Sunday, July 13th, 2008...7:18 pm
Drinking To Success
I know have a huge school boy crush on the Carnival Splendor’s Godmother Myleene Klass. She’s the screensaver on my computer and the wallpaper on my heart. I have decided when I go home to buy a hamster and name it Myleene in her honour.
I had a crush like this once before………..way before Myleene, Angelina, Catherine Zeta and Jessica Simpson there was……………..Kate Winslett. I had become smitten with her in the movie Enigma and of course in Titanic with the midget Leonardo De Crapio
Annoyingly, I knew we would never meet and that we have nothing in common. She reads books that don’t have Aston Martins and explosions on the cover, hobnobs with the rich and tanned.
She also has that China doll fragility which is part of her appeal, really. You want to bring her inside and give her a saucer of milk and wrap her in a think blanket. Well, I did.
So when I heard that she was due to appear on the London stage for the very first time I was asthmatic with excitement…………I had to go and see her…………and that excitement grew stronger until I found out what play she had selected for her debut.
Three Bloody Sisters by Anton Bloody Chekhov. For those not familiar with Chekhov’s work let me just say that he makes Shakespeare look like Quentin Tarantino. I had been forced to read two of his plays during English Lit at school…………I was so bored after page one I resorted to flicking boogers at Alison Sergeant who was sitting in front of me……………………… You may find this staggering but he’s even worse than Jane Austen.
And Three Sisters is Chekhov’s most boring play. Like the brilliant — 24 — it is set in real time. But unlike 24 it is set in real time over four years, and nobody has his head cut off by a helicopter’s rotary blades or a President that seems to spend his entire life in California rather than the White House.
There are no explosions either, and unusually for such a long play nobody has much to say. In act one somebody dances; in act two they have tea; in act three an old man trips over a chair. It’s about three sisters who want to go to Moscow and then spend the next 2,000 hours not going. By act three I wanted to stand on my chair and shout
“Oh, for God’s sake, just get on the f—— train.” ………………and don’t think Heidi would have stopped me as she was reading Hello magazine and was slowly loosing the will to live.
I don’t even like the theatre very much. Acting, on a stage, isn’t acting at all. It’s shouting. No, really. How can you possibly be tender or moving when you have to be heard by people at the back?
Furthermore, in a theatre it is impossible to blow up a skyscraper or shoot down a helicopter with a heat-seeking missile. Think about it. Chekhov takes three hours to say nothing. In the new Rambo movie, it took just 90 minutes to set up the characters, start a war, kill everyone who wasn’t Rambo, raise a difficult ethical dilemma and get you into the nearest pizza restaurant and home to bed by midnight
Think of it this way. If Shakespeare had never existed and someone wrote The Merchant of Venice today, I know exactly what the rejection slip would say: “Bugger off and don’t come back until you have at least two decapitations and some rumpy pumpy………………… Oh, and do you think it might be possible to write in English next time.”
As the first act dragged on, my gaze was fixed on my Kate but my mind, I fear, was beginning to wander. What, I thought, would happen if someone in this audience had caught Bird Flu? I could be dead by morning……………….. By morning I wished I was………………. And still it was only act three.
I hung in there, though, hanging on Miss Winslett’s every word until the final agonizing scene when her lover buggers off and leaves her.
The critics say this scene is moving. They talk about primeval passion of two lovers forced by circumstance to leave each other never to meet again. I’m afraid, however, I missed that. I sat through the long, passionate, saliva-swapping farewell song she shares with the male lead thinking, “You lucky, lucky bastard.”
Anyway, poor old Kate has been replaced by Miss Klass and I am sure you read all the wonderful press about her and the ceremony. I should also congratulate the Royal navy who I made sure to mention in my speech. I said it then and I will say it now…………those two words Royal Navy mean so much to so many people …………… heroes ………….. protector of the realm………..and if you are a bad guy……………it means you are about to be in a world of hurt. Anyway, thanks to them and especially the chap who climbed the rope to smash the bottle…………..although I should have done it……………..and if they made a rubber suit in my size………….I would have.
