Comments on: Back On Board http://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:40:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Carnival Cruisershttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1976 Carnival Cruisers Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:37:43 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1976 Dear John:Congratulations on todays article in the Poughkeepsie Journal,our daily newspaper,about your blog.The Carnival family Cruisers (formerly Lorraine and Bob Taylor),Veterans of the Carnival Liberty in 05,the Carnival Freedom in 07 and th Carnival Splendor in 08 Dear John:Congratulations on todays article in the Poughkeepsie Journal,our daily newspaper,about your blog.The Carnival family Cruisers (formerly Lorraine and Bob Taylor),Veterans of the Carnival Liberty in 05,the Carnival Freedom in 07 and th Carnival Splendor in 08

]]> By: Betsyhttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1975 Betsy Mon, 11 Jun 2007 01:11:49 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1975 Mr. John - Thank you again for your response. You are so kind. I am embarrassed. I guess I will take a hint...Ralph was doing his job, and perfectly. I guess it is time for me to get back to reality. I will continue to dream. I have tried to contact him but as you said, he is very busy and I am a bit of an old fashioned romantic. I took some of his words literally. He did absolutely nothing wrong and is still a perfect cruise director in my eyes. Maybe some day I'll get to see him again, or maybe hear from him. Until then. Keep on keeping on with your wonderful, fun blog! Betsy Mr. John – Thank you again for your response. You are so kind. I am embarrassed. I guess I will take a hint…Ralph was doing his job, and perfectly. I guess it is time for me to get back to reality. I will continue to dream. I have tried to contact him but as you said, he is very busy and I am a bit of an old fashioned romantic. I took some of his words literally. He did absolutely nothing wrong and is still a perfect cruise director in my eyes. Maybe some day I’ll get to see him again, or maybe hear from him. Until then. Keep on keeping on with your wonderful, fun blog! Betsy

]]> By: Tim & Ramona McCarthyhttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1974 Tim & Ramona McCarthy Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:50:45 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1974 John-- Just a quick comment to compliment you and Carnival on the best cruise of our life! We took our 35th wedding Anniversary cruise on the Freedom on 5/13/07. It was a PERFECTLY EXECUTED cruise on Carnival's part the whole 12 days. We were SO impressed, even after 5 Carnival Crises as how well ALL your Carnival crew made us feel so special every day--especially on a new ship only in service 2 months!! As a Retail JCPenney store Manager in NJ employing 250 Associates, I could only dream that my Associates would treat my customers as well as the Freedom crew treated us for our dream cruise! BRAVO to you, the Captain and Carnival for giving us the experience of a lifetime and to you for insuring every day was special. We are thankful for the beautiful, warm weather we had for almost every day and are now downloading and sharing the 700 photos we took on our cruise. We will DEFINITELY continue to recommend Carnival to all our friends in the future and look forward to coming back ASAP for our next cruise. We hope to join you and the crew on the Splendor maybe in 2008 or 2009 for the Western or Northern Europe cruise! P.S.--Say hello to Ken, the best Maitre D we have ever met! THANKS A MILLION!Tim & Ramona McCarthy John– Just a quick comment to compliment you and Carnival on the best cruise of our life! We took our 35th wedding Anniversary cruise on the Freedom on 5/13/07. It was a PERFECTLY EXECUTED cruise on Carnival’s part the whole 12 days. We were SO impressed, even after 5 Carnival Crises as how well ALL your Carnival crew made us feel so special every day–especially on a new ship only in service 2 months!! As a Retail JCPenney store Manager in NJ employing 250 Associates, I could only dream that my Associates would treat my customers as well as the Freedom crew treated us for our dream cruise! BRAVO to you, the Captain and Carnival for giving us the experience of a lifetime and to you for insuring every day was special. We are thankful for the beautiful, warm weather we had for almost every day and are now downloading and sharing the 700 photos we took on our cruise. We will DEFINITELY continue to recommend Carnival to all our friends in the future and look forward to coming back ASAP for our next cruise. We hope to join you and the crew on the Splendor maybe in 2008 or 2009 for the Western or Northern Europe cruise!
P.S.–Say hello to Ken, the best Maitre D we have ever met!
THANKS A MILLION!

