Hello John,

Susan and I are excited. I made reservations for the Dec 3rd Bloggers Cruise on the Dream yesterday. We are in cabin #2326 “cove cabin”. I am contemplating bringing along our fishing rods. How could we be so close to the water and not drop in a hook? I think that it would be great to catch our own fish and have the kitchen prepare it for our 50th anniversary celebration dinner. (ya think?) Just think fishing on your private balcony sipping a well chilled adult beverage, watching the sun set while lying at anchor in a beautiful Caribbean port.
The ship looks terrific especially the walk around deck. I remember the Statendam having a deck like that. It reminds me of the traditional ships of the past. Will the deck have deck chairs (traditional wooden ones would be nice)? We used to spend hours watching the water go by and reading a good book (well sometimes a not so good book) The new innovative lounges and clubs look very inviting, and the anytime dinning is very appealing.
We look forward to spending time with you and some of the crazy gang that where on Bloggers Cruise #2. We finally decided to take this cruise and not some of the other trips we have been discussing. Susan and I came to the conclusion the even though we have been cruising for about 100 days, we had the best time ever on that to short trip 5 day with you on the Fantasy. If 5 days was good 9 days will be great.
Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. I do not know if you remember my telling you about our problems getting pregnant and the birth of our 1st daughter. That child is what every person dreams of when having a child. She is now 42 years old with her own family and we remain as close as we were when she was young. She is truly the best gift we ever received. Most men want to have a boy (we have 2) but I am here to tell you girls are better, girls stay close while boys have to go off and prove themselves (at least in the U.S.)
We look forward to seeing you, and Ken, and the rest of your fun crew. The anticipation is all part of the enjoyment and allows us to relive old cruises with you (2 med cruises 06, 07) thus making a 9 day vacation a 6 month event.

Hope all is well on Carnival Freedom. We just booked Carnival Dream Sept 21 2009. Can not believe I talked Michael into The in Inaugural Cruise. Can hardly wait. Are you going to be there? We are so looking forward to meeting you & seeing Todd again. You will get to see all three of Michael’s Carnival tattoos in person.
Take care for now I have to go pack for my birthday cruise next week
Cheri & Michael

I made my point. Even NASCAR fans don’t like to be judged. Linda was very judgmental in her posting. . . just because someone doesn’t want to wear a tuxedo doesn’t mean they don’t have class.

I agree with Linda (mom of DJ) and Countess Carolyn. As to your comment “for the most part things changed”…change is not always for the better. When standards are lowered, so are expectations and eventually there are no standards. And I seem to recall you’ve apparently been “offended” by some of the swim suits worn by, I think, the Russians or perhaps the Germans.

Loved Jamie’s letter. She’s a cutie and has an obvious love for life and the people with whom she interacts. You two will be a great team and I’m looking forward to lots of fun blogs when you’re together.

Hugs to Heidi and Kye,

Your pal, Myra

PS: Impressive rescue operation!

Glad to hear that you are back on ship – looking forward to some great stories. The blog keeps us occasional cruisers from serious withdrawl. Also, I have been intending for some time to complement Jamie for her contributions to the blog…….her writing is fantastic! Please pass along my best wishes to her.

Tradewinds (Bob)

My husband and I are both Platinum and have always enjoyed cruising on Carnival. This year we had decided to treat our children and their families to a cruise. We booked the Carnival Splendor for the week of June 14, as they wanted to go to the Mexican Riviera.

Unfortunately, as we all know several Mexican Riviera cruises were changed to the Pacific North West. That was fine with us, but then Carnival decided to lower the price of the cabins by less than half of what we paid. When I called up to try and get the lower price, I was told that they would not lower the price, and if I canceled I could get future cruise credit for my husband and I, my son’s family and my daughter’s family would get their own future cruise credit. We decided to cancel, since Carnival would not work with us, and since we all had plane fare booked, we still took a family vacation in California.

My credit card company was able to get all but the initial deposit of $2,000 back for me. Today, when I called the Guest Solutions Department, they told me I have to send in a copy of my credit card bill or get Transfer Cruise Credit forms from my children in order to get their cruise credit transferred back to me.

Because of identity theft concerns and the fact that I paid for all three cabins, I do not see the need to get my children involved or give out private information.

As the Carnival Ambassador, please tell me why they will not give me the full $2,000 cruise credit that I paid. By the way, Royal Caribbean gave full refunds to people that did not want to go to the PNW.

Can you please help us alleviate this problem without mom and dad having to ask their children to sign forms for us, or sending copies of our private credit card statements, when we were trying to give them a vacation of a lifetime.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Ellen and Bob Held

To me, cruising is an escape from reality; the every day grind. It’s your vacation and how you want to dress should be your choice. I wear business casual every day so I welcome the chance to wear shorts and flip flops but I also like the choice of “playing dress-up”. Call it a girl thingy, but I would say most of us women welcome the opportunity to dress elegantly. Keeping Formal Night gives us yet another chance to escape from reality.

From all the experiences I’ve had, the dining room is for dining and service. In my opinion, wearing a tank top and shorts takes away the respect from “finer dining”. I think it’s great that cruising gives you the option of the buffet or the dining room. It’s your vacation, it’s your choice. What’s the big deal?

I hope my friends are enjoying their cruise on the Freedom with you. I can hardly wait to hear what they thought of you and the crew.

Happy Belated Father’s Day

Donna

I am very excited to say that I have booked my 4th Carnival cruise for Sept 13th, 2009. I am taking my grandson again (this time he won’t be allowed to take charge of any camera). We are sailing on the Carnival Valor, to the Western Carribean, our ports of call being Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize and Cozumel. My question is about whether we will be able to walk off the ship at each location and go to a beach, or will we have to take the tender? I haven’t looked into any of the excursions yet, but I have looked at the satellite images of these places on Google but I haven’t figured out where the ships dock, and whether they are any public beaches.

So far my perfect port of call was Grand Turks on our cruise in March, where we could just walk along the pier and we were on the beach. Next favourite would be Half Moon Cay where we were taken to the beach by tender but we didn’t have to take any excursions (mind you they were all cancelled because of mechanical problems, but I liked being taken to the beach).

On our cruise in April to Ensenada in Mexico, there was no sign of any beach near where the ship tied up, and the only excursion to the beach was also cancelled because not enough people signed up for it.

Last summer, when we sailed to Europe I wish I has known that we could walk to the beach after being taken to the shore by tender in Cannes, otherwise I would have taken my swimsuit and towel too. In Sicily we had to take an excursion to get to a beach, and that beach was a huge dissapointment. There were no other oportunities on that trip to enjoy some time on a beach, so I really want to be able to get to some beaches on this upcoming cruise.

So I’d appreciate it if you have time to answer my questions…only 82 days to go

Thanks…Irene Garner
Hooked on cruising