“Have Tiles, Will Travel”

by Larry Rand

Larry Rand and his wife, Barbara Van Alen

In December, 2000, Barbara and I took our honeymoon cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Holland America’s Staatendam. There was a SCRABBLE tournament onboard, directed by Joe Edley and Laura Klein. That cruise was the seed that germinated into our venture of doing SCRABBLE cruises. In 2001, Barbara and I obtained our travel-agent training, and we have been learning, traveling, and broadening our knowledge of the world ever since.

In 2002, we organized our first group SCRABBLE cruise to Alaska and Hubbard Glacier on Celebrity’s Infinity. At that time, the ship was only one year old. Since then, we have done 18 more group cruises on either Celebrity or their parent company, Royal Caribbean.

For the past 10 years, we have visited places that we only imagined about or saw in magazines or on television: Mexico; Alaska; Central America; the Panama Canal; the Eastern, Western and Southern Caribbean; the British Isles and Norway; Scandinavia and Russia; the Eastern and Western Mediterranean; New Zealand; and Australia. In 2010, we have two cruises planned: one to South America (1/17-31/10) and the second to the Holy Land (9/22-10/5/10). The flyers for our cruises and the tournament entries are listed at www.cross-tables.com.

We do this for fun and as an inexpensive way for us to travel, but it is an incredible amount of work to organize and execute a group cruise — much more than directing a SCRABBLE tournament on land. When we first started, we only did one cruise a year, but because we now do multiple cruises during the same year, Barbara and I take turns at being responsible for all the bookings. In this way there are far fewer chances for errors, and our group members have one communication contact.

For many SCRABBLE players, a cruise vacation combines the best of two worlds: travel and SCRABBLE. On the days we are at sea, we usually play 5 or 6 games of SCRABBLE, while the nonplayers, family and friends, enjoy all the amenities and activities that a cruise ship has to offer. Cruising is one of the most relaxing and affordable ways to see a number of different venues in a 7-14 day period. Once your bag is unpacked, you can begin to relax. No driving or flying; no checking in and out of hotels; no searching for a good restaurant! And every night you have free show entertainment, night clubs, or movies in a theater.

Since 2002, we have had nearly 700 different passengers travel with us in our groups. Some SCRABBLE players like Dawn Doyle, Nancy Druskin, Ossie Mair, Laura Scheimberg, and Siri Tillekeratne travel with us almost every year.

People often ask us, “What was your favorite cruise?” Hands down, the Galapagos Islands was the most sensational cruise we have been on, and we did it twice and will be going again in March, 2011. A close second for me was the Panama Canal, which is just an incredible piece of engineering that was completed almost a century ago.

Without a doubt, the nicest benefit of organizing the group cruises is getting to know our fellow SCRABBLE players, and their friends and families, on a much more personal level. You learn very little about one another across a SCRABBLE board in a tournament, but a SCRABBLE cruise gives you a wonderful opportunity to meet and make new and everlasting friendships. We are a very lucky couple!

—Larry and Barbara

larryrand@cox.net

vanrandtravel@cox.net

http://gallery.me.com/larryrand1