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, a double 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 of The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Stanley (The Beard) & 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 fortunate for 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, Prinsendam 2008 - 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, and 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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