Stampin' Up! spoiled us trip achivers once again! My mom and I had fantastic week aboard Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas. Here are just a few of the many photos we took…
We left Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, May 4th. It was fun to be on the 15th level looking out at the blue ocean and diminishing buildings at port.
Our room was on the 11th level. Here is a photo I took from our balcony.
Stampin' Up! always takes good care of us on these trips. Here are pictures from the Hospitality Room – the room we go to for our daily prizes/gifts, to see samples (swaps, new products and samples, fun displays,etc.), to visit, to ask questions, etc.
Another fantastic view from our balcony.
Breakfast on the second day established some new friendships with demonstrators around the globe.
Aly and Rhoda from Scotland,
Yvonne and Arie from the Netherlands,…
…and Shannean and Woody from Australia.
Right after breakfast, we attended General Session. Stampin' Up! staff welcomed us all, shared ideas with new products,…
…and gave out prizes.
What a spectacular ship! Here is one view from the area on 8th floor called Central Park. It is lined with several restaurants.
All the live trees and birds made it feel like we were on solid ground.
We met Steven Zeigler, a fellow demonstrator on board playing with his new Blendabilities. He is a new demonstrator and didn't realize that he would be cruising with all the trip achievers this week. What a coincidence!
One of the restaurants we ate at often was the Solarium. It was in a tranquil area by the pool.
And it served one of our favorite gluten-free desserts.
We saw many shows during our week aboard. This one was an ice-skating performance.
Here we are enjoying Monday's formal night dinner in the Adagio Dining Room.
We shared dinner time with more friends old and new.
Brenda and Patrick Hukriede from Wisconsin,
Joyce and Gary Gilster (Brenda's parents),
Kevin and Kay Smith from Newfoundland,
Sherri Peters from Oklahoma, Diana Gibbs from Arizona, and their husbands Jeff Gibbs and Mike Peters.
The next day took us to Haiti. The port was very beautiful.
It was here that we treated ourselves to "massages on the beach." Ahhhhhh
We feel so relaxed now!
We got back on board, won another prize in the Hospitality Room (to get prizes you had to get a ring over a bottle – or not), and then took naps by the pool.
We shared dinner that evening with LuAnn and Jerry Day,
…and Jason, Patty and Eric Bennett.
Then we caught the show, Chicago right after. It was wonderful!
Towel animals (sporting my glasses) made us giggle when we came back to our room in the evenings.
Wednesday was the day we docked ship in Jamaica. We had a ton of fun on our excursion. We were able to see and learn a lot about Jamaica, climb the Dunns River Falls, and tube down a river.
Oliver took good care of my mom on the falls.
Later that evening we joined Silvia and Uwe from Germany for dinner and met up with Maxie and her daugher, Leonie (also from Germany) for great conversation and drinks afterwards.
Thursday morning, Stampin' Up! hosted a Walk-A-Thon to raise money to build homes in Haiti. It was hot and humid at 9 AM, but the scenery along the jogging track kept us going.
Altogether we raised enough money to build 3-1/2 homes!!
Another formal night, and we got gluten free chocolate cake for dessert. Yummy.
Hera really took good care of our food allergy needs. She was a fabulous waitress.
Jim and BJ Peters joined us after dinner and we all went to see Mo5aic, an all-vocal group perform in the Amber Theatre. They were fabulous. I ended up purchasing their 2 CDs and a DVD as a gift to my son, Luke.
(I even got their autographs a couple days later.)
We docked in Cozumel, Mexico on Friday.
We spent a couple hours in the morning at Playa Mia and then did the remainder of our souvenir shopping.
Saturday we had breakfast and great conversation with Carol Payne from Illinois and her son, Troy.
Then we caught a Madagascar performance in the Aqua Theatre.
This was a day filled with packing since we had to have our suitcases out of our rooms by 11 PM that night. We sure got spoiled by Stampin' Up! These are the pillow gifts left in our room each night.
These are the prizes and gifts from visiting the Hospitality Room each day.
And these are other items given to us here and there. Thank goodness I had enough room in my suitcase!
The last performance we saw on board, Blue Planet was filled with lots of amazing visual effects.
Then right after we shared dinner with fellow demonstrators from Minnesota.
Sandy and Dave Carlson,
Terri Gaines and my mother, Margo Tessman,…
…and Lisa Schultz.
We were pretty much done with our packing at that point, so we hung out on the Royal Promenade Deck with Julie and Jim Davison from Illinois for a good part of the evening.
It was a fabulous vacation. I'm so thankful that I have been able to earn these trips. I will definitely treasure all the wonderful times I shared with my mother this past week. Thank you, Stampin' Up! And thank you to all of you who have supported me in my business – customers, hostesses, and demonstrators in my team.
Stamp Your Art Out! ~Rachel
Thanks for sharing all your pictures!! (I came to your blog from Julie’s – my upline.) Looks like sooooo much fun. Maybe one day I will earn a trip… for now I’m just a hobby demo! 🙂
Totally fun, Janet! When the timing is right for you, and you set your heart and mind to it, you’ll be able to earn the trips.
Oh my gosh, Rachel! Your pictures brought back so many wonderful, recent memories! Hera was our waiter as well!!! We loved her!
I’m hoping when I see Dawn next week she’ll bring her photos. Such a great trip! Thanks for checking out my blog post, Cindy. 🙂 Hope to see you again someday soon.
Dear Rachel,
it was so nice to meet you and your mother on the cruise!!
Lovely Greatings
from Moni
Germany