Regent Seven Seas Mariner Panama Canal

They sure know how to throw a party!

2011-01-31T15:50:00.000-08:00

While not billed as a "party" per se, every day at 4:00pm without fail Regent puts on its Afternoon Tea. Held in the Horizon Lounge (which by the way is my most favorite of all the lounges on board because it offers access to my most favorite of all the outdoor areas on board!) the staff set up the tables with lovely cups and then come around serving little pots of tea in your choice of flavors. There are always finger sandwiches available as well. In addition, each day is themed (flambe, chocolate, crepes)and they have stations serving the themed items in the center of the dance floor. "Crepe day" for example, found Restaurant Manager/Crepe "Master" Franck Galczy preparing fresh crepes to your specifications (bananas, strawberries, chocolate, cinnamon, to name a few).

The Seven Seas Society Cocktail Party IS billed as such and is held for past guests. In truth, the majority of guests on board are repeat passengers so this particular party is open to almost the entire ship. Of course, there is a separate party for Gold, Platinum and Titanium cruisers (those who have spent 75 - 400+ nights on a Regent ship) but from what I've heard even that party was rather crowded. Smart people know, when you find something good -- stick with it! In any event, we are only Silver level so we partied with the plebes. And though it was held in the Constellation Theater which doesn't really lend itself to "party" conversation, they did put out a nice spread and offered dancing to the orchestra up on the stage. Assuming, of course, that you actually have a willing dance partner which I don't. But since he has other fine qualities I let that one slide!


Ice Sculpture Logo


Assortment of finger foods

Chilled Caviar with toppings

Another party was held the night we spent in Cartagena, Colombia, when the staff transformed the pool deck into an elegant al fresco barbecue. It took them over three hours to set up all the tables and chairs with linens and chair covers; create an elaborate buffet display; weave giant palm fronds and hang international flags. Joined by new friends Kathy and Phyl, we had a wonderful dinner and then were entertained by some local musicians and dancers. It was a magical night and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...I only wish I had a better camera!

Pool Deck Preparations

One side of buffet

Mike, Me, Kathy, Phyl

Very cool watermelon/eggplant(?) carving

Mojitos anyone?

Mary, Mary, we found your little lamb

Local Folkloric Dancers

You say tomato....I say tomahto...

2011-01-31T14:51:00.000-08:00

It is interesting being on board and reading blogs or other postings that my shipmates have written describing things of which I am familiar, yet having a completely different experience.

For example, one couple said that dining room service had improved and become more attentive. That certainly hasn't been the case for us at all. In fact, the "service" aspect in the dining room has been more of a comedy of errors than anything else with every night bringing a new adventure in the saga of "what will they screw up tonight?" One night we were delivered the after dinner gourmanderie tray with several pieces missing -- clearly it had been at someone else's table before ours! Strangely enough, it was delivered to us by the MANAGER who noticed that we had been sitting at our table for quite some time after all the dishes had been cleared but nobody had come over to take our dessert order. Another night, Mike was served wine in a glass with a giant hole in its side -- you would think the wine steward would have caught on as he was pouring in the wine and it was pouring out the side! Fresh pepper for your salad or meal?? Half the time the waiter might come by to find out if you want it. As for getting something to drink if you didn't want the wine offered....expect to receive it midway through your entree, and only if you remind at least two other servers that you are waiting for it. Of course, we at least got waited on every time we went into the restaurant; not so the case with friends of ours who on more than one occasion were ignored for an appreciable length of time. These things did not happen in Prime 7 or Signatures, only in Compass Rose and La Veranda. However, as poor as the service sometimes was, the food itself was magnificent each and every night, each and every course ordered! Some pictures:

Ports of Call Part 2 - Colombia and Ecuador

2011-01-31T12:21:00.000-08:00

CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA: The Old city is a Unesco World Heritage Site with its 400-year-old Spanish colonial buildings huddled along brick streets enclosed in a 2mile long stone wall. One of the easiest ways to see it is via a horse drawn carriage (unfortunately my driver spoke only Spanish and I don't so I basically just nodded and smiled along as he "described" everything to me). Cartagena is one of the most photographed cities in South America and it is easy to see why with its colorful buildings and beautiful churches.

The Main entrance is the Clock Tower Building. The walled city includes the neighbourhoods Centro, San Diego, Getsemaní and the modern part La Matuna. The oldest part of Cartagena is around Plaza Trinidad in Getsemaní.There are also museums such as the Palace of Inquisition, where the Spanish Inquisition tortured, judged and convicted men accused of crimes against religion. Almost all churches in the historic center are worth visiting, especially Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, in honor of the priest St. Pedro Claver, who was the first saint of the new world for his work with slaves; La Catedral, near Plaza de Bolivar and the Iglesia de Santo Domingo. At the port itself, there is a store which is fairly large and some loose parrots running around. Taxis are plentiful if you want to hire your own tour guide which we did (twice). Mike took his own cab ride with a tour guide on our 2nd morning who took him to a friend's house for coffee -- I think he might have been looking for a rich American to help his friend get a wife/green card!! Only you, Mike, only you!!!

