CreativityAtSea.com Cruise 2008

When the 20 foot wide Texas state flag rolled out into view I knew it was going to be a good cruise! It is said that everything is bigger in Texas. Ego may be one of those things. The one thing I’ve noticed about Texas is the big volume of stunningly beautiful women. This boat was full of them. As I said before, it’s going to be a good cruise.

Our CreativityAtSea.com 2008 cruise left from Houston, TX and a predominant number of cruisers were from TX. Carnival cruise line knew what they were doing when they ended one of the evening shows with “God Bless Texas” instead of the standard American flag closing. Those Texans were tore out of the frame.

Many of our own cruisers went a little nuts with joy when we swam with the dolphins in Cozemel, Mexico. This was the port excursion I couldn’t wait to do. It was an incredible adventure to be pulled through the water by these gentle creatures. The big fish fry at the conclusion was also a big treat. Calm down, I’m just kidding on that one. We’re very health conscious, the fish was baked.

The dolphin swim was also a powerful lesson in emotion selling. It can cost as much as $150 per person for this experience only to find out you won’t need your camera. They shoot still and video shots of every minute. When finished they escort you into a video viewing room to see the professionally edited video from just minutes before. The emotions are so high and the smiles so wide that it wouldn’t matter what the video sells for, the answer will be SOLD! I had one thought as I paid over 100 American dollars for the DVD and prints, “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”

There was more to the cruise than great fun in the ports. The conference was a huge success as well. Bev Bergeron, legend of magic and comedy creativity, was our special guest. Bev’s credits require a book to cover them all so I’ll just say that if you’ve ever seen a magic show you probably saw something that Bev had a hand in creating. It was a humbling honor to spend the week with him. Tim and I were doubly honored to have dinner with Bev and his lovely wife Al each night and hear their stories.

Julian Franklin, guru of kidshow marketing, knocked it out of the park with his session on brainstorming. This guy’s a genius, enough said!

Don Miller brought the fun with a great session on improv. Don is a mastor at making stuff up on the spot. Or so it seems. Little did we know there are secrets to being improvisational and Don was happy to share. I guess his days at Second City in Chicago came in handy.

Jim Austin served as our Captain of Fun and he did such a great job he’s now the official CreativityAtSea.com Captain of Fun until death. He opened each session with upbeat ice-breaker games that cleverly taught creativity skills. What a concept. But we didn’t have any worries with Jim because he never drops the ball. But he has dropped 30 pounds this year, congrats.

Kris Austin offered spouse activities for us this year to give the ladies more options. Sure it’s a cruise ship and there’s stuff to do all day but we wanted to give just a little more.

Jim Kleefeld did one of our late night sessions which brought rave reviews on the cruiser evaluations. Had we realized Jim was going to do such a great job we would have been much nicer to him on the boat.

I wish I could say that Tim and I brought the boat down with our parts but we didn’t . . . want the other presenters to look bad. It’s not always about us.

And finally, back to those beautiful Texas women. At the beginning of each cruise you are forced to put on extremely attractive life jackets and meet at a designated muster station. Tim and I, actually more me than Tim, quickly noticed the most stunning lady on the ship in our muster station. We debated about whether she was wearing a ring and if so where was her husband. It was apparent she was single which made her even more attractive. Not to Tim of course because he’s married and tells me all the time he’s in his happy place.

Although I’m not a professional stalker I did find myself noticing this beautiful lady at many locations on the ship. Like a 000 spy I kept watch for her all week. I told Tim since she was single at least I had a chance and I was looking for my IN. Tim quickly pointed out that I wasn’t even IN her league.

Since I seldom listen to Tim anyway I told him to bring his camera and follow me. I approached her on the dance floor and said, “Excuse me, my group is having a scavenger hunt and I need a picture with the prettiest girl on the boat. Would you mind?” She quickly grabbed my waist, pulled me close and smiled. With no effort at all I put on my best smile and Tim caught the moment. I would love to say that I then sit down and got to know her. But I can’t because as the camera flashed I ran slap out of courage. I thanked her and walked away. What an idiot move.

But wait, there is a happy ending. I had a show in TX a couple weeks after the cruise and you’ll never guess who was in the audience. Across the room I saw her blond hair and perfect figure. I absolutely couldn’t believe that I was lucky enough to be in the one place in TX where she lived. She turned around and I saw her smile. It wasn’t her! But for a split second you thought it was. Didn’t you? That’s all the happiness I can pull out of this story. Thanks for reading. If you’re interested in meeting beautiful people and having a creative blast with some really great people then visit www.CreativityAtSea.com so you won’t miss our next cruise.