Today when I opened up my tpisolutionsink.com email and checked my in box I found my daily email from WhatTheyThink. Today's feature is a video interview by Frank Romano of the two ladies who run the print shop on the Queen Mary 2. Wow. . . brought back some great memories for me, as I did the same job over (yikes, need I say it) 20 years ago. The ship was different, the QE2, but neither the job or the cruise itinerary sounds like it has changed too much over the years.

Yes, many cruise ships have their own onboard print shop! As a passenger on a cruise ship a program of the day's activities is just one of the printed items you will receive under your cabin door. Today the printers on the Queen Mary 2 print the daily programs, three different newspapers, menus and business cards to name just a few things. It was interesting to hear that they are running a two color Heidelberg offset press, just as we did on the QE2, as well as a duplicator. No digital printing there yet! It sounds as though the Queen Mary 2 is one of the few ships left that still do offset printing onboard. . . bravo!

At any rate, I am happy to hear that the students at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) are still getting to do printing industry co-op jobs on the high seas. My time working in the print shop on the QE2 was amazing, the experience of a lifetime. My trip began in Hawaii and ended in Japan stopping at many places in between. Places I'd never get to visit if it weren't for this tremendous opportunity. And, best of all, I met my husband onboard . . . who would have thought?