Hi I'm Gary Bembridge.
This is another of my Tips for Travellers.
I'm here in Fort Lauderdale
at the offices of Porthole Cruise Magazine
with the CEO Bill Panoff,
and we're going to have a chat about cruising.
Hi Bill.
- Gary, how are you?
- Very good, thank you.
Thanks for being on the channel.
- My pleasure, thanks for the invite.
- [Gary] So we'll maybe just start off
for those people who don't know,
is could you tell me a little bit about Porthole Magazine,
because I guess it's been here for a long time.
- Sure, sure.
We've been publishing Porthole for over 25 years
and I was a cruise director on ships many many years,
for Carnival.
I worked on the Carnival,
the Mardi Gras,
the Festival I mean ships you probably never heard of
that are well nevertheless,
I started in the industry when
cruising was just in it's infancy.
And at that time there was no magazine
to speak to the consumer about cruising,
so I got an idea.
I surrounded myself with people who knew publishing.
I saw some of the advertising
and that was the birth of Porthole.
Which is now the leading cruise consumer magazine
in the marketplace.
It's kinda like Condé Nast Traveller for cruisers.
We cover destinations,
new ships,
what's hot on board,
where to go in new regions.
Things of that nature and the people
who are reading the magazine are
frequent cruisers,
armchair travellers and
those who just have an interest
in learning more about cruising.
- But you also have,
because also on the website you have videos
and you then have Cruise Control.
Do you want to talk about what that is?
- We do yeah.
So Cruise Control is a YouTube channel
that was born out of Porthole Magazine.
And it's a channel that I host,
much like the channel you host,
and we cover cruising.
I go on trips occasionally.
We cover what's hot in cruising,
new destinations,
new ports.
I do interviews on the channel occasionally,
and it's Cruise Control with Bill Panoff
is the channel on YouTube.
- Great, so Bill now why don't you
ask me a bunch of questions about
what you want to know about me?
- Your start and your beginning
in the industry was quite unusual.
I mean you used to work for
Johnson & Johnson's I understand.
- Yes that's right. - You we're global marketing,
- Yeah.
- and you were on board a cruise ship
giving a presentation likely for
Johnson & Johnson's I believe.
And then you just got exposed to this
cruise industry and that caught on like a bug.
- [Gary] I mean I think the thing that I learnt,
I was like so many people it was,
"a cruise is not for me,"
which most people say.
And then I realised once you get on a cruise,
you're addicted.
The minute I got on that ship,
it was like I was amazed at the ship
because you have no real perspective
despite of what you've seen and whatever,
so you got on the ship.
Whereas while the ship is amazing,
then the minute we pulled away from the dock
and started sailing out to sea,
that's when I got it.
I suddenly got cruising.
And from then I was addicted.
I think that was the bigger half for me,
which is also what I still use now
is that sense of how you get people to
get past that, "It's not for me."
Because once they're on the right cruise line,
I know that people are hooked.
- What is the one thing that really appeals
to you about the cruise experience?
One thing if you could just summarise it.
- [Gary] I think the one thing that appeals to me
is that sense of just being at sea.
- [Bill] Right.
- There's an incredible feeling when
you're looking out and there's just ocean all around you.
That for me is just the amazing thing.
There's nothing like it.
We all have sort of experience on land which are great,
but being at sea there is something.
I think there are something in us as people
that when you are at sea it's magical.
It's like people like to live by the sea,
there's something about the sea that just draws you.
That's the best thing,
is being at sea.
Like sea days,
I love sea days.
- Oh yeah yeah yeah.
I mean I used to work onboard
as a cruise director and it just,
it's magical to be out there in the tranquillity of cruising.
- [Gary] The tranquillity is incredible, yeah.
- Yeah perfect.
So the channel Tips for Travellers,
how does it differ from other channels out there?
I mean it's so informational and so topical
and just really well done.
- Thank you.
I mean for me the key thing,
I mean is partly in the name,
Tips for Travellers.
