Badger Travelers Cruise to Exotic Ports of Call
From the lush islands of French Polynesia, to the Old World culture of the Canary Islands, to the exotic ports of call throughout the Mediterranean, dozens of Badgers traveled across much of the globe this spring with the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
Tahitian Jewels | April 2012
“Every day was beautiful. It was paradise,” says WAA’s Jeff Wendorf ’82, who hosted this tour among the islands of French Polynesia.
And romantic, too! At least four Badger couples celebrated their anniversaries during this vacation. Michael Karll ’69 and Deborah Greenberg got engaged on the same ship 12 years ago while in French Polynesia, so they booked this tour with WAA to recreate the experience.
“It was really a different trip for everyone,” Wendorf says. “At every port, we had so many options — whether you wanted to snorkel or dive, visit a pearl farm, tour the island, or relax on the ship. It was a different experience for everyone … but at the same time, we all bonded as Badgers.”
Mediterranean Classics | April 2012
“Each was my favorite city when I was there, but the one I would never have thought to visit was Dubrovnik [Croatia],” says WAA’s Mary DeNiro EMBA’11, host of an April tour through France, Italy, Greece and Croatia.
“It’s a charming, old city that hasn’t been destroyed by war or time. The people of Croatia keep it up. It’s clean, interesting, with so much history and right on the sea. It was this little jewel of a city I might never have seen on my own.”
Ron Dayne x’00 joined these Badgers as a celebrity host, and DeNiro calls him a great ambassador for the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
“I was taken aback by how many people knew him all over the world. We were in the Frankfurt airport, for example, and I heard someone shout his name like the announcers at Camp Randall!”
Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands | March 2012
This spring, another group of UW-Madison alumni and friends traveled through the mountains of Madeira and the Canary Islands, the city of Casablanca, southern Spanish seaside towns and glorious Barcelona.
The vineyards above are nestled on the Portuguese islands of Madeira, where traveler Ann Schaffer ’72, MS’75, MFA’93 says they boarded Jeeps and bumped their way through mountain villages on steep and narrow roads.
“The entire trip was a wonderful combination of new learning and relaxation,” Schaffer says.
