We round out the end of season 2 with another star from the world of cruise content creation, Mr Gary Bembridge. At the time of recording Gary has been on 124 cruises around the globe, and he has documented pretty much all of them. His mission is to help make it easier for others to book their cruises, by shining an impartial light on what the different lines offer, and objectively weighing up all the pros and cons. I learned all about his upbringing, his early career, how it set him up to succe...
Jul 09, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 40
My guest today is the wonderful Emma La Teace, or as she is perhaps better known across social media, Emma Cruises. She started her own ship vlogging and blogging journey nearly a decade ago, and a post of hers regarding the charity Mercy Ships caught my attention, so I got in touch to learn more. Alongside raising money for them with the help of a certain Captain Hudson, she has also been busy producing children's books, and recently just launched and co founded the company 'The Cruise Globe' T...
May 28, 2025•56 min•Season 2Ep. 39
A little something different today, as my guest Peter Knego is the first person on DeckTales who has NOT worked on ships. His enthusiasm for them however, has basically meant he's spent more time on ships over the years than some of my previous guests. Peter fell in love with the old ocean liners when he was young, and his obsession for them only grew over time. He was blogging about them before the word was invented, then he progressed into vlogging, where he started a YouTube channel which can...
May 14, 2025•1 hr 30 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Steve and I worked on a Carnival ship together back in the day, albeit different departments. He wished to remain anonymous for his own reasons, and so used a pseudonym and an on screen avatar for the duration of the call. This is a choice afforded to any guest who comes on the podcast, and if there are people still in the industry who would like to share some stories, then I strongly recommend you copy Steve's example. We caught up with one another over the things we remembered, the things we'd...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Allegra and I worked on the same ship over 15 years ago, and not having seen or spoken with her since like so many of my former colleagues, it was amazing to see and speak with her after so much time. She worked as a solo singer and musician, onboard a ship that many crew members have dubbed as being one of the rowdiest contracts on the seven seas. The Carnival Paradise which at that time ran a 3 day booze cruise from Long Beach C.A to Catalina, and Ensenada, Mexico. She informed me that was her...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Andy was such a wonderful guest from start to finish, and was referred to me by previous guest on the show Mark Tiffin. He was on ships for around 8 years, and most of that time he worked as an entertainment host, but he transitioned into a cruise director for a brief spell, before eventually becoming a fly on guest performer. He is a talented vocalist and pianist, and consistently shoved two thousand dollars worth of entertainment down guests throats (his words not mine) in the form of an Elton...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Sean reached out to me and offered himself up as a guest on the show, and as he pitched himself as having potentially one of the best jobs onboard ever, it's fair to say he piqued my interest. He worked for around 3 years on cruise ships within the broadcasting department, and as he didn't really have to do all that much work he was free to go on a fair amount of excursions which he shared with me in plenty of detail. He gave me insights into some of the particulars of his job, how a guest narro...
Apr 09, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Loki was someone I personally reached out to and pestered to be on the show for some time. When I finally convinced him to be a guest after a couple months of persistence, I caught up with him while he was in the Caribbean awaiting his next ship to arrive. He is a man of many talents, primarily going from ship to ship as a fly on guest entertainer, goes by either Loki or Manuel Martinez, and his on stage persona for at least one of those pseudonyms hails from Cuba, (I'll let you figure out which...
Apr 02, 2025•58 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Snejina worked with me on my very first contract back in 2006, and she herself did about 8 years in the industry, completing her first year as a cabin steward, and the rest she worked within the various shops onboard. I had so much fun reminiscing with Snejina, and she had some really unique, interesting insights and stories from her time spent at sea over the years. She told me how she coped her whole career with severe sea sickness, a storm so bad she was walking on the walls, what horrors she...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 2Ep. 32
Today I spoke with a former colleague who wished to remain anonymous, and so said just to refer to him as Tommy. All I can say is that we worked together on a Carnival Booze cruise back in 2010, and he did 10 months working as a guest services officer which was his one and only contract. Tommy told me about the training he received prior to going onboard, crazy types of guests he encountered during that contract, (which is ultimately why it was the only one he did), heart attack at sea, drug smu...
