500 Newfoundlanders wound up on the same cruise and it turned into a rocking kitchen party
CTV
A Celebrity Apex cruise to the Caribbean this month turned into a rocking Newfoundland kitchen party when hundreds of people from Canada's easternmost province happened to be booked on the same ship.
A Celebrity Apex cruise to the Caribbean this month turned into a rocking Newfoundland kitchen party when hundreds of people from Canada's easternmost province happened to be booked on the same ship.
By a strange stroke of luck, 250 couples from the province, as well as kids and grandparents and even Newfoundlanders living in other parts of the world, were all on the same cruise, said Mark Hiscock, who sings and plays banjo and accordion in the popular Newfoundland-trad band, Shanneyganock.
There were we so many Newfoundlanders on board, the company roped off the main pool deck one night and hosted a party exclusively for passengers from the province, Hiscock said.
"You had to show your ID, that you were part of the Newfoundland contingent," the musician said in an interview. "I ran up and sang 'The Islander' and 'I'se the B'y' and everybody was going cracked."
About 3,000 people were on board when the ship set sail for the Caribbean on April 6. Pamela Pardy bought her ticket in November and soon began seeing social media posts from friends and friends of friends saying they, too, would be on the cruise.
Her travel agent then confirmed that 250 couples from the province, excluding kids and grandparents, would also be on board.
"Plus, when we go on the ship, there were all these people who don't live in Newfoundland but are from Newfoundland," she said in an interview. "So Newfoundlanders from around the world, literally, who were, by fluke, on this same cruise."
