Alan Shapiro, 20+ Years Working and Living on Over 15 Cruise Ships

Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Alan Shapiro to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, to talk about what it was like 20+ Years Working and Living on Over 15 Cruise Ships. Alan shared with me:

“I worked on 7 different cruise lines and probably at least 15 ships. Some of my more exciting cruises included going to Antarctica, cruising down the Amazon River, going on a Nude Cruise to Alaska. I even was on a ship that hit an iceberg in Alaska. I worked on cruise ships as small as 500 passengers, and the largest 4000 passengers. I worked for Holland America Line for five years as an onboard Cruise Consultant, and three of those years, I also had my girlfriend/fiancée/wife on board. For a very short time I was with the Royal Olympic Voyager in 2003, which was starting a world cruise, and immediately after sailing from Fort Lauderdale, the line declared bankruptcy. This led to us being held in limbo in St. Thomas for more than a month. I was the Art Auctioneer, and had 300 paintings onboard, some pretty valuable, being held hostage. After about 4-5 weeks, we were moved to Ft. Lauderdale. And there is an intriguing story about what happened to me, the paintings, the passengers, and the crew, who were held in limbo for several months off Ft. Lauderdale Beach. 

I started working on ships around 1989, when cruising was quite different than it was when I retired, and certainly much different than the way it is now. I did work on some contemporary, large ships, such as the Carnival Glory and Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas. But I preferred working and sailing on the smaller ships like the Costa Riviera, or The Marco Polo. I also spent six months sailing transatlantic on the old Queen Elizabeth 2—the QE2— before it was taken out of service. Quite a different sailing experience from the other cruise lines.” 

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• 3:39 Marker 1