Samantha Brown and Carnival thursday

[tx121]

I think the show as a whole just didn't work out for both sides...

Carnival was using it as a way of advertisement, yet due to editing --- the cruise ship really was just a background. The big thing was to advertise for new evolutions of fun water park...but it ended up only being a 20 second clip of her going down a slide and then "high fiving" kids. Also the activities that were showcased were lame-- ice carving, galley tour, casino? lame.... a lot of nights she said that she was headed to bed but then someone said to go to the piano bar or casino--- what about the dance club? Unless not much was happening there either?

As for Samantha's "getaway"...it seemed forced and that she wasn't enjoying herself. It basically showed that she didn't accomplish what she had planned to do which was relax..except for the spa treatment. Everything else..she was hounded by fans and being the center of attention. Like others said...from the start, it didn't have such a great vibe..especially with 1 man waving during the sail away. Kind of sad--I guess Tampa doesnt have the cruising crowds waiving back from the piers.

So I think this show was a loss for Carnival and the Travel Channel.....

[illin]

Well...we all watched as a family as we sail on the Inspiration next month.

 

First, I never heard of Samantha Brown...so if this was atypical...then maybe I can give her another shot. But she came off as a total egomaniac and ultimate diva.

 

Several comments she made were just downright snotty. It is amazing to me that stars (not that she really is a star) spend their whole lives promoting and exploiting themselves...then somehow expect utter privacy and isolation when they deem it "time".

 

My kids were waiting for the part about the waterpark...great to know that whole segment lasted 12 seconds. They spent 3 whole minutes on the silly ice carvings.

 

Did Carnival not get a say in the editing? That was not a good marketing piece at all.

 

One thing I DEFINITELY got out of it though is that I will not do an "excursion" and just go my own...the cow heard sensation was really hard to overlook on her buggy/snorkle trip.

[MrPete]

I see someone found Tom's post with the owner suite's pix.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=654231

[gliles]

I think the show as a whole just didn't work out for both sides...

Carnival was using it as a way of advertisement, yet due to editing --- the cruise ship really was just a background. The big thing was to advertise for new evolutions of fun water park...but it ended up only being a 20 second clip of her going down a slide and then "high fiving" kids. Also the activities that were showcased were lame-- ice carving, galley tour, casino? lame.... a lot of nights she said that she was headed to bed but then someone said to go to the piano bar or casino--- what about the dance club? Unless not much was happening there either?

As for Samantha's "getaway"...it seemed forced and that she wasn't enjoying herself. It basically showed that she didn't accomplish what she had planned to do which was relax..except for the spa treatment. Everything else..she was hounded by fans and being the center of attention. Like others said...from the start, it didn't have such a great vibe..especially with 1 man waving during the sail away. Kind of sad--I guess Tampa doesnt have the cruising crowds waiving back from the piers.

So I think this show was a loss for Carnival and the Travel Channel.....

 

I agree. We are leaving Tampa on that ship today so I had my DS watch it (it's his H.S. graduation cruise and first cruise for him) so he would get excited about the trip, I don't think it helped much!

[Wennfred]

The next question would be was this idea pitched to Royal and they declined or was the original plan to have this getaway on a Carnival ship.

 

Even the Fuel prices are affecting the Travel Channel, Time for a budget cruise. :D I saw the show again with Wendy and Overall the show was great... This was probably geared for newbies... you can't expect to see everything in one show.

 

 

 

Fred

[Racegoer]

I have to laugh when I hear things like "nobody told me" or "I never heard of her before" Seriously you have never heard of Samantha Brown? If you are new to travel she IMO is the best travel host on TV. She has been on The travel channel since 1999 with shows like "Great Vacation Homes, Girl Meets Hawaii, Passport to Europe, and many more. She has done more travel shows in the past 10 years than anybody I bet. She also does some commercials.

