When I was at college sports meant two things……….football (soccer), which was played in a park with two coats for goal posts.

The second sport was to see how many girls Alan and I could get to ignore us or worse throw up on us………my mate Alan usually won this particular event…………..unfortunately, not by much.

I have therefore always been fascinated by American College sports. Maybe it’s the sheer size of the events, the huge stadiums and the wild and passionate support that the teams command. We have nothing like this in the U.K. Our biggest college event is the varsity boat race.
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For those of you who have looked at the Web cam this Thursday morning you will have seen it is one of those days that cruising dreams are made of. The sun is already sending down its warm rays to the young and old on deck wanting to embrace its warmth. The sea is as calm as a room full of Buddhist Monks and guests are slowly heading to breakfast with the only difficult choice being whether or not to have a second helping of pancakes.

The crew is already hard at work around the ship, greeting, serving and entertaining in their most friendly of ways and slowly the day is taking shape.

Good Morning, it’s 8:22am and I just returned from a little walk outside and I was struck by what I saw………..for two reasons.

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I was only 10 feet behind him and at the time he was just another young man walking on the open deck as were Heidi and I. It was lunch time and I fancied a bit of spicy Wok but Heidi said no she wanted to eat first………….so off we went for lunch.

The kid…………again I would guess he was anywhere from aged 15 – 35 was also heading for the food. He had been given an unfortunate start on life as he had obviously been born with no sense of balance. Because of this disability he had been forced into carrying a plastic bottle of beer in each hand to act as a stabilizer.
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I met Allen and Melisa Young on Sunday night when I popped into the Posh Dining Room to see my friends Robert and Suzanne Schneider who by the way are on their 42nd Carnival cruise…………….37 of which have been with me…………more about them on a later blog.

They were seated close to the entrance and as always I said “hello,” etc. to the guests I passed by. I did the same when I passed by their table and Allen and his wife told me how much they had enjoyed the Welcome Aboard Show and laughed so much………..this was great to hear of course. Yesterday I received a note asking if I could give them a call………….I did so……..this morning ………….and I thought I would share our conversation with you.

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Captain D’Aita looked at me and I at him…………………we both had no idea how to respond………….what strange planet was this person from…………what language was he speaking………….should we be afraid?

It was Elegant Night last night and we stood at the entrance to the International Lounge greeting everyone as always and the usual comments of “Good Evening Captain”……….”Hello Captain, you have a beautiful ship”…….were constant. Then……..we were both transported into another dimension as a group of young men walked up to us and the fun began.

The greeting that has us both totally bemused ………well………….I will tell you that in a moment but first let me tell you about one or two of them. One young man had a tuxedo on……………….shirt……..bow tie, jacket and trousers ………….. very nice………if only it had been black as tradition dictates instead of……………green……………yep… green…………..he looked like a booger doing an impression of George Hamilton.

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So it starts again…………3,300 guests leave just as you get to know them and today at 5:05 pm we sailed again with a brand new group of guests and the adventure for them has just started.

Today we sail with 3,448 guests……..here is the breakdown.

TOTAL GUESTS – 3,448
GUESTS UNDER 21 – 227
GUESTS 21 – 25 – 455 (OH JOY)
NON U.S / CANADIAN – 309
MOST REPRESENTED – FRENCH CANADIAN – 111
MEXICO – 39

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Hi Everyone,

It’s Stephanie here.

Last week we celebrated the anniversary of the blog and wished the Carnival Freedom a happy birthday, but what many of you don’t know is that Carnival celebrated something else- our 36th birthday. Yes, Carnival’s first ship sailed back in March of 1972.

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It’s debarkation morning and after last week’s delays the ship is emptying quicker than a room full of Frenchman who have just heard that McDonald’s have just launched the garlic and onion flavored “La Grand Mac” and that if you haven’t showered in a week you get free French Fries with it.

It’s great to keep the line moving and not have to use the words “I apologize” every time I make an announcement. Our friends from CBP (Customs and Boarder Patrol) seem to be as anxious to move things along this week as we are and all of this makes for a great last impression. I wanted to go down to the lobby and say some goodbyes but Heidi and the Doctor and Mum and dad and friends and PA 007 and thousands of you keep telling me to rest…………..so here I am resting…………well………..sitting here blogging …………wearing just my underpants………….and a patch over my left eye ………..very restful.

Just like that a comfortable day of debarkation has turned into another morning of me running around shouting “Bugger” at the top of my voice. We have not moved any guests from the last 30 minuets …… the Immigration Computers have all crashed…….nobody can be processed…………nobody can disembark. This apparently is also affecting every ship here in Miami…….that’s thousands of guests who are not allowed ashore. I will be back soon……….time to make announcements and use that “apology” word again and then down to the lobby……see you soon…………actually, I had better put some trousers on first.

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One of the things I was so looking forward to about coming back to the Caribbean was spending some time ashore in Ocho Rios which as I have said before is one of my favorite ports. Last time we were here I had a cold and couldn’t face the hot sun…….today, once again I look out of my window and see the beautiful greenery, golden beaches and the crispy pieces of Jerk Pork barbecuing at the beach side restaurant ……………. and here I am once again, stuck on board. I guess there really is nothing stopping me going ashore, its just that with the thing I have that I promised I won’t mention in yesterday’s blog……..well…….I am not really in the mood.

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Some times in this job things happen that you would never ever have been able to plan ahead for…..things that make you smile and things that make you say “Why the heck did I not think about this and prepared myself?”…………..Today was such a day and more about that later…………….but first.

Good Afternoon…………I have decided that following this mention of it I will no longer be referring to my Bell’s Palsy until such a day when I see an improvement ………literally. Every time I think about it or write about it I feel down on myself so I have decided to adopt one of the finer British traditions and break out the stiff upper lip…………can’t do the bottom one as that is droopier than Droopy’s ears ………….I was going to be crude then and mention Dolly Parton……….but decided not to.
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