A Princess Career's Last Chorus

For Gianfranco Verde, the road from opening for The Beatles to closing the door on a 39-year career on cruise ships has been, well, long and winding. He’s heading into his final contract with Princess, as Hotel General Manager on the Coral Princess. You might have made the (lucky) guess that he’s from Italy, but… Continue reading A Princess Career's Last Chorus

Cunard coming clean…er

Maybe there aren’t strange things happening at Cunard, but what’s been happening is “unusual” for sure. A few weeks ago, Cunard floated the idea of changing the registration for one or all of its ships. This was to allow the fancy cruise line to sell “weddings on board” — which isn’t allowed on a British… Continue reading Cunard coming clean…er

Celebrity, Wine the Perfect Match

As wine lovers go, we don’t think we’re especially HM, even though we did once have TWO sommeliers at our TABLE while on a cruise ship, the Celebrity Millennium. At the other end of the wine bottle, we were on a Princess cruise where there was ONE sommelier for the entire ship! The point here… Continue reading Celebrity, Wine the Perfect Match

Freedom Stifled by a Storm

Friends of ours were on a cruise ship in rough weather in August and the environment was an education. They learned about the Beaufort Scale, a 200-year-old measurement used for storms at sea. It goes from 1 to 12 and, somewhere between Antwerp and Bergen in the North Sea, their Princess ship was in an… Continue reading Freedom Stifled by a Storm

Carnival Comedy in George's Hands

George Lopez is the kind of comedian who can leave you rolling in the aisles or rolling your eyes. That’s both the blessing and the curse of most comedians, isn’t it? One of the things — and there are many — that makes Lopez a little different is he has established over the years that… Continue reading Carnival Comedy in George's Hands