Very soon a very special ship will begin her very special life. She will forge many pages in the ocean liner history books and forever those pages will record that the first ever Captain of the incomparable Queen Victoria was Captain Paul Wright. Here then, is a most wonderful interview with a man who will soon stand alongside H.R.H Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall on a day he and the industry will always remember.

1. Captain, I am sure you must be so very proud to be the Master of the Queen Victoria. Your journey to this point must have been interesting and varied. Can you tell us about your life at sea so far?

Prior to joining Cunard in 1980 I had spent the previous 15 years serving in a variety of vessel types including cargo ships, tankers, containerships, ferries, hovercraft, even had a short spell working for a company delivering tugs and dredgers to new owners. My first passenger ship was the Empress of Canada (Canadian Pacific) in 1970 – my duties as fifth officer there besides the navigational side actually included organizing deck tennis and aquatic sports -Ah! the good old days…. I was on the Empress of Canada when it was sold to the newly formed Carnival as their first ship, the Mardi Gras.

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The name of the airline is Easy Jet and the only thing easy about them is that it is easy to get so frustrated that you would rather develop a hemorrhoid the size of one of their planes then ever fly them again. More of that in a moment but first of all…….where are my manners? I have not even said hello yet……….so…………hello.

I am sitting here at home writing my first ever blog from off the vessel which means for the first ever time I am writing a blog thingy without phones ringing, and with the constant need to check my watch to see how much longer I can write for without having to run off………….OK…….walk off somewhere else.

The last 48 hours onboard were very surreal. Sitting in the audience watching Todd the new cruise director host the Welcome Aboard talk was like walking into your bedroom and find someone else is wearing your underwear…………it felt really strange……….by the way……..the underwear thing……….you do realise that has never happened to me before ……….right?……….It was just a……never mind. Anyway, I sat there and watched Todd do a great job but boy……did that feel strange.

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