• So that is the day . . . .

    4/28/20096:47:07 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

    I told you about the planning stages of our first group . . . . . . now let’s take a look at our first customer. Not the first one to come by for information . . . . . but the first one to give us the money.

     
    It was June 1, 1990 . . . . . . . the day our doors opened. We were having our grand opening celebration . . . . . . and we had no clue as to how that day would go. I was here . . . . . along with Linda, Dee Dee, my mother and a few people from our corporate office. I think most of you know we began as a franchise. Also with us are family, kids and friends. It was a Friday (you can look – I already did) and the day began slowly. But after lunch, we had a steady flow of curious people. We were serving snacks and champagne . . . . . which was a nice draw for the “on the way home from work” crowd. We were nervous and didn’t know much about the cruise business.
     
    Back to our customer . . . .
     
    It was about 3:00 o’clock and Dee Dee was the lucky one to help Mr. I. M. Inahuree. He pulls up front . . . . . in his battered pick-up truck . . . . and tells us (well, Dee Dee) that he needs a trip in the next few weeks. It seems that I. M. Inahuree had promised his girlfriend a beach trip . . . . . back at Christmas . . . . . and he had just received a call (from her) about his pending break up. We were there to help. He scheduled . . . . and paid for . . . a trip aboard the Carnival Celebration from Miami to San Juan, St Thomas and St Maarten complete with airline tickets . . . . . for the following Saturday. The price . . . . . I am trying to remember . . . . but, I know it was considerably higher than it would be today.
     
    So he reaches into his pocket and retrieves cash . . . . . drops it on Dee Dee’s desk . . . . then into his other pocket for more cash. This went on for every pocket he had. Each time . . . the cash was balled up with no order at all. Singles, twenties, fives . . . . he had no idea. He came up short, so he ran out to his truck to search for more money. While we are on the phone booking his cruise, Mr. Inahuree is on another phone begging forgiveness from his girlfriend as he had just purchased her a cruise . . . . . for next week . . . . . 8 days from now. The rest of the conversation was . . . . . . near as we could tell . . . . . . about him being in the doghouse because she has no time to shop, get new bathing suits or have her nails done. For some reason, these things seemed important to her.
     
    Almost finished now, and I. M. Inahuree is actually . . . . in a hurry. We barely get an address (about 80 miles away from us) and he rattled a phone number as he is rushing to the door. He starts up his truck . . . . moves about 10 feet and comes running back in. That’s good . . . . we are thinking . . . . because we were trying to advise him how he would get his tickets before he ran out the door. He grabbed a bottle of Champagne and ran back out . . . yelling aloud (I guess all yelling is aloud) . . . . “I am going to need this”. As Linda and Dee Dee run after him (to give the afore said information) they are distracted by the trail of money . . . . mostly singles and fives . . . . . which has been falling out of his truck and pockets during his running in and out.
     
    On Tuesday, we received his tickets and tried to call him. No such number . . . . we tried everything . . . . but, nothing. So we Fed Ex’d his tickets with a big note that says URGENT – CALL US. They did not . . . . . until June 9 . . . . the day of their flight and cruise. It was about 9 AM and they were calling . . . . . . . . from Woodstock . . . . . . about 40 miles from the airport . . . . . . to tell us they have a flat and might be late for their 9:30 flight. You think! All of a sudden – I. M. Inahuree is not in a hurry at all. But, we managed to change his flight . . . . which would be pushing the arrival into Miami to about 1 PM. They also miss that flight, but make a third, which gets them to the ship just as the gangway was pulling back. All is good . . . . so we thought.
     
    We receive a phone call . . . . . on our 800 number . . . . . from St. Thomas. I. M. Inahuree has changed his name to I. M. Inatrubble . . . . . and he was. He gambled away all of his money . . . . . . . some $3000.00 . . . . . . in the ship’s casino and a casino in San Juan just one day earlier. He wanted us . . . . yes, us . . . . to wire him some money . . . . . . or his girlfriend was hopping a plane home!                             I hope she has a credit card.
     
    So, that was the day . . . . June 12, 1990 . . . . . that we realized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the limit as to how far we would go in our commitment to customer service.

  • Bowlers and Beers . . . .

    4/22/200910:22:12 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

    This coming year we will be celebrating our 20th year in business. 20 years of selling cruises . . . . . . . mostly to “first-timers” . . . . . . . . most became loyal customers . . . . . friends. We will be holding our celebration aboard one of the newest and most modern ships . . . . . the Carnival Dream . . . . . . . sailing from Port Canaveral on April 3, 2010.

