The Joy of Cruising Podcast

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The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Paul C. Thornton

217 episodes

22 hours ago

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Roland and Emma, certainly worthy to join the handful of guests who have been on the podcast for three times. I first met Roland and Emma a couple of years ago on the 119,000 member Melanin At Sea, created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities A Rich and Jazzy Life, and I anointed them as my new travel role models, after they posted photos and desc...

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Places & Travel

Society & Culture,

All content for The Joy of Cruising Podcast is the property of Paul C. Thornton and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Roland and Emma, certainly worthy to join the handful of guests who have been on the podcast for three times. I first met Roland and Emma a couple of years ago on the 119,000 member Melanin At Sea, created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities A Rich and Jazzy Life, and I anointed them as my new travel role models, after they posted photos and desc...

Show more...

Places & Travel

Society & Culture,

Episodes (20/217)

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Roland & Emma's Grand Asian Invasion Holiday, 86 Days, 35 On Diamond Princess Episode

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Roland and Emma, certainly worthy to join the handful of guests who have been on the podcast for three times. I first met Roland and Emma a couple of years ago on the 119,000 member Melanin At Sea, created by friends of the show and global cruise personalities A Rich and Jazzy Life, and I anointed them as my new travel role models, after they posted photos and desc...

22 hours ago

1 hour 34 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Richard Fain, Chairman and former CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, Author, Delivering the Wow

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am honored to welcome a special guest, Richard Fain, Chairman and former CEO of Royal Caribbean Group (RCG). Mr. Fain’s new book, Delivering the WOW: Culture as Catalyst for Lasting Success (October 21, 2025; Fast Company Press), reveals actionable lessons from Royal Caribbean’s rapid growth: a culture that motivated employees to deliver WOWs to customers, transforming the customer and empl...

1 week ago

38 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Life of Iris, How Does It Work Living on a Cruise Ship as a Family?

Send us a text This week I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Iris MacBeath creator of the blog Life of Iris. I wrote the story of Life of Iris in my latest book The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON in a section called “Ship life,” which followed the career of four past and present crew, staff, and officers from three different cruise lines. At the time, I wrote that In the community that comprises onboard life, Iris is a dual member: first, not only is sh...

2 weeks ago

1 hour 19 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Gary Bembridge, Reflections on Luxury Cruising, Explora Journeys II & Silverseas Silver Nova

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back Gary Bembridge, the embodiment of the successful Tips For Travellers blog, podcast, and most notably, YouTube channel. I have to be careful introducing Gary, lest you think of me as being sensationalistic. I’ll just give you one opinion, and one fact about Gary. It is my opinion that Gary is the smartest person out there when it comes to cruising; regardless of ...

3 weeks ago

1 hour 2 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Matt Hochberg, Royal Caribbean Blog, Matt's Reflections of Royal Caribbean Star of the Seas

Send us a text Hello passionate cruisers. This week I am delighted to welcome Matt Hochberg, creator of the Royal Caribbean Blog, indisputably the leading unofficial source for all things Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. To say he dominates his space is an understatement. The Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube channel is the second most popular cruise channel in the world, with 378,000 subscribers, its blog is the third most visited in the world and the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is a consensus top t...

4 weeks ago

29 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Chris Gray Faust, Executive Editor of Cruise Critic

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Chris Gray Faust, Executive Editor of Cruise Critic, the world’s largest online cruise resource. Former travel editor of USA Today, and the winner of a Lowell Thomas travel writing award, Chris has visited more than 100 countries. She speaks frequently on the topic of cruising, and her expertise has been featured in dozens of media outlets, including Forbes, NBC...

1 month ago

55 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Life Well Cruised, AmaWaterways, Ama Magna (Double-Wide River Ship), Cruising the Danube—Munich to Budapest

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ilana of Life Well Cruised. Ilana is one of my best friends in the cruising blogosphere, having been featured in my second cruise book, Cruising Interrupted http://amzn.to/3seFU8y, and on the podcast twice before. Life Well Cruised was the second episode ever of The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 2, Life Well Cruised; Life Well Cruised was also on Episode 95, Ilana, Life Wel...

1 month ago

1 hour 21 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

The Traveling Type

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome James and Tracey, making memories one trip at a time, and creators of The Traveling Type YouTube channel, and Instagram. As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly as I work on the podcast seemingly every waking hour—often with the sound down. When a The Traveling Type video comes on, I turn the sound up because I know they are l...

1 month ago

1 hour 21 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Jessica Jane Magic, Headliner, Disney Cruise Line, Performing on the Ocean

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Jessica Jane Peterson, embodiment of Jessica Jane Magic, a dazzling magician, daredevil, and an experienced sleight-of-hand artist with more than 10,000 shows under her belt—many while performing on the ocean. Jessica has performed on cruise ships sailing to over 42 countries and has also entertained on tours for the men and women serving...

