The Cruise: Captain shares the ‘biggest lie’ he ever told – ‘really tricky’

The Cruise: Channel 5 tease travel show in trailers

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Captain Giovanni appears on Channel 5’s The Cruise, capturing the hearts of viewers with his humour and easy going attitude. He shared some behind the scenes secrets with Express.co.uk.

As a child, there was never a question over whether Giovanni would work on boats when he grew up.

He said: “My grandfather was a captain, my father was a captain, so I didn’t have any choice but to be a captain!”

Giovanni worked on superyachts before switching to cruise lines and eventually joining Virgin Voyages as the captain of Scarlet Lady.

He told Express.co.uk: “We always have to expect the unexpected, there could be a technical failure or we could have to do a medical evacuation.

“A cruise is a small town, a small floating community of at least 3,000 people going around the world and anything can happen.”

In one episode of The Cruise, Giovanni has to make the tough decision to leave a passenger behind in Mexico.

The drunken guest was very late for the ship’s departure and had to be left at the port to make their own way home.

Giovanni said: “It happens, especially at ports where the tequila and the margaritas are very good.

“I will never forget when I was in another company and the ship left on time and then I saw these two people running along the port shouting ‘wait, wait!’

“But of course, the ship was already out of the pier. I always try to wait and I’m always in contact with agents and the gate.

“I say, if you see anyone running for Scarlet Lady, then please tell them to speed up. And I blow the whistle just to remind them that I’m leaving.”

Manoeuvring a cruise ship into port can be a challenge and for Giovanni there’s one “tricky” port that stands out.

He said: “The worst port is New York because it’s really really tricky as you have strong currents and you don’t have speed.

“Honestly, when I was in New York last September, I told the officials there the biggest lie in my life.

“I said ‘I hope to see you soon’. But I want to leave it for a while because it’s so tricky, although of course we did it.

“New York is very nice but I don’t want to go there when there’s a strong current.”

Virgin Voyages is known as one of the world’s most party friendly and fun cruise lines and Giovanni says the friendly atmosphere is a huge part of crew life.

He told Express.co.uk: “The crew never call me boss, which is a word that I don’t like. I love tennis and I played recently with 10 crew members.

“We also like to go out to enjoy the restaurants onboard. The most powerful engine onboard is the crew.”

The Cruise continues at 9pm on Channel 5.

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