Stuck in port: After hearing that the landlocked College of Lake County might offer a course for wannabe cruise directors this school year, Tempo Lake called instructor Jim West at his Cruise Staff Training Institute in Spring Valley to ask if Midwesterners long for the seafaring life.
West, a former cruise director turned teacher, travel writer, travel agent and local radio personality, said he has had students from as far as Canada and New Zealand and as close as Chicago’s suburbs. “People think it is a way to see the world–free. Yes, you do go to exciting places, but being on staff on a cruise ship is work,” he said.
As for teaching at CLC, West said the time he thought he had available this fall will be spent instead on a book tour for his soon-to-be-released “The Essential Little Cruise Book” (Pequot Press, $7.95) on tips for people taking cruises. He may be back at CLC in the spring.
As for teaching so far from the ocean, he said, “You don’t need water to learn how to run a good hotel. A good cruise ship is a floating five-star hotel.”