Cruise/Travel themed books, podcasts, TV Shows.etc

[Jadn13]

Hi All!

As we wait to cruise again I’ve been looking for some good entertainment options that are cruise/travel themed fiction or non fiction.

i just added myself to the list at the Library for Rick Steves  new Europe book.

Anyone have any favorites they would like to share? 

Jamie 🚢

[cwtravel]

The Cruise on YouTube. I believe there are six seasons and the show is shot on Princess ships.

[Essiesmom]

I have 1.5 I would recommend.  

1.  The Ship Dwellers: The story of a happy cruise.  By Albert Bigelow Paine.  This book was published in 1910.  Yes, that is 110 years ago.  But it's a great book.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UJRDEI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

 

When the author was a child in the 1860s, his father brought home a copy of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad, and read it to the family.  He had always wanted to do that journey, a TA plus Med cruise.  To the Orient, which is what they considered Turkey, etc.  Today that is the Middle East to us.  He made the trip in 1909.  It's a great read if you have been on a similar itinerary, seeing how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same.  I wish that he had completed the narrative all the way home, but I think he ran out of adjectives after Egypt.

 

.5  Mark Twain, The innocents Abroad.  I read this after I read the above book, and really though it rather like a silly frat party of a trip.  I really prefer the Paine book, which I have read twice.  Both are free for Kindle on Amazon.  If you don't have a Kindle, download the app to your tablet or computer and read it there.  EM

[PromenadeDeckWriter]

Plenty of murder, romance, and/or tragedy novels out there (very few well written as many of them get ship facts wrong which irks me to no end, especially the historical fiction ones set on real ships such as thr Lusitania) But the ones that do stand out are the following: 

 

Fiction:

The Cat's Table (Michael Ondaatje)

Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie) 

The Man in the Brown Suit (Agatha Christie) 

Stowaway (Karen Hesse - childrens) 

Bloody Jack (YA series about female ship captain - LA Meyers)

The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)

Killer Cruise (Laura Levine - some errors but fun fluffy read)

Crossing on the Paris (Dana Gynther)

The Floating Feldmans (a very soap opera type cruise with some factual errors but fun fluff read - Elyssa Friedland)

Skinny Dip (Carl Hiaasen)

 

Nonfiction:

Only Way to Cross (John Maxtone Graham)

Liners to the Sun (John Maxtone Graham)

Crossing & Cruising (John Maxtone Graham)

The Captain's Journal (Capt. Hans Mateboer)

The Captain's Log (Capt. Hans Mateboer)

 

Tragedy-Fiction:

Salt of the Sea (YA novel by Rita Sepetys on the Wilhelm Gustloff sinking)

Lifeboat 12 (children's by Susan Hood on the City of Benares sinking)

 

Tragedy-Nonfiction:

Dead Wake (Erik Larson on the Lusitania)

Voyage of the Damned (Gordon Thomas on the St Louis)

A Night to Rememner (Walter Lord)

Ship Ablaze (Edward O'Donnell on the General Slocum fire)

Shipwreck: the Strange Fate of the Morro Castle (Gordon Thomas)

Desperate Hours: the Epic Rescue of the Andrea Doria (Richard Goldstein)

 

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by PromenadeDeckWriter

[AryMay]

After cancelling our cable TV a couple of years ago, my go-to entertainment has been travel vlogs on YouTube. The choices are pretty lean during this pandemic, but my favorite is still Kara and Nate. They are currently traveling the U.S. in a campervan, but in the past have done some pretty exotic travels around the world. They were voted the best travel vloggers on YouTube and for good reason...they are always upbeat, are great storytellers and they do a fantastic job on the video editing. Most of their travels are land-based, but they have done multiple cruises as well.

 

The other vlog that I have been watching lately is Tread the Globe. A British couple attempting to drive around the world in their small campervan got stranded in Turkey when the pandemic began and now are traveling throughout Turkey. Our planned trip to Turkey got cancelled in May so it is fun to watch what we "should have seen". Not the greatest storytellers or videographers, but they put out a couple of longer videos each week. 

