xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Good Friday to u Kate & Kids & to all the world!!!
aww. You too. I was born on Good Friday… 37 long years ago lol..
It’s nice to know that Good Friday is so important because it was the day Kate was born. Happy Easter, Gosselin kids.
CRUISE CONTROL
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip … Actually, no you won’t because this floating, would-be disaster never got the chance to leave port, as many suspected from the day it was announced. It is impossible to imagine anyone, anywhere, ever thinking there would be enough people on Earth foolish enough to spend their hard-earned money to go on The Kate Gosselin Celebrity Cruise – especially in August during hurricane season. But here was the pitch, in black and white:
Sail with Kate!
Join reality star KATE GOSSELIN on a spectacular ship
Join reality TV star Kate Gosselin, full time mother (of Eight) and author of several books including her latest, I just Want You To Know, Letters To My Kids On Love, Faith and Family, aboard the Allure of the Seas, the newest ship in Royal Caribbean’s awe-inspiring Oasis class.
Highlights & Extras
Private Events and Highlights
Please check back often as more details become available.
Meet Kate Gosselin at our private welcome cocktail party
A commemorative personalized gift from Kate (one per family)
Capture your memories onboard with a personal photo with Kate Gosselin
Join Kate for a private BBQ on deck with a fabulous band
Join Kate for a morning brunch
Fun fun family games with Kate and staff
Charity dinner with Kate (optional)
Got questions for Kate? Attend her Q & A session
Check out Kate's latest book and bring it onboard for a book signing
Doesn't Kate always have the best ideas! Learn a new craft from the professional herself
Let's explore! Shore excursion with Kate
Let's talk about our fabulous cruise experience! Private group farewell dinner
Events subject to change.
This cruise had nothing to do with Kate wanting to meet or please her fans. Kate wouldn’t give her fans the time of day if there wasn’t something in it for her. No, this cruise was just one more shameless attempt for Kate to make money by taking advantage of her fans, and for her manager, Julie May, to earn a commission. This was obvious because of the extremely inflated price of the “Sail with Kate!” cruise and because they scheduled it during hurricane season, which meant they could make the greatest profit since there would normally be plenty of cabins available to sell.
Kate is uncomfortable around people in general, and her “annoying” fans in particular. She had to change her tune, though, to seem warm, welcoming and excited as she tried to convince her “followers” to plunk down their hard-earned money to cruise with her. These are some of her tweets about the cruise:
Here’s a big announcement that will have an Allure for you and your kids http://t.co/KbJBKi0c Come hang out! Can’t wait to meet you!
I would love to have a chance to meet you. . We are gonna have SO much F.U.N. http://t.co/KbJBKi0c
Hey guys, have you booked your cruise with me yet? I cannot wait to get crazy and have fun with YOU! http://t.co/KbJBKi0c
I can’t wait to meet you all!Pls don’t miss it! I’m getting all teary eyed hoping2meet so many of u in 1 place! http://t.co/KbJBKi0c
That sure sounds like a person who really, really, really wants to meet her fans, doesn’t it? But was she being truthful? Read on, then you make the call.
In January of 2012, Kate was in Los Angeles doing an interview at The Grove, whatever that is. There was video footage of her and Steve Neild outside after her interview ended, and she was surrounded by her “fans.” You know, the ones who she says over and over and over that she would loooooove to meet.
So there was Kate, at ten o’clock in the morning, standing up on a platform being interviewed, all dressed up in a shiny silver mini-dress right out of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, smiling and surrounded by her adoring fans and curious onlookers. Yet the moment the interview ended, the fake smile left Kate’s face and she stepped down from the platform to get the Hell out of there and away from her admiring fans (or “friends” as she likes to call them on Twitter) as fast as she could. Steve, bodyguard/road manager extraordinaire, had the presence of mind to make her come back for a minute to interact with some of the people who had waited patiently for a chance to see her. Google “Kate Gosselin at The Grove.” If you watch and listen to the clip closely, you will hear Kate say to Steve, “That wasn’t part of it.”
“That,” meaning interacting with her fans, might not have been “part of it,” but it sure as heck is something that a person in Kate’s position should be smart enough to do if she is serious about maintaining the false appearance that she gives a crap about her fans.
Kate pitched the cruise on Twitter relentlessly. She didn’t provide any helpful details about it, she just begged and cajoled and gushed over her fans to try to convince them to pony up the big bucks for the cruise. It’s disgusting that Kate was on Twitter badgering her fans who couldn’t afford to go on her cruise, to go on her cruise, just 2 months before she wrote a blog where she told people how they could save money by taking a staycation. As usual, Kate’s tweets are in bold.
