Meridian
is announcing a new travel partnership with an old friend.
We are going to take you on cruises and land tours in conjunction
with Diane Lovell, the Cruise Lady. You can see her schedule
of dream vacations and amazing tours at this site (click
here -- but before you do, read on. An
adventure is in store for you.
Latter-day Saints love to be
together. That’s why our online community called Meridian
continues to swell. We identify with each other. We want
to know what’s happening to other Latter-day Saints. We
feel connected to each other in ways we can hardly explain.
Many times in our travels,
Scot and I have stayed with Latter-day Saints we hadn’t
met before — and couldn’t stop talking until midnight. You’ve
probably had the same experience. We have said, “Can it
possibly be that we didn’t know each other just hours ago?”
It is this instant sense of
friendship — this wonderful family feeling, that led us
to create opportunities through Meridian for Latter-day
Saints to travel together.
The bonus is not just traveling
with new friends, but is also something even more. Could
anything be better than a few days off, a blue sea and deck
chair, sumptuous meals and fascinating ports of call? Or
traveling by land to the legendary sites you’ve only read
about? Yes — traveling with LDS writers, speakers, teachers
and entertainers who inspire, teach, move and lift you.
People who can make you laugh, make the day brighter and
most important — give you gospel insights that open new
vistas in your mind and soul.
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Lake Atitlan in Guatemala is a favorite
for Latter-day Saint visitors.
Think
about it. Can you imagine hearing Michael Ballam sing as
you explore the tropical shores of Tahiti? Or explore the
Book of Mormon lands with Joseph Allen, who has made this
scriptural geography a lifetime study? Wouldn’t it be great
to go to the Baltic capitals with Susan Easton Black’s historical
lectures? Or travel to Alaska, the Caribbean, or the Mediterranean
with John Bytheway, Kieth Merrill, Vickey Pahnke Taylor,
Jack Marshall, Jeffrey Marsh, John Lund or Randy Bott?
Check them all out at our
travel site (we have more than 20 adventures awaiting you)
… but keep reading first.
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Ancient Tikal is a not just an archaeological site — it
is an experience.
With Meridian and the Cruise
Lady, you can go to the Church history sites, explore Machu
Picchu, sail through the Panama Canal, or lounge on the
beach at Cancun, while traveling with people who add to
the delight.
If you could invite these great
LDS speakers, teachers and entertainers into your home for
an evening to talk and enjoy and become friends, you’d love
it. Traveling together is even a closer experience — and
all yours for the best prices available.
Diane Lovell — Picture of
Warmth
“Everyone in our office believes
in what we are doing,” says Diane Lovell. “It is not just
a job to us. It has become a passion for us to take people
to a different level in cruise or land travel by adding
in the spiritual part through a great LDS speaker. It has
taken cruising to a whole new level. It has raised the
bar. We have a wholesome good time.”
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Diane Lovell —The Cruise Lady
She says, “Many years ago I
was working for a cruise company in Washington State and
everyone wanted to go to Alaska, so I decided to organize
a group of Latter-day Saints from my own stake to go together
on this trip. After two days of being with this wonderful
group of people, I thought, ‘this is what I want to do the
rest of my life. I want to take Church members to beautiful,
exciting places.’ It is so much fun it is not a business
to me.”
“When I started 8 years ago
and said that I was going to start a travel company to specialize
in LDS groups, people said, ‘Do you really think you can
make a business out of this? It is a contradiction of lifestyle.
Cruising is for more extravagant people — not Latter-day
Saints with large families and missionary funds.’”
But Latter-day Saints have
found this experience so warming and fun, her business has
taken off. Something works as Latter-day Saints travel together,
have amazing experiences and create memories that last a
lifetime.
As one Latter-day Saint said
again and again on a Church history tour, “This is way past
wonderful.”
In addition to these inspirational
speakers and entertainers (she calls them Headliners),
Diane, who has a knack for making people feel happy and
cared for, accompanies nearly every trip. Last year, Diane
went on 22 cruises.
She says that she spends 40%
of her life on water—and never tires of it because every
journey is so different. “My enthusiasm and the reason I
love it more the more I do, is that I know what we can give
people who come. They think they know what they are going
to get and in the end it exceeded their expectations.
“We’ve
grown since that beginning. Four
times a year we do our Alaska cruises.
We do the Russian Baltics every year, follow
the journeys of Paul a couple of times a year.
We do Book
of Mormon lands on our western Caribbean tours,
where several times on the ship a scholar will tie some
of the places we visit to the action of Book of Mormon.
“We’ve given away copies of
the Book of Mormon all over the world. We get stories and
emails back from people telling about conversions or about
how their own testimonies have grown stronger for our time
together. It is so rewarding.
“Some people go on a cruise
and think what is there to do when they are sailing from
port to port. Cruising with us is a total experience, because
even at the sites, our group of Latter-day Saints travels
together.”
