If you were walking on the pier the last two Tuesday mornings you might have noticed two ladies in turn-of-the-century bathing costumes chatting away with cruise ship passengers.  The volunteers, clad in vintage style costumes, are with the Catalina Island Museum which has launched a new program to greet cruise ship passengers.

This new effort is intended to increase the museum's visibility to the passengers and add a fun visual treat backed up by some serious historical information.  The greeters are all trained docents and volunteers of the Museum, and as such have received a good grounding in the history of the island, as well as training in interacting with visitors.  The program hopes to kick off the passenger's visit in style and with friendly customer service.

"At the museum, we've noticed that many cruise ship passengers don't know very much about the island, so we hope by meeting them on the pier we can answer at least some of their questions right away and start off their island visit in style," said museum executive director Stacey Otte.  "I've been involved in various committees and groups over the years and improving the visitor experience is high on everyone's list.  We hope this program is one way to do that."

The museum is looking for more volunteers to don the costumes and interact with the passengers.  If the volunteer corps expands sufficiently, the museum hopes to add greeting key boats to their program.  Please call 310-510-4650 if you would like to volunteer. 

The Catalina Island Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing Catalina's unique cultural heritage.  The cruise ship greeting program is just one effort of many to share the magic of Catalina.  For more information, visit our website.

For more information visit www.CatalinaMuseum.org