So, its 9:45am and Debarkation just finished and it was one of the most challenging debarkations I can remember. This had nothing to do with moody Immigration officers or long lines of people but with the fact that everyone …………….ok, not everyone …………….but most people were this morning nursing Herculean-sized hangovers.
This was thanks to the wonderful hospitality of Carnival Cruise Lines and a piece of magic that each Travel Agent partner was given……………..it’s called…………”an open bar card.” This means that all the beverages were free………….and this means three awful long nights for the poor bar staff. While some of the agents treated the card with respect by ordering just one drink at a time others looked upon it as though they had just been given use of Bill Gates’ Black American Express card for 3 days and therefore …………….they were going to get absolutely hammered ……………….and they did.
I saw things the last three nights that made me so not proud to British as the Brit Travel industry let loose. I actually ventured into the dance club last night just to see the DJ and discovered Dante’s hell. People were ordering three drinks at a time or more and the once polite country I knew and loved so much seemed to have given birth to young people who had not been taught words like “please” and “thank you” and “No, I have had enough to drink, I am going to bed…………alone.”
This morning they limped off with memories of free beer, wine and sex on the beach. Let’s hope they have a memory not just of hurling vast amounts of alcohol and food into the toilet this morning and remember to sell the heck out of Carnival Cruise Lines.
Of course, I am talking about a very small few of the hundreds of agents who sailed with us and who were brilliantly behaved and professional………….I know they had a wonderful time and their experience will be one they remember and pass on to their clients………….our future guests
So, eventually and with the help of lots of very loud “get out of bed” announcements from me, they have all left and so the third of our inaugural cruises starts today……………. this time to the Baltic. Here are the demographics.
GUESTS – 3,288
NON U.S. AND CANADIAN - 840
MOST REPRESENTED - UK - 375.
JAPAN - 90
TAILAND - 68
MEXICO - 43
CHILDREN CIRCLE C (12 - 14) - 103
CAMP CARNIVAL (2 - 11) - 98
CLUB O2 (15 - 17) - 117
So, away we go. I have my travel talk this afternoon. This will include the welcome aboard information and everything about our first port of call Copenhagen, Denmark. I am always worried about the first talk especially with a port I have only been to once before on the FAM trip. However, Denmark is easy compared to the complexities of St.Petersbug which comes up later in the week.
Anyway, talking of ports I had better go and write one for today………….I will be back soon.
Here I am.
Just got back from my travel talk……………It seemed to go well. The theatre was very busy however the audience seemed tired. I now start to remember just how hard the first day is in Europe. Many landed today in London and then have the two-hour drive to the ship. Therefore it was no surprise that the room had about as much energy as someone who has just run a marathon dressed in a suit of armor and concrete Nikes while carrying a baby Yak under each arm.
The information was well received and hopefully the fun we had will encourage them to come to the show tonight. Oh…………did I tell you………….probably not. ………..well, I have decided to do my show tonight at 7:45pm. During last season when we had four sitting dinners the show was at 10:30pm which is very late for a tired audience.
Hopefully, running the show at this time and activities afterwards will allow more guests to come…………….we shall see.
Here are some photos of the famous White Cliffs of Dover.
I read with some horror that some Cruise Critic members cruised on the eight-day voyage and felt upset that I did not visit them at the gatherings. I actually didn’t know about them as I had not been asked to put in the Caper and the second party was a “shared” event and listed as such. Anyway, I sincerely apologize to those I offended and please accept my apologies. ……………also in my own defense I was working 16 hours a day everyday ……………remember, when I prepared the Carnival Freedom I wasn’t blogging straight away …………………regardless, I apologize to the those I upset and hope I have another chance to spend time with them soon.
I want to return to the “drinking ” habits of my friends with the open bar cards last cruise. I guess it’s hard to understand these days how people get themselves so drunk ………… especially as I have never been a big drinker……………or have drunk anything at all these past 12 years……………….it wasn’t always the case…………as you will see ……………… oh ……………and you may further come to understand why the French are not on my Christmas card list.
