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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Anwar and Lametrius Arif, creators of the Mete and I YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook page. As frequent listeners know, I watch cruise YouTube videos incessantly as I work on the podcast seemingly every waking hour—often with the sound down. When a Mete and I video comes on I turn the sound up!

Their channel is described as follows. “Our channel is dedicated to love, fun, weight-loss, travel and honesty. This platform will be used to show the world how great married/family life can be. We want to motivate people like us, create memories and to keep our content as transparent as possible.”

Mete and I says, “Our cruise adventure began in 2004, and we’ve been hooked ever since. Over the years, we’ve set sail on more than 20 unforgettable voyages—each one adding new memories, friendships, and destinations to our journey. For us, cruising is more than just a vacation… it’s a lifestyle. Through our YouTube channel, we love sharing that joy with our community, inspiring others to relax, explore, and live fully—one cruise at a time. As of recently we have been exploring other cruise lines. Our latest cruise was aboard MSC Seashore for our 25th Anniversary this past May. We also sailed the Celebrity Ascent for Reconnecting at Sea in February. Our upcoming Group cruise to Celebration Key sailing 7/29. In February 2026 we are sailing Virgin Voyages (which ship) for my wife’s 50th birthday.

Based on Mete and I videos, they always appear to be to be fun-loving and purposeful. So, I am delighted to finally have them on the podcast and increase my circle of cruise community friends.

Find Mete and I online

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@meteandi?si=U68ixHZl5GEcOjTr
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meteandi365?_t=ZP-8xrDXD0ztvz&_r=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meteandi365?igsh=dDhraW1ja2t1NTlr&utm_source=qr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FCMsFDEkX/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Email: aesleeve@gmail.com

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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to host Hugo Ortega a multi-talented seafarer who can bring a multitude of perspectives to the listeners of the show.

Hugo Ortega is a Superyacht Captain 500T, educator, and founder of Superyacht Sunday School, a global platform helping aspiring crew enter the luxury yachting industry. From his humble beginnings in the Bronx to captaining superyachts around the world, Hugo now mentors’ newcomers through accessible, expert-led courses that break down industry barriers. He also appears on Below Deck Season 12, as the new Bosun, bringing his experience and passion for adventure to the screen.

Find Hugo/Super Yacht Sunday School online

Website: https://www.superyachtsundayschool.com/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@superyachtsundayschool

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@superyachtsundayschool

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superyachtsundayschool

Facebook: https://facebook.com/Superyacht.Sunday.School/

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In the last couple of years, we have started checking off some bucket list cruises. Given that they are bucket list destinations, vessels, or both it is of little surprise that several of those bucket list check offs made it on to this list. And as we have a number of bucket list cruises in front of us, i suspect this list will evolve over time. Like later this year, our next cruise is a bucket list trip to the Panama Canal on Holland America Lines flagship, Rotterdam, and if what I have researched turns out to be the case I suspect it will crack our top ten.

This is an absolutely subjective list, not just that it is our opinion only, but offered from the perspective of non-professional reviewers. We don’t have a YouTube channel, so we don’t go over ships anywhere near as comprehensively as many of those content creators. We just thought it would be fun to do. Exactly half of the top ten were before The Joy of Cruising Podcast was created, and the other half have been since the podcast, and thus we have done a reflections podcast for each of the five on the list that we have done since the podcast started two and-a-half years ago. So, you could check them out if you missed them.

Paul’s article about the AmaWaterways AmaKristina Soulful Experience cruise at Quirky Cruise https://quirkycruise.com/amawaterways-soulful-experience-cruise/

1. AmaWaterways, AmaKristina by Friends of Festival At Sea

2. Fire & Ice, Hawaii to Alaska to Vancouver on Norwegian Spirit

3. Celebrity Beyond Mediterranean

4. Soul Train Cruise on Holland America Line Nieuw Amsterdam

5. The Smooth Jazz Cruise on Celebrity Millenium

6. Explora Journeys, Explora I

7. Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady Transatlantic Cruise

8. Festival At Sea On Celebrity Equinox

9. Carnival Mardi Gras

10. Royal Caribbean Symphony of The Seas

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Support the show

Support thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises http://www.thejoyofvacation.com/
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

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