A Special Bahamas Cruise Christmas Giveaway
December 12, 2011 
7 Comments
@cbsassy pic: Alaska Cruise Winner
This year CruiseDeals.com has given away a 7-night Royal Caribbean Alaska Cruise, a 7-night Celebrity Alaska Cruise, a 7-night Norwegian Caribbean Cruise, and a 3 night Royal Caribbean Bahamas Cruise using Facebook and Twitter.
I love creating and running the interactive giveaways. One of the best parts of my job is notifying the winners. Hearing the excitement and disbelief in their voice or email makes my day. Out of all the cruises we gave away this year, no winner was more excited than Linda Orellano. Linda was the winner of the 3-night Bahamas Cruise.
Click Here to Enter to WinLinda’s Story
After I told Linda that she won the Bahamas Cruise, I could hear the excitement in her voice. She could not believe she actually won. As is common to hear from many winners “I can’t believe it, I never win anything”
Linda's House after Tornado
But I quickly learned that this cruise meant a lot more to Linda. The last year had been a really rough year. Linda’s raising a 14 year old daughter on her own while fighting colon cancer and her home had major damage after being hit by a tornado in April. Linda began to cry has she told me that her cancer was in remission and that she was so happy that she’d be able to take her daughter on a Bahamas Cruise.
I was overcome with emotions. I’d felt sorry for all that Linda had been through but thankful that her cancer was in remission and that I was able to deliver the news that she won a Bahamas cruise.
Ariel view of Linda's neighborhood
On Monday December 5th, I received this email from Linda:
I am writing this regretfully but in hopes maybe if I do so now there will be time for someone else to enjoy the Cruise,
maybe you can do a Christmas giveaway. I will not be able to go after all, My cancer is back and has spread, I am facing months of
aggressive treatments after surgery. I have to travel 160 miles round trip to the Hospital for treatments twice week and with the cost of
Gas and my small income I need to prioritize my where my money goes. The airfare for my daughter and I was going to be $900.00 for
roundtrip and thats a lot of full tanks of gas. I am truly Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. I never checked in on the ship,
maybe that will help. I appreciate just the feeling I had of winning the trip it felt great! Thank You again for all you did, May God
Bless you and your Family, and may your Business thrive in the coming year, Linda Orellano
I was so disappointed. While I love to notify the winners of the cruises… seeing their pictures from the cruise is even better. After learning about all of Linda’s recent struggles, I was so looking forward to seeing pictures of Linda and her daughter enjoying their 3 day Bahamas Cruise.
When I read the email, I’m touched by Linda’s selflessness. Her cancer has returned and spread, but she is concerned about any inconvenience that she has caused me. She hopes that we can give away the cruise again so that someone else can enjoy it. Amazing!
Can we help?
After I read her email all I could think about is… Can we help? Is there anything we can do?
I called Linda to find out how we can help. Linda, said she was fortunate to have good health insurance and a car that gets good gas mileage for driving 160 miles to get the chemo treatments. As we continued talking her concern about her 14 year old daughters Christmas became evident. Her daughter is to old for most Christmas Assistance programs, and since she just found out that the cancer returned she was too late for other programs.
Just think about how rough this year has been for Linda’s daughter… her home was hit by a tornado, cancer has returned and spread for mom, she gets excited about going on FREE Bahamas Cruise that will no longer happen. Linda’s daughter deserves a Merry Christmas and Linda deserves not to have to stress about it.
with friends.
Click to Donate
How to Win the Bahamas Cruise
Royal Caribbean has agreed to let us giveaway the cruise again — So we are giving away the 3-night Majesty of the Seas departing Miami on March 9th, 2012. We are giving away the cruise, while also accepting donations to help with Linda’s Christmas and Gas money for her cancer treatments in 2012.
Donations are not required to win the cruise…. but, if it wasn’t for Linda we would not be giving this cruise away again. Every dollar counts and sharing this with friends on Facebook also helps – Thank you for helping us make this a special Christmas for Linda & her Daughter! We are excepting entries until 2 PM ET on Friday December 16th, 2011.
Click Here to Enter to Win CruiseDeals.com & CruiseSource are the leaders in social media cruise giveaways. Click here to Subscribe to CruiseSource!Facebook and Twitter are not involved with this giveaway in anyway including sponsors, endorsers, etc.
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I’m spreading the word about this effort on my FB page, but not entering to win the cruise, either. I’m just not in a position to help financially by donating (I’m unemployed with no benefits), or to come up with airfare – but I’m hoping that some of my many friends out there will help Linda and her daughter out here. Best wishes to them both, and a Merry Christmas to all!
Is there anyway to hold a cruise certificate for her & her daughter once full recovery is made? I know you are letting someone else go for the chance to get a 3 day cruise so is it possible to have a 3 or 4 day cruise certificate held for when she is able to enjoy it?
Erin,
Unfortunately, the cabin that we have booked for Linda has been paid for — if it is cancelled the money will be lost. It’s not like a normal cruise booking because it was a certificate. If it wasn’t for Royal Caribbean we would not be able to re-give it away. So we are thankful for them working with us on this one. When Linda gets better, we will see what we can do about getting her on another cruise.
I donated. I know others will join!
Scott Lara
@scottlara1961
Thank you Scott for the Support!! The Support from Twitter #Cruise Community is awesome!