As far as the shops on board, I was really disappointed this time. There was nothing I was interested in or afford that wasn’t junk. I was looking forward to the charms of the ship, and all they had were the little cheap $2.99 ones. There were always boxes blocking the aisles so that you couldn’t get around and the selection of shirts or sweatshirts was very limited in sizes and way over priced. Most of the employees were too busy to help and I walked out more than once because no one was available to assist me. Even when they weren’t super busy, they weren’t friendly.

Also, I wanted to let you know that sadly there was absolutely nothing done on the Miracle for the national football championship game. I know you had said Brent had something special planned but to the best of my knowledge, it didn’t happen. I searched the Capers and the lounges and although the game was being shown in the sports bar, that was it. No party atmosphere anywhere. I know some folks were pretty disappointed.

For the most part, the crew was fantastic and seemed like a happy lot…many going above and beyond to make sure things were great for the passengers.

I do hope you are able to read these comments even though they are running a little behind. As always, my best to you, Heidi and Thingy!

Yesterday, I mailed something to your PO Box 240 address in Essex, UK. However, I am concerned that you may not receive it for quite some time due to your sailing schedule.

Is there a way to send three, 2-page letters (6 pages total) to your blog or some other e-mail address without having the letters appear in your blog for all to read?

Two of the items are letters of appreciation I wrote after cruises on the Freedom and Splendor commending various employees. I know that the complimentary remarks in the letter I sent Mr. Bob Dickinson were not forwarded to the Freedom employees. There is also a letter of appreciation addressed to you commending several employees who served us so well on our recent Splendor cruise.

They are all Microsoft Word documents I can send as one single attachment to an e-mail if I had your e-mail address. Please let me know how to get everything to you expeditiously and yet avoid having them appear on the blog.

Sincerely,

Jim Morton

The one thing I like to buy on ships are the booklets with the photos of all the main rooms on the ship I am taking as I am not a good photographer. The last ship I was on was the Pride and they had no postcard photo albums of the ship or even just one postcard of the ship.

Thanks for asking!

Donna D.

A little off topic. I am very eager to book a cruise for the summer of 2010. Do you know when Carnival will be releasing the new itineraries?

Thanks!

I feel your cold pain. Thank goodness we were able to be on the Freedom for New Year’s.
As for shopping onboard, I would suggest cruise itinerary shirts. Just the little maps from the website and list the ports of call. Most often, the ships are repeating one or two itineraries for a season, so the shirts should not be that hard to stock.
My kids would love a shirt like that from the ship. This time neither of them bought anything in the gift shop. Being 12 and 15, there was nothing interesting for their age group.
As for the photo shop, I am a professional photographer myself, so I understand the marketing and I don’t have a problem with it. I do offer a couple of suggestions, though. First, please stop forcing people into photo lines on the gangways and outside the dining rooms. Having photographers going around the tables at dinner is fine, but waiting in line at the gangway or on the way out from dinner is very annoying and makes for grumpy faced pictures. Let people choose if they want those photos.
Secondly, on the last evening, when throngs of people are waiting outside the photo shop in huge lines that stretch 1/3 of the way across the Promenade, please send extra staff (possibly cross trained from other departments) to help the photo staff. Most of the people in line are waiting to pick up reprints or enlargements that are already paid for. If staff from other departments could just hand out the guests’ pre-paid photo orders,the lines will move so much faster. We waited about 20 minutes to pick up photos that we were told we could not get until 10pm-11pm on the last evening.
Otherwise, I found the photographers polite, competent and professional. We had some beautiful memories captured on our recent cruise.
Have a fun dinner. I must say, there are times I wish I were male (I hate to shop) and I could get away with one suit and one tuxedo for all occasions! No worries about undergarments, shoes, accessories or temperature…

I hope you both have a lovely time at the charity event. As far as men dancing goes, a gay friend once said as he asks me to dance, “what is the function of gay men at weddings?” (Answer: to dance with all of the women whose husbands/boyfriends don’t dance.)

I’d love to add my 2 cents about the gift shop question. Thank you for asking! We usually like to purchase clothing with the name of the ship on it, but we don’t really have many opportunities to wear t-shirts anymore. We can’t wear them to work, etc. So we really appreciate finding shirts we could wear to work that have the ship name or cruise line logo. For example, my husband has a long sleeved, blue, collared shirt with the Carnival logo that he really likes.I bought it on-line on Carnival.com. I’ve never seen it in the on-board shops. He also has some really nice golf shirts with various cruise line logos that he bought onboard, mostly on Carnival. I have a few CCL golf shirts that I bought onboard, but I can’t wear golf shirts to work. I have a nice blouse (t-shirt style but blouse material) that I bought on the Caribbean Princess. It has a nice embroidered picture in fall colors, with the title of the cruise and the name of the ship on it. It is dressy enough to wear to work. I collect lapel pins, and always scour every gift shop for one with the name of the ship. I’m so glad CCL started giving those out at the past guest parties a few years ago. I also like the destination themed scrapbook sets. I tried to buy one on the Carnival Freedom, but they ran out by the 2nd day of the cruise. When I got home, I was able to order one from Carnival.com. I agree with all of the people who said the jewelry prices in the gift shop were either very high or very low. For example, I’d be willing to pay a little more for a pair of earrings that had a sterling silver or gold post, but I don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars, just because I forgot to pack some earrings. Everyone forgets something when they pack. Why not have more “sundries” available? The gift shop on Princess was quite limited, but they did have one thing I really liked – a traveling alarm clock. I know the time is on the phone in our staterooms, but I really like to be able to lean over and say, “only 2 AM. Oh, good. I can go back to sleep.” Finally, I would like to see more things that are sold in the ports. Murano glass items (and jewelry) from Venice, gold-in-quartz from Alaska, etc. Also, a store that has packing supplies and offers shipping would be REALLY appreciated. If we buy booze, we can’t ship it home, and we can’t carry it on, so couldn’t Carnival have bubble wrap to give or sell us? It would generate a lot more sales. I really don’t want Scotch Whiskey scented underwear.
Again, thank you so much for asking. We can’t wait to meet you on the Feb. Bloggers’ Cruise.
Cheryl D.

As an official karaoke nut, I was amazed to see that in the Nashville Opry Mills (mall) they have a “recording kiosk” where you step into a glass booth and the operator records your performance on a CD. It is $25 for 2 songs. You get one practice run through and then they record.

It is a stand alone kiosk that is very compact and the system does a good job.

I have often thought that a set up like this would go over well on Carnival….since karaoke is packed every night. Especially with the little ones….the family hour is always full of little ones who want to sing.

Mom and Dad would love to have a recording of little Susie singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star…

Just an idea…

Linda (Mom of your friend DJ)

Gift Shops….They only things I may purchase from the gift shop would be a shot glass, a cap, or some other memento with the name of the ship emblazoned on the trinket. I’m not really big into the whole jewelry thing. The drawing for the free stuff from the jewelry shop turns out every soul wanting a freebie…..then you have hoards of people milling around and that area gets a wee be congested…..I say ditch the whole ….You must be present to win thing……

A friend of mine signed up for one of those drawing thingys……. She “won” some necklace bauble but “lost” since she was elsewhere on the ship. Cruise ships are big and requiring everyone to congregate at the gift shop is simply insane.

When they roll out the spools of gold/silver/lead/iron/nickel by the yard
I get the feeling I am watching QVC or something….

The Flying Dutchman