Gluten Free Cruise

[Timber4est]

I am working out some ideas for logos, once you guys pick a logo you like the most, please post it in here. I will try to complete 15 or so today, so don't vote until I put Sample Logos at the top in bold words.

Once you decide on a logo, this is what goes on t-shirts and stuff. I can put together your top 3 choices in a complete kit to include envelopes, letterhead and business cards. Also, if you would like to change the font let me know. I tried to pick fonts that are easily embroidered or silk screened, thus why they are also in minimal colors. Once you decide you like your top 3 choices, and have seen them put together into a kit, you will have to vote once more on which one you like for the total package best.

From there I can do sample websites as both Holland and Celebrity give a discount as well as additional benefits based upon the total number of passengers in a group. From there we can start looking into speakers and people like that, as well as getting corporate sponsorship to help with shore excursions and reduce the total price of the cruise :-).

I can even put together electronic newsletters to help get the word out. If there is honestly enough interest here on the board, I can pay the $300 for the year to get our own domain. If you like Celiac Freedom Cruise (which would then allow us to change out the slogan from year to year based upon activity and venue). Wouldn't it be neat to have that Celiac vacation once a year in the future is there is enough interest and we find places affordable to visit and accommodate our special diet?

Deborah

Here is the URL to the sample logos, remember, I am not done working until you find in red, bold letters "Logo Samples" so hit refresh if you visit prior to my being completed with it.

Open Original Shared Link

[Judyin Philly]

Deborah,

I can't believe all the work you got done in one day.

Did you just think of this yesterday...?

WOW...I'm impressed.

Looks so tempting so far.

love the work on the logo's

your rock, girl

Judy in Philly

[Rusla]

Deborah, you are awesome like Judy said. You have got so much done already. So far I like number 6 the best. Becaue it is bright and cheery looking.

[Timber4est]

I started thinking about a group cruise last week to tell you the truth. I figured Richard Simmons used to have his own "sweating to the 50's" or what ever he called his cruises. As I was researching all last week on a cruise for my family, I had done a great deal of work already. Truth be known, way to much work. But yeah, I thought, if I have to do this much work for my own cruise, and felt like my options are limited due to diet, how many others feel the same?

Thus, I opted to do research for everyone and thought about how neat it would be to meet all of you guys, help spread the word around the world and passengers who are not gluten-free and everything else.

Sorry about the logos, only 10 samples, but I hope you like at least one of them.

Deborah

[Rusla]

I had a problems picking the logo because there were two I really liked, The Celiac c's and the Airy Blue Splash because it reminds me of a dolphin.

[floridanative]

Deborah - you are woderful to think of this. I would not be interested in more than a 7 night trip. I'm guessing this would work best for more people who may be on more of a budget than others. Also, if we pre-book a cruise with a large group we should get a substantial discount which you may have mentioned and I missed it (not time to read everything tonight). With pre-booking you can't get all your money back if you need to cancel just so everyone knows that. Anyway, if everyone decided on a 7-day trip then I would offer to help you with the planning. One of my favorite things to do is plan our vacations each year.

Another thing to think about (and maybe you already did) is that was may be able to get some international Celiacs to go (besides you guys in Canada) as some Europeans do cruise the Carribean here. I own a promotional products company but I'm not sure if that's what your husband too does based on your comments. I'm just saying I could offer deep discounts on logo items if need be. We can discuss this in pm's if need be.

Thanks for coming up with such an awesome idea!!

[jams]

I love the idea! To be quite honest, it is too pricey for us. We just did a 7 night Western Caribbean for $3400 including airfare for 4 of us. We went the end of January and there were tons of good deals. Also, April is a bad month for us. Soccer is back in session then.

Good luck to all of you and enjoy! It sounds like it would be a lot of fun. I could seriously consider if it was $5K or less for 4 of us. I love the work you have done!!!

[flagbabyds]

I would soooooooooooo go but it would have to be in the summer, after i graduate from high school.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[floridanative]

I forgot to mention that for the dietician it would be great to get Shelly Case.

Also for those not inclined to cruising there is a Celiac conference open to doc and patients this Nov. and it's being put on by Univ. of Col. in NYC. celiac3270 probably knows how to add up all the links (if you don't mind celiac3270). We can't make it this year but we're hoping to attend the next one...not sure if it's going to be a yearly event or what. I'm on the e-mail list of the Univ. Celiac program so I'll post anything I find out about for future conferences.

