The Joy of Cruising Podcast

The Godmother

May 04, 2023 Paul C. Thornton Episode 14
The Joy of Cruising Podcast
The Godmother
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Show Notes

This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Elizabeth Hill. Two queens, a convicted felon, and a schoolteacher board a cruise ship.... Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. This is no joke, however; these four individuals are, respectively, the Queen of England, Queen Latifa, the iconic, and Snoops good friend, Martha Stewart, and my guest today Elizabeth Hill—all Godmothers of cruise ships. Cruise ship Godmothers perform the task of christening a new cruise ship, ceremonially naming the ship marked by the smashing of a bottle of champagne against the ship hull. Cruise ship “Godparents” are usually women, even animated ones like Tinkerbell who was named Godmother to Disney Cruise Line’s Wonder—although rapper Pitbull was selected as Godfather of Norwegian Escape. The notion of a ship godmother had its origins hundreds of years ago where ceremonial launching of seagoing vessels took place in various forms, either celebratory or religious, depending on local custom, but generally to bestow the ship and crew with well-wishes and safe travels. Usually, celebrities are chosen as godmothers, such as Oprah, Helen Mirren, Dame Judi Dench, Whoopi, Reba McEntire, Jennifer Hudson, Mariah Carey, J-Lo and Simone Biles. And then there is Godmother Elizabeth, who you probably never heard of. I wrote about her story in The Joy of Cruising and called it a ‘Modern Day Fairy Tale.’

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