It’s 10:30am on Saturday morning and I sit here at the trusted computer. Heidi is finishing the packing as we are leaving in an hour or so to make our way to Southampton for our adventure on the Queen Victoria.
Since the packing began yesterday Heidi has constructed a force field around various articles in the house and statements such as ” don’t touch that toothpaste, thats for the Queen Victoria trip” ……………………………….and………………………” I have just ironed that shirt, don’t touch it…………don’t even look at it.”
Now, considering we are going for just three nights, I have just seen one huge suitcase on the bed and various smaller bags……………..I would make a comment about this to Heidi but as I do not want to have her shoe petruding from my bottom…………..I won’t say anything……………….. .except here on this blog of course.
Anyway, the reason I am writing is to say a very quick hello and to apologize that over the next few days you will be blogless as I will be on the vessel. However, next week I promise a host of daily blogs and guest interviews and of course a comprehensive blog on the naming ceremony of Cunard’s wonderous vessel complimented by lots of photos.
So, I am now being summoned by the Mrs so she can show me what I cannot touch and where she has packed my underwear and socks and to remind me that I have done nothing to help.
Have a great weekend and I will write on Wednesday after our return.
Your Friends
John and Heidi
Look, friends — there are a few things you should remember before you comment. The space below is for you to post your comments about the post I've just written above. If it is something that's unrelated, please use the Ask John tab above. Now, while I may not be able to reply to your comment below, I do sit in my underpants almost every morning and read everything that is here. So feel free to comment on the comments and then if someone wants to comment on the comment to the comment then go ahead as well. Please be courteous unless the poster is French...........then you can say whatever you want.
John and Heidi;
Good luck and enjoy your adventure.We will be here waiting for all the details and pictures.
Have a great time!!!!!!!!
Nani
My dear friend John,
It sounds like Heidi has everything sorted out and has you and your luggage well in hand. What would we do without women to organize us? Probably be much happier, very messy but happier…
The Cunard board on Cruise Critic is all abuzz about the arrival of the Queen Victoria. I saw a video of her making port yesterday and she certainly looks the part of a Queen.
Try not to have too much fun and take TONS of pictures!
Thanks for dropping us a note.
My ‘howdies’ go out to the Tremendously Organized Heidi and the always Amazing Roberto!
Have a Royal weekend, my friend!
Greg
Dear John & Heid
HAve a wonderful trip and we look forward to the blogs
and do’t touch anything in the house till you get back. Take lots of pictures
Enjoy
Arnold & Elizabeth
Enjoy your trip and take plenty of pictures.
Jon
BTW – I love your new Santa header pictures.
ROBERTO Will there be any type of webcast of it. Like they had for the Freedom.
Big Ed
Hi John,
When you meet the Queen – if you can’t remember if your fly is up or down – it’s probably down!
Looks like Carnival Pride finally made it to Victoria after hitting some rough weather. Any word on what work is being performed or better yet, pictures?
Thanks,
Bill
Good afternoon Mr. Heald.
I wish you a very successful and enjoyable time on the Queen Victoria. I’ll be waiting for your blog about the time you’re on the ship. Have fun my friend. Ciao.
Paul F. Pietrangelo
Have a great time, I am so jealous. The most important question is what is Heidi wearing? What hat did she get. Can’t wait to see the pictures and your telling of the events.
Have a great time !
We’ll amuse ourselves for a few days on the promise of lots of photos (videos, maybe), descriptions, and anecdotes!!
How grand to see the Queen. I’ve been watching on the bridge camera — just to experience it — but YOU both will be THERE!!!
Good for Heidi taking care of the little, and big, details. I’m sure some of her planning will save the day. (Tell us how it would have been without her managing the little things!! Women are wondeful, if I do say so myself!)
Anxious awaiting your return!!
Kirsten
Heidi and John,
Can’t wait to see the pictures of the Queen Victoria, but more importantly the ones of the two of you in your “going to meeting” new clothes. (Minus the hat, of course!) John, I’m sure you are grateful to Heidi for doing such a wonderful job packing for your trip! Think about it, if you complain too much, next time you go somewhere, she could pack you pink boxers or thongs, and no whitie tighties, or no underwear at all! Just be thankful for all she does to keep you organized. Makes you wonder what you did before she came into you life, huh? Enjoy your time on the new wonder of the world, and be sure to take a picture of the room they put you in, ok?
Sheryl
Safe travels and look forward to hearing from you soon!
