{"id":16252,"date":"2013-02-13T01:21:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T09:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=16252"},"modified":"2013-02-13T01:21:11","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T09:21:11","slug":"wednesday-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=16252","title":{"rendered":"Tales of Two Ways to the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

ON BOARD THE CROWN PRINCESS — There's a million stories why people can be found on cruise ships that go far beyond buying a ticket to an opulent vacation…<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

Dylan Belton is the senior doctor on the Crown Princess<\/a>. That makes him a good man to know. It also makes, as it turns out, for an interesting story.<\/p>\n

Seven years ago, he was preparing to leave home in the United Kingdom for Australia. He had agreed to an 18-month contract, half to work on a search-and-rescue helicopter and half to work in the intensive care ward of a hospital. Before leaving, he called a friend from med school, John Penniston-Bird, so they could say their good-byes before going their separate ways.<\/p>\n

Only one day was available, and his buddy was applying for a job on Cunard's Queen Mary 2. The only way Dylan could get on board to visit John was to pretend he was a candidate for an interview because only applicants were allowed on the ship that day.<\/p>\n

So he "applied" and boarded the Queen Mary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"I couldn't think of anything worse than going on a cruise ship, never mind working on one," he recalls, "They wanted to interview me, and then they asked me to join Cunard<\/a>. I told them I was going to be away for 18 months [a perfect excuse] and they said: 'That's okay.'"<\/p>\n

Dr. Belton finished his search-and-rescue — "one of the best jobs ever" — and intensive care commitments in Australia, joined Cunard and switched to Princess<\/a> when the two Carnival<\/a>-owned cruise lines quit sharing the same headquarters. For six years, he has been working four-month contracts on Princess ships.<\/p>\n

As for John…<\/p>\n

"He didn't get asked for an interview," says Dr. Belton, "but he eventually did get on a Cunard ship and also worked for Princess. I didn't really think about it before, but now we've done a complete swap — I'm working on a ship and he is settling in Australia."<\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Giorgio Pisano's title on the Crown Princess is "Maitre d'Hotel." He started down this path when he was just 15 years old and "didn't like school."<\/span><\/p>\n

His mother and father, naturally, were horrified when their son announced he was quitting.<\/span><\/p>\n

"My parents and my older brother told me at least to go to a school where I could learn to make a living," Giorgio recalls. "I went to food-and-beverage school for three years and after the first year I had to make a choice [in specialty] from the bar, concierge, dining room and galley. The dining room was my choice."<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduating, he signed with Princess in 1976, when the cruise line had just two ships, one of them The Love Boat (Pacific Princess). Between contracts, he went home to northern Italy and found work in five-star hotels to sharpen his skills. Today, 37 years later, he is in charge of all the restaurants — three dining rooms, three staff dining rooms, two specialty restaurants and an assortment of smaller eateries — on the Crown Princess, which until June will remain the third-newest ship in a fleet of 16.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Giorgio Pisano, it all began with being a "high school dropout.'<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\tSapphire Princess<\/a>
\n\t7 nights
\n\tApril 20, 2013
\n\tLos Angeles<\/a> (return): Puerto Vallarta<\/a>, Cabo San Lucas<\/a>, Ensenada<\/a>
\n\tInside: $699
\n\tCost per day: $99<\/strong><\/span>
\n\twww.princess.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ON BOARD THE CROWN PRINCESS — There's a million stories why people can be found on cruise ships that go far beyond buying a ticket to an opulent vacation… * * * Dylan Belton is the senior doctor on the Crown Princess. That makes him a good man to know. It also makes, as it… Continue reading Tales of Two Ways to the Sea<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,25,31,19,15],"tags":[137,648,912,72,86,35,150,542,102,64,242,65],"class_list":["post-16252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deals","category-people","category-ports","category-ships","category-stories","tag-caribbean-cruises","tag-crown-princess","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-ships","tag-cruises","tag-cunard","tag-mexican-riviera","tag-mexico","tag-princess-cruise","tag-queen-mary-2","tag-sapphire-princess","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}