 

Samantha a diva ? LOL that is so laughable how you could come to that assumption from only seeing her once? Oh she is a star did you notice how many people stood in line to get their picture with her. Did you see all the people wanting a to meet her from the moment they saw her? She was talking about privacy on her balcony, did you see that terrible balcony in her room absolutely no privacy, You could hear that woman YELLING at Sam " HOW YOU a DOIN" Geesh one of the reasons you purchase a balcony is to get away from the crowds in privacy and solitude.

 

You can go it on your own on some stops and yes they herd people like cows on many tours. They make sure people see what they can and their main goal is to get people back to the ship before it sails. You can book tours where you go it alone we do. Now we are experienced travelers and cruisers and you need to make sure you are back to the ship on time. Don't think the captain will hold the ship for you.

 

I know Samantha's sense of humor is lost on some people I could see that. Samantha has a different type of way of saying things its like "well I can't do this so let me explore and find something else fun to do." She jokes around a lot. I have been on 8 cruises and some have had up to 200 people that went as a group that I personally knew from my business. There is something to be said for how you relaxed you can get when nobody knows you as you won't ever see those people again. If you go with clients and employees you sort of have to be a host or on your best behavior at times and maybe you can't cut loose so to speak like when nobody knows you.

 

I liked the show what I didn't like was seeing the ship a lot. I remembered even more why we stopped cruising Carnival. All the screaming kids, the heavy drinkers, the over crowded areas. Hearing "hot hot hot" all day on the sundeck while watching 60% of the deck chairs set empty "chair hogs" or the fights we have seen over them. The people waiting in line to see the captain, actually taking pictures of a buffet before eating it. The structured dinners at the same time every night and hearing people complain about dressing up. The balcony with no privacy. Now I think Carnival employees did a very good job of showing their passion for their company. Also you see Carnival with all the different nationalities & that is interesting to meet people from many places but in my experience can cause staff problems as sometimes they have trouble communicationg among each other.

 

Overall a good show and Samantha looked great she recently got married and she is 39 years old and looks better than most 25 year olds. You could tell she is well traveled as each crew member she talked to she knew something about their country and customs. I hope to see Sam on more ships but we have seen her on Carnival and RCCL now hopefully she will do other ships.

 

The show is about short trips it was not intended to be a show, infomercial about Carnival. I give Sam and A+ and the ship a B. Carnival sure has their niche market and they do well with it.

 

 

Anybody know what room or category she had with that awful exposed balcony?

 

Well...we all watched as a family as we sail on the Inspiration next month.

 

First, I never heard of Samantha Brown...so if this was atypical...then maybe I can give her another shot. But she came off as a total egomaniac and ultimate diva.

 

Several comments she made were just downright snotty. It is amazing to me that stars (not that she really is a star) spend their whole lives promoting and exploiting themselves...then somehow expect utter privacy and isolation when they deem it "time".

 

My kids were waiting for the part about the waterpark...great to know that whole segment lasted 12 seconds. They spent 3 whole minutes on the silly ice carvings.

 

Did Carnival not get a say in the editing? That was not a good marketing piece at all.

 

One thing I DEFINITELY got out of it though is that I will not do an "excursion" and just go my own...the cow heard sensation was really hard to overlook on her buggy/snorkle trip.

[MrPete]

Anybody know what room or category she had with that awful exposed balcony?

 

The Micky Arison suite.

[halos]

Even though a few people here saw that show as perfectly fine, it really doesn't matter how you OR I interpreted it. CCL is after NEW cruisers.

 

From the posts on the threads on this board and the one on the RCI board, this show did not help CCL all too much.

I don't even think it helped SB/The Travel Channel all that much. For the folks who had never seen one of her shows before, she didn't come off as likeable.

Oh and racegoer, although I agree that she looks fabulous for the ripe 'old age' of 39 ;) I would hope that these weekend shows are not going to all revolve around her. This is the Travel Channel, not the Samantha Brown channel. I usually like her sense of humor...but the only time I actually thought she was funny last night was when she was shifting into 5th on the jeep...and there was no 5th.

