Join Ian Richardson whilst he chats with @EmmaCruises, a full time cruise content creator & vlogger, on this episode of Tech Talks!

Ian & Emma discuss her love for cruising and how she started as a content creator to how she got to where she is today with 238K subscribers on YouTube! Plus, hear from Emma her top tips for content creation & how cruise lines can continue to use platforms like YouTube to connect with future guests authentically!

Ian finds out how innovations in technology on board have changed since Emma first started cruising at 11, and how her favorite uses of tech onboard have truly elevated her experience as a passenger!

Hi, I'm Ian Richardson. Welcome to the Tech Talks podcast from the ice way and Seatrade Cruise. Each episode looks at technology and innovation in the cruise industry, as I host q&a sessions with tech leaders and innovators who are all working diligently to create solutions that will benefit crews in a variety of different ways. As Co-founder and CEO of theICEway ecosystem of

companies, I myself are very excited to be involved in new technology projects on a regular basis. Many of these are specifically aimed at helping improve the cruise industry. There's a lot of great work and effort going into new and cutting edge technology solutions in the cruise industry as a whole. The objectives are far reaching, from enhancing the onboard experience for guests and crew to

increasing the overall efficiencies both at sea and in port of destination. A lot of us are working hard to reduce wastage and to implement more sustainable practices, processes and features. The Tech Talks podcast will put a spotlight on these solutions and will include never before seen information and facts about them, whilst also providing an exclusive platform to some of the creative minds who

are behind them. Hi, everyone. Welcome to another seatrade cruise talks Podcast. I'm Ian Richardson, the CEO and co founder of theICEway and seatrade Global's technology ambassador. On this episode, I'm very excited to have someone so passionate about cruising that she decided to make a very successful career change in sharing her passion and attracting more people to cruising. With her highly

rated social media channels and over 50 million YouTube views. She is regularly approached by well known newspapers and broadcasting TV channels for our unique insights onto the life of cruising, now known to most of us as Emma Cruises, please welcome Emma Lutece.

Hello, thank you so much for having me.

Yep. Thanks for joining us. So yeah, it's been very difficult to get hold of you, because usually on a ship or editing and things like that, but I'm really pleased that we managed to lock this in the diary.

Now, I'm very happy to be here. Yeah, well, I normally say if I'm on land, I'm totally available. But recently, I've not been on land too much. So it's a bit tricky, but happy to be

good. So I guess my first question, I mean, you've been enjoying cruise holiday since you were a small girl. Since you were 11. I think you took your first cruise and Yeah, but what is it exactly that you love about cruise?

I think it's a bit of a funny one. Because I took my first cruise when I was 11. I knew what cruises were like, you know, I took one every kind of two or three years, my family would do one, we loved it. I liked my parents from when I was 11 to take me on another one. So I just thought I know what it's like, this is great fun. And then when I was sort of 18 or 19, I wanted to take my

first cruise by myself, I tried to convince some of my friends at some of the things that they thought about cruising just, it just blew my mind. I had friends who said to me Oh, I wouldn't like that. Because, you know, you've got to go to the shared toilets on each deck. And like, where's your knowledge of cruising coming from? And it's interesting for me, because, you know, I, most of my audience

are from the US. And if I speak to someone from the US who has not taken a cruise, it's quite different to someone from the UK. In the UK, I get the sort of, oh, that sounds boring. That sounds traditional. And in the US, it's the complete opposite. They think kind of Spring Break Carnival cruises. And really what I wanted to do was say it's that and everything in between. So for me, I think

it is just the easiest way to travel, it makes travel so easy. And if you think about what someone's ideal day is, you know, for me, it's probably going out to eat dinner, seeing some live music, maybe going to a show. It's all of that stuff in one place. And you have to unpack once you don't have to worry, you know, I've got to get back. So I'm gonna have to check out the hotel. I'm gonna

have to go on the train. You don't have to think about any of that. So it's so it's just so easy. And it's so fun.

