After Cruise Report! Tons of Fun and a Great Success!

10-21-01 | Bob J

[Bob J]

The cruise was a great success and everyone had a wonderful time! I understand attendees are already searching the cruise lines for another in either late spring or early summer next year!

The weather was fantastic the entire trip! The only rain we got was some brief showers on Key West! The seas were calm and the sky was blue with lazy clouds wafting lazily across the sky. Many FRuisers arrived a day early in Ft. Lauderdale at Sheraton Yankee Clipper which is about 1/2 mile from the "strip". Some shopped in the afternoon and we gathered for dinner on Sat night right across from the famous FL beaches! Sunday night we were honored to have RM Dupree, Luiz Gonzales and Donato Dalrymple join us at the Sheraton for drinks and conversation.

Everyone departed late the next morning for the Port of Miami, with LurkerNoMore arranging a very nice limovan for the cruise committee so we could go over last minute details. Getting on the boat was pretty easy and we settled in, exploring the ship and taking in lunch up at the Windjammer cafe on the 11th deck. That evening, we had a private cocktail party in the Blue Skies Lounge. We handed out a "goody bag" for all attendees that included a nice cooler bag, gulpa mugs, sports bottles, lotion, chapstick, can coolers, coasters, etc., plus a VERY nice Network printed folder with note paper and Network business cards donated by the LNM and the Dallas Chapter. Gene MacDonald printed up cool nametags for everyone!

At the cocktail party, the weeks events were reviewed and it was announced that BadJoe and Willa had been married the week before, and, Slip18 and CyberLiberty were married in June! Joe and Willa put on a very funny skit with a noose around Joe's neck...heheh. Willa then put a apron on Joe and when he fliped it up it revealed a very large appendage...HA! CPAC and the ACU generously donated 2 platinum packages for the next CPAC and winners were drawn later in the cruise....LURKERNOMORE And DITTOMOM! Congratulations!

During the cruise, we had several informative and important seminars on Network planning and Reagangirl gave a 2 hour PR and Media primer presentation. All attendees are now very well informed on how to set up media interest and attendance at our events, write Media advisories and press releases, not to mention how to work them to get maximum benefit from our efforts!

Off the ship, we toured downtown Nassau and Key West and had a very nice day snorkeling, waverunning and playing volleyball on CocoCay! I'll let the other FRuisers chime in on all the particulars and our brushes with danger!

I would like to personally thank all the members of the Cruise Committee who worked so hard to make this event a success! Diotima, LurkerNoMore, Ms AntiFeminazi, MinuteGal, Seeking the truth, Ironjack, abner and hubby, Commonsense, BadJoe and Syncro! Thank you for everything! I'm can't wait for the next one!

[WIMom]

"You did not seem like a stranger at all, but like someone I had known forever. "

Everytime I meet a FReeper, it's that way. It's like a friend you haven't seen in years.

I am definately going on the next cruise. Last one was 1985, I'm way overdue! Waiting for the pictures........

[Luis Gonzalez]

Donato did call me, right in the middle of my Friday night soccer game (I coach a bunch of energetic, and slightly disoriented 4 and 5 year olds), and I couldn't talk right then and there, I called him back later and couldn't reach him or Ruthy.

I do hope to meet you again, soon.

Luis

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

also to Mr. abner who swims in his clothes (I couldn't get it in the To: box)

Waiting for the pictures........

Me too! I'll take my camera to one-hour photos tomorrow. I don't think I got any good ones because my husband had the camera most of the time. lol.

[WIMom]

It's great to hear everyone had fun, the trip was successful, everyone is safely home and there were no policital activities that spoiled the fun!

[WIMom]

The new system doesn't allow fun things in the to: box anymore. It's going to be tough typing 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember during the fundraiser. We opted for 2nd, 2MCBM, or something like 2ndlongestnameeveronfreerepublic.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Wasn't David Horowitz supposed to be on this cruise? Did he cancel?

[chuck allen]

Could you clear up the Horowitz rumors for me. Is he sick, having surgery or something? Is he gonna be ok? I hope so. Certain hateful people are just dying to know the truth so they can twist it a little/alot. :)

Glad you guys had fun.

[Qathleen]

I too, have to thank the entire cruise committee for a wonderful experience!
I felt privileged to associate with so many wonderful freepers.
It felt like I was in the company of freeper royalty since I had read some of the attendees posts for so many years :=)
I also have to thank my dinner companions for making me feel so welcome!

The staff of the ship took very good care of us and I hope to travel on Royal Caribbean again someday...
(I just hope they have Fox News on board instead of CNN by then)

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

We opted for 2nd, 2MCBM, or something like 2ndlongestnameeveronfreerepublic.

Hahaha. She's going to miss her bumps now. My name is not too easy either and I miss lots because of a dropped decimal or no space or misspelled AntiFeminazi or Mrs./Miss instead of Ms...

but I'm not complaining! Please call me MAF lol ;)

[IronJack]

Anyone care to help the HTML-impaired post a few pictures? I have gotten them developed, they've been scanned, and now reside in bmp format on my hard drive, but I can't seem to post them.

Question: do the pictures appear when you "preview" the post? All I get is a graphics box but no image.

[Bob J]

Mr. Horowitz had an emergency just prior to the trip and was forced to cancel. Passengers were notified but we didn't make a general announcement out of concern for his privacy.

[WIMom]

Well, you have to convert them to jpeg images, store them on the internet somewhere, then post. I don't have a personal web site, so, I e-mail (not freep mail) my pictures to other freepers who I know can do it for me.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

Wow, you're fast! Thanks Bob. :)

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

I can post them on my angelfire account if you want to e-mail them to me. I'm pretty sure you have my e-mail addy. If not, I'll Freepmail it to you anyway.

[chuck allen]

Ok thanks. Thats what I thought.

[IronJack]

FReepmail me.

[DoughtyOne]

If successful, you should see the graphics (photos) when you preview. To place graphics on posts, you need to place them on an internet site. Then you link them into your post.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

I already did! LOL

[DoughtyOne]

Unless your eMail account works differently than mine, I'd suggest you have people send you only a few photos per each eMail. If they're BMPs you may wish to have them limit to one per eMail.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

Good suggestion D1. IJ, send only 4 or 5 pics per e-mail please.