It was 1990 and while home on vacation my mate Alan and I went on a cheap weekend to France. We dined at a cheap French bistro somewhere in Paris when (and I kid you not) I found a beetle crawling through my lettuce. “Regardez,” I said to the proprietor Monsieur Pepe Le Pew, “J’ai trouvez une er . . . um, une Paul Macartney dans mon salade.”
He was horrified and whisked the plate away, saying that by way of recompense we could drink as much wine as we liked. On the house.
And that was that…………..I don’t remember much else about the evening except the next thing I knew I was being dragged from the back of a car by several angry French policemen, who handcuffed my arms behind my back and then threw me to the ground. “Aargh,” I exclaimed, as I plunged, nose first, into the road.
It became apparent that we had gotten into a taxi but unfortunately due to the fact that Le Vino De maison had taken our bodies to a new level Alan had decided to tell the taxi driver to bugger off and attempted to use his shoes and socks as payment for the cab ride. The driver had called this in and unfortunately because he had been driving with his back to us he had no idea which one of use had told him to go forth and multiply.
Obviously, being completely spineless, I’d have told on Alan straight away but I was also completely drunk and as a result had no clue who it might have been. So I was hit. “Aargh,” I said again.
In fact, I said “Aargh” quite a lot in the course of the next few hours, mostly though when my escape attempt went all wrong.
For some reason that never did become clear we were taken to a hospital where the cunning plan was hatched. Having no spoons to hand, I ruled out the tunneling option and began to wonder if it might be possible to go to the attic and build a glider out of some stretchers while no one was looking. And then the idea hit me. I decided that this being a hospital, the window in the lavatory would not be fitted with bars.
I was right, and so — with the policeman waiting outside the cubicle — I made lots of, I thought, rather convincing being-sick noises and eased it open. It was not a big window but I was almost completely out when I felt the policeman’s burly hands on my ankles.
Have you ever been dragged backwards through a small window, while wearing handcuffs? Well don’t try it, because it hurts. It hurts nearly as much as being thrown to the floor again.
Perhaps this is why they’d taken us to the hospital. Because by the time they’d finished with us it’s almost certainly where we’d end up anyway.
But no. We were bundled back in the van, taken to the police station and ordered to strip. I was then searched thoroughly although they did stop short of going where no man has gone before.
The cells were. . . well to begin with, it was hard to say what they were like since the only light came through a 3 inch peephole in the door. For all I knew there was an IKEA cabinet and a leather sofa.
Sadly, as my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, it became apparent that this wasn’t so. In fact, there was nothing but a bed made from stone, a mattress made from bubble wrap and a hole in the floor where several previous occupants had tried relieved themselves and like the French Air Force had been completely off target.
Boredom set in within about five minutes. The solution was sleep, but this was impossible because if I used my jacket as a pillow it was freezing, and if I kept it on I got a crooked neck.
Sleep was also impossible because Alan in the next cell had decided to relive his school history classes, shouting out a list of battles in which the English had beaten the French. Sadly, he ran out of ideas after Agincourt, so he started top pretend he was an auctioneer declaring at the top of his voice that the first bid was a World War II French Army rifle that had never been fired.
At around seven in the morning — though because they had taken my watch as well, it might have been four — I decided to order breakfast. So I waded through the excrement and through the small hole in the door said I’d like eggs Benedict, a double espresso and some toilet paper. What I got instead was a burly French finger in my eye.
Eventually, though, the door was unlocked, where we were given a massive bollocking ………fined 200 francs and were made to sign some papers, we paid and buggered off as quickly as we could, leaving my French police friends to wonder if they really had had Starsky and Hutch in the cells all night.
So did the painful and humiliating experience cure my occasional twenty something need to drink? Well, probably not…………in fact Alan and I were to get into many more scrapes where alcohol was to blame.
What did cure me is what will most of the youngsters that drink today……………..I got old.
So, on that note I go to the show hoping to make people laugh and hoping to get back into some sort of routine after the last few weeks. Hopefully that routine will include the daily blogs which I enjoy presenting to you and which I hope you enjoy reading.
