The Joy of Cruising
  • Home
  • About The Author
  • Blog
  • Cruising Interrupted Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Media
  • Gallery
  • Featured
Picture

Book Cover Image

Magical Bones: Magician|Illusionist|Bboy, The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 1/13

1/10/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Send us a text
Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a special guest, Magical Bones. We were introduced to Bones on our recent anniversary cruise to the A, B, and C Islands in the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity Ascent. Bones was a headliner that put on a show that was spellbinding, funny, and captivating as Bones broke into breakdancing! So, I enjoyed his performance but I was knocked off my feet as he shared his story of growing up Black in UK; getting into Bboying, and then into magic.

Magical Bones is one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the Magic scene in recent years; he has been entertaining audiences globally for over a decade. Starting out his career as a professional hip-hop dancer, he was given the nickname ‘Bones’ because of his hard-hitting dance style. An exceptionally skilled break-dancer and a gifted showman, Bones has worked with some of the biggest artists within the music industry such as Madonna, and Alicia Keys, and is the featured dancer in the music video of Mint Royals’ No. 1 smash hit single, Singing In the Rain.
Now focusing on his career as a magician, Bones’ uniqueness resides in his ability to effectively fuse mind-blowing magic with street-dance culture, music & lifestyle. He is a one-off. 2020 saw Bones make the final of Britain’s Got Talent with his audition logging over 10 million online views and the judges describing his act as the ‘best-presented magic act I’ve ever seen!’ Among his other TV credits are the BAFTA awards (BBC1), Penn & Teller Fool Us (The CW), Around the World in 80 Tricks (Amazon), Pure Magic (BBC) and This Morning (ITV). In 2022 Bones was the 2nd placed winner for ITV’s Christmas special The Ultimate Magician. On the live stage, Bones was selected as the headline magician for the hit West End magic show, IMPOSSIBLE, which played for two seasons at the Noel Coward Theatre before moving on to a hugely successful world tour in 2017. Bones’ debut solo show Black Magic sold-out residencies at both London’s Southbank Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and played to packed houses across UK. His second show Soulful Magic premiered at Fringe 2022 and went on to be a sell-out nationwide tour in the spring of 2023.

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Home

Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon



0 Comments

Kim Anderson, Design Her Travel Podcast, The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 1/9

1/7/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Send us a text
Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Kim Anderson, global nomad, host, and creator of the Design Her Travel podcast. Design Her Travel inspires you to live the life of your dreams and incorporate more travel into your daily life. Each week you'll discover travel tips and tales from individuals doing just that. Whether you're dreaming of taking your first trip or an experienced globetrotter, each week—through guest interviews and solo episodes—you'll hear inspiring stories and discover proven travel methods that will motivate you to take that next step in designing your life. 
Kim is a global citizen who has lived, worked, and traveled to almost 40 countries. Many of her years were spent traveling the world by sea or exploring the world through solo adventures. Her purpose in life is to show people the world and be a living inspiration for their dreams. As creator and host of the Design Her Travel podcast, Kim currently showcases stories of people living extraordinary lives with travel as the centerpiece. Kim and Design Her Travel has been featured in Backpacker Magazine – Asia, Dockwalker Magazine, and on several podcasts. 
I have to say Design Her Travel and The Joy of Cruising Podcast  sharesome key characteristics—we are both about travel, started about the same time, have a similar number of episodes, and are both quite global with listeners in over 100 countries. There is one difference though; Design Her Travel is in the top 2.5% of podcasts in the world, making Kim my podcast role model!

Design Her Travel Website
​

Join the waitlist for the DHT Group Trip opening early 2025. Special earlybird discount available to the waitlist only!