So a lot of cruise blogs and vlogs out there are a lot about
they talk about the experience
and a lot of it's about,
"look at me on a cruise, here's what I'm doing."
Which is fine and some people like to watch that,
you know the whole vlogging thing is quite big.
But for me,
my real focus is helping people
understand how to do things, how to do them better
so my approach is around tips I'll talk about.
You know how the cruise line works,
how do you pack,
what should you be aware of,
- [Bill] Sure.
- what's included on a cruise.
So it's quite practical.
I think that's the key the key difference.
It's less about my experience and
more about packaging the experience of how I can
help you cruise better,
find the right cruise line,
I think that's probably the key difference.
- And you've probably converted a lot of
non-cruisers to cruisers obviously because
a lot of people have misconceptions about
claustrophobia and motion sickness
and things of that nature.
- Yeah.
I mean it's interesting because you know looking
the great thing about YouTube
and the following I've got is
I get lots of comments and questions.
The thing that still amazes me is how many I get
of people who say,
"I am never gonna go cruising
"but I love watching your videos about cruising"
- [Bill] Right.
- So I think that you know,
that to me says this is probably
the people that are using it to get onto cruise ships.
- Right.
- I think the other thing that helps a lot is
helping people find the right cruise
or to help them have the confidence to move cruise lines.
You know so for example someone loves Carnival
but finds it very difficult to move because it's familiar,
- [Bill] Sure sure.
- [Gary] So I think what I do is,
actually if you're thinking of going on
Royal Caribbean or Holland America,
I do little videos around what you can expect
and how it's different and I think that helps a lot.
- What is the biggest misconception that non-cruisers have
would you...?
- [Gary] I would say the biggest misconception by far is,
"I am gonna feel trapped."
That's the one thing I hear - Right.
- and well my point is like well first,
that's impossible because first of all,
you're probably going to be on the ship
from six o'clock until eight o'clock in the morning
and then you've still got to eat,
drink,
go to a show,
gamble,
party,
sleep. - [Bill] Right.
- You can't possibly find any time to feel trapped.
That I think is the biggest misconception
I've found. - [Bill] Right right.
And once they're on board they're mildly surprised?
- Well once they're on board they're frustrated
because they can't do everything.
So I find people come back,
well they come back saying,
"I am really frustrated because you know,
"I just didn't get a chance to do anything."
And particularly if they are going on the bigger ships.
There is to much going on.
You know if you are going off on port,
you just haven't
there is not a chance you can do everything on board.
It is impossible. - Right right.
Do you have a favourite destination?
- [Gary] My favourite destination is
one we we're talking about which is Antarctica.
- [Bill] Right.
- So, I think the destinations which are
my favourite destinations are the ones that
you can only get there by cruising,
or the best way to experience them is by cruising.
So Antarctica,
The Arctic,
Alaska,
those sort of places which you know,
a cruise is the most magical way to see them.
When I am answering what my favourite destination is,
it is normally the one I am currently on
or about to go to because
wherever you go to you know,
cruising takes you to good places because
they know people like it.
So it's very unlikely on a cruise
you go to a place you don't like.
Because it might not be 100% for you
but the cruise line is not going to take you places
that passengers aren't going to like.
- What is your plan in 2020?
What does your itinerary look like?
- Well I'm very lucky because of what I do I mean,
2020 I think is pretty full now.
I am going to Antarctica again.
- [Bill] Oh wow.
- I am doing a couple of trips around Europe both river,
which I love doing river.
River I find it so different,
the channel is very popular.
Doing some ocean,
river,
Mekong that you mentioned,
and I've forgotten everywhere else I am going.
There's so many places I'm going.
- It's amazing.
It's really a great honour and a pleasure to meet you
and hopefully we can do this again in the near future
and for those viewers watching,
it's Tips for Travellers on YouTube.
Gary Bembridge a pleasure being here with you.
- Great thank you very much.
- Happy happy sailing. - It was good to be here.