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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Our room was on the 11th level. Here is a photo I took from our balcony.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Another fantastic view from our balcony.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

 

Breakfast on the second day established some new friendships with demonstrators around the globe.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Aly and Rhoda from Scotland,
Yvonne and Arie from the Netherlands,…

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

…and Shannean and Woody from Australia.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Right after breakfast, we attended General Session. Stampin' Up! staff welcomed us all, shared ideas with new products,…

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

…and gave out prizes.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

What a spectacular ship! Here is one view from the area on 8th floor called Central Park. It is lined with several restaurants.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

All the live trees and birds made it feel like we were on solid ground.

Stampin Up, Stampin' Up!, Stamping Up, Stamp It Up, Stamp Your Art Out,

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!

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

One of the restaurants we ate at often was the Solarium. It was in a tranquil area by the pool.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

And it served one of our favorite gluten-free desserts.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

We saw many shows during our week aboard. This one was an ice-skating performance.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Here we are enjoying Monday's formal night dinner in the Adagio Dining Room.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

We shared dinner time with more friends old and new.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Brenda and Patrick Hukriede from Wisconsin,
Joyce and Gary Gilster (Brenda's parents),

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Kevin and Kay Smith from Newfoundland,

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Sherri Peters from Oklahoma, Diana Gibbs from Arizona, and their husbands Jeff Gibbs and Mike Peters.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

 

The next day took us to Haiti. The port was very beautiful.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

It was here that we treated ourselves to "massages on the beach." Ahhhhhh

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

We feel so relaxed now!

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

We shared dinner that evening with LuAnn and Jerry Day,

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

…and Jason, Patty and Eric Bennett.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Then we caught the show, Chicago right after. It was wonderful!

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Towel animals (sporting my glasses) made us giggle when we came back to our room in the evenings.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

 

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Oliver took good care of my mom on the falls.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

 

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Altogether we raised enough money to build 3-1/2 homes!!

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Another formal night, and we got gluten free chocolate cake for dessert. Yummy.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Hera really took good care of our food allergy needs. She was a fabulous waitress.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

(I even got their autographs a couple days later.)

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

 

We docked in Cozumel, Mexico on Friday.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

We spent a couple hours in the morning at Playa Mia and then did the remainder of our souvenir shopping.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

 

Saturday we had breakfast and great conversation with Carol Payne from Illinois and her son, Troy.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Then we caught a Madagascar performance in the Aqua Theatre.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

These are the prizes and gifts from visiting the Hospitality Room each day.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

And these are other items given to us here and there. Thank goodness I had enough room in my suitcase!

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

The last performance we saw on board, Blue Planet was filled with lots of amazing visual effects.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Then right after we shared dinner with fellow demonstrators from Minnesota.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

Sandy and Dave Carlson,
Terri Gaines and my mother, Margo Tessman,…

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

…and Lisa Schultz.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

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.

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

2014 Grand Vacation – Stampin’ Up!® - Stamp Your Art Out! www.stampyourartout.com

 

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