Schweppes/Canada Dry contest 2006 winners: Did you win?

[Ottawa_cruise_man]

Last summer, Schweppes Canada along with Canada Dry (Canada) had a contest called Mix 'Em Poker. There were 10 top prizes (7 through Schweppes and 3 through Canada Dry) of Caribbean cruises through Royal Caribbean. There were 8 cruises to choose from (4 on Freedom Of the Seas, and 4 on Jewel Of the Seas).

My lovely wife (ever more so lovely because she chose me as her travel companion!) won one of the grand prizes (thank you Schweppes!:)), and we selected the February 10th sailing of the Jewel Of the Seas.

 

I'm looking for any of the other winners. When I tried to get some information from the travel agency, they said they couldn't divulge anything due to the Privacy Act in Canada.

I have been told that some other winners have chosen the same cruise as ours, but I have not seen them on our roll call thread (Click here for thread).

 

So......, if you're a winner, I'd very much like to hear from you to exchange stories, and to ensure that everyone is getting the most out of this prize. It's supposed to worth up to $7,000.00 (CDN, so about fifty bucks U.S.!:D).

 

We're flying in from Ottawa, and staying at the Clipper the night before, and have a "Superior Ocean View with balcony" cabin. The only thing we had to pay extra for, is a small surcharge for flying directly out of Ottawa to Fort Lauderdale.

 

We met up with a great bunch of guys and gals in the roll call thread (don't tell 'em I think they're great: it'll go straight to their heads!:D), and I thank Cruise Critic for this wonderful web site: It's truly amazing!

 

Hope to hear from other lucky winners!

 

Cheers,

 

Laurent

[Cape Cruiser 2007]

Way to go! Lucky you

Have a great trip!

[EggDropErin]

Congratulations! Not only did I not win, but I don't recall entering either. :rolleyes: Sure wish I had!

[rsscaptain]

Nice to hear! Congrats!:D

[suezyq50]

Good for you! I don't recall hearing anything about it.

[Ottawa_cruise_man]

The contest was offered only in Canada, so I don't think you would have heard about it if you didn't see the ads on Canadian television. It was the first of it's kind, with the online poker game.

 

Here's what happened:

My DW drinks club soda like it's going out of style. She always gets the Presidents Choice low sodium brand. when I went shopping alone, they had ran out of that brand, so I purchased some Schweppes instead. She mentioned she liked the taste better (club soda has a flavour??? :confused: ), so the next time I went shopping I stocked up on Schweppes.

She noticed a contest on the lable, where there were cruises as grand prizes and televisions, etc... She didn't think she had much of a chance to win, but she was attracted by the online poker part.

You go online, enter your name and contact info, and then you play poker. On the back of each label is a unique PIN number that you must enter before each hand.

You play Texas hold "Em. How it works is you can keep playing your hand if you think you have a good one, and if you win at the end of the hand you get several entries. If you loose, you get no entries (risk factor here!). And if you fold, you get only one entry. She lost every hand until she was down to one label (I think she had 5 pin numbers/labels to start with). With the last pin number she decided to fold to guarantee at least one entry.

A few weeks later, we come home to a message on our voicemail, asking us to call this "Marketing Company". Having forgotten about this, we thought it was a telemarketing company. I remember thinking that it was the first time a telemarketing company had actually left a message. We ignored it. the next day, we get a more detailed message, which lit off the lights in my dear wife's head! One phone call later, and it was woo-hoo time!

 

So now we get to cruise for the first time ever, and we just might be addicted to it already: we're already planning our next cruise!:D What's funny about that, is that we don't even know if we like cruising! I can't think why not, but what if I don't have sea legs, or like the pace, etc... I know DW has sea legs: she used to work on B.C. (British Columbia) ferries, and they can have some pretty nasty weather there.

 

Thanks for all the congratulations!

 

Cheers,

 

Laurent

[cusyl]

Wow, one out of how many thousands. Congratulations.

 

My sister plays sweepstakes online and has won many really nice prizes. UPS stops at her house at least once a week.

:D

[Ottawa_cruise_man]

I tried to get some information sent to the other winners of this contest, but the Travel Agency absolutely refused to pass on any information! I guess they didn't want to help me because they might have cruisers realize that their service is terrible, and they should shop elsewhere! Won't be dealing with them in the future.

