[Posh 08]

Originally Posted by tomjbud

I am a high school band director in Indiana. Last April, I took 100 high school band members on a 22 hour bus ride to perform in Disney World. On the way down, our bus driver mentioned that we were near where he had his retirement home. Five days later we were on our way home with the same bus driver. I asked him about his retirement home and he went on and on about this wonderful place called The Villages.

When I got back home, I went on line to check it out. My wife and I were going on a cruise out of Tampa, so I signed up for a 4 day lifestyle preview before the cruise. Before we left home, my wife insisted that we leave our checkbooks at home. She insisted that "We are not going to buy anything!" After 2 days of drinking the kool-aid we were hooked! Our wonderful realtor, Sarah Godleski, found us the perfect CYV in Tamarind Grove. We put the initial deposit down on the spot with our credit card. We agreed to wire the remainder of the deposit by the following Friday.

Unfortunately, we boarded the cruise ship on January 2nd. We had no access to our bank accounts! I called our local bank from the cruise ship and they were understandably very skeptical about wiring a large sum of money to a bank in Florida from a cruise ship! When I explained our predicament to the Royal Cribbean crew, they gave us full access to the fax machine and all business services on the ship. I don't know how we did it, but we wound up buying our CYV from a cruise ship in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico!

We are closing by mail on Monday, January 30th, and we are flying down to take possession on February 10th. We can't wait! We plan to spend all my school vacations in TV until I retire in 2 years. It is better than a cruise!

Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the bus driver. He drives for Lamers Bus lines and also owns his own airplane. If anyone knows who this is, please send me a private message so I can thank him!

Tom Budzinski