We're home! Our cruise was absolutely wonderful!! I thought you might like to see a few photos... it's hard to pick though - I have over 1400! I know, I'm a little photo crazy, but digital makes it so easy and I like to take lots to be sure I have everything!
We started our trip with a flight to Fort Lauderdale. It was a long day as we had two stops - Seattle and Memphis - before making it to Fort Lauderdale. We had some bad weather going into Memphis which delayed us. We arrived into Fort Lauderdale after midnight so we were pretty wiped! It didn't slow us down though and we were up by 8:00 the next morning ready to see the sites before we left for the ship. Here I am on the beach just outside the hotel - we literally walked out the back door of the hotel and were on the sand!
We boarded Holland America's ms Zuiderdam in the early afternoon of Saturday, April 14th. The ship was chartered by Stampin' Up! as our incentive trip. It was amazing to see the details that went into welcoming us on board. All of the staff on board wore "Welcome Stampin' Up!" pins. The cruise logo was on the backs of lounge chairs and on the decks. There were banners hanging and the Stampin' Up! logo was everywhere! Even the coasters and napkins had the cruise logo on them. It made us all feel pretty special!
The ship left at 5:00 pm and we headed towards the Bahamas. We arrived at Half Moon Cay on Sunday morning. I've already told you how amazing the beach was here... We've never seen anything like it! We rented a "clam shell" on the beach - a shelter that fits 2 lounge chairs so we were able to sit in the shade most of the day. It was so beautiful and so relaxing! We both visited the spa back on board that afternoon so it was a perfect day!
The next day was a day at sea. In the morning, Stampin' Up! had a general session to welcome us on board. Here's a photo with Shelli Gardner, the CEO and co-founder of Stampin' Up! Melanie is with me in this photo - she's one of the demonstrators in my downline who also earned the cruise this year... they were both standing on a step. Okay, they weren't - I'm just short!! My upline, Alison, was also on cruise with us so it was lots of fun to be all together.
Our next stop was in Aruba. Mom and I had booked an excursion called "See and Sea". It was a boat and bus tour. We were amazed by the landscape. One part of the island was as we expected - beaches and tourist areas. The rest of the island was more rustic. There was a lot of desert with cactus and rock. We stopped at the Natural Bridge which used to be Aruba's main tourist attraction - it was bridge that had been carved in the rock by the ocean. The main portion of the bridge collapsed in 2005 but there is a smaller bridge which was interesting to see.
We saw a few interesting critters in our travels... the first was flying fish which we saw most everyday in the Caribbean Sea. These fish jumped out of the water and would glide along the water then dive back in. I tried and tried to get a photo of them without luck - they were just too fast! Mom saw a sea turtle when we were on the boat tour in Aruba and we saw some dolphins from our verandah on the ship. We also saw some iguanas... This one just amazed me on the cactus - he was huge!
On Thursday, we were in the Panama Canal. It was amazing to watch our ship go through the first 3 locks into Gatun Lake. We followed another cruise ship through the locks and there was a third cruise ship directly behind us. We disembarked the ship in Gatun Lake and took a train ride to Panama City. We were amazed to see all of the different trees along the way. It was beautiful. Once we arrived in Panama City, we continued our tour from a bus that weaved its way back to Colon where we would meet our ship. There was a shopping area, much like a market, right at the pier so we were able to look around and buy a few souvenirs as we waited to get back on our ship.
Friday and Saturday were days at sea. This meant more stamping demonstrations and also a chance for us to stamp ourselves. We were so spoiled during the cruise... We received gifts most nights... Here's a photo of most of the things I received. Most exciting was the stamp set and wheel that we were given - they are both from the next catalogue and are very cute! We had a sneak peek at some of the products coming up in the new catalogue... very exciting! They showed us the six new "In Colour" colours - I can't wait to have them! They have some pretty catchy names: River Rock, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi and Groovy Guava (my new favourite name!).
We arrived back in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday morning. We started our travels home just after noon, but didn't get to Victoria until a few minutes past midnight. It made for a long day and I'm looking forward to getting to bed early tonight!
We started our trip with a flight to Fort Lauderdale. It was a long day as we had two stops - Seattle and Memphis - before making it to Fort Lauderdale. We had some bad weather going into Memphis which delayed us. We arrived into Fort Lauderdale after midnight so we were pretty wiped! It didn't slow us down though and we were up by 8:00 the next morning ready to see the sites before we left for the ship. Here I am on the beach just outside the hotel - we literally walked out the back door of the hotel and were on the sand!
