From Uber Driver to Multi Six Figure Cruise Content Creator | Cruise Podcast Ep. 32

Hey hey what’s up everybody Welcome to the laita Loca Cruise podcast man I got a special episode for you today talking to a former crew member who is now one of the world’s largest cruise content creators he went from driving in Uber to making multiple six figures a year and

Traveling the world we’re going to be talking to Jay from the ship life we cover a lot of topics the future of cruising his worst cruise in 2023 and well do the crew members actually get get the tips all this and more without much further Ado let’s talk to Jay from the ship Life hey hey hey what’s up everybody Tony with loka and I am joined by Jay from the ship life today Jay how you doing man I’m good I’m good just got back into town and it’s nice to be home for a little bit I I I don’t know very

Many people that travel as much as you do you are always on the go and that’s why I’m glad to talk to you today CU I want to pick your brain about some of the Great Adventures you had in 2023 and talk about some of your plans for 2024

But before we get to that juicy uh giblets as you like to say tidbits I know your catchphrases before we get to those things let me ask you this I’ve heard it around the way and in other places but I’ve never heard it here I want to know your origin story

Like how you became a cruising superhero how how did you get into cruising it’s it’s it’s actually a weird story how it all worked out because it wasn’t planned uh originally um this is before I started working on ships I had I done like a small contract with Carnival and

At the time like for me as a kid I had always had this fascination with travel I I don’t know why um and and marine life I I actually wanted to be I wanted to be a marine biologist as a kid and uh my sister IET she was obsessed with

Carnival Cruise Line so my parents we didn’t have a lot of money my sister was a nurse and she would get dropped off at the Port over in Tamp over in Channelside all the time and I always wanted to go but we never we never got

The opportunity and I was like you know one day I’m going to get on one of these cruises you know and uh fast forward to the adult life when I became an Entertainer working at Bush Garden SeaWorld Universal uh I wanted a cruise ship contract and at the time I’m not

Sure if you have been staying with Carnival they used to have break dancers on their ship called the fun force uh and I I tried so hard at first I got denied they said I didn’t have the skill to do it kept training kept training uh gotten opportunity and then

When I got my contract a lot of the guys have been doing a lot of crazy stuff and uh they ended up delet they got rid of the contract and got rid of all the break dancers so that’s why they’re not there anymore you know breaking a lot of

Rules um fast forward to uh after I was working for the Harlem glob Trotters I was a international tour manager at 24 years old so we had like Australia tours European tours stuff like that that was my first real taste of traveling and I

Knew I wanted to do it for a living I just didn’t know how it was going to work out uh so I got a contract out of nowhere at the time I was kind of in a very low Point had no money uh had a really really crappy car breaking down

Left and right dcard detailing on the side get a contract working for a Norwegian uh at that time at that low point I think that’s a lot of the times where you get very creative um I was looking at starting potentially like a podcast talking about like travel because that at that time

I’d already been to like maybe 40 countries uh with the Harlem Globe Trotters and said okay well we’ll do that when I got the contract um the idea of trying to get that done and live streaming and whatnot it was impossible as a crew member so I said okay well I

Guess maybe I’ll start a YouTube channel talking about what it’s like living and working on cruise ships because when I was there a lot of the people that I would meet and on the ships uh one thing you have to understand is that a lot of the crew it it’s very there’s a

Hierarchy as well but there’s also kind of just like people hang out within usually their departments so the entertainers hang out with entertainers and maybe some of the officers and then the you get the idea room stores room storage and stuff like that I hung out

With everybody on board and as I was hanging out with everybody I’m hearing all these crazy stories about things that are happen L you know some illegal activities some stuff that was just interesting and fascinating I’m like oh wow okay maybe I could talk about this

Uh made my first video took my iPhone 6 in my my little solo cabin uh and started just talking about what your first days like working on cruise ships and I told myself said okay well maybe the video got like 100 views that’d be cool within 24 hours the video had about

30,000 views so I said oh wow okay well maybe I’ll make more of this did a tour of my um what we call a Jack and Jill cabin so I have my own room but I to share the bathroom with the uh adjoining cabin next to me I gave a tour of that

And then I had a friend that had an officer cabin which is the biggest cabin that you can get as a crew member uh technically so he he let me do a tour of his room and then I had a friend that worked in the spa we just kept doing

Videos and the channel just kept moving uh I think within like maybe a couple weeks I have like 7,000 subscribers oh wow but I had no idea how YouTube worked I didn’t know you could make money I didn’t know you could like you know put the cover photos on thumbnails I didn’t

Know about any of that titles so uh I get back home um I get a car I was doing Uber in between all of this like entertainment lifestyle and it lo and behold I went and picked up a 2015 Kia Optima after I got back my crucial

Contract first guy I pick up some YouTuber plays video games uh I had to day I couldn’t even remember who the guy was it was I was just so kind of like uh like dumbfounded what he was telling me but uh I’m not sure if you’re familiar

With bore million doll homes over there oh yeah nice guy yeah so I pick up this guy over there and we start talking obviously I’m a talker you know this guy’s like oh you just do YouTube or just you don’t just do work on uh or

Just do Uber rather uh you got to do something else like oh well I’m a break dance or I do X Y and Z and I got this YouTube channel I heard you can make money doing it and he’s like yeah dude I’m a YouTuber technically Google paid

For this house now this house had to be worth at least a million at least and uh he’s like yeah man he’s like let me you know let me see your channel and first I was kind of conf I was I was I was kind

Of like I didn’t want to show him he showed me his channel like 12 million subscribers and I’m like n I’m good my little 7,000 it’s nothing to talk about nothing nothing to brag home to Mama about so I showed him anyway and he’s like dude you know like I’ve never seen

Content like this before you know you could be you making a lot of money if you actually like put more time into this I’m like no that’s not true um he’s like dude I’m telling you right now he’s like I’ve been doing this for about I think said like six seven years he’s

Like I had never seen Channel like content like this so you could easily be pulling like5 $10,000 a month within like a year or so if you apply yourself and I’m like no that’s not true me at the time that was unheard of uh long story short he’s like yeah I’m going to

Starbucks man if you want to like I get you’re doing your Uber grind but if you want to come over and hang out with me I can break everything down for you because I’m telling you you could you this could be a gold mine for you and

And and an opportunity to really do something cool uh if if you put your mind to it so I go there for about maybe 10 minutes he breaks everything down how you can get monetized on YouTube and how YouTube isn’t just a video watching thing it’s a platform and if you’re able

To create value YouTube will pay you handsomely and you’re also able to have an impact on whatever it is you’re trying to get across to people so I mon I I applied for the the Google monetization program AdSense and then within like a month I got to check for

Like $0000 at the time for me I said okay oh wow this is cool side money so continued doing Uber I was making videos off on the side and then that went on for up until let’s say the pandemic uh at the time I didn’t really plan on

Doing cruise ship stuff per se I I figured I was going to go back to work on Cru I could talk about that but I was more interested just in travel in general airbnbs and Airlines stuff like that um I tried an Airbnb locally at home and the money just went into the

Shadow realm it was gone right I said okay this isn’t going to work the video uh it just flopped right so okay maybe at that point I was kind of discouraged was going to quit YouTube and at that time I’m checking on some of my friends

As an Entertainer a lot of us are either working at theme parks or working on cruise ship so we all kind of know each other had a friend that was on the celebrity Apex uh this is when had just got built sitting in France uh she’s telling me that they’re all getting that

She’s hearing rumors and it’s getting confirmed by her managers that they’re all getting sent home right this is co this is like maybe I want to say uh middle toward the end of February um I then check on my friends Ro because a lot of my friends that I work with over

At Universal Studios were working for Caribbean they’re telling me that they’re hearing rumors you know about it you know uh so I like okay cool check my friend that was a cruise director at the time with Carnival and he said he hadn’t heard anything but obviously there was

The rumors that were flirting around so I started diving into let’s say the the cruise news right explaining to people that what was happening was uh it wasn’t just a thing that was going on overseas because remember this is OG Co all this is like Europe and like everywhere else

In Asia at the time and I said you know this does come over which I think it will um it’s a very intricate process getting all of the crew members on the ship it takes about 3 months right between the testing that we have to get

Physicals and and visas for a lot of the crew I it takes about two to three months to get on board the ship I said to send everybody home talking about upwards uh 50,000 100,000 crew members to 100 different countries very intricate process we don’t know what’s

Going on with this Co thing so depending on that you fact that into the equation if they do that they’d have to suspend the cruise ship industry and if they did that cruising and travel would be shut down uh as far as it coming making a full

Comeback it’ll take six months to a year video goes viral right at that time I I had since deleted it because I was kind of like scared I didn’t know what that meant at the time right but the video the video got about it it was getting