Mar 19, 2025•49 min•Season 2Ep. 31
In my attempts to connect with the broader podcasting network of creatives out there, I signed up to a conference call on meetup.com with a bunch of people all with their own shows. Among them, was none other than Mr Ant McGinley, a gentlemen who was good enough to come on the show, and share his own ship journey from over the years. He did just under 3 years with P&O, and a couple stints with Hurtigruten and Voyager. Ant told me the hilarious story of how he first got himself onboard, what ...
Mar 12, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Season 2Ep. 30
This is not a typical episode of DeckTales with a guest sharing their stories, as I thought I would take the time to let you know a bit about myself, where I essentially got the inspiration for the show, what makes it different from other ship related podcasts, and what I hope to achieve moving forwards with it. If you have enjoyed the show so far then please do drop up a 5 star rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This really helps boost visibility on the different platf...
Mar 10, 2025•12 min
Fergus and I worked together well over a decade ago for a brief period of time. He came aboard a ship I was working on as a videographer, and we became fast friends as Fergus is definitely good people. Instantly likeable, effortlessly cool, in many ways he reminds me of myself which is probably why we got on so well. Fergus reminded me of the time we and a few others formed a virile boyband, told me how he met the woman who brought him into the world whilst on an excursion, and revealed some of ...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 29
I connected with Daniel over social media, and we chatted about his journey working on ships over the past 17 years. He's held quite a few various positions within the entertainment department, some of which he enjoyed more than others. There's been quite a lot of adventures during his time at sea, and it was interesting to hear how he's had to deal with a plethora of medical injuries, upstart fly-on divas, ridiculous guests and much more. Daniel was good to give me an insight into how ships are...
Feb 26, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 28
I worked with Tommy on my first ever cruise ship contract back in 2006, and I never told him this, but back then I used to think he was the coolest guy on board. He had those husky Brian Adams type vocals that melted knee caps everywhere he went, and to be fair to him he's still got it this day, as at one point during our recording he treated me to a little performance of a song he 'wrote' a long time ago. In this episode you can expect to hear the pair of us reminiscing about the good old days,...
Feb 19, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Mark is one of those people I met back in the day only a couple of times, but I found him buried among my Facebook friends with mutual acquaintances throughout the cruise ship industry, and it was only after a short amount of time speaking with him, that all the memories I had of his comedy came flooding back to me. Mark is one of the most pleasant, affable, well mannered people I've had the pleasure of speaking to on DeckTales, and his act isn't much of an act, because he is like genuinely like...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Season 2Ep. 26
I connected with Steff through social media, whilst she was stranded ashore in her home country of the Dominican Republic, sandwiched between her first ever and second cruise ship contracts. She is the first person from the galley I've had the pleasure of speaking to on DeckTales, and she filled me in on all things such as how she managed to get herself onboard, how her first experience went, what she made of ship dating life, how she coped with a wardrobe malfunction mid service and much more. ...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Mark and I connected over social media, and after a bit of back and forth he agreed to be a guest on the show. As he was the first person I've interviewed from the bridge, it was great to get an insight into what life as an officer is all about, and we discussed many things from his early days at Warsash Maritime academy, his long stint working on cargo ships, and how he eventually transitioned into cruises. It was an informative and fun chat with Mark, and I'm happy that he's now working for a ...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Ep23: Shane Jacobik Shane used to work for Carnival primarily as a dancer in the show team, and we were colleagues for a spell around 15 years ago, on a ship known as the Paradise. It was great to hear about his experiences from within the show team, as he went from ship to ship and witnessed various changes throughout his department over the years. Shane shared a couple of salacious stories with me, but was senisble enough not to overshare at the risk of damaging my sensitive little ears. (They...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Ben has had an interesting mix of work when it comes to careers at sea, and at one point he was working behind the scenes back on land, producing some of the gameshows and quizzes I would later deliver onboard. I once met Ben many moons ago, when I came to re-audition for the company I started my ship journey with, so I reached out to him over Facebook to get him on the show. It was in many ways a very informative chat, as Ben is the first person I've had on DeckTales who has also worked on rive...
