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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Justin Sorrell aka MrBucketlist. Justin is a video creator and influencer and the creator of the 19k subscribers MrBucketlist YouTube channel where you get to follow his adventures not only on the seas but anywhere else. You see MrBucketlist is a certified thrill seeker, never He cruises exclusively solo, which is relatively atypical for men, and has done 30 Solo Cruises—3 of which involved leading MrBucketlist group cruises.

As suggested by Justin’s brand name, cruising is only one aspect of his adventure seeking lifestyle. He has checked off over 150 items on his bucket list in numerous forms. Justin is a confirmed thrill seeker having visited over 80 Theme Parks; 49 of 50 States—and that will soon be 50/50 as he just booked a Hawaii cruise for this Spring; and 5/7 Continents.

And then there was this statement on the MrBucketlist homepage, and Justin became a new travel role model of mine: “I vacation every 2 weeks!”

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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to host Christian McBride, multi Grammy-winning jazz superstar bass player! We talk about performing at sea, and hear about Christian’s inaugural charter cruise, Christian McBride's World at Sea, January 20-27, 2026. The cruise will be on Celebrity Summit from Ft. Lauderdale, stopping at Jamaica and Grand Cayman.

Christian McBride is creating a new kind of experience for jazz fans while breaking new ground for artists as he takes on a "captain" and completely immersive role on his upcoming cruise, Christian McBride's World at Sea (produced by Signature Cruise Experiences whom we hosted on the podcast when they were called, Jazz Cruises, Ep 113). Music cruises have gained in popularity in recent years and give fans an incredible opportunity to personally engage with their favorite artists (running into them all week long on the ship...at the buffet, the pool, during shore excursions together, seeing concerts in smaller venues than they would on tour) but Christian is in a unique position where he's not simply one of the acts booked onto a festival at sea. Instead, he curated the cruise, building a completely personal environment and atmosphere to share with jazz fans by inviting his friends and peers like Samara Joy, Angelique Kidjo, Ledisi, Jose James, Cecile McLorin Salvant and 40 more musicians to join them. Plus, he's a prolific musician, in several bands at any given moment so it's no surprise that his time on the cruise will be no different than on land: He is bringing three of his bands onboard and will perform with each of them separately.

Christian has performed on over 400 recordings, leads six different bands, has been the Creative Chair for Jazz at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is the artistic director for the world-renowned Newport Jazz Festival, curates the James Moody Jazz Festival and he hosts the popular NPR show "Jazz Night in America."

Christian McBride's World at Sea: https://mcbridesworldatsea.com/

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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast I am delighted to welcome back a special guest, my cohost Cheryl.

As some of you know we are largely in the bucket list checking stage of our lives and just got the opportunity to check one off. I will warn my listeners from the cruise community that this episode is about a land trip—don’t want to be accused of inviting you here under false pretenses. Yes, we cover cruising 99% of the time but this was a rare land trip to a place that was on the bucket list to visit whether by land or sea—Dubai. You likely have heard me point out that while I live and breathe cruising, Cheryl appreciates the occasional land trip, so we have a couple planned this year. In addition to Dubai, we are going back to Vegas for the umpteenth time but this a little bit of bucket list checking because we want to see the Sphere, the $2.3 billion state of the art music and entertainment arena characterized by the venue's exterior featuring 580k sq ft of led displays.

We experienced Dubai, one of the 6 emirates of the United Arab Emirates along with a 2nd Emirate, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates about a 45 minute drive from Dubai. Our itinerary was called Dubai & Abu Dhabi: Beauty Among the Dunes, an 8-day, 6 night journey booked via The Joy Of Vacation by Dream Vacations. Our package included air from Charlotte, accommodations, all breakfasts, 2 dinners, 4 guided tours and excursions, entrance fees to certain venues like the largest Mosque in the UAE, and the Kings Palace, and transfers and transportation. For that we paid $4300. As we’ll discuss, this amount did increase unexpectantly before we ever left home, so the total price turned out to be $5000.

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