Upwards about half a million views and every comment in there was was uh it pretty negative stuff oh you you’re just trying to scare people blah blah blah you you hate cruising you’re doing this you’re doing that you’re just trying to make money uh this is on March 6th I

Believe 2020 and then sure enough March 14th the entire Global cruise ship industry gets suspended for a month validates everything that I was saying the next thing I know I started getting followers and and droves that next I want to say maybe what uh three months I get like an additional like 20,000

Subscribers and then I got to check for like three grand and I said oh okay this wow maybe I got lucky you know I through in that process continue making videos and um I thought I got lucky got a check for like 2,800 and I was like okay you

Know what I’m diving all the way in I stopped doing Uber stopped doing everything and I just I was stayed up for days making videos and then now uh here we are when cruising came back I jumped on the first cruise that I could uh couldn’t do it was a celebrity I

Think celebrity Edge that was like one of the first ones back couldn’t do that one um and then I scr up whatever money that I had after paying off all the debts when the money started coming in uh jumped on Carnival marra and I said

Okay this is a make a break I had like maybe like $4,000 in my account paid that that’s almost how much the cruise cost and then traveling over to to Port canaval um video did well all of them you know people were like oh dude I

Didn’t I thought you were just like kind of like a monitos like news guy we know you were a dancer and you know you did all this stuff so uh lo and behold after that saw a comment of somebody it was a couple people like oh well he’s only

Been on one ship he’s a crew member so he doesn’t know what it’s like as a passenger so from that point forward for the next two years up until really now um I try to jump on as many cruise lines as possible uh and as many shifts as

Possible that way it kind of like validated I’m like okay I know I’m a crew member pre- validated on that end but it there was some Merit to the idea that I had no idea what I was talking about as a as a passenger so that that’s

Why I was uh jumping on as many cruises I thought it was fun I thought it was was interesting but I said okay let me let me go ahead and understand the other side of things so here’s where we are now sorry I know that’s a lot that’s no

That’s that’s a great story and it it really you know it it really speaks to this idea that we all get places in different ways like you know you and I we Cruise a lot but we you know we we get there in different ways I I

Completely can connect with this idea of trying to find something to you know align with the passion and you know I’ve heard you say it in several different venues is that you’ve always been somebody you know really hooked into this idea of how travel is a way to

Continue to learn about the world and to expand your horizons and that kind of thing so to me it’s a really neat story that you know like so many of us we’re just trying to get through life and get things done and do the best that we can

And we’d love to be doing work that we’re passionate about and so it’s almost like a chicken and an egg thing you were working you were an Entertainer you had the opportunity to work on a cruise ship and then you really realized that you could tie the you know your

Passion for travel with the vocation and and now you’re a cruiser who you know has a business about travel so it it’s it’s a very cool story let me ask you this because you said you crew you traveled to 40 different countries you know before you became a cruiser and

There’s a lot of conversation right now with the Next Generation you know the Gen Z or whatever’s after the Millennials they’re really interested I don’t know if it’s true or not they’re really interested in having an immersive you know travel EXP experience a lot of people of that age demographic sometimes

Turn their nose up at cruising saying well that’s not real travel cruising’s not real travel you’re just going somewhere and popping out for five hours for six hours for eight hours how do you answer that question if somebody says to you hey I know you’ve been around the

World on a cruise ship but that’s not really traveling you’re not really seeing those countries do you think cruising is real travel I do I mean travel is travel right whether it’s a road trip to to I don’t know bingi North Dakota or if you’re going on a plane to

To Europe travel is travel and personally for me I’m a big advocate for it because I think travel is the best education you are ever going to get in life I think it’s better than any formal education you’re going to get better than College in some ways because I I

Think that between the networking and the things that you learn like when you go outside of let’s say where you’re from and you go see how other people live it does change you in in a very big way especially if you make a big jump from let’s say the United States over in

Europe you see how things whether be from where that’s where uh let’s say the original descendants or whatever you want to call it from America the influence is from Europe right so if you go back to the quote unquote I guess Homeland for a lot of people or if you

Go to Africa you go to Asia and you see how people conduct themselves it’s very different than how it is in the US and I’m not saying it’s better or worse because there are some aspects there always going to be pros and cons to everything but I do believe as as a a

Human you should go experience other parts of the world because you’ll really get a a a a real grasp on how things work as opposed to you staying in like a and let’s call it uh unintentionally ignorant mindset of where you originated from and the people that you associate

With and let’s say even in the city because every city has its own Vibe yeah absolutely I think that’s completely Fair I’ve talked about that before that you know a lot of the mentality in the United States is not necessarily to travel abroad we focus on

Traveling from state to state we may go see our cousins in the middle of the country or heaven forbid if you’re on the East Coast you make it all the way to the West Coast and you know it’s because we you know we live in a big

Country obviously you go look at the geography of Europe and it’s you know you can look across you know the The Straits of Dover or whatever that you know you can you can see France from England you know what I’m saying so it’s a it’s a wild situation but to the point

That you’re making like one of my favorite cities is Washington DC I’m a little bit of a history nerd I’ve been to DC several times in my life I love the architecture there and so I’m 52 years old I’ll be 53 this year this is the first time the first time I’ve ever

Been been to Europe was this past year in 2023 and I was able to spend like 6 hours in Paris and you’re just driving around Paris and you go oh I understand where all of the architecture in Washington DC came from it came from

Paris or you know you travel to the UK I I spent you know a couple weeks in the UK and and to your point you know we have a we have a very kind of short history here in the United States not yet 300 years and of course there were

Native Americans here that you know that the the the continents populated forever but you know like you said the European influence the African influence in the United States is limited and uh it is really special when you can get out and see something else because it really does inform your perspective you know

It’s such a funny thing in the US we’re we’re trying to convince people to get passports which is a wild you know wild conversation people like I’m just going to cruise my birth certificate oh man get a passport it’s going to open up the going to open up the whole world for you

I I really am impressed the fact that you know when we started cruising back in 2017 I started making content and I got some of the same uh criticisms like oh you only been on one Cruise you you’ve only been on two cruises you know

How how why why should we listen to you and I think sometimes people miss the idea that not only are we uh trying to inform and educate but we’re trying to entertain right so you know I may not know I may not have been on 50 cruises

But I know how to talk to people and I know how to make people smile and laugh and do my best to entertain and you know it’s sometimes hard to hear that criticism but like you I’ve tried to be on as many cruises as possible and I

Don’t think I’ve cruised as much as you I’ve hit 50 cruises and 10 cruise lines now but uh man you really hit it hard in 2023 and you hit a lot of new cruise ships can you briefly rund down what your what you went through in 2023 which

Cruise sh which Cruise Lines oh man let me see if I can go down the list um I think my first cruise was I went back on the mscape with uh my girlfriend and her her dad and uh his girlfriend we went on that one um Carnival Freedom for a Super Bowl

Cruise let me see if sorry I’m trying to go down the list I did um bir I did Scarlet lady Valiant lady I did a back so I did got off of that one went off of that one then went to celebrity celebrity Beyond I did the which one was

The carnival uh I did one over in UK with Carnival I can’t remember the ship but I also did um let me see oh there’s so many ships just start to think about it uh we did Brazilian lady I did the launch for resilient lady I did P

Iona um man see there so many I I I couldn’t even sorry it’s all like a blur to me now we did the celebrity asent celebrity Ascent we did the I just did Carnival Jubilee as well yeah it’s been it’s been a busy year for sure very very

Busy so when you think back on 2023 did you have any cruises that you felt like were really great Cruise experiences and then maybe any Cruise experiences that were not so great absolutely oh yeah yeah yeah for sure uh best cruise hands down and I would recommend it to anybody Antarctica for

Sure I went with Atlas ocean they are fairly new line but man uh D It For Me Like Somebody that wanted to be a marine biologist as a kid right to see let’s say killer whales hunting orcas hunting uh to see leopard seals up close penguins that aren’t running away from

You they’re literally walking right past you without a care in the world the experience was was out of this world for me uh I I would do it again 100% it’s very expensive cruise and one thing I would say little note that I noticed a

Lot of people like oh I want to go to Antarctica I would suggest if you go 100% do do the um Expedition Cruise it’s it’s it’s very different if you were to go with the cruise line I think Holland America goes over there and Princess or something like that but it’s kind of

Like a like a driveby right you you just Sail by and say okay look at the iceberg okay M look there’s a uh there’s a whale 5,000 miles away make sure you take a look get your binoculars out it it’s a completely different experience uh so so

That was my favorite Cruise hands down there’s bar none for sure worst cruise ah let’s see that would be the the carnival luminosa to Alaska I love Alaska and I told myself I would go every year I’m trying to like jump around with a different line every

Year to go to Alaska uh but man it I think it was it was a it was a combination of like expectation being a little high considering like the year prior 2022 I took my mom to Alaska on our R Ring’s Ovation of the Seas forgettable experience Alaska was