MANTA, ECUADOR: This is clearly a fishing port, in fact we were docked right next to a fishing vessel which had come in to unload its catch of tuna. Using a crane and large nets, they started offloading tuna into trucks by 7am. Working nonstop, they finished about 10 hours later! There wasn't much to see right at the pier since we were docked in a commercial area but en route to our destination we passed a "boatyard" and saw a number of boats being built right on the beach in various stages of completion. This is not a beach for swimming as it is loaded with old fish hooks. Our excursion today took us a half hour away into the city of Monte Cristi which is where they invented (created?) the Panama Hat. In Monte Cristi, there is a small market featuring local handicrafts such as scarves, jewelry, carvings, and of course tons and tons of Panama and Pana-wanna-be hats. We also got to witness how the hats are made by hand. We bought a few souvenirs and of course Mike's official Panama Hat which I am happy we did because The UK's Financial Times Magazine recently reported that there may be no more than 15–20 years remaining for the industry in Ecuador, due to the competition of paper-based Chinese-made imitations, especially as a few hat sellers dominate and manipulate the market. Mike looks quite handsome and jaunty in his hat, (even though I look like Becky Thatcher from the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in mine!) and we had a great time with Wayne and Susan and a couple of Cubanos at the Pool Bar that night for the Panama Hat party!

GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR: a friend who is involved with a bowling center here warned me in advance that this is not a place to be wandering around by yourself (which is true in pretty much every city we've seen so far in South America) so we decided to take a cab downtown (very very long ride from the pier) to Malecon 2000 which is one of the most visited places in the city. Since 1999, the Malecón has received over 5 million national and foreign visitors who marvel at and enjoy its beauty and safety. Malecón 2000 is divided into several sections:

- The central area, where we began our walk, is home the historic Civic Plaza with its sculptures: the Moorish Clock Tower and Rotonda Monument. The Guayaquil Yacht Club and the Naval Yacht club are located here too.

- In the south part is located the modern Bahía Malecón Shopping Center where you can buy clothes, eat, and even buy souvenirs. Mike enjoyed a delicious cup of cafe americano here at a generic "starbucks-type" of place for a price of 71 cents!

We never got as far up as the north section which has several plazas, water fountains, an antique Ecuadorian train, spaces for aerobics and games for children, a Planetarium, an anthropological Museum and a Contemporary Art Museum. Also, at the end of Malecon is the oldest village of Santa Ana. Instead we walked back through the very busy, very crowded streets to the Seminario Plaza where we saw them filming a commercial and got up close and personal with the Iguanas. Not watching where he was going, poor Mike almost stepped right on one. Our shuttle bus back to the ship was escorted by two armed policemen -- they don't mess around down here.

Ports of Call - Aruba and Curacao

2011-01-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

Regent's new all inclusive policy makes it very attractive to do "their" excursions. Unfortunately that means it is attractive for EVERYONE and so where you used to have some people getting off the ship in port spread out over hours, you now have the MAJORITY of the passengers getting off the ship at around the same time all heading for 6 or 7 different tour buses. Regent does the best job possible with coordinating the tours -- all of the buses or vans are as close to the ship as they can possibly get so there isn't much walking. But it is still an exercise in patience waiting for all the passengers on your tour to get off the ship, get on the bus and get ready to go. It makes it especially painful when you have people on your tour who either A) have gotten on the wrong bus because someone made a mistake somewhere along the line or B) you have people on your bus who should not have signed up for the tour in the first place due to old age, medical infirmity, etc. Yes, Yes, I know we're all going to be there some day. I get that. All I am saying is that since Regent has taken it upon themselves to be running/scheduling these tours, they should also be responsible for vetting the guests who are signing up for them and making it clear as to what is involved. Example: one of the tours was a Chivas bus ride into Monte Cristi. The word "bus" is purely operative here as this vehicle was less a bus than it was a wagon cart with narrow benches. The climb into the "bus" required a fair amount of flexibility and dexterity as it had a very high step, no railings and the space between benches was narrow. We spent a good 10 minutes (3 of us) basically lifting a heavyset woman, squeezing her into the vehicle and getting her maneuvered onto a bench seat. She was thankful for the assistance, but I'm sure also mortified at three strangers mushing her hips and ass in and around the framework to get her situated. She didn't even bother getting off the bus when we reached our destination and I don't know who helped her get off the bus when we got back to the ship. On the same trip, another gentleman who was somewhere between 98 and 118 (years, not pounds!) insisted on getting on the bus even though it was clear there was no way he was going to be able to pull himself up into it. Another 15 minutes for the three of us to again use our lifting technique and get him on. Our 9:10am bus tour finally departed at 9:55am -- I would expect this on a mass market cruiseline, not acceptable for a luxury experience. Regent could avoid some of these problems in the future if they are more specific: rather than say generically "the bus has a high step" they could say "do not sign up for this tour unless you can easily get yourself in and out of our pool" Okay, well that's enough of that....on to the sites!

CURACAO: was our first stop and we were anxious to get off the ship and see some land after 3 days. We have been here before (playing golf and touring the island) so this time we decided to do a couple of beach visits. Our first stop was Porto Marie which is a small public beach with lounge chairs for rent and food/beverage stands. Prices were reasonable. The beach is clean and narrow but loaded with coral and rocks (not just at the water's edge, but all the way out which I discovered when I tried
gliding in once it got a little deeper and sprained 3 toes by jamming them into a rock). There is a dock which juts out a little deeper and you can snorkel off here, but the ladder climbing in/out off the dock is slick with algae so be careful. Our 2nd beach was Cas Abao which you enter via a former private plantation. Again, this beach is very clean with the same services as listed above, but still loaded with coral and rocks. Water shoes are a must for both places. I did get to see a baby reef shark which was pretty cool and of course there were multitudes of other fish swimming along with us, especially along the stone "wall".

