The Joy of Cruising Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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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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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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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 them sample 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

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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 Podcast to 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.

Cruise Mummy https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/

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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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