Meet Eurodam’s Port Lecturer

Frank Buckingham

Frank Buckingham is Eurodam’s port lecturer and, in my opinion, a walking Wikipedia! A 1960 graduate of Oxford University in England, he studied politics, philosophy and economics. He considered attending Cambridge University, where he also was accepted, and in the end his choice came down to, well, a color partiality.

“My initial preference was Oxford, as I liked the university’s color of dark blue versus Cambridge’s light blue,” Buckingham said with a chuckle. “But this was not the only criteria, just an initial one.”

After Oxford, he taught up to university level for almost seven years.

So how did he end up in the travel industry?

“I fell into educational travel with a colleague of mine in 1966 organizing tours, guides and hotels,” said Buckingham.

This led to his working for Maritz Travel for seven years and then for a friend who had an agency that booked post-cruise hotels and tours for Royal Cruise Line.

In 1984, he received an unexpected call from Royal Cruise Line asking for him to serve as a guest lecturer on board. He leaped at the chance and remained with Royal Cruise Line until 1996. Frank also has sailed with Norwegian Cruise Line and Silver Sea, and he has been with Holland America for 11 years.

I asked Frank if he were not a port lecturer, what would he want to do?

“I am a tremendous film buff and would work in the film industry,” Buckingham answered. “Or be a curator in an art gallery,” he added.

Frank loves engaging in conversation and welcomes an intellectual challenge. His specialties are history and geography, so if you will be sailing on Eurodam before Frank disembarks Aug. 29, introduce yourself and try to trip him up with an obscure historical reference or geography puzzler.