to the top of my bucket list. I searched Explora Journeys and proceed to binge on dozens of YouTube videos and in the process happened upon Live A Little. After binging on Explora Journeys, I binged on Live A Little videos and they have a wonderful cruising life and a fun, informative video style and I am glad they agreed to come on The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
The Lindsays are a family of 3 based out of Colorado and created Live A Little during Covid after being able to find many YouTube channels that traveled the way they did. So, they gave it a go on a cruise to Alaska and the rest is history—they caught my eye! Their focus is a lot of content around suite level cruises, but their larger goal is to highlight destinations and the overall experience.
Lindsay & Jack note, “We have a passion for exploring this world one adventure at a time. Whether it's cruising the high seas, discovering gems on a road trip, or exploring iconic destinations, our goal is simple: to inspire you to get out and 'live a little' and make the most out of every journey. We don't want to look back on our life and wish we had done something. So we live by the motto just get out and live a little and see this amazing world while you can. We know travel isn't just about crossing places off a list—it's about creating memories, trying new things, and experiencing different cult
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Peta-Gaye and Allan, creators of the My Cruising Family YouTube channel, Instagram, and blog. As frequent listeners know, I enjoy watching cruise YouTube videos and from time to time I get introduced to The Joy of Cruising Podcast guests. That’s how I met My Cruising Family (with their fun, mostly family-orientedvideos often accompanied by a Jamaican beat.)I also occasionally interact with them on social media and decided it was time to finally reach out to them when they made a post about attending this year’s Maxwell Cruise, held during Valentines Day week. We attended R&B superstar Maxwell’s debut music cruise last year and thought it was great but had to miss this year. So, I invited them to come on the show and reflect on the cruise, and more importantly introduce them to the global cruise community as another outstanding cruise content creator. It is always fun to meet new cruise friends I am glad they agreed to come on The Joy of Cruising Podcast to talk about their various cruise platforms.
From MyCruisingFamily.com My name is Peta-Gaye. I am a Jamaican-born wife and mother who lives and works in the United States, and has traveled to 28 countries across 5 continents, thus far. I'm wife to Allan, and mom to our two boys, AJ and LJ. As a Christian and a foodie, I love to not only share my love for travel, but also my faith and food! We love to travel together as a family, to see new places, try new activities, and eat good food! We often travel with my mom also, and I enjoy having "me time" and "couple's time" while grandma manages the boys!
Find My Cruising Family online:
YouTube: @mycruisingfamily
TikTok: @mycruisingfamily
Instagram: @mycruisingfam
Facebook: @mycruisingfam
Email: mycruisingfamily@gmail.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back Nancy and Dale Houchens. I learned about Nancy and Dale when I read articles about them in both USA Today and Miami Herald. The Houchens retired in 2015 to a life—planned well before their last day at work—of living on cruise ships. I wrote a feature about the Houchens, Living On Cruise Ships in my new book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me…Sort Of.”
I first featured Nancy and Dale on Episode 36 of The Joy of Cruising Podcast. It’ been almost 2 years so I thought I would check back in on my friends to see how their almost full-time seafaring life is going.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, and in this special episode we meet members of the World-Renowned London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC) and discuss their participation in this summer’s Caribbean Gospel Choir Workshop Cruise on the stunning new MSC World America. I am delighted to welcome the founder of LCGC, Bazil Meade; Kaylin Cain, who is coordinating the Caribbean Gospel Choir Workshop Cruise, and long-time member of LCGC, Jenny La Touche.
LCGC is one of the most energetic and inspiring forces in the UK’s music scene, made up of an eclectic mix of people from diverse backgrounds, embodying their message of God’s love, peace and unity in a refreshing and invigorating style of Gospel. With a tight-knit ensemble of talented vocalists, they share joy, and feel-good music with all their audiences. They are proud to represent the metropolitan community of London, coming together as a tight-knit ensemble of talented vocalists, sharing joy, and feel-good music with their audiences.
They have worked with over 100 artists around the world in their 40 plus years and were the first Community Gospel Choir in Europe. They have sung live and recorded with various artists around the world including Elton John, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey. This is their first time performing and holding workshops in the Caribbean on an amazing cruise ship!
Caribbean Gospel Choir Workshop Cruise: For The Love Of Music Events Limited will present this Caribbean cruise which begins on August the 30th when you set sail from Miami aboard the new Luxury Cruise Ship, MSC World America.
7-night cruise features:
· Full board dining including Premium Drinks Package
· Pre-paid gratuities, all taxes and supplements
· Workshops led by specialist workshop leaders
· Performance and LCGC Concert onboard the ship which includes the Gospel Workshop Choir made up from guests
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast join me and guest Peter Knego, a maritime historian, journalist and creator of YouTube’s MidShipCinema, currently working on a video about the fascinating career and sad end of the Pacific Princess, Princess Cruises much loved ship that was the “star” of the Love Boat TV series that changed the face of cruising forever. With 2025 as the 60th anniversary year of Princess Cruises now unfolding, Peter will share what was and special about the Pacific Princess and discuss how that ship captured the imagination of millions of future cruisers. He will also share what became of this once revered ship in her post Princess days. Peter has one of the most unique and multifaceted seafaring stories I have ever heard. His home is virtually entirely comprised of cruise ship artifacts—made up of panels, artwork, and furniture including bars, from scrapped ships. During his first visit, Ep. 56 Peter Knego we focused mainly on the collector aspect of Peter’s persona, took a virtual tour of his house and backyard comprised of original artwork and artifacts including from the Love Boat. You can learn a great deal about Peter the collector, and his passion for older ships from his website, midshipcentury.com, and YouTube channel, Peter Knego's MidShipCinema, described as “unique, exclusive and personally captured video of the world's great ocean liners and cruise ships...past & present.” This excerpt from midshipcentury.com captures his reason for being, his raison d'être: “… today's mega cruise ships, offer a myriad of amenities to make the passenger forget he or she is even at sea. But unlike ocean liners, these boxy monoliths are fitted out like modern hotels with store-bought furnishings and fire-resistant materials. The era of the individual ship representing the best of its nation's artisans and craftsmen ended in the mid-1960’s. Seizing the one-time-only opportunity to save these items from obscurity or destruction, Knego not only bought items for his collection, but to share with those with a similar love for ocean liners or a penchant for the sleek stylings of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Carol Riddick. We met Carol on The Soul Train Cruise, where she was one of performers ranging from Soul Train TV show stars like Shalimar, to contemporaryfavorites like Carol. We enjoyed it so much that we booked for 2026. If you listened to our reflections of the cruise on Ep 165 The Soul Train Cruise I think it would be clear the person that ‘stole the show’ for us was Carol. The thing is, unlike the dozens of old school performers, we weren’t familiar with Carol when we boarded! Carol Riddick, an artist who has graced stages across the globe winning fans and admirers alike with her extraordinary voice and presence. Highly regarded in the music community for her vocal dexterity, mesmerizing performances and genuinely warm personality, Carol is a unique entertainer whose evolution is ongoing. She has blessed the tracks of many distinguished artists and is featured on records by Anthony Hamilton, Musiq (Soulchild), Jill Scott, Will Downing, Norman Brown, Jeff Bradshaw, and a host of others. Most recently she can be heard on Eric Bellinger’s 2022 Grammy nominated album on the track “Shine on the World”.
After partnering with Axis Music Group, Carol started an independent label “CriddickNotes” and spearheaded the release of her debut CD, “Moments Like This”. She also co-wrote, produced, and sang “Nuances”, the intro to Philly’s WDAS FM 105.3’s “Quiet Storm” program heard weeknights and most recently tapped into her communications background as she hosted her own radio show titled “Love & Life with Carol Riddick” on WURD Radio, the only African-American owned talk radio station in Pennsylvania (and 1 of only 3 in the country). In addition to her recording efforts, Carol lends her impressive vocals to other artists, like Philadelphia’s Queen, Patti LaBelle and Jazz great, Gerald Veasley, but most notably, her live performance with R&B crooner, Will Downing of the riveting duet “Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This,” is sure to take your breath away. Carol Riddick, a renaissance woman. Songstress, songwriter, multi-media personality, actress, label-owner and mentor. Her beautiful spirit, sensuous sta
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Bill, creator of Ritzy Travel Guide. As many listeners know, I am a serial viewer of YouTube cruise channels, watching them continuously while I work on my podcast and will even play them on mute when I listen to music. They are informative and sometimes introduce me to prospective podcast guests. That was the case with the Ritzy Travel Guide. Bill’s seductive voice and accent first caught my attention, but more substantively Ritzy Travel Guide’s great content made me a regular viewer.
Bill and his wife first cruised in 1997 and have never looked back. They enjoy variety and spread their cruises amongst as many cruise lines as possible, rather than sticking to one or the other! Like me and Cheryl, they find them all so different and love aspects of each. They split their year roughly into three parts: 1. Europe; 2. North America, and 3. Asia. Bill notes, ‘You might say we are travel nomads! Love the culture and differences of each.’
Ritzy Travel Guide’s preference in ships is those under 3000 passengers. Bill emphatically points out they are not fans of mega-ships. ‘We prefer the more intimate, conversational style of small to medium ships. That being said we're adventurous, and also book the livelier ships, such as Virgin. We're also huge fans of the Celebrity Edge class of ships.’ Two of my favorites—no wonder they caught my attention on YouTube.
Ritzy Travel Guide also does land-based vacations but have rarely featured them on their YouTube channel. That’s about to change. Bill says, ‘Starting this year we will mix cruise and land content on our channel, to have a 'Grand Tour' feel to it.’ Speaking of Grand Tour, around the time this episode airs they are embarking on an amazing journey: In February and March, they are doing a 6-week Asian trip, including jungle touring in Thailand, staying at a train-themed hotel in the deep jungle, feeding elephants breakfast from a tree-top canopy, staying in a bamboo eco resort on stilts over the water, and taking an overnight sleeper from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Take me with you! That’s just the beginning—we’ll let Bill tell you about their other plans.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Nathalie Holiday, creator of Round Trip Nat, Travel Content Creator and World Cruiser.Nathalie notes, “I like to speak on the reality of travel. Nothing is ever perfect no matter what price point you are traveling at. Someone at a 4-Star accommodation can have the same issues as someone staying at a 2-star. I like inspiring people that don't think they have the finances to travel. There are so many options that can help you see at least one of your dream places before you leave this earth. I don't travel like the typical person. We used public transit, we don't book $350 pp excursions for the same thing you can see from the ship for free. I'll never forget my 1st Alaska cruise where a group went whale watching and spent an insane amount of money, but not one whale in sight. Only for all of us to be at the back of the ship and seeing a bunch of whales for free. I chose to travel WITH my kids instead of leaving them home. We are world schoolers. We were before it was a popular term to use, before it was trademarked and before it became doing online school and traveling once or twice a year. Our sons not only visit destinations, but they also immerse themselves in them. They study them, the culture, traditions, food, politics of the places we visit. They speak with locals, eat in their restaurants, cook in their kitchens and get a feel, although small, about the places we visit. My next endeavors…our family will be offering Outdoor Hospitality, farm to table cooking and self-sustainability classes where everyone is welcome. We will do farm stays, family educational enrichment weekends including farm to table cooking classes, family outdoor weekends and host lively private events for the grown folks that camp and look for a fun, safe and relaxed atmosphere.”
At 10, a commercial showed her favorite band going to Disney World and on a cruise on Premier Cruise Line (later became Disney Cruises). This vacation of a lifetime on the first New Kids on The Block Cruise, is where her cruise addiction began! Fast forward to April 2024, her dream of visiting all 7 continents with her kids in tow became a reality as she stepped onto Africa to celebrate her 45th birthday in Morocco. January
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Hello passionate cruisers. This is Paul and I am joined by a special guest, my wife Cheryl, to share our thoughts on the Soul Train Cruise. Longtime listeners and readers of my books know of my fascination of theme cruises, especially my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising http://amzn.to/2eamddf where I included a section on theme cruising and featured a chapter on my first theme cruise, Festival at Sea, the oldest African-American Cultural Cruise, and a chapter about StarVista Live, a company that does a series of theme cruises about various music genres including the Soul Train Cruise. The Soul Train Cruise was on my bucket list and we are glad to check it off.
My attraction to theme cruises is simple; the passengers onboard are not only passionate about cruising but they are also passionate about the theme, the subject of the cruise. So every one has something in common that drew them to that cruise. Almost everyone is friendly, it is very low in drama, and very high in chill. Theme cruises feel like giant family reunions.
Soul Train has a long legacy and it is only fitting that the host is Tony Cornelius, son of the Soul Train television host Don Cornelius. We loved it…but would we do it again? Check out our thoughts!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Stefanie Mullen, co-creator of the Sean and Stef blog and YouTube Channel. From the Sean and Stef website: ‘We are Sean & Stef, your favorite cruise travelers! We are professional filmmakers and have won 3 Emmy awards for our video work. We are positive filmmakers who focus on the joys of travel and all the fun that goes along with the journey. We travel the world exploring destinations, all while making video memories that last a lifetime. Our mission is to inspire and connect with people all around the world and show them the joys of traveling. We are personally and emotionally fulfilled by the amazing people we meet and hope to continue this great journey as far as the road will take us.’
Sean & Stef is an iconic cruise brand. Sean was a talented artist, visual effects guru, and magical storyteller. Stef and I shared the sad, tragic story of Sean’s passing in Sean & Stef Ep 76, and Stef covers it comprehensively on the Sean and Stef YouTube Channel. We also discussed our experience sailing the same cruise, along with friends of the show, Ben & David—a bucket list journey from Hawaii to Alaska. Great videos on Stef’s channel.
Today I welcome Stef back to catch up with her and also get the scoop on her recent cruise on Margaritaville at Sea Islander coming off its surprise win in the recent Cruise Critic 2024 Best in Cruise Awards for Cruisers' Choice Best Ocean Cruise Line
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Kathy Lu of Explora Journeys. Let me preface my conversation with Kathy by pointing out that Explora Journeys was not even on my radar a few months ago. Then a series of events converged in a short amount of time. In November the Cruise Critic Awards came out and Explora Journeys was announced as respectively Best Cruise Line, Best Dining, and Best for Families in the luxury category. Mind you at the time of that announcement, a luxury cruise was on my bucket list—perhaps Regent Seven Seas, Crystal, Seabourne—Explora Journeys was not even in my thinking. Then I hosted Colleen McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Cruise Critic and asked her to reflect on cruising luxury cruise lines. Part of her response related to Explora Journeys, and I recall responding, “Wow, I have got some research to do.” That research led me to Kathy Lu.
Kathy Lu is Explora Journeys’ Business Relationship Lead, USA Southeast. Having spent 14 years at Crystal Cruises—first in Los Angeles, later in Miami—Kathy flourished in the brand’s culture of excellence, in which respect for others was paramount and exceeding expectations was inherent within the team. From her beginnings as an administrative assistant, through promotions into a myriad of roles in strategic partnerships, international sales and marketing, and ultimately as Regional Sales Manager for the Southeast, Kathy has formed unique global perspectives and valuable insights into all facets of luxury tourism today. A playful and curious lover of travel who began cruising from a young age, Kathy has spent much of her life exploring the world. Her favorite destinations include Greece, Hungary, and Vietnam and her future-travels wish list includes iconic spots like South Africa, New Zealand, and especially Iceland; a broken ankle, occurring hours after stepping onto the land of fire and ice, cut her holiday short in 2021.
Whether at home in Atlanta, in a fine restaurant, at a taco truck, or aboard a luxury ship, Kathy enjoys the foodie life and relishes opportunities to entertain. She loves contemporary art and Scotch whisky that is old enough to order its own drink. She’s a friend to all canines, and she loves people, particularly her supportive family in Los Angeles. Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree from Californi
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Regular listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast know that I include in most conversations a section about the guest’s most memorable, funniest, and/or most embarrassing cruise or port recollection. The answers have ranged from touching—for example marriage proposals; to poignant, like last year when Iris from Life of Iris—who expected to join a vibrant Holland American ship as a Communications Manager responsible for getting out the daily activities listing to cruisers, instead was sent to a ship designated exclusively to host Ukrainian women and children refugees fleeing a sudden outbreak of war in their homeland—to hilarious.
Last year in celebration of The Joy of Cruising Podcast’s first birthday, I did a retrospective of some of the best responses from guests I hosted during its first year— Episode 77. It was so fun to put together and I hoped you enjoyed listening then, so I decided to do it again.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Sam & Brian, hosts of the massively successful DCL Duo podcast. DCL Duo is a Disney Cruise Line-focused podcast, with occasional detours into general cruising and Disney topics including the Disney parks, Adventures By Disney, Run Disneyand Disney Vacation Club.
It is great to get back together with Sam and Brian, who are not just friends of mine but are podcast mentors as well. DCL Duo is featured in my newest book release, The Joy of Cruising Againamzn.to/3lAfyONin a section called The Communicators. I have been on their podcast a couple of times and have been fortunate to host them on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 16. Importantly, as discussed in that episode, I was in a funk and had a self-imposed writers block due to the pandemic declaration in the middle of the writing of my 2nd book. A note I received from DCL Duo—whom I did not know at the time—inviting me on their podcast due to their enjoyment of my 1st cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF is what motivated me to restart writing.
My only experience with Disney Cruise Line was a single cruise on Disney Dream. I took my grandkids on their first cruise, (there was never any consideration for another cruise line for my grandkid’s first cruise!) Everything I have heard about the new Disney Treasure suggests it just might be the ship to draw me back to
Disney Cruise Line. I figured there is no one who is a better ambassador for DCL than DCL Duo, so I am anxious to hear all about Disney Treasure!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Chris Warren. As you know, I try to portray cruising in all its diversity: region of the world; age; celebrities as well as “ordinary” cruisers with extraordinary stories; and profession—cruise CEO’s, Captains and crew, chefs, performers, travel writers, cruise influencers and content creators, etc. Here we are with over 160 episodes and have yet to host a professional travel photographer. Until today…
Chris is a talented photographer born in Philadelphia, who has resided in South Florida for the past 30 years. Specializing in hospitality and ocean photography, Chris has been passionate about capturing stunning images since childhood. As a self-taught artist, he has developed a unique style that showcases his deep understanding of light and motion, bringing each photograph to life.
Chris is multifaceted as he has two related but distinct photography careers—hospitality photography, and ocean photography, and also is an artist. These excepts from his 2 websites help get a feel for Chris’ different vocations and avocations.
www.cwarrentravel.comChristopher Warren, a hospitality photographer is a true artist with a passion for his craft and a fine art background that informs his work. He has built a reputation for himself in the industry and is frequently flown to resorts around the world to capture the essence of each property through his lens.
www.cwarrengallery.com Chris was raised in the city but tamed by the ocean. He ran with the wolves on Wall Street for over 20 years before deciding to focus solely on combining his love of the ocean with his love for photography. Today, Chris’ passion is pursuing the fine art of ocean photography in a way that captures the everchanging magic of color, textures and light in every wave that comes ashore.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Laura Pedlar, and Craig Shaw of Cruise Lifestyle Blog. Those of you with my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y, know that I featured Laura and Cruise Lifestyle in a section called “Bloggers: Cruise Community Champions.” Laura also came on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Ep 46 Cruise Lifestyleovera year ago and I’m glad to talk to her again, and to welcome Craig for the first time. I was reminded that it was time to invite Laura back to the podcast when I saw a social media post that she and Craig were on Celebrity Ascent. I tried to get them on the podcast in advance of my own cruise on Celebrity Ascent in November so they could get me excited about what I was in for, but I couldn’t work out the dates. So now we’ll just compare experiences, and also catch up on what’s new with Laura, Craig, and Cruise Lifestyle.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Emma of the massively successful Emma Cruises.
Emma is one of the most well-known cruise personalities in the world—and she is still in her 20’s. I first met her in 2019 after Emma shocked the UK cruising community at age 23 by winning the UK Wave Award for Best Cruise Blogger for her irreverently named blog, “Cruising Isn’t Just for Old People.” I was writing my first cruise book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF, soI reached out to Emma, and she became one of the features in the book. Emma progressed in the cruising world significantly over the ensuing years, so I decided to feature her in my 3rd cruising book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON, mainly to discuss her transition from a 23-year-old part-time blogger to a full-time cruising business owner and global cruise personality, Emma Cruises. After publishing that book, Emma was a guest on my new podcast Ep 13, and discussed her new charitable venture, selling plush toys based on her beloved cat, Hudson, to raise funds in support of Mercy Ships. We are so thankful Emma came back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, to talk about the state of her charitable venture and the huge milestone it just reached. And, Emma discusses a new passion—recently becoming a part of a venture we featured on the podcast a few weeks ago—The Cruise Maps Ep 154. Finally, hear why I refer to Emma as the answer to a trivia question!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Melissa Newman.
Melissa Newman is a university professor who loves to cruise. For most of her life, she held two full-time jobs, serving as professor and also running a nonprofit organization. In 2022 she decided to stop letting work dominate her life and she exited the nonprofit sector and used her newly found free time to pursue one of her passions... Travel. And specifically, cruise travel. She now cruises monthly and creates content to share with others what she learns along the way, which is the perfect marriage of her job and hobby — teaching and cruising. Professor Melissa and I share two significant things in common—we both have been university professors, and are certified travel agents, so I am anxious to hear how those backgrounds mix to create challenges and opportunities.
Melissa has some valuable insight to share that we did not have time to delve into for potential and new travel agents, as well as ways to cruise free using casino incentives. Following is some key information that you can follow-up with on your own about both:
Info on becoming a travel agent: https://www.profmelissa.com/travelagent
How to Get FREE Casino Cruises (The Secrets) Curious about how to get free cruise offers through casino programs? In this video, I'll share the approach I use to get free casino cruises, and these are strategies anyone can use to (potentially) get casino offers.
Video about casino offers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN1JkeEGHpc
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Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special guest, Magical Bones. We were introduced to Bones on our recent anniversary cruise to the A, B, and C Islands in the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity Ascent. Bones was a headliner that put on a show that was spellbinding, funny, and captivating as Bones broke into breakdancing! So, I enjoyed his performance but I was knocked off my feet as he shared his story of growing up Black in UK; getting into Bboying, and then into magic.
Magical Bones is one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the Magic scene in recent years; he has been entertaining audiences globally for over a decade. Starting out his career as a professional hip-hop dancer, he was given the nickname ‘Bones’ because of his hard-hitting dance style. An exceptionally skilled break-dancer and a gifted showman, Bones has worked with some of the biggest artists within the music industry such as Madonna, and Alicia Keys, and is the featured dancer in the music video of Mint Royals’ No. 1 smash hit single, Singing In the Rain.
Now focusing on his career as a magician, Bones’ uniqueness resides in his ability to effectively fuse mind-blowing magic with street-dance culture, music & lifestyle. He is a one-off. 2020 saw Bones make the final of Britain’s Got Talent with his audition logging over 10 million online views and the judges describing his act as the ‘best-presented magic act I’ve ever seen!’ Among his other TV credits are the BAFTA awards (BBC1), Penn & Teller Fool Us (The CW), Around the World in 80 Tricks (Amazon), Pure Magic (BBC) and This Morning (ITV). In 2022 Bones was the 2nd placed winner for ITV’s Christmas special The Ultimate Magician. On the live stage, Bones was selected as the headline magician for the hit West End magic show, IMPOSSIBLE, which played for two seasons at the Noel Coward Theatre before moving on to a hugely successful world tour in 2017. Bones’ debut solo show Black Magic sold-out residencies at both London’s Southbank Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and played to packed houses across UK. His second show Soulful Magic premiered at Fringe 2022 and went on to be a sell-out nationwide tour in the spring of 2023.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Kim Anderson, global nomad,host, and creator of the Design Her Travel podcast. Design Her Travel inspires you to live the life of your dreams and incorporate more travel into your daily life. Each week you'll discover travel tips and tales from individuals doing just that. Whether you're dreaming of taking your first trip or an experienced globetrotter, each week—through guest interviews and solo episodes—you'll hear inspiring stories and discover proven travel methods that will motivate you to take that next step in designing your life.
Kim is a global citizen who has lived, worked, and traveled to almost 40 countries. Many of her years were spent traveling the world by sea or exploring the world through solo adventures. Her purpose in life is to show people the world and be a living inspiration for their dreams. As creator and host of the Design Her Travel podcast, Kim currently showcases stories of people living extraordinary lives with travel as the centerpiece. Kim and Design Her Travel has been featured in Backpacker Magazine – Asia, Dockwalker Magazine, and on several podcasts.
I have to say Design Her Travel and The Joy of Cruising Podcast sharesome key characteristics—we are both about travel, started about the same time, have a similar number of episodes, and are both quite global with listeners in over 100 countries. There is one difference though; Design Her Travel is in the top 2.5% of podcasts in the world, making Kim my podcast role model!
Design Her Travel Website
Join the waitlist for the DHT Group Trip opening early 2025. Special earlybird discount available to the waitlist only!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Matthew Jones of The Cruise Maps. Based in UK, their ingenious, unique products based on maps of your cruise journey is far more than meets the eye. It all starts with your cruise shipʼs navigation system. While it was designed to help seafarers identify other ships and safely navigate the seas, it also enables The Cruise Maps to remotely follow the progress of every ship in the world in real time. A massive global network of satellite and land-based receivers are continuously sending signals them back to databases to store and analyze the global fleet’s movements. This system is used for everything from managing traffic and tracking logistics, identifying illegal fishing and analyzing global trade. And now, for creating Cruise Maps! Imagine completing that cruise celebrating a milestone like a special birthday? The Cruise Maps can immortalize that special cruise with a unique, custom-made keepsake you won’t find in souvenir shops or need to stuff in your luggage.The Cruise Maps story starts in 2007 when partners Matthew and Will were housemates at the University of Southampton, bonding over a shared love of travel, ships and the ocean. Will was a lifelong sailor and naval architect in training and Matthew was a Geography undergraduate with two seafaring parents, who met working on the Queen Elizabeth 2 in the 1980s. They found themselves, 16 years later in London, talking excitedly over breakfast about the possibilities of using satellite data in different ways—it wasn’t really a huge surprise. That day in 2023, they teamed up to create the world’s first personalized and entirely accurate print maps for cruise passengers. By using satellite ship tracking data, they managed to build a system that can take a passenger’s basic cruise details and create the perfect map of where the ship actually went, rather than where it planned to go. ‘We are both perfectionists at heart. We want to create maps that you will hang on your walls proudly for decades to come.’ If you choose to order your own cruise map, use my affiliate link www.thecruisemaps.com/joyofcruising10 to automatically receive a 10% discount!
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome a special guest, Colleen McDaniel. Among the global cruise personalities, we are blessed to host, today, I am honored to welcome another one of those Googleable individuals (is that a word...yes) we occasionally have the honor to host.
Colleen McDaniel is Editor-in-Chief of Cruise Critic. She considers cruising to be a true passion, having traveled the world by water – from Alaska, the Caribbean and Hawaii, to Europe’s rivers, Antarctica and Africa – on ships of all shapes and sizes. I first “met” when I featured her husband John Roberts of In the Loop Travel in my book Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y.
When not cruising, Colleen loves running, biking, hiking or anything that keeps her moving. Living in Colorado makes it easy to get outside and stay active. She’s also a fan of craft beer, and science fiction movies and TV. Trying craft beers in cruise ports all over the world has become a passion. She’ll talk your ear off about hair bands from the '80s and anything related to "Doctor Who." A Wisconsin native, Colleen roots for the Green Bay Packers – she’s a team owner. (As I am a football fan, I definitely want to ask her about that.)
She’s regularly quoted as a cruise expert in media outlets across the country, including The Associated Press, Good Morning America, TODAY, CNN, FOX Business, CNBC, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure and Skift.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Brandee and Shannon Lake, a couple of special guests who were recently sailors, roommates on Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise on Serenade of the Seas. We want to get their reflections about the special cruise which left Miami December 10, 2023, and disembarked in Miami on September 10, 2024. Shortly after embarkation Ultimate World Cruise became a social media sensation, and for several passengers it became a social media obsession. One of the best known of those passengers was Brandee Lake, and The Joy of Cruising Podcast was fortunate to have her on the show earlier in the year Ep. 115 .
In addition to being cabin mates for nine months, Brandee and Shannon host a podcast together, Brannon Files, and they did publish a couple of episodes from Serenade of the Seas. I enjoyed immensely when Brandee joined the podcast. It is now my pleasure to bring Brandee back to the show and welcome her sister Shannon and hear the highlights of their Ultimate World Cruise, learn about its aftermath—and its path forward, and talk to Brandee and Shannon about their cruising plans.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Jon Saxx, saxophonist extraordinaire. I first experienced Jon on a cruise we attended prior to the shutdown—Festival at Sea. Jon was a ‘house musician’ for Festival at Sea, the longest-running African-American cultural cruise. Created by African-American entrepreneur and owner of San Francisco’s Blue World Travel Agency, Patricia Yarbrough, Festival at Sea has put on over 35 consecutive years of sold out full ship charters of its annual cruise. In addition to Festival at Sea, Patricia’s affiliate brand, Friends of Festival at Sea puts on luxury cruises on high-end vessels to exotic locations every few years. Patricia was a guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast and it is really worth a listen, Ep 39.