Everything I thought it was going to be I had been there uh to Anchorage and Fairbanks back when I worked for the Harlem glob triers but going on a cruise is it’s a cool experience I went on luminosa and it was advertised as like a refurbished ship you know a furbished

Right one of the ships that that came in from uh Carnival’s Italian line Costa and I said okay it’d be cool man I paid it was $4,000 for a um a standard balcony which is Alaska you’re going to pay a little bit more that’s understandable right but I also

Understand that it’s one of the most expensive cruises that you’ll take as like a general Cruise because of primarily the excursions right if in a lot of these little towns they are they are cool to see but you’ve been to Alaska if if you’re not doing some if

You’re not doing the excursions then you’re probably going to miss out on a big chunk of what needs to be seen and those excursions they cost upwards hundreds of dollars for a person so that’s where the money’s going it’s like okay I spent $4,000 on this you know

There’s rust all over the room Plumbing wasn’t working here and there uh toilet over flooding the entertainment was almost non-existent all the venues that you know and love they had knockoff brands of them instead of Guys Burgers like people’s Burgers something it was something like that man I’m like what is

This you know you know it was just it was it wasn’t the the type of cruise that I had enjoyed all the ports were a little bit shorter naturally and uh you know it was just it wasn’t very organized at all from the entertainment on to this the overall

Experience yeah that’s that’s a bummer especially like when you lay out a significant you know cruising’s becoming less and Le it’s becoming more expensive honestly like I think the days of finding super cheap cruises uh starting to go away so yeah you lay out $44,000 and then you all that money for

Excursions and I completely can empathize with that we’ve tried several different cruise lines in in Alaska and we you know it’s funny you know if you’re going to pay up I you pay up for like a princess or a Holland or you know something nice I didn’t believe it but I

Did a I did a carnival cruise to Alaska this year and while it was fine it was not the same it was not the same I think it was the spirit it was not the same experience as going like on even like the NCL Encore we went on there and I’ve

Been on appr Princess ship there so um yeah so one thing that stuck out that you mentioned in that uh lineup of cruises last year is you went on Pano Iona and P is traditionally a British Cruise Line uh filled with what I would assume many British passengers what was

It like being on that cruise ship of course it was a brand new cruise ship which I understand it’s a nice cruise ship so but what was the EXP experience like cruising as an American on a primarily British Cruise Line um let’s just say it it it wasn’t exactly my cup

Of tea pun in tend so you could get you could get tea every day yeah yeah oh yeah yeah absolutely I mean the thing was so let’s say the ship was not bad right if you picture let’s say um I would say there was a European style to the ship right

Let’s combine let’s say Carnival’s newer ships right their XL class ships like a Marty gr or a celebration or Jubilee mixed in with like an MSC ccape H okay right so that’s what it was as far as the the architect and design of the ship

From what I what I noticed and what I gathered right um very nice ship beautiful elegant um and but for me what I what I primarily look for I’m a social guy right so if you noticed in my reviews and everything anytime I do videos I do look at like more so the

Social aspect of things like for me I I would pride myself as as a social light right whatever you want to call I’m a social person but I also I’m a former Entertainer so those two metrics are what I primarily look for as far as the overall experience I think those are

Very important components to a cruise experience people look at what what kind of food they have and what not sure but I do believe the social aspect and it for me it just didn’t really do it for me um I was I was clearly like the only

American on board um and and there from the entertainment it was almost non-existent uh the The Comedians was not it was not like again it’s just a clash of cultures right there’s a lot of stuff that didn’t really read with me and as far as the events it was a very

Um very boring Cruise the ports were nice you know we went to uh to Norway and whatnot it was cool um it was very chill right there weren’t really any nightly events let’s just say everybody was in bed by like 89 right um there weren’t a lot of

People my age the ones that were there was kind of it just it was it was quiet and for me I don’t mind a quiet Cruise if I know what I’m if I know what I’m getting that Mak sense yeah Cru to Antarctica or Alaska I understand right

Here it’s kind of like okay I SP a lot of time in the UK and they party hard over there they have a good time and it’s not more so the party it’s just usually the energy is a little bit more up right if you go to like a London I’ve

Been to leads I’ve been to Manchester I’ve been all these places and I get on the ship and it was just it was it was dead and I said okay there has to be some kind of vibe going on here it was non-existent yeah it it it so it brings

Up a couple of interesting things you know we’ve established that you’re really an Entertainer first this is kind of you know passion for travel uh break dancer Entertainer and so one of the biggest things and one of like if you look at my CR cruising profile one of

The reasons I like to go cruising is for the entertainment what’s it like being somebody that’s been on both sides of the you know been somebody in the audience been somebody on the stage how how do you approach what what makes you excited what’s like your favorite type of cruise Entertainer entertainment and

Do you think maybe you’re too critical of it because you’re too close to it yeah excuse me and I think you and I we’ve talked about this before maybe in person um it’s like a blessing and a curse right as as a Entertainer or even at this point I guess a former

Entertainer well I still do YouTube I still considered entertaining as well um you can’t take the lens off right like I notice things differently than everybody else it’s it’s very difficult unless a show blows me away you can’t just watch if that makes sense yeah yeah right

Let’s say something that will blow me away uh my favorite show honestly one of my favorite shows on land and sea would be on H Royal Caribbean wonder of the Seas intense their diving show okay yeah uh and something that I look for just in in general like me being uh

Let’s say a b boy right a break dancer for us um whether it be a battle or a show we try to show people things that they probably would never see right the idea is to be original and I think in this this era now right there’s always

Going to be Trends right whether it be just in design of ships or entertainment in this uh particular case what I see now is let’s say if you go on let’s say what you call a premium to Luxury Line um It’s usually the same thing more or

Less on across the board for everybody you go to premium luxury um what really all the Rave now is a lot of the aerial acts right the silks and that that’s the thing that’s going on now right um You Go on let’s say a very streamlined cruise line outside of maybe like uh

Let’s say um Norwegian they they they really they’re really big or I guess they’re starting to kind of pull back a little bit because budgets and whatnot Co everything that happened they were really big on a lot of the Broadway shows Royal Caribbean they do have the

The dive show they have a lot of cool shows I like Innovation yeah um you go on like a carnival and MC for example and sometimes the region as well um now what they’re doing is it’s kind of like they they they’re pulling back and you’ll see these giant

LED screens that just kind of make the which cool short technological advancements but you’ll see a lot of the back it’s just they make a digital background for the stage and the setup and then they’re throw in a couple props and you see the same cookie cutter shows

Over and over and over right like for me being a dancer and being let’s say a quote unquote street dancer or hip-hop dancer naturally I am going to be a little biased because I get tired of in the within the industry and this is at theme Parts too don’t get me wrong

You’ll see contemporary uh maybe some tap dancing here and there a little bit of jazz it’s the same style of dance and more or less the same style of music that they’re dancing to it’s the same thing over and over again and to me it’s just kind of

Like uh in their mindset like well we we’re just trying to distract them until we get them to the next port or until the casino opens up or what have you I I get tired of seeing it I get a little bored there’s a lot of times where like

For me if if I don’t I don’t believe in like just walking out on shows I think it’s kind of rude and disrespectful however if you’re if you’re all way at the top right your nose bleed I kind of creep in there you know there’s times if

I look at a show and I’m like okay I don’t think this is gonna g to do it for me I I’ll kind of just like stay at the top all very very top I’ll walk in the door get my footage stay for about 10 minutes right come back maybe within

Like five minutes go get a drink come back get the footage that I need kind of analyze the show and and I’m out because at this point for me it’s just kind of like the same shows over and over and over I’m not saying like I’m a big

Advocate I think the cruise lines maybe they should put in more like uh Street dance I think would be cool some break dancers yeah but you know but anything else right like there there’s so many things that they could do they could Implement more magic into the show they

Can Implement uh I’m a SK Walker and I also do like the power skills the skills that you can do back flips and stuff on yeah yeah I get it sure Rocky ship there’s a lot of elements you know but maybe more acrobatic shows I think would

Be another cool addition and element to add into the cruising industry which they haven’t done yeah I’m a I’m a big fan of any kind of circus Arts like if they can get you know jugglers like still I like all the aerial type stuff

But yeah I I think you make a good point I think a little bit the cruise lines are kind of uh tied their hands are tied a little bit because they have to deliver to their demographic right we’ve been cruising princess a lot and I feel

Like I’m even in my early 50s I feel like I’m on the younger side of that demo so you end up getting a lot of singers doing like hits from the 50s and 60s a lot of the you know music’s kind of more you know laidback the dance is

More kind of a classical type dance and uh it’s a it’s a challenge I agree with like one thing I’ve noticed is I definitely like it when there’s a live you know musical score to a show opposed to a track uh to your point some of these more modern cruise ships are