Yeah, so it's basically breaking down the misconceptions of cruise is a part of a lot of your job. And what made you sort of take the leap into start creating online content?

Okay, so I cruised when I was a child and a teenager with Norwegian and MSC that was all that I knew. And there are two very kind of casual cruise lines, no dress codes, nothing like that. And then I took a Cunard cruise and I kind of sat there and I was thinking, this is what people think cruising is and it is like that if you take a few non cruise keynotes very formal, but it

doesn't have to be like that. And I was totally not prepared for it. So I on that cruise just had an idea. I thought I'll start a website. It'll be funny. There was no business plan or anything. I just thought. I'm gonna write, you know, seven things I should have known before I took this Cunard cruise. And that's where I started. You know, I kind of moved on to YouTube after a couple of years

just because it's easier to show some things rather than, you know, trying to describe all the sailaway you know, I saw this it's quite hard. So I moved into video But there was no sort of plan at the beginning it was kind of just for other people in my situation. Tell myself really from my past self being like you should have done this, you should have done this in the port, you should have done a

bit more research. This is the research.

Right? And you mentioned YouTube. Why? Why do you think YouTube resonates so well with audiences?

I think cruising is a big risk. If you're someone who's never taken a cruise, not just because you're taking a week of your life, you know, you're taking time off work to go on a cruise, but also it's a lot of money. And it's very hard to try before you buy a cruise. You know, you can see pictures of it. But if you've never been, you know, most people have never stood next to a

cruciate, you have no idea of the kind of scale. So what I try and do on on YouTube is create content that anyone can watch who's never seen a cruise ship before. And then they know what to expect. They know that they're going to have to go through an invocation or they're going to take the bag off them, you know, at this point, that's why they do that. This is what a cruise card is. And it's as

close as you can get, I think to try before you buy a cruise.

But YouTube isn't the only social media channels you use. What which sort of media channels are you see most growth in because I think you've got several of them on you.

If very interesting. I mean, I started with written posts, I still do all of that. But that's very much someone who knows they're going on a cruise, they've searched something like I need to know what to wear, I need to know what to pack you know, you have to be already in that mindset. I think for written posts. With YouTube, though, I don't know about you. But when I go on

YouTube, I don't go there to watch a certain thing. You know, I'll be watching something random see something on the site. And most of my audience on YouTube tend to be people who've, you know, they've never thought about it. They didn't know that this sort of river cruise existed or they didn't know that cruises went in that certain place. So that's why I like YouTube. I am across

everything. You know, I'm on Tik Tok and Instagram and Facebook. And it's a very different audience. You know, some things do very well on websites like tick tock, but it tends to be things like, you know, interesting facts or history or rather than more practical tips, but I think the audience on Tik Tok is a lot younger than it is on YouTube and Facebook...

Yes both my daughters, they're on Tik Tok.

I love it, but it's just very, very different. And, you know, I can do quite well on Tik Tok, but it's not. It's not people who are looking to book a cruise. It's just people who are, you know, just curious about something or most of the time it's gonna be

Push their parents into getting the cruise..

Maybe! That's kind of, you know, for younger me, that will be quite interesting. But yeah, I'm across across everything. I think almost everything now,

what are some of the most common questions that you receive from your audience?

I think people have no idea what a cruise includes. Because it is so confusing. And I completely understand why people will get confused by it. So some people think they're gonna go on the cruise, they're gonna pay the cruise fare and never pay for anything else again, and then they're disappointed. And some people go on the cruise thinking that it's just a room and some people

don't realize they can go and see the shows they can eat in the buffet, they don't know it. When you take someone a first time cruise into a buffet and you say you can eat anything in here. Whenever this is open. That's really amazing. So a lot of it is around, you know what's included. People don't realize what's on cruise ships. Because why would you if you've not been on a cruise ship, people

don't know that there's shows on cruises that are as good as Broadway, I think or the West End shows some of the ones I've seen. So a lot of it is around that. Also things to do with ports. You know, sometimes the ports are quite far from the actual cities that are advertised on the itinerary. You know, things like sometimes you have to tender... cruise lines don't necessarily tell you those

things. They're not going to say, Oh, we're going to Paris, but actually le Harve is like two and a half hours away from Paris. So I get a lot of questions about that.

