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All Aboard

Phil from Basildon Borough Breakfast Club recently
boarded the Royal Caribbean Independence Of The Seas
with fellow breakfasteers. The club has over 50 members
and meet the second Saturday of each month with typically
30 to 40 attendees. The local Mp’s and the Lord Lt of Essex
have attended on several occasions and the club have had
visitors from the US Airforce and South African Veterans.
On Monday 2nd September a group of Veterans from the
club have been invited By Mark Francois MP, Houses of
Parliament for a tour and Refreshments. You can see how
they got on in our next edition.

The Cruise departed from Southampton on July 27th for
14 nights visiting Gibraltar and various ports in Spain and
France. Phil had read a piece in the AFVBC Admin section
of Facebook about RCI supporting veterans by adopting the
breakfast club model and wondered if this would happen
on this cruise. Well they went a bit further than that…

Phil explains:
“We had 3 breakfast meet ups on the cruise and also a “Drinks in
the Bar Session” all arranged for us by the staff. These were adver-
tised in the Compass Magazine that is delivered to each cabin on
a daily basis, usually on the front page and displaying the AFVBC
logo. The breakfast meets were held in a private area of Deck 5
Dining room allowing us to speak freely, be as noisy as we wish and
also ensuring we were not disturbed. RCI supplied a meet coordi-
nator just to get things moving and introduce people. Breakfast was
as you can imagine a lovely a la carte affair with waiters attending
to your every need. The Full English fry-up was obviously the
favourite. Throughout the cruise I had the pleasure of meeting
Two American vets who served in Vietnam and Korea, A Bootneck
who served through the late sixty’s , various Army vets including a
Guardsman, a Scaly and RASC, RAF and Navy Veterans. It was also
great to see some partners attending and telling some
stories from their time in the Military Family. On formal
nights some veterans wore Blazers or Dinner Suits in-
cluding miniatures and I am pleased to say many people
on the cruise commented and showed their appreciation
for the sacrifices made by our veteran community and
serving Armed Forces.”

RCI not only support veterans but also employ them. On
the Independence of the seas the Head of security is a
Royal Navy Veteran of 24 years and he took time out to
chat with several veterans throughout the cruise. Well
done Royal Caribbean International for your great sup-
port to The Armed Forces and the veteran community. If
you have a Defence Discount Card or MOD90 you will
receive a 10% discount upon booking.

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