We recently had the opportunity to experience Jon again, this time up close and personal, when Friends of Festival at Sea put on an amazing itinerary River cruise in Southern France on AmaWaterways AmaKristina coupled with 3 days in Paris. Besides being a part of the evening entertainment on AmaKristina, Jon headlined a Gospel Brunch Event. It was during the Friends of Festival at Sea Gospel Brunch when Jon shared his personal testimony that I decided I had to bring this gentleman with the great story to the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Jon Saxx was voted Best Local Jazz Artist in So Florida by Miami New Times in 2008 and has performed with jazz and R&B stars Najee, Montell Jordan, Howard Hewitt, and National Anthem Performances for the Miami Heat. Jon was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio earned a degree in Manuf Engineering. He was employed by Johnson & Johnson as a Med Device Engineer for 4 years. Jon’s musical inspiration, Mr. Wright, his saxophone teacher, taught him to go beyond playing the music, to making the music a reality for himself and his audience! Witnessing Jon in his element, whether or not his eyes are hidden under one of his trademark hats, or 3-piece suits, you realize you're watching a man possessed by the spirit of jazz.
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In my effort to portray cruising in all its diversity, now for something completely different. This week The Joy of Cruising Podcast is delighted to welcome Cris Kostiuk, creator of Cris the Cruising Duck Man. Let me preface by saying that for the most part up until recently, I have been rather ambivalent toward the phenomenon of hiding and finding toy ducks on cruise ships. First of all, I assumed it would be a short-lived trend that would fade away. Wrong! Secondly, I kind of thought it was mainly for kids—and since I no longer have young children to cruise with I have “aged out” of the target clientele. Wrong again. Cruise ship ducks are very much a kids, and adults craze.
The tide started to change for me in terms of paying a little more attention to cruise ship duck mania when I began to read about this duck trend in non-cruise media. Then I read a blog post by arguably the top cruise blogger/podcaster in the world, Matt Hochberg, of Royal Caribbean Blog that opened my eyes. In a blog whose title seemingly was directed at me, Hiding Ducks On A Cruise Ship Is A "Crazy" and Popular Trend - Whether You Like It Or Not https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/09/05/cruising-ducks-how-to-hide, Matt shared some information that put to rest any notion of cruise duck mania being a passing fad. For instance, there is a cruising ducks Facebook group that is approaching 300k members. And, Matt’s blog mentioned today’s guest.
What moved me to a podcast about duck mania though were images of ducks that would regularly show up in my Facebook feed; these ducks were a far cry from dollar store ducks or ducks sold in bulk on Amazon. They were amazing. You see I was Facebook friends with Cris the Cruising Duck Man. So, I invited him on.
After a catastrophic accident that Cris was fortunate to survive, Cris formed a new outlook on life and decided to start traveling more, including his 1st cruise. Of course, he got hooked. On his 2nd cruise, he took his kids and started learning about ducks. He got hooked on that too, to the point he purchased a 3-D printer (which ultimately became 6 3-D printers!) Cris takes multiple large suitcases of ducks every cruise & created a website cruisecave.com for selling his 3-D printed ducks. Cris says, ‘I love getting photos with people. I always try to get a photo with the Captain & Cruise
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I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Mikkel and Dan, creators of the Sometimes Sailing cruise website and Instagram. Mikkel and Dan are special friends, and this is a special episode.I got to know Mikkel and Dan when I wrote about Sometimes Sailing in my new releaseThe Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyONwhere I wrote about their penchant for small ship cruising as well as “ship-within-a-ship” spaces, for instance, Celebrity Cruises The Retreat, Norwegian Haven, and Princess Cruises Medallion Class. I hosted Sometimes Sailing onThe Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 28last year, and on Episode 101 earlier this year where I mentioned how Mikkel and Dan were instrumental in motivating me to pursue my bucket list aspiration to sail our first river cruise—AmaWaterways Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise on AmaKristina. What makes this episode special is that Mikkel and Dan, Sometimes Sailing are the first guests to appear on the podcast three times!
Mikkel and Dan have created a complimentary river cruise planning resource for our listeners.
Download their Essential River Cruise Budgeting Guide here.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I present to you something quite different than what you are used to hearing from me. It’s a cruise news story—an absolutely amazing one. First, let me welcome to the show Cailyn. Joshua is an entrepreneur in Tulsa, Oklahoma who is a central figure in said cruise news story, and as a busy entrepreneur was not able to join us. I don’t normally cover cruise news. I leave that up to others who are renown and much better than I am about covering that sort of thing. However, Cailyn and her family’s story transcends cruise news. It was covered extensively worldwide by mainstream media. Besides, one topic I do like to bring to the cruising community are human interest stories—and the Gault's story is a human-interest tale on steroids. Let me summarize before I bring on Cailyn to give us the real deal:
In July 2024, Cailyn and her family of 9 embarked on Norwegian Encore for a family reunion cruise to Alaska. In total, 16 relatives were on the trip at a total cost of $30,000. Joshua and his immediate family, wife Cailyn, six children, and his 78-year-old mother-in-law, Sharron, went on an excursion which I’m sure many of you who have cruised to Alaska recall fondly—a Lumberjack show in Ketchikan. Cailyn and family did the right thing in that they chose an excursion offered by the cruise line. (I always recommend on various Facebook cruise groups that’s it’s best to choose an excursion offered by the cruise line versus an independent excursion because cruise line excursions come with a promise to never leave the port without you…) Upon the end of the Lumberjack show, Cailyn and family went to board the shuttle bus back to the port but it was full and they were told to wait for the next one—which never came. After a panicked phone call, a van was dispatched to pick them up but by the time it got them back to the port, Joshua and family watch the Encore sail off—with passports, clothes and prescription medications onboard.
Cailyn joins us to share the ordeal in their own words as well as talk about the aftermath.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Melissa Davis, and have a conversation with her about how she grew from running Port Shopping Programs onboard cruise ships to providing Port Shopping information and running to all cruisers as a private entrepreneur.
After running shopping programs on Crystal Cruises, Regent, Oceania, Viking, and Marella, and launching the first and only onshore shopping program on Viking River Cruises, Melissa decided to create an online recommended and guaranteed shopping program for all cruisers featuring Cruise Port Maps, and a long list of fabulous recommended and guaranteed retailers and brands in each port, and tried and tested attractions and best beaches. Melissa is the number one Online Port Shopping Guide
After working with several amazing cruise lines and cruising a lot herself, Melissa was surprised to see not all Cruise lines provide accurate Port Maps when the ships arrive in port. She decided to put her Cruise Port Insider Secrets online so everyone could access it.
Melissa’s cruise ship career started as a Fitness Instructor for Steiner Transocean on the old Holland America Line Noordam. She couldn’t wait for time off in port to explore the ports, and submerging herself in the culture and meeting wonderful people along the way. To this day she has artifacts, indigenous souvenirs and jewelry and art from these wonderful experiences. When a position came up as a Shopping Lecturer she jumped at the chance and for the next 7 years, she went to various cruise lines running lectures and helping cruise ship guests navigate the ports of call.
Now Melissa has all these amazing Cruise Port Maps, and will tell you how to get yours free, as well as shop for wonderful products from each destination or snag a souvenir for a loved one back home.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, it is my pleasure to welcome back a special guest, Chef Rudi Sodamin, a culinary virtuoso of the seas. Chef Rudi is Princess Cruises' first Head of Culinary Arts effective January 2024. When I chatted with him back in December, Ep 71, we talked about his pending new role, along with his existing role as Master Chef for Holland America Line (HAL)—which I am particularly excited about as we cruise on HAL a couple times in 2025. Carnival Cruise Corporation—parent company of HAL, as well as Princess—was so impressed with Rubi’s Sel de Mer, the French-inspired intimate brasserie that Chef Rudi led the launch of on select HAL ships, that they commissioned him to create Rudi’s Seagrill for its new Excel-class ships—Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee.
In 2023 Chef Rudi partnered with Princess Cruises, to create The Catch by Rudi on Enchanted Princess, Majestic Princess, Sky Princess, Discovery Princess, and recently-released Sun Princess—which I am particularly excited about as I will sail her new sister STAR Princess in 2025.
Since I last spoke with Chef Rudi, Princess Cruises announced it is joining with world renowned artist Romero Britto, known for his bold, colorful, and joyful style, and a global advocate for happiness, to create Love by Britto, the first artistically inspired dining experience celebrating the essence of "Love" aboard Sun Princess. According to Princess: Love and art converge with taste in an immersive culinary journey, showcasing a meticulously curated menu by culinary virtuoso Rudi Sodamin. With Sodamin's ingenious touch, Love by Britto transcends into a multisensory exploration, offering extraordinary dishes that embody profound passion, exquisite flavor, and boundless creativity. Love by Britto features a 7-course menu--a flute of Champagne upon arrival, lobster, caviar and truffles, and chocolate fondue.
Says Chef Rudi, "Food is the international language of love; Love by Britto could not be more perfect for Princess, home of The Love Boat!"
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Heidi Sarna and Ted Scull’s Quirky Cruise, which was featured in my second cruise book, Cruising Interrupted in a section called “Specialty Cruising: Fun and Quirky.” When I first interviewed Heidi and Ted I knew very little about small shipcruising, that is, a small ship designed to hold 300 or fewer passengers; some low double digits, even single digits! These small ships can range from spartan to ultra-luxury, and because of their size and design can access destinations that mainstream cruise ships cannot. Quirky Cruise is an online magazine that focuses exclusively on the important and growing sector of the cruise industry. Quirky Cruise's sloganis “Travel without the crowds.” Quirky Cruise is the source for reviews, news, and round-ups about unusual and small-ship cruises under 300 passengers, from river boats to canal barges, sailing ships, coastal cruisers, and expedition vessels. Heidi Sarna and Ted Scull created Quirky Cruise because they love small-ship cruising and want to share what they know and have experienced with others who also like traveling on small, intimate vessels.
Here is Heidi’s previous appearance on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ep 4 It is a pleasure to have Heidi back to talk about two very quirky cruises—from opposite sides of the world, one in driving distance from me here in North Carolina. Before I bring Heidi on, let me say Heidi has been involved in several ‘firsts’ in my cruise career. I already mentioned she and Ted were the first to familiarize me with small ship crusading; consequently, Hedi was instrumental in me taking my first River Cruise on AmaWaterways to Southern France on AmaKristina, and on the same River Cruise hired me for my first experience as a freelance travel writer for QuirkyCruise.com. Check out my article when you get a chance—the link is in the show notes https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/blog/amawaterways-soulful-experience-cruise-on-frances-rhone-river-paul-c-thornton-reviews-a-10-night-cruise-paris-combo.
It is an honor to welcome back Heidito Th
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special guest, Patrice Covington. We were introduced to Patrice on our recent anniversary cruise to the A, B, and C Islands in the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity Ascent. Patrice put on a show, I’m Your Whitney Tonight, a Whitney Houston Tribute.
Patrice Covington is an Emmy award winning Broadway, television and film actress. She is an accomplished singer, actor, voice over artist, media personality and educator of the arts. As a broadway veteran, Patrice has graced the world’s renowned, Broadway and toured the globe with all-star Broadway casts in several shows including The Book of Mormon, Motown The Musical, Ain’t Misbehaving, Dreamgirls, and the Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award Winning revival of The Color Purple. As a vocalist, she has traveled the world providing background vocals for top billed performers including Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilera, and Stevie Wonder. Patrice has performed on stages nationwide with The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, the American Pops Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She also dazzles vacationers aboard cruises lines with her perfectly curated shows featuring music of the women she was influenced and inspired by.
On television, Patrice is best known for her role as Erma Franklin in Natural Geographic anthology series, “Genius: Aretha,” a biopic about the legendary Aretha Franklin and Gracie in Amazon’s TV series “A League of Their Own,” a reimagining of the hit 1992 film. She can also be seen in guest star roles on All Rise, Chicago PD, and new series Sincerely Love. Patrice acts opposite Nicole Kidman in the upcoming murder mystery series “The Perfect Couple” on Netflix and as the lead in the new made for TV movie, “For What It’s Worth” on BET.
Patrice is the owner and operator of The Galaxy Space, a Performing Arts Studio by Patrice Covington, offering private training and a part of faculty at The Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, VA. Patrice is a is a proud member of the illustrious Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. inspired by Matthew 5:14-16, her trademarked motto is "Don't be a star...be a galaxy.” A phrase meant to inspire and motivate humans to not only shine their light but to share the li
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Hello passionate cruisers, this is Paul. This week on The Joy Of Cruising Podcast Cheryl and I will share our reflections on our recent cruise—a 9-day sailing to the Southern Caribbean—A, B, C Islands aboard Celebrity Cruises newest ship, the latest in its Edge-class, the Ascent. A, B, C is an acronym for Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. The full itinerary of Ascent was embarkation at FLL followed by a sea day; a stop at Cayman/Georgetown, a seaday, then Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire, then 2 sea days on the way back to Ft. Lauderdale.
We’ve gone on longer cruises and enjoyed the extra time but after a while Cheryl is like “I need land” like she said on our 16-day transatlantic with 8 straight sea days. The cruise was 9-days, a sweet spot for us; 7-days is just not quite long enough. This cruise was special in several ways. It was a celebration of our anniversary which was 3-weeks prior in October. A cruise on Celebrity Ascentwas a direct challenge to our as yet favorite cruise which was on Ascent’s sister ship in Celebrity’s Edge Class, the Celebrity Beyond two years prior. I often proudly mention in the same sentence that the CEO at Celebrity who launched the Edge Class—Lisa Lutoff Perlo, was a guest on the The Joy Of Cruising Podcast and she too selected Beyond as her personal favorite. Lisa launched the Celebrity Edge, Apex, and the Beyond before her move back to Royal Caribbean.
Most significantly was the sentimental aspect of this trip. Aruba is where we celebrated our honeymoon, and this was our first return back in 32 years.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Roland and Emma, a couple I first met on a Facebook cruise group, and I immediately anointed them as my new travel role models. That cruise group happened to be the most influential on Facebook—the 106,000 member Melanin At Sea, created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities A Rich and Jazzy Life. Roland and Emma were the first guests to come on The Joy of Cruising Podcast not as global cruise personalities, but as “ordinary” cruisers to talk to the listeners about an extraordinary bucket list cruise. I had seen their great description and photos of the cruise, and I reached out to them and enjoyed reliving the cruise with them.
Well, they did it again! This time Roland and Emma traveled via land and sea on an epic European adventure covering 61 days! So, when I called them my new cruise role models before that might have been hyperbole; now I want to know if they are looking to hire an administrative assistant! The Epic Euro trip started with: -
· 5 days in Airbnb London
· 14-night cruise Sky Princess (from London), a back-to-back
· 14 Night Land of the Midnight Sun Cruise Sky Princess
· 7-night Oasis of the Seas Spain/Italy
· 3-city Spain Adventure
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This week on The Joy Of Cruising Podcast we want to revisit a show from earlier in the year February 12, Episode 79 The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Bucket List Cruises 2024-2025 where we discussed our plans to check some milestone cruises off our overflowing bucket list over the course of this year and next. This is a mini episode as we are on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean. It may be mini in length but this The Joy Of Cruising Podcast episode packs a major punch in terms of a couple of substantial updates that directly impact the bucket list cruise journey that we are still.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Jamie Robins, creator of Travel Blog Jamie, a blog and YouTube channel. I first met Jamie over a year ago when I hosted each of the finalists for The Wave Awards who had not previously been on the show. The Wave Awards, UK cruise industry’s premier award; included are award categories for cruise lines, ships, travel agencies, and most pertinent to this episode—Favorite Cruise Influencer. Travel Blog Jamie again made the short-list.
Jamie is an educator by training—he has degrees in Spanish and French and a master’s degree in linguistics— taught Spanish and French, in education leadership. Since that last year episode, Jamie stepped away from his education career of 25 years to pursue cruise vlogging as his primary career. Jamie got to sail Cunard’s new Queen Anne, one of the most anticipated ships of ’24, and we want to hear all about that; been to Bali; been interviewed by the BBC; started a role as a columnist, and more but we’ll let him catch us up.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, fun couple Scott and Tom, creators of Vitamin Sea UK. They were on a year ago and were a lot of fun and I can tell from Instagram they have sailed more fun cruises so we want to hear all about them. Vitamin Sea UK’s credo is ‘Sailing the seven seas (and rivers), two Hawaiian shirts at a time. We're here to show that there's a cruise line for everyone, shattering the image of what some believe cruising is. We #ChooseCruise to embrace new cultures, new food, try new experiences and see what the world has to offer wherever the sea laps the shore.’
I ‘met’ Vitamin Sea UK on Instagram via my The Joy of Cruising Podcast account. Our mutual interest in cruising was obvious from the beginning. What made Vitamin Sea UK captivating is that they always seem to be fun, happy, and embracing the moment. I’m sure you have heard some variation of ‘there is no such thing as a bad cruise.’ Well, Scott and Tom seem like the poster boys representing that ethos. Indeed, they describe themselves ‘as a fun, happy couple that both have a passion for travel, adventures, and embracing new cultures. Rather than focusing on the amenities that a ship has, we show ourselves enjoying them and what you can actually do on a cruise holiday.’
They have full-time jobs but have been able to carve out time for themselves to cruise the world. I love to keep up with them on Instagram where through imagery they epitomize ‘the Joy of cruising,’ and they certainly have gone on some great cruises since we spoke last year so let’s hear all about it.
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The Joy of Cruising is delighted to welcome sisters Juliet & Janice, creators of Cruise Sisters. The Cruise Sisters brand launched in 2015. I am pleased to note that Juliet and Janice are our first guests from Germany.
The Cruise Sisters love traveling, especially at sea, and have been cruising together since 2009. They have been on over 65 cruises, and through their blog offer suggestions for different cruises, their top activities on sea days, insider tips for local highlights ashore and take us with them on their travels virtually on Instagram.
The Cruise Sisters are independent and stress that they only write about our their own impressions vowing to remain authentic and honest. They are not a partner of a travel agency and do not sell anything via affiliate links, stating, “We just want to help other travelers with our experiences when choosing their next cruise and, above all, encourage readers to try out a new cruise line. We try to stay as unbiased as possible.” Janice is Juliet’s older sister. They point out, “Despite our age difference, there is nothing better for us than traveling together. We love traveling the world with our family, because cruising is such a nice way to spend time together and at the same time each individual can join in activities they like. We love to get to know the cultures, to try the typical food and to immerse ourselves completely in the world of cruising.”
The Cruise Sisters have also published a travel guidebook to the Western Mediterranean in 2020, but it is only available in German. The book focuses on port cities in the western Mediterranean and reveals their favorite spots and insider tips. Barcelona, Genoa, Marseille, Naples, Nice, Palma and Valencia, for example, are perfect for exploring on your own during a day ashore. In addition to interesting facts about each destination, the chapters offer recommendations for bars, restaurants and cafés. All personally tested by the Cruise Sisters. There are also ten typical local recipes to cook at home. Check out recipe at
The Cruise Sisters grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden, Kiel, Germany and St. Petersburg, Russia. They always lived near the sea and in addition to cruising, love boating, and sailing.” Janice has a sailing license, and Juliet has a boating lice
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, John Shallo, the founder and editor of Cruise Addicts, a premier online community for cruise travelers. John’s love for cruising began after his first cruise in 1989. He later established Cruise Addicts in 1999 to share his passion for cruise travel with others, and it has become an award-winning destination for self-professed Cruise Addicts looking for the latest cruise industry news, forums, ship reviews, and travel tips. You can find him on the web and social media, sharing his latest cruise ship review, video, travel tips, and port guides. He hopes to continue sharing his experiences and inspiring others to enjoy cruise travel to its fullest.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast,
Cathy and Emma, creators of Cruise Addicted—YouTube channel, blog, Facebook and Instagram platform; and shortlist candidate for The Wave Awards, Favorite Cruise Influencer. Let me set the stage by pointing out The Wave Awards is the UK cruise industry’s premier award; included are award categories for cruise lines, ships, travel agencies, and cruise influencers. As you are aware I greatly appreciate cruise bloggers, vloggers and influencers and have written about them extensively. In the Joy of Cruising books, I call them “cruise community champions.” I have interviewed every winner and virtually every short lister since I have been involved with the cruising industry. Some trivia: the very first person who agreed to be featured in my first book in 2018—when I was just a “voice on the internet”—was 23-year-old Emma Le Teace, now of Emma Cruises, who I reached out to after she won The Wave Award for her Cruising Is Not Just for Old People blog. (Love that name!) This year’s award ceremony will be held in London in November. Most of this year’s Favorite Cruise Influencer finalists have been featured in the books and/or guests on the podcast. Cruise Addicted has not—love that name as well—and I thought this was a great opportunity to get to know Cathy and Emma and to share passionate cruisers’ story with the cruise community. I love this time of the year when the Wave Awards are pending because it always presents opportunities to enlarge my circle of global cruise friends.
Cathy and Emma, is the dynamic duo behind the scenes Cruise Addicted. Fuelled by a shared passion for cruising, they bring a wealth of experience in travel, business, photography, and writing. While rarely spotted together, their backgrounds blend seamlessly to offer you a unique perspective.With almost 50 years of combined cruising expertise – from planning, booking, packing, filming, writing, to pure enjoyment – they are the driving force behind Cruise Addicted.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Sandra and Chris, creator of BritsOnAShip, blog, YouTube channel, and Instagram platform; and shortlist candidate for The Wave Awards, Favorite Cruise Influencer. Let me set the stage by pointing out The Wave Awards is the UK cruise industry’s premier award; included are award categories for cruise lines, ships, travel agencies, and cruise influencers. As you are aware I greatly appreciate cruise bloggers, vloggers and influencers and have written about them extensively. In the Joy of Cruising books, I call them “cruise community champions.” I have interviewed every winner and virtually every short lister since I have been involved with the cruising industry. Some trivia: the very first person who agreed to be featured in my first book in 2018—when I was just a “voice on the internet”—was 23-year-old Emma Le Teace, now of Emma Cruises, who I reached out to after she won The Wave Award for her Cruising Is Not Just for Old People blog. (Love that name!) This year’s award ceremony will be held in London in November. Most of this year’s Favorite Cruise Influencer finalists have been featured in the books and/or guests on the podcast. Brits On A Ship has not—love that name as well—and I thought this was a great opportunity to get to know Sandra and Chris and to share passionate cruisers’ story with the cruise community.
Sandra and Chris, BritsOnAShip, are two Brits from London who enjoy exploring the world, one cruise at a time! They have been on over 45 cruises across nine different cruise lines since their first cruise together in 2009. They love the sound of the sea, discovering new places, good food, beer and cocktails, trivia and making new friends. Sandra and Chris have a fascination with brand new cruise ships, cruise technology and providing tips on plus sized cruising so watch out for more on their platforms on those topics.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week I am delighted to welcome to The Joy of Cruising PodcastLeslie Nilsen, creator of Point My Soul North blog, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Instagram platform. Leslie is a passionate traveler and cruiser, and recently completed a major cruising milestone and a tiny percentage of us have anything like that. She sailed the entire Ultimate World Cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. Sailing on a 9-month cruise fascinates me to no end. I wanted to get Leslie’s perspective.
She told me, “As an avid world traveler, of course, signing up for Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise was the next only option! Having only sailed on maybe ten prior cruises with the longest being 7 days, doing a World Cruise was a leap but I was READY! I have travel in my blood. Seeing other cultures, exploring the world for all it has to offer, humbles your soul. It is a reminder of how truly small you are in the world and that literally anything is possible! The Ultimate World Cruise afforded us the ability to see 60+ countries on all 7 continents and immerse ourselves in areas of the world we never thought possible. From the second the world cruise was offered, I knew I would be on it. I didn’t know how, but I signed up, with a large nonrefundable deposit and trusted the universe that in the two years I had to plan, it would come together. It did! We left December 10, 2023 and circumnavigated the globe to return just last week on September 10 with full hearts, pockets full of memories, and experiences that will take a lifetime to process!”
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Kristen Owens. Kristin’s debut novel, Elizabeth Sails (Rising Action Publishing Co/Simon & Schuster), launched two days ago. What can be better than discussing with the author the use of an actual cruise ship, The Queen Elizabeth, as a setting.
Kristin told me, “After living in Europe, my husband and I moved back to the USA on the Queen Mary 2. The voyage was a life-changing experience. Ten years later, I’ve got my sea legs. Which happen to be a little chunkier because I’ve taken a fair number of cruises and haven’t missed a single meal. And I’ve finagled a way of sailing more frequently – as a speaker. I entertain and educate passengers on writing, literature, and wine. So, I can’t feel too guilty because hey, I’m working, people. I spend about six months on ships and get my best writing done onboard. It’s like a quintessential writing retreat. With tea and scones daily at 3:30pm. To date, I've taken over a dozen cruises (300+ days) as a passenger and over a dozen as a speaker.”
Kristen has experience sailing with Princess, Celebrity, Cunard and Viking. Kristin holds a Ph.D. in higher education and is an award-winning faculty member with over 25 years university experience. Now a full-time writer in sticky southwest Florida, Kristin has over 100 bylines as a contributor for celebrated magazines such as Wine Enthusiast, Writer's Digest, and 5280. She holds certifications with the Court of Master Sommeliers and Cicerone and travels the world writing about wonderful wines, beautiful beers, and surprising spirits. Her personal essays have won Honorable Mention for the 2018 New Millennium Writing Awards, awarded finalist for the 2019 New Letters’ award in nonfiction, and included in RISE! Colorado’s Book of the Year 2020. is being featured in The Writer's Digest Sept/Oct issue's "Breaking In" column.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Kevine and Vincent McMillan, creators of McMillan’s On The Go. This episode is one of those I podcast about occasionally when I come across photos and narrative about some unique, bucket list experience. Kevine had posted the following on social media, along with some lovely photos of her family which you may have seen in the promos for this episode: “When you’re told we might just be the very FIRST documented Black Family of 5 to not only visit Antarctica together butttttt to ALL Polar Plunge and your 8yr old might be the YOUNGEST and smallest Polar Plunger!!! She’s tiny y’all, she’s 8yrs but doesn’t look it! She’s very petite!
We will take the title until proven otherwise because I am here for it all!!! 🔥🔥🔥 Mannn, McMillans On The Go is out here doing the dàmn thanggggg!!!”
I said yes, yes you are McMillans On The Go and The Joy of Cruising Podcastis here for it and I just reached out cold. “Hi, I’d love for you to share your story with the cruise community on The Joy of Cruising Podcast.”
After she agreed, I asked Kevine for some thoughts about their brand. She told me:
McMillan’s On The Go was born from a desire to help families experience the joys of traveling together. Frustrated by how many families felt unable to explore the world with their children, we began sharing tips on budget and luxury travel that won't break the bank.
I'm Kevine, the brains behind it all, an educator, a mom of three, and a travel enthusiast, married to my high school sweetheart who lets me explore the world and tags along to any adventure. Together, we balance our careers with a passion for exploring new places and creating lasting family memories. For us, traveling is a wonderful way to learn and appreciate the incredible beauty of God's handiwork.”
Kevine, a graduate from the University of Central Florida is a full-time educator, a wife, a mom of three amazing blessings—Dominic, Iyanna, and Malanna. She is the main writer behind the blog, McMillan’s On The Go with pop-up collaborations from Vincent.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Chef Bri Bullard, creator of Authentique Delights. I learned of Chef Bri when I hosted Nikki and Tommie Jones of Jones Getaways podcast a couple months ago Ep 123. The Jones’ had traveled on AmaWaterways Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise on AmaKristina in June,a bucket list cruise Cheryl and I were booked for a few months later. Tommie mentioned in a way that I can just describe as “mouth-watering,” Chef Bri’s presence and culinary role on that journey. Yes, as you can hear me vow on the podcast, I did follow-up with AmaWaterways to inquire whether Chef Bri was going to be on our voyage. She wasn’t but her presence was felt, which I will explain shortly.
Jazzmine Douse, AmaWaterways Senior Director, National Accounts, said, “This past June, we invited Chef Bri her company is Authentique Delight, and she came on as a featured chef in June and she was able to prepare a menu for us as we celebrated Juneteenth onboard the Soulful Experiences. So, we are always looking to continually involve these experiences and add aspects to it, do some trial and error, and this Juneteenth concept is one we want to incorporate in the future Soulful Experiences and it’s our hope to be able to feature Black chefs on each one of these experiences, but it is a work in progress. At least for now we established a fantastic itinerary with Chef Bri, she did a fantastic job and there was so much great feedback onboard from the meals she prepared. She prepared a ___ menu and an Uhuru menu, just talking about freedom and celebration of our heritage and it was truly amazing.”
