By Cindi Courbat

What started as a fun getaway for close friends from a Long Island, New York Club based out of Cape Coral, Fla. has escalated in participation and grown into a well-established annual event now celebrating two and a half decades of cruising.

The first cruise, which took place in 1985, was never intended to become an ongoing event. When Eddie and Bobbie Kole moved to Brevard eight years ago, they continued planning their annual cruises with friends from Cape Coral and beyond.

“We were scared it might not turn out right,” Eddie Kole admitted in regards to the first event. “But then we had so much fun we decided to do it again and again.”

Subsequent week-long cruises have drawn up to 340 participants of all ages, including some well into their ‘90s, according to Bobbie Kole. Past cruises have been primarily to the Caribbean, Participants have come from all over the United States, Canada, England and Europe, planning all year for the annual event.

“We’ve lost a lot of feathers over the years but we still say once a Flamingo, always a Flamingo,” Bobbie Kole said. “We chose the name Swinging Flamingos soon after the first cruise because it was colorful and represented the vacation lifestyle.”

Their annual shirts show a bright pink Flamingo swinging in a hammock between two palm trees.

Bobbie is the Mamma Flamingo who loves planning every detail of the trip.

“We’ve always have a costume party and one year we all dressed up as a deck of cards,” she said. “We even have our own little song which we always sing in the dining room and whenever anyone wins at the slot machines.”