Hi, I'm Kamel Belgacem

From travel agent to cruise obsessive

My cruise story started in 2004 in Marseille, when I joined the tour operator Protour Voyages. I quickly noticed something unusual: cruise passengers came back happier, and they came back again and again. Nothing else in travel had that kind of loyalty.

In 2011 I moved to Expedia Group as a Product Manager. From the inside of one of the world's biggest travel platforms, I saw the opposite view: cruises were treated as just another commodity, a price in a list, with none of the context that actually helps you choose the right ship.

So in 2015 I founded okcroisiere with a simple mission: to democratise cruising in France, and to prove it isn't what the clichés say: not too expensive, not only for retirees, and never boring. In 2017 I finally sailed on the MSC Meraviglia, and thirteen years of observations clicked into place.

Cruise-Ship.info is the natural next step: an English-language community focused on cruise ships: what they are like on board, what fellow cruisers think, and how to prepare a sailing together. Read a ship review, ask a question or arrange a meetup with passengers on your cruise. No sponsored rankings, no advertising dressed up as advice. Just the detail I always wished I had when I started.

The journey

• 2004 Join Protour Voyages in Marseille and discover the cruise world.
• 2011 Product Manager at Expedia Group; see how the industry commoditises cruises.
• 2015 Found okcroisiere to make cruising transparent and accessible.
• 2017 First cruise aboard MSC Meraviglia, and theory meets the real thing.
• Today Build Cruise-Ship.info to bring the same clarity to an international audience.