Posted on 10/21/2001 1:40:32 PM PDT by 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!
Katie and Synchro saw the "shark"..seriously there was a shark...
Yes they said it was only 5 ft. long, but objects look much smaller than they really are when you see them underwater...
I went on the Sovereign of the Seas on the 18-21 last week. We were at CocoCay on Saturday and I saw the same stingray with the same fish. I even took a picture of it if it turns out. I'll post it when I get them developed.
MKM
That would be great. Please bump me if you remember.
I'm so glad to have met you before the cruise, and I'm so sorry to have missed you when we returned!! We left the hotel for dinner around 7:45.... I'm afraid I was one of the freepers who assumed you could not join us :-(
It was delightful to meet you, I had a great time at the Yankee Clipper Sunday night, I am looking forward to the next time already, and I will not miss that cruise then!
The last cruise I went on, the ship was large, grey and had BIG guns – USS New Jersey (BB-62) – Long Beach to Hawaii in 1983. Awesome ship, awesome fireworks, awesome trip.
Having said that, the FReeper Cruise was at least two orders of magnitude better in all respects: my cabin was definitely not a “Mark 1, Mod 0, Standard Navy Officers Stateroom!"; the crew was better mannered (and MUCH BETTER LOOKING!); the food was outstanding; the company was awesome (FReepers ARE AWESOME, y’know!); the booze was better; the ship’s motion was conducive to good sleeping (we steamed at night) (Hey! U.S. Navy! Computerized stabilizers WORK!); and the liberty was special. Not to mention that I like my roommate a whole lot better than my Navy assigned roommate!
But the absolute best part of this cruise is that, once again, as we have done in the past and will do in the future, “We band of Brothers and Sisters” have met each other and spent some time getting to know each other better in order to work together more effectively .
Guess what? It should come as no surprise that we like each other! And we agreed to work with each other, and other FReepers, of course, to continue our battle to restore the Constitution and to make America a better country for us and the generations yet to come.
Stay tuned. We cruised for the experience of each other and to gain some insights in to how we best can work together for a better future for America. That we had a hellofagoodtime doing so was only a byproduct.
Enjoyed seeing all of my old FReeper FRiends and meeting my new FReeper FRiends. Look forward to more phun and more work as we continue to do what we must do to restore the Constitution.
A special thanks to the Cruise Committee for an outFReepingstanding job!
Cannardly wait for the next FReeper Cruise.
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