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This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Flavia Gray, creator of Ships and Champagne, A Luxury Cruise and Lifestyle Blog. I wrote about Flavia’s story in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF, in a section called The Influencers, which focuses on individuals like Flavia who epitomize what The Joy of Cruising is about: individuals moved by their passion for cruising who choose to manifest that passion in an engaging way when not sailing. Flavia hails from the UK; as you’ve likely heard me point out before fully a third of the passionate cruisers profiled in The Joy of Cruising were from UK, and that proportion has held up through the subsequent books, Cruising Interrupted  amzn.to/3seFU8y and The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON, as well as The Joy of Cruising Podcast. I feel a connection with my new friends from UK—and I hope to meet a few of them when I finally cruise out of Southampton in 2025. What’s different about Flavia is unlike my other UK friends with whom I have interacted with via email, Zoom, or Skype, I have met Flavia in person twice in Florida on visits she made to see friends in the US. Flavia was also one of the first passionate cruisers—UK or elsewhere in the world to agree to be in The Joy of Cruising. I vividly remember writing her feature—with a great deal of assistance from Flavia—with a smile on my face as it was my first foray into kind of, sort of, travel writing.

Flavia’s feature in The Joy of Cruising, Ships and Champagne was at times quite poignant. A single mother of two saw her singing hobby turn into a full-time career, singing in bands performing at weddings, pubs and clubs. Though Flavia was quite good at her craft—it was not going to provide enough of a reliably constant income. This need led her to a position with Royal Caribbean as a Cruise Specialist—telephone sales. 

Flavia progressed in her cruise career and went on to create an award-winning cruise blog, Ships and Champagne—named a top 50 cruise blogger and nominated for UK’s Wave Award in 2017 and 2018. 

Flavia loves cruising and remains a cruiser at heart but has shifted away from the sea to the air. In 2022, she started a new travel career as a flight attendant. Flavia does however long to cruise again, and we ask her about her brief change of career and future cruise plans.  

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