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Home

Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon




0 Comments

Matthew Jones, The Cruise Maps, The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 1/6

1/4/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture

​Send us a text
Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Matthew Jones of The Cruise Maps. Based in UK, their ingenious, unique products based on maps of your cruise journey is far more than meets the eye. It all starts with your cruise shipʼs navigation system. While it was designed to help seafarers identify other ships and safely navigate the seas, it also enables The Cruise Maps to remotely follow the progress of every ship in the world in real time. A massive global network of satellite and land-based receivers are continuously sending signals them back to databases to store and analyze the global fleet’s movements. This system is used for everything from managing traffic and tracking logistics, identifying illegal fishing and analyzing global trade. And now, for creating Cruise Maps! Imagine completing that cruise celebrating a milestone like a special birthday? The Cruise Maps can immortalize that special cruise with a unique, custom-made keepsake you won’t find in souvenir shops or need to stuff in your luggage.


The Cruise Maps story starts in 2007 when partners Matthew and Will were housemates at the University of Southampton, bonding over a shared love of travel, ships and the ocean. Will was a lifelong sailor and naval architect in training and Matthew was a Geography undergraduate with two seafaring parents, who met working on the Queen Elizabeth 2 in the 1980s. They found themselves, 16 years later in London, talking excitedly over breakfast about the possibilities of using satellite data in different ways—it wasn’t really a huge surprise. That day in 2023, they teamed up to create the world’s first personalized and entirely accurate print maps for cruise passengers. By using satellite ship tracking data, they managed to build a system that can take a passenger’s basic cruise details and create the perfect map of where the ship actually went, rather than where it planned to go. Their credo is ‘We are both perfectionists at heart. We want to create maps that you will hang on your walls proudly for decades to come.’ 

B
y the way if after listening to Matthew you choose to order your own cruise map, use my affiliate link if after listening to Matthew you choose to order your own cruise map, use my affiliate link www.thecruisemaps.com/joyofcruising10 to automatically receive a 10% discount!

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Home

Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon




0 Comments

Colleen McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Cruise Critic; The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 1/2

12/31/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Send us a text

​
Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome a special guest, Colleen McDaniel. Among the global cruise personalities, we are blessed to host, today, I am honored to welcome another one of those Googleable individuals (is that a word) we occasionally have the honor to host. 

Colleen McDaniel is Editor-in-Chief of Cruise Critic. She considers cruising to be a true passion, having traveled the world by water – from Alaska, the Caribbean and Hawaii, to Europe’s rivers, Antarctica and Africa – on ships of all shapes and sizes. I first “met” Colleen when I featured her husband John Roberts of In the Loop Travel in my book Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y

When not cruising, Colleen loves running, biking, hiking or anything that keeps her moving. Living in Colorado makes it easy to get outside and stay active. She’s also a fan of craft beer, and science fiction movies and TV. Trying craft beers in cruise ports all over the world has become a passion. She’ll talk your ear off about hair bands from the '80s and anything related to "Doctor Who." A Wisconsin native, Colleen roots for the Green Bay Packers – she’s a team owner.

She’s regularly quoted as a cruise expert in media outlets across the country, including The Associated Press, Good Morning America, TODAY, CNN, FOX Business, CNBC, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure and Skift.

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or 
Home

Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon



0 Comments

Vienna, Austria; A Guest Post by Tamieka Blair

12/23/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Vienna, Austria has never disappointed me. Having the good fortune to visit for a second
time meant I’d get to experience some of the same things I did on my previous visit while
ensuring that I sought out new sites and adventures. When I went in 2022, it was my first
visit outside of the US since the Covid mandate was instituted. I was excited but still
trepidatious of the possibilities that lied ahead. My first trip to Vienna was on a redeye via
British Airways in the business class section and the return via Finnair. I of course felt super
fancy with it having been my first time on a long-haul flight in this section. Both airlines
provided lie flat seats in business. The meals, beverages and flight were nonstop…to
London. With a connecting shorter flight to/from Vienna, I recommend evening flights flying
out of NY to places with a different time zone. Give yourself an extra day in the destination
of your choosing to get refreshed and acclimated. Not doing that was a mistake I made the
first time around.