This is obviously a technology podcast. And I've worked in the industry for over 20 years. And I've witnessed a huge amount of change from a technology perspective on onboard cruise ships. But in terms of holidaymaker key changes, have you noticed?

I think the pandemic has really made this go a lot faster. You know, we started to see some things before. But now we've come back from the pandemic a lot of things that they put in place like doing all of your kind of check in on your phone before you go it's sped up all of that embarkation process. Things like you know, I really like scanning QR codes for menus. I don't need

someone to bring me money. Some people love it. Some people hate it. But things like that, you know, the use of daily schedules in apps instead of on paper suits me fine. Most cruise lines do both. So I think it's important that cruise lines don't exclude people who don't want to use their phones. Sometimes that's a bit tricky. You know, it's assumed that you're going to use your phone, but I

personally think it's just made it faster. It's made it easier to see more information. I love things even like even the smallest things as far as tech goes My last cruise was on board Norwegian premium. And they have this massive VR pavilion in there. So I went on like a virtual reality roller coaster. And thinking of me on those first cruises, I used to go and play Pac Man in the arcades.

Yeah, but I would have loved it to go on these VR roller coasters, go karts, you know, everything like that

Did you get on the race track on the go karts?

I did. I did it. I did it twice. The first time I did it in the group setting and apparently the speeds were camped. So I should try it by myself. And I did not need it to go any faster than it did. But I came 17 out of 18. And I was happy with that, because I just didn't want to be lost.

I always come last because I'm, I'm so heavy. On the Go Karts ...

I thought it was so fast. And then I looked back at the footage and it just doesn't look it doesn't look the same as it felt. But when you're in there, you're so close to the ground. So

yeah, that's why I'm feel like going a lot faster.

Yeah, I was happy with 17 out of 18!

Yeah it's an amazing ship the Prima, I actually watched your last video on the Prima, it's really good. Very useful.

So much tech, you know, just the small things like in the cabins. You know, you press a button for Do Not Disturb and it makes it light outside. I know that sounds like a really small thing. But too many times you'll put the piece of paper outside someone will turn it over, it'll fall off. I can see if I'm on Do Not Disturb from inside the room. And I love little things like that.

It just makes a difference. You know, you USBC not just USB A is USBCs in that cabin. That makes me happy.

And what about the virtual muster? Because that was one of the things that came out of the pandemic, which I think the cruise lines were working on. Anyway. But obviously, like I said, everything was accelerated, wasn't it during the pandemic. And I love it and your experience with that.

Yeah, I never want to go back to the old master drill where everybody stands up on the prominent deck and you get told and information, you can just tell me that not me stood there with everybody else. There's no need for us all to be there. At the same time. When you do a kind of virtual one, you still go to the your station, you just don't have to be there with 1000 other people at

the same time. I like to do everything I can pre cruise. So quite a lot of cruise lines. You can watch the safety video at home. I'll always do that. And then, you know, it doesn't have to shut down the whole ship, like the way that it used to do that was always just kind of annoying.

Yeah, just for that period of time...

Yeah, I like it. I hope it never comes back!

Yeah, I don't think it's coming back. I don't think anybody wants to go back to the old way. In that sense.

Yeah. I mean, Norwegian tried to bring back the old style. And then there was uproar, and now they've gone back to the new style again. Yeah. Like it? Yeah, I took one last in the last year. And at that point, they were back to the old style. But it didn't last more than a couple of months because people are not happy about it. Once you've seen the better way. You don't want to go

back to the old way.

Yeah, that's the whole point of change, isn't it? Yeah. Love it. Is there anything you think that you think could be improved on board there? Any gripes that you think? Oh, I wish I wish they could do this differently?