For now let's get busy planning a Celiac cruise people!!!

[Timber4est]

Floridanative,

Yes, for budgets a 7 day cruise would work out better, but I wanted to price out the 10 dau cruise because a 7 day cruise would cost less :-)

A promotional goods company? No, are a Gold Award, high end Sporting Goods company (the kind with tile and fireplaces) and have to order everything from luggague manufacturers, clothing manufacturers and the likes, so your services would fit right in.

Our store deals in high end clothing/gear and items. We then have them embroidered or silk screened based upon the needs. When we get more into this, I will have to get with you prior to speaking with sponsors.

As you know, you do need to pre-book and the pre-booking is non-refundable, but they do give some really nice discounts to group sailings so I am very certain that the fees would be much lower.

[Timber4est]

Prices on a 7-day cruise. Prices listed are with airfare from my airport (considered one of the most expensive in the U.S.). Keep in mind this is without a group discount.

Holland offers only one 7 day (6 nights) cruise in April and it has no stops, you get on in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and get off in Ft. Lauderdale.

The price for 2 people per cabin is $3,983 or $1,991.93 per person (inside state room) 147 sq ft

The price for 3 people per cabin is $5,486.79 or $1828.93 per person (larger inside state room) 147-187 sq ft

The price for 4 people per cabin is $ $6,769.72 or $1,692.43 per person (larger inside state room) 147-187 sq ft

Celebrity offers 7 night Eastern Caribbean Sorry guys, all the economy class state rooms are already booked, they only have suites! People book their cruises so far in advance. I won't be providing the price quote here as is is suite only. Now I myself (due to arthritis and limitations will be getting a suite that has a hot tub on the balcony because I have to have this if I want to move after a busy, active day!)

Day 1 Sun, Apr 08 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Departure Depart 4:30 PM

Day 2 Mon, Apr 09 At Sea

Day 3 Tue, Apr 10 Casa De Campo, Dominican Rep Docked Arrive 1:00 PM Depart 11:00 PM

Day 4 Wed, Apr 11 San Juan, Puerto Rico Docked Arrive 10:00 AM Depart 8:00 PM

Day 5 Thu, Apr 12 Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas Docked Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 6:00 PM

Day 6 Fri, Apr 13 At Sea

Day 7 Sat, Apr 14 Nassau, Bahamas Docked Arrive 12:00 PM Depart 5:30 PM

Day 8 Sun, Apr 15 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Arrival Arrive 7:00 AM

[DavidB]

Thanks for coming up with such an awesome idea!!

Dido - Me and my family are interested in a vacation that we don't have to read labels!!

You also inspired me to try to organize/post a local Outback get together. GFCOP or GFDRAFLN

"Gruten-Free Coming Out Party" or "Gluten-Free Don't Read A Freeking Label Night"

May as well give these places that put gluten-free on the Menu some business and get to know other locals and create local support groups if not yet started. Anyone else from Central Pennsylvania?

[Rusla]

The Celebrity one for 7 days sounds good so far. Because I would like to see a slight bit of places I haven't been to before. With the Holland one floating about for 7 days and not leaving the boat would drive me nuts and I would start looking for animals, thinking I was Noah.

[Kasey'sMom]

The last cruise I took was on Costa and we visited these ports of call. In addition Costa owns a private beach on Catalina Island so we were there a few hours before going to the Dominican Republic. Casa De Campo is found more and more on cruise itineraries these days. We had a really nice time .

btw..any month in 2008 would be good for us!

[Timber4est]

woot!

I just got off the phone with a web service provider who is our first official sponsor and they are going to donate the website service to us, all I have to do is to pay to register the name.

I hope you all don't mind, but I would like to register www.celiacfreedomcruise.com

Freedom for one short week to not worry about getting glutened so much says it all. Or if other groups would like to "cruise" other locations together as a group, we could always put that on the website as well. The name of the site is generic enough to cover any "theme" needed.

As all sponsors, sponsor for advertising for themselves, the ISP company has requested a small image and link to their site. I was just happy they were willing to do this.

We do need to figure out which logo is liked the best, so far the Celiac C's is the most popular, but I have a hard time making a decision based on only 8 votes.