Definitely using a lot of the LEDs so it’s tough you know like I’m just going through my mind as talking about I think like Norwegians got that Stomp the floor I think that’s a little bit of a interesting modern show Roy the floor burn the floor that’s what it is I

Actually work with them back when I worked at Bush Gardens as well very very cool I mean I’m sure at this point they got a different cast there’s different there’s different cast sets that they have but burn burn the floor is amazing yeah there’s not a lot of examples of

Shows like that but that’s one that sticks out in my mind that’s kind of Divergent of the of kind of the norm you know like technology you know sometimes the screens are overdone but I do like how I’m wonder of the SE in that affector show where they use the

Drones got it also I think that there’s some neat technology there I think that’s why I gravitate more toward Royal when I think about entertainment because you get the ice skating which is interesting you get the the aqua Show which is interesting you get of course

Uh usually a good stage show which is interesting but then when you roll over to like their piano bar it’s it’s very tame like it’s not you know it’s very laidback so it’s not that exciting but no piano I prefer Carnival for sure yeah yeah so it’s interesting how you’ve kind

Of got to go out there and find the the cruise line that kind of matches your cruising profile so let’s let’s go through cruising profile uh for me you know I I make content so a lot of my uh decisions are based on content first right running a business but then if I

Was just cruising without that uh without that being my motivation you know I like to uh I like a good show I like okay food and I like a you know a casino that goes late into the night I like it when cruise ships are up late

That’s kind of my thing what would you say that your cruise profile like if you Stripped Away the fact that hey you’re motivated to go on the ship for the channel if you were just cruising for pleasure what what are you looking for if I was cruising for pleasure I mean I

Guess I’m Still A youngish Guy so I I like a good active crowd right uh not too OPP U so I would say in my Lane let’s say a carnival or a virgin I think is nice because you’ll find some very social people it’s a very good crowd

Everybody gets a chance like most of the people that I like when people are not uh antisocial right I i’ I’ve never understood why people they’ll go sure hang out with your group I understand if you’re you let’s say you haven’t hung out with your best friend in a while you

Live cross country or whatever but um I like when there’s like a lot of social interaction to me I like to get a chance to know people because I mean for me I I consider it education I’m like okay this person’s from from Idaho what’s up there

Besides potatoes you know I like I like see this kind of stuff um I like an active crowd and I wouldn’t say like that doesn’t necessarily mean a party crowd uh but I do like when there is like an active environment everybody’s not in bed before 9:00 um people are out

Checking out all the events and I would say for that reason a lot of times I might gravitate more toward Carnival and I would be clear to say like maybe Carnival’s newer ships you kind of roll the dice if you if you go anything under like the Vista class in my opinion

You’re kind of rolling the dice with Carnival you never know um it’s not as consistent but I if I go on like let’s say a carnival Vista or Mar gr or a celebration you’ll find a more social environment and you’ll people there are more willing to hang out there at all

The events they really participate in the events going on on the ship I like seeing that it’s the same with Virgin as well yeah it’s it’s a weird thing because you know experiencing a bunch of different cruise lines I’m I’m kind of about the vibe too I would you know I’m not the

Most social like I’m not looking to be in the middle of a bunch of people but I do like to be around people that are having a good time and I get frustrated sometimes when you go on these cruise lines and it just seems like a bunch of

You know older grumpy people right like you know it’s funny car Carnival gets a knock for being Rowdy you know we hear about the fights and all that kind of stuff but I appreciate Carnival for its diversity I appreciate the fact that they offer a product that people from a

Lot of different economic strata can get into and I think that you know you might have a rowdy crowd but it’s not a lame crowd you know and I I don’t know if that’s you know and I know not everybody’s looking some people are just happy with the lame crowd or the tame

Crowd or whatever crowd and you know it but um for me Vibe I always like Carnival you mentioned the you know certain styles of Carnival ships one question I I’m always fascinated by I know you’ve been on a bunch of different Carnival ships do you feel like the new

XL class does it still feel like Carnival to you or does it feel like they’ve done something different with those three cruise ships they they’ve done something different for sure they’ve definitely I guess Revol revolutionized and kind of innovated a little bit uh not enough in my opinion

It’s it’s it’s it’s difficult to explain that but but um I would say yeah they’re definitely trying to change the tone um however if you’ve seen my videos I do believe that as far as their policies and the image that they’re trying to put out they’re not doing a very good job uh

Which is unfortunate so you’ll see a lot of the rowdiness and whatnot but I do believe that Carnival and as far as how they’re designing the shits I think they’re they’re in a way are headed in a good direction and in some ways not so

Much like the Jubilee for example I I I didn’t I didn’t enjoy it I didn’t oh really it was still a beautiful ship uh I did a review on it is like just to make it short um I was expecting a little more like the way I explained it

Is that Carnival you know in a way there there could be an argument to be made that in the before time let’s say Carnival used to be number one that’s a fact right Carnival used to be re like it used to be the the most Cru out even before Royal Caribbean Royal Caribbean

Didn’t really get in any kind of prominence up until I want to say what the freedom class yeah right that was when they started innovating a little bit more and started becoming a little bit more I guess quote unquote cooler right more modern uh the thing is with

With Carnival is that I I believe that when you if you were to compare the two right without seeing the ships in their design if you were to hear the names and and just in all the stuff let’s say if you had put off to the side just Okay

Roller coaster or ice skating rank um let’s say indoor uh skydiving right A lot of people would naturally associate that with Carnival if they didn’t know right I think that Carnival should have been in a way where Royal Caribbean was but they failed to innovate in a lot of ways in my opinion

And the thing about Carnival is that they I know it’s weird it’s a weird take right but I think when you hear Carnival I hear rides and festivities and you know not not just like okay well now we’re going to put a roller coaster and that’s going to be like for the most

Part and it’s a slide like every other line right but when Carnival what STS them apart let’s say back in like the 90s early 2000s what I thought was really cool was that if you go on their ships right you go on like a conquest or a freedom they have these very funky

Colors and in a in a a character and a style to them right if you go um the way I put it as opposed to the Jubilee um let’s say jubilee was supposed to be the the dedication to like let’s say Texas right yeah yeah and I think they fell

Short on it because um if you look at let’s say the carnival minia I know it was technically supposed to be for Costa but the whole idea of the ship is based off of like Venice and Italy the Italian culture as soon as you get on that ship

You can recognize it if you go to the Carnival Conquest it was it was dedicated to New Orleans as well and then somewhat of the French culture as soon as you get on the ship you could recognize it from just the paintings and just the architecture and how the ship

Was designed I thought it was very Innovative very cool there are some things that they experimented with which I thought was also very cool as well you go on the Jubilee they didn’t do any of that you know they put the the Texas Star on the ship and then it’s like

There’s like the big you know that big XL seat by the casino there’s a star on it yeah but other than that some of the events they had like a like one country singer uh and in my mind I’m like okay let’s say the area on U where they have

The pizza right in um on on celebrations called 820 biscan it’s a Miami like feels like right Miami slice that whole deal uh it’s just called the shores on Jubilee and I’m like I get you have beaches in Texas but y’all could have called that

The The Saloon or or G up or something you could have there’s so many other there’s so many cool ideas right because in my mind from a business perspective as well like okay there are a lot of people that like to essentially quote unquote collect cruise ships right they

Want to go on all of them and for me I’m like where’s the incentive to as a as for me as a passenger if I know all the ships are exactly identical there there’s no reason for me why not just fly to Miami I’m right at the Port

Already I can just go ahead and get on the ship why fly to Houston take that long commute over to the carnival Jubilee when I have two other ships that of which being marig gr and celebration where are they’re like it’s probably more convenient to get over to those shits yeah I

Think sorry no I was gonna say it’s it’s an interesting idea I’m gonna make the trip to Texas way far away from all the cruise you know ports here in Florida I’m going to make the the trip out there and like you know I don’t think the ship’s going to be that drastically

Different you know I think it’s great for Texas that they’re getting all of I think it’s great for Texas for gston that they’re getting all of this love but like if you look at the itineraries that leave out of Galveston it’s just like the same old Western Caribbean itinerary

So KML yeah you got to be on those ships Just For the Love of cruising or you know if you like just going to KML or something like that so you know the the funny thing for me and I felt the same way with the celebration you know there

There was there was some differences between the celebration and the Marty gr but really the only thing that made it Miami was that section that you’re talking about they had some interesting pizzas at the pizza place they had some different sandwiches at the deli which I

Know on the Jubilee they’ve got like a couple different pizzas and and you know a couple different sandwiches so maybe maybe that’s the strategy maybe that’s the play We want to make it as much like what you know as possible with maybe just a sprinkling of one or two new

Things but to your point as you know and sometimes possibly I know I lose a little bit perspective because maybe somebody’s only going on one Cruise a year right so they’re not really going to you know for me like my biggest beef with Carnival entertainment is the