I should I suppose it depends on the cruise lines. If I was to say, oh, you know, I could make the perfect cruise out of all the cruise lines putting everything together. But that would be to suit me. I think a cruise that would suit me wouldn't suit everybody. I think it's also different for us in the UK. We're so used to ordering things on our phones, like I would be quite happy to

order like you're doing a Wetherspoons or a Nando's like on your phone. I don't need to, you know, have all of that interaction. But some people go on a cruise because they love to do that. So, you know, it's impossible to make what better is, yeah, yeah. I found everything across the cruise lines. I've just put bits of them together.

And obviously, I've not watched all your videos.

I wouldn't expect anyone to!

Do you have any content that focuses on technology on board? Or would you consider it?

I mean, you know, I tend to do sort of one cruise review so that it's not too in depth, but some cruisers are definitely more tech focused than others like I've taken recently some Princess Cruises and they have their you know, wearable medallion technology. Yeah, which I would love you know, going back to making my ideal cruise I would take that from Princess absolutely and put

it on every cruise ship because being able to order like I ordered a like a coke and some cookies to myself and it just came to me it was absolutely fantastic. So yeah, some some cruises a bit more focused some cruises, there's really no tech at all, you know, recently I took a cruise with Fred Olsen, the British cruise line, but there's not really an app so there's not really anything it's very

kind of traditional and the people on that cruise absolutely love that and the people on Princess love that. So it's just kind of finding the right cruise line for the right person, which is not as easy as it sounds.

So I'm gonna go back to the social media side of things. Do you think that cruise lines are actually leveraging YouTube and other channels in the right way to reach their guests?

I think some of them are doing a much better job than others. I mean, a lot of them just put their adverts on YouTube, which no one is really going to go to YouTube just to watch a TV advert. So they're not really adding anything. But I think that's because a lot of cruise lines, they feel like they have to have a presence, of course, everything even if they don't want to

necessarily, you know, put any time into it, talking about that crema trip, I was on that trip to create videos for Norwegians YouTube channel. So that's a very good use, you know, if you have a look at my videos on there, versus their adverts that they normally put on there, my ones get, you know, 5060 times as many views because people recognize my face, and they would prefer to hear Emma tries

the slides and retries the Go Karts rather than just generic stock person from the advert. So I think cruise lines are definitely trying, I think they're getting there. I think some are doing it better than others. You know, I've spent years and years looking at this stuff and what people want on YouTube, sometimes I'm like, no one's gonna find this, you know, there's just the way some cruise

lines position things that you'd have to be looking for it to find it. I think, really, that's the problem.

And how do you think cruise lines can engage better with content creators like yourself?

with content creators? Interesting! There's a wide variety within the cruise industries, like talking about Norwegian I made content for their channel, other cruise lines don't want to know anybody who's creating content online, they say to me, Oh, we're not interested in your market, which, okay, I don't really understand. But I think cruise lines need to sort of be a bit more relatable

and less high quality. I think sometimes cruise lines are so worried about, you know, this is the brand guidelines, this is what it's called, this is what it looks like, it needs to be perfect. You know, if I could either watch a perfect review that's in 8k, and it's got the perfect voiceover or it's someone you know, recording with their phone, I do most of my stuff with my phone. I would

prefer to watch that. You know, it just feels more authentic is more Yeah, more like listening to a friend and someone you would trust. So I think it's obviously hard for the cruiselines. I wouldn't want to say you know, make it less produced. But that's kind of the way it's going. Especially, I mean, if you look at TicTok, people are in their pajamas, they're like laying down. They're not even

dressed for the videos. Yeah. And that's what people sort of want to see. I think so. That would be my advice. But that's tricky. I do understand.

I think yeah, I guess like say to some of the cruise lines have sort of gotten a hold of it and taking it more seriously. And then how to engage with with this.