 

Still waiting for my travel docs: wonder when they'll arrive, since they'll probably have to sit on Christine No's (don't know her last name, but she says "no" a heck of a lot!) desk for a couple of weeks...

 

Anyone out there that won this cruise?

 

Cheers,

 

Laurent

 

edited at request of OP

[mikeblum]

congrats on winning...hope you enjoy the trip...did you bring your hockey gear for the skating rink...just little joke from south of the boarder...canadian boarder that is...enjoy

[emmy]

Laurent... I just found this thread.. I loved reading the whole story:) Congrats to Lori and her 'travelling companion' and I KNOW you will have a great time my friend!

 

I have to start entering some of those contests!:D

[Ottawa_cruise_man]

congrats on winning...hope you enjoy the trip...did you bring your hockey gear for the skating rink...just little joke from south of the boarder...canadian boarder that is...enjoy

No skating rink on the Jewel Of the Seas! BTW, I'm a hockey lover, but I don't know how to skate! hehe! I know, our founding fathers are turning over in their graves!:D

 

Hi Emmy! Wish you were cruising with us!:)

 

Cheers,

 

Laurent

[emmy]

No skating rink on the Jewel Of the Seas! BTW, I'm a hockey lover, but I don't know how to skate! hehe! I know, our founding fathers are turning over in their graves!:D

 

Hi Emmy! Wish you were cruising with us!:)

 

Cheers,

 

Laurent

 

laurent ~ all the more reason to book a Voyager or Freedom class ship..then what a story you can tell your fellow Canucks that you learned to skate not on the backyard skating rink or the pond but a Cruise Ship:D

[CruisinMommas]

You're a lucky duck. Yes you will get addicted to crusing. I should own Canada Dry stock we drink so much of it. Enjoy your cruise.

[madforcruising]

We met up with a great bunch of guys and gals in the roll call thread (don't tell 'em I think they're great: it'll go straight to their heads!:D), and I thank Cruise Critic for this wonderful web site: It's truly amazing!

 

Hope to hear from other lucky winners!

 

Cheers,

 

Laurent

 

Guess you could get blackmailed with this:p

[madforcruising]

So......, if you're a winner, I'd very much like to hear from you to exchange stories, and to ensure that everyone is getting the most out of this prize. It's supposed to worth up to $7,000.00 (CDN, so about fifty bucks U.S.!:D).

 

 

Hope to hear from other lucky winners!

 

Cheers,

 

Laurent

 

Hey you should know this trip is priceless - it´s the inaugural sailing of MOS - you can´t top this:D

[erin_cruisers]

Hey! - Way to Go

It's always great to hear of someone actually winning a contest. (How many times I've wondered if anyone actually WINS at these contests.)

 

I drink a 'ton' of Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and so I've probably seen the contest and just "chucked it", not thinking twice about it.

So good for you both for playing!!!;)

 

Enjoy this cruise, doubly, not only 'cause you won, but I'll bet this cruise will surely be a special one.

 

And be sure to stock up on your favorite pop, because if it's like Canada Dry Ginger Ale, it's hard to find outside of Canada.:D

[AFT_LOVER]

is owned by Coca Cola in the USA

 

 

Hey! - Way to Go

It's always great to hear of someone actually winning a contest. (How many times I've wondered if anyone actually WINS at these contests.)

 

I drink a 'ton' of Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and so I've probably seen the contest and just "chucked it", not thinking twice about it.

So good for you both for playing!!!;)

 

Enjoy this cruise, doubly, not only 'cause you won, but I'll bet this cruise will surely be a special one.

 

And be sure to stock up on your favorite pop, because if it's like Canada Dry Ginger Ale, it's hard to find outside of Canada.:D

[Ottawa_cruise_man]

is owned by Coca Cola in the USA

Yet another Canadian icon (ex: Hundson Bay Company) is owned by an American company...