In 2022 when I landed in Vienna, I had to immediately head to a work dinner. If I had
planned my trip to arrive a day earlier, the rushing could have been prevented.
Nonetheless, I arrived at Restaurant Wienerin in time to order a delectable wiener schnitzel
(fried veal cutlet) with parsley potatoes, green salad and cranberries. Paired with a glass of
merlot made it the perfect after flight meal. I cannot complain about any of the meals I
tasted in Vienna whether it was 2022 or 2024 as my palate was definitely pleased. Again, I
recommend booking an extra day to stay.
​

When I returned to Vienna this year, I flew business again but this time on Turkish Airways.
What a delight that airline is. From the comfy lie flat seats, delicious food and drink
offerings to the friendly and accommodating flight attendants I recommend Turkish over
and over again. Arriving in Istanbul for my layover to Vienna left me in awe. I have never
seen an airport so vast and clean. The ambiance was reminiscent of a large mall or outlet
center. After some time walking, I made my way to the Turkish Airlines Lounge where like
the flight from JFK I was again met with grandeur and excellence.


Vienna itself was amazing both in 2022 and 2024. During my first visit I was able to walk the
Schönbrunn Palace, experience a wine tasting, walk the city streets, eat at several cafés
and shop till I dropped. This year, I took a day trip to Salzburg where I toured the locations
featured in the movie The Sound of Music and visited the Salzburg cathedral famous for the
cathedral square and its statue of the Virgin Mary. While on my trip through Austria this year
I was also able to enjoy a tour of Schlumberger Cellars, taste delectable bites and drinks at
Einsteins and Long Hall Bar among others and walk the streets of lower Austria. If you’re
looking for the perfect, quiet, culturally inclusive yet conservative place to visit, Vienna,
Austria and the surrounding areas is where you should go. A nice mix of a bubbling nightlife
coupled with suburban influences makes Vienna a great alternative to places like London
and Paris. Oh and if you have to choose between British, Finnair or Turkish…it’s Turkish all
of the way.
0 Comments

Jon Saxx, Performing On the Ocean (and the River),

12/23/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Send us a text
Hello, passionate cruisers! I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Jon Saxx, saxophonist extraordinaire. I first experienced Jon on a cruise we attended prior to the covid shutdown--Festival at Sea. Jon was a ‘house musician’ for Festival at Sea, the longest-running and most renown African-American cultural cruise. Created by African-American entrepreneur and owner of San Francisco’s Blue World Travel Agency, Patricia Yarbrough, Festival at Sea has put on over 35 consecutive years of sold out full ship charters of its annual cruise. In addition to Festival at Sea, Patricia’s affiliate brand, Friends of Festival at Sea puts on luxury cruises on high-end vessels to exotic locations every few years. Patricia has been a guest on The Joy of Cruising Podcast and it is really worth a listen, Ep 39.
We recently had the opportunity to experience Jon again, this time up close and personal, when Friends of Festival at Sea put on an amazing itinerary River cruise in Southern France on AmaWaterways AmaKristina coupled with 3 days in Paris. Besides being a part of the evening entertainment on AmaKristina, Jon headlined a Gospel Brunch Event. It was during the Friends of Festival at Sea Gospel Brunch when Jon shared his personal testimony that I decided I had to bring this gentleman with the great story to the listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast.
Jon Saxx was voted Best Local Jazz Artist in South Florida by Miami New Times in 2008 and has performed with jazz and R&B stars Najee, Montell Jordan, Howard Hewitt, and National Anthem Performances for the Miami Heat. Jon was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio earned a degree in Manufact. Engineering. He was employed by Johnson & Johnson as a Med Device Engineer for 4 years. Jon’s musical inspiration, Mr. Wright, his saxophone teacher, taught him to go beyond playing the music, to making the music a reality for himself and his audience! Witnessing Jon in his element, whether or not his eyes are hidden under one of his trademark hats, or 3-piece suits, you realize you’re warching a man possessed by the spirit of jazz that’s as natural as his own heartbeat.

