People & Culture

Aug 15, 2019
Trip of a Lifetime Celebrates Family Milestones

International Customer Service Supervisor, Kimberly Kropff, recently returned from her five-year Trip of a Lifetime where she took a breathtaking Alaskan cruise. Kimberly and her family used the momentous trip to celebrate her years of service to the company as well as some other big family milestones. They took advantage of everything the cruise and Alaska had to offer, and as Kimberly said, “It was spectacular.”AlaskaKK

“Since the day I started working at Arthrex, my husband and I have been talking about what we would want to do for my five-year trip and we both agreed that we would want to do an Alaskan cruise. When the time came for us to start planning, I received a call from my cousin saying that she was planning a destination wedding on a Celebrity Cruises Alaskan cruise. It was perfect!

This ended up being a milestone year for my family in many ways. Not only was this a celebration for my five-year anniversary at Arthrex as well as my cousin’s wedding, but my oldest daughter was graduating from high school and soon going off to college and my husband was celebrating his 50th birthday. So this vacation was truly a celebration!

Our ship departed from Seattle, Washington and was amazing. We enjoyed delicious food, had fun singing karaoke and even danced the night away in the silent disco. The silent disco was a ton of fun. Each headset had three channels you could choose from, and you could tell which song was playing by the color of the light on the headset. There was a channel for oldies, the ‘80s and modern music. My husband Todd and I splurged one night and went to the specialty dining restaurant which featured contemporary French cuisine. It was one of the best dining experiences I have ever had.

We went on three whale watching excursions while on the cruise. We saw one whale with her calf who the local naturalists had named Flame and Bunsen and another whale that was named Scarlet. The way they identify the whales is by the markings on the underside of their tail. We also saw sea lions, harbor seals and many bald eagles. 

Apart from all the wonderful amenities, shows, food and service onboard the ship, our favorite part was waking up in the morning, opening the curtains and seeing the majestic Alaskan mountains. There is really no other way to describe Alaska other than majestic. No picture can do justice to the beauty of this part of our great country. I truly feel blessed to have had this experience.  

I would also like to add that this was our first family vacation in more than four years. We don’t get to travel very often and planning for a party of five can get very expensive, so this was truly a special treat for us. My daughters loved every minute of it and I am so grateful that they will have these memories to cherish. Todd and I have decided that we must make it a priority to go on vacation every year. He definitely caught the ‘cruise bug’ and it looks like we will be booking one to the Caribbean next year! Thank you, Arthrex, for this experience!”

KimberlyKropff