Opening show and them doing that you know uh Van Halen song from 40 years or 20 years ago what right now it’s like okay every are we never going to change the show this is the same show I was at in 2017 this is you know why would I

Ever come to the welcome show and that’s what you’re offering up for the first night of entertainment so it’s like but then maybe it’s my perspective because I go on a lot of cruises right so it’s uh maybe it’s okay for the average person

That you know but at the same time I you know my big motivation to go on the Jubilee is just to be like oh I went on this new cruise ship that just came out and hopefully people will be interested in my take of walking around the cruise

Ship so it’s uh yeah it’s not going to really any ports that I want to go to and and I have to travel to Texas which I love Texas and people in Texas but it’s not the most convenient you know getting to a Cru like tomorrow I’m going

To go on the shortest cruise I’ve ever been on you know I’m going on the 2-day MS uh MCC Shore out of Canaveral so I’ll be back home Sun yeah I’ll be back home Sunday that’s the shortest you know I’ve been on Margaritaville at C but you know

I don’t really count them as a major Cruise Line I’ve done that little back and forth so you know it’s it’s so much more convenient just to drive to Canaveral than to fly out to Galveston but I’m interested to see it I do like what Carnival’s done with those XL class

Like I’ve been on all the small carnival and the medium ships I do think that they’ve stepped up on the entertainment and they’ve stepped up food on Carnival is still a little bit his I mean you know Shack big chicken at lunch is really great but the buffet is

A little weird and some of the restaurants are a little weird I think that was a a waste of space to be honest with you the buffet have you seen though the buffet there is massive they never utilize the whole Buffet ever there’s always like a I kid you not a quarter of

The buffet is being used all the time and the stations are weird too it’s like even though there’s a lot of seating and stuff it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of like food like different food yeah I mean one thing I will give Carnival credit for as far as like snacking

Around they have the best right from to the the green the Blue Iguana Cantina and all these other stuff man like they I do believe they do a really good job at that for sure right there’s no other cruise line that could touch I like Guys Burgers right I’m there all

The time Shack big chicken there there’s a lot of options there um and surprisingly too when it comes to like I like Habachi right Carnival from what I’ve seen as far as the main lines they’re the only ones that I’ve seen that offers um Lobster like on the Tepanyaki I I think

I think Royal Caribbean might but I’ve gone with MC I’ve gone with Norwegian they don’t it’s either like scallops or I’m like yeah but come on I I like my let’s keep it some things you should keep streamlining crab Lobster stuff like that but they didn’t have it yeah I

Guess a big complaint that Cruisers have this year and especially old school Cruisers is that you know A lot’s changed I know like just in the top of my head the going from two room cleanings a day to one uh the charging on Carnival for the third entree we we

See the cruise lines coming out of the shutdown with massive piles of debt trying to figure out ways to give essentially the same Cruise experience but to do it for a less operating cost on their end both of you and I are both young Cruisers we’ve only been cruising

You know for a few years is there anything noticeable to you coming back from the shutdown that seems different from service and offering wise than what we saw before the shutdown uh so before the shutdown really the only experience I had was working on cruise ships so

There’s that however I would argue uh somebody that went back as soon as possible to go on the ships um immediately after they started back up I’ve there’s a noticeable difference between then and now yeah obviously it was it was expect it was oh excuse me expected that the the prices were going

To go up right uh to a two a degree right but when you have the quality going down and it’s noticeable right sure it’s little things here and there but then you start kind of feeling it too I don’t how to explain that but you feel it you’re like okay this isn’t

Yeah what I’m used to right um I was on the Carnival what was that the the minia right and um you know I was hanging out one of the interior designers and a lot of the marketing because they invited me on for the uh the christening Ford right

It was like a pre pre-event before the inaugural saling they had over in New York and just talking to and I’m not you know I’m not calling anybody out nameing any names or anything like that but the thing is what they told me is that which

I mean I’m not surprised um I was being told that that the casino the people in the casino um were the ones that primarily kept Carnival from from going under that’s why if you notice with a lot of that that’s that’s across the board with a lot of cruise lines yeah

What people don’t understand is that the casino I would argue the people in The Players Club and the casino loyalty programs that they have are getting better taken care of than the people that are diamond status and the highest status possible with the lines because

They are the ones putting in a lot more of the money if that makes sense I know average whether it be a small or large ship typically they’re going to pull in about a million dollars of profit every Cruise so they understand that for them if they focus to make sure those guys

Are taken care of like for me when I was on Jubilee a lot of the people that were on board that I was speaking to were not influencers they were not they were Diamond but they were only there by way of getting so many free and and cop

Cruises from the casino you know they get as much candy as they want they get room service they get the dining option I’m like in my mind I’m like I don’t gamble but yeah if seems like if you want quality service that might be the way to go

These days I mean you would know right yeah absolutely I go to the casino a lot and you know casino is such a huge profit center for the cruise lines it’s kind of funny you know uh the big thing that’s happened here in Florida is finally some law got passed where they

Can have craps tables and roulette tables and sports betting at the Tampa Hard Rock Casino and casino all over Florida so I think it was last week I was at the Casino trying out some crap strategy that would allow me to have a lot of money in play at the same time

But not lose a lot of money with the sole idea of when I go on these next few cruises that I’m going to try to play that strategy so that I can get a free cruise and because to your point uh if you’re in that cruise you know if you’re

In the cut with the cruise people you’re with the casino people you’re definitely getting you know free cruises you’re getting you know upgraded experiences getting free meals at specialty restaurant you’re getting stuff sent to your room and uh onard credit Excursion on oh yeah I think you know I’ve gone on

Cruises before where I think the Jubilee I think it’s a it could be a a casino offer for us I think we have like $1,200 in onboard credit that may have been associated with the casino and so uh yeah you know I don’t like to lose money

I I do like the I like the rush of it you know like um I I got addictions like everybody else I love the rush of gambling yeah I love the rushia gambling and I’ve been pretty good about tempering it but as I look forward to cruising and cruising being so much more

Expensive and I think we’re of the same philosophy I like to pay for my cruises so I can say whatever I want of course it’s part of the business that kind of thing and so I’m not necessarily like getting press trips and invites and

Stuff like that I like to pay for it but uh if I could do it cheaper by getting a casino offer I’m certainly not not opposed to that but yeah that’s kind of where I am at the moment you know the thing is right and then you know it’s

It’s it’s all it’s such a difficult thing right um first of all I don’t come from money at all right up until a couple years ago I I I was dead broke I had nothing to my name right um and up by that I mean like the pandemic right

Like I said life of Entertainer I have a son you know it’s been rough and it’s like to see that kind of money coming in but even I guess on on the bad end to see that money going out as much right the thing is right I try to be as as as

Transparent in my videos as possible maybe a little too transparent right but it’s like I always question a lot of things I’m like okay does this really make a difference right um as far as the growth some of it’s procrastination some of it’s laziness some of it’s just kind

Of like am I going about it the right way is there a reason why because I’ll separate right for me I think there’s a difference between like a quote unquote influencer versus like a content creator I always tell people that an influencer will essentially go where the wind blows

They’ll say what they need to say to get that paycheck whatever whoever’s offering them the money they are now an advocate for a a lover of right which to to let’s say the cruise Line’s credit like especially let’s say Royal Caribbean I’m not saying Royal Caribbean hires like Cruise haters or anything

Like that but they they hire out um outside of like a lot of which their marketing team is phenomenal for sure yeah but they’ll hire like people that have status uh social media status or big names that aren’t necessarily Cruisers but from a marketing and business standpoint it makes sense

Because the idea is to bring in more people that maybe aren’t into the cruise space understandable uh for me on the other hand I’m like all right I pay for all of my cruises and like dude like I’m sure you could imagine the the dollar amount that i’ I’ve put into cruising oh

Yeah I mean I know what I paid for cruises and you’ve cruised more than I do so yeah it’s it’s it’s not a small number yeah by the time you factor in the flights uh the food excursions all that stuff that also needs to be done throughout that process it adds up very

Very very quickly uh like for example people like oh why aren’t you always bringing your girlfriend with you and I’m like dude like she lives in at the at the moment you know up until maybe let’s say two months from now she’s living in France so it’s like I fly her

Out from France then we fly to wherever it is that we’re going uh food for two people it adds up very quickly you know if I’m there for work I’m not going to make her pay for things that doesn’t make sense you know uh but all of that

Starts to sack up and I didn’t realize this until I I I had um my um accountant like look at everything right and that was like one of my first real times somebody took like a deep dive into it you know taxes I’m like okay I know I

Can write a lot of this stuff off sure right but it’s like I looked and dude I I got to give you the number so within uh about what four this is this uh 2023 um this is when I was like jumping on a bunch of cruises back and forth for

