First Day of Retirement

Good Morning,

My husband, Chief Engineer Kjell Evensen, enjoys his first day of retirement today after nearly 50 years at sea and 31 years with Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.

It has been a pleasure to sail with him for nearly 20 years.  Our Royal Caribbean “family” at sea, including both crew and guests, is very dear to us and we will miss them.   

A special thank you to everyone who made our last two months on board Freedom of the Seas so very special as the retirement date approached.  Guests we have known for years booked cruises to be here to wish us well.  Captain Toni Calne and Hotel Director Xavier Matthias went above and beyond to mark this very special occasion.  

We are driving North from Port Canaveral while Freedom of the Seas sails South to her new home port, Port Everglades.  We’re on our way to the South Coast of Ohio where we look forward to being with our family, both human and canine, cooking in our own kitchen, road trips around the United States, photographing the places we go and things we do, enjoying our hobbies of wood working and needlework, running our little on-line shop, and, eventually, will surely take a cruise.   

As we have done since we met, we will spend our retirement taking care of each other and enjoying life.

In the meantime, if you should happen to be aboard Freedom of the Seas and think you see us at lunch in the Windjammer, at dinner entertaining guests at Giovanni’s Table, or walking the halls on a formal night, you may be right!  We will be there in spirit (friendly spirits) every time we think of the wonderful friendships we have among our Royal Caribbean family of guests and crew throughout the fleet.

Thanks, again, for your friendships and fond memories,

Lois

Programming note:  I have quite a few images from the last days aboard Freedom of the Seas.  I'll be sharing those in the next few days here.