The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome Cheryl Cooper , creator of the SIG the Solo Cruiser YouTube channel, Instagram, and website. As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly. Cheryl has carved out a solid niche as a specialist in solo cruising with high quality content and reviews from a solo cruising perspective of a diver...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , Prof Cruise. I first met Prof Cruise featured her in my 3rd cruising book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON , to The Joy of Cruising Podcast . Yes, Sarah really is a former university professor—but her passion for cruising not only contributed to her decisio...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome Emma & Jack, creators of the YouTube channel, Live A Little . As frequent listeners know, I enjoy watching cruise YouTube videos and from time to time I get introduced to The Joy of Cruising Podcast guests. That’s kind of how I met Emma & Jack. I say kind of be...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome Peta-Gaye and Allan , creators of the My Cruising Family YouTube channel, Instagram, and blog. As frequent listeners know, I enjoy watching cruise YouTube videos and from time to time I get introduced to The Joy of Cruising Podcast guests. That’s how I met My Cruising...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back Nancy and Dale Houchens. I learned about Nancy and Dale when I read articles about them in both USA Today and Miami Herald . The Houchens retired in 2015 to a life—planned well before their last day at work—of living on cruise ships. I wrote a feature about the Houc...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast , and in this special episode we meet members of the World-Renowned London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC) and discuss their participation in this summer’s Caribbean Gospel Choir Workshop Cruise on the stunning new MSC World America. I am delighted to welcome the founder of LCGC , Bazil Meade; Kaylin...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast  join me and guest Peter Knego, a maritime historian, journalist and creator of YouTube’s MidShipCinema , currently working on a video about the fascinating career and sad end of the Pacific Princess , Princess Cruises much loved ship that was the “star” of the Love Boat TV series that changed the face of cruising forever. With 2025 as the...

Send us Fan Mail I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , Carol Riddick . We met Carol on The Soul Train Cruise , where she was one of performers ranging from Soul Train TV show stars like Shalimar, to contemporary favorites like Carol. We enjoyed it so much that we booked for 2026. If you listened to our reflections of the cruise on Ep 165 The Soul Train Cruise I think...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome Bill, creator of Ritzy Travel Guide . As many listeners know, I am a serial viewer of YouTube cruise channels, watching them continuously while I work on my podcast and will even play them on mute when I listen to music. They are informative and sometimes introduce me...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome Nathalie Holiday, creator of Round Trip Nat , Travel Content Creator and World Cruiser. Nathalie notes, “I like to speak on the reality of travel. Nothing is ever perfect no matter what price point you are traveling at. Someone at a 4-Star accommodation can have the sa...

Send us Fan Mail Hello passionate cruisers. This is Paul and I am joined by a special guest, my wife Cheryl, to share our thoughts on the Soul Train Cruise. Longtime listeners and readers of my books know of my fascination of theme cruises, especially my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising http://amzn.to/2eamddf where I included a section on theme cruising and featured a chapter on my first t...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , 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 filmmak...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome Kathy Lu of Explora Journeys. Let me preface my conversation with Kathy by pointing out that Explora Journeys was not even on my radar a few months ago. Then a series of events converged in a short amount of time. In November the Cruise Critic Awards came out and Explora Journeys was announced as respectively Bes...

Send us Fan Mail Regular listeners of The Joy of Cruising Podcast know that I include in most conversations a section about the guest’s most memorable, funniest, and/or most embarrassing cruise or port recollection. The answers have ranged from touching—for example marriage proposals; to poignant, like last year when Iris from Life of Iris —who expected to join a vibrant Holland American ship as a...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , Sam & Brian, hosts of the massively successful DCL Duo podcast . DCL Duo is a Disney Cruise Line-focused podcast, with occasional detours into general cruising and Disney topics including the Disney parks, Adventures By Disney , Run Disney and Disney Vacation Clu...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , I am delighted to welcome Chris Warren . As you know, I try to portray cruising in all its diversity: region of the world; age; celebrities as well as “ordinary” cruisers with extraordinary stories; and profession—cruise CEO’s, Captains and crew, chefs, performers, travel writers, cruise influe...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Laura Pedlar, and Craig Shaw of Cruise Lifestyle Blog . Those of you with my second cruising book, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y , know that I featured Laura and Cruise Lifestyle in a section called “Bloggers: Cruise Community Champions.” Laura also came on The Joy...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast , Emma of the massively successful Emma Cruises. Emma is one of the most well-known cruise personalities in the world—and she is still in her 20’s. I first met her in 2019 after Emma shocked the UK cruising community at age 23 by winning the UK Wave Award for Best Crui...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Melissa Newman. Melissa Newman is a university professor who loves to cruise. For most of her life, she held two full-time jobs, serving as professor and also running a nonprofit organization. In 2022 she decided to stop letting work dominate her life and she exited the no...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 jus...

Send us Fan Mail 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 T...

Send us Fan Mail 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...yes) we occasionally have the honor to host.  Colleen McDaniel is Editor-in-C...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Brandee and Shannon Lake , a couple of special guests who were recently sailors, roommates on Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise on Serenade of the Seas. We want to get their reflections about the special cruise which left Miami December 10, 2023, and disembarked in M...

Send us Fan Mail 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 shutdown— Festival at Sea. Jon was a ‘house musician’ for Festival at Sea , the longest-running African-American cultural cruise. Created by African-American entrepreneur and owner of San Francisco’s Blue World Trave...