Have you met anyone famous on a cruise? That's a question I'm asked over and over again.
Many, by the way, is the answer. And I'll come to that a little bit later. However,
the question I wish more people would ask me and other people who go cruising is, "Who
is the most interesting person you've met on a cruise?" The answer to that is much more,
dare I say, interesting, as you'll find out if you stick around. I'm Gary Bembridge, and
join me as we go people spotting on a cruise. I've been on many cruises and travel solo
on a lot of them. And like many people that cruise, over the years, I've found that meeting
people ends up being one of the most enjoyable and, as you sometimes find out, life-changing
parts of the cruise experience. As this comment recently left on my channel says, "It got
me thinking that cruising is not just about the ship. It's not just about the destinations,
about the dining, about the entertainment, but it's also as much about meeting people
and actually making friends." Now, the problem that I have is I'm not a
particularly social person, and I'm actually pretty introverted, believe that or not. And
I don't find it that easy to strike up conversations with strangers, which is kind of crazy because
it's actually really easy on a cruise. People kind of want to talk and get to know people.
Now my desire to meet celebrities and famous people on cruises actually drove me to get
over that natural reticence. I've found it's not that difficult, actually, to meet well-known
people on a cruise because they're often there for things like naming ceremonies, they're
on maiden voyages, or, as I've found, a lot of the shakedown cruises that I've been invited
on, either because they've been the godmother or just because the cruise line wants celebrities
to be seen on board or to be talking about the cruise.
Now on the more regular cruises, there are also lots of celebrities because they're guest
speakers, there's guest entertainers, they have partnerships with the restaurants or
other parts of the cruise line. And I've found that they're pretty accessible because they're
actually there to be seen and they're there to meet people. And probably, no doubt, it
helps feed their ego with all these people wanting to meet them. I've been to many, many
ship naming ceremonies. I've had the likes of Queen Elizabeth II there for P&O Britannia,
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall for Saga Spirit of Discovery, Sarah Brightman at Seabourn
Encore, Sophia Loren for MSC Preziosa, and so on.
I've got to meet quite a lot of them. And I've also got to meet other well-known British
and Hollywood actresses, broadcasters like Celia Imrie, celebrity chefs like UK's Marco
Pierre White, writers and journalists like Terry Waite, David Frost, and so on. I've
even dined with Micky Arison. Now his father created Carnival Cruise Corporation, and he
still owns much of it. This happened when I was on Seabourn Encore and the maiden voyage
in Singapore. I've even met Richard Branson on the preview of the UK Virgin Voyages Scarlet
Lady before the whole pandemic thing kicked off.
However, I realised after meeting these famous people, these celebrities, that, while it's
great, you have bragging rights to have met them, people are impressed, but you don't
really get very much from meeting celebrities and famous people at all, other than the bragging
rights. I've got so much more from meeting the so-called normal people on a cruise.
One main way I've got around my natural reticence to initiate conversations with people is by
not doing it at all. And the reason for that is a lot of people I've met are people like
you, people who watch or listen to my cruise content. They come up to me on a cruise say,
"Are you Gary? We watch a channel." And I've met some really great people this way and
really, really interesting people. So my natural reservation is completely thrown aside by
that. For example, Jim and Cammie, I met them on
Oceania Insignia in the Caribbean. We spoke about no-flight cruising, smaller ship cruising,
and we had a great time together finding out about our careers and so on. There was actually
another Jim who I met on Seabourn Encore on a Mediterranean cruise, where I got to learn
about his perspective on luxury cruising. We compared lines and experiences. I met a
fantastic family on celebrity Equinox in the Caribbean doing a multi-generational tour
and trip, and they spoke about preparing, getting tips, and a whole bunch of new ideas
about packing and stuff like that. I also met a fantastic lady on Holland America Zuiderdam
Panama, just as we were heading into shut down, where we be spoke about excursions and
tips for ports that were coming up. So absolutely fascinating, fantastic people that watch the
channel come up to me, and I really get to know them.
The problem, though, is many of the people who are on cruises with me only come up to
me at the very end of the cruise, so perhaps at the farewell party or even when we were
disembarking. And that's such a pity because I've met those incredible and interesting
people much earlier on on the cruise and had a chance to get to know them and spend some
time with them. So if you are ever on a cruise with me, please come up and say hello very
early on because I've learned so much more about how I can improve what I do by meeting
passionate cruisers like you, and I learn so much, not only about what you want, but
I learn so much more about cruise lines and tips.
