Kevin Milne: Trump presidency prompts a cruise ship to offer a 4-year-long trip

A cruise ship is offering to take Americans on a world cruise for the entire time Trump is in power. It visits 140 countries over four years.

Trump aside – it wouldn’t be a bad way to round off your time on the planet, would it? Or wouldn’t it?

Jack Tame speaks to Kevin Milne about the $40,000 a year expedition and whether Trump’s administration could tide New Zealand over the employee shortage.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from Newstalk Z'B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Quarter past nine on news Talks y'db. Jack Christmas cards
went out last century. For goodness sakes, is Angela, get
with the program, Get with the times, Angela. I can
assure you I am never with the program nor the Times.
Jack postcards. You can't forget to mention that when in Washington,
if you found a single postcard, that's one thing, But
try finding a stamp and then somewhere to post it.

(00:34):
It's even harder, says Jid. Yeah, that's true. Although you know,
I did go into New Zealand Post the other day
and it was absolutely humming, I think because they were
reaching the deadline for when you've got to send stuff overseas.
So I went in there was like a line of
five or six people. I was like, Oh my gosh,
it's like I've just gone back thirty years ninety two.
If you want to send this message Jacket Newstalks, HEIDB

(00:55):
dot Co dot m Z. Kevin Milner's with us this morning. Kevin,
you would still favor a handwritten note, wouldn't you?

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh? I love the idea. In fact, you brought back
a whole lot of beautiful memory.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Love the idea, not the practice necessarily.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
When you're talking about the stringing the cards up in
the setting room, I think we used to call it yep, yeah,
and you'd have yeah, thirty or forty. You'd count them
to see whether it exceeded last year's number of cards.
Well I did, My parents didn't, but I did, and

(01:32):
just to see how popular we were.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
So when do you reckon on that night? Then when
do you reckon they peaked? When did we reach peak
Christmas card? Because I think they've probably been on the
slide for most of the century.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, I would say even i'd go back to the sixties.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I think, oh wow, yeah, yeah. And the sixties would
have been a time as well when the Christmas Letter,
the annual Christmas letter was a real thing, Because I
reckon the Christmas Leader died out before postcards. But the
Christmas Leader existed in a time when it was really
expensive to call people and you couldn't just send them
an email. You couldn't just send them a text as
easily as we can today, which meant that often the

(02:09):
Christmas Leader was the only way you kind of kicked
up with people's lives when they lived overseas.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Right, Yeah, you're not referring to the ones that they
that some people would send out to all their friends
and been the same letter, but they just put your
name in the in the yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, yeah, and you'd say, oh, it's been a great
year in the Milne household. This year young ev has
passed her third gymnastics.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Oh. They were despicable.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
People would just rave on about their family success, very
little mention of what had gone wrong, about how Johnny
had been arrested and.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
That there Ven, I could tell that's all right. Hey, anyway, Kevin,
you've been fascinated this year by the prospect of a
four year long cruise offered to Americans while Donald Trump
is in power.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, yeah, I was reading during the week about this
cruise ship, the Odyssey, that's offering a four year cruise
at forty thousand dollars a year, traveling to one hundred
and forty countries and about five hundred ports. The media
suggested it might be a great way for Americans to
escape Trump, though the shipping company had actually released it's

(03:27):
plans for this cruise well before the elections, and a
couple of things spring to mind. Jack One, It wouldn't
be a bad way for someone my age to kind
of round off their life. Would it? Rent out the
house for four years, that's paid for most of your fare,
Your food's presumably paid for. And if you go to

(03:50):
sniff around this great world before you leave it, I
know lots of obvious concerns. Is there a hospital on
board with doctors and surgeons? If you take your wife
or husband, that's going to cost two lots of forty
thousand dollars if you leave them behind where they're going
to live. So a potential issue there. Four years on

(04:12):
the boat well better than four years in a bricks
and mortar retirement village. But imagine rounding off your life
by wandering in and out of one hundred and forty countries,
including apparently drifting past Antarctica. What do you reckon?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
I reckon, Yeah, I reckon. It's very attractive in theory.
I just wonder if eighteen months and you're going to
be going, you know what, I'm ready just to have
a bit more space in my bedroom and maybe not
be rocking, and if the third neurovirus is sweeping through the.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, but think if you're in an old folks so
many ways, it's true.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
It's true if you've moved.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
To a retirement village.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
You know.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, Yeah, it's a good point. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
The second thought I have, if escaping the United States
while Trumps and powers such a selling point, why doesn't
New Zealand come up with four year temporary work visa
for Americans to come and work here till Trump retired.
Just could tie us over where. There are people shortages
here in so many areas. I suspect some high network

(05:20):
families might enjoy two years over here as well. I
suppose one thing to watch out for the visas that
have to be specifically state four years, not till the
next US elections, just in case Trump decides there's no
need for any more of it.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Look, I think if they were to do it, given that,
there would probably be and I say this seriously having
just come back from the US, it would probably be
just as much of a demand if Trump hadn't won
the election. Maybe not quite just as much. But you know,
if I reckon Offkama won the election, there will still
be playing Americans who say I want to get out
for the next four years.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, you're right, actually, yeah, you're right. It's not a
bad idea. Americans are good people, so they're well trained.
We could get them over here just for four years
and while we sort out our own employment situation.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah yeah, So what do you reckon? What would stop
you from doing it? Kevin?

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Anything go and going on the cruise. Yeah, I think
I've missed the kids. Yeah, and the grandchildren.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I reckon. That's a big one. That's a really big one.
And you know, and stuff happens in life, right sometimes
without you know, and all of a sudden you think, oh,
you know, I actually, as great as it is being
off the coast of Bermuda right now, it would be
quite nice to be home and be able to be
of slightly more assistance.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
It is extraordinary. There would imagine traveling to one hundred
and forty countries, Yeah, just at the end of your
life kind of yeah, yeah, just to have it say
goodbye to the world.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, totally. Kevin. Hey, I thank you for that. I
appreciate your time this morning, and thank you for all
of your messages. Turns out Kevin is not alone and
hating on the Christmas letter, Jack Christmas letter and your
Skype sheet. You mean I'm with Kevin, despicable designed to
make the recipient feel inadequate. Properly, Jack, video didn't kill
the radio star, but you are living proof computers did

(07:14):
kill the Christmas cards in every other handwritten form. Put
a piece of paper and pencil in front of young
folks without a keyboard and spellcheck, and they can't write.
As you said, there is a special feeling attached to
writing handwritten leads. Jack. As I'm sitting here to you
this morning, listening to you this morning, I'm actually writing
out a few Christmas cards. How about that? Ninety two
ninety two If you want to send us a message.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
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