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 we r planning Disney cruise for ths summr. Maybe I change it 2 ths one :)
seriously, Sarah? Please DO!!!!
you signing up? I’ll die if so!!! Say yes! And bring the tweenie…:)
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 So happy for you! I’d love 2 go-have to wait and see…
omg!!!!! Say yes… to the cruise! :)
ours is outta ft Lauderdale… Do it do it do it! ;)
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 OMGosh!!! I cannot believe it. I am so excited and pray I can do this. May have to sell an organ, but by golly I want to go! :)
I’ll cry tears of joy if you can do it and especially if you bring all your organs (and pianos!) along lol!
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Me too. I think it would be a blast. Gonna try and go.
yay! Please do! Omg I’m getting so excited- already!
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Kate…would U wheel around in wheelchair? LOL
I’ll wheel you anywhere u want to go… I’ll give the lights out man a break, no problem! Don’t let wheels stop u! Please?!
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Just read about your Cruise…then I got a text on my phone saying “Needs some extra funds for the New Year” …Sho-do!
oh Leigh we’d laugh til we cried… Get moving lady…;)
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 just got brochure 4 “Katecruise” u r making it tough to say no! Thx 4 info!!!
please say yes, Rhonda! So want to meet you!!!;)
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Researching cruise,airfare,hotel w/DH this afternoon. Anything you can say to convince him to sign on? ;-)
puuuulllleeassse? I so wanna meet you! (for real!)
yay!!! This is so amazing… Getting to meet some great tweety friend! :) so so exciting!
ahhhhh! I’m so excited!!!!! Cannot wait to meet you!!! Who else is going??! Please tell!
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 So adorbs..Every year me+a circle of friends take cruise every year+my bf for over 30yrs is a travel agent..very tempting..
DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT..Lolo
In these next tweets, rather than telling this very impressionable and fragile girl who has been idolizing Kate for many months, not to worry about missing the cruise because she’s doing the right thing by saving for college, Kate responds with only a sad face. What a perfect way to make this poor girl feel guilty and bad.
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 I have to save up for college!
Sad face :(
In this next Twitter exchange, a woman tweets to Kate telling her that she can’t afford to go on Kate’s cruise because she is already going on a cruise one month before. Not seeming to consider
this woman’s financial circumstances, Kate continues to beg her to go:
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 I still want to go on cruise in August but since we are going to Alaska in July not sure finances can handle both
please please sign up! Dying to meet you!We will all have so much fun! Can’t wait!Will spend lotsa X w my friends! :)
Some of Kate’s followers finally dared to mention the expense of the trip, which by all accounts was priced much higher than it should have been. To give you an idea of how much higher, the exact same cruise without the Kate Gosselin events could be booked on expedia.com for $824 per person. The price range for the cruise including the “Sail With Kate” experience came in at a whopping $1,900 to $3,175 per person. But in her tweets, Kate denied all responsibility for the expense. The bold tweets are Kate’s answers to questions and comments about the cost of the cruise on Twitter:
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 I’ve been unemployed for 2 years. OMG….who can AFFORD this? I’m soooooooo sad now……
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Not that many people can afford to join you. Why so expensive?
I have nothing to do with that… I’m just going to meet greet and have fun with everyone! :)
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Are you paying?
I so wish I could pay for all of you… I wish $ didn’t stop vacations/family memories. Don’t you?
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 need to lower the prices.
I’m not in charge of that or it would be free for ALL! :)
The prices for celebrity events such as this are not arrived at arbitrarily. You can bet your bottom dollar that Kate’s manager, Julie May, negotiated and settled on Kate’s compensation for the cruise long before it was ever announced. And as Kate’s representative, Julie May would have been obligated to inform Kate about the negotiated price. That’s the way it works. There’s no way Kate’s manager would let a cruise line dictate dollar figures to her. So when Kate told her followers that she had nothing to do with the price of the cruise, she was telling them yet another BIG, FAT LIE.
For weeks, Kate avoided answering the many questions she received on Twitter regarding whether her kids were going on the cruise.
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 are the kids going?! :)
xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Your cruise sounds so fun…wish I could go! :( Are the kids going with? Your first cruise?
These tweets elicited no response from Kate, the ultimate responder to all tweets great and small. But rather than just saying “Nope. It’ll just be me. My kids won’t be joining us,” she kept hope alive that they were going. You could sense that it was only a matter of time until the kids were drawn into this lie and exploitation.
So after almost a month of shameless promotion and lies to try to get people to sign up, and despite all of Alice Travel’s marketing nonsense that people were going crazy for the Kate cruise, sales were dismal. The response was totally underwhelming. It was time to bring out the ace in the hole.
Believe it or not, even though she wishes it were not so, and often deludes herself into believing it’s not so, and tries her darndest to do things to make it not so, Kate Gosselin is smart enough to realize that the only reason anyone cares about her is because of her kids. So what to do? What to do? Oh, wait. She would do the same thing she always does to salvage a money-making plan:
Yep. It’s true! Mady and Cara are sailing too! Can’t wait to have a big girls week with our fans! Join US!
