Celebration of Life Cruise

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The Celebration of Life Cruise was a for-profit cruise for Beauty and the Beast (TV) fans.

It took place May 10-13, 1991.

Guests

Guests who attended were: Ritch Brinkley and Armin Shimerman and his wife Kitty.

George R.R. Martin had been invited as a guest of honor on this cruise, but then was uninvited due to lack of funds. A fan in July 1991 said: From a con report of Archon Convention where Martin was a guest:

What I found interesting in this meeting with him was that whenever there was a lull in the conversation, George would look at the three of us, obviously the only fans in the room representing B&B at this science fiction convention, and ask us what was happening in Beauty and the Beast fandom. He seemed very interested in the status of our fandom. We told him about South of Oz and how great it was and let him know that this fandom is still very much alive! He was disappointed that his guest appearance on the "Celebration of Life" cruise was cancelled [1] and he asked how it went. We filled him in as best we could. [2]

Basis for a Wedding

Kathi Edrington a B&B fan on a B&B USA cruise, entered a "writing a story on a post card" competition, and won. Her prize was to have guest Ritch Brinkley who played William the cook, to read her story. He fell for her, and they started dating and married. Ritch proposed to her at a B&B convention even! [3]

Con Report

Greetings to all of you and "ahoy" to my fellow cruise members. The "Celebration of Life" cruise was May 10-13 with Ritch Brinkley, Armin Shimerman and his wife Kitty. There are not enough adjectives in all the languages put together to describe how WONDERFUL this experience was. Judy and Al Roberts did a terrific job of putting together memories that will last all of us a lifetime. We sailed from Miami on Friday reaching Nassau early Saturday morning.

[...]

Sunday morning, we sailed for Paradise Island where there was white sand, floating on rafts in the ocean, snorkeling, scuba diving, a wonderful buffet lunch and Olympic trials. (If you had more ability than breaking a pencil, you were overqualified.) You haven't lived until you've seen Ritch and Armin run with a volleyball between their knees! Sunday night was another of the great on board shows and then our B&B Summerfest Celebration. All too soon, we found ourselves back in Miami on Monday and parting with friends we didn't want to leave. Armin and Ritch made themselves accessible so that we got to know them as people instead of just celebrities. And what wonderful people they are! [4]

References

  1. ^ "Various people have asked me about appearing at cons. Well, there are no B&B cons on my schedule right now. I don’t have anything against them; just haven’t been invited in a while. The last B&B con to make me a guest was that one on the cruise ship, a year and a half ago, whenever it was... and they cancelled me (but not the cruise!) when they did not get enough registrants. The truth is, and I try to be realistic about this, that most cons have limited budgets and can afford only so many guests, and the people who run them know damn well that the attendees would rather see actors than writers." -- Martin's comments about this cruise at GRRM Discussion Posts 1993 to 1005 (Jul 27, 1994)
  2. ^ from Once Upon a Time... Is Now #33
  3. ^ from Chatterbox (June 1998)
  4. ^ from Once Upon a Time... Is Now #32 (May/June 1991)