You stating that this show reminded you of why you no longer cruise with the line is just validation at how this show failed for CCL.

[Carnival Game]

"....actually taking pictures of the buffet before eating it...."

 

Of course people take pictures of the gala buffet! They don't do that on other cruise lines??? Or maybe other lines don't have a grand buffet....?

[SouthernCaribbean]

This is taken from her blog. I wonder why the golf simulator scene didnt make the final cut. I would have loved to seen shots of the crew bar as well :)

 

Carnival Cruise

 

By Samantha Brown on June 9, 2008 8:56 PM

 

Day One

The Carnival Cruise show will be a full hour, but we only have four days to shoot it, which is usually the time we need to shoot a half-hour of ... so it's a pretty busy schedule. Great thing about being on a cruise is you can fit a lot more into a show, seeing that everything is a 10-minute walk away as opposed to an hour's drive. In travel production, stamina and momentum are key, and nothing can kill that more than long drives to destinations or even a long lunch. So, even though the shoot schedule looks challenging on paper, we're all able to get into a zone. Of course this is great for everyone except Allan on camera, who might actually enjoy putting the 40-pound camera down for a spell. Another wonderful thing about shooting on a cruise is the plethora of bathrooms. After my last travels in China and Latin America, the thought of being no more than 50 feet away from a clean bathroom is just bliss. So I'm sure you're thinking, "She gets to go on a cruise with pools, spas, bars, food and partying, and this is what makes her happy?" Yep, pretty much.

 

On this show, I am reunited with soundman David Gaffney, whom I had the pleasure of working with a few years back. He didn't have as much pleasure working with me, though. One of the scenes we were shooting together involved a golf simulator. He and the cameraman put themselves against the screen facing me to get a front shot of my swing. I am a terrible golfer, as anyone who has watched the shows knows, so when I put the ball on the tee, I just thought I would swing and miss it as I always have. But this time, I didn't miss. This time, my swing was Tiger Woods perfect, and I whacked that ball hard. It missed Dave's face by only a few inches. The computer clocked my ball at 85 mph. Dave stood there stunned, the small impression of the ball still visible against the foam mat. At first I was so totally elated with my first-ever perfect swing in the six years of doing the show, that it didn't dawn on me what I'd done. I was only supposed to pretend to hit the ball because two men were standing just 10 feet away in its path. It was a good laugh, and of course, golf ball jokes abounded the rest of the shoot. I thought about randomly sending Dave a golf ball in the mail with no return address or note. He would know who it was from.

 

Day Two

After a few days on board, I must say I am very impressed with the entire staff of the ship. Crew members are the hardest-working people in the travel industry. They work excruciatingly long hours and have to adapt to every type of cruise passenger -- from kids, tweens, teens, to 20-somethings, yuppies and baby boomers. All have different expectations on a cruise, and I am really impressed by the quality of the staff as they set about to make everyone's cruise an enjoyable experience. I didn't get to make it to the crew bar, which was a big disappointment. For anyone shooting on a cruise ship, that becomes the goal: to get into the crew bar, which is down in the depths of the ship and a place where civilians are strictly forbidden. Most of the crew want you there because, technically, we are working on the ship as well, but the invitation must come from an officer. I just wanted to go so I could buy a drink for everyone who had helped us out so much.

 

Day Three

Our excursion is dune buggying. Mostly driving on the one main paved loop road of Cozumel to a beach on the east coast, 45 minutes away, to do a small lap of sand about the circumference of a roller rink. My visions of doing doughnuts in the sand and actually riding the dunes were dashed (I guess it was technically one dune, and it's not called dune buggying). But the scenery is beautiful, and it sure is nice to not only get off the ship, but to drive a stick and have some fun. After being out in the intense heat from 10 to 2, we have a small break to eat some lunch at a very nice spot. A man named Jaime, who is the spitting image of Kenny Rogers, greets us. He has an aura about him that is at once commanding and pacifying. He makes sure we are all doing well. He gets us our Cokes and gives us an area to put our equipment. When I ask where the ladies room is, he answers with such care and concern that I make it all right. It's a beautiful part of Cozumel called Punta Morena. The beach is just glorious, and I thought if I were to do this again, I would hire a taxi from the ship and come here for the day. Jaime informs me that a taxi round-trip would be 30 dollars.