ARUBA: wanting more beach time we headed to De Palm Island which is a small islet that is privately owned and developed. You take a ferry from the Balschi beer brewery parking lot over to DePalm. Once on the island there is every amenity you can imagine: beach volleyball, basketball, snorkeling, banana boats, water park, kayaking, lounge chairs, pavilions, thatched umbrellas, bathrooms, showers, open bar and unlimited buffet etc. All INCLUDED in one price (about $115 pp). You can also do a helmet dive or snuba or get a massage for an additional fee. We stuck with the included activities although Regent had paid for the Sea Trek helmet dive (we just couldn't stand waiting on another line after the last two days) and we heard from others that the walk under water was good so maybe we'll try that in the future. One thing we did do was the banana boat ride. Expecting a short ride, we were surprised when the crazy driver took us out for nearly a half hour and it was all we could do to hang on for dear life. Really fun was the fat Russian behind me whose knee kept squishing my already injured toes into a throbbing mass of pain! We had taken bets on who was going to be the first to fall off the boat with a pretty clear consensus that it would be the 80 pound 80 year old grandma. We were wrong....it was me! (In my defense it was the fault of the kid who hopped off my side of the boat and jumped into the middle causing the boat to buckle) Anyway, because my life jacket was too big, as soon as I hit the water it came flying up around my neck and my arms couldn't reach the water to swim but luckily some brawny guy hopped in to my rescue while Mike looked on! It was a great time!!!

The Games People Play...

2011-01-16T15:31:00.001-08:00

Those of you who have followed my previous blog already know I am a token fiend and by that I mean I go crazy trying to win Regent tokens which can be exchanged later in the cruise for logo geegaws. Regent has now replaced the tokens with a "reward card" which is a plastic coated, color coded sort of playing card sized item showing either 1, 2 or even 3 points. The gist is the same: you win a game, you win a reward point. The difference is that some of the games now have 1st and 2nd place prizes (hence 1 point, 2 points, 3 points).

Anyway, I was intent on winning some of these point cards. I just didn't realize it was going to be so difficult to do so! At the end of the two weeks I had amassed a few more points than my good friend Susan had...her face in this picture is priceless!

While I give proper credit (and deservedly so) to the wonderful performers while they are on stage, putting them in charge of some of these games has been less than effective. Mason, for example, is a wonderfully talented dancer but he has been letting a couple of the passengers turn the games into a mitigated disaster. Bocce was such a joke that we skipped all of the rest of the games that day and hadn't tried anything else since. Today we participated in the putting contest but, again, there is a group of game players who just aren't any fun to be around. I don't know any nicer way to say it. The passengers who ARE fun to play games with are a lot of fun, indeed. Mike got kind of a "rep" around the ship as the guy who brought his own Ping putter with him while everyone else has to use the rusty ones from 1972. Also, funny is when someone overheard someone else talking about Mike's putter and thought it was a PINK putter which resulted in an additional conversation about why some guy would have a pink putter. There were a couple of guys (Mike, Wayne, Paul, Jim(?)) who put together some putting skins games a few times....Mike won $38 one day but the rest of the time they all pretty much broke even.

Luckily, the daily tea time trivia contest still awards reward points to the winners. We have a team that we felt would be very strong (or at least should have been!) and we have fun, and even though my "officially fluid" team of 3 to 6 players never claimed a victory, I have a few CC friends who are super smart/well rounded and they have donated some of their points to me as you can see above (Much love to Jackie, Dennis, Dick, Peter and Pat) I finally remembered to bring my camera one day and present here are Bonnie, Joel, Kathy, Me and I believe that seafoam green shape in the bottom left is Susan whose head is chopped out of the picture

One game that I AM good at, apparently is bingo! One day I won the $185 cover all and

twice I won the small round robin --once for $80 and once for $139! We only play bingo on sea days, but I still have a few more chances to win some money. Which is especially good because the casino games are kicking my ass. The "ice-breaker" for Bingo winnings was Wayne who won two out of four games one day; next day Joel won and was kind enough to pose for a picture!

Here's one last thing regarding games which really aggravated me (although I have noticed more of this on this cruise than I did previously) tonight was the Liar's Club game show which is another event you need to form teams for. My friends who had planned to play unfortunately had disbursed -- two turned into sleeping beauties (LOL you know who you are!); two wouldn't leave the casino tables (again, not mentioning any names!) and Bonnie & Joel have managed to avoid me all day....(on purpose?? methinks NOT!). So I went into Horizon in search of a team. Important note before I go further -- there is NO LIMIT on the # of people you can have on your team. This policy was announced a few times by the host/cruise director. I already knew this and on my last cruise, I made a point of looking around us to see if anyone was alone and invited them to join our team. Okay, so getting back to tonight's game. I spotted Ed and Anna who were sitting with a 3rd woman. I joined them and introduced myself to the 3rd woman who said her name was Barbara. At that point Anna told her her own name and introduced Ed. I didn't realize that they all didn't already know each other -- but no biggie, like I said it's a friendly game and anyone can & should join anyone else. Now here's the part where I got aggravated. About a minute before the game started, Barbara's two other friends came in to the Lounge and instead of having them join us, B slides her chair away without even a goodbye and shouts to the cruise director "Can we get our own team #?" What the hell???