Chef Bri Bullard was born and raised in the Bahamas and has been passionate about cooking since the age of eight. Growing up surrounded by the bounties of the ocean, she developed a deep love for seafood, which has become a hallmark of her culinary creations. Her early interest in cooking was matched by her diverse skills, including certification as a welder, demonstrating her versatility and dedication.
Chef Bri’s exceptional talent has garnered her widespread recognit
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Sarah Dandashy, Ask A Concierge. From time-to-time I have been fortunate enough to host a travel icon who—though they have experienced bucket list cruises—they transcend cruising. These individuals are so influential in travel that I want them to share their story and perspectives, with the listeners. At the same time, of course, many of us cruise enthusiasts would love to sail virtually on some of Sarah’s wonderful voyages.
Sarah is recognized as one of the leading concierges in the world. People seek her out for her travel tips, advice, and knowledge of trends from the “frontlines of travel.” Award-winning, she was named “best young concierge” by Les Clefs d’or International, making her the Miss Universe equivalent of the concierge profession. Sarah has worked at some of the most prestigious hotels, including London West Hollywood, Four Seasons Washington DC, L’ermitage Beverly Hills, and the Peninsula Beverly Hills.
A graduate of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, Sarah has lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; London, Atlanta, Washington, DC; New York City; and Los Angeles. She has traveled throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the US. Conversational in French and basic knowledge of Arabic, Sarah can navigate the streets of Paris, and bust out some solid dance moves she learned on the streets of Hotlanta. Clearly, she is no ordinary travel influencer.
Sarah is a television travel expert, best-selling author, and dynamic keynote speaker. With over 18 years of experience in hospitality, Sarah's career took off as a luxury hotel concierge, where she earned numerous accolades and laid the foundation for her widely recognized brand, "Ask A Concierge." With a following of over 250,000 across social media platforms, she offers a wealth of travel insights, practical advice, and the latest industry trends, drawing from her rich experience at the travel forefront. Transitioning from her role as an award-winning concierge, Sarah now travels the world, collaborating with leading industry brands. She has become a go-to travel authority on major news networks like ABC, CBS, and FOX, frequently discussing current travel dynamics. Her expertise has also
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As an author of cruising books and continuing that same premise in the form of a podcast, I have learned of a large variety of vessels, destinations and experiences that I barely knew existed before I started capturing these stories. Accordingly, as The Joy of Cruising Podcast listenersknow, my cruising bucket list runneth over. In August, Cheryl and I got the opportunity to check our first river cruise off the list.
The itinerary of the cruise, 2024 Colors of Provence, Special Friends Soulful Epicurean Experience Aboard the Chartered AmaKristina was:
7-Night cruise sailing the Rhone River through the South of France, embark from Arles, France, Avignon, Viviers, Tournon, Vienne, and disembark in Lyon, France
3-Nights Paris, France
Friends in the title refers to Friends of Festival at Sea. Produced and founded by industry icon Patricia Yarbrough, President, Blue World Travel, in San Francisco, Festival at Sea offers an annual African American full-ship charter cultural cruise that has sold out for 40 years. Their affiliated brand, Friends of Festival at Sea specializes in high-end cruises on luxury ships to exotic destinations and filled the 156-passenger AmaKristina for our sailing.
I wrote about Patricia and Festival at Sea in my 1st cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/3lAfyON, and hosted her on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ep 39. Experiencing a Festival at Sea cruise is an inspiration. When I researched Patricia I learned about its affiliated Friends of Festival at Sea brand which sails the likes of Regent Seven Seas and Viking to exotic location like Africa, Singapore, and Paris, and doing a Friends of Festival at Sea vacation has been on my bucket list for years.
As AmaWaterways is consistently rated among the world’s top river cruise lines it would have been an easy choice for our first river cruise journey. What made the choice of AmaWaterways that much easier was the introduction in Spring 2024 of its “Soulful” series of cruises. To diversify its customer base—which included a negligible percentage of people of color—AmaWaterways decided to take select itineraries and add components that would appeal to cruisers from or are interested in the Black and African diaspora. What made it a “no-brainer” was it a full ship charter by Friends of Festival at Sea, and they bring their own party including DJ, Saxophonist, dance instructor, and comedian, Damon Williams who also has been on the podcast
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Neil Gregory, a seven-year former videographer on several ships for Princess Cruises. During those years, Neil kept, and continues to update a diary of his time working onboard ships. His story as reflected in his diary is real, raucous and laugh-out-loud funny! “Cruise Ship Diaries” was featured in my latest book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON.
I hosted Neil on The Joy of Cruising Podcast last year, Episode 20-Cruise Ship Diaries.That hilarious episode pertained to Neil’s first contract, onboard Coral Princess. After Coral Princess, Neil went on to a world cruise on Sun Princess and then contracts on Sapphire Princess, Diamond Princess, Crown Princess, Grand Princess, Emerald Princess, Dawn Princess, Royal Princess, and Ocean Princess over the ensuing seven years.
Neil says that those years working for Princess Cruises were some of the best experiences of his life. He has seen and experienced destinations and activities that I’m sure that many of us have on our bucket list: scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef; climbing the Great Wall of China, visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia and getting to walk across the Panama Canal. Sure, there were lows—I’ll get Neil to say a little about those—but it wasn’t enough to stop Neil from renewing his contract time after time.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Niamh McAnally, a multifaceted cruise personality, that quite frankly would have made a fine guest just to talk about one aspect of her impressive background. We could focus on her status as a best selling author, for Flares Up: A Story Bigger Than The Atlantic, which was conceived in Antigua when she witnessed Paul Hopkins and Phil Pugh cross the finish line after rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic; and the September release of her memoir, Following Sunshine: A Voyage Around The Mind, Around The World, Around The Heart, with a cover inscription by Liam Neeson, “Truly brave, enriching memoir that will take you on a global adventure."
Or we could talk about the adventure that inspired many of her stories about travels on land and at sea, including her memoir. In 2016 she helped a solo sailor crew his boat from Florida to the Bahamas. It was only supposed to last a month. Niamh soon realized she had not only found the life she loved but also the love of her life. She and Captain Gary have sailed as far north as Maine in the USA and to Bonaire off the northern coast of South America. With toes in the sand in Antigua, Captain and Crew became Husband and Wife!
Finally, we could focus on Niamh’s ongoing experience as a guest speaker on one of the top cruise lines, Celebrity Cruises!
Niamh McAnally is an Irish-born bestselling author, keynote & corporate speaker, former TV director, and youngest daughter of the late BAFTA award-winning actor, Ray McAnally, and actor, Ronnie Masterson. Niamh has traveled all over the world and lived and worked as a volunteer in many island nations in the Caribbean and the South Pacific.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special guest straight from somewhere in the world, Todd Truax, a passenger on Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise on Serenade of the Seas which departed Miami December 10, 2023. Todd, along with his wife Gina are two-thirds of the way through the world cruise and is scheduled to disembark in Miami on September 10, 2024. As of this conversation Todd and Gina are somewhere between Africa and Southern Europe.
The Ultimate World Cruise, a social media—and mainstream media—sensation,is scheduled for 274 days and is divided into four segments. Within each of the segments are a number of Wonders of the World:
Ultimate Americas Cruise
- 64 nights from Dec. 10, 2023, to Feb. 11, 2024
- 36 destinations, including Cozumel, Mexico; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Los Angeles, California
Ultimate Asia Pacific Cruise
- 87 nights from Feb. 11, 2024, to May 9, 2024
- 40 destinations, including Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; Manila, Philippines; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ultimate Africa and Southern Europe
· 63 nights from May 9, 2024, to July 10, 2024
· 38 destinations from Dubai to Barcelona. It includes Mauritius, Seychelles, Cape Town, Dakar and Nice
· 4, including the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Temple of Artemis
Ultimate Europe and Beyond Cruise
- 63 nights from July 10, 2024, to Sept. 10, 2024
- 40 destinations, including Casablanca, Morocco; Paris, France; Bruges, Belgium; and Nuuk, Greenland
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome San Diego’s Bob and Holly, creators in 2020 of Innocents Abroad, YouTube channel, Facebook group and page, and Instagram platform. Their goal is to grow appreciation for discovery, diversity and conversation about travel, with a concentrated focus on cruising. Bob and Holly note that, “Engaging with other cultures is no small thing to us—breaking down cultural barriers is what drives our travel…” To underscore that, their catchphrase, which I love is—an optimistic outlook of humanity through travel and exposure to other cultures.Quite the way with words, Bob and Holly. Some of our literature-minded listeners recognize that their brand, Innocents Abroad, recallssomeone else with quite the way with words, Mark Twain. It is a homage to Bob’s favorite writer—the channel was named for Mark Twain’s outlook on equality. In his 1869 book, The Innocents Abroad, Twain wrote, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." (This was also the epigraph set at the opening of my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y.)
On their channel Innocents Abroad is serious about their craft. Their style is visual storytelling; cinematography of very high quality, combined with choregraphed audio, and historical facts. How a film looks and sounds is very important to them. Journalistic integrity is of utmost importance to them. They emphasize that every cruise and land trip has been and will be out of their own pocket without exception. (They wouldn’t even accept free WIFI to facilitate their vlogging about their travels.)
Bob and Holly have an amazing cruise background. 61 cruises to-date including very high-end cruise lines, with plenty more booked. In fact, what motivated me to reach out to Innocents Abroad—Bob and I are friends and followers on social media—he posted that he and Holly were on a 120-day (!) grand tour of cruising in Europe and a wee bit in the Caribbean. They just arrived home, and I am delighted to bring Bob and Holly to the listeners.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, John Perri, creator of the John the Wanderer blog, Facebook Page and Instagram. John is a consummate cruise aficionado. He notes “There is something about being on the ocean that is such an awesome experience. Plus having all the food and entertainment included and in one place makes for an awesome vacation. You can’t go wrong with going on a cruise.” Since childhood, he has loved anything to do with travel, and would get cruise brochures and plan trips for his family. To his parent’s amazement he would research destinations and pick the right room on the ship as well as what to do while the family visited the ports. Fast forward to today, John works as a travel advisor and still loves planning trips and hopping on an ship and being whisked off to a tropical destination.
I teasingly use the analogy of Superman when discussing John. Most of the time he is a mild-mannered travel agent where he can help his clients plan an amazing cruise or land vacation and experience all the fun that he does when he travels, but at other times he becomes John the Wanderer, the super cruiser. For instance, when I first reached out to John we couldn’t schedule a conversation because he was headed to the inaugural cruise for the new Margaritaville at Sea Islander, noting almost apologetically, “I’m not a parrot head or anything, I normally do more luxury cruises like Celebrity, Explora Journeys.” I told him that’s ok—I want to talk about those other lines too. But he would be the 1st to give listeners a report on the Islander. Shortly after Islander, John was also going on Celebrity Beyond a week later for the President’s Cruise, so I definitely wanted to wait so we could have our conversation until after he returned. Then I found out he was about to sail the new Royal Caribbean Utopia of the Seas, the world’s second largest ship. So we deferred our conversation again because I had to hear about that.
No wonder he is known as John the Wanderer.
Limited time offer John mentioned in the podcast:
Celebrity Cruises: $150 Onboard Credit for any 6 night or longer Balcony or higher cabin for any sailing in 2024.
Royal Caribbean: Onboard credit offer up to $150 (Varies depending on the type of room)
Contact me: john@johnthewanderer.com
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Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Nikki and Tommie Jones. As regular listeners and readers of any of The Joy of Cruising books know, among passionate cruise celebrities, musicians, performers, CEOs, or global cruise personalities, we feature “ordinary” cruisers with extraordinary cruise stories. If this podcast was video, you would see me put air quotes around “ordinary” because there is nothing ordinary about Nikki and Tommie, as you will learn. But what I mean is like I have done from time-to-time, I encountered Nikki and Tommie by happenstance in one of the many social media cruising groups I am a part of. And as I am wont to do when I see a cruiser sharing reflections, photos, and videos about some bucket list cruise they experienced, I reached out to them and invited them on the podcast to share with the cruise community. I had extra motivation to request the Jones’ to be on the show—I “met” them on an AmaWaterways FB group—and this bucket list cruise they experienced—the Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise on AmaKristina is at the top of my bucket list and booked! When this podcast episode releases, Cheryl and I will be enroute to France.
Nikki and Tommie are passionate cruisers who are happily married and headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. They are retired U.S. Army Veterans with more than 50 years of combined active-duty service. Nikki served for 20 years, and Tommie served for 30 years. ‘Thank you for your service! They are the owners of Jones Getaways by Dream Vacations. With more than 5 years as Certified Travel Advisors, travel is their life, and their goal is to help people experience the amazing of the world through travel.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome UK’s Harry Cotterill, cruise blogger and artist from Cruise Cotterill. The Cruise Cotterill brand was launched in 2015 and since then Harry's talent for producing one-of-a-kind drawings of the world's cruise ships and other craft has become increasingly talked about around the world. Cruise Cotterill is nominated for cruise awards year after year; he has been shortlisted for the UK Wave Award and is again nominated in 2024.
To date, Harry's artwork has been presented onboard no less than 100 different ships! He has been commissioned to produce his highly detailed one-of-kind drawings by clients all over the world, as well as cruise lines including Azamara Cruises and Ambassador Cruise Line. His artwork has become so popular he currently has clients securing commissions many months in advance. As a teen, so impressed were his fans and followers that they got together and paid for young Harry's first cruise!
Harry first started drawing ships while he was still in school, where he studied art. His artistic skills only improved over time as he continued to draw. As a teenager, Harry had the ambition to become a naval architect and design his own ships. In May 2009, Harry had his first large-scale drawing presented on board Holland America Line's Eurodam at Harwich International Port. This was to be the first of many more presentations to come. After excelling at college, Harry decided to pursue his passion and aim of setting up his own business, Cruise Cotterill.
The Odysseys of Alaythia
After finding a 100 year old diary, Virginia becomes aware of a fantasy world near her own
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Tristan Roebuck-Trull, Justin Roebuck-Trull, and their son young Josh, a couple from UK and creators of Cruise Buoys, rapidly growing YouTube channel, Instagram platform, blog, and Facebook group.
At https://cruisebuoys.com/: We’re Justin, Tristan, and Josh – the faces behind Cruise Buoys, your new best friends in the vast ocean of cruise travel. Our love story with cruising kicked off in 2019, aboard the majestic P&O Britannia, cruising through the breath-taking Norwegian Fjords. That was it. We were hooked! Fast forward to now, we’ve danced on the decks of MSC Bellissima during a summer dream cruise and have collected memories from P&O, MSC, Costa, Marella, Celebrity Cruises, Virgin Voyages, Cunard, and Princess cruises. And guess what? Our adventure radar is beeping with excitement for our upcoming sails with Royal Caribbean, NCL, and Viking. Oh, and did we mention our mini adventure on Ambassador? Eight hours onboard, but a story for the ages! Why We’re Obsessed with Cruising? It’s simple. Cruising gives us that delicious taste of freedom and exploration we all crave, mixed with a sprinkle of luxury and a whole lot of fun. It’s about waking up to a new horizon every day, indulging in endless culinary delights, and making every moment count. Through our YouTube and Instagram channels, we’re not just sharing our journeys; we’re bringing you into our circle, our family. We’re here to spill the beans on how to make the most out of your cruise, all while keeping it real and fun.
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising booksand on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Tristan and Justin epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world! Plus, I have a special affinity with UK content creators—such a passionate cruise community, and the first person to agree to be featured in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising http://amzn.to/2EAMddF, was a UK cruise personality.
I have not previously interacted with Cruise Buoys other than as friends and followers on social media. They have fun videos and have sailed a large diversity of cruise lines in their short time as cruise content creators. So, I am looking forward to getting to know someone who clearly embodies the joy of cruising, and enlarging my circle of cruising community friends, and it is now my pleasure to chat with Justin and Tristan, and to share t
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Carol McQuaid, artist, writer, blogger, world traveler and creator of The Illustrated Vagabond. I am so excited to bring Carol to the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast--the first seafaring artist in over 200 guests featured in The Joy of Cruising books, and The Joy of Cruising Podcast. (In just a few weeks we will follow up with The Joy of Cruising Podcast'sfirst interview of a maritime artist--Cruise Cotterill, who has drawn and displayed onboard over 100 cruise ships.) My interview with Carol McQuaid, aka The Illustrated Vagabond, a seafaring artist who travels the world sketching, painting, and teaching art workshops, was loads of fun and informative.
From www.theillustratedvagabond.com: I love to travel, teach and make art. I’ve been showing in galleries and teaching watercolour painting and printmaking around the globe for a few decades. I’m based in Canada but spend more time on the road than not. I get invited on cruise ships to teach watercolour and printmaking, which gives me a great opportunity to travel the globe. I also do workshops and artist-in-residence experiences.
I love to draw, especially on location. It used to be in little sketchbooks, some of which I’d make by hand. Now it’s mostly on my iPad, using Procreate. It’s never about what ends up on the paper or posted on social media. It’s about the act of really observing. It’s a meditation. I love that. The drawings on here are all done by hand with an Apple Pencil, not an app. The writing is also done by an actual human, me. I understand there’s a use for AI, but I hope it doesn’t replace real human creative effort. That would make me sad.
Carol just completed the World Voyage on the Azamara Onward as its onboard art instructor. Apart from her love of cruising, and teaching art to passengers, Carol kept a sketchbook of the entire World Voyage and created a gorgeous fully illustrated book that is about to hit the bookshelves. It’s full of all the top port stops, some good planning info, and lots of fun sketches and stories of life onboard.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Venus Anderson who attended Melanin at Sea’s recent group cruise to Alaska on Celebrity Edge and will share her reflections with the listeners. Venus and I are among the 105 thousand members of Melanin at Sea, one of the most influential of the thousands of private cruising discussion groups on Facebook. It is comprised predominately but not exclusively of cruisers or aspiring cruisers of color. Melanin at Sea was created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities, A Rich and Jazzy Life (Richard and Jasmine Ranmarine) who I featured in my newest book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON and who have been guests on the podcast.
Venus is the moderator of Melanin at Sea. As I read the posts and enjoyed the images coming from Alaska, I recalled my trip there last year, where I fell in love with Alaska, and wished I was on the group cruise (which by the way, Melanin at Sea group cruises are known to be legend!) Plus, it was on Celebrity’s Edge-class; many of the listeners know my favorite ship is another Edge-class sister, Celebrity Beyond. So as soon as Celebrity Edge disembarked, I reached out to Venus and asked her to come back on The Joy of Cruising Podcast and share her reflections with the listeners. I was confident Venus would be a good representative on behalf of Melanin at Sea. Besides serving as moderator, Venus has been a fun guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast before. From-time-to-time I invite guests I encounter on social media who post a great story and photos about some bucket list cruise that I think the listeners would enjoy hearing about. Last year I invited Venus on to talk about her bucket list holiday cruise with her daughter to Australia—a destination on my bucket list as well as some of the most experienced cruisers I have hosted. Check out Ep 84 Venus’ Sydney, Australia Bucket List Cruise on Carnival Splendor
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Gary Bembridge, the embodiment of the successful Tips For Travellers blog, podcast, and most notably, YouTube channel. I have to be careful introducing Gary, lest you think of me as being sensationalistic. I’ll just give you one opinion, and one fact about Gary. It is my opinion that Gary is the smartest person out there when it comes to cruising; regardless of what I think, the one fact I will share is Gary is the most followed cruise personality in the world.
I featured Gary and Tips For Travellers inCruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “The Cruise Communicators.”You can read all about the development and growth ofTips for Travellers in Cruising Interrupted or hear the condensed version when Gary was last on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 49. Today we want to catch up Gary on what has transpired since we last spoke (hint: a lot).
Gary epitomizes the kind of individuals I sought when wrote I began writing the The Joy of Cruising books, and subsequently The Joy of Cruising Podcast—passionate cruisers who act on their passion in fascinating ways. From a businessman who blogged about his travels part-time, to full-time most popular cruise influencer, content creator, and most knowledgeable cruise resource in the world!
History Nerds United
Let's make history fun again! Come listen to interviews with today's best authors.
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Sarah Gallo AKA The Five Foot Traveler. I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah for a feature in my second cruising book Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y, in a section called The Globetrotters, featuring travelers, passionate cruisers all, who transcend cruising in traversing the globe. The others featured in The Globetrotters—John Robert’s of In the Loop Travel Ep 6, and Mr. Scott Eddy Ep 29—have since been guests on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Life happens however, and there have been some major developments in Sarah’s already busy life, so we are just now getting the chance to catch up with The Five Foot Traveler.
Sarah Gallo is professionally known as a Destination Marketer and Travel Expert to the many audiences she stands in front of at international travel and hospitality events and symposia. She is a writer, content creator, keynote speaker, and photographer. Sarah is also known as The Five Foot Traveler to the travel blogosphere, her legion of fans on social media, and to the digital marketing world where she reigns among the elite when it comes to travel influencers. Launched in 2013, The Five Foot Traveler specializes in luxury accommodations, adventure activities, and cultural immersion worldwide.
It was fun to interview Sarah for Cruising Interrupted, especially when she shared about a major cruise line hiring Sarah to do a marketing campaign where she got to sample each of the line’s Caribbean excursions. Sarah was featured in a series of destination excursions commercials to be shown on their ships’ television. She got the opportunity to do every excursion available from swimming with the stingrays in Grand Cayman, to bobsledding in Jamaica (4000-foot sled coaster ride down a mountain and through a rainforest), to snorkeling in Cozumel, to the Flying Dutchman in St. Maarten, the world’s steepest zip line,
Now I am looking forward to hearing what fun things Sarah have been up to since we spoke several years ago.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Gail and Mike, a couple from UK and creators of the Sail With Gail and Mike YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook group. They are specifically from Liverpool, UK, which takes on a special significance related to the main topic of this episode.
One of the most anticipated and majestic new cruise ships of the last couple of years, Queen Anne, was recently launched by UK’s Cunard, its 249th ship. Cunard announced the unprecedented decision to choose the city of Liverpool as “Godparent” of Queen Anne. On June 4, 2024, Cunard held Queen Anne’s official naming ceremony at the Liverpool waterfront. The gala event featured performances by Andrea Bocelli, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and afireworks display. Among the dignitaries in attendance were five distinguished residents of Liverpool, chosen to represent the city at the naming (one of the five was Melanie C aka “Shorty Spice” of the Spice Girls.)
Oh, by the way, there were two other notable residents of Liverpool in the crowd—Gail and Mike! And, a week or so later they boarded Queen Mary for a nine-day cruise. Gail and Mike are members of The Joy of Cruising Podcast Facebook group, and when I heard about their plans to sail on one of the first cruises on Queen Anne, I immediately reached out because I am sure many of our listeners are interested in this signicant new entrant into the cruise industry. I am delighted Gail and Mike are joining us today to tell us all about their experience at the naming ceremony and their cruise on this monumental ship.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special guest straight from somewhere in the world, Brandee Lake, thecreator of Tik Tok’s 179k followers iambrandeelake, and same named Instagram. Brandee’s profile at IG says simply: “Asia finishing…Africa loading.”
On December 10, 2023, Brandee embarked in Miami Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise on Serenade of
the Seas and is scheduled to disembark in Miami on September 10, 2024. In mid-2023, Brandee had announced she was stepping away from corporate America for a 9-month world cruise with her parents and younger sister and urged friends to follow along with her journey on social media.
Within days the Ultimate World Cruise became a social media sensation, and for several passengers it became a social media obsession. The best known of those passengers is Brandee Lake.
The Ultimate World Cruise is scheduled for 274 days and is divided into four segments:
Ultimate Americas Cruise
- 64 nights from Dec. 10, 2023, to Feb. 11, 2024
- 36 destinations, including Cozumel, Mexico; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Los Angeles, California
- 4 Wonders of the World, including Iguazú Falls and Machu Picchu
Ultimate Asia Pacific Cruise
- 87 nights from Feb. 11, 2024, to May 9, 2024
- 40 destinations, including Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; Manila, Philippines; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- 3 Wonders of the World, including the Great Barrier Reef and the Taj Mahal
Ultimate Africa and Southern Europe
· 63 nights from May 9, 2024, to July 10, 2024
· 38 destinations from Dubai to Barcelona. It includes Mauritius, Seychelles, Cape Town, Dakar and Nice
· 4 Wonders of the World, including the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Temple of Artemis
Ultimate Europe and Beyond Cruise
- 63 nights from July 10, 2024, to Sept. 10, 2024
- 40 destinations, including Casablanca, Morocco; Paris, France; Bruges, Belgium; and Nuuk, Greenland
It is now my pleasure to bring Brandee’s story to the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Alex Roberson, creator of Alex the Cruiser, internet persona and major cruise Facebook and Instagram cruise personality. Alex has been cruising since he was 5 years old and has over 150 days at sea under his belt. He currently has his 27th, 28th, and 29th cruises booked, and he just can't get enough of the cruising lifestyle.
Alex is a social media influencer who is renowned for his real-time cruising experiences. His Facebook pages, including his personal page, have a combined following of over 130,000 people, with 30,000 of those followers on his personal page alone. His passion for cruising is infectious, and he loves nothing more than sharing his experiences with fellow cruise enthusiasts.
In addition to his social media presence, Alex has recently started making and selling custom cruise decorations, including personalized koozies and wooden cabin door signs, which have become a fan favorite. He works closely with Derek and Amanda from Island Time Travel, and they have a large group cruise planned for the very first sailing out of Galveston on the MSC Seascape on November 9th, 2025. With 100 rooms already booked, Alex and his friends are eagerly counting down the days until they can set sail again.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Michael Lazaroff, Executive Director and Owner, Jazz Cruises, the world’s leader in full-ship charter jazz music cruises, having produced over 90 full-ship charters featuring more than 2000 musicians including several legendary performers and dozens of Grammy winners. Jazz Cruisesis comprised principally of a portfolio of three theme cruises: The Jazz Cruise, launched in 2001, the first and only full-ship cruise charter dedicated to “straight-ahead” jazz; The Smooth Jazz Cruise, the company’s flagship cruise it holds twice each spring. The Smooth Jazz Cruise sold out its first sailing in 2004 and has held 34 consecutive sold out cruises since; and, Botti at Sea, designed in the spirit and style of Grammy-winning world renowned trumpeter Chris Botti.
I wrote about Michael and Jazz Cruises in my new release, The Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyON. I got to meet Michael when I checked off a bucket list item by sailing The Smooth Jazz Cruise in 2023 which included performances by just about ‘everyone who is anyone in smooth jazz,’ such as Marcus Miller, Boney James, Gerald Albright, Candy Dulfer, Bryan Culbertson, Take 6, and one of my favorite comedians, Alonzo Bodden. I got to take photos with Michael McDonald, and with Peter White. I even met rising saxophone star Vince Ingala who agreed to come on The Joy of Cruising Podcast when I was first starting out and for that I am forever appreciative. (Vincent Ingala: Performing On Theme Cruises https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/12246466)
Many of you know about my love for music, and smooth jazz is my favorite genre. I have wanted to profile Michael and his importance to live jazz on the ocean since my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising. I remember my reaction when Michael agreed to talk about Jazz Cruises, LLC in The Joy of Cruising Again, and I am similarly ecstatic to get to chat with him again for the global cruise community to hear.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Jill and Jerry, creators of Cruising Canucks the Canada-based blog, YouTube channel, Facebook Group and Instagram platform. I always enjoy meeting passionate cruisers who are like me, curious about what the cruising world offers and who go out of their way to share their findings with you. Thank you to my friends Paul and Carol Love to Travel—who as you know were on The Joy of Cruising Podcast a few weeks ago Episode 99—for introducing me to Jill and Jerry.
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Jill and Jerry epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world! Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators champion the cause of cruising and at the same time they are champions to cruise fans by providing them with free, useful information, reviews, videos, photos, and cruise tips to cruisers planning a voyage, and prospective cruisers considering their first cruise.
I have enjoyed Jill and Jerry’s videos at the Cruising Canucks channel and it is now my pleasure to chat with them, and to share their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Raimele (Rai) and ShaKeia (Keke) Reese, creators of the fast-growing Team Reese Travels YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook Group. In addition, Keke partners with Charvon of Parkers On The Go, and Cheryl of SIG Cruiser as hosts of the Cruise Kibitz podcast. Created in 2020, Team Reese Travels is truly a family affair as 10-year old Raimele Jr. (RJ) not only accompanies one or both parents on most cruises, but RJ plays a significant role on Team Reese Travels videos. When the caption states RJ Cam, the camerashows RJ behind a mic wearing headphones and he provides his input!
From the Team Reese Travels channel:
We're a travel-loving family of three, exploring the world and creating unforgettable memories. Join our exciting adventures, engaging vlogs, and get valuable travel tips to enhance your globetrotting experiences.
With a passion for cruises and land vacations, we show our 10-year-old son the beauty and diversity of the world. We're here to inspire fellow families to embark on extraordinary adventures, providing practical advice, destination recommendations, and insider secrets. Dreaming of a beach getaway, city escape, or off-the-beaten-path exploration? Let us fuel your wanderlust and make your travel dreams a reality. Subscribe now for exciting journeys and valuable insights. Join us on this incredible journey!