[vacruizer]

Like others said...from the start, it didn't have such a great vibe..especially with 1 man waving during the sail away. Kind of sad--I guess Tampa doesnt have the cruising crowds waiving back from the piers.

So I think this show was a loss for Carnival and the Travel Channel.....

 

The bad part is that Tampa does have a great spot right by the terminal called Channelside - restaurants, shops, and the Florida Aquarium. Lots of people there waving us off when we sailed the Miracle. Instead they chose to show the ugliest, most industrial part of the Tampa harbor with a barge & one guy on it? And a comment about how she hoped Cozumel was prettier? I don't get it. It certainly didn't portray Tamap in a very good light either - making it look like it was all industrial and barren. Here's the Tampa I remember - click to make them bigger. I've for some reason never been able to get the nice big pics to size right here. :o

 

 

 

[SouthernCaribbean]

And a comment about how she hoped Cozumel was prettier?

 

 

The truly odd part about that is she acted like she had never been there before. She visited Coz on FOS.

[jrkat69]

We are leaving on our first Carnival cruise in two weeks and we were very excited to watch this show. My family enjoyed watching it. I laughed out loud when she got the one guy to wave to her. I didn't see anything wrong with no large crowds being there to wave the ship off. Who goes down to the docks to do that? That didn't make me think any less of Carnival. I thought Samantha did a good job and didn't see her as being less enthusiatic about Carnival ships. This show got us very excited to be going on our cruise and just added fuel to the fire of my new cruising passion. Just my 2 cents:)

[Gingee]

Did anyone catch the show that was on after the Carnival one? We taped it but haven't watched it yet. It was on that ship that you can live on all the time.

[Wennfred]

Did anyone catch the show that was on after the Carnival one? We taped it but haven't watched it yet. It was on that ship that you can live on all the time.

 

The ship is called The World, its a repeat show.

 

This is their website: http://www.residensea.com/

 

http://www.aboardtheworld.com/

 

 

 

 

Fred

[illin]

I have to laugh when I hear things like "nobody told me" or "I never heard of her before" Seriously you have never heard of Samantha Brown? If you are new to travel she IMO is the best travel host on TV. She has been on The travel channel since 1999 with shows like "Great Vacation Homes, Girl Meets Hawaii, Passport to Europe, and many more. She has done more travel shows in the past 10 years than anybody I bet. She also does some commercials.

 

Samantha a diva ? LOL that is so laughable how you could come to that assumption from only seeing her once? Oh she is a star did you notice how many people stood in line to get their picture with her. Did you see all the people wanting a to meet her from the moment they saw her?

 

Really...never heard of her. Then again, I dont watch the travel channel much.

 

Since it seems that so many people love her, she must be a halfway decent gal...but she certainly did not come across that way from her show. My wife had heard of her before but thought she was a food critic. I used the term egomaniac...my wife labeled her as a diva.

 

The whole show had a very me, me, me! attitude... It just felt as if she felt the entire world should revolve around her.