But this is the kind of cliquishness (is that even a word?) I am finding around the ship that I didn't find the last time. Last time the people who did the same kinds of things, were all very sociable (at least amongst each other) and I kind of assumed that was because we all knew we were going to be seeing a lot of each other. The smokers all chatted and socialized with each other; the game players all chatted and socialized with each other; the casino players all chatted and socialized with each other.... you get the picture. I'm sure it was the same way in the gym, in the puzzle corner, in the card room, etc.
THIS time I am finding a lot of "pockets" of people congregating in smaller groups and keeping to themselves to the extent where they don't even acknowledge others in passing. Weird!

Meeting, Greeting and Eating

2011-01-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today was our first full sea day and I had a full day of activities planned. First on the agenda was sleeping late! So when my eyes popped open at 7am, I promptly shut them again, rolled over and went back to sleep until 9.

The Meet and Greet was

scheduled to begin at 11, which gave me barely enough time to shower, get dressed and eat breakfast twice (a bowl of cereal up on the pool deck, and then eggs, bacon, hashbrowns when I located Mike). When I arrived in the Observation Lounge at 5 minutes to 11, I was dismayed to see only 5 or 6 other pax there -- especially since 2 of them aren't even ON cruise critic or LCT but were people I had met since yesterday and just invited to join in the fun! What fun?? I was totally bummed! But then people started to trickle in and before I knew it we had a pretty decent group.

Wayne took some pix for me (assuming I can strong arm him into sending me the pictures I keep asking him to take) which is a good thing because mine didn't come out so well. If memory serves, here is who "made it" to the party: Jackie & Dennis (travelcat); Peter & Nancy (kingfoot); Dick & Carolyn (cnn,rwn); Jim & Charlotte (grapestake); Elaine (sealover); Peggy (xrvl); Pat without Ray (snobird); Maxin without David (mcavanaugh); Susan & Wayne (nanook) Julie with her M-I-L (juleslovescruisin); Martha & Gurvis (oldgrump); plus my non-CC friends: Anna & Ed, Kathy, Phyl, Bonnie & Joel. Everyone present said they had a good time and nobody made fun of me for forgetting my hairbrush and having a disaster mop for a hairdo. In fact, later in the day Jackie gave me a hairbrush that had mysteriously been left in her cabin (at first she thought it was a slam on her own hairdo, but then realized it must have been for me). Later that night I discovered the beneficent soul was Peggy....thank you sweetie, you're a lifesaver! And it wasn't as if I didn't try to buy one, but the only one for sale at the salon was 6 inches larger than the length of my hair!

The rest of the day was occupied by eating lunch, eating a post-lunch snack, eating a pre-dinner snack, eating a pre-dinner cupcake (at least I think it was a cupcake but I'm still not sure), eating dinner. In the midst of all these eating rituals I found time to play a team game of Top Toss which we supposedly lost even though I was keeping track of the score and know that we did in fact WIN but I'm not in charge of the point cards so the upshot was that our team didn't get any :-(. I also played bingo which I didn't win but came close and I'm pretty sure I'm going to win tomorrow. Another loss in the Team Luongo column came during Tea Time Trivia where the winning team got 13 correct (we only got 9). I was going to try Name that Tune trivia but when I got up to the Observation Lounge there were only 4 other people there so I decided in advance that that would probably end up being a loss as well so came downstairs to work on this instead.

Dinner at Compass Rose was divine:
yummy Chicken Kiev, rice with truffles and a to-die-for dessert. Service painfully slow but I already expected this and Mike and I are still early enough in our vacation to not mind a two hour dinner for two!

Day One

2011-01-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

We left home at 5am for Newark airport, not worrying at all about the weather because as compulsive as I am I had the airline website up all night making sure that my plane was most definitely at the gate! Uneventful flight, other than the fact that it took FOREVER to get the plane loaded with passengers and we were only about half full! Don't know what was up with that but even the flight attendants were scratching their heads.

The Regent rep, Joyce, was waiting for us in the baggage claim area and we met another couple (Ed and Anna) who had come in at the same time on another flight. All of us took a shuttle bus to the port and I spent some time chatting them up and invited them to join us at the Meet & Greet tomorrow.

We were onboard, sipping our
first cocktails in no time flat, sitting at separate tables (Mike under an umbrella next to the pool with his laptop and Blackberry in action; me at the Pool Bar enjoying a smoke) and grabbing a light bite to eat. They have replaced the lounge chairs with a lighter (aluminum?) frame which are very comfortable but I miss the old teak ones and I wonder what they did with all of them. Cabins were ready promptly at 2:30 so we headed down but our luggage hadn't yet arrived.

Back up on deck 11 to check out my fellow passengers, I was suprised and pleased to find and recognize Bonnie and Joel (2009 members of Trivia Team Luongo!). I also met Cindy and David (lonestarlady on CC/LCT). New friends met in addition to Ed and Anna are Kathy and Phyl (her mother) who are travelling together. I'm sure we will all be seeing a lot of each other over the next two weeks.

Ran around the ship delivering invitations to the Meet & Greet including the "souvenir" calendar magnet I made for everyone. Hope they like it!

