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Branson Memories

Submitted by Carolyn & Rich Dirksen, Hampton, IA

In November of 2003 my husband Rich invited me to go to Branson. While there he asked me to marry him. The following day we went to a showing of a resort but did not buy. We kept returning to Branson every year since and in 2007 we were staying at a hotel and visited Stormy Point. We knew this was for us! Festiva Resorts was our wedding present to each other. The following year we upgraded our time share. We are proud to be a member of the Adventure Club and enjoy bringing family and friends here.

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Submitted by Cheryl Lewington & Paul Young, Ontario

Part of the ambience of St. Maarten lies in its people. Our stay on the island was made most enjoyable by the various people we encountered. We happened upon the skillful artworks of artisans on Orient beach during our visit there in October 2009. The sand sculptures were truly remarkable.

The Artrium staff, from the front desk to housekeeping, was extremely kind, polite, helpful and humorous. Some spent time talking about the history of the hotel; some explained that “crazy ants” cover the outside of buildings indicating an impending rainstorm; others, being friendly, did as much as possible to ensure our comfort. One even sang a “Paul Young” song with my husband whenever he saw him!

In fact, as Canadians, we celebrated Thanksgiving while in St. Maarten and shared a few plates of roast turkey dinner with our extended family at the front desk! Also, without a doubt, it was the work of these dedicated people that enabled us to witness the beautiful wedding of fellow guests on the beach in front of the Atrium. It is great to experience the flavour of other countries through their unique citizens.

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Submitted by Randy Holt, Albemarle, N.C.

My wife and I decided to take a trip to Charleston, S.C., to celebrate or 27th wedding anniversary.  We arrived in Charleston on October 30, 2009.  We were kind of dreading the sales pitch we had to sit through on our anniversary, the next day.  Festiva set us up in a very nice hotel right outside of the historic district.  We got in some major sight-seeing the day before the sales presentation.

October 31, 2009, much to our surprise was a great day.  The salesperson was very nice and helpful.  He showed us different alternatives to ways we could achieve memorable vacations.  Charleston was the perfect place to celebrate a Halloween wedding anniversary.  Yes, we were married October 31, 1982.  The historic district was crawling with ghouls and goblins.  At the end of the evening we went on a haunted graveyard tour to top off our festivities.

It was one of our most memorable vacations to date. Our gift to ourselves was future vacations through Festiva Resorts.

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Submitted by Paul Young & Cheryl Lewington, Ontario

St. Maarten was the destination of choice for our two-week vacation from Oct. 9 to Oct. 23, 2009.  The views were breathtaking, the weather hot,hot, hot in the 90’s and the people were always friendly. It is a fabulous island shared by two countries with no major customs and immigration between them!

The reason we decided on this island was that it was the first place we ever vacationed and we wanted to re-visit it as the last time we were there, in 1994, was the year before the hurricane impacted the island with destruction. What a modernized change has taken place since then!   We recalled our previous memories of touring the island by motorcycle and the various resorts, restaurants and casinos that existed then and still do today. Sightseeing remains priceless as do the new memories we have now created.

Another reason we wanted to go back to St. Maarten was to celebrate my husband’s 60th birthday. On that day, we enjoyed a great afternoon on the boardwalk in Phillipsburg and found a quaint bar owned by an expatriate Canadian who made us feel like it was home away from home.

We love what Festiva Resorts has to offer.

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Submitted by Dan & Mary Angelini, Raleigh, N.C.

Last December 2008, when I decided to do something romantic, I chose to take my wife to Blue Ridge Village in Banner Elk, NC.  From the moment we arrived, we knew we were in for a treat. The air was cold and crisp, the mountain tops had snow lining the ski slopes, and our resort was rustic and quaint. Inside our room we enjoyed the fireplace, the Jacuzzi, and lush and comforting accommodations that would leave no one wanting.

Nearby, we hiked mountain trails that opened vistas of high country views, we dined at friendly local restaurants, and we were sad but refreshed when it was time to head home.

For breakfast, my wife cooked eggs in the kitchenette which included a small table for four—more than enough for the two of us.  We ate Italian one night, strolled into a wine shop for some wine tasting on another and worshipped God at a church with a view through the sanctuary windows of the mountains.

