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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome back this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Neil Gregory, a seven-year former videographer on several ships for Princess Cruises. During those years, Neil kept, and continues to update a diary of his time working onboard ships. His story as reflected in his diary is real, raucous and laugh-out-loud funny! “Cruise Ship Diaries” was featured in my latest book, The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON.
I hosted Neil on The Joy of Cruising Podcast last year, Episode 20-Cruise Ship Diaries. That hilarious episode pertained to Neil’s first contract, onboard Coral Princess. After Coral Princess, Neil went on to a world cruise on Sun Princess and then contracts on Sapphire Princess, Diamond Princess, Crown Princess, Grand Princess, Emerald Princess, Dawn Princess, Royal Princess, and Ocean Princess over the ensuing seven years.
Neil says that those years working for Princess Cruises were some of the best experiences of his life. He has seen and experienced destinations and activities that I’m sure that many of us have on our bucket list: scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef; climbing the Great Wall of China, visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia and getting to walk across the Panama Canal. Sure, there were lows—I’ll get Neil to say a little about those—but it wasn’t enough to stop Neil from renewing his contract time after time.
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Paul C. Thornton started writing at 58 years old incited by the task of delivering a father-of-the-bride speech at his daughter’s wedding. Told to talk about memories of Kina growing up; among Disney trips, high school sports, proms, and first boyfriends, Paul divulged the most powerful memory of all, when Kina was six and his life changed forever. At the end of the talk—as they say—"there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.” It was both liberating and cathartic to release secrets that had tortured Paul for 30 years. Needing to hold on to that feeling of release and empowerment, when he returned to his hotel Paul started his memoir, provocatively titled White Man’s Disease.
Paul’s just completed book, The Joy of Cruising Again, is his fourth; the third in The Joy of Cruising trilogy, and follow-up to the fun, upbeat, award-winning The Joy of Cruising, and Cruising Interrupted. The Joy of Cruising Again is the finale of the series but Paul won’t give up his passion. Besides continuing to cruise as much as possible, Paul hosts The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a weekly conversation with one of the dozens of passionate cruisers featured in the books and other global cruise personalities.
The cruise-themed books are a stark departure from Paul’s debut: White Man’s Disease, a memoir described as “gripping and inspiring” in the press release announcing it as the winner of the North Street Book Prize for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction about Paul’s harrowing brush with death, the journey of recovery from trauma, resilience and ultimately transformation. White Man’s Disease is at once poignant, sad, tragic, funny, and compelling. (And, if I could get a dollar for everyone who asks what White Man’s Disease means, I would be a wealthy man!) Despite their very different subjects, at the heart of White Man’s Disease and The Joy of Cruising Trilogy is passion and how passionate people do wondrous things. Paul just started a sequel to White Man’s Disease; a fun, and hopefully inspirational tale called Gracefully. In addition, he is planning a podcast series that deconstructs White Man’s Disease.
Paul is originally from Brooklyn and Long Island, New York. After serving in the US Army and simultaneously earning a bachelor's degree in business, he attained his MBA and then spent concurrently, 17 years in corporate management, and 23 years in small business ownership. After leaving corporate, he started a career in higher ed. He earned a doctorate, attained tenure as a business professor, and subsequently moved into administration in Dean or Executive Director positions before retiring in 2021.
Paul lives in Mooresville, North Carolina with his wife Cheryl and considers cruising with their children and grandchildren life’s ultimate escape. Paul longs to cruise as much as the people he writes about in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy.