- Contact Email : teamreesetravels@gmail.com
- IG: @teamreesetravels
- TikTok: @teamreesetravels
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Team Reese Travels epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world!
It is my pleasure to chat with RAI & Keke, and to share their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Welcome, RAI & Keke, Team Reese Travels to The Joy of Cruising Podcast
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I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Don Buculo, one half—along with his wife Heidi, of the influential Eat Sleep Cruise blog, YouTube channel, and Instagram platform. When it comes to mega ships, I consider Eat Sleep Cruise among the very best content creators/cruise influencers, and 2024 represents an excess of mega-ship riches. The Icon of the Seas, the new world’s largest cruise ship and a new class for Royal Caribbean was launched to near universal rave reviews; the largest ship for the world’s most popular cruise line, Carnival’s Jubilee joined its sisters of the Excel class, Mardi Gras and Celebration; and, finally Sun Princess, unlike in any other Princess ships. Of course, Eat Sleep Cruise has already experienced the 3 stunning vessels and I can think of no one better to compare and contrast the Icon, Carnival Jubilee, and Sun Princess than Don. And oh, by the way, Don and Heidi just took their first expedition cruise to Antarctica, and first river cruise, and you know I want to hear about that with our first river cruise rapidly approaching.
Don and Heidi are longtime friends of mine. They were featured in my second book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y, and were guests on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 22last year. Eat Sleep Cruise has been featured in some of the top publications and news outlets globally, and we serve together as USA TODAY 10Best cruising experts.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Kate Smith aka A Girl in Every Port. Kate Smith is a writer and nurse who has lived and worked all over the world, both on land and at sea. When she’s not writing, she and her husband are chasing two small boys and various animals across their small farm in Maine.
Kate, when in her20s, went on a few cruises to the Caribbean and Mexico with her family and really enjoyed them, but remained focused on her life as a nurse. By her early 30s, Kate was getting pretty burned out from her job and was coming off a failed relationship and was looking for a big change. So, she applied for a job as a cruise ship nurse and was hired by Princess Cruises. Kate spent the next couple years as a shipboard nurse and absolutely loved it. She recently released a book, "The Unsinkable Aly Brown, RN: A Girl in Every Port cruise ship mystery." Part mystery, part romance, and all heart, “The Unsinkable Aly Brown, RN” is a story about staying open to adventure and the possibility of love. It's very family friendly and is the sort of book that's perfect to read on vacation. The book is based (loosely) on some of Kate’s experiences.”
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Flavia Gray, creator of Ships and Champagne, A Luxury Cruise and Lifestyle Blog. I wrote about Flavia’s story in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF, in a section called The Influencers, which focuses on individuals like Flavia who epitomize what The Joy of Cruising is about: individuals moved by their passion for cruising who choose to manifest that passion in an engaging way when not sailing. Flavia hails from the UK; as you’ve likely heard me point out before fully a third of the passionate cruisers profiled in The Joy of Cruising were from UK, and that proportion has held up through the subsequent books, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y and The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON, as well as The Joy of Cruising Podcast. I feel a connection with my new friends from UK—and I hope to meet a few of them when I finally cruise out of Southampton in 2025. What’s different about Flavia is unlike my other UK friends with whom I have interacted with via email, Zoom, or Skype, I have met Flavia in person twice in Florida on visits she made to see friends in the US. Flavia was also one of the first passionate cruisers—UK or elsewhere in the world to agree to be in The Joy of Cruising. I vividly remember writing her feature—with a great deal of assistance from Flavia—with a smile on my face as it was my first foray into kind of, sort of, travel writing.
Flavia’s feature in The Joy of Cruising, Ships and Champagne was at times quite poignant. A single mother of two saw her singing hobby turn into a full-time career, singing in bands performing at weddings, pubs and clubs. Though Flavia was quite good at her craft—it was not going to provide enough of a reliably constant income. This need led her to a position with Royal Caribbean as a Cruise Specialist—telephone sales.
Flavia progressed in her cruise career and went on to create an award-winning cruise blog, Ships and Champagne—named a top 50 cruise blogger and nominated for UK’s Wave Award in 2017 and 2018.
Flavia loves cruising and remains a cruiser at heart but has shifted away from the sea to the air. In 2022, she started a new travel career as a flight attendant. Flavia does however long to cruise again, and we ask her about her brief change of career and future cruise plans.
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I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Mikkel & Dan, creators of the Sometimes Sailing cruise website and Instagram. I got to know Mikkel and Dan when I wrote about Sometimes Sailing in my new releaseThe Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyONwhere I wrote about their penchant for small ship cruising as well as “ship-within-a-ship” spaces, for instance, Celebrity Cruises The Retreat, Norwegian Haven, and Princess Cruises Medallion Class.
I hosted Sometimes Sailing onThe Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 28 last year and mentioned how Mikkel & Dan were instrumental in motivating me to pursue my bucket list aspiration to sail a river cruise. The river cruise we chose is the AmaWaterways Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise 2024 on AmaKristina. The river cruise is rapidly approaching—we embark in August—and, since Mikkel & Dan have sailed AmaKristina, I thought it fitting to welcome them back to share with the listeners what we can expect this summer.
Here are the links Sometimes Sailing mentioned:
- https://sometimessailing.com/why-are-river-cruises-so-expensive/
- https://sometimessailing.com/river-cruise-versus-ocean-cruise/
- https://sometimessailing.com/amakristina-cruise-review-amawaterways/
- https://sometimessailing.com/amawaterways-food-review-with-drinks-on-amakristina/
- https://sometimessailing.com/amawaterways-provence-excursions-during-a-rhone-river-cruise/
- https://sometimessailing.com/amawaterways-colors-of-provence-rhone-river-cruise-review/
This is also a great article for your first-time river cruising: https://sometimessailing.com/first-time-on-a-river-cruise/
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I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Matt, creator of Cruise Life Matt. I first “met” Matt on Instagram, mainly due to the prevalence of stunning cruise ship drone photos on his feed that caught my eye—leading me to dub him the best cruise ship drone photographer on the internet. Last summer it was my pleasure to host Matt on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ep 32 Cruise Life Matt.
I follow Matt on social media and recently started seeing both some stunning Icon of the Seas drone photos from Matt as well as his mouthwatering food photos from Icon. As you know Icon is the new largest ship in the world which launched just a few months ago. I have had a number of passionate cruisers on the podcast to share reflections of Icon, and I thought it was timely to invite Matt back to provide his perspective—with a special emphasis on Icon’s food.
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I Hate Talking
A podcast about talking, etymology, frustrating topics, current events, and more.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, my second special guest in a row that I met on my recent cruise on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady. Nadeen Manuel. I met Nadeen on my first cruise ever on Virgin Voyages, a transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona, Spain. Nadeen is a global hypnosis authority, and Virgin Voyages sailors got to experience Nadeen in several settings: comedy theater, where I met her as the featured performer; a lecture called Hypnosis Revealed; and several health and wellness presentations like Hypnosis Weight Loss with Nadeen and, Pain Management. When we got to see her—I’ll admit I walked into the venue kind of dubious of hypnosis. Nadeen knocked me off my feet!
From https://www.nadeenmanuel.com
Over the past two decades Nadeen Manuel has hypnotized over a million people into an incredible hypnotic experience in over 30 countries around the world. This edgy family friendly event is the one people wait for all year. Nadeen’s interactive show is hilarious, fascinating and most of all will make you feel good! You will laugh and scream with joyful enchantment as you watch Nadeen hypnotize people in seconds into a deep trance, laughing harder than you have in years, and creating memories for life. Come see for yourself why they call Nadeen the Undisputed Queen of Hypnosis!
Nadeen is at the top of her field, making her a world authority on hypnotism, and I am honored to host her on The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special guest. Dixie Krystals, The Diva, Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady. I just met Dixie on my first cruise on Virgin Voyages, a transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona, Spain. I experienced Dixie in several settings and always enjoyed her. What I didn’t expect is--can she ever sing! Dixie has a website, is on all major social media platforms, and has a podcast, Spill’n The Tea with Dixie where her About Me says, Dixie has been dazzling audiences for 20 years. Dixie chats about her work in the Colorado LGBTQ+ community, her work in theater, reading and baking.
From www.dixiekrystals.com:
Dixie Krystals has been dazzling audiences for 25 years. She grew up in the small town in Pennsylvania and always dreamed of having her name in lights. See where that got her?! You can catch Dixie on Discovery+ in Generation Drag(34TH Annual GLAAD Award Nominee, Outstanding Reality) as well as performing around Denver and beyond.
Her live vocals and tremendous comedic talents are undeniable! She was trained in Musical Theatre and has worked for Walt Disney World, Princess Cruise Lines, Busch Gardens, and various regional theatres.
Her passion for community is what drives her to excellence. She is an ordained minister, bingo queen, emcee, and fabulous hostess with the mostess. She’s won an award for her Podcast; Spill’n The Tea with Dixie where she spills the tea on her life and worldly events! Dixie is currently entertaining on the high seas as The Diva aboard Virgin Voyages, Scarlet Lady!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Cindy Williams. I wrote about Cindy in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF, in a feature called, A Cruising Ministry. I have known Cindy, the epitome of a passionate cruiser, for virtually my entire life—we are related. However, when I started writing my first book about passionate cruisers five years ago, I hadn’t seen or communicated regularly with Cindy in decades. She moved away from New York City in her teens, and our interactions became minimal, and then when Cindy embarked on a career with the United States Army, I completely lost contact with her. It was during Cindy’s military career that her world traveler exploits began. During those years, Cindy and her husband Ken created an amazing cruising story spanning nearly the entire world. I found out about it by happenstance while I was writing The Joy of Cruising, and Cindy and Ken fit perfectly as prolific cruisers with fascinating stories, and I gladly asked them to be in the book.
Funny story…when I told Cindy of my plan to write a cruising-oriented book, Cindy sent me, unsolicited, an itemized list of hundreds of destinations around the world that she and Ken had visited. Virtually every corner of the planet was represented: every major island in the Caribbean; China; Australia; New Zealand; Iceland; Sweden; Russia; France; UK; Scotland; New Guinea; Chili; Peru; Ecuador; Dubai; Egypt; Israel; Alaska; Hawaii; Cuba; and more!
Today I am excited to share with The Joy of Cruising Podcast listeners, Cindy’s reflections on an amazing cruise. An Africa journey is at the very top of my bucket list. It won’t match Cindy and Ken’s though—a 73-Day Grand Africa Voyage onboard Holland America Line Zuiderdam! The cruise departed from Fort Lauderdale; the entire itinerary is too lengthy to detail, but I can highlight a few stops: Canary Islands; Casablanca, Morocco; Petra, Jordan; the Seychelles; Zanzibar, Tanzania; Mozambique; Capetown, South Africa; Namibia; Ghana; the Ivory Coast; Gambia; Dakar, Senegal. I’ll post the complete itinerary in the show notes.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Jared and Jordan, creators of the popular JJ Cruise 60k member YouTube channel, blog, Facebook Page and Instagram.
From JJ Cruise https://lovelandandsea.com: Jordan and Jared are a married couple who LOVES CRUISES! They are the co-founders of the popular YouTube channel, JJ Cruise where they give tips, tricks, and insider information on the cruise industry. Collectively they have spent more than 400 nights at sea on over 75 cruises. They have cruised around the world exploring destinations including Australia, New Zealand, Greenland, French Polynesia, Alaska, Iceland, Europe and the Caribbean. Some of their favorite itineraries include our time spent on repositioning cruises such as transatlantic and transpacific cruises.
I have long enjoyed watching JJ Cruise videos. They told me they are on ships 75% of the year—I can’t wait to chat about that! It is now my pleasure to bring their story to the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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Three friends having in-depth and entertaining discussions about current and classic...
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special guest, Damon Williams, a legendary comedian, actor, host, writer, and producer. He is a native of Chicago who has become a household name in the entertainment industry for over 30 years. Williams' journey to stardom began as a young entrepreneur, owning a Subway sandwich shop in the early '90s. However, he caught the comedy bug, and since then, he hasn't looked back. Over the years, Williams has worked with some of the most iconic stars in show business, too many to mention. He has performed stand-up comedy on several networks, including numerous television appearances. Williams' reputation as a highly sought-after comedian led to him earning the opening spot on the legendary Kings of Comedy Tour. I first got to see Damon live in 2018 when we sailed on Celebrity Equinox for Festival at Sea, the 35-year-old perennially sold-outAfrican-American Cultural Cruise. I wrote about Festival at Seain The Joy of Cruising http://amzn.to/2EAMddF. This is what I wrote about Damon: “The nationally known comedians on the cruise included Damon Williams, featured performer and cruise host from the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show; Damon has been a featured performer and host on Festival at Sea since 2006…”
I recently learned that we will experience Damon live again in a few months. We are booked on the Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise on AmaKristina with Friends of Festival at Sea, a luxury cruise affiliate of Festival at Sea. For the full-ship charter, Friends of Festival at Sea will bring its own Comedian Host, Damon, as well as featured Friends of Festival at Sea jazz instrumentalist, dance instructor, and resident DJ.
By the way, The Joy of Cruising Podcast hosted Patricia Yarbrough, Founder of Festival at Sea in August, Podcast Episode
Today we are delighted to welcome Damon Williams to The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast we want to share our reflections on our recent cruise—a transatlantic on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady—Miami to the Med. Not a review, YouTube can do a much better job than us, but just our random reflections.
The cruise starts with 8 sea days, so we will be trying so much of the award-winning food we have heard so much about. This cruise was special in a couple of ways. As you know from a podcast we did a couple of months ago, we are on a quest in 24/25 to check some items off of our overflowing bucket list. This cruise allowed us to check a couple items off the bucket list, namely, it was our 1st transatlantic, and our 1st time experiencing Virgin Voyages. Enjoy!
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I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Paul & Carole, creators of Paul & Carole Love To Travel. I go aways back with Paul & Carole whom I consider friends though I have never properly met then. But I kind of felt like I met them in our first interaction when I featured them in my first cruise book, The Joy of Cruisinghttp://amzn.to/2EAMddF and they took the readers on a Havana, Cuba bar crawl and it was like I experienced it vicariously through them. Every time I saw a photo of them subsequently, they seemed to be having fun and it reminded me of that first feature, Cuba Cruising. So, I invited them to do a more extensive feature in my second cruise book Cruising Interrupted http://amzn.to/3seFU8y. And last summer it was my pleasure to host Paul & Carole Love To Travelon The Joy of Cruising Podcast Podcast Episode. Paul & Carole Love To Travel has its own blog, great You Tube channel, IG and more.
I wanted to catch up with Paul & Carole as soon as I learned from their channel of their AmaWaterways river cruise. Chery and I go on our first river cruise this summer on AmaWaterways AmaKristina, so I wanted Paul & Carole to share all about AmaWaterways AmaDara with the listeners. In addition, following the river cruise, they had a dream trip to Japan that I am sure contains some fascinating anecdotes.
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We love stand-up comedy here at The Joy of Cruising Podcast, and no one does it better on the ocean than Carnival Cruise Lines. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Spike Davis, a Carnival favorite comedian, host, and writer. He is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, now residing in Atlanta—when not on the ocean. Perhaps after looking at his Carnival Cruise Tour Dates at https://www.spikedavis.com, I should restate that as: when not residing on the ocean Spike rests his head in Atlanta. He performs on ships a lot! Spike’s not new to this. For the past decade, Spike has been a crowd favorite on Carnival, earning his spot as one of the most sought-after comedians on the high seas. That’s not all Spike does.
Spike has been on the comedy scene 30 years and has shared stages with legends like Steve Harvey, Jamie Foxx, Rickey Smiley, Mike Epps and D.L. Hughley. He's graced national TV on Dry Bar Comedy Show, Comics Unleashed, HBO, Showtime, Comedy Central, and BET. His clever and entertaining sets, infused with humor and poignant messages of hope and inclusion, make Spike a comedic force to be reckoned with. From coast to coast and cruising the shining seas, Spike leaves audiences laughing and pondering in equal measure.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Lisa Mclean, Le Boat, Marketing Manager for North American. Le Boat is the market leader in providing luxury houseboat vacations on the beautiful rivers, lakes and canals of Europe and Canada. They have the world’s largest fleet of luxury houseboats and the widest choice of fabulous boating destinations to choose from. Le Boat has been at this a long time—over 50 years’ experience on the water. Here’s the part that fascinated me when I first heard of Le Boat from a previous guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast: You don’t need a license or prior experience to be the p of your own houseboat. As Lisa will explain, Le Boat conducts a pre-departure briefing with you, explaining safety, controls and maneuvering the boat, how onboard features of the boat work, and even take you for a test drive.
I first heard about Le Boat from Judy Cohen, Traveling Judi when she was on the show in December https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/14100013. I featured Judi in Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y, and while she is one of the most prolificworld travelers I know, Judi enthralled me talking about her return to cruising—during the Covid lockdown—in Canada where she lives, and one of several places in the world, Le Boat operates. “You captain your own boat! When we arrive there—we don’t have a boating license—they gave us 2 hours of training…and away you go. You maneuver through the locks and stop at the various ports.” At this point I loud exclaimed. “Get out, that sounds amazing!” Judi went on to talk about how they brought their whole family, including their dog for a 4-night cruise. They cooked their own food. Judi said, “The kitchen is nicer than the one I have at home!” Read more at https://travelingjudi.com
I am anxious to speak with Lisa, and to have the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast get the inside scoop on this unique way to cruise with family and friends.
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Lucy, creator of the Cruising As Crew, website, YouTube channel, and Instagram platform. Lucy has worked for P & O and Virgin Voyage in the shops, and for Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Lines as a shopping ambassador. I will be sure to ask Lucy to elaborate on and differentiate between those positions. Lucy’s passion, the mission of her website and channel is to facilitate the entry of others into working on cruise ships. Her tagline is: “Helping People Land Their Dream Job On Cruise Ships.”
After qualifying as a beauty therapist/masseuse at 19, Lucy got a job with Steiner International, a leading recruiting agency for cruise ship spa departments, which Lucy calls “hard work but the best thing I’ve ever done,” Lucy’s cruise ship work includes: The Onboard Spa 2015- 2017 on Royal Caribbean, Harding Retail 2018- 2022 on P&O and Virgin Voyages, and in 2022 she became a shopping ambassador and worked on Disney Wish and Royal Caribbean Harmony OTS. Lucy’s motivation to create Cruising As Crew was because before I she started working on cruise ships, she would scour the web for information on ‘life onboard’ and couldn’t find much, so she thought she would put together something that she wishes she could have read.
I wrote about cruise ship crew, staff, and officers in my latest book The Joy of Cruising Again in a section called“Ship Life,” and from when I first started cruising have been intrigued with what it would be like to work on a cruise ship. It is my pleasure to chat with Lucy to gain some additional insight into that and to share her story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ilana of Life Well Cruised. Ilana is one of my first friends in the cruising blogosphere, having been featured in my second cruise book, Cruising Interrupted http://amzn.to/3seFU8y, and she has been a social media friend since my first book (which Ilana would have been in if not for an email issue!) Life Well Cruised was the second episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcast over a year ago and amazingly, her episode remains in the top five to this day Episode 2, Life Well Cruised. Life Well Cruised is a well-read blog, one of the top cruise You Tube channels in the world, IG and more. In fact, across all platforms Ilana has a fervent followership and Life Well Cruised is one of the mostly followed and influential cruise brands in the world.
It's been over a year, so I wanted to catch up with Ilana, get her reflections on her recent Sun Princess cruise, compare our recent MSC experiences, and get an update of her cruising plans in this red-hot cruising market.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Tom and Dom, a couple from UK and creators of the Tom and Dom Travel blog, YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook group. Tom and Dom have only been cruising since right after the pandemic, sailing MSC Virtuosa on a short cruise to nowhere—referred to UK as a staycation as UK phased in cruises after the lockdown. Only three years and many cruises later Tom and Dom are now sailing exotic itineraries to Greenland! Also, in that short time they have appeared in BBC Radio Wales, BBC NEWS, The Times, The Sun, Daily Mirror, OUT Traveler, and Business Insider. They are a CLIA Choose Cruise member 2023.
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Tom and Domepitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world! Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators champion the cause of cruising and at the same time they are champions to cruise fans by providing them with free, useful information, reviews, videos, photos, and cruise tips to cruisers planning a voyage, and prospective cruisers considering their first cruise.
I have interacted with Tom and Dom occasionally on cruise social media, and it is now my pleasure to chat with them, and to share their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Sheri of the Cruise Tips TV. Sheri is a special friend to me, having been featured in my first two cruise books, The Joy of Cruising http://amzn.to/2EAMddF and Cruising Interrupted http://amzn.to/3seFU8y, and then being my first choice for the initial episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcastwhich shegraciously accepted https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/12197161. Cruise Tips TV has its own podcast, Cruise Tips TV Unplugged, as well as blog, You Tube channel, IG and more. In fact, across all platforms Sheri and Cruise Tips TV is one of the mostly followed and influential cruise brands in the world.
It's been over a year, so I wanted to catch up with Sheri, get her thoughts on her recent Sun Princess cruise, and share with the cruise community the recent major change in Sheri’s cruising career.
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I am delighted to welcome this week to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Justin Sorrell aka MrBucketlist. Justin is a video creator and influencer and the creator of the MrBucketlist YouTube channel where 16k subscribers get to follow his adventures on the seas usually on the newest ships, like the largest ship in the world that launched just last month, Icon of the Seas. Justin recently cruised the launch and did a little bit of everything so I can’t wait to hear the details. He cruises exclusively solo, which is relatively atypical for men, and has done 19 Solo Cruises—3 of which involved leading MrBucketlist group cruises.
As suggested by Justin’s brand name, cruising is only one aspect of his adventure seeking lifestyle. He has checked off over 150 items on his bucket list in numerous forms. Justin is a confirmed thrill seeker having visited over 80 Theme Parks; 49 of 50 States—and that will soon be 50/50 as he just booked a Hawaii cruise for this Spring; and 5/7 Continents.
And then there was this statement on the MrBucketlist homepage, and Justin became a new travel role model of mine: “I vacation every 2 weeks!”
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Linzi and Mark, a couple from UK and creators of the Suite Natured blog, YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook group. They are a CLIA Choose Cruise member 2024.
Linzi and Mark state on their website: Based in Northern England, getting to the cruise port is always an adventure, so we usually travel the day before embarkation to avoid any cruise day hiccups.
But even though we live in the rugged Yorkshire countryside, and miles from the South coast, it does not stop us loving a cruise vacation. We also enjoy planning a cruise holiday and hope you do too… because that is why we started our channel. We make videos that we would want to see ourselves, when finding out about a cruise line, and what things we can discover before we can even step foot on the ship.
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Linzi and Markepitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world! Plus, I have a special affinity with UK content creators. Such a passionate cruise community and the first person to agree to be in my first book, The Joy of Cruising http://amzn.to/2EAMddF, was a UK cruise personality.
In the February issue of UK’s Sail Away Magazine, Suite Natured authored a feature titled “Myths & Facts of Taking a Transatlantic Crossing,” and they mentioned it on their FB Gp. The timing of coming across that post couldn’t have been any better. I was in the process of creating a podcast discussing our upcoming cruise, one of which is our first transatlantic —Bucket List Cruises 2024-2025 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/14366745. I reached out to Suite Natured, and it is now my pleasure to chat with Linzi and Mark about transatlantics, and to share the story of Suite Natured with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast. It's a fun conservation and ends with a hilarious anecdote. (I told Mar and Linzi they will be sure to be included in my second annual end-of-the-year episode oh the year's "most memorable, funniest, and most embarrassing stories!"
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I am delighted to welcome this week to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Walter Biscardi, Founder of Where’s Walter Travel. Sometimes I mention passionate cruisers I interview who moved me to add a destination or experience or vessel to my ever-expanding bucket list, or to book one already on my bucket list. Walter was one such passionate cruiser who moved me to booking a cruise on Virgin Voyages. Here’s the thing; I hadn’t interviewed him. I met Walter on YouTube where I incessantly watch cruise videos, even with the sound down when I am recording or editing a podcast episode or just listening to music. I happened upon a video where Walter was reviewing every food venue on Virgin Voyages, which was on my bucket list. Walter seemed so genuine and impressed by the food. Most importantly, he was persuasive. Shortly after viewing that video we booked Scarlet Lady for our first cruise on Virgin Voyages next month!
Since viewing Walter’s Virgin Voyages video, we’ve become not just friends and followers of each other on social media, but collaborators. Where’s Walter Travel is The Joy of Cruising Podcast’s Travel Agent Partner. So, shameless plug, you can now book your cruises through The Joy of Cruising Podcast www.thejoyofcruising.net!
Walter is relatively new to the travel business; yet, I wanted him as a guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast based on the difference he has made in the 15 months or so he has been involved in cruising. Walter’s appeal is mainly as a cruise content creator who I have found that I can relate to mainly because of his relevant and incisive commentary, outstanding production quality, and frankly, his ‘everyman’ persona depicted on his videos. As we became friends, I learned of hisbackground prior to becoming a Travel Agent: over 30 years in film, television, and marketing. Walter owned creative agencies in Atlanta for 20 years. Heard of the Food Networks’ Good Eats with Alton Brown? Walter was fortunate to be a part of Peabody Awards for the show. Wow.
Walter started Where's Walter TikTok in December 2021. He wanted to offer honest information about cruising so folks could make an informed decision on whether to take a cruise, noting, “There was so much bad and incorrect information out there as cruising restarted.” By April 2022 his audience started asking him to become a Travel Agent. In October 2022, Where's Walter Travel was launched and realized virtually immediate success.
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I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ben & David of the massively successful Cruise With Ben & David. Their 248k followers on YouTube puts Cruise With Ben & David as one of the top cruise channels in the world. Along with Cruise Mummy, Cruise With Ben & David are the only two-time winners of the UK Wave Award in the cruise influencer category. Among cruise content creators/influencers they just may be the most influential cruise brand in the world. As an example, just weeks ago Cruise With Ben & David dominated cruise news and the cruise blogosphere/vlogosphere regarding an interaction they had with a major cruise line. Surprisingly, however that’s not why I invited them back on. Well before that incident, I was browsing their channel and was shocked to find that Ben & David went back to MSC cruise line—on MSC World Europa—after a “falling out” they had with MSC several years ago, which we discussed when they were last on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. This first of what was to be several MSC World Europa videos was quite positive. So, I reached out to them to come back on to discuss their return to MSC, as well as get their reflections on Icon of the Seas, and just catch up on what they have been up to. Shortly after Ben & David agreed to come backon cruise news blew up.
Part of the reason for Ben & David’s influence is their credibility with the people who watch their channel. They pay for all their cruises, which enables them to provide their unfiltered—and very candid—reflections and opinions about the broad diversity of cruises they take. If a ship is among the world’s top ships, Ben & David have likely sailed on it. They pepper their videos with hilarious interchange between the two. And they feature highly polished video and production quality.
Cruise With Ben & David has been featured in some of the top publications and news outlets globally, such as The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USAToday and The Mail on Sunday. And, they have made a memorable appearance on the BBC's "The One Show".
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Colin Stewart and Nick Jackson, co-creators of the new brand Cruise with Colin and Nick, comprised of a YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook Group. As some of you know, Cruising’s Young and Restless has been a recurring section in The Joy of Cruising books taking a look at passionate cruisers of today who will be cruise community leaders of tomorrow. Some of you may know and follow Nick, aka #FutureCruiseDirector. I featured Nick in my latest book, The Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyON, and he was onthe podcast in September, Travel With Nick, Cruising’s Young and Restless for his own YouTube channel. When interviewing Nick for The Joy of Cruising Again he mentioned that he and another aspiring cruise director, Colin, were partnering to launch Cruise with Colin and Nick, a YouTube channel that chronicles their journey toward a mutual goal.
I introduced you to Nick a few months back, a high school student, track star, and a part-time employee at the Carnival pier at the Port of Galveston but I will ask him to reintroduce himself. This is my first-time meeting Colin, although we have interacted on social media, and I mentioned him in Nick’s feature. Colin is a college student at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, and it’s good to get to know more about him.
It is my pleasure to chat with Colin and Nick and learn what they are doing together—and separately to further their aim to be a Cruise Director, and to share their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Lois, creator of the UK based Lois: No Cruise Control blog, YouTube channel, and Instagram platform. Lois is a highly regarded cruise influencer—39th in the world according to Feedspot. Although she has been cruising for 14 years, she has sailed dozens of cruises. On her website, Lois introduces herself, “Hello! I am a Specialist Nurse and a Cruise content creator, living in London, UK. When I am not posting Cruise photography to Instagram, filming YouTube vlogs or writing about my Cruise adventures here, you will find me supporting amazing families and saving strangers' lives by Organ Donation!”