Jan 15, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Jini worked as a show team member and band singer onboard ships for about a decade, and we worked together on one of my last contracts which was one of her first. She now works in advertising, but does still dabble in the arts from time to time with her ship soul mate Sergio It was so much fun to catch up with Jini after all these years, and because she was so kind to laugh at my jokes, I thought it’d be best to kick off the new season of DeckTales with her interview. Jini talked about the paral...
Jan 08, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Nate used to work on my last ship many years ago as a receptionist, and only recently made a rather unconventional switch to the housekeeping department, where he now works as a cabin steward. He filled me in on how this turn of events transpired, and dished the dirt on some of his employers' antics over the years. In this episode you’ll hear first-hand how it is to be working in one of the toughest jobs on cruise ships, what happens when the ship leaves without you, and how to keep on the good ...
Sep 04, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Emily used to work on a number of different vessels within the cruise industry over a six year period. At first working on the front desk, and progressed her way up to guest relations manager. She now works in Vancouver on the ferries responsible for similar albeit not as stressful duties, and the pair of us connected over Facebook page 'The Crew Bar', where she and a few others work to keep crew members from around the world connected, in a light hearted and meme friendly manner. In addition to...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 19
JD worked on a ship with me during my first contract back in 2006, but his decade long career is a 50/50 split, between working in photography/videography and shore excursions. In this episode you will learn how to lower your expectations when venturing out on a land booked trip, how to sleep through an onboard fire, and what happens after you hit an iceberg. You may also learn a thing or two about the positives covid had on the industry, as well as 'where da food at'. JD had his guard up during...
Aug 21, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Liam and I have been acquainted over the years with thanks to our many days spent working together as TV and film extras. We did reminisce briefly about some of the productions we have both worked on together, but the main focus of today's episode, was to get a bit more of an insight into the Royal Navy. Liam spent four years as an officer cadet, and recounted various tales from his time during training, being away at sea on deployment, remembrance day parades, nauseous voyages and tracking down...
Aug 14, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Today's guest was referred to the show by his former colleague Bboy Smurf, (who I interviewed in episode 13). Mase Boogie spent a few years working on Carnival cruise ships, where he worked as a hip hop dancer putting on daily high energy shows for the punters. The things he got up to in his spare time are revealed within this episode, with one of his favourite extra curricular activities being coning! Not knowing who the guest is on a personal level adds a little something extra I feel, because...
Aug 07, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Brad got in touch with me a few weeks back, as he and his co-hosts have a very similar podcast to DeckTales called 'My Ship Story'. He suggested we do a crossover episode, and of course I loved the idea, so here it is! Brad usually leads the hosting responsibilities over on 'My Ship Story', and it was him that initially reached out, so I figured he was the best person to have on DeckTales. In his past life Brad worked as a purser and receptionist during a 10 year career at sea. He told me all ab...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Nelly and I worked together for Carnival back in the day, so we had a few mutual friends and stories between us. She worked as a kids and teens club host for about 4 years, and her experiences were in many ways wildly different from my own. In this episode you'll get to hear Nelly talk about witnessing a jumper from the ship, getting a rude wake up call from the coast guard, what it's like working on a nudist charter cruise and more! She was so quick to get back to me after I initially reached o...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Ep13: BBOY Smurf- Introducing BBOY Smurf I worked with Smurf for about 3 and a half months back in 2010 right at the end of my cruise ship career, and found out during this chat, that Smurf also ended his shortly after, albeit for extremely different reasons. He's a good sport for coming on the podcast, and for being so brutally honest about everything he got up to during his time with Carnival. So thanks to you Smurf for not holding back and sharing your story. He worked as a member of the Fun ...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 13
A musical comedian of over 20 years and a Britain's Got Talent semi finalist, Kev is one of those comedy acts that catches you off guard and leaves you speechless in the best kind of way. His show was something I always remembered when we met onboard the Thomson Destiny back in 2006, not just because of how unique it truly was, but also because his ability on the piano is like watching a master at work. These days Kev does a bit less work on the cruise ships, but he is by no means any less busy....
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 12
