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 amzn.to/2EAMddF in Malt Shop Memories in a section called “Theme Cruising: Two Passions in One.” In my new release, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON, 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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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 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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