As the site will go live within the next 24-48 hours, I kinda need to know real soon, like today, so if you could share those logos with others and get their opinions that would be great as it will take me quite some time to do all the graphics and then put that to a vote with you guys as to which one so that I can turn into a code monkey for a few days to get the site off the ground.

Speaking about all this work, who would like to assist with all this? Those that do will be given an email address that I will walk you through setting up through outlook or outlook express depending upon which one you have. Anyone with ties to sponsors or wants to help get sponsors will need one.

I will also code a forum into the site that will be dedicated to cruise questions. Just like the many categories in this forum, I have no idea on what categories to have in the cruise forum. So much work and my schedule is really open this week and then jam packed the next six weeks. This is the reason I am pushing to fast and hard to get this launched.

I would love to see us Celiacs raid a ship, in order to do that, we need a professional was to present the cruise, costs, benefits and what will be offered. This will help us schedule speakers and sponsors alike.

Deborah

[Kasey'sMom]

I voted for Celiac C's but my dh liked Blue Lagoon!

[Timber4est]

grrrr. Holland won't speak with me, I have to be a travel agent and they want only 1 travel agent. So I made a bunch of phone calls and found travel agents who were International or who were U.S. and Canada only, but they were not both. So I called to speak with them about a small group and spent two hours on the phone playing circle tag with "I need to transfer you" statements. So, even though the majority wanted Celebrity, I thought it would be nice to include Holland, I won't be doing this now as they want something I can not provide. One person with Holland actually told me to become a 501©, Right, like I am going to hire an attorney, accountant, file with state, federal and local authorities, and hire a board of 4 people to chair it so that I can call for group prices.

Celebrity on the other hand stated that until we were over 100 cabings (double occupancy) per group, we wouldn't qualify for group benefits but we would be a "group". There is another problem here, Canada falls into its own category and they will not lump us together no matter what for benefits. Thus, I will need a Canadian Group Leader to step forward please! email me at deborah@deborahharr.com if you are willing to do this.

Canada has to book through Canada, International and United States book through the United States.

A group can not be set up until the following happens:

Minimum of 8 cabins (doulbe occupancy so 16 people) Each person must then pay a $250 deposit ($500 per cabin), Then they can call Celebrity to make the payment by phone or mail and *poof* you now have a group.

Problem is, our little cruise will turn into two groups, United States/International and Canada.

Once we have our "groups" in their database, they mail us all the literature, pamphlets and additional information to the group leaders. I have no problem being the United States/International group leader, but I will need a Canadian Group Leader.

Neither Celebrity or Holland offer discounts for groups, what they do is for every 16 booked rooms (double occupancy) they give you a free room of the same type of the "majority average" I suppose we could use these rooms to cover the speakers and or offer a "free room" to lotto winners or those really strapped for cash. These "lotto" winners could be determined through some competition that we can post on the website. This will only work if I could get some people willing to create and administer said competition.

The Celebrity Ship we will sail on is the Millennium

Itinerary: Subject to change, but not very likely, they have cruised this route forever

Day 1 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Departure Depart 4:30 PM

Day 2 At Sea

Day 3 Casa De Campo, Dominican Rep Docked Arrive 1:00 PM Depart 11:00 PM

Day 4 San Juan, Puerto Rico Docked Arrive 10:00 AM Depart 8:00 PM

Day 5 Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas Docked Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 6:00 PM

Day 6 At Sea

Day 7 Nassau, Bahamas Docked Arrive 12:00 PM Depart 5:30 PM

Day 8 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Arrival Arrive 7:00 AM

The prices are as follows (remember these are 2007 prices and subject to change).

• Based upon double occupancy
  
• Does not include Airfare (this from my city was around $400 per person)
  
• 3rd and 4th person in the room, regardless of the room type pay $858.23 ($108 per day) per person.
  
• Maximum Occupancy is 4 passengers per room, including the large suites
  

Inside Stateroom:

1st and 2nd person pay $1,108.23 per person ($139 per day)

Ocean View Stateroom:

1st and 2nd person pay $1,308.23 per person ($164 per day)

Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom

1st and 2nd person pay $1,528.23 per person ($191 per day)

Sky Suite

1st and 2nd person pay $2,428.23 per person ($304 per day)

Celebrity Suite

1st and 2nd person pay $2,858.23 per person ($358 per day)

Royal Suite

1st and 2nd person pay $4,558.23 per person ($570 per day)

Penthouse Suite

1st and 2nd person pay $6,148.23 ($769 per day)

What is included in the Cruise?

