Wow! Wow! Wow!

Looking back over the last year, all I can say is wow! I cannot believe how our little travel channel has grown and is still growing (over 1200% since Feb 2018). We could not do this without all of you and for that we are truly thankful!!!

And that brings me to this big announcement:

WE HAVE OUR 1ST VIEWER FUNDED CRUISE!

WHAT?!? That’s right! All of the views, the shares, the donations and our patrons have allowed us to book our very first viewer funded cruise. We are beyond humbled by this amazing opportunity and we are so excited for this to be our last IRL cruise for 2018.

Ok, so let me back up and explain how all of this happened and of course, let you know what cruise ship we chose and why.

DONATIONS & PATRONS:

I sit here with tears of joy thinking about our patrons and all the donations we have received over the last year. Your generosity and spirit keep our channel alive. Sean and I are overwhelmed with the graciousness from each and every one of you. This year you have raised a little over $1200 for our channel. All of our patrons and donors are very special to us. We consider you all family and we have so much love for all of you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the financial support and for believing in what we are doing.

YOUTUBE INCOME:

First, if you didn’t know, when you gain 1,000 subscribers on Youtube, you are allowed to monetize your videos. This means advertisers will place ads on your videos and you make money for every view on that video. In July 2018 we received notice that we reached 1,000 subscribers and we could now monetize. WOOHOOO! From views alone, we have made almost $700 this year. AWESOME SAUCE! Thank you to all of our fans who watch and comment. Your comments make us laugh and fill our hearts with more joy than you could ever imagine. When we started this, we didn’t know if anyone would watch but you proved that wrong. You are watching and we are truly grateful for every viewer. Thank you for being such a great fan of our show.

Final Tally:

Drumroll please – If you were keeping track of all the numbers, that brings the total earnings for Sean and Stef IRL to $1908.

WHERE TO NEXT?

When I first realized how much money was raised this year, I was shocked. I logged into Paypal and I had to rub my eyes.  Now the biggest question was “Where do we go? Who do we cruise with? Will we have enough to cover everything on a Dec. cruise?” Let the cruise scouring begin.

I started doing research on the costs for December cruises. I know Christmas cruises tend to be on the higher side but I wanted to see about the first two weeks in December. My google spreadsheet came out and I started listing the different lines and the different prices. I had Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean on my list. I had the cruises from Port Canaveral. I had the cruises leaving from Miami. I even had the cruises leaving from Tampa and Jacksonville (which we have never sailed from before).  I had this nice spreadsheet of all these cruise lines but there was one that I forgot. If you guessed NCL you would be right.

I could not believe I forgot about the cruise line that started our travel filmmaking year. Now it is not a secret that NCL prices have been on the high side for us this year, so before I entered the dates in for December, I was already thinking NCL would be out of our price range. But I said to myself “what the heck, let’s give it a go”. So I entered the dates for December and I about fell out of my seat. I could not believe the Norwegian Bliss was sailing out of Miami in December for $429 a person (I even reloaded the page just to see if it was a typo and I read it wrong). But I did not read it wrong, there it was, the newest NCL ship and it was in our price range.

I literally screamed for Sean to come check out what I found. He came running in (probably thinking I was being murdered, haha) and after realizing I was fine, he was in shock as well. So we sat there together and we booked our very first viewer funded cruise. We were beaming from ear to ear. This gift from all of you is truly a moment that we will never forget.

WE ARE SAILING ON THE NCL BLISS!

All thanks to you we will be sailing on the Norwegian Bliss December 15-22. We are so excited to end the first season of our cruise filmmaking with the cruise line that started it all. Norwegian holds a special place in our heart and we cannot wait to sail on the newest NCL ship.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR ALL THE SUPPORT THIS YEAR!!!!

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