Europe within about about five six months $138,000 in travel expenses yeah yeah that’s I’m like for me a little light goes off my head I’m like man you know there’s probably a way that I can I could have kept all that money and it’s not greed but it’s so much it’s such a

Complicated thing dealing with that when it comes to taxes and also building your life I can’t put 100% because I have a life to live too I have things that I have have the son to provide for you know I got bills like everybody else

That I also have to look out for and in my mind I’m like okay there has to be a way and also there’s I get a little discouraged sometimes too because like usually I I I don’t hold back I don’t on my on my content right and I think it’s

Like I wouldn’t say it’s intentional I’m just honest and for me I come from a different I I come from a different place uh in the cruising space face I’m a former crew member and for me we I I I come from like a more realistic approach

Being a crew member versus like getting on cruises no offense to anybody like you or anybody else you guys cruised you liked it and you kind of like started to dive into the the YouTube space I was in it from the other end being a crew

Member yeah right so I was already very realistic and for me U and even when traveling right I always hear that the the thing that that that gets me is like when people are intolerant of other people’s cultures like for me I’m in Mexico a lot and it’s every time I go

There even up until this point every time I go there people like oh the cartel you know make sure you you’re safe you’re this I’m like you know I would argue out of the now I’ve been to over 75 countries I would argue aside from countries that maybe are going

Through some type of turmoil War whatever the case may be the United States is also very very dangerous as well if you’re not careful I’m from the south side of Chicago originally and I go there for like a couple days visit my family don’t go out and I’m out because

You can’t wear certain colors around there you better not be out there past 9 o’clock unless you mean business you know it it it’s just I I hear these things and for me I’m like I talk about these things because I think there are lessons to be learned there’s things

That people simply don’t think about uh whether it be let’s say a fight on a cruise ship or even now I think you already made a video about it I had it put in to do today or tomorrow um the YouTuber right and unfortunately you know you went overboard fight his

Girlfriend like look guys like there’s little lessons to be learned uh be careful who you cruise with that’s something right you know you get to know people by two ways living with them and traveling with them yeah no doubt you know so for me I’m just kind of like

It’s not I know I know like my channel in a lot of over the years right has has i’ I’ve seen it right people like oh it’s negative or whatever the case may be and I don’t want to dive too much into it but for me I do believe that you

Have to um in order to get to the top right nobody gets to the top without to some degree getting their hands dirty right so for me I’m like okay I have to there has to be a character there has to be uh something that separates you from

Everybody else I’m like okay there’s plenty of influencers and people that are only talking about the good primarily because they want free cruises or they have some kind of horse in the race right and maybe they’re a travel agent they think the only way to bring

In more clientele is to speak on it this way and for me I’m like okay I pay for all of my cruises uh I I tell the truth but to a degree I’m like man what would be make more sense a lot of the time I

See why the influencers do what they do like man I let’s let’s be honest I know you you tell the truth a lot of times too right like man we if if we wanted to go that other route we could be rich right like I I don’t want to put it that

Way but and it’s not just don’t leave me wrong it’s not about the money that’s what I’m trying to my point is uh for me I’m like all right but with the the amount of money that’s being paid Cru is getting more expensive I’m trying to

Figure out what route to go down I would never sell myself if that makes sense but it’s kind of like all right where where do we go with this where what angle do we take with this where um it makes first of all Financial sense so

I’m not like getting audited and and and and kidnapped by the IRS I don’t want to do that either you know so it’s it’s a hard thing to do it really is getting into this because you you start from scratch you don’t know how the business

End works and you’re kind of figuring it out as you go along it’s very complicated no I I I think that’s a great point I mean it’s uh I think a lot of people see the externals of creating content and uh you know being a YouTuber

Or being an influencer and a lot of times people think okay well I get some privileges or I get to make a decent amount of money that kind of thing but I think what people you know miss out on and what I would say to anybody that’s

You know somewhere on this journey that you’re running a business and so you have to have your business Acumen you you got to know what you’re doing from and look I’m I’m way behind on this like I you know I in the beginning I didn’t really think about how am I going to

Track expenses or how you know should I be saving money for taxes just like simple stuff that you would think if you were if you were starting a brick and mor business you would say okay I have to get but there there’s like no instruction you just you just you know

Press record you press upload and then all of a sudden this life takes off that you’re not necessarily anticipating and a lot of times you’re playing catch up and so it’s uh it’s it’s an interesting thing and to your point it sometimes you’re all right do I you know we

Obviously want to make content that people are interested in but then at the same time you know there’s already people you know with audiences our size there’s there’s tens of thousands of people that are already bought into what we’re doing so you know do do you cast

The Net wide by making content that maybe is more kind of vanilla and more you know less controversial or less with your personality on it so you cast The Net wide and you bring a lot of people in or do you do you cast The Net small

By like being yourself or or talking about the things that you feel like you should talk about and then you maybe just grow a little bit and what’s weird and and I don’t know if you’ve experienced when you go through a period of big growth like we did during the

Shutdown that kind of thing and then that stops being the norm because people have other interests maybe they want uh Cruise tips or maybe they want you know they want to see what life is like on a cruise ship and maybe they’re less interested in the things that we’re

Talking about on a daily basis when you see the shrinking of that you know there’s a whole mental component like oh do do people don’t like me anymore you know you really have to start wrapping your head around this idea of you know things change and either you can change

And go back to like that wide net approach or you can be happy with the and so that there’s a lot that goes on I think it’s the most fascinating thing I’ve ever done in my entire life because it’s it’s so different than anything you know and I’ve you know I’ve worked in

Corporate America and I I’ve dropped out of corporate America just burned out and tried to have my small business and drove over and delivered pizzas everything like that too and so it’s it’s really I feel really lucky I know you feel really lucky that now you know

We work hard but we’ve come upon an opportunity that’s uh afforded us things that we never would have afforded previously in our lives and so uh you don’t want to lose it obviously but you know at the same time you don’t want to lose yourself trying not to lose it so

It’s kind of it’s it’s an interesting thing and sometimes it’s a solitary thing because you know we work by ourselves and you know even though you know we may have a girlfriend or we may have a wife you’re still you’re still doing this thing so uh it’s fascinating

I love YouTube I mean I and social media and you know I could I could go on for days about that but let maybe we should just do a YouTube only conversation sometimes we we’ll swing it back around to cruising what as you look forward with cruising we’ve seen a lot of change

Since we’ve been in it of course the shutdown has been a big influencer of cruising what what do you what do you think cruising’s going to look like going forward the good the bad the ugly any predictions for the future uh yeah I mean so the cruising industry was

Already booming before the pandemic obviously we had the the suspension which in my opinion I don’t think it slowed too much down right when everything started back up as you can see cruising’s booming again right try to get on a ship with a mainstream line that isn’t almost sold out right very

Difficult to do these days I do believe especially with let’s say um icon alone I a video about the other day I won’t I won’t be on the inag I’m trying to go maybe around February yeah but the thing is icon is one of those ships like first

Of all hats off again once again in World Caribbean their marketing team phenomenal when you got people that don’t cruise that are talking about it right I do believe that with the launch of Icon and a lot of the ships now of course a lot of companies are now

Getting more involved with social media because naturally you you have to go where the people are people are online these days um you have a lot more people that are diving into cruising this travel in general I do believe we’re going to see a significant boom uh even more than we already seen

With a lot of cruise lines if you look at like the moving pieces look at um Norwegian for example um I’m G to be on um I I kind of keep it a secret but I’ll be on on on Norwegian Breakaway out of New Orleans on the 21st okay so because

You know they’re adding they’re adding a lot more solo cabins I don’t know if you’ve seen that yeah yeah for me as somebody I I do crew solo a lot right and for me I’m like okay they know and they understand more people are becoming digital Nomads and working remote and

All this stuff so I’m going to go check that out and when you look at Norwegian doing what they’re doing if you look at msse they’re pulling more ships over to the the us because they understand the US regardless of how people see it it is the consumer capital of the world and

What is it 60 70% of of all Cru cruising operations are as far as the passengers are Americans yeah yeah so they understand how the game is working a lot of cruise lines coming out of the woodwork look at Margaritaville they’re getting ready I’ll be on their ship over

In Tampa as well yeah uh you see you see a lot of ships making very subtle quiet but big moves that in the long run they understand what what’s going on here right and it’s it’s it’s I think it’s only going to get bigger as far as maybe uh potential bad um I

Wouldn’t say like for me it is but I understand in general there’s a big argument of the ships are getting too big for example um they’re get they’re getting too big they’re getting too too generalized right um I I it it wasn’t until I went on a smaller ship where I

Understood what people are talking about I’m like you know what some people are big people some people are small I like both yeah right it is it is like for me I I like to get to meet people it is cool but when you’re on like a icon

Of the Seas or wonder of the Seas right you’re going to meet you’re going to see people on the last day of the cruise that you’ve never seen before in your life whereas you go on a smaller ship it’s a more intimate setting just about everybody that is social everybody knows