Muster was awful -- way worse than the way Capt Delavault ran it! And it's the first (presumably last) muster Mike has ever attended in all our years of sailing!

First we were herded in to the Horizon Lounge for a long lecture and demonstration about using life jackets. Then we had to sit through a speech about the policies on board. Then we had to all stand and single file march out to the life boat stations where we were clustered in groups out on deck standing beneath our potential life boats. After standing out there for a while, the officers finally came by to give their "approval" and then a mass of people all headed for one of the only 2 doors available for re-entry. It took so long I didn't even have time to shower before having to rush back up on deck for sailaway!

Arriving at the pre-arranged location, I saw Cindy & David had already secured the Texas flag to the railing. I also met Peggy and Elaine (xrvl and sealover on CC) and finally got to meet Susan and Wayne face to face (nanook). We all waved and waved like crazy so hopefully the webcam will have caught us -- I haven't gotten a chance to go over there yet because this internet is slooooooooow.

Enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Signatures with my new friends Susan and Wayne and Dick and Carolyn. We laughed and laughed -- it was so much fun! Food was good, we all ordered almost the same thing (either lamb or beef)

without realizing it and then did the same thing for dessert (either chocolate/raspberry tart or something else that was like a puddingy/tart/flan type thing).

The menu hasn't changed in two years. Our waiter was Mijai and he was a lot of fun, as was Aurelia the sommelier.

Post dinner went back to the cabin to change into more casual clothes, Mike went to bed and I headed up to the Popcorn movie which was "The Social Network" but I couldn't get into it so stopped by to check out the casino then came out to Coffee Connection to get a tea but there isn't any hot water so instead I sat down at an empty computer to type this.

Note: There are 275 passengers onboard who are on for the full Circle South America.
Note: Poor Carolyn & Dick (full cruisers) have not had a very good start to their first Regent cruise. First they were brought over to the ship from their hotel at 10:30 this morning and then had to sit in the port for a looooooooong time. Then as of 6:30 they STILL hadn't received their luggage that was shipped 2 weeks ago!

The only employee I recognize from the past so far is the casino manager which is really weird because the casino contract is now held by Century rather than Casinos Austria. All the employees have been very friendly and solicitous but I haven't made any connection with any of them yet.

Off to bed, tomorrow is the Meet & Greet "cocktail party" at 11!

A snowstorm is coming

2011-01-10T20:08:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what it is, but it seems like every time Mike and I take a cruise, we've gotten out of town right before a major snowstorm. 2009 we drive to the airport in a snowstorm and after de-icing the plane we take off leaving the rest of the family to fend off the blizzard. 2010 we sail out of New York and come home to 20 inches of snow. Now, for 2011, our track record remains intact: a 14 incher is heading our way and should start to rear its ugly head about 5 hours after we land in sunny Florida.

I finished all of my packing over the weekend and this time I actually remembered to pack the cruise documents and put the cruise luggage tags on the suitcases so I'm already way ahead of the game. I just heard the sound of wheels rolling across the kitchen floor so I am assuming that Mike has finished his packing as well. As always, I put all of his outfits together and packed for him earlier, but I know he always likes to throw some last minute stuff into his bag.

It's so weird; I keep having this thought in the back of my head that I'm going to arrive at the port tomorrow and they're going to say to me that my cabin has been changed. It's probably just a lingering thought from having had the chance at a Penthouse Suite but it would be wild if it happens. At this point, I'd just be happy moving to a different deck - 8 through 10 - that features a launderette. I just know I'm going to have to do some ironing and as far as doing laundry, well that just goes without saying.

Found out tonight that our sailaway is going to be broadcast live in HDTV on CLICK HERE TO SEE ME WAVING LIKE A LUNATIC and it's supposed to be a 6pm sailaway but when I checked the Port Log it shows the Mariner departing at 5pm so who knows? But the wonderful gentleman (Lou) manning the cameras said he would catch it live and also capture some still shots so whatever time we sail I'm sure he'll be recording it for posterity.

Okay, so if I get to bed (sleep!) right now I can get 5 hours of shut eye and then the bags under my eyes will be slightly less noticeable than if I were to stay up all night. What are the chances??

Less Than Two Weeks Away

2010-12-30T19:28:00.000-08:00

Sitting here I just realized that we are leaving in LESS THAN 2 weeks, and since things didn't seem to work out with the diet anyway I decided to just grab a couple of Oreos and bring you all up to speed.

I started pulling out some of my summer clothes to pick some outfits and get them ready for packing. Of course all my skorts and shorts are wrinkled because they've been folded up sitting on wire shelves in the closet since September. Logically, I decide to throw them in the dryer with a damp bath towel to "steam" the wrinkles out. Mike asks why I bother, his "solution" is to just wear wrinkled clothes and if anyone doesn't like it well that is just their problem. I try to explain that, NO it is MY problem because people will think that his wife is too damned lazy to iron his clothes. Which of course isn't true; the truth is his wife is too damned lazy to throw them back in the dryer! Anyway so that leads to a discussion of just what exactly he wants to pack because he refuses to pack any long sleeved button-down shirts but all of his short sleeve button-downs are either batik (oh, I LOVE my monkey shirt, he says. I don't bother telling him that those are LIZARDS not Monkeys!) or retro vintage style bowling shirts. Neither of which really go with the dress slacks I have selected for him. Unless he suddenly morphs into Cosmo Kramer which might not have been a bad thing during Kramer's halcyon days of Seinfeld but not such a good thing now post the stand-up rant...

