American School of Manila - Bahamas Reunion Cruise 98

At 5 PM on November 6, 1998 Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas sailed from Miami into A/IS reunion history. Aboard were some two dozen alums from the classes of 70 through 76, their spouses, friends, children and one parent (Mrs. Herrera, Raul's mother) for a group total of 43.

Just two hours later, at the official group photo session in the center of a main deck, all aboard the Sovereign learned that A/IS alums were sovereign of the ship! The group burst into a stirring rendition of "Onward Indians" and sent Fight! Fight! Fight! reverberating through the halls. At that moment, I (the oldest alum aboard) knew that these younger alums were going to party hearty, a most pleasing prospect...

After the photo session, the group reconvened at a reserved lounge for a private cocktail party. Hors d'ouvres surrounded an ice sculpture with some very familiar letters. A nice touch!

Then it was off to the first of three magnificent dinners. A group of adjacent tables was reserved for the alums and table hopping each night was encouraged. Since our cabins were all on the same deck, Rick Velayo wondered whether cabin hopping was also encouraged. (Ay naku!)

After arrival in Nassau early Saturday, groups headed out for shopping in town, visiting the Atlantis casino complex, or shore excursions. The women in the shopping group with Rick Velayo availed themselves of his jewelry expertise to ensure a good purchase. The men researched the many liquor stores. (I invested in the local, sipping-quality Mango Rum - sarap!) But Earl Cocke's wife gained notoriety with a "Matabunkay weekend" haul of seven bottles, thereby taking an impressive step towards "honorary alum" status.

Some alums returned to the ship with tales of manly adventure fighting wild beasts! Earl Cocke's scuba name is now "dives with sharks." Pete Labahn was coy about what exactly happened when he and his wife Maria, exploring the island on a motor scooter, came upon a large funeral procession and then had a high speed impact with poultry.

At Saturday evening's dinner, the group became quite "festive". A Filipino instrumental and vocal group strolling through the dining room was detained when it ventured into the alums' "Camp Crame." After honoring a request for "Dahil Sa Iyo", they supplied the music for "Planting Rice" while Rick Velayo supplied the "bastus" version lyrics. He substituted "making tae" (mabaho!) for "planting rice" and it decomposed from there. Joelle Williams was inspired to perform a "tininkling" while the appreciative alums noisily banged their tables as they operated invisible bamboo poles for Joelle to step between.

Fortunately for Rick Soldan, who works for Royal Caribbean, most of the other diners had left the room and only a few dozen witnesses remained to testify to the Captain. The Filipino waiters graciously indulged us but finally suggested it was time to leave by bringing up all the lights or we might have stayed until breakfast.

It was decided that dancing in the disco was in order. On the dance floor, the alums again took control. A circle of alums was formed and each alum had a turn dancing inside the circle. It was a grand time to be an alum!

At Coco Cay on Sunday, there was a beach cookout. Although many activities were available, the favorite one for alums was chismis about "the old days" while imbibing Coco Locos.

At Sunday's farewell dinner, the alums gave a well deserved standing ovation to the cruise organizers: Pam Groves Payne, Kim Boors Allen, Debbie Zukas, and especially to Rick and Sharon Soldan whose connections with Royal Caribbean and American Express Travel (respectively) combined for a grand reunion. From the discount coupons included with our tickets (were there any 2-1 drink coupons left?), to Royal Caribbean souvenirs delivered to our rooms, to the cocktail party...you get the picture.

The final group activity was singing along with the wild piano duo in one of the lounges. A group calling itself the "Over-40 Wild Women" lost a challenge to the alums for "most vocal".

Monday, the alums departed the ship with numerous memories, including:

* Fred Gleeck (whose non-accented Tagalog is impressive) reading - in accented English - Philippine humor from a book called ERAP-tion;

* Mrs. Herrera's stories of "old Manila";

* Dictator-for life-of-the-cruise (by acclaim of the alums) Rick Velayo getting his due at the final dinner when a waiter tricked him into balancing a water glass on top of each hand and then painted his face with Baked Alaska while he was helpless;

* Liz Hamra Shayestehpour's remedial lesson on the use of "ba" in Tagalog as both the question and the answer (as OK is used in English). As a question, the syntax is: ba-ba ba-ba? (accent on 2nd and 4th ba with rising inflection on the fourth ba to denote a question). As an answer: ba-ba-ba (accent on third ba). After this, "ba" became the most used syllable on the cruise and was sung quite a bit at the piano lounge!

For some alums, the reunion will be especially memorable. For Gail Hultberg Merino and Ann Mitchell, who recently found each other, it was the first time they were together again since leaving Manila 27 years ago. For Hilliard Terry, it was the first time he had seen any of the alums in 24 years. Pete Labahn had not seen some alums in 25 years.

Now that you've read about the reunion, see the photos!