Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 #1 Share Posted December 15, 2011 This will be a long thread, please bear with me while I upload all the pics etc,thank you for your understanding. On December 6th 2011 Critters First Officer Donna and I went to L’Ecole Nouvelle Royal Caribbean on Labadee to make a special delivery to the school on behalf of the International Critters from Cruise Critic, musical instruments for the children. But before I show the photos of the visit, let me go back a little in the story. We had decided that all the money from the sale of our custom made lanyards for our Allure 12/4 sailing would go towards buying instruments for the school and we told our family and friends about our Project for the school this year. Well let me say this, Donna could sell ice to the Eskimos, the instruments she collected from her family and friends were out of this world and what a fantastic job she did of collecting, packing and labelling them all up. Donna even persuaded Fed Ex to again ship all the boxes from her house in Rhode Island to the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale for free !! The Embassy Suites then stored the boxes for us until we were ready to go to the Port to embark on the Allure of the Seas 12/4 sailing. The boxes all had to have new labels put on them before going to the ship. I had arranged with the ship’s onboard staff for a secure storage area for the boxes and Donna had made labels with the storage area details on them and so, soon after Donna arrived at the hotel on December 3rd we began re-labelling the boxes. Some of the boxes were in my suite at the hotel as we had some late instruments given to us and the rest of the boxes were down in the back office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #2 Share Posted December 15, 2011 So a couple of hours later we were all done with the boxes and could relax for the rest of the day. We took the boxes in our shuttle to the Port on Sunday 4th December, oh I have to say 27 boxes and 8 people in the shuttle was not easy but hey it was fun. At the port we handed over all the boxes to a porter and off we went to board the Allure, this was the last time we saw the boxes until 7am on Tuesday 6th December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #3 Share Posted December 15, 2011 And so the day begins that Donna & I have waited for for a year, back to the Labadee School to see the children. Just after 7am we were taken off the ship down to the dock to await the boxes coming off. As we waited we suddenly spotted coming towards us Harri our translator, anyone looking over the side of the ship must have wondered what was happening as Donna & I ran towards this gentleman on the dock to give him big hugs we were so happy to see him again. We also had the pleasure of the company of Peter who is the Labadee Assistant Site Manager and of course our good friend David Southby who is the Site Manager. We heard later that our Critters Second Officer Nanci, heard us laughing from away up on her deck 10 balcony, we were just so happy to meet up with these guys again and very excited about our return to the school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #4 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Our boxes were the last ones to come off the ship after the supplies for Labadee. Finally we saw them come off and they were loaded up on the vehicles to go up to the school where we would see them again later in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #5 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Our vehicles for the trip up the mountain to the school. And so our journey began to the school. Oh my goodness me what a sight we saw when we entered into the school yard....the children were all out of their classrooms to welcome us. They were singing to us and cheering and waving, it was such amazing experience and one we did not expect as last year the children were all in their classrooms when we arrived. Many many tears were shed by Donna & I, we were so overcome we couldnt speak or take photos for some time, even now it brings a lump to my throat to think back to the beautiful welcome we got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #6 Share Posted December 15, 2011 There were some speeches made by the younger children to welcome us back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NorbertsNiece Posted December 15, 2011 #7 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Awesome pics Liz. Brilliant job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #8 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #9 Share Posted December 15, 2011 And there to the side of the courtyard we see the boxes. And it was time to open them so everyone could see what the International Critters had sent them this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #10 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #11 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megr1125 Posted December 15, 2011 #12 Share Posted December 15, 2011 THAT is amazing!! And how cute the kids are! Thanks for sharing....I bet they were VERY happy...and how cool of FedEx, the hotel and Royal to assist in your project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #13 Share Posted December 15, 2011 At this time Donna presented the photo album she had beautifully made of all the instruments we had handed over. And here we have the music teacher join us. Carl was just recently taken on at the school and a music room was assigned to him for his classes. After all the excitement of the instruments it was time to walk around the school and have a look at the cafeteria that had been added since we last at the school and chat more with the children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #14 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #15 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarefreeCruising Posted December 15, 2011 #16 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Looks like an awesome project! Would you mind answering a few questions for others like myself who are probably a bit confused? Who are the international critters? What school is this and what is the affilitation to Royal Caribbean? How did you get involved in this? Looking forward to more pictures! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #17 Share Posted December 15, 2011 After lunch it was back to the classrooms for the children. We visited one of the classrooms and what a difference from last year's visit. The children had been busy decorating the rooms for Christmas time,last year their classrooms were bare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #18 Share Posted December 15, 2011 And so it was time for Donna & I to leave the school and start back down to Labadee. We did mange to have a look at the new generator that was recently installed at the school. The view on our return back down Umm the road...sadly the photos don't do justice to all the potholes etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #19 Share Posted December 15, 2011 We gather with David,Harri & Peter down in the Information Office to say our goodbyes. And then the final farewell with Peter on the dock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise_Kitten Posted December 15, 2011 #20 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I couldn't think of a better way to spend a day......! CK x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #21 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to our Project this year for the school. A huge thanks must go to my Critters First Officer Donna for all her hard work in collecting and packing all the wonderful instruments at her home in Rhode Island....can I just mention this before I go....one of the instruments Donna was given for the Project was an antique Oboe which was valued at $3800 !! To all those on the roll call (not just Critters) who bought our lanyards, we thank you. To all those who donated to the Project, we thank you. To Fed Ex and to the Embassy Suites, we thank you. To the Guest Services staff onboard the Allure, we thank you. To David Southby & his staff on Labadee, we thank you. To RCCL Executive John Weis, we thank you. To the Critters, we thank you. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Joyeux Noel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizanessie Posted December 15, 2011 Author #22 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Looks like an awesome project! Would you mind answering a few questions for others like myself who are probably a bit confused? Who are the international critters? What school is this and what is the affilitation to Royal Caribbean? How did you get involved in this? Looking forward to more pictures! :) The International Critters are all members of Cruise Critic, who first came together for the Oasis Inaugural in 2009. We don't book with the same Travel Agent so we are different than some groups on here. The school is L'Ecole Nouvelle Royal Caribbean on Labadee,Haiti which was opened in October 2010. The school was built by Royal Caribbean. We first visited there in December 2010 when we dropped off 40 huge boxes of school supplies that the Critters had donated for the school. After Oasis Inaugurals where we had raised money for Make A Wish & for the Oasis Crew Welfare Fund it was decided that in 2010 we would do something for the Labadee school instead ...it is the Critters way of giving something back as we are very lucky we can afford to cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NorbertsNiece Posted December 15, 2011 #23 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Liz, what an amazing day you and Donna spent with the children. I see the Guirado in one of your pics! Will pass the URL of this report on to interested parties. You have done an amazing job driving this project forward to such obvious success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critterchick Posted December 15, 2011 #24 Share Posted December 15, 2011 What an amazing story. You've brought happy tears to my eyes.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruising89143 Posted December 15, 2011 #25 Share Posted December 15, 2011 A huge thanks must go to my Critters First Officer Donna for all her hard work in collecting and packing all the wonderful instruments at her home in Rhode Island....can I just mention this before I go....one of the instruments Donna was given for the Project was an antique Oboe which was valued at $3800 !! . Donna, you deserve a gold medal and much more for all that work on collecting, storing, packing and shipping all of that equipment down to Florida. Great job Donna. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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