• 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.
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