Goodnight
Your friends
John and Heidi
35 Comments
July 13th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Sacre Bleu!!! Mon Dieu!!! No wonder you’re not a huge fan of the French! All it took for me was a week in Paris and every waiter in town treating me like I was a poor excuse for a worm…
Here’s hoping that this voyage goes much better than your three day. At least this time the passengers will have to pay for their cocktails resulting in a BIT less over the top behavior.
Kate Winslett, eh? Although I found her deplorable in ‘Titanic’ there is some appeal in that lovely zofitg figure!!
Steph, bless your heart. Today had to be one tough day! Thanks so much for getting the blog out to the faithful!!! You’re a real trooper!!
Ciao, all!!!
Host Mach
July 13th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Hi~My family & I just spent a wonderful week on the Splendor. I was on stage the first night with Dick Little. My son, Mikey, wrote a “Dear John” as well as I. What a trip!! You are just soooo funny. The crew was fantastic. I will be reading your blog daily! Laughter is the best medicine!
Sue
July 13th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
john i was on a 2 day inaugural last year another line wtih free drinks and i remember how busy the bar services were.
GOOD LUCK WITH FIRST 12 NIGHT CRUISE TO BALTIC WE CANT WAIT, WOW WELCOME ABOARD AT 745 PM I QUESS THAT SHOW WILL NOT BE FILLED
July 13th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
John,
I am so sorry you have not seen a good play… They can be wonderful!! Theatre is GREAT!!! Can be great! SHOULD be great!! We have a wonderful community threatre group here locally that puts on a smashingly good play about every seven weeks. Does nine performances eaah play and hits the mark almost every time. Whether romance, comedy, or melodrama… I love going to the theatre…
Aaahhhhh… your blog thingy is wonderful. The french know you quite intimately, I see… I guess that experience is why you go back so often!!!
Stay Funny!!! Happy Cruisin’!!!
Lambie
July 13th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
John,
Look at the bright side, by being pulled back inside it probably prevented you from breaking your neck when you hit the ground.
I used to remember when I was in Okinawa watching the JP’s (Japanese Police) work over a non-conforming (drunk) serviceman. They would whip out their steel telescoping baton and hit them on the side of the knee. The instant response is for them to go down to their knees. Now they were eyeball to eyeball with the JP who would then cuff them or continue the lesson.
Now it is Steph’s turn to be exhausted but duty calls.
Dave
July 13th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Hi John and Heidi,
My Mom (Millie R) sister (Linda F) nephew (Wesley F) niece-in-law (Kimberly F) her mom and dad (Dorothy G and Karl G) are cruising with you for the next 12 nights.
My sister found out about 7 weeks ago that she had colon cancer. Her main concern was weather or not she would be able to go on this trip.
She had surgery on her 60th birthday!!
They should be at the cruise critic meet and greet today (Monday) at 1:00 at the Aft bar area, Lido deck.
If you see them please tell them “To bad Helen’s not here” ha ha It’ll freak them out!
Thanks and have a great cruise!!!!
July 13th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Hi John & Heidi,
What a great blog! Love the story about your drinking experieince in France. Guess I can understand now, why you are so thrilled with the French. LOL
Enjoy your first Baltic Cruise. Post lots of pictures!!! Sure wish we could have been on this one, just to many things going on here at home as of late. But we will be seeing you on the Bloggers Cruise and if possible… sooner!
Princess Barb & Carl
July 13th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
John,
I think we all know why you dislike the french so much now. Not that you really need a reason to dislike them to begin with. Wow drunk travel agents on a cruise ship something just seems very odd about that. Hey maybe carnival should offer free drink cards to us bloggers for the next bloggers cruise. LOL ok that will never happen i think the bloggers would cause carnival to file chapter 11 if they did that. Great to see the old blog format returning. Best to Heidi enjoy the 12 day cruise’s.
Kevin
July 14th, 2008 at 12:03 am
John!!
I think George and Linda are on this cruise. If you see them( and you remember ) please tell them I say Hi and wish them a perfect cruise like the one we share last year.