We boarded Holland America's ms Zuiderdam in the early afternoon of Saturday, April 14th. The ship was chartered by Stampin' Up! as our incentive trip. It was amazing to see the details that went into welcoming us on board. All of the staff on board wore "Welcome Stampin' Up!" pins. The cruise logo was on the backs of lounge chairs and on the decks. There were banners hanging and the Stampin' Up! logo was everywhere! Even the coasters and napkins had the cruise logo on them. It made us all feel pretty special! 
The ship left at 5:00 pm and we headed towards the Bahamas. We arrived at Half Moon Cay on Sunday morning. I've already told you how amazing the beach was here... We've never seen anything like it! We rented a "clam shell" on the beach - a shelter that fits 2 lounge chairs so we were able to sit in the shade most of the day. It was so beautiful and so relaxing! We both visited the spa back on board that afternoon so it was a perfect day!
The next day was a day at sea. In the morning, Stampin' Up! had a general session to welcome us on board. Here's a photo with Shelli Gardner, the CEO and co-founder of Stampin' Up! Melanie is with me in this photo - she's one of the demonstrators in my downline who also earned the cruise this year... they were both standing on a step. Okay, they weren't - I'm just short!! My upline, Alison, was also on cruise with us so it was lots of fun to be all together.
Our next stop was in Aruba. Mom and I had booked an excursion called "See and Sea". It was a boat and bus tour. We were amazed by the landscape. One part of the island was as we expected - beaches and tourist areas. The rest of the island was more rustic. There was a lot of desert with cactus and rock. We stopped at the Natural Bridge which used to be Aruba's main tourist attraction - it was bridge that had been carved in the rock by the ocean. The main portion of the bridge collapsed in 2005 but there is a smaller bridge which was interesting to see.
We saw a few interesting critters in our travels... the first was flying fish which we saw most everyday in the Caribbean Sea. These fish jumped out of the water and would glide along the water then dive back in. I tried and tried to get a photo of them without luck - they were just too fast! Mom saw a sea turtle when we were on the boat tour in Aruba and we saw some dolphins from our verandah on the ship. We also saw some iguanas... This one just amazed me on the cactus - he was huge! Wednesday was another day at sea. There were some stamping demonstrations throughout the day so I had lots to keep me busy!
On Thursday, we were in the Panama Canal. It was amazing to watch our ship go through the first 3 locks into Gatun Lake. We followed another cruise ship through the locks and there was a third cruise ship directly behind us. We disembarked the ship in Gatun Lake and took a train ride to Panama City. We were amazed to see all of the different trees along the way. It was beautiful. Once we arrived in Panama City, we continued our tour from a bus that weaved its way back to Colon where we would meet our ship. There was a shopping area, much like a market, right at the pier so we were able to look around and buy a few souvenirs as we waited to get back on our ship.
Friday and Saturday were days at sea. This meant more stamping demonstrations and also a chance for us to stamp ourselves. We were so spoiled during the cruise... We received gifts most nights... Here's a photo of most of the things I received. Most exciting was the stamp set and wheel that we were given - they are both from the next catalogue and are very cute! We had a sneak peek at some of the products coming up in the new catalogue... very exciting! They showed us the six new "In Colour" colours - I can't wait to have them! They have some pretty catchy names: River Rock, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi and Groovy Guava (my new favourite name!). 
We arrived back in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday morning. We started our travels home just after noon, but didn't get to Victoria until a few minutes past midnight. It made for a long day and I'm looking forward to getting to bed early tonight!Thanks for having a look at our adventure! It was a very special trip and I am very fortunate to have been able to share it with my Mom. I'll leave you with a few other photos from our trip. Can you believe that I even found a "snowman" on the beach?
I'm anxious to try some of the new stamping techniques and ideas that we learned and to be able to share them with you!
Happy stampin'!
Bev.
2 comments:
I have been anxiously waiting for your first post after you got home and I was not disappointed! What great pictures, it looks so beautiful and you look like you are very relaxed and happy,
Welcome home, I missed your blogs.
Katherine
Bev and Terry
You both looked like you enjoyed your trip. You also looked like you wished it would have been a few days longer. Now that you are back and have some new ideas to share I look forward to the classes. Along with the classes I look forward to the stories you will share with us. Love your photos of Half Moon Cay. Seeing the sand again I can remember how it felt. What an amazing place.
Cheryl
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