Popular Cruising: Jason Leppert

Jason Leppert was a 10Best Readers’ Choice New Media Award for Best Cruise Blogger finalist for the Popular Cruising blog. 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 cruising to an extensive knowledge, experience and coverage of Disney theme properties—to the frequency and diversity of his cruising.

At only 30 years old Jason Leppert was a 10Best Readers’ Choice New Media Award for Best Cruise Blogger finalist for Popular Cruising. Today at 34, the indefatigable cruiser and writer is now up to 138 cruises, and in addition to serving as editor in chief, “the captain”, at Popular Cruising, Jason is the Cruise Editor at TravelAge West, founder of Popular Cruising and its successful YouTube channel, and contributor to other outlets such as Cruise Travel, Porthole, and Oyster.com. He also annually attends “Comic-Con International: San Diego,” the 50-year old entertainment and comic convention which draws over 130,000 over three days to Jason’s home town. Jason is the epitome of a passionate cruiser who manifests his passion with driven, concerted action personally and professionally. Given the amount of time he dedicates to cruising, both sailing and writing about it, one would be tempted to conclude that about sizes up Jason’s life. However, all things Disney round out much of Jason’s personal and professional life.

As a native and resident of San Diego, California—having never lived anywhere else despite having traveled the world—Jason enjoys spending leisure time at Disneyland Resort with his wife Heidi, and professionally covers Disney parks and resorts domestically and abroad for TravelAge West, Oyster.com and MiceChat.com. In addition to Disneyland, Jason has visited Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland Paris, Shanghai Disneyland, and Aulani Disney Resort and Spa in Hawaii. Jason has also experienced several Adventures by Disney trips; Adventures by Disney provides a series of planned vacations across various parts of the world where guests are taken on expeditions featuring activities designed for families. In a mash-up of Jason’s duel passions, he has cruised on all the Disney Cruise Line ships....

....How can a 34-year-old accumulate 138 cruises? Well, beside the fact that cruising is both Jason’s passion and his profession, he started early! Jason sailed on his first cruise at only two years of age. He is an only child, and his parents wanted to share their passion for travel with Jason early on, taking him on his first cruise aboard the original Royal Princess—the one launched in 1984, named by Princess Diana, and occasionally a stand-in for the Pacific Princess as the setting for the television series The Love Boat. There were two later cruise ships christened the Royal Princess. I asked Jason about the first cruise he could remember. “My next cruise was actually another one aboard the original Royal Princess only a couple years after the first. And I actually do remember bits and pieces from that ship, especially its observation lounge. It was a quiet place that I enjoyed roaming as a little one. Perhaps that’s why to this day I cherish ships that still feature such venues. It’s also been quite neat to sail on the current-generation Royal Princess that is in operation today, coming full circle.” Growing up, Jason also sailed a lot with his family on Crystal Cruises and on Celebrity Cruises.

Recognizing the difficulty of singling out memorable cruises out of dozens, I asked Jason what comes to mind. He said, “That is a challenge, but I must say that expedition cruising has really proven to be a memorable experience for me. The opportunity to visit some of the most remote destinations in Alaska and Micronesia with Silversea Expeditions (Silver Discoverer) and UnCruise Adventures (Safari Endeavour and S.S. Legacy) has just been a blast. Of course, any time I go on a Disney cruise is always special too, given my affinity for the brand overall....

Read the complete story of the Captain, Popular Cruising’s Jason Leppert in Chapter 11, The Joy of Cruising. Order soon....