Erin Ochoa - Disney Cruise Cast Member

Disney Cruise Item Number 3

We attend Saddleback Valley Community Church (plug) in Lake Forest on Saturday nights at the 4:30 p.m. service. Sitting around us are friends that make up our "church" and we get caught up on things we are doing. Right behind us every week are Buzz and Loretta Busby. I was chatting with Loretta on June 28th and told her that the next day we were going on a cruise on the Disney Magic for a seven day trip to the Mexican Riviera. She got excited about that because her granddaughter, Erin Ochoa, works on that ship in the Children's Activities. She showed me a picture of Erin and I told her that I would try to find her and tell her that we know her grandmother.

Do you know that there were 2,700 passengers and 1,000 crew on that ship? Finding someone is pretty difficult but we set out to do it. Went to the Children's Activities room and asked about her. She wasn't around that time so we thought we'd try later. One of the staff told Erin that someone was looking for her and she didn't have a clue who it might be.

A later visit to a room where children's activities were going on turned up good information. Erin is somewhat of a standout on a cruise ship -- she is from the United States of America! Most of the crew comes from all over the world but very few from the U.S. The girl that I asked (from another country) told me exactly where she was at that moment. At the children's pool on Deck 9. She was watching the kids and keeping order.

We went to Deck 9 and the pool and there was one (1) staff member there -- Erin! We caught her at a very busy time as she had to get all the kids out of the pool -- an "accident" had occurred and they would have to close the pool for 4 hours while chemicals took care of the problem. When she had a moment, I went up to her and said that Loretta Busby sent me. Her look at me was interesting -- she said "that's my grandma"! We took the pictures shown here on this story and chatted with her for a few minutes.

Erin had just started on the Disney Cruise Lines and the Disney Magic about 4 weeks earlier and loved her job. I wish we had more time to get better acquainted with her but time is limited when you are working as she was. Perhaps when she has her two month vacation we will be able to chat more.

Ann makes beautiful cards of events or greetings using pictures. She made a card for Loretta and gave it to her when we returned to church after the cruise. Since then she has made one for Erin and her mother and gave them to Loretta. Something to remember a chance meeting that we had with Erin.

Ann Moore with Erin Ochoa on the Disney Magic cruise ship.