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Page
​
Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky: https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising


Support thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon

0 Comments

Cris the Cruising Duck Man, The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 12/23

12/21/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and, in my effort, to portray cruising in all its diversity, now for something completely different. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Cris Kostiuk, creator of Cris the Cruising Duck Man. Let me preface by saying that for the most part up until recently, I have been rather ambivalent toward the phenomenon of hiding and finding toy ducks on cruise ships. First of all, I assumed it would be a short-lived trend that would fade away. Wrong! Secondly, I kind of thought it was mainly for kids—and since I no longer have young children to cruise with I have “aged out” of the target clientele. Wrong again. Cruise ship ducks are very much a kids, and adults, aspect of cruising.

The tide started to change for me in terms of paying a little more attention to cruise ship duck mania when I began to read about this duck trend in non-cruise media. Then I read a blog post by arguably the top cruise blogger/podcaster in the world, Matt Hochberg, of Royal Caribbean Blog that opened my eyes. In a blog whose title seemingly was directed at me, Hiding Ducks On A Cruise Ship Is A "Crazy" and Popular Trend - Whether You Like It Or Not https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/09/05/cruising-ducks-how-to-hide, Matt shared some information that put to rest any notion of cruise duck mania being a passing fad. For instance, there is a cruising ducks Facebook group that is approaching 300k members. And, Matt’s blog mentioned today’s guest.

What moved me to a podcast about duck mania though were images of ducks that would regularly show up in my Facebook feed; these ducks were a far cry from dollar store ducks or ducks sold in bulk on Amazon. They were amazing. You see I was Facebook friends with Cris the Cruising Duck Man. So, I invited him on the show.

After a catastrophic accident that Cris was fortunate to survive, following his recovery, Cris formed a new outlook on life and decided to start traveling more, including his 1st cruise. Of course, he got hooked. On his 2nd cruise, he took his kids and started learning about ducks. He got hooked on that too, to the point he purchased a 3-D printer (which ultimately became 6 3-D printers!) Cris takes multiple large suitcases of ducks every cruise & created a website cruisecave.com for selling his 3-D printed ducks. Cris says, ‘I love getting photos with people. I always try to get a photo with the Captain and the Cruise Director giving them a duck.’  

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Home

​
Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon




0 Comments

Sometimes Sailing, Mekong River, Cambodia & Vietnam, AmaWaterways AmaDara/Iceland, Windstar, Star Pride; The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 12/19

12/17/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Send us a text
I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Mikkel and Dan, creators of the Sometimes Sailing cruise website and Instagram. Mikkel and Dan are great friends of the show, and this is a special episode.  I got to know Mikkel and Dan when I wrote about Sometimes Sailing in my new release The Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyON where I wrote about their penchant for small ship cruising as well as “ship-within-a-ship” spaces, for instance, Celebrity Cruises The Retreat, Norwegian Haven, and Princess Cruises Medallion Class. I hosted Sometimes Sailing on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 28 last year, and on Episode 101 earlier this year where I mentioned how Mikkel and Dan were instrumental in motivating me to pursue my bucket list aspiration to sail our first river cruise—AmaWaterways Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise on AmaKristina. What makes this episode special is that Mikkel and Dan, Sometimes Sailing are the first guests to appear on the podcast three times! 

Oh, the small-ship connoisseurs are already scheduled to come back in early '26. By the way, Mikkel and Dan have created a complimentary river cruise planning resource for our listeners:
​ 
**Download their Essential River Cruise Budgeting Guide here.**
 
Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Home

Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon



0 Comments

The Gault Family’s Alaskan Nightmare on NCL, The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 12/16

12/14/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I present to you something quite different than what you are used to hearing from me. It’s a cruise news story—an absolutely amazing one. First, let me welcome to the show Cailyn. Joshua is an entrepreneur in Tulsa, Oklahoma who is a central figure in said cruise news story, and as a busy entrepreneur was not able to join us. I don’t normally cover cruise news. I leave that up to others who are renown and much better than I am about covering that sort of thing. However, Cailyn and her family’s story transcends cruise news. It was covered extensively worldwide by mainstream media. Besides, one topic I do like to bring to the cruising community are human interest stories—and the Gault's story is a human-interest tale on steroids. Let me summarize before I bring on Cailyn to give us the real deal:

