Pizza Cruise 2008 was another resounding success. As always, our cruise planner Sharon Viotto did a great job of putting the cruise together and making sure all of the PMQ Cruisers were forearmed with the needed, completed forms and paperwork for boarding our cruise ship, the Carnival Liberty which was taking us on a seven day, pizza excursion to such places as Key West, Florida, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. In between these tropical ports of call, we attended PMQ Seminars, covering topics on pizza production, restaurant financials, leadership and management skills, leadership skills for women, marketing pizza on a university campus, plus plenty of opportunity to interact and visit with the speakers during group forums and pizza socials. We even had an opportunity to watch members of the U.S. Pizza Team do their amazing acrobatics, and then learn some of their dough tossing skills under their instruction. I have to admit, I never thought I’d ever see my wife, who has never tossed pizza dough, tossing dough as well as I saw her do it that day!
While we were at Grand Cayman, the PMQ Pizza Cruise attendees got together for a “Shore Excursion” to a local Caribbean pizzeria, Ragazzi Ristorante & Pizzeria where we all enjoyed great tasting pizza, right out of their wood burning oven, along with some good, old fashioned fellowship amongst the group. Afterwards we took a group photograph, and boarded our bus for the trip back to port where we boarded our ship and got ready for another evening of entertainment beginning with, dinner in the ships dining room. This was always an experience to be remembered. The food was great, and the atmosphere relaxed, but the best part of dinner each night was the chance to meet with so many of the participants and their spouses, which made for a truly memorable dining experience. After dinner we had time for a quiet walk on the upper deck, and then we were off to the PMQ Think & Drink Party, where we again had an opportunity to meet and visit with some of the “greats” in our industry. By the time the Think & Drink Party was over, some sent back to their cabins, while others took advantage of the ship’s casino, or late night shows. It’s absolutely amazing how you can pack so much activity into a single day and enjoy every minute of it!
As attendees of The Pizza Cruise, we all received our aqua blue, PMQ Pizza Cruise t-shirts, with bold white lettering, which we wore on the shore excursions and to some of the ships activities. Those shirts really stood out well, as we could easily spot fellow Pizza Cruisers from great distances, no matter where we went, we always felt like we knew a lot of people, and in fact we did. While both on ship and on shore, we would be regularly asked, “What is the Pizza Cruise?” and we were only too happy to explain.
This cruise was a truly memorable experience, as we had the opportunity to meet with, and learn from industry experts, while getting to know more about many of the other operators and learning from their personal experiences. It seems as if everyone had “pearls of wisdom” that they were willing to share with the group and this gave us a true insight into the every day operations of a good many different pizzerias. Oh, and did I mention that no matter how many activities we packed into our day, we always got a great nights sleep and awoke to each day fresh, and ready to go at it again? I guess that’s all part of having a great time on a cruise ship!
If you have never taken a cruise before, or even if you’re an old time “cruiser”, and want to learn more about our dynamic industry, and some of the people, both operators, and leaders, I would highly recommend this cruise experience. I look forward to seeing all of you “old timers”, you know who you are, as well as all of the first time participants on the PMQ Pizza Cruise next year, we’ve got even more exciting activities planned, so don’t miss it.
Tom Lehmann, The Dough Doctor |
