Life of Iris, The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 11/30

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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