What is Included:

Cruise Package

* Shipboard accommodations

* Ocean transportation

* Most meals

* Some beverages

* Most entertainment aboard the vessel

What is Not Included:

Cruise Package

* Air transportation

* Transfers

* Items of a personal nature such as shore excursions, specialty restaurant fees, some beverages, photographs, gratuities/service fees, medical services, AquaSpa® service, etc.

* Travel Insurance

I will give room images and specifics on the levels of service each type of room comes with. As with anything the more expensive the room, the more benefits you will have.

We will have prizes and special events through the days, guest speakers, workshops, seminars and things such as this. Prizes and gifts will depend on the types of sponsors we are able to obtain. Myself and anyone else brave enough to contact companies to have them sponsor shore excursions will do our best to keep every possible expense down and have lots of fun, prizes and goodies.

Most of the time, the shore excursions are the most expensive part of the trip, this is why I will focus on as many sponsors as possible to make sure we can get these covered as well.

CANADIAN GROUP LEADER? Please I need one really bad!

Deborah

[Timber4est]

Latest news:

My sister in law has experience in group cruises of groups of 25 cabins and no more, she felt that this could get much larger and felt that there was no way she could serve our needs as we would need them served. Thus, I contacted Sherri, she is a professional travel agent who does all the travel plans for our store. She will now be heading up the cruise plans. (BTW -she said Holland is better service and better food, but Celebrity was more economical for events such as our needs are).

Based on this, we won't have to deal with the politics of Celebrity in my not being a travel agent or them wanting to split our one group up into two groups (Canada and U.S./International). Sherri is going to find out the dynamics and policies of Celebrity in why they would do this to our group and see if we can't by-pass this.

She will be working directly with Celebrity Group division and will get back to me within the next one or 2 days. She deals with International/Canada and U.S. all the time so this should be easy on all of you.

Just thought all of you should know that I have hired a travel agent who can deal with such a large group as I am sure you want this to be as nice, memorable and rewarding experience as I do.

Deborah

[amybeth]

I'd love to do something like this - what a great idea. Teaching, though, limits me to summer travel....

[mouse]

Hi Deborah,

You have really put your heart and soul into this. Here it is almost 1:00 and I am trying to find the energy to do more then wash a load of towels. I play at the computer when I get this tired.

Those extra rooms we would get comped will probably be given to the speakers we have. I think we have to provide them with a free trip as in room and dining. They should tho be responsible for the drinks and any sightseeing, etc. I think this is the way it works. But, what do I know as my brain is always in "diminished capacity" .

[Rusla]

Here is the thing with some who can't make the cruise if it is not in the summer. Any time from May to October (at least) is hurricane season in the Caribbean and for you folks in susceptible to them in the US. So, cruises in the spring are good. If other trips that are non cruises for different locales in the future could happen at different times of the year. When the local climates are good.

I am still on for Celiac C's logo and getting the webhost to sponsor the site is terrific! Let's hope your sister can get past the big split problem.

[Timber4est]

I so stink at ad copy, if anyone here would like to assist with this it would be appreciated.

I have a sample template (one page only, no links) ready for you to see it with the celiac C logo on it at

Open Original Shared Link

[floridanative]

Wow Deborah! This is awesome and I love the logo. I couldn't view them for some reason so I didn't vote but what was chosen is prefect!!! Please post when the actual sign up section and cabin options will be up and running. I already told my hubby we're going on a Celiac cruise instead of to Alaska and he's all for it. I agree that no one is going to want to cruise the Carribean in hurricane Season. April is so lovely and not too hot either!

[mouse]

That is more then AWESOME. How talented you are. I can't wait to pick the room and sign up. Of course this is over my husband's dead body. He had just said the week before that we would not being going on another cruise. Now, I told him we were! I am hoping he will meet some people that he can dicuss golf and sports with. He hears enough about the celiac disease from me. Not that he does not listen when I tell him new stuff, because he does. Thanks for doing this for all of us. WHAT A TROOPER YOU ARE!!!

[Rad3737]

Count me in for your cruise in 2008. I've never been on a cruise and it would be such a treat to not have to worry about the food. Thanks for all your preparations; you've worked very hard. 2008 is perfect because I've just changed careers and it's going to take a year to get it going (real estate).

Dianna