 

 

[grsnovi]

We've gotten caught up in Netflix's ALTA MAR (High Seas) which is set on a very (very) nice ship in the late 1940's.

[bennybear]

I am continuing my Greek love affair with My Greek Odyssey on Prime! Now I want my own yacht!

 

I also have enjoyed Patrick Leigh Fermor’s books on Greece and The Island by Victoria Hislop.  And Lawrence Durrell, and From Scratch about Sicily.

Edited August 11, 2020 by bennybear

[bennybear]

6 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

I have 1.5 I would recommend.  

1.  The Ship Dwellers: The story of a happy cruise.  By Albert Bigelow Paine.  This book was published in 1910.  Yes, that is 110 years ago.  But it's a great book.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UJRDEI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

 

When the author was a child in the 1860s, his father brought home a copy of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad, and read it to the family.  He had always wanted to do that journey, a TA plus Med cruise.  To the Orient, which is what they considered Turkey, etc.  Today that is the Middle East to us.  He made the trip in 1909.  It's a great read if you have been on a similar itinerary, seeing how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same.  I wish that he had completed the narrative all the way home, but I think he ran out of adjectives after Egypt.

 

.5  Mark Twain, The innocents Abroad.  I read this after I read the above book, and really though it rather like a silly frat party of a trip.  I really prefer the Paine book, which I have read twice.  Both are free for Kindle on Amazon.  If you don't have a Kindle, download the app to your tablet or computer and read it there.  EM

 

 

Sadly not free in Canada 🤷‍♀️

[AncientWanderer]

One of the Christmas specials of the Brit-com "Keeping Up Appearances" has Hyacinth Bucket on a QEII cruise.  It was very funny,  if you know the show and the characters.

 

Another shout-out for Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad."  That's a personal favorite of mine.

 

[kwb101]

2 hours ago, bennybear said:

Sadly not free in Canada 🤷‍♀️

The Ship Dwellers, public domain (no copyright), free, multiple formats incl Kindle

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34096

Gutenberg has 60,000+ free books. Enjoy! 

 

Also, if you have a Roku device, search the channels for "cruise". You don't need cable TV to see them, just Internet. 

Edited August 11, 2020 by kwb101

[SightCRR]

On YouTube besides Kara and Nate, try Flying The Nest, Wayaway, Endless Adventures, and Kinging It. Lately the content hasn't been great because of covid, divorces, babys etc but on the individual sites type in search on the right side and type "cruise", "iceland", and for kingingit "Mongol Rally". Then you can binge watch older videos which are great. All the ones of Iceland are just great and I think they all have it covered. 

sightcrr.   

[cruisemom42]

15 hours ago, bennybear said:

 

I also have enjoyed Patrick Leigh Fermor’s books on Greece and The Island by Victoria Hislop.  And Lawrence Durrell, and From Scratch about Sicily.

 

I just discovered Patrick Leigh Fermor's books last year, after they were recommended to me by a friend and a Greek scholar. I absolutely love them -- but full warning, he is a Writer with a capital W, not necessarily light reading. 

 

One thing they added to my "go" list is a visit to his house in Kardamyli, which he left to the Benaki museum and has been undergoing restoration for the last few years. I think it is finally open, but when will I get there? 

[bennybear]

4 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I just discovered Patrick Leigh Fermor's books last year, after they were recommended to me by a friend and a Greek scholar. I absolutely love them -- but full warning, he is a Writer with a capital W, not necessarily light reading. 

 

One thing they added to my "go" list is a visit to his house in Kardamyli, which he left to the Benaki museum and has been undergoing restoration for the last few years. I think it is finally open, but when will I get there? 

 

I read him before our visit to Meteora last fall.   I loved his descriptions of the monasteries on Mount  Athos. I know I can Never visit there but at least I saw it on My Greek odyssey.  You are right about his writing style,  but it is wonderful to get lost in it😍

 

We were supposed to be spending a month in Greece this spring but alas....  also another place to visit,  I don’t think one lifetime will be enough to explore all in Greece that I wish to.  

