Hi everyone. My name is Randy.

This cruise thing started with me in 2000. Ten years ago a buddy wanted me to cruise with him on Carnival Destiny. I said I didn't want to be stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean. He said it wasn't that way, so I gave it a try. After five minutes on the Lido deck, I knew I found my new form of vacation. Now, I seldom even go on a weekend trip anymore knowing that money could go to a cruise. About 25 cruises later, it's still like a “first time” excitement when I board a ship!

I knew I couldn't let this experience be missed by family and friends so I did what I've always done by encouraging them all to go too. Then I found a message board with other cruise enthusiast called Cruiscritic.com. WOW, more of "my" kind of people and I even found a roll call with those sailing on the same cruise I was on next. Very cool that we could chat and establish a rapport, then meet onboard like a family reunion. :)

After establishing myself on Cruise Critic under the screen name "Carnivalman" it seemed that there were a lot of us just as excited. I formed a roll call and we had about 80 of us chatting before our cruise and then, with the help of former CEO Bob Dickinson, I was able to have a private party in the disco on one of the ships where we all got to hang out. I also got married on Carnival Victory in March 2001 but that didn't last long... and it wasn't just because she didn't like cruising... but that will play a big role in the next wife. Ha. Ha!

So now it's the summer of 2001 and I'm sailing on Carnival Pride with the new wife and through a chance meeting we chat with a Cruise Critic host – along with the rapport I had established with another host online, and hearing that Cruise Critic was looking for another Carnival Board Host, I submitted my application and was accepted, thus becoming Host Randy. I've been there ever since and I love it. I also found it very easy and fun to advertise my official group cruises on the Carnival board in order to meet and sail with so many people from all over the US; many have become like family. They all know we're going to have fun on my cruises and book when they see me post a new group cruise. We do all sorts of things, some of which have different group names and logos designed for that sailing and ship. We wear custom designed group t-shirts and lanyards with nametags; have pre-parties at the hotel the night before the cruises; enjoy excursions; private parties; raffles; group pictures; and a glowing home party the last night where we all are in the dance club with our glowing necklaces. This is just a few of the things we do. The crew usually joins in and we're so looking forward to seeing Cruise Director Todd Wittmer again this April 24^th when we board the Dream as "The Dream Team."

I'll get to some more detailed fun in another post but let me leave you with this. We had a group called "The Liberty Castaways" that sailed once on April 1^st, I believe it was in 2006. Another Cruise Critic friend and I decided to play a practical joke on his mother who was sailing with us. He and his girlfriend knew me but his mom and dad were sailing with us for the first time. I was able to secretly meet with Jason (my friend) at embarkation and meet his dad so I could get the dad's Sail & Sign card to get in his and his wife's stateroom – Everyone was in on this except Dear Mom… HaHa. Instead of me explaining what we did… enjoy the video that Jason took of all this. His mom knows he does a lot of filming so it wasn't unusual for him to have the camera rolling.

View Video:

http://www.youtube.com/gatorclaw#p/u/31/jk1jXMuRSKs

See you when we sail.
Randy.

This blog post was written by a "Fun Ship" friend and cruise industry professionl who loves the value of a floating resort vacation.