Traverse City couple creates cruise ship desk calendar
By
Herald staff writer
With more than 30 years experience in the cruise industry between them, Jamie and Dana Logan of Traverse City have at least 12 month's worth of funny memories to share.
The Logans, along with their friend, Pulitzer Prize nominated newspaper cartoonist Bill Bates, have teamed up to create the "2004 - On the SEASIDE" cartoon-a-day desk calendar featuring some of their most memorable moments at sea.
"The calendar pokes good-natured fun at some of the humorous and sometimes head-scratching utterances we've heard. This is my version of the journal that people always suggested I keep," said Jamie Logan who has been a cruise director since 1986.
Many years ago, Jamie Logan started collecting anecdotes based on the funny things he heard and observed while working onboard cruise ships. Logan, along with wife Dana has circumnavigated the globe five times, visiting 235 counties.
"When cruise passengers board ships for their vacation, not only do they leave their jobs, cares and worries on the dock, they sometimes leave a part of their brains there too," noted Logan, who is quick to point out that the calendar is not a slam on passengers.
"Jamie started out writing things down on scraps of paper, then went to a notebook and finally to a computer. When we realized he had several hundred, we started coming up with ideas of what to do with them, that's where the calendar idea came from," said Dana Logan who works as a social hostess and has been in the industry since 1985. Both Logans currently work for the Radisson Seven Seas cruise line.
Needing an artist as familiar with the cruise industry as they are, the Logans knew Bill Bates was the obvious best choice.
Bates, an experienced cruiser and artist, has illustrated the ports and people of 13 complete around-the-world cruises. When approached, Bates, a resident of Carmel, Calif., jumped at the chance to work along side the Logans on their calendar.
"He brought his family and came and spent six weeks with us. He worked so hard, drawing more than 100 illustrations each week. He came up with the 314 we needed for the calendar. He has a real way of capturing life on a cruise ship," Dana Logan said.
With the calendar complete, the Logans have placed their finished product in several area stores and are working on distributing them to ship board boutiques.
"The merchants that we have worked with here in Traverse City have been wonderful in helping us promote this. We are so thankful to these business owners for taking a chance with this young venture," Dana Logan said.
"We have traveled all around the world and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. This is home to me," noted the Los Angeles native who has made her home in Traverse City with husband Jamie since 1994.
The "2004 - On the SEASIDE" cartoon-a-day desk calendar is available at Annie's; By The Sea and Horizon Books, by calling 1-877-GANGWAY or online at www.SEASIDEcalendar.com
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