Sunday, January 20, 2013

Carnival Breeze, Day 2 - Sunday surprise

Good sunny afternoon!

Thus far our cruise has been quite lovely with our blogging buddies...all 600 of them.

John (Carnival's senior cruise director)hosted a Welcome Aboard party for the 600 shortly after setting sail yesterday. We have special lanyards with a tag on them to label the bloggers. This gives us entrance to the special functions. Raffle tickets were sold to benefit St. Jude's Children's Hospital, and MM bought a few tickets. All proceeds were being matched by Carnival Corporation.

During the Q & A with John and side kick Calvyn for the bloggers this morning, we didn't win any of the special goodies and we thought it was all over. John stated that he had one more item to be given away. Someone had donated a substantial amount of money to the cause, and John called out the ticket number in Dick's hand. I didn't even know he had done that. This guy can still surprise me after all these years. Over $3,000 was raised, and Carnival is matching that. Kudos to Carnival! It is an excellent cause.

We one a package on a FUTURE cruise for a dinner at the steakhouse, the captain's table, John's famous fruit basket, and we are not sure what, if anything, else. We were surprised and quite pleased, of course. Dick had to go up front to shake John's hand, and he explained to the crowd that he since we had been blessed with 3 healthy children and 4 healthy grandchildren that he simply felt led to increase our annual donation to St. Jude's, with CCL matching what we spent. It was a win-win for the hospital.



Booking a future cruise will be a fun research job for MM for sure. That's his cute leg up there. Empress Bee was sitting way over to the L, not in the photo. I did deliver hugs to her yesterday as requested. There is less to hug now! She looks great.

This afternoon we had tea time with John. There are several activities planned over the week. Tonight is elegant night, with photos with John ahead of time. We may or may not do that.

There was a medical emergency early this morning, so we had a brief unscheduled stop in Nassau to off load the ill passenger and his wife.

Other than that, it has been smooth sailing and blue skies. We hope for a continued good week. Tomorrow is another sea day, then lovely St. Thomas. And free phone service.

Life is good, y'all!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

8 comments:

ivana said...

Ciao Sandy!

Really a great generous surprise from MM!
Sure your Sunday is joyous and surprising...

Thank for the post!
See you!

Big hugs, honey!!!

Jackie said...

Wow...this sounds just super. I obviously have missed a lot. I had no idea you guys were all bloggers.

That is so cool. Oh it sounds just marvelous! I have decided to make your blog....my blog of the week.

I hope that is okay with ya'll! I can't find a badge to link up with...so I'll try to make one up right quick.

This is just too good to pass up. Your blog just has to be my "My blog of the week"!

Have fun and keep all these fun updates coming!

Big hugs!

Jean(ie) said...

:-) Yay for MM! He's definitely a keeper!

Barb said...

I hope this does not shock you, but I was doing some of my own future cruise research!!! The bad part? My poor PVP will be calling me again since I was logged in. Gosh, I really hate to disappoint him again by not booking it again. Bless his heart.

Photos of you guys together! Perhaps polished toes in the pool with a tropical drink. I'm living vicariously! I need some photos! Have a brilliant day! big hugs xoxo

Joy said...

Way to go, MM! And good for Carnival for matching the donations. How neat to win the prize package for a future cruise, too. Of course you will be taking one! (Or more!). I bet you could talk someone (Empress Bee) from going along, too...LOL
Have a wonderful day of fun today.

Haley D. said...

You tell that Big Guy how much we love and appreciate him!!!!

Sandee said...

Way to go MM. That's awesome and then some. Good win too. I'm glad you're all having a fabulous time. Good for you.

Have a fabulous day honey. Big hugs to all of you from the both of us. :)

LAC said...

Excellent cause... for sure!!!

Thanks for bringing us along, I love the updates.