Cruise Line Hire Gentlemen 'Hosts'

Aug. 24 -- First-class service on cruise lines now includes gentleman "hosts" who can pour on the charm like James Bond — but don't get any ideas.

On any given voyage, more than 1,600 passengers cross the ocean on the legendary Queen Elizabeth 2, and generally the women passengers far outnumber the men.

So the QE2 — and about 20 other cruise ships — have a number of designated male escorts, most of whom are retired from other careers, whose job is to host tables at dinner and make sure the single women always have a dance partner.

The gentleman hosts have become part of the economic equation to build passenger revenues in the industry, which pulls in about $13 billion every year.

Perfect Gentlemen

All of the gentleman hosts are single, and on the QE2, they were booked through an agency called The Working Vacation. For $28 a day, they get a first-class room, meals, and their bar tab covered. In exchange, they attend every social function on board, host dinner tables, and hit the dance floor whenever the music starts.

Making sure all the single women are enjoying their trip is not an easy job.

"When you have 150 single women and you have 10 hosts, that keeps us busy," says escort Peter Drew, who lives in New York when he's not at sea. "It's almost like a bakery line."

The hosts are carefully screened as dancers before they are ever allowed to wear the dinner jackets and name tags that identify them. They never dance with the same partner twice in a row. And some of them look as if they stepped off the set of Casablanca — suave, continental, and full of compliments.

They are also screened as conversationalists, and cautioned not to get too personal.

"You know, we're not bragging, but just about every cruise I find women come on to me," says an escort named Jack Ross from Nova Scotia.

On Drew's first cruise, he had a memorable experience with a passenger who wanted to take his photograph. "Where do you want me to pose?" he remembers asking. The woman responded, "In your cabin."