1 month ago

1 hour

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

MH Family Adventures, Royal Caribbean Star of the Seas

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome back RacQuelle and Ron, creators of the fast-growing MH Family Adventures, YouTube channel, Instagram platform, and Facebook Group. How fast is MH Family Adventures growing? We then were on the podcast well over a year-and-a-half ago YouTube channel had 15k subscribers, impressive especially give that less than 2 years prior, RacQuelle was a full-time educator. Now t...

2 months ago

56 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Cruise with Ben & David, Holland America Line Flagship Rotterdam, 1st HAL Cruise

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Ben & David creators of Cruise with Ben & David, one of the top cruise brands in the world, certainly when it comes to content creators and cruise influencers. They have a massively successful YouTube channel with over 320k subscribers—in the top five of all cruise channels. This is the 3rd time Cruise with Ben & David has been on The Joy of Cruising Podcast—you ...

2 months ago

50 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Mete and I, Always Fun Onboard

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Anwar and Lametrius Arif, creators of the Mete and I YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook page. As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly as I work on the podcast seemingly every waking hour—often with the sound down. When a Mete and I video comes on I turn the sound up! Their channel is described as follows. “Our channel is ded...

2 months ago

56 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Hugo Ortega, Founder, Superyacht Sunday School, Seasoned Superyacht Captain, Below Deck TV Star (Season 12)

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to host Hugo Ortega a multi-talented seafarer who can bring a multitude of perspectives to the listeners of the show. Hugo Ortega is a Superyacht Captain 500T, educator, and founder of Superyacht Sunday School, a global platform helping aspiring crew enter the luxury yachting industry. From his humble beginnings in the Bronx to captaining superyachts around the world, Hugo n...

2 months ago

1 hour 2 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Paul & Cheryl’s All-Time Top Ten Cruises

Send us a text In the last couple of years, we have started checking off some bucket list cruises. Given that they are bucket list destinations, vessels, or both it is of little surprise that several of those bucket list check offs made it on to this list. And as we have a number of bucket list cruises in front of us, i suspect this list will evolve over time. Like later this year, our next cruise is a bucket list trip to the Panama Canal on Holland America Lines flagship, Rotterdam, and if w...

2 months ago

35 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Alissa Musto, Recording Artist, Singer, Pianist, Actor, Miss America Finalist: Performing On the Ocean

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to welcome Alissa Musto, Recording Artist, Singer, Pianist, Actor, Miss America Finalist. And Alissa performs as a guest entertainer onboard cruise ships. I am as passionate about music and comedy as I am about cruising so when I get a chance to have a conversation with an entertainer who also has performed on cruise ships, I am in my glory. What a resume! Alissa’s website desc...

3 months ago

1 hour 5 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Ashley Kosciolek, Cruise Writer Extraordinaire

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome freelance travel writer Ashley Kosciolek. Ashley is a former editor at Cruise Critic for 12 years, but I really got to know her work during her time writing mainly about cruises but also some general travel articles wrote about cruises for The Points Guy. Ashley can address virtually any cruise-related topic from the consumer side, and even make topics about as exciting...

3 months ago

1 hour 6 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Janet Bava, Chief Commercial Officer, Windstar Cruises

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Janet Bava, Chief Commercial Officer, Windstar Cruises. We have had several small ship specialists on the podcast as well as leaders from some of the lines, and of course passionate cruisers providing us their cruise reports from their time on various small ship and river cruises. This is the first time we have exclusive focused on Windstar Cruises, and I am excited to ...

3 months ago

48 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Emily Gelineau, Grammy Award-Winning Violinist, Pianist, Vocalist, Composer and Arranger: Performing on the Ocean

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to welcome Emily Gelineau, a Grammy award-winning Violinist, Pianist, Vocalist, Composer and Arranger who is known for interpreting modern styles of music from jazz to country, pop to rock, and world styles such as French and Brazilian music. Emily performs as a guest entertainer onboard luxury cruise ships. Listeners know I am as passionate about music and comedy as I am about cruisi...

3 months ago

45 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

MrBucketlist, My 50th State, NCL Pride of America Around Hawaii, Plus, New Universal Epic Universe

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Justin Sorrell aka MrBucketlist. Justin is a video creator and influencer and the creator of the 19k subscribers MrBucketlist YouTube channel where you get to follow his adventures not only on the seas but anywhere else. You see MrBucketlist is a certified thrill seeker, never He cruises exclusively solo, which is relatively atypical for men, and has done 30 Solo Cruise...

3 months ago

35 minutes

The Joy of Cruising Podcast

Christian McBride, Grammy-Winning Jazz Superstar Bassist, Christian McBride's World at Sea

Send us a text Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to host Christian McBride, multi Grammy-winning jazz superstar bass player! We talk about performing at sea, and hear about Christian’s inaugural charter cruise, Christian McBride's World at Sea, January 20-27, 2026. The cruise will be on Celebrity Summit from Ft. Lauderdale, stopping at Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Christian McBride is creating a new kind of experience for jazz fans ...

3 months ago

39 minutes