Everybody everybody’s kind of cool with everybody uh so I I can understand on that front I do believe as far as like the operation to things are going to get very generic right a lot of the trends everybody’s following the trends look at um look if you look at the the MSC

Europa for example I haven’t been on that ship I’m thinking about going on this year but it it’s kind of mimicking the The Oasis class design and I think a lot of them it’s it’s kind of like instead of everybody trying to be quote unquote original it’s kind of like a

One-up game like oh okay well you put skydiving on board we’re going to put a roller coaster on board yeah for me that’s one of the things I don’t like I’m like guys like there’s so many other avenues that you could go down that you’re not really dabbling with it

Started out that way with Royal Caribbean they started doing the ice skating rank on Freedom of the Seas and all that and then after ever since it’s just kind of like all right well we’re going to try the biggest way to one up us possible um another positive a

Positive or I guess something maybe neutral you’ll see a lot of the cruise lines they’re more so really trying to Target exclusively not exclusively but primarily going to their private islands yeah yeah because they understand right look at Ro Caribbean now they’re pulling uh celebrity ships over there which

H I feel a little weird about that considering I’ve sell with celebrity I know the demographic but they got the adult only area now they understand that okay why would we go pay to Port over in nashau Bahamas when we have this island over in the Bahamas where we can in

Theory take most if not all of the profit you know so I I do believe that that that’s you know I I think a large part of the cruising population they they they’re just not going to get off the ship because even though they’re Cru cruising

To go to a a foreign country some people still aren’t really down with it they’re just happy to be on the ship so I can see the play from the cruise lines like okay well this isn’t even like you’re going anywhere we’re just going to take you to another Beach and sure you’re

Somewhere far away from home I I almost I don’t know what that we need a good phrase for it almost like the you know the it’s it’s almost like putting Band-Aids on cruising or something but I I see more and more Cruise Lines doing that with their private islands and of

Course they get to hold more of the money one thing I wanted to ask about and I didn’t know if you’d have any side Insight on it uh what how are the Staffing levels I’ve heard several people say it feels like service is down because it doesn’t seem like cruise

Ships are staffed do you think they’re still struggling to get staff after the shutdown yeah for sure for sure I mean I would I would argue that especially because I mean I have a lot of friends of mine that are crew members and whether it be Philippine Asia right and

I keep in contact with a a lot and I mean a lot of crew members to this day um a lot of them a lot of distrust is there so what you’re seeing now is a lot of cruise lines or a lot of crew members bouncing around between Cruise Lines

They’re trying to see what the best option is there was a lot of hype around uh let’s say virgin which I I would still argue at this point to technically on paper they are the best cruise line to work for as far as like what the crew

Members get for the most part free Wi-Fi which is that’s a that’s a blessing in the sky it’s like right for crew members yeah for a lot of them no not really a uh um what’s it called a dress code right so there are a lot of benefits of

Them working for Virgin but there there are a lot of a lot of random rules that people aren’t really prevy to like say for example a lot of the bartenders migrated over to Virgin and what you realize that virgin everything’s included right including the tips so naturally when you advertise that it’s

It’s like a structure that happened with Uber right when Uber came out it’s kind of like oh everything’s taken care of it’s pay and then it’s done everything’s included uh the bartenders aren’t getting the tips anymore because the only people that are really tipping them are maybe people that have the older

School mentality of like hey we don’t care we’re still going to give you a dollar $2 per drink for a server whereas now virgin they are they do kind of cater to a more youngish hip crowd or the kid in you whatever it is they want to call it uh

People aren’t tipping so for them they’re like dude they’re paying us less we’re making less money we’re going to go back to where things are done right where we’re getting tips uh so there there’s that fact of it um and as far as the crew in general like this is a

Digital world we’re living in now right it’s a digital Revolution we’re not going back imagine people like let’s say and I’m not saying that we we make a lot of money CU there’s a lot of turnover as well right it’s high high risk High reward and there’s going to be a lot of

Turnover as far as the money going in and out but in this Digital World now there’s a lot more opportunities and a lot of people are starting to recognize that and they’re like okay well do I want to go here or do I want to start a YouTube channel or actually I’m pretty

Good at editing or maybe I want to have my own production or whatever the case may be you’re seeing a lot of people worldwide that are migrating to more of the digital world because they understand that you have a lot more flexibility you can potentially earn higher income I think that’s a factor

That that is like it hasn’t really been acknowledged yet but I do believe that is becoming a factor because even when I worked on the ship everybody had Hobbies right it was a guy that was teaching me how to DJ he doesn’t anymore because now he’s dejing in nightclubs over in the

Philippines right and he’s doing a lot of online stuff and whatnot a lot of people are just going into different Avenues now because they’re like hey well if the cruise lines aren’t going to pay what I’m asking for or if the world is kind of Shifting um then I’m I’m

Going to opt out and as you could imagine the pandemic was a big realization for a lot of people a big reality check and uh that alone that alone for a lot of people are like okay well you know I’m with for my family for

Six months on in I’m doing X Y and Z I got to pay this much money for the visa to get over there and the contract and it’s a lot so I I think you are seeing a lot of Staffing shortages the cruise lons can try to hide that but I think

People are are noticing yeah I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that people are feeling like they’re being underserved because of Staff shortages let me let me ask this question so you know from looking from the outside in watching the amount of hours that a crew member Works

Um you know in a week or you know Works six months without a day off that kind of thing uh it’s not hard to make the assumption that the crew member is being underpaid the fact that the cruise Line’s flagged in a foreign country and it doesn’t have to follow us labor laws

From from your experience with crew members do do crew members feel like the juice is worth the squeeze it is working on a cruise ship a good opportunity better than what they would have at home or what do you think motivates people to work 6 months at a time without a day

Off uh you know is is it still a good Exchange in your opinion yes so that’s that’s always a that’s always such a like a complicated conversation to have but for me um as somebody that has worked on ships and have been around and talking even up until this point even

Every ship I go on I me crew and I ask him about the stuff like how is it for you you know um the thing is like that’s that’s there’s some things that are common conceptions about it let’s say for example the idea that uh it’s like

What do they call quote unquote slave labor right a lot of the crew members are they’re being paay Pennies on the dollar or whatever what it typically happen is um a lot of let’s say a crew sailing out of the United States yeah they may wave What’s called the flag of

Convenience right a Bohemian flag um from the business end I do understand right they do to dodge a lot of labor laws and taxes however the reality is on that end is that if they did it cruising would be double if not triple the amount of what you are paying now because they

Would have to hire American workers pay them a reasonable salary as well and on top of that you wouldn’t get the service because excuse me you can’t work the hours for the crew let’s say a crew member people hear these things like oh this this crew members making $500 a

Month or something right it’s not that low but let’s say you may have some crew members that’ll make upwards or under of maybe $1,200 a month USD but by the time they take it back over to the Philippines for example right you have to fact that into the equation you’re

Taking American dollars back to where they typically would use the Filipino Peso and then they would then convert that or exchange that money into their currency and on top of that you have to factor in the idea that the cost of living in a lot of these places are a

Lot significantly cheaper even let’s say if I were to take my my US Dollars even if let’s say well Euro and dollar is similar now right uh British pound that’s a whole another I hate going to the UK but uh if you go you go over to

Let’s say the um Europe um the cost of living over there in a lot of places unless you’re living like a major city is significantly less and it’s the same over in the Philippines so a lot of them don’t mind the juice is worth the squeeze because for a lot of them the

Money that they make on the ship the money they can save on the ship as well is considerably more than they would make working someplace back at home yeah you know I’ve never of course when you talk to the crew member you know as a a guest I I don’t think

Anybody’s going to say I mean I have talked to a couple that are like man I’m just ready to get off the ship and be done with it but the majority the the majority of people that I’ve talked to are like oh yeah this is great but it’s

Like I always wonder you know how transparent they could be and I always wonder about that I don’t know if you have any insight on this but prepaid gratuities or assigned gratuities the service fee yeah are crew members getting that money or is it just some

Sort of shell game to get us to pay more do you have that’s such M Waters I I’ll go with one line and the crew were telling me that they weren’t back when I worked for Norwegian um I would hear mixed some people are telling me that

They do a lot of people are telling me that they don’t you know uh so for that for me I I always say like I’m not I don’t judge I know there are some people that that go and they take off the gratuities or whatever um I’m not saying

It’s right necessarily however I believe that you as a paying passenger to pay thousands of dollars for your experience you are free to do whatever you want if you want to say hey I want to wave that because you can’t confirm to me where the money is going which is

Understandable I believe understandable I’d rather give my hard run money to face to face right or whatever the case may be I’m not saying like for me I don’t take it off I I always I do both right I I’ll leave the gratuities on I’ll prepay my gratuities and then as I