     
    Over the years, we have arranged over 1000 groups of varying variety (a variety of variation?). Celebrations, such as ours; as well as . . . . family reunions . . . . Church gatherings . . . . . business meetings . . . . . incentive programs . . . . . weddings and wedding anniversary’s . . . . . . bowling leagues . . . . . golf tournaments . . . . . continued education seminars . . . . . high school reunions . . . . college reunions . . . . . birthday parties . . . . graduations . . . . tours of Europe, Hawaii, Alaska or Australia . . . . or any other get together you can think of.
     
    This reminds me of the first group we arranged. Some of you were on that first sailing . . . . . . which was planned in the summer of 1990, and hopefully, you can join us on our anniversary cruise. It was a bowling league . . . and every week, we would add $10.00 to the lane fees. At seasons end . . . . . . rather than have the normal bowling banquet . . . . . we boarded a bus and headed to Florida for a 3 night cruise. A 3 night banquet . . . . to the Bahamas.
     
    The weekend began with a pizza and beer party at the bowling center as we waited for the chartered bus to come and collect us. Departure time was midnight for the 10 hour drive . . . . . . . and after a night of beer and pizza . . . . . . . . we were happy to have a driver (and we were just plain happy), yet . . . . . . . we still managed to load a dozen coolers of beer and who knows how many snacks. It looked like it would be a night without sleep. It was.
     
    It was a noisy trip, but we learned something that night. Introduce people to the world of cruising . . . . . the first time cruiser . . . . . . . and mold our business around that idea. Most of those “first timers” continued cruising with us . . . . and some would form their own groups. They would return to us with their families . . . . . . replacing the beach vacation with a family cruise . . . . some would arrange a wedding aboard ship for their son or daughter . . . . . . and (for many) we became a part of their family. We watched their kids grow up . . . . . from preschool to adult . . . . . . and we watched as these kids had families of their own. Others became our good friends . . . . . and our best friends . . . . who would travel the world with us. Hopefully . . . . . they will all be with us for our 20th year celebration.
     
    We never could have gotten here without them.
     
     

  • What Would Happen To Me

    4/1/20097:45:48 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

    I’m sitting in my office looking out the window while working . . . . . . . ok, daydreaming, and I see this guy coming out of Kroger wheeling his cart to the vehicle right in front of my door. He parks the cart between his and another car and starts throwing 5 large bags of dog food into the back seat . . . . then he opens the passenger front door, throws in 1 item (and this whole time, I am thinking this guy’s going to leave the cart in the middle of the parking lot). He then scampers around the front of the vehicle . . . . . leaving the cart right where I expected . . . . . the middle of the parking lot.

     
    I go outside to retrieve the cart . . . . not wanting it to roll down the hill and hit my or . . . . . . heaven forbid . . . . . . . . Linda’s car. As I get close, I notice about 30 packs of meat (no bag) laying in the cart. As I move the cart to the sidewalk, the Kroger people run up to me demanding I give them the cart as it is their food. The son of a gun (or something like that) stole the food . . . . . . which explains his hurry.
     
    Now, two thoughts (actually 3) go through my mind.
       1st . . . Why are the Kroger employee’s yelling at me?
       2nd . . . Really . . . . . Bologna when he could have had steak?
       3rd . . . The son of a something takes the dog food and (in his rush to get away) leaves the people food? Are his animals more important than his kids?
     
    Maybe he is unemployed. I don’t know, but he was driving a giant, new, shiny red, gas guzzling SUV. Kroger tells me there is nothing to do but let these crooks go. It’s not worth the effort, they say. So, I think to myself . . . . . . . what would happen to me? And that reminds me of a story.
     
    During Linda’s Thanksgiving day preparations, I was sent (to this very same Kroger) to purchase a handful of items. Small items they were . . . . . . just some last minute cooking stuff. It was a chilly day, so I grabbed my coat and my list from Linda and off I went. Running through the store . . . not wanting to mess with the crowds . . . . I bypassed the carts and went for the items, knowing I can simply carry them to the register. I realized I was wrong in that assumption, as I continually dropped one item after the other. Not wanting to go up front for a cart . . . . . . . I started to put a couple of the items in my coat pocket. MY COAT POCKET! Don’t ever do that! They didn’t even let me get as far as the register before I was stopped. I explained myself . . . . . . . . talked about my stupidity . . . . . . discussed how real men don’t use “buggies” . . . . . . . and then had to convince them that I worked . . . just over there . . . . . as I was pointing to GalaxSea Cruises out the front window.
     
    Somewhat convinced that I was not stealing, they directed me to the checkout lane and stood there . . . . . . . . watching my every move . . . . . . to make sure I paid for every item . . . . . . . which, of course, I had every intention of from the start.
     
    So, lesson learned. The next time I get sent to the store, I will be leaving my coat in the car. I will instead, take one or our beach bags so that I can easily slip items in . . . . . making it easy for me to carry . . . . . . and eliminating any chance of me (once again) being embarrassed at the store. 
     

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