I must assume the Canada Dry ginger ale is not as readily available on cruise ships as in Canada. Don't drink pop (or booze for that matter), so I don't need to stock up on it. I do drink bottled spring water (not the filtered tap water from Pepsi or Coke - Dassani sucks!), so I might smuggle a case of it with us. I've heard the horror stories about how much RCI charges for a bottle of water that they pay less than 10 cents for! And people think big oil makes money: The biggest profit margin at a gas station is the water!:D

[cds2423]

Congratulations on your BIG WIN, i'm so jealous. You will love the Jewel, a wonderful ship to start your cruising additiction with. I was on it last March with some friends from Burlington, Ont. I'm afraid i'm not one of the winners with you guys, i too usually just thrown out cans etc that advertise contests thinking that nobody ever wins. Actually there was one for a cruise on a milk carton last week & i meant to go to the site to check it out but forgot. Often times contests can not be won by residents of Quebec, it makes me crazy, we're still Canadians for now and hopefully forever, but that's a whole different subject.

Prepare yourselves to be hooked, we're taking our family to Bermuda for Canadian thanksgiving in Oct on the Explorer of the Seas which sails out of NJ, we were on her March 2005 and decided to go for it and introduce our daughter, son-in-law and grandaughter to the cruising world, we can't wait. Keep in mind driving to NJ isn't such a big deal for me from Montreal nor would it be for you from Ottawa. Bonne voyage;)

[Ottawa_cruise_man]

Do you know how long it takes to drive to NJ from MTL?

[cds2423]

Montreal to Bayonne, NJ is 353 miles from Limoges it's 454 miles, just a nice drive for a Saturday. Sitting in a car for 7 hours or so isn't my favorite thing to do,, but in our case for October, the air fare for 5 of us would be what $2500.00 Cdn, I'll suffer, not necessarily in silence but i'll suffer, we can do a lot with that $2500.00 even after staying in a hotel & parking our car for a week. We're also booked right now on a 12 day southern Feb of next year out of Bayonne on the Explorer, i booked it iin May, got a great deal. Just remember if you have any inclinations of going on another cruise while you're on the Jewel book it then to get an on board credit, you can always change whatever reservation you make as you go.

[cds2423]

Bonjour Laurent, it's 381 miles from Montreal & 453 from Limoges, to save $2500.00 for 5 of us on air fare i'll sit in the car for a few hours. I read in one of your earlier posts that you're a hockey fan, the Explorer has an ice rink, not quite like what we're used to in the NHL but it's really quite something, you should consider taking the drive to NJ for cruise on the Explorer, what a cool job it would be to be the Zamboni driver on the Explorer of the Seas don't you think? We're cruising to Bermuda for Thanksgiving and have another booked on her for Feb 2008, 12 days southern, got a really good deal. We're lucky to have a great travel agent

it really does make all the difference. Wish we were going with you on the JOS next month, you are going to love it!:)

[erin_cruisers]

We drove to the port on both of cruises. And I think they were both similar times - 9 hours from Toronto. The drive to NJ was definately an easier drive than the drive to Baltimore.

I don't remember the kilometres exactly.

When we drove to NJ we did the "Park-Sleep-Fly" thing and stayed at the Best Western Newark. :eek:

Yikes, definatly not the nicest area. I was worried that my vehicle would still be there upon our return. (And its only a minivan).

When we cruised out of Baltimore we stayed in Annapolis, and did the cruiseport parking @$10.00/day. (And had no worries).

I don't know if you've thought about it, but like everyone else here, its worth it drive down a day or two early, if you can afford the time.

[cds2423]

I was planning on doing the BW thing as well, we'll have a minivan too, tell me was yours parked outside or is it in a covered garage? All i'd need is for my DH freaking out in NJ when he sees where we're leaving the car.

[Ottawa_cruise_man]

Real simple anti-theft device: screwdriver! Locate the distributor cap, requires 1 screw to undo (no even remove!). Lift up the cap (don't pull off the spark plug wires), and remove the little thingy inside (it's called a rotor). Keep it with you in a safe place, and reinstall it when you come back. Without it, your car/minivan, etc... won't start, and car thieves won't try to repair a minivan they're trying to steal. Remember the movie "Gone In Sixty Seconds"? Well, it'll take a pretty smart thief to figure that one out in that time! And if he does, what's he gonna do: go to the local automotive parts distributor?

Now, if you don't have a distributor cap (somemodels don't use those anymore), then think of something else that's easy to remove that your vehicle needs to start.

Of course, most people are into getting their hands dirty when cruising, but it's the poor man's anti-theft device.:D