Go along bartender usually I have like rules of metrics of rules of how I go about it I’ll usually tip like a dollar per drink usually my I’m getting like a Jack and Coke right a dollar $2 something like that per drink that’s us what I do especially if I have like the

Drink package right um but it it it does vary there are some people that have these beliefs or whatever I I I I can’t really say indefinitely if they’re getting it but for me I just I’ve heard so many mixed things to a point to where I’m like okay I’ll I’ll prepay my

Gratuities but if somebody says they’re gonna take it off I’m not there to judge because I confirm myself and nobody has really confirmed like I don’t I don’t care about a a company statement to be honest with you they can say all day but

In my mind I’m like H are they and and how much of it are they getting yeah I I I almost wish it would just be one way or the other like you just do the assigned gratuities and that’s it or you don’t do anything and just tip as as you

Feel like you should tip to me that would be the most Fair because I think what happens is it makes a a weird situation for the guest right because you say your room Steward you see that guy or gal every day for a week I I just

Want to give them something right like I don’t want it just to be like oh hey you know it’s it’s awkward right oh did my assign gratuiti just so you know no you want to give that person something so that’s that’s always an interesting conversation in cruising to me I do have

A couple rapid fire questions uh for anybody that’s only cruised to the Caribbean where should they go besides the Caribbean uh Alaska for sure Europe um I would I would say well there people that want to go to Northern Europe which is fine right um it’s not going to be

Tropical the ex surgence aren’t going to be as good um Mediterranean for sure just break yourself because I’m sure as you know like you’re in you’re in a port every day yeah yeah um I I want to do Asia I’m looking at Asia and Australia

This year um so I would say sure maybe do a New England New England’s nice you like to seea food you want to go up to Canada get some Tim Hortons you know that’s that’s that’s always a good bet uh but I would say outside of the

Caribbean the next step logical step for me I would say maybe Alaska um trying to think what what do the one what I I can’t even think of it right now um Hawai Panama Canal Panama Canal yeah I want to do that as well I haven’t done

Panama Canal um I’ve been to Hawaii I want to do a cruise over there but uh it’s just if anything I would probably do like maybe like a pride of America I just I haven’t literally mustered up the the the time to say all right I’m gon

Put this money aside to go fly over first to to you know Hawaii and then make the cruise around there yeah I I think of all the places I’ve ventured out to after I stopped going to the the Caribbean for a little bit Alaska I would agree with you there Alaska is the

Best which Cruise Line has the best overall Cruise entertainment in your opinion Ro Caribbean for sure Royal Caribbean and then uh which Cruise Line has the best late night night life I want to say Virgin uh it’s between Carnival and virgin for sure uh norwegian’s up there surprisingly too

It’s kind of hit a Miss Norwegian but I would say uh virgin I think let’s let’s close out talking about Virgin you’ve been on three virgin cruise ships how disruptive do you think virgin’s going to be for cruising how much of a catalyst do you think we’ll see Concepts that are

Happening on Virgin uh start to move into mainstream uh cruising or do you think virgin’s always going to be this thing that sits off to the side as an other type of cruising um I they could be the ones that that change the game right as they try they claim that the

Game changer right I I haven’t really seen it yet there are things that they are doing differently where you’re kind of like okay that is different but I don’t think it’s going to spread to the rest of the audience right the rest of the cruise space um I do believe that

They have the potential to I do like version they’re one of my favorite lines I have no shame in saying that like I I think I had like one video there’s like one video that went viral there’s a couple of them that have like over a million views there’s just one that I

Had a bad experience and people that that’s like the only one everybody’s seen I I like version I do um I do believe that they need to figure out what it is that they want to do like for me I I’ve talked to uh not only their marketing team I’ve talked to their

Their uh entertainment director or VP of entertainment and we’ve had lunch and you know it’s just given it’s a new line right so you have to understand that and there there’s going to be some experimenting right throwing things to the wall seeing what sticks um as far as

Like bang for buck I do believe they are the best as far as like regular line regular to Premium they are the best uh the fact that you can you don’t have to pay additional for let’s say the the dining options on board is nice there’s some alicart items but other than that

Like I think that’s nice their entertainment could really use some work for sure um but I would think overall they’re not doing anything that’s like Innovative right they they I think they have the a good combination of of party versus places to relax their thermal Suite is nice their areas in the back

Where there no music is nice um their daily events eh not very good the fact that they stay in ports longer in their overnights uh I love that I I really really do I wish more Cruise Lines would do that fork up the money and say hey we’re going to be

Here from uh uh 4M until noon the next day yeah I I do think that’s the next level of cruising I I was always a ship person but then once I started really getting hooked on going to Port I’m always wanting more Port time so uh yeah

Well well Jay uh great to talk to you everybody out there make sure you go check out the ship life YouTube channel also check out Jay The Nomad uh between those two channels and you have a travel News Channel now too what’s the yeah yeah look so I took a little break on

That one uh it got monetized within like a week which is cool yeah yeah right but I’ve been restructuring I’m like man I have three monetized channels which given possibilities are endless but as you know right trying to in in in practice right trying to put it all into

Play right I could like I’m somebody that can just sit here and work all day don’t get me wrong like a crazy person but I’m like man you know what uh my son’s a teenager now he wants to spend more time with me right I got look I I

Hit the jackpot right my son’s a teenager and he’s like look you know usually teenagers are kind of like I want to do my own all he wants do is spend time with me um I’m I’m I’m 30 now my life is just going in different

Places I got my girlfriend she’s got we got approve for uh K1 BS of her to move over to the states right so I I are you gonna are you gonna do 90day fiance because I I meant to mention that to you I think you should you be aesome us did

They really they contact us yeah but the thing is right like if you see the show man they want a little bit of a they want some drama drama right and I’m like look man I’ll be honest me and my girl we fight sure right but I

Don’t want I don’t want an image being put out right and it’s like honestly that’s a big reason why I don’t even bring her on like a ship a lot of the time because I don’t want to have to deal with that people like I get on

People like oh dude stop working so much go spend time with your girl and I’m like dude this is I’m working right this is what we do you know the cool thing is you know I’ve hung out with you guys a little bit I feel like she understands

The work aspect of it well I you know um thing is she makes content too yeah yeah I got her in social media as well and she she killing it killing it yeah right she knows more than me now but um no no I’ll say overall um yeah I I have three

Channels now and I’m I’m right now it’s kind of a slowest start um all December which is usually prime time to make videos as you know right uh but for me I’m like okay let me just relax uh figure out what it is that I want to do

Like now you know I’ve been talking to editors and getting everything streamlined I said okay what’s going to be the best possible way far as the content um at one point I was like I was debating if I was going to stop doing the news but I realized it’s just it’s

Too it’s too too much fun for me to do and I do believe there’s too much value to be given people like the news you know I you know I feel like there’s a small segment of people that do the news and uh you know there’s sometimes I’ve

Struggled with like are people really getting any value out of this and should I be doing something different and then almost every time I try to do something different people are looking for the news so uh I I love all the different voices in the news so it’s uh you know

Keep doing the news man that’s what I’m saying you know when you can you you know but the thing that I appreciate about you is you do a great job uh going out and showing the ships too like I really enjoy your Vlogs and uh you

Really get around and show a lot of stuff that I don’t know that everybody could see so uh thanks I mean I I try to do my research you know before I even get onto the ship you know it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s a lot right trying to

Juggle all of that as well um it it’s fun but it also can be extremely draining because remember like we don’t have bosses right we can just stop and whatever we want take three days off a week off three weeks and to have that push to keep going it’s like a habit

Right if you I’m sure you stop making videos for like a couple days and get back up and running you’re kind of like yeah I think of the whole like whenever I’m making a video I’ll think of like the whole process and I’m like all right

Ah first I gotta write this not right I don’t write scripts right but I’ll make plot points we make sure we read these articles and read a couple of these articles and then let me drop down the plot points and maybe look at something that’s happened in history past similar

To that and right that’s kind of like my base I have like a base map of how I’m going to do the video well uh you’re doing a good job man and I’m proud of you keep keep on doing it everybody go check out Jay the ship life at ship life

And also at Jay The Nomad on YouTube and then of course he’s on all the social medias Jay appreciate you taking the time today and uh I feel like there’s 20 more conversations we could have so we should do this again sometime oh definitely look I’ll be around and I I

Appreciate you as well well you know dud I was watching you before I even started YouTube so I appreciate it man it’s inspiration all right thank you so much all right see you later Tony take care see wow we covered a lot there again thanks Jay for joining me on today’s

Episode did you enjoy it if you did make sure you hit the like button if you want more hit the Subscribe button and if you want to hear Emma do you know Emma if you want to hear about her cruising Journey check this podcast out next this

Is Tony for the LLY to looker Cru podcast and until the next time we’ll see you on the Leo bye

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