We often talk to doctors on cruise ships, fortunately not for the reasons most people talk to doctors. We enjoy meeting them because they bear an enormous responsibility — responding to the potential needs of thousands of people a week with no files charting their medical history — and because doctors are often more interesting than people might think.
Case in point: Peter Greiner.
We met Dr. Greiner on the Carnival Ecstasy (“I like a one-doctor ship”) — he’s now on the Imagination — and he turned out to be nothing short of fascinating.
He lives in Pittsburgh. He was born in Vietnam. Besides his medical degrees, he has one in 
history — post-medical — and has taught Chinese art history. He moved to the U.S. from France when he was 12. He couldn’t speak English. He has lived in New York, Iowa and Wisconsin. He has also been the chief medical officer on ships owned by Regent, Royal Caribbean and “Mickey Mouse.”
Other than all that, he’s just an ordinary guy.
Dr. Greiner’s family left Vietnam long before war ravaged the country.
“After World War II, the Japanese left,” he says. “We went from Hanoi to Saigon, and then to Toulon and on to Paris. Vietnam was a French protectorate. We were in France for six years. My parents applied for citizenship and it came through but they already had a visa for the U.S. so that’s where we went.”
How does somebody named Greiner emerge from Vietnam?
“My father was a chemical engineer at a paper plant,” he explains. “I went on an Asian cruise with my wife and we went back to Vietnam when I was with Royal, and we went on a tour of where I was born. We were trying to find where the paper plant was. The taxi driver didn’t know but he asked someone and the fellow got in the taxi because he knew exactly where it had been. It turned out his father worked for my father!”
Following a 35-year career as a general surgeon and gynecologist, Dr. Greiner rejoined the workforce because his wife found him a job.
“She was on the computer at two o’clock one morning,” he laughs. “I was retired, and sitting at home. It wasn’t very stimulating. She found a job on a ship [Regent].
Now she says: ‘You’ll never quit.'”
Extraordinary story, isn’t it?