[Jadn13]

On 8/11/2020 at 12:41 PM, PromenadeDeckWriter said:

Plenty of murder, romance, and/or tragedy novels out there (very few well written as many of them get ship facts wrong which irks me to no end, especially the historical fiction ones set on real ships such as thr Lusitania) But the ones that do stand out are the following: 

 

Fiction:

The Cat's Table (Michael Ondaatje)

Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie) 

The Man in the Brown Suit (Agatha Christie) 

Stowaway (Karen Hesse - childrens) 

Bloody Jack (YA series about female ship captain - LA Meyers)

The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)

Killer Cruise (Laura Levine - some errors but fun fluffy read)

Crossing on the Paris (Dana Gynther)

The Floating Feldmans (a very soap opera type cruise with some factual errors but fun fluff read - Elyssa Friedland)

Skinny Dip (Carl Hiaasen)

 

Nonfiction:

Only Way to Cross (John Maxtone Graham)

Liners to the Sun (John Maxtone Graham)

Crossing & Cruising (John Maxtone Graham)

The Captain's Journal (Capt. Hans Mateboer)

The Captain's Log (Capt. Hans Mateboer)

 

Tragedy-Fiction:

Salt of the Sea (YA novel by Rita Sepetys on the Wilhelm Gustloff sinking)

Lifeboat 12 (children's by Susan Hood on the City of Benares sinking)

 

Tragedy-Nonfiction:

Dead Wake (Erik Larson on the Lusitania)

Voyage of the Damned (Gordon Thomas on the St Louis)

A Night to Rememner (Walter Lord)

Ship Ablaze (Edward O'Donnell on the General Slocum fire)

Shipwreck: the Strange Fate of the Morro Castle (Gordon Thomas)

Desperate Hours: the Epic Rescue of the Andrea Doria (Richard Goldstein)

 

 

Was lucky enough to sail on a Princess TransAtlantic with John Maxtone Graham his lectures everyday were packed out! 
I’m going to definitely look into those books! Thank You! 

[SeeSun&Sea]

On 8/11/2020 at 9:41 AM, PromenadeDeckWriter said:

Fiction:

The Cat's Table (Michael Ondaatje)

Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie) 

The Man in the Brown Suit (Agatha Christie) 

Stowaway (Karen Hesse - childrens) 

Bloody Jack (YA series about female ship captain - LA Meyers)

The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)

Killer Cruise (Laura Levine - some errors but fun fluffy read)

Crossing on the Paris (Dana Gynther)

The Floating Feldmans (a very soap opera type cruise with some factual errors but fun fluff read - Elyssa Friedland)

Skinny Dip (Carl Hiaasen)

 

 

Add

   Terns of Endearment (Donna Andrews, humor, but includes norovirus outbreak...)

[PromenadeDeckWriter]

45 minutes ago, SeeSun&Sea said:

Add

   Terns of Endearment (Donna Andrews,

Adding that to my library checklist! 

[NordicPrince]

6 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

Was lucky enough to sail on a Princess TransAtlantic with John Maxtone Graham his lectures everyday were packed out! 
I’m going to definitely look into those books! Thank You! 

The Only Way to Cross

[SightCRR]

Another way is to look for roundshot cameras. You can zoom in, change dates and time, stop the rotation along with all kinds of cool stuff. Here is one of my favs. It takes a round shot about every ten minutes. We got several nice photos of them if they were in one place long enough.    https://bellevue.roundshot.com/

[grsnovi]

Last night we watched a 56 minute The Sinking of the Andrea Doria on Amazon. I don't believe this is the 80 minute one from 2016 called: Andrea Doria: Are the Passengers Saved?

[PromenadeDeckWriter]

On 8/12/2020 at 8:45 PM, SeeSun&Sea said:

Terns of Endearment (Donna Andrews, humor, but includes norovirus outbreak...)

Just finished it - humorous and a fun light read!