I mean, some cruise lines do sort of have the attitude of like, oh, well, my audience aren't on social media. I guarantee they are whenever I'm on a cruise and I'm sat in the theater, and I have a look around. Everyone's waiting for the show. Everyone's on Facebook, every one of YouTube... my average person on my YouTube. It's definitely more American than UK just because the

Americans crucially much, but it's sort of people in their 50s and 60s is the average. So yeah, I think cruiseline should definitely not ignore it. Maybe if they don't want to go on tick tock I understand. But at least kind of Facebook and YouTube.

Right. That you've been doing this for? I think it was 2016. Did you say you say?

Yeah, that's good enough. I mean, started it as a, you know, a weekend evening project until 2021. I left my day job.

Do you have any tips or advice for anybody that would be thinking about starting to create online content? Not that you necessarily want competition? But are there any lessons? Is there any lessons that you've learned, which you thought, Oh, I wish I'd known that when I started?

Yeah, I think the hardest thing is people put this pressure on themselves to create stuff, and you have to sort of get it into your mind, the first 50 or 100 videos are not going to be very good. And that's okay, because you have to do that. And you have to just get them out and you have to get it done. It does not have to be complicated at all, you can make a video where it's you

sat down, I still film almost everything on my phone, I don't want to be one of those people walking around talking to a camera, I find it so awkward. So I don't do that anymore. And that's fine. You don't have to do what everyone else is doing. But you can sit on a sofa, you can put your phone in front of you, you can literally just cut off the beginning and the end where you're like pressing the

record button. And you could just talk for 10 minutes and put it on YouTube and it'll find somebody you know you'll find an audience, you kind of just have to be consistent and do it without any sort of expectations. Don't put pressure. I think a lot of people think oh, everyone can see this. The nice thing about YouTube and social media is if it's not very good, hardly anyone is going to see it,

because it won't show it to anyone. So you've kind of just got to, you know, you've just got to you've just got to go for it at the beginning and just accept that you can't compare yourself to you know, someone who's been doing it for five years or 10 years or someone who's got a camera crew. You never know what's kind of going on behind the scenes.

It's just practice, basically.

Yeah, I looked at my old stuff and I cringe I think you should if you don't cringe or you don't think it's bad, then you haven't improved so I try and improve like a tiny thing each time you know, it might be oh I learn how to track my face across the map, you know, that made me very unhappy because I'm not the best editor I make it up as I go along, but just trying to improve one

tiny little thing each time just trying to learn something, reply to as many comments as you can I still try and reply to the majority, it does take a lot of time. But I think that's what forms my videos is the questions that I get, because that's who's watching the videos. So it wouldn't make sense for me not I didn't think and, you know, so I do it.

And can you say what your favorite cruises? You don't have to mention names but...

it's tricky. I think if you say no, what's the best cruise you've ever been on? I would say I took a cruise from Singapore to Tokyo with Princess Cruises. And it was just everything about that cruise was so amazing. Even if you go ending in Tokyo, even if you just go and you buy a drink from a vending machine, you just go to use the public bathrooms. It's such an experience, it

was so exciting. And sort of going to those places that being on a cruise and being able to sort of go out into Vietnam for the day, and then come back to the ship where I know what the food is going to be like anywhere I'm going to sleep. That made it so much easier. So, you know, I've been lucky enough to cruise kind of all over the world. I've done lots in Europe, I've done lots from the US.

But that kind of cruise, it was fantastic. I put the same sort of cruise again. And I'm really looking forward to it.

But that's more about the destination, as opposed to well, it's the combination the destination and knowing you've got a safe place to go back to something that's normal, or that you can relate to!

Just sort of reliable, isn't it? You don't have to think Oh, where am I going to sleep tonight? Oh, can I leave my bags here? We've got checkout at the hotel by 12. You know, you don't have to get on a train. You'd have to walk out with anything like that. So it was very, very easy. Princessa definitely one of my favorites. It depends kind of who I'm cruising with as to which cruise

line I'll go for you know, if I was taking a cruise with sort of my friends who are in their 20s I would probably pick you know one of the big American cruise lines like we're like Royal Caribbean or Norwegian or British Marella or P&O you know, if I'm cruising you know, sometimes I still cruise with my parents they want to do like a Princess or a Cunard or, you know, there's different favorites,

depending on who's coming with me because I'll try any cruise. I've done every sort of random cruise, you know, river cruises. I took a cruise that lasted four hours because it was canceled while we were at dinner, cruise line, you know, big ferries, barges. I'll try anything as long as it's kind of on water then. It's good fun.

