An agricultural designer/engineer (basically a 9-to-5 geek) takes a ride on a cruise ship because his aunt has an extra bed in her cabin. It is the first time he has been on a cruise ship…the first time he has SEEN a cruise ship. He is mesmerized.
“I loved the socializing,” says Que Hundermark, the former agricultural designer/engineer from East Lander, South Africa. “I’d never seen a Broadway show, and I was there every night, sitting in the front row.”
During the cruise, a staff person he viewed as a celebrity indulged him by answering questions for five minutes, eventually giving him some advice on how to land a job on a cruise ship.
Here’s what happened next:
“I called him every single day for two weeks. I was consistent, and persistent. The ship was coming to Cape Town on a Thursday and he said: ‘We’re here for four days. Why don’t you stop by?’ I was 1,100 kilometers away. Seven and a half hours later I was there. I lived in my car on the waterfront, right on the pier. Every day, I’d come to show him I was interested, but he couldn’t get off the ship. Finally, it was 1:30 in the morning on Sunday, the last day, I talked to him.”
Ten days later, after driving back home to quit his job and pack, Hundermark returned to the same pier…waiting for his ship to come in. It did, and that launched a career. Today, he is on the Celebrity Eclipse, as the Cruise Director. It is his fourth Celebrity ship. This is his fourth cruise-ship line, following Disney, Holland America and Norwegian. He also spent three years planning personal — and big-name — entertainment for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai.
There was nothing, as an agricultural designer/engineer, that prepared him for his next occupation.
Tomorrow: a taste of the Cruise Director’s life.