- According to reports, 500 passengers on the Caribbean cruise were from provinces on Canada’s east coast.
- The Celebrity Apex hosted a special party for Newfoundlanders.
- One passenger said it was interesting to hear the distinctive Newfoundland accent as he walked around the ship.
Passengers on a Celebrity Apex cruise heading to the Caribbean this month were reportedly surprised to discover that all 500 passengers were from Canada’s easternmost province.
The cruise, which departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 6 and sailed around the Caribbean, carried 3,000 passengers, including 250 Newfoundlander couples from Newfoundland or from other parts of the world. Guests attended.
Photos from the voyage show members wearing T-shirts with the Newfoundland and Labrador flag emblazoned on the front and draping the flag over their deck chairs.
Passenger Pam Purdy told CBC News it was interesting to hear the unique Newfoundland accent and local phrases frequently as she walked around the ship.
“I got a lounge chair and the girl next to me dropped her sunglasses and said, ‘Oh my glasses, I can’t leave you.’ Everyone understood what everyone else was saying,” Purdy said. told CBC.
She told CBC she had booked the trip more than a year in advance, but later learned from her travel agent that a number of Newfoundlanders had also booked on the same cruise.
“My understanding is that it was a complete fluke,” Purdy said.
Purdy admitted that when she first thought about vacationing by boat with her fellow Newfoundlanders, she was filled with fear. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s going to be terrible,'” she told BBC News.
But the sense of community among the guests was special and unique, Purdy said. “It was familiar and comforting, but also exotic,” she told the BBC, adding that Newfoundland’s weather is “a really big deal.”
On the final night of the voyage, Newfoundlanders gathered on deck to take a group photo and sing Ode to Newfoundland, the province’s official national anthem.