Crap, I've eaten like 5 Oreos already

Finally I just agreed to let him wear what he wants even if that includes a pull-over windbreaker if it's chilly in the dining room and he only has short sleeved shirts, and he agrees not to throw me overboard once we're out at sea.

================

The upsell fairy came to visit and it was soooooooo painful to have to tell my TA to turn down the offer. It was a really good offer, too, but we just couldn't justify the extra expense for features that we don't even have any need of. (i.e. butler service). But I appreciate my agent getting right on this and attempting to hook me up! I'm sure I've said this before, but I'll say it again, if you are looking for a good luxury travel agent (and looking for a good price as well), I highly recommend Joe and JP from CHIC LUXURY CRUISES click here! Seriously I wonder if we'll be chilling out in our cabin or on our balcony and look at each other and say, "we shoulda....."

================

Speaking of my TA, he finally got confirmation from Kristin at Regent that my group meeting space had been arranged. Not at Horizon Lounge (which I had requested specifically for its outdoor seating area) but they have given me Observation Lounge for the date and time I wanted. Further investigation, however, leads me to be happy about the change of venue because the Observation Lounge bar generally opens at 11am which is one of the earliest to open! So we can get this party started right away :-) Another interesting side note about this whole meet & greet affair is that I did finally get a response from someone in corporate addressing my dissatisfaction with the lack of ....hmmm, I can't think of the word..... shown by Regent compared to other cruise lines. I also expressed my surprise at the Regent staff acting as if they had never heard of Cruise Critic when at least three of the mucky-mucks at Regent do in fact post on CC (Frank Del Rio, Mark Conroy, Tim Rubacky)

So, I did finally get a response and I'm pasting it here without the to/from info:

Neither Regent nor Oceania do the CC parties as we limit these types of functions strictly to those group functions arranged through our agent partners.

One of the most valuable resources we give our agent partners is the ability to host cocktail parties or private functions for their clients and to do so for CC, or any other internet forum, would dilute that substantially.

The beauty of the Oceania and Regent vessels is that they are human sized and thus, guests find each other quiet easily, unlike say on the 3000 passenger Celebrity ships.

I certainly hope you understand.

Well, sorry, I don't understand and I think that is the lamest excuse/rationale I could ever envision. But I got my way so it's all good!!

===================

10 Oreos down.... time to stop writing before I can't zip the wrinkled shorts!

Mingling with fellow passengers

2010-11-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

I am coordinating a Meet and Greet with some of my fellow passengers who are members of Cruise Critic . For those of you who are new to cruising, Cruise Critic is an online community of cruise travelers who share their experiences and can offer great advice. Anyway, I have hosted Meet & Greet events on NCL for fellow passengers and they are always well-received. Not to brag or anything, but one of my three God-given talents just happens to be bringing people together and creating a fun event, so the Meet and Greet concept is something that I'm really cut out for. (Oh, you're wondering what the other two are? Well, one is spelling and the other is..... sorry! If I told you I'd have to kill you!!!)

The event planning for both of my recent previous Meet & Greets on NCL were handled seamlessly with the NCL staff at Corporate and onboard. Basically, an e-mail to the event coordinator on my particular ship letting him/her know that I wanted to set up a Meet & Greet was all that was needed. In return I get an e-mail letting me know that the date/time/location I have requested is okay -- or they offer a different location or time if my request conflicts with another event. When I arrive onboard, there is a letter from NCL confirming my event information. NCL handles everything else. In fact, at the one I conducted in February, many of the ships' departments were represented by their department heads (i.e. hotel director, excursions manager, food & beverage manager, etc.) and each of these individuals gave a brief introduction of themselves and an overview of their departments' processes. It was a top-notch exhibition. For the first Meet & Greet I did on NCL, approximately 4-5 officers or staff attended, and while they didn't give speeches, they were on hand to answer questions of the M & G guests. In addition, both times the ship provided a sign outside the designated area indicating that a Meet & Greet was "being held here" and they provided refreshments (non-alcoholic) and pastries or cookies. I'm writing all of this down for you so you have some background into my mindset. Also, keep in mind that NCL is a MAINSTREAM cruise line with rockbottom fares -- nothing at all like Regent with its elegant and refined atmosphere, clientele and matching prices.

Okay, so let's fast-forward to my upcoming Mariner voyage. My last time out on the Mariner, there were only 6 cruise critic members that I was able to "hook up" with so the idea of a formal Meet and Greet obviously wasn't going to happen (although I did end up meeting everyone eventually and actually spent quite a bit of time with a couple of them......hey Ralph & Tony!) But this time, wow, we have got a boatload (pun intended) of CC'ers setting sail on January 11 so naturally I am coordinating a Meet & Greet so we can put some faces to our screen names. After amassing a group of approximately 30 potential guests, I contacted Regent to advise them of my plans and to find out the e-mail address of my ship's event coordinator. Silly me, I thought it would be as easy to do this as NCL makes it, but here's what happened.....