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Lois epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world! Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators champion the cause of cruising and at the same time they are champions to cruise fans by providing them with free, useful information, reviews, videos, photos, and cruise tips to cruisers planning a voyage, and prospective cruisers considering their first cruise. Lois has an extensive and incredibly diverse cruising background, yet she started out with an amazing 22 straight cruises on a single cruise line. Looking forward to asking her about that.
Lois and I have interacted over the years on cruise social media, and it is now my pleasure to chat with Lois, and to share her story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Holly Crabtree, creator of the UK-based Hollydaysatsea, YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook group. Holly is visiting The Joy of Cruising Podcast today to discuss mainly her recent cruise on the inaugural sailing of the highly anticipated Princess Cruises Sun Princess—whichyou might have heard me refer to as perhaps my future favorite ship. I am so smitten by this new ship—which I am not booked on until April 2025—that I arranged for a cruising content creator to come on the podcast and further pique my interest. (Also of course, to share with the listeners all the bells and whistles on the shiny new gigantic sea playground.) The originally scheduled inaugural cruise was cancelled. So, I got another content creator who was on the follow-up cruise. It too was cancelled. The third time was a charm, and I am thankful my friend and cruise influencer Holly was scheduled to be on the Sun Princess and we are glad to have her on The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
Holly is a multi-award-winning cruise expert who says she is “More passionate about cruising than ever before and am excited to share my experience, tips and tricks, and the mistakes you can avoid.” Holly sold cruises for over 35 and decided to share all the insight she has learned with the cruise community on her various platforms.
She points out on her channel, “Throw in a little Yorkshire humour, the odd cocktail-making class with some fabulous cruise cocktail recipes and of course my favourite cruise wine recommendations. So come and join me on this amazing and fun adventure as I cruise around the world sharing all I know to make your cruise experience fabulous.”
I am so glad Holly is here to share her story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome RacQuelle and Ron, creators of the fast-growing MH Family Adventures, YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook Group. MH Family Adventures is a growing YouTube cruise channel with 15k subscribers, and 55k followers across their various social media platforms. Feedspot lists MH Family Adventures as #40 on their recent list of the world’s top 90 cruise influencers. RacQuelle has cruised at a torrid pace since 2019—44 cruises and preparing to go on her 45th as a volunteer with Autism on the Seas (the special needs community is near and dear to RacQuelle and Ron).
RacQuelle Major-Holland is a Cruise Content Creator/Travel Influencer & Travel Agency Owner. She spent 19 years as an educator—uh that’s Dr. Major-Holland—before stepping out on faith to establish with Ron, Major Adventures Travelwhich focuses exclusively on cruise travel. RacQuelle’s first cruise was just in 2019 and now she has dozens of cruises behind her on a diverse selection of cruise ships. Ron is a workaholic and with the family traveling as much as they do, it has really forced him to learn balance (something he didn't have before, and RacQuelle feels is extremely important in life). Ron has worked in accounting for the last 25 years and has served as a business consultant for small to medium sized businesses.
As the name implies MH Family Adventures is truly a family affair. RacQuelle and Ron’s 3 children, Andrew, Dice, and Jo are seemingly in every video and photo although RacQuelletravels a fair bit solo or with relatives as the kids have school schedules and Ron has to work and watch the kids. And on several videos, I've seen where RacQuelle cruises with each of the children, one at a time.
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like MH Family Adventures epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world!
It is my pleasure to chat with RacQuelle & Ron, and to share their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Venus Anderson, I was browsing Melanin At Sea, one of the most influential Facebook affinity groups comprised of 96,000-member, created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities A Rich and Jazzy Life. Venus happens to be the administrator of Melanin At Sea (and sister and sister-n-law of the founders, Richand Jazzy.) Following the holidays Venus posted: “We recently returned from our 19-day trip to Sydney, Australia. After planning this trip for about 16 months, we braved the 22 hours in flights from JFK to SYD with ease. Thankfully no hiccups or delays. We had the opportunity to stay in Honolulu, Hawaii for 36 hours and in Sydney for one whole day before boarding the cruise. We took an 8-day cruise on the Carnival Splendor to Noumea and Lifou, New Caledonia.” This sounded like a dream trip to me; I have interviewed well over 100 passionate cruises and many, even seasoned world travelers still have Australia on their bucket list. As I am wont to do, I reached out to Venus and invited her to the podcast so that I and the listeners could experience hertrip vicariously through Venus. I am so glad she agreed to join The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
Venus’ adventure took place from mid-December 2023, through Christmas and New Year’s. Accompanied by her daughter, 13-year-old Autumn, and her cousin, her cousin’s husband and their son, the group flew from JFK in New York to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they got to spend a couple of days. Afterwards, they flew to Sydney, Australia and boarded the Carnival Splendor December 18 for an 8-day Christmas cruise with 2 stops—Lifou, and Noumea, 2 French territories in New Caledonia.
After the cruise they spent 6 additional nights in Sydney and rung in the New Year there. Before flying to New York. Surprise, Venus plans to go back again someday! I asked Venus what inspired her to put together such a grand trip. Many veteran world travelers still have Sydney, Australia on their bucket list. One influence on her to see the world was a quite poignant interaction and left a lasting impression on Venus.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Mike Jason, President, StarVista LIVE, one of the world’s largest producers of music-themed cruises. StarVista LIVE offers a diverse collection of eight theme cruises covering a cross-section of music genres all generally aimed at 55-plus cruisers. StarVista LIVE’s flagship cruise is the Malt Shop Memories Cruise which features the music of the 50s and 60s, and artists have included the likes of the Beach Boys, Frankie Valli and Dion. Other theme cruises are the Soul Train Cruise which has starred artists such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Smokey Robinson, and Kool and the Gang; The Country Music Cruise which has featured Vince Gill, Kenny Rogers and Alabama; ‘70s Rock & Romance Cruise with the likes of Peter Frampton, and America; Ultimate Disco Cruise which has featured Gloria Gaynor, and KC and The Sunshine Band; Flower Power Cruise featuring Three Dog Night, and Blood Sweat & Tear; Sandy Beaches Cruise headlined and curated by Delbert McClinton; and, their newest event, The Big Easy Cruise, featuring New Orleans jazz, funk, and R&B and just premiered in November.
Mike is one of the few passionate cruisers I wrote about in two books of The Joy of Cruising Trilogy. Mike and StarVista LIVE was in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising, in Malt Shop Memories in a section called “Theme Cruising: Two Passions in One.” In my new release, The Joy of Cruising Again, I decided to circle back to Mike to cover how StarVista LIVE fared with the pandemic. The pandemic’s effect on the cruise lines was major but the impact on operators of theme cruises is about as significant a crisis as they are likely to face. Every consequence of COVID-19 on the cruise lines is exacerbated for a company dependent on full-ship charters, particularly a music-oriented theme cruise company. Not only are they dependent on what the cruise lines do (who are dependent on the Center for Disease Control), but they had two sets of stakeholders they had to maintain ongoing relations with during the cruising shutdown—guests, who in theme cruising are very likely repeaters, and performers, also likely to have an ongoing relationship with StarVista LIVE.
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Hello passionate cruisers, this is Paul. And this is Cheryl. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast we want to briefly share our reflections about our most recent cruise. This one was a short R&B music cruise to the Bahamas on the Norwegian Pearl.
The cruise starred R&B superstar Maxwell and was called the “Urban Hang Suite Cruise.” Urban Hang Suite is the name of Maxwell’s iconic first album. This was not part of a series of cruises—it was the first Maxwell Urban Hang Suite Cruise but I am confident it will not be the last.
Maxwell is a global R&B superstar who takes his time releasing new music. The cruise was named after his first album which was released almost 30 years ago, indicative of the staying power of his brand, and his fans are every bit as fervent. Other headliners were Ledisi, Robert Glasper, Sabrina Claudio, Leela James, Musiq Soulchild, Gallant, and comedian A-Train.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome a special guest, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo. Among the global cruise personalities, we are blessed to host, today, I am honored to welcome another one of those Googleable individuals we occasionally have the honor to host. Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, the Chief Executive Officer of Celebrity Cruises from 2015-2023 is admired across the cruise industry for her accomplishments during her tenure at Celebrity, and she is a role model to women leaders and aspiring leaders beyond cruising. The legion of women, and men, interested in the leadership lessons of Lisa’s brilliant career is about to grow significantly, because today February 20, Lisa’s new book, Making Waves, A Woman's Rise to the Top Using Smarts, Heart, and Courage is released. So, besides being fortunate to be able to host someone of Lisa’s stature on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, we get to do so on the launch day of her new bestseller-to-be!
‘It's the stuff dreams are made of to start at the bottom and make it to the top. But that’s what happened to theVice Chairman of External Affairs for the Royal Caribbean Group and Former CEO of Celebrity Cruises Lisa Lutoff-Perlo who got her start in an entry-level sales position selling cruises door-to-door to travel agencies in New England and then found herself running a multibillion-dollar global company.’
Lisa Lutoff-Perlo is a high-impact leader in the travel and hospitality industry, whose vision and strategy not only propelled Celebrity Cruises to achieve transformational financial results as a brand within the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. portfolio but also dramatically increased the number of women in leadership roles throughout the Celebrity brand. Her passion for building extraordinary ships, creating unique experiences, and opening up the world through travel has brought recognition and countless awards to Lisa and Celebrity Cruises. Lisa and Celebrity have achieved global impact, earning her a reputation as a trailblazer bringing transformation, diversity, and inclusion into the travel and hospitality industry and onto bridges of ships.
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This week I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Rich and Jasmine of A Rich and Jazzy Life. It is only fitting that this first the first reflections of the launch cruise of the world’s largest ship come from one of the world’s most influential cruise personalities. A Rich and Jazzy Life has over 101K followers on their You Tube channel, and perhaps even more impressive is their 95k Facebook affinity group, one of the largest Melanin at Sea. Rich and Jasmine also were featured in my new release The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON.
Rich and Jasmine first appeared on The Joy of Cruising Podcast in May 2023, so I know that have plenty of cruises to discuss, but first and foremost let’s delight in today’s ship, Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas.
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We were blessed to check off some of our bucket list in the past 14 months: Mediterranean Cruise, The Smooth Jazz Cruise, Hawaii, and Alaska. We’re leveling up with our bucket list cruises for 2024-2025. In this short bonus episode on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Paul and Mrs. The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Cheryl, discuss their plans to check off some cruise bucket list items in 2024-2025.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Alanna Zingano, creator of the Travel The World From A To Z Facebook, and self-named blog and YouTube channel. Alanna is a highly regarded cruise influencer. I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Alanna epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world! Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators champion the cause of cruising and at the same time they are champions to cruise fans by providing them with free, useful information, reviews, videos, photos, and cruise tips to cruisers planning a voyage, and prospective cruisers considering their first cruise. It is a pleasure to chat with Alanna, whose channel I rely on for cruise reviews and information, and to share her story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
Alanna’s content revolves around teaching and inspiring others to travel more as she shares her advice and knowledge from her own adventures and experience. Her continuous goal is to create a message about weekend getaways, cruise planning, travel and vacation tips and tricks, and excursion advice! She is incredibly passionate about helping others feel empowered when they travel! Alanna can be found traveling with her husband Rafael who is known as “cameraman” within the community. They welcomed their first child, Valencia, into the world in early 2020. Both are ecstatic to begin to show and teach their daughter what the world has to offer!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am thankful. Thankful that you have allowed me into your personal space for 80 times over this past year. I am thankful to the listeners that have made this podcast global in 100 countries. Cruising is loved throughout the world! And I am so appreciative of our guests, who make it possible for me to attract you. I only wish I could have included all 80 guests in this show.
We premiered a year ago, with Sheri of Cruise Tips TV, followed up by Ilana of Life Well Cruised. I knew early on who I wanted to start the podcast with. Both are friends; Sheri and Cruise Tips TV was in both The Joy of Cruising and Cruising Interrupted and did my first video ad for The Joy of Cruising. So in the first clip I wanted to honor her and say thank you by playing the first words of the first guest on the show. Ilana and Life Well Cruised was in Cruising Interrupted. She is also in the 1st clip and I wanted to honor her and say thank you by sharing the 1st of many of the most memorable, funniest, and most embarrassing moments in this one year old celebration. Finally in this 1st clip I share my most embarrassing moment. I am sure I butcher the Queens English from time-to-time; and in my very 1st show—that’s right with Sheri—my phone rings and I discovered it well after the episode was released! My most embarrassing moment was when I was a guest on a podcast which shall remain nameless. I made a boo boo, apologized to the host and completed an otherwise very nice conversation. Of course my expectation was that the host would edit out my boo boo and apology. Uh, nope.
Thank you listeners, thank youThe Joy of Cruising Podcast .guests. Here’s to a great second year.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Stefanie Mullen, co-creator of the Sean and Stef blog and YouTube Channel. From the Sean and Stef website: ‘We are Sean & Stef, your favorite cruise travelers! We are professional filmmakers and have won 3 Emmy awards for our video work. We are positive filmmakers who focus on the joys of travel and all the fun that goes along with the journey. We travel the world exploring destinations, all while making video memories that last a lifetime. Our mission is to inspire and connect with people all around the world and show them the joys of traveling. We are personally and emotionally fulfilled by the amazing people we meet and hope to continue this great journey as far as the road will take us.’
Sean was a talented artist, visual effects guru, and magical storyteller. Sean's talents took him all over the world and has won him many accolades, including three Emmys. He worked on a few Hollywood productions and TV shows, creating his own company, Rampant Design, before landing his dream job of helping to create magic for Disney theme parks. On February 24, 2020, Sean was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and was given roughly three months to live. Refusing to accept that timeline, a friend helped get Sean into the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and Sean was a patient there long beyond three months. Throughout Sean’s treatment, Sean and Stef kept their prodigious fan base apprised—especially Stef—via Daily Journals on their website. Stef’s first post was: Day 0—The Worst Day Of Our Lives. Reading each entry was at times poignant, wrenching, incredibly sad, and yet full of hope. After a pause, they also started vlogging on YouTube again. Stef said, ‘Editing kept Sean’s mind active, and filming kept us always busy. We were documenting the good times, the sad times, and everything in between.’ Sean succumbed to his hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer on March 6th, 2021, almost a year beyond the life expectancy given at the time of his diagnosis. He was just 43 years old.
It is my honor to welcome Stef of Sean & Stef, to The Joy of Cruising Podcast. While it is Stef’s first appearance on a cruising podcast since Sean passed, she has not stopped cruising, blogging, and vlogging. In fact, on my last cruise, adouble bucket list 16-day journey from Hawaii to Alaska on Norwegian Spirit, Stef was aboard, traveling with top cruise influencers, Cruise With Ben and David. Stef posts regularly on Sean & Stef and if you want to see vlogs about the Hawaii/Alaska cruise, Stef has a bunch and I love reliving that cruise through her eyes. In fact, Stef has cruised since December 2021, and I have been gorging on great content on the Sean & Stef YouTube channel. Her blog has likewise been quite busy. A recent blog entry was, “Not Happy But Way Less Sad, Year 3, Week 31” (since Sean passed).
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and on this bonus episode The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Stanley & Lynette, (the Queen!), creators of popular and growing LifeIsUsTV YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook Group. LifeIsUsTV is the 17th most-watched YouTube cruise channel with 100k subscribers. Feedspot lists Stanley & Lynette as #11 on their list of the world’s top 90 cruise influencers.
Lynette is also a travel agent and books travel and has a blog a CodeFunTravel.com
I consider Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators as Cruise Community Champions and have featured them throughout The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Passionate cruisers like Stanley & Lynette epitomize the joy of cruising; they are so passionate about cruising that they want to share it with the world! Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators champion the cause of cruising and at the same time they are champions to cruise fans by providing them with free, useful information, reviews, videos, photos, and cruise tips to cruisers planning a voyage, and prospective cruisers considering their first cruise.
Stanley & Lynette have an extensive cruising background, are knowledgeable cruising advisors, and they exude fun in all their videos and photos.
It is my pleasure to chat with Stanley & Lynette, and to share their story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Joanna Nell, bestselling author, medical doctor, and advocate for positive aging. Born and raised in UK, Joanne studied medicine at Cambridge and Oxford universities, then trained as a general practitioner in UK before emigrating to Australia with her husband and kids, where she lives today. It was an Australian publication where I learned of Joanna by reading her essay, Secrets of A Cruise Ship Doctor. That title would stop any cruise ship geek in their tracks, especially a podcaster always looking to bring fascinating guests to the show. As I read the article a broad smile came over my face, as rather than a dry, clinical—pun intended—recitation of the day-to-day activities of an MD at sea it was a fun, well-written, and touching composition. It ended with, “And though I wasn’t expecting to find actual love on The Love Boat, I did. A year after I left the sea, I married the second engineer. Twenty-five years later, our son is following in the family tradition and is now a ship’s engineer.” Yep, I knew I had to try to reach out to Joanna.
No wonder the article was nicely done. I didn’t know it at the time, but Joanna is a best-selling author having written five novels. Her newest, Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year, was just released November 1st and Joanna is in the midst of a book launch tour and media events. So, The Joy of Cruising Podcast is especially fortunatefor Joanna to take the time to chat with us.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am honored to welcome and bring to the listeners, Captain Albert, of Holland America Line. Captain Albert created and curates Captain Albert’s Website and Blog, described as “Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In-Depth focus on Holland America Line.” Captain Albert J. Schoonderbeek joined Holland America Line in 1981 on the old SS Statendam. He sailed a variety of HAL ships, attaining the rank of Captain in 2000. Captain Albert’s longest stints as Captain were on Veendam 2004 to 2008 and, Prinsendam2008 - 2011.
In 2014, Captain Albert was offered the opportunity to assume the function of Travelling Master, and later Fleet Master, to lead a first-in-industry program to provide training for captains and deck officers. Like everything else, the program was put on hold when Covid hit. Earlier this year, burdened by having to repay the debt incurred due to the need to keep the fleet in running order while not generating revenue during the pandemic, the decision was made to shelve the program for at least three years. As that would put the restart of the program beyond Captain Albert’s official retirement date in 2025, the company offered early retirement this year after 42 years of service to HAL.
Working onboard HAL cruise ships has been Captain Albert’s vocation, his avocation is also cruise ships: running Captain Albert’s Website and Blog, traveling on non-HAL ships with his wife Lesley on what they call “busman’s holidays” (a vacation spent observing someone else in the practice of one's usual occupation), and writing books including Captain Albert’s current massive project—a five-part history of Holland America Line.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome two guests, a married couple, Vanessa and Jon Armstrong. Vanessa’s website opens to a close-up headshot which is inscribed, “Why is my face so big…?” Right below that it says, “Vanessa likes to write about things. Sometimes she gets paid for it.” I suspect a sense of humor I am going to enjoy! Her bio goes on to say, “Vanessa started her adult life as a very serious businessperson (she got not one, but TWO master's degrees!) and spent most of her twenties working for very serious companies and moving every two years or so. In her early thirties, she and her dog Penny moved to Los Angeles, where she began writing and dying her hair in different colors. Vanessa continues to live in Los Angeles with Penny, her daughter Maddie, and her husband Jon, who is a professional magician (no, she doesn't know how he does his tricks). Her writing has appeared in publications like The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Vulture, The LA Times, Travel + Leisure, Glamour Magazine, Atlas Obscura, and /or Film. Her hair is currently blue, but she is thinking of dying it purple.”
It was Vanessa’s article in Travel + Leisure, I Married a Cruise Ship Entertainer — Here's What My Life at Sea Is Really Like that brought the Armstrongs to my attention. I reached out to Vanessa to come and chat on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, and she was so kind as to introduce me to Jon.
Jon is from Orlando, Florida, and became fascinated by the magic he saw in the theme parks all around him. He acted on that fascination and—are you ready for this—at age 20, became the resident magician at Walt Disney World! After 5 years at Disney World, Vegas beckoned Jon and he became a headliner at Caesar's Magical Empire. That spring boarded Jon to do tours all over the world including—thankfully for our listeners—on cruise ships. Jon has also worked on many films and television shows as a magic consultant and designer, is co-creator of the IDW comic series Smoke and Mirrors, and stars in the documentary Magicians: Life in the Impossible. Jon just published a book, How To Win: Essays and Routines for the Stand-Up Magician.
Wow, what a dynamic couple!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, it is my pleasure to welcome a special guest, Chef Rudi Sodamin, Princess Cruises' first Head of Culinary Arts, along with his role as Master Chef for Holland America Line (HAL). If you have cruised on HAL, Princess Cruises, or on Carnival Cruise Line’s Excel-class ships you may have been fortunate to have experienced Chef Rudi’s specialty restaurants.
On HAL Chef Rudi led the highly successful launch of Rudi's Sel de Mer restaurant onboard Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, Rotterdam (which I look forward to try as I have Rotterdam booked. Furthermore, Sel de Mer is run as a "pop-up" one night per cruise in the Pinnacle Grill on most of the remaining HAL ships. Rudi’s Sel de Mer is an intimate brasserie featuring classic French dishes reimagined with contemporary flair. A signature dish is whole Dover sole meunière with shaved pink Himalayan sea salt. Carnival Cruise Corporation was so impressed by Chef Rudi's concept, that they commissioned him to create Rudi's Seagrill for its new Excel-class—Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee. In 2023 Chef Rudi partnered with Princess Cruises, to create The Catch by Rudi on Enchanted Princess, Majestic Princess,Sky Princess, Discovery Princess, and the just-released Sun Princess—which I am particularly excited about because I am booked on her also. There is so much more I can say about Chef Rudi, but that would take away from the time we can spend with him, so I will save the rest for our discussion.
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We hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and we’d like to wish you a Happy New Year. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, my wife Cheryl joins me to share our reflections of our just completed Christmas Cruise on MSC Meraviglia.
Everyone who celebrates should sail a Christmas cruise. Put it on your bucket list—that’s an easier one to check off than some exotic destination. If your situation allows you do both! As many of you are aware I wrote my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF during the process of researching a family cruise which was on the Anthem of the Seas in 2018. That cruise was chronicled in the final chapter of The Joy of Cruising, "Holidays."
Well we just did it again on MSC Meraviglia and we provide our reflections of the cruise, assess an overall letter grade for the cruise and its private island, Ocean Cay Marine Reserve, and discuss what I believe is necessary for MSC to competewith Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Steve Kriese, creator of DCL Podcast, a podcast that covers all things Disney Cruise Lines, related Disney events and properties, and a smattering of general cruise matters.Yours truly benefittedfrom DCL Podcast’s coverage of general cruising; Steve invited me to my first-ever podcast as a guest after I published my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising. So, we have a connection. We are further connected by the fact that DCL Podcast was featuredin my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted, in a section called The Cruise Communicators.
Besides being a really nice guy, there are two other fascinating aspects about Steve. Steve is one of the most unique content creators in cruising. When not podcasting—or cruising worldwide—Steve is an airline pilot. Of course, there are likely other pilots that have podcasts, blogs, or vlogs but I don’t know of any in cruising. As a 737 Captain for Alaska Airlines, Steve gets to see the world. As host of DCL Podcast, Steve and guests talk about seeing the world from the perspective of a Disney Cruise. The other fascinating aspect of Steve is that on a cruise in the Mediterranean, he was part of coverage in the media for almost ruining George Clooney’s wedding! That probably really sounds random, so I’ll let Steve explain.
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Bill Raffel now of Fort Lauderdale. I say now of Fort Lauderdale because when I wrote about Bill and his wife Rosie several years ago, they lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I wrote about Bill and Rosie’s story in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF, in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me...Sort Of.” This section, a reader favorite retained in each book of The Joy of Cruising Trilogy, follows the theme of “ordinary” cruisers with extraordinary stories. And then I wrote about Bill and Rosie again in my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “The Passionate Cruisers of The Joy of Cruising...What Are They Up To Now?” So, of the approximately 75 or so fascinating cruisers I wrote about in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy, Bill and Rosie are among the few I can count on one hand that I wrote about twice!
I said now of Fort Lauderdale because when I wrote about Bill and Rosie several years ago, they lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Like me, Bill is a cruise geek! He told me one of the main reasons they moved to Fort Lauderdale “was to be near the multiple ports and of course the weather… We live along the inlet between the Ocean and Port Everglades, and I take photos of all the ships as they sail away. I post the photos in numerous Facebook groups where the people on the ships can see themselves as they sail away. For example, photos from Royal Caribbean cruise ships are in the “Royal Caribbean Cruisers” Facebook group.”
Amusingly, when I reached out to Bill to schedule him for The Joy of Cruising Podcast, he said, ‘…if you think your listeners would find my cruising life interesting.’ I responded, ‘Bill, I saw fit to write about you in two books so they will either find your cruising life interesting or question my judgment!” Interesting? Bill and Rosie have been on 81 cruises. Alaska four times, Panama Canal four times. Add to that Africa on a three-week Safari, Australia to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef, and Hawaii and a whole lot more but I’ll let Bill tell you.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Jenni Fielding, creator of the Cruise Mummy blog and just named winner of the UK Wave Award for Favourite Cruise Influencer. I featured Cruise Mummy in Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “Bloggers: Cruise Community Champions.” I also was fortunate to host Jenni on a previous episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcast—episode #31 Cruise Mummy https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/13142254
When last on the show, I congratulated Jenni for winning the 2022 Wave Award and vowed to have her back because she is a leader in the global cruise community, and I knew she would be going on great cruises that The Joy of Cruising Podcast listeners would want to hear about. However, I have since hosted all of Jenni’s co-finalists for the 2023 award on the podcast, and decided we would bring the winner back on the show as soon as possible after the winner was announced in November. So, Jenni is back sooner rather than later—we are excited about that—and we will still have her back on the show in 2024!
Jenni describes herself thusly, “I’m a 38-year-old mum of two from Bolton, UK. I first developed my cruise addiction when we booked a honeymoon cruise in 2013. As soon as I stepped onboard Allure of the Seas I was hooked! So much so, that we took our second cruise just six months later. Nowadays, cruising is a very different affair, since the arrival of our two children, who are eight and six.” One way things are different is that Cruise Mummy is an authority on family cruising!
To refresh your memories, Cruise Mummy is one of the top cruise blogs in the world. Cruise Mummy is the second most trafficked cruise blog in the UK, and the 7th most popular cruise blog in the world! She has been quoted in international cruise and news outlets. And now, Cruise Mummy joins the massively successful Cruise with Ben and David as the only two-time Wave Award winner for bloggers/cruise influencers.
Cruise Mummy https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Mark and Leanne Weston of Queensland Australia. I wrote about Mark and Leanne’s story in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising, in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me...Sort Of.” This section, a reader favorite that has been retained in each book of The Joy of Cruising Trilogy, follows the theme of “ordinary” cruisers with extraordinary stories. Mark and Leanne’s cruising is anything but ordinary, but as Mark stresses in The Joy of Cruising, he andLeanne are ordinary cruisers. “Mark tells people that cruising doesn’t have to be expensive. Sure, it can be, but he and Leanne typically book much less expensive inside cabins, since they rarely spend much time in their stateroom.”
My introduction to the Weston’s was simple and kind of amusing. It was the middle of 2018. I embarked on this journey to write a book about cruising—one that focused on cruisers who were passionate and pursued their passion in ways that I thought were worthy of sharing their stories with the cruise community. I was browsing a cruise group on Facebook when a post piqued my interest. “Does anyone else have our addiction—10 cruises done for the first half of this year, 11 more before Christmas...?” Mark asked the cruise group discussion board. His query elicited over 900 responses, the most I had ever seen regarding a single post. Of course, Mark’s post captured my attention, and I was just as curious as to what the commenters would say. So, I read several hundred comments —more than half—before my eyes started to glaze over. Most reflected a mix of awe, envy, “go for it” encouragement, and a fair amount of religiosity (there were dozens of variations of “you are blessed”). Of course, this being the Internet there was also a smattering of haters and snark. “Get a life!” “Buy a boat!” There was at least one comment delivered to Mark privately. It was from me, and essentially said, “Tell me more!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Peter Antonucci. It's fun to welcome a guest with whom I share so much in common: Peter is from New York—I’m from New York; Peter graduated from the University of Rochester in 1982—I graduated from the University of Rochester in 1980; Peter authored a trilogy about life on the ocean—I authored a trilogy about life on the ocean; Peter is rich…Well, 3 out of four means we have a lot in common! By the way, Peter didn’t tell me he is rich. That was easy to gather by the fact that he was an owner at The World, a privately owned super yacht ship occupied and managed by its residents. The World is comprised of 165 apartments costing between $2 and $20 million, and a minimum $10 million net worth is required to buy at The World. By the way, Peter owned four apartments….
