HOME ||  Royal Recognition ||  Slide Show: Puerto Rico ||  Slide Show: St. Thomas/St. Maarten || Slide Show: Nassau, Bahamas || Photo Gallery


1.  The Fine Art of Pin Negotiation & Swapping
2.  When Do We Eat?
3.  Where the Heck is My Room?


1.  THE FINE ART OF PIN NEGOTIATION & SWAPPING

A Great Ice Breaker

Every banker and their guest received a bagful of pins of their geographical/ functional unit along with their name tag that was attached to a neck ribbon. This gave us the opportunity to swap pins with others at the convention.

This exercise to the untrained, first-time Royal Bank cruise winner is not as easy as it appears especially if you come from the Ontario GU. In fact, an entire book could probably be written to give next year's first-time Royal Performance winners an upper edge in this team building exercise.

In the meantime, please note our light-hearted Top 10 "Ways to Secure As Many Pins as Possible" (especially if you are a winner from Ontario GU)

Top 10 Count Down   
  1. Upon receiving your bag of pins, pounce on every person you meet (tomorrow is NOT just another day)
  2. Tell people you and your pin are from Ontario's new International Division and run before they realize that they already have 5 pins identical to the one you just gave them.
  3. Contact your mayor's office prior to your trip and request pins from your home town/city (highly sought after treasures)
  4. Pick up a couple of pins on every island (increases your trading capacity as most cruisers spent their time in the upscale jewelry shops spending hundreds of $$$ instead of a $3.99 souvenier)
  5. Bankers give your guest your duplicates.. divide and conquer
  6. Never leave your room without your pin supplies
  7. Lurk around those whose necks are laden with 20 pins at the end of day one.. these are your mentors / these are the pros!! (Estelle you're awesome and our hero!)
  1. Collect duplicates from the smaller geographies.. sooner or later people will offer to buy you drinks to secure them
  2. Create a website and ask people from the following geographies to send you their pin...Carribean, Systems & Technology, RBC Insurance, Liberty Insurance, National Office, Card Services, Cornwall
  3. and the #1 Top Way to Secure As Many Pins as Possible (when all else fails)..... PITIFULLY BEG to solicit the sympathy from anyone who will listen (thanks Elsa and Manny!)

TO THE TOP


2.  WHEN DO WE EAT?


Just about any time we want to.














TO THE TOP


3.  WHERE THE HECK IS MY ROOM?

It took us the entire week to finally figure out where we were, where we were going and how we were going to get there.

We hadn't expected to be this confused because early on in the week, the ship's cruise director told us an easy rule to follow - "Entertainment facilities are located at the front of the ship (forward) and eating activities take place at the back of the ship (aft). And to figure out which way that is, just look out the window to see what direction the ship is moving. If your destination is forward, move in the direction the ship is going and if your destination is aft, go against the ship's movement." Sounded pretty simple - however, more times than not we found ourselves beginning our journey while we were standing in front the the mid-ship elevators..


View of the Staircases in front of Elevators


Do you see any outside windows?

The one good thing about this was there was never an opportunity to be embarrassed at the direction dilemma because all 1,700 passengers seemed to be experiencing the same confusion. You would typically chat with a couple on the elevator, the doors would open on their floor, good nights were exchanged and the couple would head off - one of the pair would turn left and the other would turn right. The last words you always heard as the elevator doors closed were "No, our room is this way..... no it's not, it's THIS way."

Finding your way around the ship was further complicated by the number of Decks aboard this floating resort. Just as you were patting yourself on the back that you had found the "aft" of the ship, you discovered that you were located 4 floors below where you should have been... back to the elevators to start again.


A view of Decks 7, 6 and 5 from the Grand Foyer's staircase


So we found that sleeping poolside on a chaise lounge by day was a lot less exhausting than making our way back to our room at night; and therein, explains why we did get a good tan while we were away.




Sue Guluche and Cathy stressing-out by the pool.
Oh, the pressures of cruising!


TO THE TOP