In the autumn of 1998, 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley was told by her parents that they had been gifted a Caribbean cruise. Amy wasn’t excited by the news like they were, she had only just moved into her own apartment after graduating from her degree in Physical Education, and she was about to start a new job.

She was busy. But more than that, the idea of a cruise across the sea gave her the creeps. She didn’t really want to go. She would be just as happy settling into her new place, which was nearby her parents and brother’s home in Chesterfield, Virginia.

Amy was really close with her younger brother Brad who was 21, and he and their parents—Iva and Ron—were eventually able to talk Amy into joining them.

Ron had been given the trip by the insurance agency he worked for, and he believed it was a great chance to spend some quality time together. Seven days of sunshine, cruising the Caribbean, cocktails and endless sunsets, it wasn’t long before Amy thought perhaps a cruise wouldn’t be so bad after all.

It was starting to sound like the trip of a lifetime…