Merri and I just returned from the Carribean Dreams Cruise Jan 2008 and it was wonderful as always.  I have gone to the old calenders and our first Olivia cruise was on Dolphin on the 5 day/4 night July 22nd to 26th 1991.  The entertainment was Karen Williams, Marga Gomez, Lucie Blue Trembley, Diane Davison, and Teresa Trull.  Holly Near's pianist was also on board.  John wore a shirt that said "no one knows I'm a Lesbian".  The gift from Olivia in our cabins was a very nice Blue Golf Shirt. (Lots of people on this cruise liked the shirt very much since I still wear it).  I have pictures of the Dolphin ship in port in Nassua next to the monster ships.  I remember the deck party at night with the other ships watching us.  There were two ladies on the deck of the monster ship standing off to the side.  We called up to them and told them they were on the wrong ship. They agreed.  The 35th anniversary video shown on the Jan 2008 cruise was great. Lots of wonderful memories.  I couldn't remember about the beds on that first cruise but looking at the pictures we did have two single beds.  This last cruise was our fifth and the WOW program gave us the signed KD Lang CD's as well as flowers and champagne in the room.  We felt very pampered!!  Thanks for making this dream of womens entertainment on the water a reality.  We have booked the Tulips to Chocolates for 2009 and are looking very forward to it.

One other thing - our first cruise was a 2 for 1 that was awarded in March of 1991 at the Chris Williamson concert in Atlanta.  We didn't win but we got a call from Olivia in May asking if we could go.  We said YES!..  One woman who was going in Atlanta  wanted to get to know people before the cruise since she was going solo.  She could not get the list of names from Olivia so she sent party invitations to Olivia and they sent them out.  We attended and met 7 other folks who were going from the area.   We had lots of questions that we couldn't answer but the one quesition I remember is we all wondered what the customs folks would think of our sex toys.!!

During that first cruise we made friends with two wonderful ladies from Virginia (Beth and Deb) and cruised with them on Olivia to Alaska in 2006.  It was sure fun on this cruise to see the video of that cruise on the TV in our room.  During Alaska the 4 of us became friends with Blake and Salem from Asia and they told us we had to go on this cruise!  It is so wonderful to continue to build new friendships!!!

Thanks again to everyone at Olivia!!!

Margaret and Merri  (together 32 years in March 2008)

 

 

Susan and I took our first cruise in 1993 (I think).  It was Olivia's 2nd Alaska cruise and pretty much ruined us for life!  It was on Costa and you could have pasta for every meal!Our cabin steward and also our waiter were named "Victor" and for weeks after we got home we called their names to no avail! Our very dear friends, Kay and Connie, were on the cruise with us and will be on the Jan Carribean cruise with us as well  kitty

You go girl!

Enjoy your cruise. January is it? (Can't check back to previous posts) Might see you there...........

Thank you for the tips.

I will start a list right now and put Bonine at the top. I'm not big on public displays of affection anyway mostly due to my crazy instinct to stay alive!

I've looked at the ship we will be taking and must say, it looks spectacular.

I haven't really listened to much disco music in the past, but my girlfriend likes it, so I suppose I should put some music on my ipod, put Saturday Night Fever in the DVD player and learn some dance moves. Big learning curve, glad I've got time.

road_cycler, take medication to prevent motion sickness. Bonine is very good & doesn't make you drowsy. You can also get wrist bands that help. Also, if you are prone to motion sickness, don't drink too much alcohol.

 

Olivia has disco every night on most cruises as well as sail-away party & theme parties so you sure will be partied out by week's end!!

 

We haven't felt unwelcome anywhere for years. The only time we did, I understand it was because 2 of the girls kissed in front of a crowd of locals. 

Just remember that many places you will visit are not used to seeing gays & lesbians on a daily basis!! They don't understand &/or their religion is unaccepting. Remember that you are in their country & respect them. Overt public displays of affection between members of the same sex is not appropriate in my mind & can quickly reverse a welcoming smile (Including mine!!).

This will be my first Olivia vacation. I am looking forward to it and wish I were leaving now, I am so ready for a vacation. I'm just hoping I won't get sea sick and ruin the whole trip. I'm wondering what the nightlife is like on the ship, I hope it will a big party atmosphere every night. Has anyone ever had any problems with the welcome/ unwelcome upon docking in other countries?

And we are so glad that Judy hired you Jill.

 

I hope this is just the first installment of your Olivia "memoirs".........

Ouh . . . I could have fun with this!

 

I remember starting at Olivia as a "consultant" in Computer Graphics in November of 1989. Judy hired me to do the Program schedule for the first cruise (remember when we used to do those cute little booklets?) - and then she had me working on a few other projects, soon I was answering the phones and became a preservationist for the trips. I was invited to be a Staff/Activities person on the very first cruise in February of 1990. How lucky was I!  I remember the excitement of flying to Miami, knowing 600 lesbians were going to be on a cruise ship for the first time.

 

Little did we know that the single beds did not convert to doubles, and we had about 1/2 of the cabins with couples that were not very happy that they could not sleep together!  I remember Judy getting the Captain to get their workers right on it, as they started unscrewing beds from the walls, and converting one bed every 30  minutes. We weren't able to do many more of them, but we certainly set the standard for new ships being built, as beds that converted became a priority as we chartered more cruise ships during the year!

 

We had a great time doing these first two 4 night trips, and about one month before our scheduled 3rd trip in October of 1990, Judy said that my last name fit a "cruise director" position, so she hired me to be the Cruise Director :-)  The rest is history.

 

Having come from being a PE teacher and a Girl Scout Camp Director, this came very naturally to me. I quickly learned I was just being a cross between a coach and directing a Camp of Adults, and that is a lot of fun!

 

Jill

 

 

My first Olivia vacation was in 1993. I think the entertainers were Marga Gomez, Karen Williams, Lucie Blue Tremblay,The Topp Twins and Roxana Ward.  Roxana played in the piano bars we did not hear her until the second to last night!!WE heard lots of laughter and the room was overflowing with women. We became immediate fans of Roxana . I have done a total of 11 Olivia vacations...including the Seabreeze through the Panama Canal in 1998. I have many happy memories from the cruises and some interesting ones like our caravan of buses from the port to Cairo with an armed guard on the bus--and jeeps of guards riding between the convoy.    I am looking to my 12th vacation in January....a little scared my first vacation as a SOLO.

Thanks OLIVIA for creating wonderful vacation spaces for lesbians.

How can I forget our first in 1998!!! It was for our 30th Anniversary.

We approached boarding with great trepidation. Wondering what it would be like to travel with sooo many lesbians. We were a little scared. I think there were only 800 on that ship. Well, it didn't take long to get over that & realize that this is the way to relax & enjoy vacations.

Great ship called Seabreeze. It had lots of character & it liked to rock & roll !!! Well, it was only really bad for one evening but what I recall the most was that the Olivia staff were running around feeding everyone apples & crackers. Never got that kind of attention on a regular cruise!! Just one of the ways Olivia is special.

I remember Judy's welcome...that has never changed. If not Judy, Jill has always welcomed us aboard & bid farewell at the end of a gret trip.

Next the entertainers. Vicki was on that first cruise. I'm so happy that she is still aboard for most of our trips & never disappoints us with her comedy.

Now we look forward to spending our 40th with Olivia next year. As I type, Jill is over in Vienna making sure that every little detail will be perfect for us next year.  "Because that's what they do"

I'm glad you launched into travel from your record business!