Tim & Ramona McCarthy

]]> By: Ellen Whitehttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1973 Ellen White Sun, 03 Jun 2007 13:07:03 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1973 Hello John, My sister and I were so excited to see you will be sailing with on the the Freedom on august 5, 2007. We were on the Valor two years ago and enjoyed you so much. We are concerned about our last two days on board in Rome. Can you give me a heads up on how the tours work for the debarkation date that you can only purchase once on board.RegardsEllen Hello John, My sister and I were so excited to see you will be sailing with on the the Freedom on august 5, 2007. We were on the Valor two years ago and enjoyed you so much. We are concerned about our last two days on board in Rome. Can you give me a heads up on how the tours work for the debarkation date that you can only purchase once on board.

Regards

Ellen

]]> By: tazmanhttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1972 tazman Wed, 30 May 2007 09:50:38 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1972 hi john and heidi, thanks for getting back to me, well regarding my experiences on the queen mary and the raffaello i was quite young at the time ( 6-10) but there afew things i do remember well, the4 first one is taking a cup of boullion on the promenade deck every day around 11:00 am while lounging on teak deck chairs, the second thing i remember is helping the waiters and the butlers with their chores i always enjoyed the food and beverage depts and in fact after university got a masters degree in hotel restaurant administration and owned my own restaurant, i might add that if someone would ever want to take a picture of the two of us together they would first have to re-invent the wide angle lense as there is a whole lot of me to love!!!!!! as i've told you earlier, i'm sailling on july 12th with my wife and 16 year old son as well as a family of friends from italy who also have to teen age sons, any idea how many teens will be on the cruise?? i see from the blog that the average age on board is quite older than i thought carnival would be. do you think that in the summer during school holidays the number of younger people will will increase or not? looking forward to meeting you both in july and to hearing from you soon on this blog thingy, i hope you have smooth saillings and nice weather, mitch hi john and heidi,
thanks for getting back to me, well regarding my experiences on the queen mary and the raffaello i was quite young at the time ( 6-10) but there afew things i do remember well, the4 first one is taking a cup of boullion on the promenade deck every day around 11:00 am while lounging on teak deck chairs, the second thing i remember is helping the waiters and the butlers with their chores i always enjoyed the food and beverage depts and in fact after university got a masters degree in hotel restaurant administration and owned my own restaurant, i might add that if someone would ever want to take a picture of the two of us together they would first have to re-invent the wide angle lense as there is a whole lot of me to love!!!!!!
as i’ve told you earlier, i’m sailling on july 12th with my wife and 16 year old son as well as a family of friends from italy who also have to teen age sons, any idea how many teens will be on the cruise?? i see from the blog that the average age on board is quite older than i thought carnival would be. do you think that in the summer during school holidays the number of younger people will will increase or not? looking forward to meeting you both in july and to hearing from you soon on this blog thingy, i hope you have smooth saillings and nice weather, mitch

]]> By: Pamhttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1971 Pam Wed, 30 May 2007 02:53:11 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1971 Hey John welcome back! We only have a little over 220 more days YEAH. I totally can not wait. I love those pictures. My brother and I really like cricket. I used to go to matches when I lived in Aussy land and here in Orlando on Saturdays there is a group of cricket players that play in a old parking lot near the slave driving Office Depot. Do not worry about those comments by that rude lady, I had two people do the same thing to me about a week ago. I was upset and thought that the slave drivers where going to believe them and I would be out of job but they said do not worry. People can be rude but know that you have made many more people happy. I found a little rollerball that I am going to mail hopefully soon just have to wait for my paycheck. Working on Heidi's basket almost all done! I hope she likes it. It seems that I am looking forward more to the bloggers cruise than I am for my December Miracle cruise. Well got to go. Have a great cruise!! Hey John welcome back!
We only have a little over 220 more days YEAH. I totally can not wait. I love those pictures. My brother and I really like cricket. I used to go to matches when I lived in Aussy land and here in Orlando on Saturdays there is a group of cricket players that play in a old parking lot near the slave driving Office Depot. Do not worry about those comments by that rude lady, I had two people do the same thing to me about a week ago. I was upset and thought that the slave drivers where going to believe them and I would be out of job but they said do not worry. People can be rude but know that you have made many more people happy. I found a little rollerball that I am going to mail hopefully soon just have to wait for my paycheck. Working on Heidi’s basket almost all done! I hope she likes it. It seems that I am looking forward more to the bloggers cruise than I am for my December Miracle cruise. Well got to go. Have a great cruise!!

