I am a little flabbergasted right now because I keep trying to post blog comments and they never end up in the comment section (they always says “your comment is awaiting moderation” and then I never see them appear in the actual comments section). I hope that this works finally and maybe one of the 343 Stephanie’s can tell me what I might have been / am doing wrong!

I am a long time reader of your blog thingy but I just began posting (or at least trying to post) recently and I cannot even begin to tell you how much joy it brings me to read your blog everyday. I wake up in the morning and the first thing I do (while I am still in my underwear of course) is check my email to see if you have posted a new blog for the day yet!

My family and I sailed with you on the Carnival Freedom a couple years ago and out of the 6 Carnival cruises (we would never dream of sailing on a different cruise line) the Freedom cruise was by far the best. We have been trying to schedule a time to sail with you again however, we usually have to sail at specific times of the year in order to work around our schedules and since our Freedom cruise our schedules never seem to coincide with your schedule as cruise director however, I am sure it will happen again, hopefully sooner as opposed to later!

I think it should be noted however, that the passion, joy, commitment, and dedication that you bring to the position of cruise director is absolutely amazing. For example, when we sailed with you on the Freedom, a certain Mr. Bells Palsy had visited you and despite that you did not miss one show or one joke and I cannot begin to commend you enough for a job exceptionally well done!

The menu you have listed here looks absolutely heavenly, I am extremely jealous of the people who are cruising on Thanksgiving this year! As for the people falling asleep around you, maybe they are readers of your blog thingy and have seen your previous pictures of men sleeping next to you (not in your cabin of course and they want to be some of the privileged few who make a cameo on your blog!

On to more pressing issues I had a favor to ask of you. My family and I are once again cruising on the Carnival Freedom sailing on January 2nd 2010 from Ft. Lauderdale FL. There are six of us traveling as a group and this is our 6th Carnival cruise together, our experiences on Carnival always surpass what we expect however one thing always leaves us wanting more and that is our dining experience.

We always choose and get late seating as we never want to miss time at the ports of call or dinner in the dining room and we always are seated simply with our party of 6! These aspects of our dining are always wonderful and we hope that they will continue again this year however our table assignment in the dining room and our dining staff have been somewhat disappointing.

You see John, we always seem to be seated in the way back of the dining room where we can never see the entertainment and excitement that is happening in the main area of the dining room and out of our 6 cruises, we have never actually laid eyes on our Maitre D! This is disappointing to us because we hear all the fun that others are having in the dining room and we feel like we are simply being stuffed back in the back of the dining room with dining staff who seem about as happy to be there as we are. I have seen other dining team members dancing on tables, singing, and even dancing with some of their diner guests but our dining staff never seem to be as exciting as many of the others. We always leave the dining room (with full, satisfied tummies of course) but feeling like we have missed a vital and exciting part of our experience. So, I was wondering if it might be possible for you to help us be seated with our party of 6 at a table in the center of all the action this year so that we do not miss a beat.

I hate to ask you for favors John, as I know that they take up your time and I would rather you be spending it talking to Heidi and Kye as opposed to helping me with my silly request but I knew that if anyone could help enhance our dining room experience then it would be you John and more importantly, I knew that if you knew this was how we felt about our dining experience then you would WANT to help!

I look forward to your response and I hope that you know how much you are appreciate, respected, and looked up to as not only a cruise director and brand ambassador, but also as a person, father, husband and friend and I think I speak for more than myself when I say THANK YOU JOHN, from the bottom of my heart for all you do everyday!

I look forward to your response (as long as my comment actually posts this time)!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Kathy Roxo

I had the pleasure of sailing on Glory with you this week. I had the additional pleasure of watching you and Ryan serenading my wife ALA Marilyn Monroe during the morning show. Thanks for the memories !! It will never be forgotten!

Consider me a fan of the decorations being up already. We have sailed the past two T-Giving weeks and they weren’t up on the Valor last year, but were up last week, and I thought it was nice!

By the way, I really enjoy the heck you give Ryan, and I thought he took it like the champion that he is!

Although I don’t actually believe in astrology, I am one who enjoys reading my horoscope, and I usually share a weekly one that I get online, with a dear friend. Mine this week was:
“Travel has been on the back of your mind lately, but suddenly it’s all you can think about on Monday. The idea of going somewhere faraway is intensely appealing, and it would be good for you in ways you couldn’t possibly realize. Even if you don’t have the resources to plan a major trip right now, plan a minor one, possibly for midweek or week’s end. Plan a trip to another town nearby for dinner. Be inventive. This week is all about meeting new people and doing new things. The more of that kind of stuff you do, the better, especially over the weekend. People love having you around. ”

Boy! Did that one hit the nail on the head! Our upcoming cruise (this coming Saturday, Dec. 5th) is suddenly just about all I can think of! I have printed out our Funpasses and documents, and luggage tags! I even made sure I sent them to a color printed so I could enjoy the bright fuschia color on the luggage tags and the golden elipse around the “VIP” on the Funpass! Yes, it is going to be difficult to concentrate on work this week!

Great blog, as usual….love to you, Heidi and Kye!

Terri & Larry

Spent Nov 21-Nov 26 on board the Carnival Fantasy (my Platinum Cruise!) with my family and my siblings/nephews. It was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving Week!

Ship-on-a-Stick; The 24k gold plastic trophies WERE given as awards but were we told the Fantasy CD has instructed all crew that they are no longer “Ships-on-a-Stick” but that guests could call them what we wanted (it was all very funny and lighthearted). My guess is that one or two guests out of a gazillion must’ve been offened by the moniker so we all must suffer (LOL).

On a serious note, debarkation (yuck) was quite a zoo. The ship and crew (including debarkation staff at the terminal) did a wonderful job-it was the passengers on this trip. The whole “Self-Assist” thing took 1 1/2 hours-folks pulling 70lb suitcases up/down the stairs and families traveling with muliple small children & strollers AND 70 lb suitcases-somebody is going to get hurt (not to mention that is NOT what Self-Assist was designed for). Are there plans to reevaluate the Self-Assist Debarkation program?

BTW-the luggage fairies picked my bags up between 10-11pm the final evening. The bags were waiting for me patiently before customs. Yeah!!!!!