Have you ever wondered what it’s really like to live and work on a cruise ship? Is it all glamour and exotic locations, or is there a hidden, more challenging side to life at sea?

How do you cope with being away from family for months at a time, and what strange events unfold on these floating cities? In this episode, former cruise ship entertainer Wendy Nugent talks about her journeys and how they inspired her mystery novels.

If you like episodes about the sea/books, check out episode 1 where I talk about my tallship journey from Fiji to Vanuatu, Sailing around the world with Tom Dymond; Tallship sailing in Galveston, Texas, and Sailing the Pacific with Nadine Slavinski.

Wendy spent a decade as part of an award-winning magic act performing on cruise ships all over the world. She traveled from Alaska to Venezuela, Bermuda to Tahiti, and many exotic ports of call in between. Now, Wendy uses her insider knowledge of cruise ship life to write entertaining cozy mystery books set on cruise ships.

• Wendy’s journey from a theater graduate to performing on ships around the globe


• The highs and lows of life at sea, from incredible shore excursions to the challenges of being away from family


• The strict social hierarchy and unique culture on board, with crew members from many different nations


• The weird and wonderful things that happen on cruises—from ship fires to rescuing refugees—that inspire her mystery novels


• Practical tips for potential cruisers on choosing the right itinerary and ship size for their travel style


• How to make a tiny, temporary cabin feel like home, especially when your cabin mate is a performing parrot


• Recommended books

You can find Wendy at WendyNeugent.com.

Transcript of the interview

Jo: Hello, travelers. I’m Jo Frances Penn, and today I’m here with Wendy Neugent. Hi Wendy.

Wendy: Hi Jo. It’s so nice to get to talk to you.

Jo: I’m excited about this. Just a little introduction. Wendy spent a decade as part of an award-winning magic act performing on cruise ships all over the world. She traveled from Alaska to Venezuela, Bermuda to Tahiti, and many exotic ports of call in between. Now, Wendy uses her insider knowledge of cruise ship life to write entertaining cozy mystery books set on cruise ships. I think you’ve got one there as well, haven’t you? One of your books.

Wendy: Yeah, Murder Takes a Bow.

Jo: Fantastic. So this is going to be really interesting. To start off, just tell us —

How did you come to work on cruise ships in the first place? Why did you want to be part of that kind of life?

Wendy: I have a degree in theater, so I had a background in entertaining, but I was actually working at Colonial Williamsburg as a costumed tour guide straight out of college. I had moved there from upstate New York and was excited to be someplace a little warmer. I met someone who was working on cruise ships and they ended up hooking me up with a job working as a youth counselor. So that was my first contract. It was just three and four-day cruises, really quick. It was on the former Disney ship, the Premier Cruises. I ended up working my way up to being part of a review show where I had a section where I would hold up big dance cards and dance around on stage and do silly things like that. 9

And then over the years, I worked into having this magic act with my then-partner and traveled the world. It was a really fun way when I was young and in my twenties and early thirties to get paid pretty well to live on ships and travel the world. So I have no regrets about it. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. I don’t know if I’d want to do it now at this point in my life, but when you’re young and you don’t have any commitments, it’s a really fun way to get to see the world.

Jo: And why did you stop working on cruise ships?

Wendy: I stopped because I was five months pregnant!

Jo: I was going to say, there must be a family in there!

Wendy: Yeah. So that last contract was pretty rough because I was dealing with morning sickness and performing and getting bigger and everything. My last contract ended when I was five months pregnant. And I was definitely done at that point. You get burnt out from all of the travel and constantly being on the go and in a different port every day. It’s a lot. So 10 years was good and I really enjoyed it, but I was definitely ready to leave when I was done.

Jo: Yeah. Well, but it’s interesting because of course you’ve written this series of books set on cruise ships, so there’s definitely this thing in you that is still kind of holding onto that life. So let’s first start with —

What are some of the most amazing things, the highlights that you can remember, that you were like, yes, this is the best job in the world?

Wendy: Oh, definitely. I mean, I hiked to a waterfall in Venezuela with all of the entertainers on board. It was epic. You got done with this out in the middle of Venezuela and you’re thinking, what life am I living? This is incredible.

And when I was in Tahiti, Jean-Michel Cousteau was there and he was leading tours in Fatu Hiva, which is one of the Marquesan islands. I mean, you’re thinking, how is this even possible that I’m getting to do this?

Tahiti was definitely a high point and I was incredibly lucky because I was on the Paul Gauguin, which is a very small cruise line. And a beautiful ship. Very, very high-end cruises, where they had a lot of educational talks and things like that going on.

I lucked out because I was only there for a few weeks, but over that time, the run that I was on, they were going up and they did a special run up into the Marquesas, which are really remote islands that you wouldn’t get to. It would be very difficult if you weren’t on a ship to be able to go to all of these different islands and get to see these places. So Hiva Oa and Fatu Hiva and all these places that are amazing. And because you’re part of a ship, they’re bringing on dance groups and cultural events and things like that. So it was an incredible experience.

Jo: Those things just sound amazing. You did mention a small cruise boat and I’m really interested in this. I have never been on a cruise. I have been on a tall ship, as a passenger on a tour ship, but not like a cruise cruise.

When you say a small cruise ship, what sizes are we talking here?

Wendy: I think that this had about 300 passengers. I’ve been on cruise ships that had 1,500 passengers up to 3,000. So, when we would do a performance, we might have 1,200 or 1,500 people in the audience at a time. So there are some pretty large ships. The smaller ships are pretty unique and there are not very many of them, and they tend to be more expensive because they’re going into very uniqu