Guest speakers - who's good and who's not?

[simonpjd]

On QM2 last month we had Sally Gunnell , good, Antony Horowitz, excellent. Then a bloke who worked in customs. Very very good. He started in the cinema but was so popular they moved him into the theatre and that was packed.

One trip we had Sue Holderness, actress from Only Fools and Horses. She was awful. A right up herself luvvy.

 

 

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[Host Sharon]

We were on this cruise too and none of the talks interested us,. We did enjoy Diana Moran the Green Goddess, on one cruise, Anne Widdicombe on another, and a BBC reporter ?Philip Hayton, two Olympic female hockey players, and there are a few others I can't remember at the moment.

 

What we are fed up with are the 'murder' , Concorde, history type talks which seem to be more the norm these days....probably cheaper!

 

Aside from celebrities, speakers are not paid. They get board, lodging and a small daily allowance.

[Selbourne]

Aside from celebrities, speakers are not paid. They get board, lodging and a small daily allowance.

 

It's still a phenomenally good deal for them though. They (and their partners) get a cruise worth thousands for just a few hours work. Some are good but others just read from PowerPoint presentations information that could be easily gleaned from Wikipedia. Nice work if you can get it!

[davidlocky]

Would his name be Clive Martin, by chance? He was guest speaker on our transatlantic cruise on Adonia last October. He was most interesting & informative. :)

 

Hi he was on the Britannia transatlantic in March and was very good, we also had Phil Campion (ex special forces) who did a talks on a afternoon whilst at sea, covering the SAS, his private security work and the work he does for SKY, again very good if that interests you.

 

David

[tartanexile81]

On QM2 last month we had Sally Gunnell , good, Antony Horowitz, excellent. Then a bloke who worked in customs. Very very good. He started in the cinema but was so popular they moved him into the theatre and that was packed.

One trip we had Sue Holderness, actress from Only Fools and Horses. She was awful. A right up herself luvvy.

 

 

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We've had shocking guest speakers on QM2, particularly celebs who only show videos of themselves performing. Also on one crossing we had several New York journalists who may well be able to write brilliantly but who couldn't string two words together without reading them from their notes.

[P&O SUE]

One of the attractions of cruising for us is the guest speaker - though sadly P&O have cut back the number of them to save money.

 

 

 

Any thoughts as to good ones and bad ones? I'm guessing the popular ones will pop up across the P&O fleet pretty regularly as the fancy takes them.

 

 

 

Just for starters, the best we ever encountered was Kenneth Vard talking about the history of cruise liners - fascinating, superbly delivered and very topical.

 

 

 

Paul Stickler (Historical Murder Presentations) was also excellent and filled the theatre every day on Ventura.

 

 

 

We had Paul Stickler on Britannia last year, he was brilliant! Had an extra sea day as we missed Guernsey and so he did an extra talk. I’m on Ventura next week so I hope he’s onboard!

 

 

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[P&O SUE]

Gervase Phinn

http://www.gervase-phinn.com/

A past Public Speaker of the Year - he’s pretty much bound to be good

 

Dr June Goodfield sailed with us on a Southampton - Barbados transatlantic. She gave fascinating talks based on Nevis (where she jumped ship for the winter!)

http://www.riversoftime.co.uk/

 

 

 

We had Gervase on Azura in 2015, fabulous speaker. My husband wasn’t overly keen when I suggested we go and we ended up going to all 5 he did. (One each sea day) Word must have got round because each time we went there were more and more people.

We also bumped into him in the Glasshouse and had a chat. A thoroughly engaging man, genuinely interested in people.

 

 

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[fue-fue]

last year on Arcadia we had Tricia Stewart, one of the orginal Calendar Girls. She was very good. She'd updated her book, was selling copies which she signed & very happy to answer questions & chat. :D

[Slugsta]

On Oriana earlier this year we had several talks given by a guy who used to be a Lifeboatman (I think his name was something like Mick Testino) and he was very good. He also gave talks about his time in the met police but I didn't go to those as they clashed with something else.

 

I heard Shaw Taylor speak on a cruise a few years ago, and also Jan Leeming, but that is as close as we have got to a 'celebrity' lecturer!

[ascot2012]

We had Paul Stickler on Britannia last year, he was brilliant! Had an extra sea day as we missed Guernsey and so he did an extra talk. I’m on Ventura next week so I hope he’s onboard!

 

 

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We have just got off Ventura (Friday 8th June) and I managed to see 4 out of 5 of Paul's talks, and found them very interesting, he's a good speaker with interesting subjects, not sure if the lady over board is the best subject on board a cruise ship [emoji3], it might give some people some ideas.