I have been fascinated with this burgeoning trend of passionate cruisers deciding to live at sea for 6-12 months per year. However, the creation of The World was way ahead of the current trend. The World has been sailing exotic itineraries to bucket list destinations in every corner of the world since 2002. I'll certainly be asking Peter what led him to The Worldbut unfortunately, time won’t allow me to spend the entire interview on that. You see Peter is one of those multifaceted individuals for whom we could spend an entire interview on one of several aspects of his life. For instance, his best-selling trilogy, Billionaires at Sea, comprised of: Billionaire’s Paradise: Ecstasy at Sea; Scandal at Sea: Billionaires In The Deep; and the just-published Tides of Betrayal: Scandal in the Waves.Or his time as an esteemed commercial litigator in the New York City offices of two of the largest law firms in the world. So successful was Peter that he was able to retire at 52. Or, Peter’s experiences as a globetrotter. He has visited over 100 countries, traveled to Antarctica for three consecutive years, and is a Guinness Book of World Records entrant for having been a part-owner and passenger of a vessel that traveled to the southernmost point ever reached by a vessel, surpassing the previous records set by Amundsen, Shackleton, Ross, Scott and Hillary, Peter’s heroes of Antarctic exploration.
We’ll somehow get Peter to talk about all of that! But such an esteemed guest always has an invitation to come back to the show.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Judi Cohen, known in the cruise community as Traveling Judi.I featured Traveling Judiin my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me... Sort Of.” Traveling Judi is a fervent world cruiser with a penchant for smaller, and even tiny ships relative to mainstream cruise ships. Judi is also a travel writer extraordinaire—in fact, I met her through my association with Quirky Cruise online magazine, for whom she is a significant contributor. Quirky was also featured in Cruising Interrupted and on the podcast.
From travelingjudi.com: Judi has traveled the world in search of unique experiences and off-the-beaten-path destinations. She is also a connoisseur of small-ship cruises that pack big adventure, and local cultural and dining experiences. Judi became a full-time traveler and travel advisor in 2015 following her 35-year career in engineering and transportation, and today she writes about her experiences to inspire others to step outside their comfort zones and embrace new kinds of adventures. Judi has been to over 90 countries on six continents and enjoys sharing her stories along the way. Her training and experience as a Health Coach and as a Travel Advisor allows her to plan trips and seek out wellness destinations and experiences. Combined with her story-telling skills, she has become an accomplished Travel Writer accredited by SATW, NATJA and IFWTWA, and her work has been published on travel websites such as Quirkycruise.com. She is also a Board Member on the Travel Media Association of Canada's (TMAC) National Board and Board Secretary.
It was fun interviewing Judi for Cruising Interrupted. A couple of anecdotes stick in my mind. One, was from Judi’s recollection of her expedition cruise to Antarctica. ‘…one of the most memorable—maybe not in a good way—was crossing the Drake Passage. It was rough, it was crazy, and my husband gets seasick in a bathtub,’ Judi laughed. The other was asking Judi about her bucket list. As you know I ask all interviewees about what’s on their bucket list. Judi’s response was colorful and hilarious. Unfortunately, I can’t repeat it on the podcast! What I can quote is ‘I liken bucket list to ‘before I die.’ For me, I am much more forward-thinking than that. I want to do these things while I am healthy, while I can, and while I am still interested. I don’t know, talking about what I am going to do before I die just has a negative connotation...I’m more about turning my dreams into memories every day.”
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Roland and Emma, a couple I met by happenstance and who immediately became travel role models of mine! I was browsing Melanin At Sea, the influential 87,000-member Facebook affinity group created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities A Rich and Jazzy Life. Roland, a content creator, and professional DJ—he longs to DJ on a cruise ship in some capacity—posted about what sounded like a wonderful bucket list itinerary: a 28-day port-intensive cruise on Princess Cruises Enchanted Princess, one of the line’s newest and largest ships, bracketed by stays in two great cities, seven-days in Barcelona before embarkation, and five-days in Rome after debarkation. This sounded like a dream trip to me, and as I have done before, I wanted to talk to Roland and Emma on the podcast so that I and the listeners could experience their trip vicariously through them. So, I reached out to them, and am so glad they agreed to join The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
I have posted an image of the detailed itinerary on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Facebook group and Instagram account—it’s too comprehensive to cover here, but Roland and Emma willtake us through the highlights of the seven countries they visited—Spain, UK (Gibraltar), France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Montenegro.
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This week I am delighted to welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Iris MacBeath creator of the blog Life of Iris. Iris is a longtime staff member for Holland America Line, most recently as a Media Manager. I wrote the story of Life of Iris in the just-released The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON in a section called “Shiplife,” which followed the career of four past and present crew, staff, and officers from three different cruise lines.
In the community that comprises onboard life, Iris is a dual member: first, not only is she a longtime crew member on various ships for HAL (before assuming her role as Media Manager, Iris worked in a series of youth activities positions.) Secondly, Iris is what is known in cruise ship parlance as a “traveling spouse,” or a “Spouse-On-Board,” which is the term used by her cruise line. Specifically, Iris’ husband Stuart
is a ship officer, and Iris has lived on the ship with him for over 400 days. Those distinct vantage points afford Iris a unique perspective of onboard life, and she chronicles that on her blog, Life of Iris.
Life of Iris was conceived in early 2020 as a way for Iris to document her reflections as a Spouse-On-Board on the Grand World Voyage on which her husband Stuart, a 1st Engineering Officer was assigned. Iris time “I wanted to keep track of what we were up to; basically, because going around the world is pretty cool.” Iris did launch Life of Iris prior to boarding the World Cruise. However, little did Iris know that in the ensuing two years, her cruising career would be directly impacted by the two greatest global crises of the century.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Christine Zimmer, a voyager of distinction. No, she is not royalty, a celebrity, a Cruise Ship Godmother, or anything like that. She hasn’t cruised hundreds of times. She is a cruiser just like you and me…well, sort of. I wrote about Chris in my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in the feature, A Voyager of Distinction, in the section “Cruisers Like You and Me…Sort Of.”
It’s always fun to feature someone I know in the book or podcast. Chris lives in southwest Florida, where I lived for nine years and after she retired from a distinguished career as an educator, Chris and I became co-workers and friends when she settled into a part-time career working with adult learners at a university I worked at. Emphasis on part-time: when not helping lifelong learners keep their minds engaged, Chris traveled the world helping seasoned cruisers keep their minds, bodies, and spirits engaged on luxury cruise ships.
Chris is a Host for Distinctive Voyages. What that means is she leads and coordinates cruise activities for passengers that have availed themselves of the services of Distinctive Voyages, a selection of hosted cruises whereby a Distinctive Voyages Host serves as a private expert to answer questions, provide advice, and coordinate the services and amenities available to each traveler in the group: a private Welcome Reception attended by ship officers; an Exclusive Shore Event, a private excursion lead by the Distinctive Voyages Host; and select luxury amenities. I’ll leave it to Chris to provide the inside scoop.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Adrienne and Terrence Bibb, the creators of the popular Addy and Terry. blog and YouTube channel. Addy has been in the hospitality industry for over 15 years as a professional chef but has branched off to go further into another realm of the hospitality industry, travel. Terry is a top radio executive with I Heart Radio, and as learned when I asked him about his radio DJ-sounding voice he is also top talent behind the microphone.
Addy and Terry’s aim for their blog and channel is straightforward: 1. take the mystery out of cruising; 2. dispel any myths about cruising (you know it’s for old people, etc.); 3. help their followers identify the best ships, itinerary, and type of room for their cruising needs; and 4. as parents of 3 young adults understand the need to stretch a dollar and have a focus on value in traveling, and can help cost-effectively plan family vacations—cruise or land.
Addy and Terry don’t just dispense cruise advice and create fun vlogs, but they can help you put your plans in effect. Addy is also a Certified Leisure Travel Specialist, Certified Cruise Counselor, and member of CLIA, Cruise Lines International Association, ASTA, American Society of Travel Advisors, and ITWPA, International Travel Writers and Photographers Alliance. Finally, they are specialist in group cruises and can help you put a group cruise together and have hosted several themselves.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Kandes Bregman of Sea of Glamour. The name combines Kandes’ love of the sea with hints of her past life as a beauty pageant winner. I wrote about the former Mrs. Southwest and Holland America Line super cruiser in my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me... Sort Of.” Kandes is the consummate Holland America Line cruiser. When I met her, I told Kandes there should be a photo of her on the HAL homepage. In fact, after researching Kandes and reviewing Sea of Glamour, I opened up my Cruising Interrupted interview with Kandes by stating facetiously, “You should be in a Holland America Line advertisement!” Kandes responded, “Well, I was....”
I am not implying Kandes is HAL’s most prolific cruiser or biggest fan, but she would be a good personification of the joy of cruising on Holland America Line. First, from a sheer quantitative perspective: Kandes has cruised virtually all of her over 100 cruises on HAL, visiting 87 countries on six continents and spending the equivalent of almost four years of her life at sea with HAL—all the more remarkable given that Kandes has been cruising with HAL since just 2000. And, while perhaps there are those out there who exist, it is hard to imagine someone who is more of an ambassador for HAL. Kandes is a five-star Mariner—which is HAL’s customer loyalty program—and has over 100 referrals of cruisers booked and sailed on HAL, several of whom are now four and five-star Mariners themselves.
At the beginning of my new book The Joy of Cruising Again, I quoted a number of passionate cruisers who I was confident had immediately gotten back on the ocean. When I contacted Kandes for a quote last year, she told me. “I returned to cruising in October 2021, for an 18-day Panama Canal cruise on Holland America Line Nieuw Amsterdam; I was so excited to be back, and we sailed eight more cruises over the next seven months!” That’s a passionate cruiser!
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Scott and Tom, creators of Vitamin Sea UK. Their credo is ‘Sailing the seven seas (and rivers), two Hawaiian shirts at a time. We're here to show that there's a cruise line for everyone, shattering the image of what some believe cruising is. We #ChooseCruise to embrace new cultures, new food, try new experiences and see what the world has to offer wherever the sea laps the shore.’
I ‘met’ Vitamin Sea UK on Instagram. Our mutual interest in cruising was obvious from the beginning. What made Vitamin Sea UK captivating is that they always seem to be fun, happy, and embracing the moment. I’m sure you have heard some variation of ‘there is no such thing as a bad cruise.’ Well, Scott and Tom seem like the poster boys representing that ethos. Indeed, they describe themselves ‘as a fun, happy couple that both have a passion for travel, adventures, and embracing new cultures. Rather than focusing on the amenities that a ship has, we show ourselves enjoying them and what you can actually do on a cruise holiday.’ Vitamin Sea UK is big on Celebrity Cruises but has tried numerous cruise lines, like Princess Cruises for its classic feel and intimate venues like its Jazz club, to the Queen Mary 2 with its classic activities like afternoon tea, white gloves, traditions, fine dining and champagne. They love dressing up for formal nights in a tux; or a twist of formal chic nights, but also like to dress down and enjoy smart casual evenings.
Vitamin Sea UK notes ‘there’s so much to cruising; the staff really make the difference, it’s their attention to detail and service that can set a cruise line apart. Oh, and the food! We love good restaurants and champagne and wine! We love that we’ve made so many friends. There is something about cruising that makes everyone want to talk to each other and share experiences.’ Vitamin Sea UK sounds like they embodyThe Joy of Cruising. Let’s let them tell you themselves.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Donna K. Philips. I wrote about Donna in my new release The Joy of Cruising Again in a section called ‘The Fun ships,’ where I featured Donna’s dad, the cruise industry, and carnival cruise line food and beverage giant Everette Daniel Phillips, in a chapter titled ‘Hot, Hot, Hot: Donna K. Phillips Remembers Her Fun Ship Father.’
In the introduction to The Fun Ships, I wrote: “Carnival Cruise Lines owned the brand, and the space in the fledgling cruise market, of The Fun Ships, essentially from its beginning with the launch of Mardi Gras in 1972 and Carnivale in 1975. In 1977, Joe Farcus was commissioned by Carnival to design its third ship, the Festivale, and stayed to design its next 30 or so ships. Today the retired Farcus is an internationally known icon of design. Shortly thereafter, food and beverage innovator, Everette Phillips, came to Carnival after stints with Morrisons Cafeteria, Eastern Steamship Line, Commodore Cruise Line (with its dancing waiters), and Chandris Cruises (now Celebrity Cruise Line), and stayed at Carnival until retirement. The late Phillips was recognized universally by the cruise industry as a food and beverage giant. No one did more to bring to life the motto ‘The Fun Ships,’ than Joe Farcus and Everette Phillips.”
Perhaps that bold assertion is subject to discussion. If so, perhaps we can talk about it on The Joy of Cruising Podcast! Joe Farcus was on The Joy of Cruising Podcast episode#30. Today through the words of Donna, who shared much of her dad’s experiences from the time of her first cruise with him at 11 months old through his retirement from carnival in 1997, we get a sense of the other The Fun Ships pioneer, Mr. Phillips, as he was known as by the many people who worked with him and for him.
I met Donna a couple of years ago. I was talking to a friend about the premise of The Joy of Cruising series, and she said, “You should speak with Donna Phillips; she’s part of cruising royalty.” Of course, that piqued my curiosity, and I asked if she could facilitate an introduction to Donna. She stated that she would and then shortly after our call, forwarded me an article shedding light on “cruising royalty.” The article was “Carnival family mourns Food & Beverage giant Everette Phillips,” Seatrade cruise news, by Anne Kalosh, and quoted several former associates of Mr. Phillips, one of whom I was familiar with, John Heald. I knew I needed to research Phillips and meet Donna.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome a special guest. In The Joy of Cruising books, all the passionate cruisers I write about are special—whether they are “ordinary” cruisers with extraordinary stories, to celebrities, Grammy winners/nominees, a Hall of Famer, to global cruise personalities. Today I am honored to welcome Peter Knego, a cruise personality quite unlike anyone I have hosted before. First, consider the sheer breadth of his expertise/passion. Peter is a cruise writer, maritime historian, and collector of cruise ship artifacts. Secondly, Peter has one of the most unique stories I have ever heard: his home is virtually entirely comprised of said cruise ship artifacts. I don’t mean filled with, although that’s true too—Peter has a collection of over 200 cruise ship models—but remarkably, every part of his home is made up of panels, artwork, and furniture including bars, from scrapped ships. I could easily spend this entire interview on just one aspect of Peter’s amazing background. I’m sure he could regale us with stories of maritime history. I am somewhat familiar with the travel writer Peter. He is a contributing writer for Quirky Cruise and was mentioned when I wrote about both Quirky Cruise in Cruising Interrupted and hosted Quirky Cruise on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. Today, I will focus mainly on the collector aspect of Peter’s persona. Besides, Peter has an open invitation to come back on the podcast.
You can learn a great deal about Peter the collector, and his passion for older ships from his website, midshipcentury.com,and YouTube channel, Peter Knego's MidShipCinema, described as “unique, exclusive and personally captured video of the world's great ocean liners and cruise ships...past & present.” This excerpt from midshipcentury.com captures his reason for being, his raison d'être: “… today's mega cruise ships, offer a myriad of amenities to make the passenger forget he or she is even at sea. But unlike ocean liners, these boxy monoliths are fitted out like modern hotels with store-bought furnishings and fire-resistant materials. The era of the individual ship representing the best of its nation's artisans and craftsmen ended in the mid-1960’s. Seizing the one-time-only opportunity to save these items from obscurity or destruction, Knego not only bought items for his collection, but to share with those with a similar love for ocean liners or a penchant for the sleek stylings of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. Rich, rare, tropical hardwood veneers, heavy nickel plated fixtures, a serving of "high style Italian chic" from Gio Ponti's collaborators, and much more!
Watching Peter’s videos of him cruising these ships, reminiscing about them, and on the global search to shipyards, auctions, cruise ship salvage operations, and even wrecks to find unique ship artifacts is indeed fascinating. Now let’s hear from Peter Knego directly.
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I am delighted to welcome Doris Vasconcellos-Bernstein and Doug Bernstein this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. I wrote about the Florida couple in my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted, in a feature called “Trapped In Paradise.” Interestingly, when I set out to write the follow-up to The Joy of Cruising, originally titled More Joy of Cruising, I neither knew Doris and Doug nor was I likely to learn of them. Not that they weren’t the kind of passionate cruisers I enjoyed interviewing, and emulating, as Doris and Doug have sailed to destinations and on vessels that are bucket list items for me. I like to tell stories representing cruising in all its diversity—cruise lines, types of vessels, and destinations. So, they would have been a good fit in the book if I had known of them. Halfway through the book’s completion, the world drastically changed. Nations worldwide struggled with the healthcare and economic consequences of the pandemic; cruising was suspended; writing of More Joy of Cruising—now titled Cruising Interrupted—was likewise stopped pending cruising’s return. Living in Florida at the time, I read a compelling human-interest story early in the shutdown in the local newspaper about a Florida couple, the Bernstein’s, who found themselves “trapped” on a cruise ship in Brazil. The newspaper had found out from the couple’s friends about their plight and was able to contact the couple on the ship and conduct an interview. Fascinated both by the circumstances—the Bernstein’s were forced to quarantine due to Covid in a suite on a luxury vessel—and the ‘glass half full’ outlook the couple exuded, I knew that I wanted to reach out to Doris and Doug. And I am so glad I did.
I imagine that for some cruisers, the notion of ‘living the life’ on the ocean— being personally served virtually around the clock filet mignon, lobster, and chocolate-covered strawberries, drinking martinis, fine wine, and champagne, relaxing and luxuriating in the suite accommodations with an unparalleled view of the ocean from your veranda on a six-star cruise line—is an occasional fantasy. A relatively small percentage of cruisers get to experience some aspects of this on luxury cruises. That ‘fantasy’ was Doris and Doug Bernstein’s experience around the clock for 12 straight days. Sounds glorious, except they had no input to this real-life fantasy except whether to order Lemongrass Beef Nam Tok Nua, or Lobster Thermidor, or Milk Fed Veal Escalope. And it took place at a time that outside of Doris and Doug’s suite on Silversea Cruises Silver Shadow—from which they could not leave—the world was grappling with a raging pandemic.
Cruising Interrupted was released at the height of the cruise lockdown, and it was fitting to tell Doris and Doug's story, which was titled “Trapped In Paradise.” Today, I am interested mainly in the wonderful destinations and vessels they cruise. As I said many times, a side benefi
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Dan and Jay, creators of the UK-based cruise blog and YouTube channel, Sail Away With Dan and Jay. Let me set the stage by pointing out that the Wave Awards is the UK cruise industry’s premier award; included are award categories for cruise lines, ships, travel agencies, and most pertinent to The Joy of Cruising Podcast—Favorite Cruise Blogger. As you are aware I greatly appreciate cruise bloggers and vloggers and have written about them extensively. In the books, I call them “cruise community champions.” Several of the cruise personalities I have featured in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and The Joy of Cruising Podcast are previous Wave Awards winners and finalists. This year’s award ceremony will be held in London in November. Most of the 2023 Favorite Cruise Blogger finalists have been featured in the books and/or guests on the podcast. Sail Away with Dan and Jay has not, and I thought this was a great opportunity to enlarge my circle of cruise friends, learn about Dan and Jay, and share another couple of passionate cruisers' stories with the cruise community.
Dan and Jay haven’t been at cruise blogging and vlogging for that long, but they have entered the cruise influencer space in a big way. Sail Away with Dan and Jay started out as a hobby, based on a shared passion for cruises and traveling. The cruises aspect of that hobby is relatively new—at least for Dan—he sailed his first cruise post cruising lockdown! That’s certainly not the case with Jay, who first cruised as a child, and went on to serve in the merchant navy.)
One characteristic of the Sail Away with Dan and Jay YouTube channel distinguishes them from most of the YouTube content creators I have interviewed. That is, you rarely see them in their videos! When I was researching them, the first several videos I watched, their faces were not shown at all, and when I did finally see them, it was just a brief cameo. However, their voiceover narrative is constant, comprehensive, and very informative. They note on their website, “Our channel is a little different to the others on the list, as we don’t feature our faces—and therefore don’t class ourselves as “vloggers". Our videos are cinematic, with the aim of showing the viewer as much of the ship as possible.”
In the midst of their excitement about making the shortlist for the Wave Awards, they are also celebrating the launch of their Sail Away Cruise Travel Magazine. I let them tell you all about that—now let me go subscribe so I can be entered to win a cruise on the world’s only remaining ocean liner, Queen Mary 2!
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This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome my good friends, Joan and Jim Sloan, of CouplesTravel. I wrote about Joan and Jim in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF in a section called “Cuba Cruising” which featured three very different couples sharing their perspectives on a cruise to Cuba. The Sloan’s feature was called, Joan and Jim: Cuba and Jazz, detailing the firstmusic charter cruise to Cuba. In February 2017 they ventured to Cuba on The Soul Cruise, a unique seven-day R&B-themed cruise branded as “The first ever soul music cruise from the United States to Cuba!” The cruise was on Fathom Adonia (now Azamara Pursuit).
Cheryl and I have traveled a little with Joan and Jim—we spent time with them on a couple of trips to New Orleans for the annual Essence Music Festival. However, their travel often takes them on international journeys—cruises and land trips to exotic destinations still on my bucket list, like Africa and Switzerland. Joan and Jim have just returned from Egypt, and I can’t wait to hear all the wonderful details. Hear why I refer to them as my "travel mentors."
Welcome Joan and Jim to The Joy of Cruising Podcast.”
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising PodcastGavin and Luke, creators of the UK-based cruise blog and YouTube channel, Cruise Monkeys. Let me set the stage by pointing out The Wave Awards is the UK cruise industry’s premier award; included are award categories for cruise lines, ships, travel agencies, and most pertinent to The Joy of Cruising Podcast—Favorite Cruise Blogger. As you are aware I greatly appreciate cruise bloggers and vloggers and have written about them extensively. In the books, I call them “cruise community champions.” Several of the cruise personalities I have featured in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy, as well as The Joy of Cruising Podcast are previous Wave Awards winners and finalists. This year’s award ceremony will be held in London in November. Most of the 2023 Favorite Cruise Blogger finalists have been featured in the books and/or guests on the podcast. Cruise Monkeys has not, and I thought this was a great opportunity to get to know Gavin and Luke, and to share another couple of passionate cruisers' stories with the cruise community.
Gavin and Luke have been at this for quite some time after their first cruise in 2014. The cruise was on P&O Aurora, and as with most first-time cruisers, they fell in love with cruising. Gavin and Luke launched a blog, initially called Holidays At Sea in 201x, and rebranded it to Cruise Monkeys in 2021. Their tagline is ‘Bananas about cruising.’
Cruise Monkeys are well known for their P&O and Cunard cruises—and have sailed the entire fleet. However, they sail a wide variety of lines and I look forward to getting their reflections about a couple of ships I’ve also experienced, as well as one I will be boarding in a few months. They have a casual style of wandering around the ship taking in the atmosphere, and as they point, ‘working our way through the cocktails.’ In fact, they are rather unabashed in noting their appreciation wine and cocktails! ‘We tend to always favour inside cabins, this is so that we can spend money on more cruises and a drinks package—if you’ve seen our vlogs, you will know we like a cocktail or two! We bring you along with u; we love our wines so are often tipsy but don’t hide this as we want to show the real us.’
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Jason Leppert aka the Captain, of Popular Cruising. I wrote about Jason’s story in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising, in a section called "Cruise Bloggers: The Readers’ Choice," which featured finalists and winners in the 10Best Readers’ Choice New Media Award for Best Cruise Blogger, sponsored by USA TODAY along with its companion site 10Best.com which provides users with travel and lifestyle content. Along with The Joy of Cruising, the following books, Cruising Interrupted and The Joy of Cruising Again in sections highlighting bloggers, vloggers, and content creators paid homage to cruise enthusiasts who decide to create, cultivate, and curate a blog or other content, and sometimes a related podcast and YouTube channel. Passionate cruisers like Jason epitomize what The Joy of Cruising is about: individuals moved by their passion for cruising who choose to manifest that passion in an engaging way when not sailing.
Prolific is the word that comes to mind with Jason—both in terms of the sheer breadth of his writing and videography that ranges from bucket list cruising on a wide diversity of ships sailing great destinations—to an extensive knowledge, experience, and coverage of Disney theme properties.
At only 30 years old Jason was a 10Best Readers’ Choice New Media Award for Best Cruise Blogger finalist for Popular Cruising. Today, still in his 30’s, the indefatigable cruiser and writer is now up to 196 cruises, and in addition to serving as editor in chief, “the captain”, at blog and YouTube channel Popular Cruising—which he founded, Jason is the Cruise Editor at TravelAge West, and contributor to other outlets such as Cruise Critic, Porthole Cruise and Travel, Travel Channel, Fox News and USA Today.
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I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, The Jenn Danielle Experience. Jennifer is a social media influencer, and solo travel content creator. The Joy of Cruising Podcast first welcomed Jennifer back on episode 23 in June, when she was the first guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast specifically to chat about the rapidly growing, critically acclaimed Virgin Voyages she had cruised solo several times.
Since then, Virgin Voyages continues to rack up awards in the cruising industry. When Jennifer was here before, Virgin Voyages had just crushed the Cruise Critics Awards; they have since added Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast accolades for, #1 Best Mega-Ship & #1 Best Large-Ship, respectively.
As some of you know, we are booked on our first Virgin Voyages cruise, which also will be our first transatlantic cruise, on Scarlet Lady in the Spring. Although not on Virgin, we are also booked on our first cruise to the Greek Isles. So, when I saw a video featuring Jennifer cruising to the Greek Isles on Virgin’s Resilient Lady, literally a day or two after I booked the Greek Isles, I knew—admittedly a little selfishly—it was time to invite Jennifer back!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Gary Bembridge, the embodiment of the successful Tips For Travellers blog, podcast, and most notably, YouTube channel. Oh c’mon, ‘successful’ is an understatement. With 400,000 followers, and over a 140 million views, Tips For Travellers is the world’s leading cruise channel…by far.
I featured Gary and Tips For Travellers inCruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “The Cruise Communicators.”Gary founded Tips for Travellers as a pastime to occupy himself during his travels—two to three weeks out of a typical month—as a Marketing Vice President for a multinational firm. Gary has since retired as a corporate executive and now operates Tips for Travellers full-time. By the way, he has maintained his record that began during his corporate career of traveling every month consecutively for over 25 years!
Beyond cruising, Gary’s backstory is multifaceted, fascinating and diverse. With regard to cruising, his content is similarly fascinating and diverse. Gary sails a wide breadth of cruise brands from formal cruising on his beloved Cunard, to brash newcomer Virgin Voyages, the largest ships in the world, to ultra-luxury five-star small ship cruising. I suspect one reason Gary is able to draw and grow such a huge following on YouTubethat he is able to talk about a five-figure per person cruise that most of his viewers will never sail, and yet they are transfixed to the images on the screen and Gary’s informative delivery. Whenever I finish one of Gary’s videos, I feel like I am back in college—except learning about something I love!
Gary epitomizes the kind of individuals I wrote about in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy and/or interview on The Joy of Cruising Podcast—passionate cruisers who act on their passion in fascinating ways. From part-time blogger to the top in the world!
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast,Jamie Robins, creator of Travel Blog Jamie, a blog and YouTube channel. Let me set the stage by pointing out The Wave Awards is the UK cruise industry’s premier award; included are award categories for cruise lines, ships, travel agencies, and most pertinent to this The Joy of Cruising Podcast episode—Favorite Cruise Blogger. As you are aware I greatly appreciate cruise bloggers and vloggers and have written about them extensively. In the books, I call them “cruise community champions.” Several of the cruise personalities I have featured in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy, as well as The Joy of Cruising Podcast are previous Wave Awards winners and finalists. This year’s award ceremony will be held in London in November. Most of the 2023 Favorite Cruise Blogger finalists have been featured in the books and/or guests on the podcast. Travel Blog Jamie has not, and I thought this was a great opportunity to get to know Jamie and to share a passionate cruiser’s story with the cruise community.
Jamie is an educator by training—he has degrees in Spanish and French and a master’s degree in linguistics. Jamie has lived in both Spain and France and currently lives in London. He’s been involved with teaching Spanish and French/education leadership for 25 years. This is a special time for Jamie; besides being a Wave Award finalist, he is about to embark on a new chapter. Jamie is giving up all leadership roles, reducing teaching significantly, and pursuing vlogging as his primary career.
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I am delighted to welcome Christine Beehler this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast. I wrote about Chris in my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted, in a section called “More Joy of Cruising,” which was originally the title of the follow-up to The Joy of Cruising. Then the pandemic happened.
I first encountered Chris when we became kindred spirits, so to speak. We were among a group of cruise enthusiasts interviewed by CNN. com during the pandemic for an article about interest in cruising as soon as possible, “Cruise Fans Explain Why They Can’t Wait To Cruise Again,” by Francesca Street (July 24, 2020). All the cruisers interviewed were eager to get back on the ocean again; well, all except yours truly! I came across as the most cautious of the bunch, in stark contrast to Chris.
The article began with a depiction of Chris’ cruise which took place in March 2020—at the dawn of the pandemic—on the ill-fated Princess Cruises Coral Princess, which was denied docking after the pandemic declaration and then was stricken with a Covid outbreak. That opening to the article immediately caught my attention; it said, “...Beehler returned home on April 6; she also tested positive for coronavirus. Beehler is 72, with a partial right lung. She also suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema.....”