Maybe a Nile cruise.

No, not yet. Not yet. From my to do list. It's a very long to do list!

That's a very different experience as well. Yeah. That was my first experience when a long time ago was it was a Nile cruise. Just on one of the little tiny ships. Yeah. And they did have shared bathrooms. And yeah, and then the bigger the highlight of the week was the mummy competition at the end of the week, where you just wrapped yourself up in toilet roll and like a Halloween

thing. But it was great. It was great. You know, it's tiny, tiny little boat really wasn't. Yeah, but you got to know everybody else on the on the really, really well.

That's I mean, you have cruises from that up to like, you know, if you go on a big Royal Caribbean ship or a big MSC cruise, that's completely different. The only thing that they have in common really, is that they sail, you know, I found actually that there's not that much crossover before I started river cruising. I thought it would be the same sort of people. But most of the people

on the river cruises I take and say, Oh, I would never want to go on one of those big ships. And the people on some of the big ships say oh, no, I didn't want to go on one of those small ships. So there's something for everyone.

Yeah, I know that I took my teenage daughters on a Royal Caribbean cruise. About four years ago, it was pre pre pandemic. So it's four or five years ago and they they've been badgering me to again, but they won't go on anything else other than the Royal Caribbean. They're already opinionated into their, their their brand, which a young age. They don't want to do anything else. So I

have to get that booked. But I'll certainly be looking into your channel just at the Royal Caribbean videos.

Yeah, no, I've done a couple of Royal Caribbean I've got a couple more books I finally booked one of the big big Royal Caribbean's I've never done one of those. So Symphony of the Seas i finally booked cannot wait. Yeah, cant wait!

I was on that. When it was first launched that I will get managed to I was lucky enough to manage to get on an inaugural which was really good. But am I very jealous. So where are you going to be in the next was your next cruise taking you?

Yeah, my next one is talking about how different cruising is I'm cruising on a boat. So on a ship that the maximum capacity is 24 and it's a cycling cruise. So every day you kind of have breakfast, you get off you cycle, the barge sales and then you meet for dinner and then kind of do a walking tour. So that one's through Germany. Really looking forward to it. I did it last year, but

last year, it was my first time and I did a lot of prep, and I was ready for it. The last time I was on a bike was on the cruise last year. So I'm not really feeling too prepared. But I have time. I'll work it out. So, and last last year, it was that hottest weekend in 40 years. That was the weekend I chose to cycle through Germany and we had, it was like 45 kilometers a day. 37 degrees. So I

figured if I can do that, you know, now it's about 20 degrees, so should be easier. And then, you know, I've got quite a few big ships books. I've got, like celebrity edge. I've booked pianos alvia for my family. My nieces on that one. Yeah, it's so cheap. You know, people say, the family cruising. I can't imagine that you can even feed the children on that the price of this cruise. So for

adults for two weeks, it was 800 pounds each and for the kids. It was 150 pounds for two weeks, which is 11 pounds a day. So how are you going to even feed the child on that!

might have to have a conversation with my kids...

I really liked them.

Yes, sorry. Sorry. It's not gonna be the Symphony of the Seas. It's

it's really good though. I really liked some of the newer the newer P&O ships. I took my niece's on their first piano cruise on Iona. Just in February, and already, they're like, We want to cruise again. So that's very good.

Well, I really enjoyed this episode. It's been really good. I could chat it for a lot longer actually, Emma. I feel like I'm learning so much. But I just like to thank you for your time on today's podcast. And thanks to everyone listening in. I hope you all enjoyed it. So tune in for more technology cruise talks coming very soon. Thanks for joining me on this episode of Tech