In July 2024, Cailyn and her family of 9 embarked on Norwegian Encore for a family reunion cruise to Alaska. In total, 16 relatives were on the trip at a total cost of $30,000. Joshua and his immediate family, wife Cailyn, six children, and his 78-year-old mother-in-law, Sharron, went on an excursion which I’m sure many of you who have cruised to Alaska recall fondly—a Lumberjack show in Ketchikan. Cailyn and family did the right thing in that they chose an excursion offered by the cruise line. (I always recommend on various Facebook cruise groups that’s it’s best to choose an excursion offered by the cruise line versus an independent excursion because cruise line excursions come with a promise to never leave the port without you…) Upon the end of the Lumberjack show, Cailyn and family went to board the shuttle bus back to the port but it was full and they were told to wait for the next one—which never came. After a panicked phone call, a van was dispatched to pick them up but by the time it got them back to the port, Joshua and family watch the Encore sail off—with passports, clothes and prescription medications onboard. Over the ensuing several days, they had to piece together a series of flights, hotel stays (or overnight airport stays, and of course meals enroute to Tulsa.) Oh yeah, while their Alaska souvenirs were left on the ship, they did manage to bring something home with them—Covid for several family members! Wow, I hurt even reporting this; imagine the hurt felt by the family members left behind. But it gets worse. NCL fined those left behind nearly $1000 each due to some technicality regarding US Customs and Border Patrol fees—which was charged immediately to Joshua’s credit cards.
​
Cailyn joins us to share the ordeal in their own words as well as talk about the aftermath.

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Home

Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon




0 Comments

Melissa Davis, from Ship Life to Cruise, Shop, Save, The Joy of Cruising Podcast, 12/12

12/11/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Melissa Davis, and have a conversation with her about how she grew from running Port Shopping Programs onboard cruise ships to providing Port Shopping information and running  to all cruisers as a private entrepreneur.


After running shopping programs on Crystal Cruises, Regent, Oceania, Viking,  and Marella, and launching the first and only onshore shopping program on Viking River Cruises, Melissa decided to create an online recommended and guaranteed shopping program for all cruisers featuring Cruise Port Maps, and a long list of fabulous recommended and guaranteed retailers and brands in each port, and tried and tested attractions and best beaches. Melissa is the number one Online Port Shopping Guide


After working with several amazing cruise lines and cruising a lot herself, Melissa was surprised to see not all Cruise lines provide accurate Port Maps when the ships arrive in port. She decided to put her Cruise Port Insider Secrets online so everyone could access it. 

Melissa’s cruise ship career started as a Fitness Instructor for Steiner Transocean on the old Holland America Line Noordam. She couldn’t wait for time off in port to explore the ports, and submerging herself in the culture and meeting wonderful people along the way. To this day she has artifacts, indigenous souvenirs and jewelry and art from these wonderful experiences. When a position came up as a Shopping Lecturer she jumped at the chance and for the next 7 years, she went to various cruise lines running lectures and helping cruise ship guests navigate the ports of call. 

Now Melissa has all these amazing Cruise Port Maps, and will tell you how to get yours free, as well as shop for wonderful products from each destination or snag a souvenir for a loved one back home.  

Listen at www.thejoyofcruisingpodcast.com or Home
​

Relying on ship wifi is slow, unsecure, sometimes not available & at foreign ports travelers don’t want to pay their carriers’ high fees. Save $ with GigSky! Get a data package usable on the ship & in ports. Link to GigSky:  https://gigsky.pxf.io/nloxor. For a 10% discount use code: joyofcruising

Supportthejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising 
https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon




0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Archives

    July 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    January 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About The Author
  • Blog
  • Cruising Interrupted Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Media
  • Gallery
  • Featured