Getting to Know Your BDM: Celebrity Cruises’ Brenda Yeomans

Just when you think you know someone, you learn that Brenda Yeomans used to live around the corner from Brigette Bardot when she was living in Saint Tropez working as an au pair.

The Key Accounts Manager for Celebrity Cruises has spent a shocking 40 years in the cruise industry and has a career path that would make a good Hollywood movie.  Born and raised in Regina, SK, she started in the cruise business “by accident” after falling in love with Hawaii on vacations with her parents.  Those vacations sparked an interest in the South Pacific where she left after school to work for a year.

“My parents were nervous but a girl I went to school with, and her older brother were going to Australia, so they were ok with that and that’s what got me on my journey,” she told Travel Market Report in an interview last week.

“We stopped in Hawaii to visit friends, then we flew to Fiji to spend time there, then we flew to New Zealand, where we split.  I ended up in a hostel somewhere in the Bay of Islands and met some Irish girls, who suggested I try SITMAR Cruises after I told them I wanted to work on a yacht and sail around the South Pacific.  I applied and two weeks later I was working on board.”

Yeomans said she loved working with the cruise line, and was living a dream job of getting paid to meet people all around the world and have fun.

“It was a hard job because we did everything, but I didn’t care because it was all Italians on board and they were handsome and I was in heaven,” she says with a laugh.

After her visa ran out, she had to return to Canada where she applied again to SITMAR Cruises who put her on ships out of LA. Her best friend was in Nice and called to ask her to come and spend a month with and her boyfriend at his place in Cannes. So she did.

Yeomans spent the summer there as an Au Pair in Saint Tropez, where she lived around the corner from Bardot.

“At the time, I really didn’t know who Brigette was, but we would see each other when I was walking the dog from the house I was living at.  I wasn’t really liking the au pair thing because the parents owned a couple of fashion houses, and they were very particular. I loved the child but I was like, “okay, this is not for me.”

Thankfully for both Yeomans and our industry, she left the au pair position and landed with Royal Caribbean December 9, 1984, working on board to launch the Ship Shape program, RC’s then-new wellness program.  People might not know though, that she took a leave of absence from Royal Caribbean and during that time, took a position with Viking as Cruise Director where she was a performer.

“I’d sing with a full, nine piece band during the welcome aboard shows, the farewell show, it was a lot of song and dance,” she laughs.

Having such vast and extensive experience from working in so many different aspects of the business, we wondered if she had any advice for her younger self, just starting in her career?

“Know your worth, think bigger because when I look back, I was looking at the cruise brochures thinking “oh they’ll never hire me.” Of course they want to hire me, I’m fully qualified, I’ll be the best addition to their team they’ve ever had. I’ve always been confident in that I followed my heart, my passion, my dreams and whatever I wanted to do. So don’t hesitate to make something happen, if you want to do something, do it. Don’t put it on the back burner or wait for a special occasion to do something.”

That drive and dedication led Yeomans to her biggest achievement, her family.

“I never would have expected that I could live out my career and and do the things I’m passionate about, and travel and see the world and raise twins as a single parent for most of their lives. I think for any woman out there – or man – just know that you can do it. You can be proud of being a great parent and proud of your career, you can have it all. You just have to be focused and do it.

I’m pretty proud that I have these great kids that are doing so well who put up with me with my travel career and spending having to spend a lot of time away. But at the same time with this job, some things are flexible, so we get a lot of home time as well.”

When asked what she felt has been the most rewarding aspect of her career, Yeomans doesn’t hesitate and says the travel industry is probably the most inspiring group of people to work with anywhere.

“Everyone is so accepting. Even though maybe there’s some competition, it’s a family that cares about each other, and we go through so much more than I think any other industry goes through.

Hands down, wouldn’t trade it. All of the people you meet all around the world, the friends that I worked with. I’ve been in the cruise business for 40 years, and I’m still friends with people I worked with when I first walked onto that ship in 1984.”