Alice Travel even revised the itinerary to add the very creepy sales pitch that said something like, “Watch Kate play with her children on the beach!” Nothing screams vacation fun like putting children on display like trained monkeys.
But not even dangling the kids as bait could save this stinker of a non-event. So after more than three months of guerilla marketing and promotion, and Kate’s shameless begging, the Kate portion of the cruise was quietly laid to rest. It was simply destined to fail, like everything else Kate Gosselin touches.
And after her hundreds and hundreds of tweets about the cruise, you are probably curious about how Kate notified her 90+ thousand Twitter followers of its cancellation. In true Kate Gosselin fashion, she didn’t. It was as if Kate’s involvement in the cruise had never been announced. The Alice Travel website disappeared, and Kate never mentioned it again, or gave any public explanation at all. The organizers were kind enough to release this brief statement on May 9, 2012:
Kate Gosselin Cruise Canceled: 'We Didn't Get The Turnout We Desired,' Says Organizer
"Yes, that event has been canceled. We just didn't get the turnout that we desired and mutually we agreed that if we didn't get it, we would cancel," President of Luxury Cruises, who merged with the company originally organizing the event, Alice Travel, exclusively told RadarOnline.com.
"All ticket purchasers have been notified and everyone has been refunded. Some have chosen to continue on with the cruise, but everyone was given the choice."
"Kate asked for everybody's names, addresses and phone numbers and reached out to each one personally," the spokeswoman said.
"It was nothing to do with her. We needed to hit certain numbers and they just weren't where they needed to be."
That apparition you see in the distance is the rapidly fading form of a has-been reality show participant disappearing from the consciousness of people who were once fooled by her.
THE BEST DAY
“I have an excellent father
His strength is making me stronger
God smiles on my little brother
Inside and out
He’s better than I am
I grew up in a pretty house
And I had space to run
And I had the best days with you.”
– Taylor Swift
I have had the distinct good fortune of spending time with the Gosselin kids on many, many occasions during Jon’s custody time. Here is a snapshot of what the Gosselin kids’ lives are like when they are with their dad.
On a random night in 2012, I visited for a few hours with Jon and the kids. This is their “normal” when they are with Jon.
They cooked a nice dinner and ate as a family with some guests.
They had Dunkin’ Donuts after dinner and couldn’t eat them fast enough.
They played games and made crafts.
Jon sat with the girls and made beaded jewelry with them, and he seemed to really enjoy it.
Two of the little girls made me beaded bracelets.
Jon made a campfire outside and roasted marshmallows with the kids. The kids loved it and gobbled them up as fast as he could make them.
The little kids took turns reading books to me and showing me their toys.
Jon handed out animal masks for all the kids to play with and pretend to be wild animals.
A friend of Jon’s was showing the kids card tricks. They were captivated.
The Disney channel was playing on the big TV in the background, but nobody was paying attention to it. They were having too much fun.
Jon’s girlfriend, her three kids, and her mom were also there, having fun and playing with the kids as well. It was great to see the kids playing with other children in an unstructured, healthy environment.
The kids were allowed to be just kids. There was nobody barking orders, and there wasn’t a minute-by-minute schedule for them to follow … like there is when they are at home with their mother.
I have never seen the kids so happy and relaxed.
There is a beautiful photograph taken long ago of Hannah running into Jon’s arms, with her own arms wide open and a huge smile on her face. She jumped up into his grasp and gave him the biggest hug I have ever seen her or any of her siblings give.
Kate Gosselin has been photographed by the paparazzi about fifty times more than Jon, but I have never seen a photo like the one taken of Hannah running into Jon’s arms. I have never seen a photo of any of the Gosselin kids showing any kind of happiness or affection towards Kate, ever.
If anyone on Earth can produce a single photo of Kate Gosseli
n with any of her children showing this much genuine love and emotion, I would love to see it. These kids are truly happy when they’re with their dad. When the kids are photographed with Kate, they almost always look sad or scared.
Pictures don’t lie.
THE REBRANDING OF KATE GOSSELIN
If Kate Gosselin dislikes her ex-husband Jon as much as it would appear to the world, since she verbally bashes him every chance she gets in interviews and online tweeting, and continues to do so years after the divorce, why then does she keep his last name? In 2013, why is Kate Gosselin not Katie Kreider?
The answer is quite simple really – it is because “Kate Gosselin” is a “brand.” Kate Gosselin, mom of eight. Kate Gosselin, mother of sextuplets and twins. Kate Gosselin…Supermom!
Kate Gosselin wants us to forget everything ugly we have ever seen of her on television for the past 8 years; every bad thing we have read about her in the press (tabloids and otherwise); and every bit of nastiness we have heard from her own lips. Kate wants everyone to believe that all of the bad parenting and horrendous behavior we witnessed during seven seasons of her “most realistic reality shows” was a product of TLC’s careful editing to make her look bad – even though Kate always had final approval of the show before it aired, as demonstrated in her emails back and forth with the Network.
KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN Page 59