Most remarkable of all, the article went on to point out, Chris can’t wait to cruise again!
I knew I would have to reach out to Chris as she sounded like the kind of passionate cruiser I had come to love to interview. I was right; Chris has traveled extensively worldwide, and particular via cruise in the last ten years, and she agreed to be featured in Cruising Interrupted. In the process of interviewing her, we would spend hours with Chris telling me about the ill-fated Coral Princess saga—a high seas drama that I could easily visualize on the big screen. Of course, there’s a lot more to Chris’ cruising career than that Coral Princess cruise. It is a pleasure to host Chris on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, to get some insight into both her cruise background, and The Drama On the High Seas!
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Laura Pedlar, creator of Cruise Lifestyle Blog. I got to know Laura a few years ago when I featured Cruise Lifestyle in my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y, in a section called “Bloggers: Cruise Community Champions.
When I started writing Laura’s story she was coming off a great 2019–a year of firsts. Laura had experienced her first river cruise, which was on AmaWaterways AmaMagna on the Danube; her first time on an inaugural cruise, the launch of Royal Caribbean Spectrum of the Seas with an amazing itinerary leaving from Barcelona, through the Suez Canal, to Dubai; and, she attended her first UK Cruise Lines International Association Conference, an indication that you have arrived as a UK cruise influencer. Perhaps most importantly it was Laura’s first year hosting Cruise Hour, as that is how I met her. Cruise Hour is a weekly online gathering of cruise enthusiasts who discuss fun topics about cruising including cuisine, fun things to do, excursions, destinations, etc. I happened upon Cruise Hour on Twitter and started posting responses to the fun questions posed by Laura, often proudly accompanying my responses with cruise photos, typically of my cruising partner granddaughter. I kind of thought Cruise Hour was a catchy Twitter name—and didn’t realize it referred to an actual hour! I was fairly new to social media, so I didn’t “get” live events early on. Despite being named Cruise Hour, I thought it was just an ongoing thread about various cruise topics. It took me a while to notice that my responses tended to be many hours, even days, after the Cruise Hour discussion ended and the participants had long moved on to other parts of social media, or were asleep—Laura was hosting the discussion group UK, a six-hour time difference from me in Florida! I told Laura that story when I was interviewing her for Cruising Interrupted, and she laughed, assuring me that others would respond even later than I used to. (I think she was trying to make me feel not so “duh.”)
Laura continued that torrid pace of cruise highlights into 2020 with a January two-week Southern Caribbean cruise on P&O Britannia to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, Dominica, Saint Vincent and Bonaire. Then the pandemic happened.
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Hello, passionate cruisers! This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Steph, the creator of one of the top cruise blogs from the United Kingdom, Cruise With Amber. Steph and Cruise With Amber were featured in my new release The Joy of Cruising Again in a section called Blogger, Vloggers, and Content Creators. Cruise With Amber was created by Steph just at the beginning of 2020. So, like me, publishing a cruising-themed book, Cruising Interrupted, as the pandemic set in, as well as several other content creators, I featured in my new book, Steph presented her brand, Cruise With Amber, to the cruise world as cruising was shutting down. Didn’t stop her though!
Steph sailed her first cruise as an adult, immediately became hooked, and went on to experience milestone after milestone on cruises—got engaged on P&O Aurora, then returned to honeymoon on the same ship the following year; Steph and her husband Neil celebrated their 10th anniversary on P&O Britannia, along with their kids who were on their first cruise. Steph went all out celebrating on that cruise with a huge suite and balcony; unfortunately it set an expectation on her kids first cruise that every subsequent cruise would come with a butler! At least the kids got hooked on cruising right away, and that was very important to Steph. And since, the kids, Steph and her husband have celebrated a number of milestones on the ocean.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Jorge Solano. I’ve previously featured a Cruise Director, Holland America Line’s former top CD Jason Venner on episode #26. And, I have featured a cruise ship comedian, Carnival’s thought-provoking, hilarious Billy D. Washington on episode #8.
Jorge Solano can represent the perspective of both a Cruise Director and a stand-up comedian! He was a popular Cruise Director for Carnival Cruise Line for 10 years, and for over 35 years, he has been a stand-up comedian performing at comedy clubs, venues, and cruise ships worldwide. Jorge also appears often in and around his native Miami, a hotbed for comedy that I recall fondly from my days in South Florida. It was fun researching Jorge—as often his time as a Cruise Director would turn up in the searches and it was fun reading about cruises in the early 2000s. One said, “Carnival Triumph guests stop him to shake his hand and to tell him how much they enjoyed his shore excursion talk, his debarkation talk, but mostly how much they liked his introductions to the shows in Triumph’s theater. ‘You were much funnier than the comedian,’ they tell him, ‘Have you ever thought of becoming a professional comedian?’ Unbeknownst to the passengers, at the time Jorge was a professional comedian with many years of experience."
Comedy led Jorge to Carnival. While working the comedy club circuit he began to do guest performances on Carnival. The story of his introduction to working on cruise ships is both fascinating and hilarious. When Jorge heard Carnival was looking for Cruise Directors capable of performing an act, he pursued a new career that turned out to be successful—lasting 10 years—and helped establish Jorge as a comedy star.
After a stint as Brand Manager of Carnival's Punchliners comedy club brand, Jorge transitioned to solely performing on Carnival ships and headlining other venues. He shares his poignant family story, and special friendships developed with a diverse set of individuals he met on cruises, that are just as moving to listen to. And throughout, Jorge is hilarious!
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This week I am delighted to welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Dave Monk, the embodiment of the blog Shipmonk.Dave Monk is an award-winning cruise blogger and journalist who has written for the UK’s major publications. Dave created Shipmonk, the blog that cruise line executives, travel media, and passionate cruisers visit for up-to-date cruise industry news, ship reviews, and features. I wrote about Dave in the just-released The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON in a section called “The Cruise Communicators.”
Dave is a long-tenured UK professional journalist, and more recently the most prolific and keenly read cruise reporter on UK social media. Dave has been a journalist for over 40 years. In 2013, while still working at the newspaper Metro, Dave decided to establish a cruise blog, Shipmonk. In 2016 he was granted early retirement, which enabled him to pursue cruise writing in earnest. Now he was able to go on more cruises and to write about them at Shipmonk. He also began writing regularly for World of Cruising magazine, and travel writing for the Daily Mirror and Express, and then for the Daily Telegraph.
With 100 sailings, Dave has experienced an incredible diversity of cruises—from four-passenger motor yachts to the biggest cruise ships in the world. His favorite destination is Alaska, although Dave also loves the Norwegian fjords and the Caribbean islands. He cruises so much he has to turn down what would be bucket list sailing for the rest of us—like the Galapagos twice!
‘Any day at sea is better than a day in the office’—that’s the signature adage of the late John Honeywell, aka Captain Greybeard, iconic United Kingdom journalist, and cruise writer. It was the epigraph, the opening quote, to my first cruise book The Joy of Cruising. I thought it perfectly captured the essence of the book—the joy of cruising. I repeated it at the beginning of Dave’s feature in The Joy of Cruising Again because John Honeywell was a great friend and former colleague of Dave. Dave is an iconic UK journalist and cruise writer in his own right. And Captain Greybeard’s quote perfectly captures the essence of Dave’s story. He loves what he does—cruising and writing about it.
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On this bonus episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome back to David & Stephanie, a married couple that performs as an intimate musical duo—David plays the guitar and sings, and Stephanie sings. In October of 2022, David & Stephanie attained their longtime goal of their first contract as cruise ship performers. They were assigned to Carnival Elation. They vlogged their experience and in watching, it was clear to me they were living their dream. Particularly touching was when David’s young son Ben, and David’s mother joined them for a week on the ship, and both were adopted by David & Stephanie‘s crew mates.
David & Stephanie recently completed their first contract as cruise ship performers on the relatively small, older but highly regarded in terms of guest experience, Carnival Elation. They just embarked on their new contract, on a different brand—Norwegian Cruise Line—on one of the world’s most anticipated new cruise ships, the amazing NCL Viva. Currently traveling around the Mediterranean, David & Stephanie are having the time of their life, seeing the world, enjoying the beaches, and doing what they love—playing music. The best is yet to come. David’s son and mom will be joining NCL Viva for a Thanksgiving transatlantic journey!
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"I’m Nick, and you guys are the Dream Team." One of the several catchlines belonging to our precocious guest. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast ,16-year-old Nicholas Jackson, aka Nick Jay. Nick Jay is a content creator whose popular YouTube channel, and accompanying Instagram account Travels With Nick, mainly features Carnival Cruise Line content, sprinkled with content featuring Galveston, Texas hotels and cruise port. Galveston is close to Houston, where Nick was born and lives with his parents Nathan, Trecia, and older brother Nate. In a section called “Cruising’s Young and Restless, I wrote about Travels With Nick in the just-released The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON.
A couple of things of note set Nick Jay apart from his fellow cruise content creators. One, of course, is age. Nick was 15 when I interviewed him—along with his parents—for his feature in The Joy of Cruising Again. The other, well-known to Nick Jay’s fans and followers, is his plan and desire to become a Carnival Cruise Director. That theme runs throughout his videos and posts. As you know, some established cruise directors have a staunch following who even influence cruises that people book. Long before Nick Jay is old enough to work on a cruise ship, he is developing his own following who believe in him, and fully expect him to realize his dream. I am not a prognosticator—my NFL and NBA predictions bare that out—but I closed Nick Jay’s feature with "I look forward to someday interviewing Carnival Cruise Director, Nick Jay."
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On this first of two episodes of The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome David & Stephanie, a married couple that performs as an intimate musical duo—David plays the guitar and sings, and Stephanie sings. In October of 2022, David & Stephanie attained their longtime goal of their first contract as cruise ship performers. They were assigned to Carnival Elation.David is the creator of David Paige Music and is one of the hardest working independent artists in the business. Hailed as a truly gifted entertainer, the Chicago rock singer delivers a seamless blend of pop and rock with a 90’s twist. He was a finalist on VH1’s “Make a Band Famous”, has appeared on national TV, and has toured the United States from LA to New York – headlining venues like House of Blues in Chicago, The Mint in LA, and Bowery Electric in New York. He performs with his original band, The David Paige Band; an 80s and 90s cover band called The Student Body; and as David & Stephanie.
Stephanie is a classically trained vocalist with an impressive career, beginning with her first paid gigs at the age of eight. She eventually followed that passion out to New York to study musical theater at AMDA and worked as an actor and singer, with credits including an off-broadway musical, Mademoiselle Modiste. After college in Miami, Stephanie moved to chicago, where she has been performing consistently! She sings in a No Doubt tribute band called Don't Speak, and she sings and plays keyboards in the student body, the David Paige band, and of course sings in David & Stephanie.
Carnival Elation is the oldest, smallest ship in the Carnival fleet. Don’t take that as a slight however; near the end of their contract, Carnival Elation’s Hotel Manager informed the crew the Carnival Elation was selected as number one in guest satisfaction across the entire Carnival fleet. David & Stephanie loved that contract on Carnival Elation. But in the follow-up episode, OMG, wait until you hear where their next contract took them!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Patricia Nicholson Yarbrough, founder of Festival at Sea, the nation’s oldest and most successful African-American cultural cruise. Patricia is also President, Blue World Travel in San Francisco.
In The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/3lAfyON I wrote extensively about theme cruising in a section called “Theme Cruising: Two Passions In One.” I featured Patricia and Festival at Sea, and writing that profile was indeed a labor of love—one of my favorite writing projects ever. It was made all the more sweeter by the fact that I experienced a Festival at Sea cruise during writing. A favorite anecdote I wrote about in the Festival at Sea feature was about a man I sat next to in the Celebrity Equinox buffet shortly after we embarked. I told him it was my first Festival at Sea cruise and asked him how many times he had been. ‘15,’ he told me. Immediately, I thought that I had found a potential person to feature in the upcoming The Joy of Cruising—a seasoned cruiser with dozens of past cruises. I assumed that this individual was a very experienced cruiser given how many times he had been on Festival at Sea. I said, ‘Wow, 15 times on Festival at Sea! How many cruises have you sailed on altogether?’ He said, ‘15.’
That’s the kind of intense loyalty Festival at Sea garners. And why the majority of the following years’ cruise is booked before the current cruise is over. Toward the end of my cruise, I stood in a long line to book Festival at Sea for the following year. After a while, I decided I would just book online. When bookings opened up, I procrastinated for a couple days. Then I received a notification that next year’s Festival at Sea was sold out! That's how it is every year.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Julie and Art of The Places Where We Go podcast and accompanying YouTube and blog. The Places Where We Go chronicles Julie and Art’s reflections of traveling throughout the world and across the US. Their mode of travel varies—cruises, land resorts, road trips, and hikes—and the places where they go are just as diverse.
Julie and Art recently returned from an almost month-long dream trip beginning with five days in London. They then boarded Princess Cruises Island Princess in Southampton for a 14-day Baltic and Scandinavia cruise. What an itinerary: Bornholm, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; Klaipeda, Lithuania; Gdansk, Poland; Visby, Denmark; and disembarking in Copenhagen, Denmark. Julie and Art capped off their trip with five days in Copenhagen before flying back to their home in southern California.
I was excited when Julie and Art indicated they were available to share a recap and highlights of their journey. I wanted you the listeners to enjoy the trip through Julie and Art’s eyes and words, and selfishly speaking it’s a part of the world that I am unfamiliar with and am anxious to get some insight about.
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I am delighted to welcome Captain Peter Bos to The Joy of Cruising Podcast this week. In a section called “Ship Life” in the just-released The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON I tried to provide readers a sense of what life onboard a cruise ship was like for crew, staff and officers, and wrote about several past and present cruise line employees. I am honored Captain Peter Bos agreed to be featured in the book.
Captain Bos retired from Holland America Line (HAL) in March 2018, after 37 years with HAL and 44 years at sea. He was the longest-tenured Captain at HAL when he retired. At the time he retired, Captain Bos was the captain of the Vista-class MS Noordam. Captain Bos traversed the world regularly, as Captain on ships with world cruise itineraries such as Rotterdam and Prinsendam. However, he is known best by HAL fans for his travels to Alaska, garnering the nickname, Captain Alaska, not just because of how much time he spends taking ships there, but the knowledge he routinely shares with his passengers about their surroundings in Alaska—wildlife and glaciers. As one Captain Bos fan I quoted in The Joy of Cruising Again said, ‘He makes you feel like he’s found something wonderful and can’t wait to show you.’
Captain Bos lives with his wife Kathryn on Lake Hickory in North Carolina, not that far from where I live, so a couple of our interviews for The Joy of Cruising Again were in person. When I was trying to get an official headshot from HAL of Captain Bos in uniform, because he lives so close, he offered to get dressed in his uniform and take a photo. I declined that gracious offer and ultimately did receive a photo from HAL. I told Captain Bos ‘I wish I could fit in my work clothes four years after retirement!’
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Nancy and Robert (Dale) Houchens. I found out about Nancy and Dale when I read articles about them in both USA Today and Miami Herald. The Houchens retired in 2015 to a life—planned well before their last day at work—of living on cruise ships. I wrote a feature about the Houchens, Living On Cruise Ships in my new book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me…Sort Of.” I have been intrigued about this burgeoning trend for people to live largely, or entirely on the ocean.
It is not a new thing. Cruise fans who are “loyal to Royal” know about Mario Salcedo, aka Super Mario who left the work world in the 90s and has been cruising continuously on Royal Caribbean ever since. Or “Mama” Lee Wachstetter who started living on cruise ships in 2005 and has cruised continuously into her 90s. There are numerous others, and I love to have you on The Joy of Cruising Podcast to share your story with our listeners!
After the pandemic, retiring on cruise ships seemed to become a thing, and I would see media accounts of passionate cruisers who have made that move on a more regular basis. Retirees' desire to get closer to the ocean manifests itself in many ways: ranging from equity ownership or long-term lease arrangement with one of the firms selling purpose-built ocean-borne condominiums; retirees who cruise much of the year while maintaining a home on land; to cruisers like Nancy and Dale, who choose to sell their home and possessions and cruise most of a year. Nancy and Dale cruise mostly on Carnival—so much so that they have a "parents/children" relationship with numerous Carnival staff across the fleet, as well as rich friendships developed with other Carnival cruisers. However, they are by no means exclusive to Carnival as you will hear.
Retiring to live on cruise ships remains an option financially out of the reach of most retirees inclined to trade their retirement home for the ocean. Nevertheless, many of us cruisers are fascinated by such retirees. Such a life is the embodiment of the joy of cruising. I suspect that, like me, many fantasize about doing the same thing. I think I could rationalize a virtually full-time life on cruise ships, but I don’t think my wife would approve. Nancy says tell her about no cooking and cleaning--maybe I'll try that in a couple of years!
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I am delighted to welcome this week to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Ben and David of the massively successful Cruise with Ben and David. With 200,000 followers on YouTube and over 500 videos, only since starting the channel in 2015, landing Cruise with Ben and David as the #3 cruise channel in their native UK, and #6 worldwide. To garner those kinds of numbers in that time means Ben and David are constantly cruising. It seems any ship I am considering—they have already sailed it. So, I watch every one of their videos. Not just because they are topical and relevant to me as a cruiser willing to try different lines. Ben and David’s videos are also incredibly informative and entertaining. Married since 2014. they sprinkle their banter with irreverence, ‘We are two queens on Princess,’ and double entendres; David might do an impromptu dance like he did when demonstrating Virgin Voyages ‘get it on mode’ music and lighting scene on Scarlet Lady; and they clearly love food; watching themsample eating venues and then listening to Ben’s reactions: ‘Fireworks in my mouth;’ ‘Oh Mother Goose that’s good;’ ‘We’ll probably die from overeating;’ ‘Hit me with a carrot and call me a snowman” has become a standard anticipated feature for me. They feature pristine video and photography so stunning that they generate comments from the audience about technique. That clearly is due to their professional background which I will ask them about.
Cruise with Ben and David has been featured in some of the top publications and news outlets globally, such as The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USAToday and The Mail on Sunday. And, they have made a memorable appearance on the BBC's "The One Show".
Prepping for this show, I have been gorging on Cruise with Ben and David videos.That has been great fun—not just because their videos are excellent, but they’ve recently done a series of videos about their 16-day Hawaii to Alaska cruise aboard NCL Spirit. As you know Cheryl and I were on that sailing, so it has been joyful to relive that bucket list experience!
Finally, if the above is not enough to explain why I could not wait to host Cruise with Ben and David; in The Joy of Cruising books, and on the podcast, I have interviewed several UK Wave Award winners and finalists. The Wave Awards is the UK cruise industry’s premier award. But I never have had the honor of talking to a two-time winner like Cruise with Ben and David —winning Favourite Cruise Travel Blogger in both 2019 and 2021.
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I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ken Byrne, known to his legion of fans who cruise on Carnival Cruise Line as The Singing Maître D’. I had the pleasure of writing about Ken in my new book,The Joy of Cruising Again, in a section call Ship Life, which was intended to provide a perspective of life onboard cruise ships through the eyes of current and former crew and staff.
Ken Byrne is a consummate professional within the hospitality industry. He started off in the hotel industry in Dublin, Ireland in 1975. He was serving a gentleman in the hotel where he worked who was recruiting waiters for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. He offered Ken a job. Ken started at Royal Caribbean in 1986 as a busboy on The Song of Norway. Given his skills and experience attained from his hospitality background, Ken quickly moved up to waiter, and then became head waiter on the Sun Viking. Ken also served on the Nordic Prince, Song of America, and Sovereign of the Seas—which was my wife and my first cruise 1988. After Ken’s four years between Royal Caribbean and Premier Cruise Lines, The Big Red Boat, where he was a head waiter on Atlantic, Majestic, and Oceanic, he decided to go back to Ireland and the hotels. His respite from working on cruise ships was short-lived. He told me that after five months he got hungry for the sea. He was about to come back to Royal Caribbean when an opportunity arose to join Carnival instead. Carnival hired Ken in 1990 as a busboy, then waiter, then in 1994, he became maître d’ on his first new ship to take out, the Fascination.
The first time Ken sang in public was on the Carnival Triumph in 1997 when a couple was celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. Ken recalls. ‘I was about to make the nightly announcement and was walking by their table with a microphone when the man grabbed my arm and said, ‘Hey Ken, you’re Irish. Sing us a song for our anniversary.’ Ken belted one out. The rest is history. Within a couple of weeks after his impromptu performance, Ken’s singing in the dining room—and even in the theater—became a regular fixture on Carnival for the ensuing 26 years and he became known as The Singing Maître D’.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Dennis Littley, better known as Chef Dennis to his prodigious fan base— 830,000 followers on his Facebook account, A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis, 73,000 on Twitter and 72,000 on his Instagram accounts Ask Chef Dennis & Chef Dennis Travels. Chef Denniswas featuredin my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “Cruisers Like You and Me…Sort Of.” By 2019 when I interviewed him for Cruising Interrupted, Dennis had gone through an amazing career journey—and I longed to share his story with the cruise community. Chef Dennis epitomized a “Cruiser Like You and Me…Sort Of.” He had only done his first cruise—Disney Dream a couple of years prior—but did he ever have a story to tell.
That career journey I mentioned was from professional chef to culinary instructor, to food blogger, to travel blogger, to global brand ambassador for the likes of Visit Spain, Madrid Tourism, and Barcelona Tourism; Discover Atlanta, Visit Greensboro, and Visit Florida; Waldorf Astoria Orlando; Margaritaville Resorts, Omni Resorts, Disneyworld, SeaWorld, and numerous others. And, Chef Dennis had a particular focus on small-ship luxury cruising. From the time of that first cruise in 2017 to when I met him in 2019, Chef Dennis sailed exotic itineraries on behalf of Viking—several river cruises; a European Waterways Northern Burgundy Barge Cruise on La Belle Époque; CrosiEurope; and UnCruise.
Here is a brief excerpt from Ask Chef Dennis, Cruising Interrupted: http://www.cruisinginterrupted.com/blog/excerpt-chap-13-ask-chef-dennis-cruisers-like-you-and-mesort-of
History Nerds United
Let's make history fun again! Come listen to interviews with award winning authors,...
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I am delighted to welcome this week for a special Bonus Episode on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Matt Theriault, the embodiment of Cruise Life Matt, a blog, YouTube channel, and an Instagram account comprised of stunning images of ships. It was on Instagram that Matt first caught my attention. His IG feed is comprised almost exclusively of cruise ship photography—mostly stunning drone footage. Matt is an FAA Certified Drone Pilot. As a result of those amazing images, Matt is extremely popular on IG with over 100,000 followers. I love drone photography: tropical vistas, buildings, and my passion, cruise ships. No one does cruise ships like Cruise Life Matt.
Matt also has a second IG account, RV Camping To Go, featuring RVs, Camping, and Family Travel. Matt has a YouTube channel—more great drone shots and some videos from his family vacations. However, it was the Cruise Life Matt blog and his accompanying Facebook group where I got the best sense for his passion for cruising and sharing that passion with his followers. His amazing images led me to Matt, but the Cruise Life Matt blog and a Facebook group led me to invite Matt to The Joy of Cruising Podcastto share his passion with the listeners.
Matt started cruising in 2004. His first cruise was on the Caribbean Princess, and he is one of the many who got hooked on their first cruise. Matt has since sailed 65 times. He says, "Cruising is my true passion in life. When I cannot be on board a cruise ship, you can most likely find me talking about them or planning my next cruise vacation."
www.cruiselikematt.com
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Jenni Fielding, creator of the Cruise Mummy blog. I featured Cruise Mummy in Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called “Bloggers: Cruise Community Champions.”Jenni describes herself thusly, “I’m a 38-year-old mum of two from Bolton, UK. I first developed my cruise addiction when we booked a honeymoon cruise in 2013. As soon as I stepped onboard Allure of the Seas I was hooked! So much so, that we took our second cruise just six months later. Nowadays, cruising is a very different affair, since the arrival of our two children, who are eight and six.“ One way things are different is that Cruise Mummy is an authority on family cruising!
To say Cruise Mummy is one of the top cruise blogs out of the UK is an understatement. First, Cruise Mummy is the second most trafficked cruise blog in the UK. And recently, Jenni and Cruise Mummy won UK’s Wave Award for Favorite Cruise Travel Blogger for 2022. As a matter of fact, Cruise Mummy is the 7th most popular cruise blog in the world! Besides the recognition from the Wave Award, Cruise Mummy has been quoted in USA Today, Cruise Critic, Yahoo, World of Cruising and many more.
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This week The Joy of Cruising Podcast, welcomes a special guest. In The Joy of Cruising books, all the passionate cruisers I write about are special—whether they are “ordinary” cruisers with extraordinary stories, or “Googleable” individuals such as TV personalities, Grammy winners and nominees, a Hall of Famer, and UK’s first non-royal, non-celebrity cruise ship Godmother. Today I am honored to welcome one of those Googleable individuals: Joseph Farcus, a veritable legend of cruise ship design, and author of the book, Design On the High Seas. I featured Joe in my new release The Joy of Cruising Again in a section called “The Fun Ships.” Joe’s entrée into the world of cruising was in 1975 when the architectural firm he worked for, Morris Lapidus Associates, was engaged by Carnival Cruise Line to work on its 2nd former liner to add to its Mardi Gras. Morris Lapidus, renowned for its design of Miami’s famed Fontainebleau Hotel, was commissioned to design the ship, which was renamed Carnivale, for its transformation into a cruise ship. Joe oversaw much of the work as the project manager on board at the shipyard and designed Carnivale’s theater. By the time Carnival purchased its 3rd ship, a passenger/cargo ship that would become the Festivale, Joe had left Morris Lapidus. Joe approached Ted Arison, founder and CEO of Carnival, in an effort to obtain his first contract as an independent architect. Joe eventually got the contract to design Festivale, and it was a massive success, positioning the Fun Ships to launch their first build of a new ship, the Tropicale. Joe landed the contract to design the Tropicale and went on to design the next 30 Carnival ships. In 2000, he also began designing for Costa Cruises, Carnival’s Italian subsidiary and designed 11 ships for them. Joe’s last ship where he led the design for a Carnival ship was the Magic in 2011. He designed the Costa Diadema in 2014 before retiring later that year.
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This week The Joy of Cruising Podcast isdelighted to welcome Scott Eddy. I wrote about Scott in Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called "The Globetrotters." And a globetrotter Scott is, whether by land or sea or literally—it’s on his website and social media: Innovator—Trendsetter—Globetrotter. And,Scott is the television host for the first travel series ever on LifetimeTV, called Video Globetrotter.
@MrScottEddy, as he is known on social media where he is among the world’s most popular travel personalities, has taken somewhat of a circuitous route to arrive at his current designation as one of the top travel influencers in the world. A Forbes Magazine profile stated that Scott Eddy “is consistently rated as one of the top five luxury travel influencers in the world.” Yet, travel wasn’t even Scott’s first career, although he traveled quite a bit with his family in his youth. Before travel, he found success in financial services as a stockbroker. But if not for a tragic twist of fate Scott would have ended up in neither investments nor travel, but as a police officer.
Scott has over 100 cruises but he transcends cruising. He is a top tier hospitality and travel brand ambassador and influencer. He lives in south Florida but from following his whereabouts on his social media you’re as likely to find him anywhere in the world—abroad or in the US—on a given day.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Mikkel and Dan Woodruff, known in the cruise blogosphere as Sometimes Sailing. Specializing in small ship sailing and ship within-a-ship concepts such as Celebrity Cruises The Retreat, Norwegian Haven, and Princess MedallionClass, Sometimes Sailing is featured in my new release, The Joy Of Cruising Again in a section called “Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators.” They also have a companion blog which predated Sometimes Sailing called Sometimes Home. From their website: Sometimes Home grew out of a deep passion for exploring the world and wanting to share it with you while maintaining a home base. We write about travel in the United States and internationally as adults, only, on a mid-size to luxury budget. We also share tips about our home because we take care of it while we travel (plants included). And when we’re home, we love our cozy nest. We’re often away. And we’re sometimes home.
While Mikkel and Dan Woodruff chronicled their extensive travel--local as well as international--on Sometimes Home, during the cruise lockdown they launched Sometimes Sailing to specifically focus on small-ship sailing. On the podcast we discuss barge cruising, yacht cruising, river cruising and ship-within-a-ship experiences on large cruise ships. They are particularly knowledgeable about river cruising, which has long been on my bucket list. When I interviewed them for The Joy Of Cruising Again we focused significantly on river cruising. It's a fun read, but be forewarned: I booked my first river cruise for August 2024 on AmaKristina shortly thereafter!