Exciting People and Meaningful
Moments
The cruises and land tours
are varied and exciting. Diane says, “Michael Ballam has
a special style where he talks about the history of the
spirit of music. When he travels with us, we manage to
get him to do special concerts on the sites we visit. People
come away just loving Michael Ballam. When we have John
Bytheway, we have youth sessions as well as adult sessions.
When John Lund is our headliner, he is such a strong scholar
in the Book of Mormon and its lands, the people can’t write
fast enough as they take notes. He always makes it a real
spiritual trek.
“In
February 2007 we will have a relaxing and dreamy cruise
through the Hawaiian Islands with Meridian's own Scot and
Maurine Proctor.
This is an adventure you will not want to miss--and it includes
the full-blown Polynesian Culture Center experience.
You may enjoy waiting until the summer and do the world's
most popular cruise, the inside passage to Alaska.
You can choose to go with Randy
Bott and Hillary Weeks, or you may want
to sail with Brent
Barlow or even Jack
Marshall and Meridian's own Vickey Pahnke.
And we have one more cruise there with Doug
Brinley. These are amazing cruises
with amazing people."
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Here Latter-day Saint Barbara MacDonald gets the full-blown
Venice experience.
In addition, to the speakers
and musical artists and authors, Diane says, “When people
come back from these trips, they feel that they have been
spiritually refreshed and uplifted.”
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A musket demonstration near Lexington
and Concord is a must on our Church History tours.
People enjoy it so much, says
Diane, that sometimes they even want to have reunions after.
Latter-day Saints come from all over the United States and
internationally. With the addition of Meridian’s very international
audience, the trips are made up of the most interesting
mix of Latter-day Saints imaginable. In a recent Church
History tour with Meridian travelers one of the senior missionaries
said to the group at one site we visited, “So, are most
of you from Utah?” The whole group started chirping in
like birds, “We’re from California. Ireland. Arizona.
Virginia. Australia. Oregon. Texas…” The list went on
and on. Not much of a Utah group — well, there were six
from Utah.
People like to use these trips
as family reunions to get a chance to spend quality time
together as a family. They come for anniversaries or big
birthdays. Mothers and daughters come together. Sisters
take a trip to have some time together. Some grandparents
bring their nineteen-year-old grandsons on a Church History
tour as a final spiritual preparation for their missions.
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Copenhagen, Denmark is a favorite stop on our Baltic Sea
cruise.
“Every day is always fun,”
says Diane. “People are having a fun, relaxing, exciting
time. One time we were in Costa Rica with three busloads,
and we were talking to our driver about the missionaries
and then we saw two on the side of the road. We asked them
if we could give them a ride but they were going to zone
conference. Then Michael Ballam and James O’Neil Miner
suggested that we take up a collection for them. Together
we donated hundreds of dollars and told them to talk to
their mission president about how to use the money.
“One of these missionaries
was from Canada and the other from Ecuador.
James O’Neil Miner said, “I
don’t know why I felt so strongly that someone needed that
money, but I just did.”
“A couple of months later,”
said Diane, “I got an email from the boy of the mother from
Canada. She wrote, ‘I want you to know what happened that
day. My son’s companion was fasting about whether he should
go home from his mission. His family is impoverished and
he felt that his work was needed to help support his family.
The mission president had told the missionaries that they
could divide the money and use it in whatever way they needed.
Here was the money that allowed this missionary to send
something home to his family and still stay on his mission.
The boys cried and could not believe they had this experience
happen to them when they needed so many things.”
Many times on these trips,
the Cruise Lady travelers will bring goods to donate to
local church members who are especially needy. “One time
we were in Aruba,” she said, “and when we delivered our
contributions, all these people were outside the church
singing hymns to greet us. Someone told us why. They thought
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was coming. They said, ‘You’d
better really sing well.’”
Adding New Things
Diane
says that Cruise Lady is always adding new things — like
extensive land tours. Next year there is a very special
cruise or perhaps we should more precisely say ‘adventure’
down the Amazon River and on the horizon
— an education week at sea with the whole ship turned over
to Latter-day Saints. "We're also working with
the Proctors on developing a most amazing British Isles
Church History Tour. Sign
up for the travel send we are about to start
and you'll be the first to get details on this one.
It's sure to be one of our best travel products."
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Our visit to St. Petersburg includes one
of the most beautiful sites in the world, Peterhof, the
Summer Palace of Czarist Russia.
The
possibilities are delightful and you won’t want to miss
them. Watch for news and links on Meridian and go right
now to our
travel website to see the buffet of vacations
and headliners for you to choose from in the months ahead.
This
day in September may be the time to book yourself a few
days in the sun that you’ll never forget. When
you call Cruise Lady tell them that Meridian sent you.
And
speaking of calling--if you want to speak to a human being
at The Cruise Lady, call toll free 888-707-4386. Local
or international callers dial 801-453-9444.
Ahoy for now.