Love the new banner, Roberto!
elaine
heidi do not overpack honey!!! i finally learned!!
smiles, bonnie and prince charlie
Y’all have tons of fun!
)
Hugs!
Oh, will they be serving spotted dick on the new ship? (grin)
Have a great time. Can’t wait to see the pictures.
Tell Heidi I know waht she goes thriugh packing because I do all the packing for all our cruises. Then if Danny doesn’t have something I get the blame.
I wish you had “Flat Joey ” to take with you, he would enjoy it. ha ha!
Tell heidi hi.
Hope Alan is doing well.
Jennifer and Danny
Bon Voyage John & Heidi, by the time you have read this though you will be back home. Hope you had a great time! Will check for pictures while you are gone or when you return. I am the one that packs for mine and Mike’s vacation, and he calls me Mrs. Organized, and I am and it works great for us, I know where everything is at, I unpack, pack and repack when coming home from our vacations. My husband loves it that way. You men that complain really do like it when your wives do all that for you, you just don’t like to admit it! Can’t wait to hear from you upon your return. Hi to all my blogger friends as well, Bonnie, Ed, Nanette, Paul etc. Hope you are all having a fun weekend, we are getting ready to go out driving to see all the beautiful Christmas lights people have on their homes, so bye for now. Linda & Mike
Yo John & Heidi
Have a fantastic time aboard Queen Victoria!!! I eagerly await details of your adventures on Cunard’s new grande dame.
Mark
John,
Have fun on your trip from your vacation.
-BigMike
I love the idea of the webcast, Big Ed. If you ask for it, I am sure it will happen.
I can’t wait to see pictures of the naming ceremony. The bloggers in the world are waiting with baded breath to see Heidi in ‘the dress’ and John in his swanky suit.
If you pictures are turned around when you get home or your nick nacks are moved, don’t blame me!
SewingNut
HI
Well John have a lovely trip. I’m very jealous…. wish I was going instead of you!! I leave in a week on the Miracle with the family so at least I’m still getting a vacation. Still hope to see you on the Splendor in July 08.
Dear John & Heidi:
Have an absolutely wonderful time, and be sure to take lots and lots of pictures. Safe trip and safe return home. Until then,
Terry Dunning
John,
Have a great trip to see the queen. Please have fun and don’t spill anything on Heidi’s dress that costs more than my car. yes Roberto will there be a web cast of this event hopefully with John and Heidi in it. maybe John MCing the video. Back to John and Heidi now how is alan doing, well I hope in seeing there have been no updates lately. You will be pleased to know the John Heald Fan Club is growing nicely. you still need to give us a interview, let me know Roberto you too. happy holidays my friends
Kevin
John, just be thankful you have Heidi. You didn’t have to iron that shirt, you didn’t have to worry about what to wear,everything matches and best of all you didn’t have to pack a thing……… grin See how easy things are when you have a loving wife. Now just sit back and enjoy. Hope you have a wonderful time on your trip.
Have a great trip. Can’t wait until you return!
Have a great time!
Am very jealous…..maybe someday!
Have a wonderful time our Royal senior cruise director!! Take lots of photo’s!! We are counting as is BigEd…….21 days of shoveling snow until our New years cruise….whoo hooo………
The hubby here is like Heidi…he puts it all in piles and goodness me if I touch any of it or the suitcase…Yikes!!! Great to have such people taking care of us huh?
Have a blast and will wait on the edge of the computer chair for your next posting.
Happy Holidays,
Blanche & Dave
A Sneak Peak at Queen Victoria’s cabins:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/cruiselog/2007/12/a-sneak-peak-at.html
John & Heidi -
Have a Wonderful time! I am so jealous that you will get to be there when the new Grand Dame is christened. I know there will be LOTS of photos and one of John’s fabulous reviews, so I shall be waiting by the screen with breath bated.
Best to Alan and family…
-Nancy D
John and Heidi,
Greetings again from down under. Can’t wait to see pictures and hear all about the Queen Vic, saw photo’s in our local paper over the weekend and she is magnificent. Have fun (we are sure you will) and await the sight of you both in all your sartorial splendour (don’t worry about the underwear we take your word for it that it is all pressed and beautiful)
Regards
Suzanne & Lisa
John,
I just want you and all men to remember this…they are only going to be gone 3 days…imagine how much Hedi would have to pack if she was going on a 7 day cruise? Remember this when your wife brings 5 suitcases on the blogger cruise…LOL.