[Kurbanfan]

This is taken from her blog. I wonder why the golf simulator scene didnt make the final cut. I would have loved to seen shots of the crew bar as well :)

 

Carnival Cruise

 

By Samantha Brown on June 9, 2008 8:56 PM

 

Day One

The Carnival Cruise show will be a full hour, but we only have four days to shoot it, which is usually the time we need to shoot a half-hour of ... so it's a pretty busy schedule. Great thing about being on a cruise is you can fit a lot more into a show, seeing that everything is a 10-minute walk away as opposed to an hour's drive. In travel production, stamina and momentum are key, and nothing can kill that more than long drives to destinations or even a long lunch. So, even though the shoot schedule looks challenging on paper, we're all able to get into a zone. Of course this is great for everyone except Allan on camera, who might actually enjoy putting the 40-pound camera down for a spell. Another wonderful thing about shooting on a cruise is the plethora of bathrooms. After my last travels in China and Latin America, the thought of being no more than 50 feet away from a clean bathroom is just bliss. So I'm sure you're thinking, "She gets to go on a cruise with pools, spas, bars, food and partying, and this is what makes her happy?" Yep, pretty much.

 

On this show, I am reunited with soundman David Gaffney, whom I had the pleasure of working with a few years back. He didn't have as much pleasure working with me, though. One of the scenes we were shooting together involved a golf simulator. He and the cameraman put themselves against the screen facing me to get a front shot of my swing. I am a terrible golfer, as anyone who has watched the shows knows, so when I put the ball on the tee, I just thought I would swing and miss it as I always have. But this time, I didn't miss. This time, my swing was Tiger Woods perfect, and I whacked that ball hard. It missed Dave's face by only a few inches. The computer clocked my ball at 85 mph. Dave stood there stunned, the small impression of the ball still visible against the foam mat. At first I was so totally elated with my first-ever perfect swing in the six years of doing the show, that it didn't dawn on me what I'd done. I was only supposed to pretend to hit the ball because two men were standing just 10 feet away in its path. It was a good laugh, and of course, golf ball jokes abounded the rest of the shoot. I thought about randomly sending Dave a golf ball in the mail with no return address or note. He would know who it was from.

 

Day Two

After a few days on board, I must say I am very impressed with the entire staff of the ship. Crew members are the hardest-working people in the travel industry. They work excruciatingly long hours and have to adapt to every type of cruise passenger -- from kids, tweens, teens, to 20-somethings, yuppies and baby boomers. All have different expectations on a cruise, and I am really impressed by the quality of the staff as they set about to make everyone's cruise an enjoyable experience. I didn't get to make it to the crew bar, which was a big disappointment. For anyone shooting on a cruise ship, that becomes the goal: to get into the crew bar, which is down in the depths of the ship and a place where civilians are strictly forbidden. Most of the crew want you there because, technically, we are working on the ship as well, but the invitation must come from an officer. I just wanted to go so I could buy a drink for everyone who had helped us out so much.

 

Day Three

Our excursion is dune buggying. Mostly driving on the one main paved loop road of Cozumel to a beach on the east coast, 45 minutes away, to do a small lap of sand about the circumference of a roller rink. My visions of doing doughnuts in the sand and actually riding the dunes were dashed (I guess it was technically one dune, and it's not called dune buggying). But the scenery is beautiful, and it sure is nice to not only get off the ship, but to drive a stick and have some fun. After being out in the intense heat from 10 to 2, we have a small break to eat some lunch at a very nice spot. A man named Jaime, who is the spitting image of Kenny Rogers, greets us. He has an aura about him that is at once commanding and pacifying. He makes sure we are all doing well. He gets us our Cokes and gives us an area to put our equipment. When I ask where the ladies room is, he answers with such care and concern that I make it all right. It's a beautiful part of Cozumel called Punta Morena. The beach is just glorious, and I thought if I were to do this again, I would hire a taxi from the ship and come here for the day. Jaime informs me that a taxi round-trip would be 30 dollars.

 

LOL! Yeah she sounds like a real diva:rolleyes:

I actually think her show will attract alot of people who otherwise would not sail on Carnival because of it's party ship reputation. Well she proved that you can have a nice quiet relaxing vacation......yes folks....even on Carnival;)

I too wish they would have had the golf scene in there too. I bet that was hilarious.......she cracks me up.

