I wake up every morning thankful for a new day, thankful that I am alive, I have a beautiful woman by my side, I have a great job, loving parents, great friends, thousands of blogging friends and most of all thankful that I am not French.

However, I have to tell you that yesterday was one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced…………forget guests who want to play Mahjong, forget people who think we shouldn’t have shore excursions featuring animals, forget people who think I am a racist and on fast track to a suite in hell, forget having a plastic pipe shoved up my back door by a large Turkish woman…………yesterday was tougher than dealing with any of them.

The doctor had told me to get some rest……….”Stay in bed and heal,” he said……….. well………..that is easier said than done …..in fact it would be easier to find a Frenchman who knows what soap is.

You see, the only way I can take it easy is to stop working……….don’t be a CD …………….and let the staff run everything………and that’s just something I cannot contemplate.

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Good Morning, lets start by all singing Happy Birthday to the Carnival Freedom. One year ago today Kathy Ireland smashed the bottle against the side of the ship and this great ship sailed away…….Happy Birthday Carnival Freedom. I wonder if Kathy will be sending a card?

It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Cozumel, Mexico. Birds are singing (in Spanish) the sea is calm, guests are snorkeling, swimming and shopping and I look like the Elephant Man. I woke up this morning with everything still the same except one Prednisone tablet has the same effect as eating four bags of sugar-free jelly beans. It also has given me more energy and I am debating whether or not to go for a 10-mile run or write a blog….I guess I’ll write a blog.

I am not going to go ashore today, just to protect my eye from the sun and I would rather rest to get ready for tomorrow’s day at sea. The most annoying thing is my speech, which although Heidi says does not sound very different; I am very self-conscious about. There are certain words that have me speaking with a heavy lisp as the left side of my mouth is as active as the garbage collectors in Naples, Italy who have been on strike for a year.

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You will be very saddened to learn that Susan B, a regular blogger and part of Big Ed’s crew that sailed on the carnival Freedom Bloggers Cruise, was seriously injured in an automobile accident last week. She was in a coma for three days and is still very ill in hospital. Her husband who she lovingly calls Mr. Cheap is by her side as is  the rest of her family.

She has received multiple injuries and on the long road to recovery I know she can count on the love and support of all the members of our blog family.

Please let her know that you are thinking about her.

Thanks in advance, 

John 

One year ago today the beautiful and stunning Maurice Zamarti handed the microphone to the even more beautiful and stunning Kathy Ireland who named this ship Carnival Freedom.

On this her birthday we take the time to thanks those who paid the money that brought her life, those that built her and those that serve and entertain aboard her. We also thank the thousands of you who have sailed in Europe and the Caribbean aboard her, those that will and those that dream of doing so.

Happy Birthday Carnival Freedom!

Hi Everyone,

Based on your requests, here is the first post celebrating John’s one year anniversary of writing this blog thingy. It’s been a great year with amazing posts, lots of laughter and your very own cruise! Please leave your comments for John to read.

Happy anniversary

Stephanie & Roberto

So many people have left cold and wintry places this week to enjoy a Caribbean cruise. They have pictures in their mind of the hot sun and blue ocean and those are the people who I immediately felt sorry for when I looked out of the window at 7:30 am this morning. It was grey, overcast and light rain decorated the window.

It’s now 10:35 am and its raining quite hard now and although the weather forecast says the rain will clear and the sun will come out………right now…………..that looks as likely as Uma Thurman on my cabin door and saying “Hey John, can you rub sun cream on my back?”
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It’s Sunday…………….time for a very quick and easy ready to eat TV dinner, small, diluted, tiny and short blog thingy……….

Some of the most frustrating parts of this job are the times you rely on others ………….such was the case this morning. I stood on stage yesterday at the debarkation talk and proclaimed to the world that our new and improved debarkation system was brilliant, easy and free of the discomforts of the past and here I am sitting her having just finished the debarkation of 3200 guests where during my announcements for each number to proceed ashore I had to use those dreaded words “I sincerely apologize.”
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It’s been a long and emotional day. It is 9:05 pm and the captain just informed me that we have another medical emergency and that we are at full speed to return to Miami as soon as possible. We should arrive at 3:15 am.

The rest of the day has been filled with so much mixed emotion and as always I want to share these emotions with all of you.

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