 

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[EJMcruiser]

We had Martin from Homes under the Hammer on the Ventura and he was really good but might have been because the topic was of interest to us. Also enjoyed the niece of the guy who did Downton Abbey on Aurora. She was brilliant and obviously had a close relationship with her uncle. Best ever was Terry Wogan on a Cunard cruise about 10 years ago. He seemed so sweet and it might have been an act but he came across like he was genuinely really pleased to be there.

[Clodia]

Diane Janes, the crime writer, has been very good on 2 cruises where I've encountered her. Gervase Phinn has never been on a cruise I've been on but I've met him and heard him speak before and he is brilliant. Ken Vard was good, but he didn't know as much about the Titanic as I do; he put up a photo and said "I don't know who this little boy is." I knew his whole story.

[higgib]

By far the worst speaker I’ve ever heard on a cruise was Colin Van Geffen on Ventura a few years ago. He had a whole list of talks, but the one I went to was about the Red Arrows. He had a boring monotonous style, and way, way too many PowerPoint slides that just went on and on and on. One of the best i’ve Seen was a lady called Dale who was the producer of the Human Planet. She was really very interesting

. 

[lebreos]

I've enjoyed Tony Yule ( i think) ex concorde 2nd officer - great series of talks from design thru to the future of supersonic flight. Phil Campion -Ex SAS and now TV pundit. 

There have also been a few monotone ones that were really boring and a forensics guy who did a talk on the kennedy assassination based on the recent hearings in the states by clinton. He mullered the presentation and wouldn't point the finger at the secret service,  which a discovery programme i had seen went thru the same info far more clearly and wasn't shy in doing so.A tragic accident by the guy in the chase car for the final shot... but he would have died from the neck shot anyway apparently..

been lucky not to have any repeats so far

[daveoc]

1 hour ago, lebreos said:

I've enjoyed Tony Yule ( i think) ex concorde 2nd officer - great series of talks from design thru to the future of supersonic flight. Phil Campion -Ex SAS and now TV pundit. 

There have also been a few monotone ones that were really boring and a forensics guy who did a talk on the kennedy assassination based on the recent hearings in the states by clinton. He mullered the presentation and wouldn't point the finger at the secret service,  which a discovery programme i had seen went thru the same info far more clearly and wasn't shy in doing so.A tragic accident by the guy in the chase car for the final shot... but he would have died from the neck shot anyway apparently..

been lucky not to have any repeats so far

We had this guy on a cruise last year and I found all the information he gave about the Kennedy shooting convincing, I would say after hearing it I was quite sure it happened as he said. I'm just surprised, given the detail of this information, it has only seemed to warrant a Discovery programme---I would have thought it would be front page news around the world.

[tartanexile81]

On 6/10/2018 at 6:29 PM, fue-fue said:

last year on Arcadia we had Tricia Stewart, one of the orginal Calendar Girls. She was very good. She'd updated her book, was selling copies which she signed & very happy to answer questions & chat. :D

 

Another example of one man's food being another man's poison. We saw her on Ventura last year and thought she'd be interesting but bearing in mind the amount of public speaking she does, we thought her delivery was poor though she seemed a lovely person. We're on Ventura again in February and just hope the detective who does the jury scenarios isn't on this time. He's been on  the last 3 Winter cruises we've done and weren't keen the first time. 

 

We had Gervaise Phinn last year and he was hilarious 

 

I'd also put a word in for port presenter Paul. Fantastic. Uses all his own slides and photos, bases them on his own experience and exploring and has no notes.

Edited November 18, 2019 by tartanexile81

[DamianG]

I can't remember the speaker's name but we once went to a talk on the Falklands War a few years which was fascinating. It wouldn't be to everyone's taste but I loved it and even my (not that interested) wife enjoyed it. He opened the floor to questions after the presentation and the session ended up running over to such an extent that he was asked by staff to finish so that the venue could be prepared for the next event.

On another cruise we caught the end of a Gary Newbon Q&A which looked great and I wish we'd been there for the start.

Edited November 21, 2019 by DamianG

[Ataraxia]

Paul Stickler was my boss when I worked. I enjoyed his talks very much.

 

[jeanlyon]

Slightly off topic, but I do wish these "lower celebs" - those who have been in the West End in one musical, would refrain from showing film of their shows.  Why don't they just perform and let us see how good or not so good they are now?  I don't want to know that they won Britain's got Talent or some other show.  I want to be entertained.