Eastern Caribbean

Dr. William Payn, clinician

Bells of the Cascades alumna Judy Schumacher shares this memory from our early Handbell Cruise.

We were “courted” by Holland America and offered a $50 shipboard credit to our participants that signed up by an early-bird date. This was a great incentive and helped us with our planning for the classes, etc. The cruise incentive plus Dr. Bill Payn created a definite draw. This was the first cruise with Azumano as our travel agency. Off we went to the Caribbean on January 5, 2002. We had 156 participants including BOC members. We began to put signs on the doors of our participants that called attention to other cruisers that we were on board and we had a lot of people at our concert. Unfortunately, we were now on the same year as the AGEHR Pinnacle Conferences schedule. We decided that we should get on the odd years so we began to plan another 18-month turn around for our cruises. This would mean three cruises in 3½ years. We buckled down and went for it.