{"id":23343,"date":"2015-02-17T01:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=23343"},"modified":"2015-02-17T01:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T09:00:43","slug":"tuesday-120","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=23343","title":{"rendered":"Carnival\u2019s Voices Of Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

In quasi-military vernacular, what happened in Galveston<\/a> on the weekend might be called the “perfect storm.”<\/p>\n

Operation Homefront<\/a>, recognizing the troops. A country singer, because country singers are the most prominent pro-military entertainers. And a ship called “Freedom.”<\/p>\n

This was Carnival’s Freedom<\/a>, of course, and it was in Galveston to begin operations from its new home-port. It was also Carnival’s Martina McBride<\/a>, the country superstar who has \"Freedom-Galveston\"<\/a>been performing in the cruise line’s wildly popular entertainment series called Carnival Live<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And both of them were there to pay tribute to troops.<\/p>\n

A check for $100,000 was cut for Operation Homefront, the nonprofit that supports military families, some of whom were the audience for what was called an exclusive Carnival Live<\/i> concert by the winner of 14 Grammy Awards<\/a>. She sang from the upper deck of a ship that last year underwent a $70-million refurbishing that enhanced its family features, such as Seuss At Sea<\/i> and Camp Ocean<\/i>, where kids enjoy 200 marine-themed activities.<\/p>\n

The consensus was that McBride gave a show-stopping performance. For those of us who have seen her (twice now), this is not a surprise. She was the consummate professional the first time we saw her, in 1996, and again in 2013. All the succeeding years did was make her even better.<\/p>\n

“Performing for these military families was an incredible honor,” she said in Galveston. “I’m so glad I was asked to be part of it.”<\/p>\n

Carnival<\/a> now has three ships based in Galveston — the Triumph<\/a>, the Magic<\/a> and the Freedom. While it may not be a stretch to make a military connection to the names of all three, nothing speaks to the troops like the Freedom does.<\/p>\n

Today at portsandbows.co<\/span><\/a>m: <\/strong><\/em><\/span>All the latest cruise news<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas<\/a>
\n\t14 nights
\n\tMay 4, 2015
\n\tTampa<\/a>, Norfolk<\/a>, Cork<\/a>, Cherbourg<\/a>, Brussels<\/a>, London<\/a>
\n\tInside: $799
\n\tCost per day: $57<\/strong>
\n\twww.royalcaribbean.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In quasi-military vernacular, what happened in Galveston on the weekend might be called the “perfect storm.” Operation Homefront, recognizing the troops. A country singer, because country singers are the most prominent pro-military entertainers. And a ship called “Freedom.” This was Carnival’s Freedom, of course, and it was in Galveston to begin operations from its new… Continue reading Carnival\u2019s Voices Of Freedom<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,32,25,31,19,15],"tags":[1073,154,965,1649,391,647,912,72,819,35,385,800,1192,26,27,33,148],"class_list":["post-23343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruise-industry-news","category-deals","category-people","category-ports","category-ships","category-stories","tag-brilliance-of-the-seas","tag-carnival","tag-carnival-freedom","tag-carnival-live","tag-carnival-magic","tag-carnival-triumph","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-news","tag-cruises","tag-galveston","tag-martina-mcbride","tag-operation-homefront","tag-phil-reimer","tag-ports-and-bows","tag-royal-caribbean","tag-transatlantic-cruises","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}