FIRST EMPLOYEE: Representative had never heard of Cruise Critic -- okay, that's understandable -- immediately switched me over to someone else
SECOND EMPLOYEE: Seemed to grasp the idea of a Cruise Critic Meet & Greet but had never heard of anyone ever doing one and did not know if there was an event coordinator on the Mariner, suggested I call a different number
THIRD EMPLOYEE: at the "other number", offered to sell me a cocktail package at $16.50 per person and when I explained that it sounded lovely but 1) we could all very well go pick up our drinks for free before entering the room and 2) I spent all of my money on my cruise tickets and didn't have $500+ left to unnecessarily pay for cocktails for a bunch of strangers, she was totally flummoxed
FOURTH EMPLOYEE: day 2 of phone calls because I was starting to get irate during my initial calls, and didn't want to come across as harsh in the unlikely event I actually got to talk to someone who could help me. Employee #4 actually had heard of cruise critic (hooray!) and stated that the request had to come from my travel agent. "Do you understand that my travel agent did not book cabins for all 30 of us?" "Well, then their travel agents would have to set it up." "But I don't KNOW any of these people!!!" "Is there a manager or supervisor available I can talk to?"
FIFTH EMPLOYEE (possibly a Manager, but I have my doubts): "This has to go through your travel agent"

Let me break here to assure you, kind reader, that:
1. I was speaking English during all phone calls as were the Regent employees
2. I am very well spoken
3. I was not inebriated or otherwise verbally incapacitated

The point I was trying to get across to all of these employees:
1. I was trying to do them a favor by requesting an out of the way location of their choice for our gathering, rather than having 30 passengers suddenly storm in to some inconvenient area
2. I was giving them the OPTION of having some staff there to promote the Regent brand
3. I was NOT asking for any other assistance -- I WILL DO announcements, I WILL DO invitations, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING

So basically, I just gave up and called my TA, apologized for making additional work for him and sure enough, the next day he got an e-mail from Kristen at Regent who said she would "look into it but couldn't confirm anything until December."

Meanwhile, I had this really cool idea for the Meet and Greet which I'm now going to have to tweak because not having the final confirmation until December will not give me enough time for my original plan. I can't say what it is because I suspect that some of my fellow roll callers might pop in to read this so the rest of you will have to wait until January 13th or later for pictures!!!!

Crossing The Equator

2010-05-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Making the journey from "Polliwog" to "Shellback" is a proud, ancient tradition and I have seen many discussions in the Cruising Chat Rooms of different activities used to mark the occasion.

In my search to find out what Regent may or may not have planned for our voyage in January, I came across this journal entry which is more than 100 years old!

There is always a great time when the ship crosses "the line," as they call the Equator, and all who have not before crossed it must pay tribute to Father Neptune. The ship's stewards worked hard getting ready for this; there was a great tank rigged on the after deck and filled about four feet deep with salt water. We were ordered to report at nine and most of us appeared in our pajamas. There were the Devil, in fine guise, old Father Neptune, in correct beard and costume, and a lot of other characters, among them a gorilla, admirably imitated. These English lads are certainly bright and painstaking. First there was a parade of the characters, then the bugle called us all aft to the tank, where Neptune had his throne. The women were called first, one by one, and Father Neptune received them very graciously, putting a few courteous questions to them, then turning them over to the doctor, who proceeded to take their temperatures. His thermometer was made of one of the glass boiler tubes, and was open at each end and filled with salt water. As the woman took it in her mouth it was raised and the water went where it would do the most good! One bright lady managed to stop the end of the tube with her tongue, and then to blow hard and deliver the sea water in the doctor's face. After the temperature was thus taken each was given a tonic from a huge bottle,' then the faces were lathered with a huge brush and carefully shaved with a wooden razor about two feet long, and then the victims were discharged. 

We men went through a similar proceeding, only we were told to be seated on the edge of the tank, and after we were shaved we were suddenly capsized backward into the tank, a pleasant enough finish for one who could swim. Unluckily some one went in on top of me, so that I was down at the bottom of the tank quite a long time, but I did not swallow any water, and came out all right. Some of the men resisted and one was so fearfully strong that it took all of the stewards to put him in ; when they did get him over they all piled in on top of him, then some one turned a hose with a two-inch stream of water on the struggling, screaming mob, and, afterward turned it on a dense mass of Italian third-class passengers who were watching the play. I do not suppose that the water hurt them any. After-ward we were given certificates that we had been presented at the court of King Neptune. 

Of course, having been distracted by this gentleman's experience, I never got around to finding out if anything might be planned for my voyage.  I am fairly certain that if the Mariner holds some sort of ceremony, it will be slightly less involved than this -- but I truly hope that something is done to commemorate the event for those of us who will finally have reached "shellback" status.  Either way, dear readers, you will be the first to hear all about it!

GREAT VIDEO FROM THE AVID CRUISER

2010-05-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Just came across this video that Ralph Grizzle (the Avid Cruiser) took showing one of Mariner's Deluxe suites. It's funny how he refers to it as "smaller" -- clearly anyone who has ever sailed MassMarket cruiselines will agree that this is PLENTY of room!!!