Love;
Nanni
July 14th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Dear John & Heidi,
What no Australians on the first Baltic tour?
Can’t believe it, thought we were building up our numbers on your cruises, we shout our praises of Carnival from the Roof tops.
Cannot wait to join you on 30th August and we really hope we get to say hallo personally.
In the meantime will be checking to see how it is all going, we haven’t quite decided on all our tours yet. We are particularly undecided about Tallinn at this stage so any hints would be appreciated.
Regards
Suzanne & Lisa
(Downunder)
July 14th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Hi John,
24 days to our 6th August cruise and still counting feverously.
Interesting to see how busy the three day cruise was and looking forward to hearing you make us laugh our heads off and forget the worries and problems of the world for 12 days.
I was wondering whether it would be possible to pull off a surprise for my wife and son who absolutely love hearing you and are great fans of yours, whilst on our 6th August cruise to the Baltics. Would it be possible to have our picture taken with you. Our cabin is 6300 on deck 6. We would really love this so as to cheerish for years to come…….you make us so happy.
Cheers mate and looking forward to meeting you on the Splendor.
Norman from sunny Malta
July 14th, 2008 at 6:31 am
John,
Happy Anniversary to your Mom and Dad as their Anniversary is my birth date. I am only a little bit (+2) older.
I saw the whole inaugural video on carnival homepage. Great getting two crewmembers on stage. I could not stop laughing about the Jamaican Fitness Instructor.
Ralf
July 14th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Hi John,
I thought Dover Castle was wonderful. Lots and Lots of pictures from there, here:
http://www.zydecocruiser.com/splendor_08/dover/dov1.htm
http://www.zydecocruiser.com/splendor_08/dover/dov2.htm
July 14th, 2008 at 6:44 am
p.s. I did see many cases of Heineken being loaded onto the ship in Amsterdam.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:08 am
John -
Remember, everything in moderation and nothing to excess.
This advice brought to you by the guy who played 45 holes of golf yesterday.
Jon
July 14th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Hi John and Heidi,
Just wanted to say what a great cruise we had on the three night cruise to Amsterdam. The ship is fantastic and the shows were amazing especially Vroom probably one of the best shows I have seen at sea. I have just been catching up with your video blogs and it is really strange seeing shots of somewhere we have just been. Enjoy the rest of the UK sailing season and ThanK U again for the gifts. Hope to cruise with you again soon.
Susan from the West Midlands.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Good morning John & Heidi,
Pauvre Jean et Alain, no wonder you dislike the French so much. But I’m surprised you can remember it so clearly.
I hope everything goes wonderfully this cruise (and all cruises), but you deserve a peaceful voyage. Are your parents still with you? Great photos of their anniversary & of Dover.
I don’t know if you’ll be able to answer this question or not, but my sister just told me that her itinerary for her 7/20 cruise on the Miracle was changed. Instead of going to Tortola, they’re stopping at Turks & Caicos, which I think is wonderful. But can you find out if this is a one-time only change, or will my cruise on 9/30 be changed too. I hope you can get some info.
Thanks John & have a great day,
Carol
July 14th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Hi John,
Hope this upcoming cruise is all smooth sailing!! Thanks for the pics of the white cliffs of Dover. I’m an avid Anglophile & those cliffs never fail to thrill me.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Welcome back to blogging John. I do love your video’s too, hope they continue as well. Did you hear Angelina Jolie had twins in France, a boy and girl and she didn’t even name the boy after you! HA! How can you have crushes on all these ladies when you have such a lovely wife as Heidi to love? Take care, Linda & Mike
July 14th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Hi John
Just to let know that the majority of us were not nursing hangovers when getting off the ship in Dover manily because we could never get to the bars because of the freeloaders!
Can I take this opportunity for you to pass on my thanks to Ken our Maitre D who when we arrived for our evening meal personally pushed my daughter in her wheelchair into the elevator to level four and then to our table. Ken then chatted to her about her condition taking time out from his busy routine, a really sincere and genuine person- many thanks Ken and Kris!
