Cruise Buzz

Meeting Cunard Line's Peter Shanks

Meeting people is part of the fun when using social media.

During an event, because of Twitter, I met Peter Shanks the President and Managing Director of Cunard Line.

I ran into Mr. Shanks in December at the Luxury Travel Expo. He was sitting down minding his own business doing something, probably email, on his phone. I needed someone to take a photo of Director of Consumer News and Digital Community at Conde Nast Traveler Wendy Perrin, VegasBill , and I to commemorate our meeting “IRL – in real life” so I asked the closest person I could see.

“Excuse me sir, would you mind…”

The tall gentleman (remember I am almost 6 feet-tall so there are not that many people I can say are tall) was kind enough to stop what he was doing and agreed to take our photo.

I handed him my camera and wouldn’t you know it the batteries died? Oops.

He mentioned something about missed opportunities, and I replied, “hold on, I have more batteries.” It is while I was fumbling around for batteries that I asked his name and what he is doing at the Luxury Travel Expo.

When I found out he was “the Peter Shanks,” I composed myself and forged ahead, but this time instead of asking him to take our photo, I asked him if we could have a photo with him.

Wendy Perrin, CruiseBuzz, Peter Shanks, VegasBill Seeing a “golden opportunity,” VegasBill and I asked him some questions and Wendy Perrin commented to Mr. Shanks something about ambush journalism. I asked Mr. Shanks what was buzzing at Cunard. He told us about the Rose Parade Float, the meeting of the three Cunard Line Queens in NY, and that Cunard Line was very proud to be handing the keys of Queen Victoria over to the first female Captain in the history of the fleet. Of course, you might imagine how excited I got when I heard about that? So guess what happened? I can’t tell just yet. But stay tuned…