Also, let us not forget our prayers for Alan.
Look forward to all the stories and all the picutres when you get back!
Susan
Dear John, Have been getting around to e-mailing U for years now. We took our first Carribean Carnival Cruise with our 2 teenage sons in 1993. You were the on board cruise director. Your humuor and fun demeanour absolutely made our trip on board delightful. The kids still talk about you. We have since cruised with Carnival another 4 times . In Sept 2005 we took the CCL Mediterranean trip. You again were the cruise director. The upgrades CCL has made with the on deck big screen T.V. & your daily updates and call ins were great. You had Pavarati singing as we cruised into Venice & were amazingly fortunate enough to dock right on Venice’s downtown doorstep. Leaving from Sicily for Barcelona you had the Captain veer off course and take us by an active volcanic island. An amazing sight! Truly John you are the best of the best and your efforts are very much appreciated!! You really do care that all the guests have a memorable on & off board experience. Looking forward to our next cruise with U & CCL. Yours Truly Jim & Marlene Carver
Have a great trip!
John, Count your blessings you’re married to Heidi, and not our daughter, Leanne. When she travels she packs 3 outfits for each day she’s gone, and a pair of shoes to match…She takes one suitcase just for her shoes! It’ll be interesting to see how she packs when we go to Europe – you know, airline baggage restrictions:)
John & Heidi,
Have a great time! See you soon.
John and Heidi,
Hope you had a marvelous trip. I am anxious to see pictures and hear all about it! The next big event will be the maiden voyage of the Splendor!
My family can hardly wait!
I hope Alan is doing well after the procedure on Friday. Please give him our best and make sure he knows a lot of people are thinking about him.
Hi John/Heidi:
Looking forward to hearing how the Queen Victoria journey is going. I have been reading about it from one of our columnists here in the states (works for USA Today..zydecocruiser posted the link above). He didn’t sound very excited about the staterooms and the fact that they didn’t take any bold stances in the decoration.
One person’s opinion against it means that there are so many others who probably love it.
Hope everything else is going well.
Good luck at the naming ceremony, the celebrity guest lists, and all that fun stuff
David
Hi John & Heidi!!
It was great to see you last night! Sorry I didn’t find you after the christening, it was insane as you know.
BTW, Paul Motter from Cruise Mates has a picture of us on his Website. You look great; I look like I am blabbing as usual.
Also, I have a video on my blog of the fun. http://www.expertcruiser.com/category/
Oh, and I mentioned this blog in my current MSNBC column http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22184781/
Hope you and Heidi had a great time!!
See you next month!!
Best,
Anita
Wow! I just saw your picture on “Crusie Notes” and you had the center top spot. Both of you looked great. Now I’m eagerly awaiting your pictures as surely you’ll have a variety – especially of Heidi. Hope you had as great a time as it seemed. Jeri
Hi Heidi and John (AKA Sex Object), Belated Happy Anniversary
I have just finished reading all the blogs and comments that I missed when I was on the Imagination. I’ll let you know all about her in a few minutes, but first,
I loved your supermarket story – too funny.
About the smoking/non-smoking issue and walking thru the cigar bar to get the Internet Cafe – I think that problem was solved on the Imagination. Even though she’s a smaller ship and laid out a little differently, the Internet Cafe is now on the Lobby Deck (Empress Deck) on one side of the Atrium bar. There is no smoking on that deck at all. It might work John.
Caryn mentioned the ads with all the Barbies & Kens – you have no idea how right you are. Last Friday when we were in Nassau Carnival was filming ads at the main pool using size 2 perfect people. It looked so fake. If they had looked at the cross-section of people on that cruise, they would never use people that look so “pretty”. No offense but they didn’t look like real cruisers, even the kids looked perfect. I think the execs need a reality check for their ads. On that cruise there were a number of older men who had cruised more than 50 times. Everyone knew them by name. Why not do some ads with people like that? What better testimonials could there be than past cruisers?
OK, back to the Imagination.
No real complaints (except for what I sent you privately), just some comments. I was surprised that during the Welcome Aboard show there was no “Spoon Game” or “Bedtime Story”, and there was no Newlywed Game that cruise. I don’t know if that’s just on the Imagination or fleet-wide. I should have asked George – oh by the way, it’s George before 5:00 p.m. and Jorge after that. He said to tell you hello and that he can’t wait to see you in January. “Boogeraron” huh? I wish I had known that before I left. We had a few conversations, and the last night after the Legends show I had my Bloggers t-shirt on when he started telling me all about the good old days. And Noonan said to tell you hello also.
