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Ex-Prez on Board

orville99

By orville99,
in Royal Caribbean International

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orville99 "Live from...." Rare

orville99

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Just off Brilliance this morning. Debarkation was delayed until President and Mrs. Carter and his entourage were brought off the ship by the secret service. (They used the tender door right below our cabin.) Embarkation was also delayed until after he got on and was secure in his suite. We left late because some of his party arrived late (police escort) as well.

 

Other than having a secret service agent posted outside of his suite 24/7 (about 6 doors down from ours) the cruise itself was uneventful. Great weather all week. The Carter's made an appearance with the Captain on NYE for a bit, and we saw them walking around on Deck 12 one afternoon, but other than that they were pretty much invisible.

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Ladysilver

Ladysilver

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Just off Brilliance this morning. Debarkation was delayed until President and Mrs. Carter and his entourage were brought off the ship by the secret service. (They used the tender door right below our cabin.) Embarkation was also delayed until after he got on and was secure in his suite. We left late because some of his party arrived late (police escort) as well.

 

Other than having a secret service agent posted outside of his suite 24/7 (about 6 doors down from ours) the cruise itself was uneventful. Great weather all week. The Carter's made an appearance with the Captain on NYE for a bit, and we saw them walking around on Deck 12 one afternoon, but other than that they were pretty much invisible.

 

Lucky you! I would love to get that close to an ex-President! :D

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Susie51

Susie51

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Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

 

Mentioning Carter's name takes me on a trip down memory lane. I was in my 20's when he was president. Mom took her first cruise the year before he was elected.

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bluegirlum

bluegirlum

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I'm feeling better and better about my decision to go on Brilliance in February. :) Having lived in DC, I know what a production it is when any President (ex or current) goes anywhere, so it's nice to hear that it wasn't too much of a distraction or too noticeable. Maybe now people will ask to see the suite where he stayed instead of the Smith cabin.

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orville99 "Live from...." Rare

orville99

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Thats really a neat experience.

 

 

 

When did you find out they were on board?

 

Details.

 

Any random sightings?

 

Thanks for the post

 

Safe journey

 

The first clue that there was some type of dignitary on board was the police escort and the lockdown of the dock before we sailed. We were on the promenade deck when the last of the group showed up - lots of suits, and everyone on the dock high fiving each other. The second clue was that whenever either one of us went back to our cabin, there was always a rather large man leaning on the corridor wall about six cabins down, and he was always talking into his collar. The second evening (12/30), DW decided that there had to be someone important to warrant that type of security, so she did what anyone would do - she asked a bartender. All the bartender knew was that it was an ex-president and he was really old. (He thought is was one of the Bush's)

The first time we actually saw them was at the captain's introduction in the Centrum on NYE.

 

The only other time we saw them on board was when they walked by us on the aft portion of Deck 12 (by the arcade)

 

We were sitting on our balcony having a last cup of coffee waiting to debark when their motorcade pulled up directly under our balcony and they came out of the ship.

 

The only inconvenience was that the cabin stewards on deck 10 couldn't have anything out in the corridors, so it slowed them down when they were cleaning/making up the cabins, and I expect it drove the room service people a bit nuts when they were trying to make deliveries.

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Paulette3028

Paulette3028

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I'm feeling better and better about my decision to go on Brilliance in February. :) Having lived in DC, I know what a production it is when any President (ex or current) goes anywhere, so it's nice to hear that it wasn't too much of a distraction or too noticeable. Maybe now people will ask to see the suite where he stayed instead of the Smith cabin.

 

Great to know that President and Mrs. Carter felt that Brilliance was a great ship to sail on....and did not 'have to take' one of the super mega ships, like Oasis or Allure or the newest ship, Quantum. It speaks well of the quality of service and the experience, the smaller and older ships CAN provide.

 

But most of us know that already.

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orville99 "Live from...." Rare

orville99

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How cool! We're on deck 10 of Brilliance leaving on Thursday. do you know which suite they were in?

 

We were in 1560, and there were three grand suites between us and the secret service people. They were either in the third GS or had a block of JS just past it (or both). I wasn't going to wander down and ask which one:)

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MADflyer

MADflyer

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Rosalynn Carter is Godmother to Sovereign of the Seas. There is a fun fact

 

Best-

 

Steve

 

I thought about that when I saw this thread and wondered how often they had sailed with RCI previously and if there were any lifetime perks associated with being a Godmother to a former ship in the fleet?

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CruiseMore1

CruiseMore1

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Rosalynn Carter is Godmother to Sovereign of the Seas. There is a fun fact

 

Best-

 

Steve

 

And the family sailed on the maiden voyage of Sovereign, as did we. So we did get pretty up close to them. My BIL nearly stumbled into the pres - there were plenty of SS around to make sure it did not happen!

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HiCSailor

HiCSailor

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Bush 41 took a Princess Cruise soon after leaving office, without much security or posse

 

All was well until some pax tried to take his picture in the sauna

 

He disembarked in St Thomas

HE disembarked!? As a result of the sauna incident?

 

I would think the would-be photographers should have been invited to find alternative transportation arrangements.

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