July 14th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Hello
As always enjoyed every word you write and can’t wait for our 49 day south America cruise on the Splendor, only sore spot you won’t be there! Anyway have a question. What are you using for your short videos we all love so much? Keep on doing what you do, we love you Judy and Jim
July 14th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Thanks for taking the time to write. We all enjoy reading about your experiences so much. Hope the first long cruise is fun and a great success. Wish we could join you! Larry and Jeri
July 14th, 2008 at 8:59 am
John:
I have to say I am not a fan of “theatre” since my 5th grade experience of being Gretel in the famed “Hansel and Gretel”. Our director was determined to win an Oscar for the performance and the pressure was stupidity awful for 5th graders.
As far as the Cruise Critic “Meet and Greet”…don’t worry about it. We have over 100 folks set for ours in September and it has not even crossed our minds that the Cruise Director should attend.
In fact, in the past 22 cruises….we have never expected to see the CD at this event.
I know you always try, but you can’t fulfill every unrealistic expectation of passengers craving attention. You are never going to make everybody happy. So don’t stress over it!
Those of us who have your best interest at heart know your killer schedule these past weeks and would never expect more than you are physically able to do….much less whine about it.
Those that do this, don’t have your best interest at heart.
When you are faced with them (as you will surely be now that you are more famous than George Hamilton) you should repeat the Cruise Director’s Serenity Prayer….
God grant me the serenity to
dismiss the whining passengers I cannot please;
have the energy, charm and time to please the grateful passengers I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
BTW< there was a family that was left in port that you talked about on July 4th. They had a 6 year child with them and you were very concerned. Did they get back to the ship at the next port ok?
Hope so….
Time to go walk my 5 miles!!!
Linda (Mom of your friend DJ)
July 14th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Good Morning John,
OMG!!! I can see now why you do not like the French. Considering this experience along with your “cabin mate”…..all I can say is Poor Baby you have been wrecked for life!. You have my sympathy.
I’m glad to see you are now getting back into your routine as CD.
As far as your apology to that “person” who complained about you not coming to their functions….I know you feel that it was necessary but they need to understand how busy you really are. They were out of line expecting so much from you. You have a job to do and a very, very strong commitment to Carnival Cruise Line, your guests and crew. You are only one person and I for one feel that you do a tremendous job helping, entertaining and listening to everyone you come in contact with. Thank you for being part of my life!!!
Take care
Joan
July 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am
John,
Our cruise critic group is having a meet/greet on our Carnival Freedom cruise. We will be departing on 9/7/2008 and planning on getting together that day but have not finalilzed the time. At this point we were planning on meeting at the Endless pool. Can you assist us with a place. Right now I believe our group is approximately 30 people but changes from day to day.
Thank you,
Denise
July 14th, 2008 at 11:07 am
John, Pat’s mad at you. She’s been replaced Myleene. But she’s way over here Heidi is right there and I’m sure your on your way to the doghouse again. You will never learn. On the next bloggers cruise the doghouse cake will need a condo sized doghouse.
BIG ED
July 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hi John/Heidi:
Excellent blog today. Thanks for posting.
There are some decent theatrical productions that are around right now, but i agree with you that you lose a lot of it when its done on a stage and not “blown-up” on the big screen.
I liked the Dover pictures. Nothing too fancy or over the top like you would see at some ports here in the States.
I can’t imagine going to the hospital or jail in Paris and it once again proves why I enjoy reading these stories, b/c I don’t want to be in that position
Great hearing from you today and thanks again for everything.
Take care,
David
July 14th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
*live from the Carnival Splendor*
John - Your port talk and the welcome aboard show were brilliant! So far this cruise has been wonderful and it is very good to see and experience all of this is person. I can’t wait for the bloggers meet and greet.
Dawn
July 14th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
So, the Parisian Gendarmes had “de Gaulle” to arrest two drunk and disorderly British hooligans and haul them off to the drunk tank. Gosh, John, you’re right - the French are horrible people!
(insert eye-rolling smiley here)
Oh well. Say, I really liked the “walkabout” video you did yesterday, that was fun.
