How does an American presidential candidate get to grips with the Greek financial crisis? Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich says he did it by taking a luxury cruise.
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Gingrich took his wife Callista on a 10-day voyage on board Seabourn Odyssey from Athens to Istanbul, visiting Greek islands such as Mylos, Patmos, Rhodes, and Mykonos. Among the other 450 passengers on board was supermodel Twiggy, godmother to sister ship Seabourn Sojourn.
At the time, US political commentators were mystified by his disappearance from the campaign trail, and he was criticised for leaving the US shortly after a controversial speech in which he expressed doubts about the scientific justification for global warming. His entire senior staff resigned in his absence.
But this week he has said the cruise through the Greek Isles in June gave him a better understanding of Greece’s debt crisis.
“An observation strategically about where we are … was very much influenced when I visited Greece in June and talked to people what they were faced with,” Gingrich told MSNBC. “And I listened to them.”
According to polls released this week, Gingrich is experiencing a surge in popularity as rivals Rick Perry and Herman Cain lose ground in the Republican primary contest, largely thanks to their woeful lack of knowledge of international affairs. But they are unlikely to follow his example by taking to the sea, because opponents are using the Seabourn connection as an example of Gingrich’s supposed elitism.
Wonder if they would be happier if he had cruised with Carnival?
About the Author: John Honeywell
John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.
This is how it really works. You are not guanarteed that you’ll get it. RCCL has to buy the rights for the world cup. Then they get specific coordinates to tune it in on one of their satellite dishes. If you are in a location that is outside of the satellites footprint, then you will not get it. Also if the corporate suits at RCCL didn’t feel the World Cup was important enough to their bottom line, they wont pay for the rights. If the WC is going to be broadcast on a channel that they are already getting then yes, you will be able to watch it. How do I know this? I was the broadcast technician onboard NCL and HAL ships for several years and have had to set this up. We didn’t always get the biggest games because of the obscene amounts of money it costs for ships to gain broadcast rights. As well during the rugby world cup we didn’t have the rights to air it, but the shoreside salespeople still told passengers ahead of the cruise that we would be getting it. Lying fools that they were. Conclusion: cross your fingers.