Yes, the chairs in the Dining Rooms are armless, but I think those on the Lido Deck, inside & outside, are very uncomfortable. The service I had on board was wonderful. Especially my waitress, Vessie in the Pride Dining Room. John, she’s terriffic. Always a smile on her face, asking if everything was ok, so friendly. She and her husband (same dining room) are actually trying to get to work on the Splendor for their next contract. She’s Bulgarian and he’s Peruvian (so they’d love the itineraries). But she brought me my warm melting chocolate thingy every night without asking – even one of the men at the table became hooked on it. The food was excellent, the cabin steward (Dougal) was just as pleasant, my little petit fours and canapes were delicious. And VIP embarkation was such a pleasure. What was also nice was being greeted with “Welcome Back” when they saw my Platinum Card. I didn’t feel invisible like some other places.
Turks & Caicos & Half Moon Cay are absolutely wonderful. But I have to tell you, that if you have problems walking or need assistance, that Half Moon Cay is a tender port.
In Nassau we were in great company, the Glory, Sensation & Imagination along with the Disney Wonder. I am a life-long Disney-fan and I got goosebumps just hearing “When you wish upon a star” when she came into port right next to us.
The shows on board were “Living in America” and “Shout” (which I had seen before, but who cares) and an act called the Fire Gauchos (not to be missed).
I know I must be leaving things out (like I wanted to take the pillows home with me), but like you my fingers are starting to hurt, so I’ll stop.
Anything you want to know, please ask.
I can’t wait to hear all about the christening. I just heard that the champagne bottle didn’t break at first. Uh,oh.
Take care, and enjoy yourselves,
Carol
Hi John and Heidi,
I finally get caught up with my emails and reading your blog after our wonderful cruise on the Glory and now you give me a few days off. Okay, so, I can use the time to get organized. We got to meet Wee Jimmy and he is fantastic. We had a nice chat with him. I rank him #2, right behind the #1 CD… John Heald. Would love to see the 2 of you working together…. It would be total non-stop laughing, I’m sure.
Have a great time and be sure post lots of pictures including one of the lovely Mrs. Heald in her new dress.
John and Heidi,
Wow did you two ever look stunning! I noticed that your tie John matched the colors in Heidi’s purse and her coat–now if Heidi hadn’t done your packing, you never would have matched! Admit it, she did an excellent job!
I went on to the site, Cruise Mates, and saw pictures from the Queen Victoria. Can’t wait to see the ones that you took! I will be popping this blog thingy open all day tomorrow in hopes of a new blog telling all! We have missed you, but know that it was a great honor to have been invited to be at the naming ceremony. Also, to be one of the first to spend some time on the grand lady, the Queen Victoria.
Please tell us how Alan did after his latest visit to the hospital. Here’s hoping that all is going well with him!
All the best to you both! Sheryl
Now you went and done it, Camilla!
Camilla can’t break the curse on cruise liner
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22910011-912,00.html?from=public_rss
Hi John: You look very handsome in your pin striped suit, and Heidi looks very lovely. You have lost a lot of weight too John! WOW! Good Job! Just checked you both out at http://www.cruisemates.com, the pictures and video were nice! Can’t wait to see MORE pictures when you get home. Can’t wait till your NEXT blog. Your friends, Linda & Mike the handy-dandy handyman!
Hi John,
It looks like 2008 might be the only year Splendor does European itineraries, so it will indeed be historic!
I see ‘da Queen is starting to show up on YouTube
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2vyg51x4d9w
Happy New Year !
With all the happenings in Turkey (bombings in Istanbul and Ankara) is there any thought to changing the Greek Isles Itinerary. I am scheduled with a group of 5 for May 10th departure.
Thanks, Sue
Hello, John & Heidi
I hope the fan club is running smoothly.
The web-site is going great , and I cant waite till the Carnival Victory!!
Hopefully in summer of 2008 I will sail aboard the freedom if it is still in the caribbean.
David Tancock told me that John will move up to the Carnival splender when it comes out , and i now that the splender is not going to be doing to many caribbean voyages so i will try to race the release of the Splender.
And i think that Todd Wittemer will be on the freedom when the carnival freedom comes out.
Take care , Jake ( :