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This week The Joy of Cruising Podcast is delighted to welcome Paul and Carole of Paul and Carole Love to Travel, a blog and accompanying YouTube channel, one of the leading UK cruise sources. I like to say to the cruise personalities I write about in the The Joy of Cruising books that we are forever connected—many years from now their friends and relatives will be able to read about them in a book written by me. Well, Paul and Carole and I are doubly connected because they are one of the very few cruise personalities that have been featured in more than one book. They first appeared in The Joy of Cruising in a chapter called “Cuba Cruising”, which chronicled the experience of three diverse couples—two from the US, and Paul and Carole from the UK—cruising to Cuba prior to Cuba being cut off as a destination for US travelers. So, it’s still on my bucket list. I had a lot of fun interacting with Paul and Carole in the writing of Cuba Cruising. When they talked about their bar crawl in Havana, I felt like I was on it with them. In the ensuing months, every time I saw photos or videos of Paul and Carole I would smile—they just exuded fun and always seemed to be having a good time. When I decided to write a follow-up, Cruising Interrupted, I included a section, “The Passionate Cruisers of The Joy of Cruising...What Are They Up To Now” and I reconnected with Paul and Carole. It was again a lot of fun, and I am delighted to once again reconnect with them on The Joy of Cruising Podcast .
Dream Vacations - Laurie and Greg Shuss
We love travel and can't wait to share the latest on luxury ocean and river cruises,...
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This week The Joy of Cruising Podcast isdelighted to welcome MC Extraordinaire Jason Venner. In a section called "Specialty Cruising: Fun and Quirky," I wrote about Jason in Cruising Interrupted—Cruise Entertainment Producer, Director, Creator, MC Extraordinaire! Jason Venner has spent essentially his entire adult life in the cruise world, mostly in a variety of cruise music and entertainment capacities. In other words, bringing the fun! Jason got his start in cruising in 2002 as a DJ with Holland America Line (HAL), a high-end cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation. At HAL, Jason progressed through the ranks from a DJ to over 10 years as a Cruise Director, to Corporate Trainer, to three years as Producer and Host of the joint ABC/BBC HAL production, Dancing with the Stars: At Sea. Since 2015, Jason has been self-employed as a Producer, Director, and Host of full-ship music charter cruises, primarily in partnership with StarVista LIVE, a leading theme cruise operator. For StarVista LIVE, Jason hosts the following annual cruises, each of which features scores of legendary performers as well as comedians, activities, and ship décor in keeping with the musical genre: Malt Shop Memories Cruise; Soul Train Cruise; The Country Music Cruise; Flower Power Cruise; Ultimate Disco Cruise, and more. The hundreds of entertainers Jason has introduced, interviewed, escorted, and accompanied include Smokey Robinson, Frankie Avalon, Kenny Rogers, Charley Pride, Chubby Checker, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Beach Boys, Earth, Wind & Fire, and The Temptations. “It’s crazy to be on a first-name basis with the legends of the music industry.”
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This week The Joy of Cruising Podcast is delighted to welcome Scott Sanders, creator of The Disney Cruise Line Blog. My first involvement with Scott was when I featured him in The Joy of Cruising in a section called “Cruise Bloggers: The Reader’s Choice” comprised offinalists and winners in the 10best Readers’ Choice Best Cruise Blogger, sponsored by USA Today. Scott won for The Disney Cruise Line Blog. Since 2012, The Disney Cruise Line Blog and accompanying podcast has been an unofficial source of Disney Cruise Line news and information and a place where fans can share Disney cruise experiences.
I have told the various individuals I’ve featured in The Joy of Cruising books that we are forever connected. Many years from now a reader will pick up a book written by me and featuring them. Well, Scott and I share a special bond. In addition to The Joy of Cruising feature, Scott’s photo of Disney Magic against the midnight sun in Reykjavik, Iceland is on the cover of my new book The Joy of Cruising Again! When I included the photo and its backstory in The Joy of Cruising five years ago, I told Scott it was the most stunning cruise ship photo I had seen. Little did I know it would become an indelible part of my writing journey years later.
Scott lives with his wife Emily, and daughter Isabelle in Celebration, Florida, known as “the community Disney built.” Celebration is five miles from Disney World and was originally developed by the Walt Disney company. Scott and Emily were married in a Disneywedding at Walt Disney World Resort. Half of their honeymoon was at Disney World, and the other half on Disney Wonder. He was destined to create The Disney Cruise Line Blog!
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This week The Joy of Cruising Podcast is delighted to welcome Matt Hochberg, creator of the Royal Caribbean Blog. My first direct involvement with Matt was when I featured him in The Joy of Cruising in a section called “Cruise Bloggers: The Readers’ Choice” comprised offinalists and winners in the 10best Readers’ Choice Best Cruise Blogger, sponsored by USA Today. Matt won for the Royal Caribbean Blog. Royal Caribbean Blog originated in 2010 and the accompanying podcast is now up to 500 episodes, and today is indisputably the leading unofficial source for all things Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. To say Matt dominates his space is an understatement. The Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube channel is the second most popular cruise channel in the world, with 235,000 subscribers, its blog is the third most visited in the world and the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is a consensus top three in the world—all the more amazing when you consider Royal Caribbean Blog exclusively covers a single cruise line.
How popular, and influential is Matt’s brand: search “Royal Caribbean” and one of the top results—the first result after Royal Caribbean Cruise Line will be Matt’s blog. He has become almost synonymous with the cruise line!
I mentioned my first direct involvement with Matt was his inclusion in The Joy of Cruising. However, I became really familiar with Matt well prior to that. After sailing my first cruise ever on Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the Seas—the world’s largest ship in 1988, I got hooked and sailed many cruises in the ensuing years, but I didn’t return to Royal for 30 years. Then I booked Anthem of the Seas in 2018 (which turned out to be the genesis of The Joy of Cruising series). Matt’s podcast was the first stop for my research!
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I am delighted to welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, The Jenn Danielle, who I could refer to as a social media star, leading solo travel content creator, influencer, brand ambassador, or vlogger! I’ll refer to her as Jennifer, and ask her to share her insight into a topic of immense curiosity to passionate cruisers like our listeners: critically acclaimed, rapidly growing, and yet a mystery to most cruisers—cruising on Virgin Voyages. In the three books comprising The Joy of Cruising Trilogy, I have had little content regarding Virgin Voyages. When the 1st book The Joy of Cruisingwas published early 2019, cruisers hadn’t heard of the line yet.The new release The Joy of Cruising Again, was startedwhen the cruise world was in a state of suspended animation, although I said this in the introductory section: I’m intrigued by Virgin Voyages; the upstart cruise line jettisoned two cruising institutions—buffets and, wait for it…kids! I got into travel at all-inclusive resorts where buffets were the “entry drug” that led me to try cruising. At first, I was put off by the prospect of no buffets. After COVID-19, buffets are no longer as significant a part of the cruise experience for me. Virgin’s no kids policy also gave me pause. Before the pandemic, I almost always cruised with my granddaughter. And as a young adult I grew up in cruising by taking my young daughters with me. So, it’s definitely a new passenger experience for me. Later in the book after cruising had restarted, I featured UK cruise writer legend Dave Monk (Shipmonk) whose photo at the naming of Scarlet Lady showing Richard Branson dancing on the table to Rihanna, was front page in UK. By the way, Shipmonk will be my guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast in August.
Now, Virgin Voyages, whose Scarlet Lady was named Best New Cruise Ship in 2021 at the Cruise Critic Awards, dominated the Ocean Cruising category of the 2022 Cruise Critics Editors Picks Award (Best Dining; Best Nightlife; Best for LGBQT+ Travelers). We are booked on Scarlet Lady, interest in the unique cruise line is sky high, and there’s no one better to share her perspective on Virgin Voyages than The Jenn Danielle!
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Today on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome Donald and Heidi Bucolo, the creators of the popular and highly influential Eat Sleep Cruise, an award-winning blog. Eat Sleep Cruise was selected by Porthole Cruise Magazine to its list of the top 10 Cruise Influencers of 2019. Eat Sleep Cruise has been quoted regularly in places like Forbes, CNBC, AARP magazine, and Porthole Cruise Magazine. Eat Sleep Cruise was featured in my second book Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y in a section called Bloggers: Cruise Community Champions. Eat Sleep Cruise brings a very comprehensive and diverse perspective to the cruise conversation. Don and Heidi have sailed all the major mega-ships; they tend to try out every major new ship that is launched; and, they also have also sailed on more intimate vessels to unique destinations like the high-end Viking Ocean Cruises, and Windstar Cruises. They have sailed throughout the Caribbean and Bahamas, Alaska, Hawaii, Cuba, Bermuda, Ireland, Iceland, and Northern Europe and have experienced bucket list excursions like helicopter tours in both Alaska and Hawaii; a glacier walk in Alaska, exploring Chacchoben Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya, Mexico; a stop in St. Petersburg, Russia where they visited the Hermitage Museum and attended the Russian Ballet; Berlin where Heidi and Don saw the Berlin Cathedral, the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and visited the remnants of the Berlin Wall; the Game of Thrones tour on a visit to Northern Ireland. And, they have visited some of the world’s best beaches including Horseshoe Bay Beach in Bermuda, Eagle Beach in Aruba, Waikiki Beach in Oahu, White Bay Beach in Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, and the Baths at Virgin Gorda. I could go on and on, but i just wanted to provide you a sense for what you can learn about by visiting the Eat Sleep Cruise blog and YouTube channel.
History Nerds United
Let's make history fun again! Come listen to interviews with today's best authors.
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On this bonus episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Stephanie and her mom, Marineda. A few weeks ago I did a fun episode called The Godmother and referred to it as a modern-day fairy tale. Well, I just learned of another modern-day fairy tale—a sweet Mother's Day oriented tale that I would have found compelling in and of itself. What made it extra special for me was when I clicked on a Holland America Line blog post, I recognized in the accompanying photo of Stephanie and Marineda, that I knew Marineda from when we worked together in Florida where I lived for nine years. And, we were Facebook friends. When I read the post, some other considerations made me that much more interested in their story. First of all, Marineda and I both grew up in Brooklyn, and moved to Long Island, NY. The blog post discussed a Holland American Line Westerdam cruise to Alaska that Stephanie and her mom sailed. We recently did a podcast episode, Fire & Ice, which detailed our own cruise to Alaska in May so I couldn’t wait to compare and contrast Alaska experiences with them. Stephanie and Marineda’s Westerdam cruise was the result of a touching letter Stephanie sent to the NBC Today Show about her relationship with her mom in response to a Mother’s Day Brunch challenge. Perhaps most amazingly, I learned from the blog post that Marineda was 88–which means we worked together when Marineda was 85! I’d have never guessed that!
I am so appreciative they agreed to share such a beautiful story with the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
Treasures of our Town
An exciting new travel podcast that explores towns in USA
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Generation X Paranormal
On this podcast we will explore the paranormal, unsolved mysteries and true crimes. We...
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The Joy of Cruising Podcast welcomes to this week's episode, Neil Gregory who kept, and continues to update a diary of his time working as a videographer on several ships for Princess Cruises. His story is real, raucous and laugh-out-loud funny! Cruise Ship Diaries was featured in the just released The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON
This podcast episode pertains to Neil’s first contract onboard Coral Princess. After Coral Princess, Neil went on to the world cruise on Sun Princess and then contracts on Sapphire Princess, Diamond Princess, Crown Princess, Grand Princess, Emerald Princess, Dawn Princess, Royal Princess, and the Ocean Princess over the ensuing seven years. We look forward for Neil to come back and talk about his later contracts.I worked for Princess Cruises for seven years and they were some of the best experiences of my life. Every itinerary had its pros and cons as did every contract; the highs on certain days were immeasurable: from scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, to climbing the Great Wall of China, visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia and getting to walk across the Panama Canal. The lows could be working yourself to burnout for little pay, not getting along with the people you worked with or shared a cabin with and missing friends and family back home or ‘the real world’ as we called it in our cruise ship bubble—Neil Gregory, Cruise Ship Diaries
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On this bonus episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome James and Rebecca, who are the embodiment of Cameo Rascale, internationally acclaimed circus variety act dazzling audiences across the globe!We experienced this dynamic husband and wife duo performing exciting acrobatics, mesmerising juggling and quick-witted comedy on our recent bucket list 16-day cruise from Hawaii to Alaska. On the second day of the cruise I saw that the headliner in the theater was a juggler. Jugglers are always a lot of fun, and if you listened to Episode Two featuring Ilana of Life Well Cruised, you might recall her being asked to toss the bowling pin to the juggler and she almost hit him in the head with it (the video of that is in episode two's show notes.) I thought perhaps this juggler was the same one. Well, it turned out this juggling act, Cameo Rascale was unlike any I had ever seen. First of all, as mentioned it was a married couple. James did all the amazing things jugglers do, including juggling axes, knives, and bowling balls. But the acrobatics, dance, and humorous interplay with Rebecca added a unique dimension. We were spellbound, and laughing the entire show. And at the end of the show, we were excited when James mentioned they would be performing an entirely different show later in the cruise, which we made sure to get better seats for and had as much fun or more than the first performance. I am so appreciative they agreed to be on The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Marcus Adams of the website Sparkx. Marcus is a 30-something leading UK-based blogger and travel writer who is passionate about cruising.Marcus is a sought-after cruise expert, and he writes for and contributes to several publications and websites in UK and the USA, such as Porthole Cruise Magazine, Huffington Post, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, and CNN. Marcus has also been a featured contributor for Cruise International Magazine, specializing in LGBTQ travel.I featured Marcus in The Joy of Cruising in a section called “Cruising’s Young and Restless” which focused on up-and-coming millennials making their mark in cruising. Marcus is still doing great things in cruising, and it is so good to chat with him again.
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Fire & Ice refers to our late April/early May 16-day cruise on Norwegian Spirit to the dual bucket list destinations of the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska. This episode shares our reflections of this unique cruise. Would we recommend it?
I learned of this cruise several months ago when I interviewed Professor Cruise, a leading cruise blogger and Alaska expert, for a feature I was writing about her in The Joy of Cruising Again. Professor Cruise who also goes by Sarah, had just returned from this same cruise and I was amazed that such a cruise existed—especially given that it contained two destinations that were on my bucket list. In fact, on episode #12 Professor Cruise, which aired a couple of days before we flew to Honolulu, I thought it would be fitting to have Sarah on the show. When Sarah first told me about the Fire & Ice cruise, I thought “What a wonderful way to check off two bucket list destinations in one trip.” However, I knew that convincing my wife was not going to be easy. She is not quite as cruising addicted as I am, and this was a more costly cruise than what we typically spend. Not the most money we’ve spent on a cruise but certainly significantly higher than our average cruise expenditure. So, I figured perhaps we could do it in a couple of years. And then an opportunity presented itself!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Sam and Brian of DCL Duo podcast. Their impressive website describes them as follows: "The DCL Duo podcast is a Disney Cruise Line-focused podcast, with occasional detours into general cruising and Disney topics. We’re fans of the Disney parks, Adventures By Disney, Run Disney and Disney Vacation Club."
I’m thankful forDCL Duo’s occasional detours into general cruising because they had me on their podcast a couple of years ago—and my only experience with Disney Cruise Line was a single cruise on Disney Dream. I took my grandkids on their first cruise, and there was never any consideration for another cruise line for my grandkid’s first cruise.
I like to say to the cruise personalities I write about in the books, that we are forever connected—many years from now their friends and relatives will be able to read about them in a book written by me. And that is true for Sam and Brian, as DCL Duo is featured in my new release, The Joy of Cruising Again in a section called The Communicators. But my connection withDCL Duo is extra special and it relates back to that aforementioned appearance I made on their podcast in 2020. I had written more than half of my second cruise book, which at the time was called More Joy of Cruising when the world changed due to the pandemic. People were dying, cruising shut down, and there wasn’t much joy anywhere. I stopped writing completely and did a lot of moping around as my passions of cruising, and writing about cruising were taken from me. And then i receive a message from someone i didn’t know. It said: “Big fan of The Joy of Cruising; heard you recently on a podcast. My wife and I recently started a podcast of our own, the DCL Duo . Was wondering if you might be willing to come to our show to talk about your book? We found it super interesting as avid cruisers. Hope you’ll consider it and would love to have you on!” Of course, I jumped at the chance to talk about cruising, and Sam and Brian’s “glass half full” outlook was infectious. After the podcast—even though a restart of cruising was nowhere on the horizon—I restarted writing, More Joy of Cruising became Cruising Interrupted, and was released six months later—when cruising was still shut down. For that lifting of my spirits and shot of confidence and motivation when I needed it most, I am forever grateful to DCL Duo. DCL Duo podcast is now over 300 episodes. Their milestone 300th episode was just a few weeks ago, and I was honored to be the guest on that show.
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The Joy of Cruising Podcastis delighted to welcome Rich and Jasmine Ranmarine, the creators of one of the most popular YouTube channels in the world, A Rich and Jazzy Life, along with their highly influential private Facebook group, the 57,000 member Melanin At Sea. A Rich and Jazzy Life was featured in my new book The Joy of Cruising Podcast Again in a section called The Cruise Communicators. Of course, A Rich and Jazzy Life is a playon Rich and Jasmine’s names. I didn’t know that when it showed up in my search results on YouTube, after I searched for Carnival Mardi Gras, which I had just booked for my granddaughter's 13th birthday celebration. Despite seeing some search results, I was familiar with, I clicked on the one I wasn’t familiar with. The name, A Rich and Jazzy Life, evoked style and glitz, and I was curious. Well the style and glitz was off the chart, the visuals were compelling including a well-dressed, beautiful family comprised of Rich, Jasmine, and their daughters Reign and Royce--that always wore matching outfits-- and the review was substantive. I became a loyal fan with that introduction to A Rich and Jazzy Life andproceeded to gorge on their video catalog.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Elizabeth Hill. Two queens, a convicted felon, and a schoolteacher board a cruise ship.... Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. This is no joke, however; these four individuals are, respectively, the Queen of England, Queen Latifa, the iconic, and Snoops good friend, Martha Stewart, and my guest today Elizabeth Hill—all Godmothers of cruise ships. Cruise ship Godmothers perform the task of christening a new cruise ship, ceremonially naming the ship marked by the smashing of a bottle of champagne against the ship hull. Cruise ship “Godparents” are usually women, even animated ones like Tinkerbell who was named Godmother to Disney Cruise Line’s Wonder—although rapper Pitbull was selected as Godfather of Norwegian Escape. The notion of a ship godmother had its origins hundreds of years ago where ceremonial launching of seagoing vessels took place in various forms, either celebratory or religious, depending on local custom, but generally to bestow the ship and crew with well-wishes and safe travels. Usually, celebrities are chosen as godmothers, such as Oprah, Helen Mirren, Dame Judi Dench, Whoopi, Reba McEntire, Jennifer Hudson, Mariah Carey, J-Lo and Simone Biles. And then there is Godmother Elizabeth, who you probably never heard of. I wrote about her story in The Joy of Cruising and called it a ‘Modern Day Fairy Tale.’
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Emma, of Emma Cruises a blog and accompanying YouTube channel, which is one of the most popular cruise channels worldwide. As mentioned, I like to say to the cruise personalities I write about in the books that we are forever connected—many years from now their friends and relatives will be able to read about them in a book written by me. Well, Emma and I are doubly connected because she one of the very few cruise bloggers or cruise personalities that have been featured in more than one book in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy. Emma first appeared in The Joy of Cruising when I featured her after the then 23 year-old part-time blogger shocked the UK cruise community by winning UK’s Wave Award for Favorite Cruise Blogger for Cruising Isn’t Just for Old People. I featured the 28 year-old Emma in The Joy of Cruising Again after she transformed herself into Emma Cruises a full-time global cruising personality.
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This week on The Joy Of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Sarah, known in the cruise blogosphere as Professor Cruise. And yes, she really is a professor (she has a PhD in psychology.) Sarah no longer teaches for a university—but she is still holding class online—cruisers are her students. Check her blog out because I guarantee you’ll learn an lot about cruising in general, as well as for your upcoming cruise—like what are the menus on every restaurant on a particular ship. Professor Cruise is featured in my new release, The Joy Of Cruising Again in a section called “Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, And Content Creators.” The name of her feature of course, is Professor Cruise. I could have subtitled it though, as Professor Alaska. For one thing, my interviews with her for the book took place over a couple of months, because she was constantly cruising, and seemingly was in Alaska every few weeks. How much does Alaska appeal to Professor Cruise? Well, she relocated to Seattle from the northeast because of her attraction to cruising to Alaska. And oh, she overlooks the pier from her apartment.
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This week The Joy of Cruising Podcastis honored to welcome Linda Johnson of Card Player Cruises, a leading theme cruise operator that for the past 30 years has specialized in partial- and full-ship chartered poker cruises. Card Player Cruises has hosted over 200 poker cruises and well over 50,000 passengers--from beginners to a virtual who's who of professional poker. Linda Johnson was the second woman inducted into The Poker Hall of Fame, and is universally known in the world poker community as The First Lady of Poker. Linda and Card Player Cruises was featured in The Joy of Cruising in the section, Theme Cruising: Two Passions In One.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Lucy Williams. Lucy was in The Joy of Cruisingin a section called The Influencers, as The Traveling Wife Cruising Around the World. As you might expect, my interest was immediately piqued when I came across her catchily titled blog. It turned out that The Traveling Wife Cruising Around the World was much more than just a catchy tagline for Lucy. It literally was a way of life for her by virtue of the fact that Lucy—a former cruise ship employee—was the spouse of a cruise ship officer, and she cruised with him full time. In her thirties, as a “traveling wife” Lucy has been on over 60 cruises totaling approximately 600 days and has visited over 80 countries. Amazing right? Well, that has just been since 2015 when Lucy started cruising as a traveling wife; It doesn’t include the hundreds of cruises and destinations Lucy experienced as a crew member—so many that she doesn’t remember her first as a 24-year-old jewelry shop hostess
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Dana Freeman of Dana Freeman Travels, is Vermont-based. Dana got her start in travel focusing on Vermont area staycations. Today, Dana is a world traveler in every sense—she is one of several featured in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy who transcend cruising—travel icons who cruise. When Dana cruises, she focuses on small ship and luxury cruising. Dana is a highly demanded freelance travel writer.
I featured Dana in The Joy of Cruising in a section called The Influencers. I reached out her when writing the book in 2018, as Dana was named one of the “10 Travel Influencers Changing How We Vacation” by Porthole Cruise Magazine, and one of the “30 Bloggers and Travelers to Follow for Summer Vacation Advice” by Travel Pulse. The title of Dana’s feature in The Joy of Cruising is "Dana Freeman Travels: Cruising With Grandma." Dana’s passion for travel, particularly cruising, can be traced directly to her grandmother. "Cruising With Grandma"is the most poignant story I featured in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy; yet it is joyous—highlighted by 95-year-old gran kayaking in Costa Rica. I suspect some tears were shed as "Cruising With Grandma"was read.
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On this bonus episode of The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Comedian Billy D. Washington. Those of you who have cruised Carnival, specifically the beautiful new Mardi Gras or Celebration have likely seen him late-night in Punchliners, or with your kids at the family-friendly show. We took my granddaughter on Mardi Gras for her 13th birthday; we watched Billy D at the family-friendly show—on more than one occasion. And, we watched every version of Billy D’s uncensored sets in Punchliners. He was hilarious, and what set him apart was his delivery, timing, and total unpredictability—he took funny stories in directions I totally did not expect. He killed!
I have always been interested in the entertainment aspect of the cruise experience, especially music and stand-up comedy. In The Joy of Cruising, I included a section called “Performing On the Ocean.” And then when we cruised Mardi Gras, with 4 comedians—a first for me in my cruising experience—I was fortunate to be introduced to Billy D. Washington. They were all funny. Billy D. distinguished himself from the others by interspersing music, by way of a keyboard—and he was very good at it. Lastly, he had a unique, and impressive, background—appearances on HBO; Comedy Central; and was a regular host on VH1. And he once had a career in law enforcement. A funny and thought-provoking conversation.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising PodcastI am delighted to welcome The Legendary Manny Kellough. Legendary? At 17 Manny played drums with Ray Charles; later Barry White, Carmen McCrae, The Main Ingredient, Freddie Hubbard, The Rolling Stones (Goat's Head Soup Tour), Quincy Jones (Sanford & Son Theme Song), Billy Preston (Grammy, and 4 gold records) and Larry Graham and Graham Central Station. Manny set up the jazz program on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Currently he appears with his ensemble on Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas, and also is a guest musician on Virgin Voyages. An amazing gentleman and a great conversation!
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome John Roberts the embodiment of In The Loop Travel. I featured John and In The Loop Travel in Cruising Interrupted in a section called The Globetrotters, which focused on world travelers who transcend cruising. John is a consummate cruiser, however. He has sailed 120 cruises and has a wide breadth of cruising experience, from mega-ships to luxury craft to expedition cruises to Antarctica. Whenever I am close to booking a ship—and I wish it were one of the luxury vessels John vlogs about—I first check to see if John has a review up. And he always does.
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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Joe Church, a truly amazing story and reader favorite. In The Joy of Cruising. I dubbed joe the Marathoner of the Seas, and told his unique story of how 70-something Joe runs a marathon distance, 26.2 miles, on every Royal Caribbean ship—beginning with Liberty of the Seas in 2008, not only his first marathon distance on a ship, but his first cruise—through to Royal’s newest, the largest ship in the world, Wonder of the Seas just a few weeks ago. Joe was also featured in the second book, Cruising Interrupted—his story is evergreen—as long as Royal builds new ships, Joe says he going to run a marathon distance on them. As fascinating as that is, there is a lot more to Joe than running on ships. He ran in the NYC Marathon a couple years ago; he has run marathons on every continent, 63 countries, and in every state in the US—well over 25,000-miles since running his first marathon in only 2005. Joe is a man of three passions: cruising, running, and oh, he is an ardent bird watcher who traveled the world birdwatching long before his first cruise.
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Quirky Cruise was featured in Cruising Interrupted in a section called “Specialty Cruising: Fun and Quirky.” I have had conversations with cruisers who have gone on over one hundred cruises but have never experienced a cruise on a non-traditional cruise ship; that is, a small ship designed to hold 300 or fewer passengers; some low double digits, even single digits! These small ships can range from spartan to ultra-luxury, and because of their size and design can access destinations that mainstream cruise ships cannot.
Quirky Cruise's sloganis “travel without the crowds.” Quirky Cruise is the source for reviews, news, and round-ups about unusual and small-ship cruises under 300 passengers, from river boats to canal barges, sailing ships, coastal cruisers, and expedition vessels. Heidi Sarna and Ted Scull created Quirky Cruise because they love small-ship cruising and want to share what they know and have experienced with others who also like traveling on small, intimate vessels.
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The Joy of Cruising Podcast welcomes contemporary jazz star Vincent Ingala to the show. One of the fastest emerging contemporary jazz recording artists in recent history, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Vincent Ingala has blasted into an exciting stratosphere. Still in his twenties, the charismatic saxophonist has been named Billboard Smooth Jazz Artist of the Year in 2012, Sirius XM Watercolors breakthrough artist of the year in 2013, and his music is consistently found atop the most noteworthy music charts in the world, including nine number one hits on the billboard smooth jazz chart, and twenty one singles in the billboard smooth jazz top 10. In The Joy of Cruising, I wrote extensively about theme cruising in a section called Theme Cruising: Two Passions In One, and another section called, Performing On the Ocean. I am delighted to welcome Vincent Ingala to talk about theme cruising from the performer’s perspective.
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A conversation with Ilana of Life Well Cruised, a massively successful cruise blog, YouTube channel, and influential FaceBook community. Life Well Cruised was featured in the second book of The Joy of Cruising Trilogy—Cruising Interrupted www.amazon.com/Cruising-Interrupted-follow-up-formerly-known/dp/1098344650/ in the section, Bloggers: Cruise Community Champions. Ilana and Life Well Cruised are certainly Cruise Community Champions to its almost 200,000 fans.
Here’s the video mentioned (show with comedian/juggler) Ilana is at the end:
https://youtu.be/mexNiOR_6lU
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Sheri of Cruise Tips TV is one of the most popular cruise influencers and content creators on social media, and is often called upon to represent the perspective of cruisers in mainstream media. Cruise Tips TV was featured in both The Joy of Cruising and Cruising Interrupted, and when I wanted to get quotes to include in the new book, The Joy of Cruising Again, from cruise community leaders following the restart Sheri is one of the first I turned to. Sheri is a welcome guest, always full of valuable cruising insights.
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Paul C. Thornton, author of The Joy of Cruising Trilogy—The Joy of Cruising, Cruising Interrupted, and new release,The Joy of Cruising Again introduces The Joy of Cruising Podcast—a weekly conversation with one of the amazing cruisers with fascinating stories featured in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy. Paul highlights the amazing diversity of the books in terms of where the various cruise personalities he writes about are from in the world, their age range, and their fascinating stories about cruising from the perspective of celebrities, to “ordinary” cruisers doing extraordinary things! Paul emphasizes this is the last time you'll hear just him, and mentions some of the podcast guests in upcoming weeks
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