[trock]

LOL! Yeah she sounds like a real diva:rolleyes:

I actually think her show will attract alot of people who otherwise would not sail on Carnival because of it's party ship reputation. Well she proved that you can have a nice quiet relaxing vacation......yes folks....even on Carnival;)

I too wish they would have had the golf scene in there too. I bet that was hilarious.......she cracks me up.

 

 

Kurb-

Even I didnt read it as diva or egomaniac..I think a better word is distracted.. Yep I am sticking to that.. I think she was distracted..

:D

[crusinpsychRN]

I see someone found Tom's post with the owner suite's pix.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=654231

 

They really need to refurb that bed skirt! The furniture looks stiff. That is one room that could use some flowers!

 

 

I saw the show and I thought it was OK. I did find her remark about not being able to get drunk a bit out of character but maybe it really isn't. Would have liked to have seen her stateroom shown.

[pmc7704]

The bad part is that Tampa does have a great spot right by the terminal called Channelside - restaurants, shops, and the Florida Aquarium. Lots of people there waving us off when we sailed the Miracle. Instead they chose to show the ugliest, most industrial part of the Tampa harbor with a barge & one guy on it? And a comment about how she hoped Cozumel was prettier? I don't get it. It certainly didn't portray Tamap in a very good light either - making it look like it was all industrial and barren. Here's the Tampa I remember - click to make them bigger. I've for some reason never been able to get the nice big pics to size right here. :o

 

[ATTACH]82566[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]82567[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]82568[/ATTACH]

 

I SO agree with you !!! Tampa is one of the very best ports to sail out of.....

[Ms Belvedere]

I didn't see anything wrong with no large crowds being there to wave the ship off. Who goes down to the docks to do that? That didn't make me think any less of Carnival.

 

Wow, everytime we've sailed there have been crowds waving to us. In Port Canaveral there's a dock with restaurants, Grills and Fish Lips, where people try to get the seats by the water to wave at the cruise ships when they sail.

 

The whole way along the channel are carloads of people who drive out and have picnics, waving as we slowly sail out to the ocean. Miami was the same way.

 

Tampa has the Channelside with all of its restaurants where people sit and wave. She must have had a room on the opposite side of the ship.

[bakechef]

I didn't find her to be a diva at all on this show. I actually liked the show and I like Samantha's fun loving style, maybe she was a bit more snarky on this show because it was supposed to be "her" time to relax instead of being a travel guide for the show, maybe that contributed to the different feel.

 

Isn't this a different show altogether than the ones that she has done on other cruise ships, a different format? Were her shows on other ships a different show completely, like "Great Cruises" or something similar, wasn't this show called "Passport to Great Weekends"? Wouldn't that explain the different vibe of the show?

 

My only problem with the show was, too many giggling Red Hat women, I would have to throw at least one of them over board!:D

 

I thought the ship looked great, a real glitzy vegas type vibe, looks like fun!

 

MAC

[Wennfred]

I thought the ship looked great, a real glitzy vegas type vibe, looks like fun!

 

MAC

 

The Inspiration did look awesome in the show, you guys on the right coast are lucky to have a nice ship.

 

 

Fred

[bakechef]

The Inspiration did look awesome in the show, you guys on the right coast are lucky to have a nice ship.

 

 

Fred

 

My wish is that they would put a year round Fantasy class ship in Charleston, doing either 3-4 day (I would do a back to back) or 7 day trip. I would like to try out this class of ship, they look like fun. Heck just get me on a cruise ship for 7 days and I am a happy camper!

 

MAC

[Azure Moon]

Hubby and I have always enjoyed Samantha Brown's shows, but something seemed off, in our opinions. Tired, bored, not editted well, just done too many cruise shows, or something. :confused:

The ship's waterslide looked great but it would have been nice to see more of the ship or updates.

All around it seemed like a wash for Samantha, Carnival, Tampa, and the Travel Channel, in my opinion. :(