I hate to be a pain…we will be on the 7-24-07 sailing. I recently called Carnival to add something to the reservation and as per our original reservation we requested a table for four (myself, husband, and parents) and that request was not orginally entered into the reservation. The second rep that I spoke to did add it in…my mom really doesn’t like to sit with people she doesn’t know…as much as we tell her that she would have fun meeting tablemates, she doesn’t agree. If you could help us out, we would all really appreciate it (I don’t know if you have any clout in the dining room)…if you can’t we still appreciate you and your listening to my long message. Thank you so much. See you in a few days!!!

I enjoyed the last two blog posts; the first one with the great interview with Bob and this one with the photo of the fish and chips, which made me VERY HUNGRY.

You and your dad should go over to Cunard and teach them how to make chips. On the QM2 they have a pub with very good pub food and the fish and chips is very good EXCEPT for the chips which are really limp American “fries” and thus not so good. I do enjoy the fish though anyway and you can get other tasty treats there as well.

That said I do have to question the sign outside the fish and chip shop there… “FISH AND CHIPS! A healthy choice of takeaway!!!” I am not sure that the British Association of Cardiologists would agree with that…!

In your last response to me you mentioned Seabourn; I have never been on Seabourn ship (!) but they are very pretty. Recently they laid the keel of the Seabourn Odyssey which will be their first ship in 20 years and while I think she is a mite big to call a “yacht” (unlike their much smaller current ships) she should be quite a ship and bring new standards of luxury to the cruise industry.

Ten years ago (1997) on my first trip to London we were strolling along the river and saw one of the Seabourn ships – I am pretty sure it was Seabourn Pride – going under Tower Bridge! Now that is something you can’t do on the big ships! Since then I have always wanted to go under Tower Bridge on a cruise ship but it has not happened yet I’m sorry to say. However, it is certainly something I am determined to do someday and Seabourn would of course be a lovely line with which to do it.

An interview with someone from Seabourn would be very nice. I am sure their wonderful PR guru Bruce Good will be happy to set something up for you. Perhaps you can get an interview with their President Pamela Conover, who before Seabourn was the President of Cunard. Pamela became President of Seabourn under the tragic circumstances of the passing of her legendary predecessor Deborah Natansohn. Deborah was the very first woman to be President of a cruise line back in the 1990s when she was hired by Gerry Herrod over at Orient Lines (a company near and dear to my heart as you know) and now both Cunard and Seabourn have the distinction of having two consecutive women Presidents.

In the future I would like to see interviews with key people from ALL the Carnival brands; you have already got the Presidents of Carnival (both) and Cunard on there; hopefully soon you will have Pamela Conover and then it will be time to go on to all the other brands! Alan Buckelew at Princess, Stein Kruse at HAL, David Dingle at P&O and so on.

Looking forward to your next blog.

Best,
Doug

My colleagues Gaynor and Monika are there for a deployment. Be sure to tell them hello! Thanks.

Enjoy your blogs! We’re excited to be on the Trans-Atlantic sailing with you. Hope you can help us decide what to do on that Monday in Citavechia. We’ve spend tons of time in Rome already, and all the museums I wanted to see in the area are closed on Mondays. What’s the most interesting nearby place to visit? I’ll share the info with my Cruise Critic friends on that cruise.

“BIG” ED

CAB UNDRESS SIS