I’m glad you finally get to settle down into your “normal” routine - just working 14 hours a day.
I hope nobody gets drunk and tries to saw the head off the Little Mermaid again - although frankly that has always seemed to me to be one of the more overrated attractions in Denmark.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Hi John & Heidi
Thank you sooo very much for a fantastic,fantastic, fantastic 3 day trip, we could not have asked for a better time, everyone was just lovely, the service (V in black pearl, outstanding) & food great as usual. We love the new layout of the ship, would not change a thing (maybe a couple to hot tubs up in the serenity area at the front). The naming ceremony was fantastic, we felt so privilage to be there, David my son was there among all the news/media people snapping away, will send some photos later to you.Lovely to meet your parents, they must be so proud of you. We dont expect to see a naming ceremony again so thank you for the invite. We meet some lovely people on board, but you are right they can certainly drink!! We gave up most nights by about 12.30 (lightweights). Enjoy the Baltic, hoping the Dream will do a short trip in september 09, i will keep a look out for that. Take care, Michellex
Ps. We looked everywhere for our Open Bar Card, safe, cabin, under the bed, behind the loo, ok where did you hide it?!!!!
July 14th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
PLEASE REPLY
John,
I just finished reading and watching the blogs from last week. I loved the blog videos. Would doing a combination Video/Written blog, give some spare time to sit and take a break?
I love reading your blogs, but having cruised with Carnival on several occasions, and receiving first class treatment all the way around, I know how hard everyone works. I was nice to meet your parents, and I’m glad you and Heidi, got to spend some quality time with them.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming blogs, as I’m hoping you will write about the ports of call.
I’m booked for the Baltic cruise for next summer, and I would love to read about the shore excursions being offered at each port, as well as your opinion, on which you consider to be the best excursions to take. Just to give you an idea, I’ll be traveling with a 7 & 8 yrs olds girl.
Thank you for bringing laughter into our lives.
Your friend
Julia from New Jersey
July 14th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Well, there isn’t much you can say about the bar cards is there? Last cruise I was on the Legend and a group of people that obviously were on a company (not Carnival)sponsored trip had those cards with similar results I might add. But they weren’t stingy with them and were using the card to buy drinks for lots of people (I’m sure their employer didn’t think they would be buying drinks for the whole ship) so that by the end of the evening there were massive amounts of very drunk and obnoxious people stumbling about the ship.
Sorry about you and Alan and it certainly explains all! Bad things do happen to good people. Hopefully you will have a happy ship full of regular chaps this cruise once they get over the jet lag. Yep, that will get you every time so they should be back to normal by tomorrow. BTW, Heidi deserves jewelry for living through your Kate Winslett episode.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Hi John
On behalf of all the decent travel agents out there who thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being invited to see Carnival Splendor and fully understand that this is a great privilege bestowed on them I would like to thank Carnival for their fantastic hospitality. It is unfortunate that you were witness to “Brits behaving badly” but I thought that the majority were fairly well behaved. My colleague and I had a fantastic time and will certainly be recommending Carnival to our clients. I have tried the ” open bar card” at my local pub and guess what! It does not work can you please send me one that does. Hope to see you again at some point as I am hoping to book next year on Liberty with my husband and four children!!!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Oh John…you do make me laugh!!!
So…”a piece of magic that each Travel Agent partner was given…it’s called…”an open bar card.”. So…ummm…how does a CANADIAN travel agent get her hands on one of those big boys (you know how sweet, responsible and well behaved us canucks can be!! Haha!). The hubby and I have decided that waiting until next summer’s cruise is just too far away so we’ve popped in a Glory sailing in November. Haven’t seen her yet, so I needed a FAM…looking forward to it! Now if I had a magical little card to go with it…!! haha!
July 28th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
That Open Bar Card was fabulous but a pain in the arse, I was trying to get a glass of coke between songs in the karaoke bar and some random agent (who had pushed infront of me!) ordered 8 cocktail somethingorothers!!!! Woe! But anywho, open bar card: so grateful for the generosity!! Fantastic cruise, have been recommending it to ALL my customers
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