Cruise with Kristi 2025: Above and Beyond
by Eryn Reddell Wingert
Photos courtesy of Welcome Home RGV Staff
Milt Ellis, 86, lifted 15 tons of weight during the Cruise with Kristi 2025. Ellis lifts weights an hour each morning. He kept to his routine while aboard Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas earlier this month and tabulated how much he lifted.
Ellis and his wife, Helen, were part of a group from Eldorado Acres RV Park of Palmview, Texas, that took part in the cruise, hosted by Welcome Home RGV.
The 9th Annual Cruise with Kristi included transportation from the Rio Grande Valley to the Houston Marriott in Sugar Land, Texas, the day before boarding the ship at the Port of Galveston.
“They took care of everything,” says Ellis. “Getting on and off the bus, everything worked perfect.”
The nine-night cruise included stops in Costa Maya, Cozumel, and Yucanta, Mexico; George Town, Grand Cayman; and Falmouth, Jamaica.
Documenting the moments for the Eldorado Acres crew was Cathy Brydges. “We went out as a group at every port, and I got pictures at all of them.”
While Brydges engaged with stingrays in Grand Cayman and Ellis lifted weights in the ship’s fitness center, the Tours and Travel by Welcome Home Team stayed busy in the background, much like they did leading up to the trip.
Cruise with Kristi 2025 sold out last April. The staff has fielded calls and questions, held informational meetings, and tended to each detail.
Each year, Welcome Home owner Kristi Collier is as surprised as she was the first. Collier is known to share that when the idea was initially posed, she thought (and said), “Who would want to cruise with me?!”
To her surprise and delight, hundreds of people have cruised with Kristi and her team over the past nine years.
For this trip, 242 people–five busloads of Winter and Converted Texans, among others–took advantage of the package deal.
“I wouldn’t be going if it weren’t for her and her crew,” shared Joyce Kerns of Winter Green Estates in Mission–via Wisconsin. “They are so wonderful; they just take care of it all.”
Kerns lost her husband, Jerry, three months prior to the trip. The couple were married 61 “wonderful years,” and her friends encouraged her not to cancel. “I’m 80. I should probably be done cruising,” she said.
But she’s not done. Kerns is already booked for the 10th Annual Cruise with Kristi next February.
Kerns enjoyed all of the Cruise with Kristi ports of call, getting off the ship, walking around, and watching people. While not so much a Beatles fan, she says her favorite on-board experience was one of the Beatles-themed shows.
Meanwhile, Ellis put those weight-lifting muscles to use by climbing the rock wall aboard the Jewel of the Seas, making it to the halfway mark at 20 feet and ringing the bell…twice!
“He put us all to shame!” Brydges joked.
Ellis says his arm was “twisted a bit” to even go on the cruise, but it didn’t take much. Friends suggested he and Helen go to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary this month.
Most of the Eldorado Acres group had rooms on the same deck, Ellis said. “If we were going to go do something, we’d bang on the doors down the line.”
And, to make new friends, the signature orange lanyards provided by Welcome Home were a good conversation starter, according to Brydges.
“It’s nice to have a group and have somebody take care of all the arrangements,” shared Brydges. “They went above and beyond.”
Tours and Travel by Welcome Home RGV is now booking Cruise with Kristi 2026, a seven-night cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas sailing out of Galveston, with ports of call in Costa Maya, Roatan, and Cozumel. Round-trip ground transportation from the Rio Grande Valley and a pre-cruise overnight hotel stay are included. For more information, visit welcomehomergv.com or call 956-687-5115.