The other way that I've got to meet interesting people is by getting involved and doing things,
like excursions, for example. But actually the best way that I've met people is at the
casino. Playing blackjack is one of the best. That is where I met Vera. Now Vera is in her
eighties when I first met her. She had worked as a young girl on Cunard Queen Elizabeth.
She was a hairstylist working on ladies in first-class right back in the late fifties.
What I found very interesting and inspiring about her is she decided from that experience
that she wanted to be one of those ladies travelling in the kind of first class, being
pampered. So she got off the ship. She started a hairdressing salon. She eventually built
a whole chain of those, sold those, and now constantly, throughout the year, cruises on
Cunard in the best cabins, wining and dining, meeting people. And I found her absolutely
fascinating. What I learned from her is the power of ambition and drive. She saw something,
she wanted it, and she got down and made it happen. And it was just wonderful seeing her,
and we've come across are on quite a few cruises on Cunard over the years, just embracing and
enjoying life. I find it very inspirational. Another way that I've actually met a lot of
people early on in the cruise is that the muster drill, which, of course, this may change
moving forwards as the whole muster drill is being reinvented. But I've met some phenomenal
people as we've all come together, put our life jackets on, and sitting next to people
striking up conversations. One of the most interesting people that I
met was on Silver Sea Silver Whisper on a Baltics cruise. Sitting next to us where Hal
and Meg Smith, and we started talking and discovered that their daughter Elizabeth was
one of the six singers who were on board that particular cruise. We heard the story over
the course of the cruise, how as a little youngster, she had wanted to be an entertainer,
and now here she was after having studied, onboard a ship, fine -tuning her expertise
and her performance skills. She even did a one-woman show one night talking about all
her life growing up. And we've actually kept in touch with Hal and Meg and also watched
Elizabeth's career grow as she's gone for additions and appeared on television and in
films. And eventually one day we're going to be able to say we knew the famous Elizabeth
Smith when she was just working on ships. What have I learned from the people that I've
met at muster drills? What I've learned is that everybody has a story. Everybody has
something interesting about them, and getting to know people through the course of the cruise,
you are definitely enriched by it. Of course, what I also realised with the experience of
Elizabeth, you need to think of the crew as people who have incredible stories. So over
the years, I've also made more of an effort to get to know the crew members that I interact
with, and you'll be surprised at just how fascinating and interesting their lives are.
As someone, as I mentioned, like me, that's not that great at striking up conversations,
I learned to take advantage of being seated next to people or at a table with people because
you have to talk to them. And some of our closest friends today, we met through sitting
next to them on tables dining. Many of those have actually been Cunard itself. Rebecca
and Diane, from New Jersey, we see them whenever they're in the UK. The US, we coordinate our
trips ahead of time. We talk a lot, and we have learned so much from that relationship.
Ben and Sarah, we met on a cruise once out of Singapore. We watched them as newlyweds,
as they were on the cruise, growing up, and we've seen them have two kids and their kids
grow and develop. I've learned that some of your closest friends
through life, of course, we meet doing things that we all like, whether it's at school or
clubs or work or whatever. So why not out at sea? The people there who have the same
interests, the same passions, the same desires. And I've learned that you can actually meet
phenomenal friends and really interesting people by simply having the potluck of sitting
next to them. One of the people that I met on board that
many, many people have been most impressed that I met reinforced a lot of what I've been
talking about so far. I've been on many behind-the-scene tours and bridge tours. They're all fairly
standard, and they're all pretty much the same, except when I met captain Kate McCue.
Now she was the first North American female captain of a big ship, and she's a trailblazer.
She also has her famous cat, Bug Naked, who's Instagram famous. Everybody went crazy on
social media. All the people I knew went absolutely just crazy when I said that I'd met her and
the cat. But as great as that was, I still found ... She
was interesting, and of course it was very impressive, but the much more interesting
people that I have met are the other passengers, not necessarily the names. I've been inspired
by them. I've been challenged by them. I've made friends. So I have met a lot of well-known
people on board. I've met celebrities on board, and that is fantastic. It's bragging rights.
Meeting the captain was a bragging right. However, the most interesting people, the
people that really impacted me the most, are people that are just simply interesting that
you stumble across and come across on a cruise. I'd love to know about the interesting people
that you've met on a cruise. And while you think about that, why not watch these two
videos that I've put together here with some other interesting, thought-provoking things
that you may not have thought about when cruising? Enjoy.