]]> By: Julie Taylorhttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1970 Julie Taylor Wed, 30 May 2007 01:52:18 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1970 JohnWelcome back! We have a quick question. If we pick up postcards at the various ports what is the best way to mail them home? What type of stamps do we need and can they be mailed from the ship? Or do we need to find a post office in each port?The TaylorsPS. See you on June 18th. John

Welcome back! We have a quick question. If we pick up postcards at the various ports what is the best way to mail them home? What type of stamps do we need and can they be mailed from the ship? Or do we need to find a post office in each port?

The Taylors

PS. See you on June 18th.

]]> By: southerndreamshttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1969 southerndreams Wed, 30 May 2007 00:11:01 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1969 as to the chinese lady, you did the right thing with the rules. the one problem i have with carnival and most other lines as well, they do not enforce the seat saving ban and also the "chogs". chogs are chair hogs. they go out early and put something on a chair by the pool and leave for hours. i decided a long time ago those things belonged in "lost and found" but usually the staff will not remove them. you are doing RIGHT enforcing the rules. they are for the good of everyone... (feel better?)smiles, bonnie and prince charlie as to the chinese lady, you did the right thing with the rules. the one problem i have with carnival and most other lines as well, they do not enforce the seat saving ban and also the “chogs”. chogs are chair hogs. they go out early and put something on a chair by the pool and leave for hours. i decided a long time ago those things belonged in “lost and found” but usually the staff will not remove them. you are doing RIGHT enforcing the rules. they are for the good of everyone… (feel better?)

smiles, bonnie and prince charlie

]]> By: Mark Twain and a Halfhttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1968 Mark Twain and a Half Tue, 29 May 2007 21:44:07 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1968 I used to run a video rental store, so I totally empathise with you about problems with customers. It's amazing what some people will say or do when they can't have everything their way. I remember one little old grandmotherly type, a good customer whom we all knew by name, stuck one of my videos in her purse and tried to shoplift it! Anyway, I think the Chinese lady didn't really think you are a racist. Many asian cultures view shopping related activities as battles to be won or lost, with lots of ego involved. So, my guess is that she figured that if she accused you of being racist, you would give in to her to show you aren't. I don't know if it makes you feel any better, that she thought of you not as a racist, but as someone who could be insulted in order to get what she wanted, but there you are. I guess the only way to look at it is that there was really no way to make this a win-win. As your reward for not tossing the lady overboard, I am sending to you by mental telepathy a case of diet Coke and a box of good cigars. I used to run a video rental store, so I totally empathise with you about problems with customers. It’s amazing what some people will say or do when they can’t have everything their way. I remember one little old grandmotherly type, a good customer whom we all knew by name, stuck one of my videos in her purse and tried to shoplift it!
Anyway, I think the Chinese lady didn’t really think you are a racist. Many asian cultures view shopping related activities as battles to be won or lost, with lots of ego involved. So, my guess is that she figured that if she accused you of being racist, you would give in to her to show you aren’t.
I don’t know if it makes you feel any better, that she thought of you not as a racist, but as someone who could be insulted in order to get what she wanted, but there you are. I guess the only way to look at it is that there was really no way to make this a win-win.
As your reward for not tossing the lady overboard, I am sending to you by mental telepathy a case of diet Coke and a box of good cigars.

]]> By: Nate's momhttp://johnhealdsblog.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1967 Nate's mom Tue, 29 May 2007 19:33:49 +0000 http://johnheald.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/back-on-board/#comment-1967 I can't help wondering how you say "sperm of the devil" in chinese..hehe. You know what they say "you can't control the way someone else behaves but you can control how you react to it". I'm sure that woman will get on with her trip and have a wonderful time. I can’t help wondering how you say “sperm of the devil” in chinese..hehe. You know what they say “you can’t control the way someone else behaves but you can control how you react to it”. I’m sure that woman will get on with her trip and have a wonderful time.

]]>