We were surprised by the number of attendees at our second presentation.

“Sighting on the Ship in Australia”

Zebra’s painting located in the gallery.

Those of our readers who’ve followed along with us over these past years know how humbled and in awe we are in our lives.  We never fail to remind ourselves to be grateful for each and every day of this unusual life and… for life itself.

Awakening each morning to the joy of another day of life is a gift in itself. Good health, being together, living within our means and the love of our family, friends and new people we meet along the way only adds to the exquisite pleasure of traveling the world.

The huge Colony Club was also packed for our second presentation.

We ask ourselves, is it luck? The perception may be that we “landed on something.” As we look back over our lives, we realize that getting to this point wasn’t a stroke of luck. We gave up a lot and, over the long haul, we worked hard to make it possible.

Many find our lifestyle foolhardy and impractical. Others revel in a sense of wonder over our “bravery.” We aren’t foolhardy and we aren’t brave. Is it foolhardy to fulfill a dream one is capable of turning into a reality? Is it brave to jump into the cool water of a pool on a hot day? No bravery required here.

Tom was enjoying himself during our presentation.

Then, what is it, if not luck? Many years ago I taught sales/motivational classes centered around the Dale Carnegie concept of the fact that there are five steps to making a sale;  Attention, Interest, Desire, Conviction and Close. 

In essence, subconsciously we maneuvered our way through these five steps as we made the decision to travel the world as follows:

1.  Attention: That day in January, 2012 when I asked Tom what he wanted to do when he’d be retiring on October 31, 2012.  He got my ATTENTION but could we make it work?
2.  Interest: Once we started investigating the possibilities, both financially and logistically, we developed a strong INTEREST in pursuing it further.
3.  Desire: Once we realized it was feasible a powerful sense of DESIRE kicked in and we began to embrace the concept.
4.  Conviction: The more we researched, the more committed we became and during the first 30 days, a powerful feeling of CONVICTION to make it happen captured us both.
5.  Close: Like the finale of an actual sales transaction, we truly CLOSED when we began to pay deposits on future bookings and planned for the sale and disposal of all of our worldly goods.

The ship is beautifully decorated for Christmas.

These thoughts came to mind from so many years ago, as my brain was spinning with the enthusiasm we both are feeling from the second of two seminars we conducted for passengers aboard Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas. 

The positive feedback we’ve received from attendees both in person throughout these past days and by email has truly been overwhelming and appreciated. Who knew? Not us. We expected a handful of attendees when in fact there were in excess of 100 at each presentation. Go figure. 

Even staff at the customer service desk is prepared for Christmas.

If we’d had more lead time to prepare and announce the two part series, surely we’d been able to garner more attendees. We can’t stop smiling. This happy and fulfilling experience will stay with us for a long time. 

Will there be more in the future? In the next two days, we’ll be talking to Kevin and Steve, activities director and cruise directo,r respectively, to see if this can lead to something that appeals to us in the future. 

With bookings well into 2018, we’ll have to see if it is a possibility for us since it’s unlikely we’d want to change our itinerary going forward. We’ll see how and if it rolls out.

The ship is decorated for Christmas.

Last night, before bed, we checked our email to find this message:
On Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Mary wrote:

Dear Jess & Tom,
We have attended both of your presentations and have enjoyed them thoroughly.  Jess, you are a better speaker than MANY of the presenters we have had on many cruises.  Good amount of both information, humor, pictures, and you have no repetitive phrases or awkward pauses – brilliant!  I was a high school science teacher for over 20 years and have some familiarity with quality speaking

The other day we introduced ourselves to you in the Windjammer.  We are the 2 gals who have lived full time in an RV for 22 years, while also doing international land trips, and many cruises.  I’m sure we have been in more countries than you have, yet that doesn’t matter – we still learned a few things from you.  Thank you for that

Since we often travel spontaneously, with hardly any plans, and no reservations, and hardly ever stay anywhere longer than 3 weeks, we found it very interesting to learn of your travel style.  You are right;  people have to discover what works for them, no matter what anybody else does.  But you gave some excellent tips which everyone should know, just to be safe.

Hoping to cruise with you again some time.

Warmest regards,  Mary & Elaine

We are so appreciative of this message from these lovely people. It means the world to us to hear from those we meet in our travels, especially when they take a few minutes to say hello or share their story. Thanks to Mary and Elaine for sharing your thoughts with us!

In the interim, we’re down to our last few days aboard the ship, cherishing every single moment of this extraordinary adventure, made all the more exciting by the serendipity of our lectures and making so many new friends aboard the ship.

Luck? Maybe a touch. Happiness? In abundance.

Photo from one year ago today, December 1, 2015:

In Fiji, one year ago, we drove under canopy of trees in a nearby neighborhood. For more details, please click here.