15 March, 2006

All Cruised out...

...and what a "Cruise" it was!!!

Highlights of our Scrapbooking Cruise...

Had an early start to Friday morning. Jenny and her hubby Bruce picked me up from home, with baggage and all. Nobody said it would be easy to pack for a Scrapbooking cruise...what do you leave behind, as you know, we always need everything with us.


Arrived at N-Shed, Durban Harbour and proceeded to drop off our baggage etc at the luggage hold, only to realise that I had left my ticket for boarding in my Scrap bag...luckily by the time I got back there to fetch it, they had not taken it through (all out of breath may I add). Met up with our other 2 cabin members, Desire and Suzette, who had already passed the check-in point before us (what can I say, they are early risers). We then all put on our leis, to get into the spirit of things...was getting excited by now, just wanted to get on board and settle in.


Finally it was time for us to board...couple of steps to go thru before boarding the ship:

  • Go through customs and have baggage go through machine.
  • Stop at the Rhapsody poster and have your picture taken.
  • Have your ticket checked and photo taken again for security reasons, which you then get a card which resembles a credit card with all your details on it.
  • Then you collect you Scrapbooking Goodie Bag.
  • Another table to book for your dinner times.
  • Last, but not least have your passport checked and stamped.
  • Then, finally another photo outside just before your walk up the gangplank.

After all that, we finally boarded the Rhapsody Cruise Liner just as it started to rain.

Once onboard, got shown to our cabin (NO. 3052) to unpack and met up with Desire and Suzette. After unpacking we headed to the dinning room for a light lunch. We then headed for the top of the boat to go take some or should I say lots of photos (as any avid Scrapbooker would do). Then we were on our way, waving goodbye to Durban Harbour...open seas here we come.

Once we had left Durban, we walked around the ship to try and get our bearings and see what is what. At about 17h30 we had our briefing from Vince and Monique of Scrapping Fever and met the American cast, who were teaching us over the next 2 days.

Teachers Summary:-

  • Jorjana Brown - Founder of All My Memories
  • Karen Burniston - Creative Imaginations
  • Marilyn Harroun - Director Worldwide & Marketing for AMM
  • Margie Romney-Aslett - Creative Designer for Making Memories
  • Carol & Frani Garcia - Bazzill Basics


Dinner was at 19h00 (first sitting), thank goodness, as I don’t think I would have made it to the second sitting…The food was okay throughout the rest of the cruise, although a bit bland. Nothing to really write home about. Jenny and Suzette, experienced a lovely, but rather strange breakfast on Sunday, when they ordered the “Chef’s Special”, which consisted of an overdone Kipper, which left a lot to be desired, maybe that is why it was called the “Chef’s Special” (really wished we had taken a photo, it was too funny for words, both the tail and the head had started to curl up).

We made our way to the casino area of the ship, as we found some nice comfortable tables (which just happened to be the bridge tables) for us to social scrap when not in class. This was our little corner of the world, where we relaxed, scrapped, drank cocktails and café lattes, it was sheer bliss…or should I say we had an added incentive to be there (a very gorgeous looking Italian Adonis by the name of Michael), who was watching over the casino.

Don’t worry, by the last day we managed to get a photo of him (thanks Nicola), and once the ice had been broken he chatted a bit with us…


Also got to meet Kary, made her a nice tag from us with our emails on it, and Jenny donated her Scrapbooking magazine to her, as she really seemed keen on the hobby. Kary, drop us an email sometime, and tell us how things are going in your corner of the world…



Jenny and I retired to our beds at about 1h30.

Saturday, was a fancy dress for the ‘Adventure’ class, and of course, we don’t do things in small dozes…we go way out, as the pictures tell the story. Needless to say, Jenny’s very daring outfit won 9th prize in a photo competition, which Canon was running on the cruise. Way to go Jen, we are all so proud of you (wonder what Bruce will think of this all).

"Our teacher - Margie Romney-Aslett"

While, everybody disembarked for the Portuguese Islands, Jenny and I stayed behind to enjoy the a bit of sun in the pool and Jacuzzi, that way it was not too crowded at all…


Got to meet Karen & John Burniston from Colorado, in the US. It was so nice to meet you in person after chatting to you via email and your Blog. Your personality is addictive and it was great just having conversations with you on Saturday night up at the Casino and getting to know you a little bit more, by the way I love the necklace you got from Holland, it’s beautiful. You really shed some more light on CKU for us on which would be better to attend, if we ever did get to the US…Thoroughly enjoyed your class, it was awesome…nice to see different ways we can use transparencies etc. And thanks, to you for making this possible for me...

I love, love, love my Pink Mimi Tote!!! What more can a girl ask for, and the colour is to die for!!!

Jenny and I, took a walk down to the Deck party to see what was happening, we watch from upper deck, while everybody else was trying to keep in time with the old favourite YMCA song, obviously by now, there were a couple who had a few too many drinks, and it really looked hard for them to try and keep in sync…

Desire and I were left to ourselves up at the casino deck, when Jenny and Suzette went to bed. Watched Desire finish a last layout for the evening, and we decided to take a walk around the ship to see what everybody else was up to, but it seemed that we were the only 2 lost souls wandering around amongst a few crew members, looking for coffee. So, we decided to call it a night at 4h00 in the morning, only to be woken up by Jenny and Suzette at 5h40 to watch the sunrise…alas, we did not make it!


Sunday was a busy day with lots of classes. The day ended with a gala evening with Guest Speaker Alison, who spoke about being a survivor of the most brutal rape ever to be imagined in South Africa. She really had us all riveted to our seats, with lots of tears in-between. All I can say is that her book is really worth buying.

Then, it was back to our spot in the casino area for a last bit of scrapping before hitting bed, which consisted of making a Scrapbooking card for Capt. Antonio Serviero, as he found what we were doing very interesting and wanted a sample of our work, so between the 4 of us we did this. Little did we know that we where heading into a storm. We where being tossed around like a fish in a fishbowl…Jenny called it a night, and when Suzette ventured down to the cabin to collect something, she saw people milling around the corridors looking rather green…I don’t blame them with all this rocking motion going on.

Finally, the 3 of us ventured downstairs to try and get whatever sleep we had left before we docked back in Durban…

Cruise ended with us having a light breakfast and disembarkation started at 8h30.

We then proceeded to wait for Ellie, who was picking us up to go to La Lucia Mall, as we where booked for the Scrap 4 Africa Crop day with 2 of the American teachers, including our favourite Karen Burniston. Are we suckers for punishment or do we just LOVE Scrapbooking…now that is the question!!!

This is for Karen – I will make sure that I watch the Princess Bride…

Can life be any better than this: scrapping, cocktails, out on the open seas...

Signing out: all cruised out and needing lots of sleep.

2 comments :

  1. Sophia your cruise adventure looks like it was amazing! I'm so glad you had a great time. That was an awfully big smile on your face standing next to the that Italian dude! : )

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scrappin Devil!
    how fun to see you have a blog! The cruise was a BLAST! so glad you had fun! Thank you thank you for an incredible time!
    Miss you all like CRAZY!
    kiss kiss
    m

    ReplyDelete

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