Making a Splash

When Kate McCue was just 12 years old, her parents took her on a cruise. Most pre-teens would have delighted in just lounging by the pool behind mirror shades, virgin piña colada in hand, but not young Kate. So impressed was she with the cruise experience that she informed her parents of her new career goal: cruise director. What could be cooler than that.

Well, how about being the captain of the ship?

Female mega cruise ship captains are so rare that there weren’t any well-worn wakes to follow. But that was okay with McCue. “I could basically write my own rulebook and smash those (male-centric) stereotypes,” she said. To be fair, much of that “smashing” is the quiet kind, which is its own kind of statement and a central part of McCue’s brand.

Acutely aware of the powerful messages that seemingly small personal stylistic choices can send, she insisted, for one, on ditching the tie, an accessory that was historically worn by (male) ship’s captains. “I also wanted to make sure that I had some very nice shoes, and I walk around the ship in them, like Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire, doing everything that he did but backwards and in heels.”

“I'm a firm believer,” she says, “in the saying that ‘if you can see it, you can be it.’” If someone can identify with that feminine ideal of oppositions like this, then they can see themselves in it, and that's everything.”

Next to the visibility the position offers, the job’s biggest perk is seeing the world. It’s her day job, sure, but it’s also her passion. In her off time, she often travels as a passenger on the very ship she would otherwise be captaining, sometimes traveling with her devoted husband. When she does, she takes the time to soak it all in. She’ll swim in seafoam Caribbean waters, revel in the culture of the Mediterranean, or just let the iconic sights take hold: sailing the Hudson past the Statue of Liberty or into Sydney, past the Opera House just before the Harbor Bridge.