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Submitted by Jack Wright, Philadelphia, Pa.

We came to St. Maarten , from three continents did we reside
Anticipating the journey, the thrill of the ride
The captain from South Africa , his wife from the States
On a previous embarkment did fate make them mates
The crew was from England , Ohio and PA

At eve we did meet, could not wait for the day
So we set sail for Anguilla , St. Maarten and Barts
Little did we know how God would soon bless our hearts
The sand was like sugar, the sea was like glass
The fish were like rainbows, the stars were amass
So Captain V, Where are we going today?
He explained our destinations; we would sleep in the bay

What wondrous sights we did behold as we sailed through the sea
The dolphin, the turtles … Oh I wish you could be me!
So we lifted our anchor as our trip came to an end
One final leg of our journey then goodbye to our friends
When suddenly out of the silence the captain did yell
There!  Off the starboard bow the blow of the mighty humpback whale

The roll of the dorsal, the slap of the tail
The white of their bellies, the cow, calf and the male
There were four in all, how fortunate we were
As on lifted its fluke to tell us to deter
So we headed for home with wondrous memories in our heads
This sail, this journey will be with us forever until we are dead.

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Submitted by Robert Render

The beautiful Islands, clear blue water, friendly people, unique bars and white sand beaches brought us to the British Virgin Islands – the crews and boats of Festiva bring us back.

We have had the pleasure of sailing with Festiva for the last two years with a large group of friends on several Festiva Sailing Vacation boats and our group has experienced a number of Crews – all have been fantastic!  There have been several days where, after mooring in a beautiful harbor, we have been floating between the boats arguing on who had the greatest culinary delight for the day – as far as I am concerned our Chef Hannah was always hands-down winner, but the other guests on the other boats always argued for theirs.

This story, however, is about our Captain.  The first time we took off our flip flops and stepped on the 440 Lagoon “Mary Kathryn” we were impressed with the boat, but even more so with our crew, Hannah and George.  It’s not easy sailing a boat around the Caribbean while taking care of every need of six passengers, but George and Hannah succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.

Captain George grew up in England and was a sailor from an early age; he also was a rancher, pearl diver, part of a crew on racing boats and has had a number of other adventures around the world, all of them fascinating to a bunch of land-locked folks on a sailing adventure.  But George’s stories or the way he and Hannah took care of us was not what stood out about George – all the boats in our group have had great crews – but George was “Super-Human.”  Here just a few of our experiences with George.

We took a small plastic “Pirate” with us around the Islands.  This Pirate was in pictures all over the British Virgin Islands and a part of our group.  One night while getting out of the dinghy on a dock in Antagata our Pirate friend fell out of my shirt pocket and was lost to the bottom of the sea.  We searched for a long time but to no avail.  We went on our way to feast on Lobster on the beach and a short time later George came walking up the beach, dripping wet but holding the rescued Pirate back from Davy Jones’ Locker.

While sailing, we met a great group of folks from California that were on another company’s boat, with a Captain that was nowhere near the caliber of our crew’s.  Their boat followed us around the Islands and after a few days they told us that one of the bathrooms was stopped up, and their grill had fallen off the back of the boat into the harbor and their Captain could not retrieve it.  Captain George to the rescue – George went over dove down got their grill, fixed their bathroom and invited them over for a happy hour drink that night!

One night after spending a great night tied at the docks at Leverick Bay on Virgin Gorda with all three of our boats, we were getting ready to set sail to Antagata for a day on the beach and lobster for dinner.  As one of our other boats started to pull out of the dock they lost a propeller and started drifting towards a multi million dollar racing boat which was owned by someone associated with “Bond – James Bond.”  George jumped to action, dove into a dingy and stopped the boat inches from running into a million dollar problem.  After getting the boat retied – George dove down to the bottom of the ocean retrieved the propeller, and other parts, made the repairs and had all three of out boats on the way in a short time.  One of the folks in our party said – “I bet Superman wears George pajamas to bed” – we all agree.

George and Hannah have moved on to other adventures and have been replaced by other great crews – so when we go sailing in a couple weeks we are looking for our next Super-Captain!

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