Port Ideas - Cartagena

2010-05-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

I've never been to South America, so all of the stops in this country will be brand new to me. As always, plenty of advance planning will be required! My first investigation will be about Cartagena. Don't ask why this didn't occur to me before, but Cartagena is in Colombia, and I was quite surprised to find more than one reference to the potential dangers for tourists there before I realized "duh, helloooo, haven't you ever heard of colombian drug lords????" Sheesh! What a moron! In any event, my first cool idea was to visit this so-called mud volcano where you can soak in mud for I'm not sure how long and then get washed off in a lagoon by some older columbian women. But now that I've read all of the government warnings, I'm thinking more along the lines of staying close to the touristy plaza areas. I did watch this great highlights of Cartagena video and I'm going to post it here (if my plan works) so you guys can check out some things to do in Cartagena too.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES

2010-03-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

I've got nothing on Charles Dickens so this isn't a Tale of Two Cities but a Tale of Two Cruise Lines!

Many prospective Regent cruisers (myself included just a couple of years ago) ask things like "Is Regent for me?" or "What makes Regent different?" or even more common, "Is it worth the money?"

After my first Regent cruise last year, I would have immediately answered the 1st and 3rd questions in the affirmative but been hard pressed to adequately convey a response to the middle one. In fact, I believe I discuss a "feeling" in my previous blog without putting it into exact words. Now, however, I can safely answer that middle question with authority.

Earlier this month, Mike and I treated our daughter Sara, her husband Donnie and our absolutely perfect grandson Richie to a cruise. Nice we are, but not nice enough to fork over $$$$$ for all 5 of us to cruise Regent! Instead, we decided to take a cruise on NCL out of New York City to Florida and the Bahamas. NCL is typical of the mass market cruise lines we have cruised with in the past so we pretty much knew what to expect. In all fairness to the line, I will say that I have found their staff to be more gracious and friendly than other mass market lines. This cruise was no exception. The pleasant staff, unfortunately, did not make up for everything else.

Before my last Regent cruise, members of both Cruise Critic and Luxury Cruise Talk warned me that once I had cruised Regent, I'd never want to cruise mass market again. I sort of believed them; especially after our great Regent cruise where all of my expectations were met and/or exceeded. But I'm a pretty easy-going gal, very down to earth and the type of person who has a great time no matter what so I didn't think I'd have any real issues "stepping back down" to mass market cruising. Wow! Was I ever mistaken!

What follows is a list of differences that I won't miss when I get back on the Mariner again in January:

Boarding the ship ~ after swiping your key card for the first time on Mariner, you are genteely escorted to the pool deck for a bite to eat and offered a cocktail by an employee who is ready to answer any questions you may have and wants you to feel immediately welcomed aboard. My experience on the Norwegian Gem was not even close to that (even though as a Casino VIP I did have a personal escort onto the ship). After swiping your key card, you are herded into the main atrium and accosted by numerous staff members, all of whom apparently are there to sell you the day's special cocktail. Interestingly enough, they don't actually TELL you it's for sale until after you have accepted a glass and then they ask for your Key Card. I felt sorry for all of the newbie cruisers who didn't know they were going to be billed $15 for what they probably thought was a welcome aboard complimentary drink.

The Pool Grill ~ like every cruise line I've ever been on, there is always a grill or small buffet right around the swimming pool where you can grab a quick bite to eat. The Norwegian Gem grill offered hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, french fries, salad and condiments the first day, and the second, the third, the fourth...... in fact, every day and every night that it was open, the menu never varied. The only thing that changed was the amount of people on line in front of you. On the Mariner, you can find traditional grill fare like burgers and hot dogs but you won't find them sitting under a heat lamp. Those items are cooked to order and then delivered to you at the table you have selected. And the menu doesn't stop there; every day there is a DIFFERENT theme for the pool grill such as Mexican or Seafood or Italian which is available in addition to the traditional items. And you don't have to stand around like an elementary school student in the lunch line waiting for someone to load up your tray!

The Buffet ~ on the Mariner you will find a traditional buffet available during the day. What you won't find here, that you can find on NCL: hordes of fellow passengers pushing their way around you, trying to get at a sliver of bacon or a soupcon of pudding as if they haven't eaten in hours; lack of sufficient seating in the buffet area and even more importantly, lack of consideration for fellow passengers ~ nobody will ask you to join them at their table even if there are clearly additional seats available and none of the ship staff will assist you in finding a seat; this is especially thrilling when you are trying to balance a plate, bowl and beverage and, again, doing so without any assistance from staff. Just try doing that on a Regent ship.... you have to INSIST that you don't need help from the staff because they are all over themselves trying to help you carry plates and find tables!

The Port Visits ~ oh, the joy we experienced having a half hour wait in line to get off the ship and an even longer wait IN THE RAIN to get back on at every port. I am not sure I am going to know what to do with the extra time in port when the Mariner stops and I can practically breeze through the efficient checkpoints coming & going. And let's not forget that Regent provides things like umbrellas for its passengers in the event of rain and bottles of icy cold water are provided COMPLIMENTARY. The Gem had a lovely woman at the top of the gangplank selling flimsy plastic trashbags (I mean rain ponchos) but somehow it just wasn't the same!

I could go on and on.....really....on and on and on! Of course there are the obvious differences that everyone talks about like how you don't have to sign for things every time you turn around (drinks, gourmet food, towels, etc.).

But it's the little things that are just done automatically that you don't really think about until they're not there.....those are the reasons why people who try luxury cruising don't go back to mass market!

Oh, The Places We'll Go!

2010-01-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

I received a NOOK for Christmas (that's the Barnes and Noble e-reader for those of you who missed the hottest tech toys of 2009!) Anyway, that has absolutely NOTHING to do with my 2011 cruise -- other than the fact that I'll probably bring it along because I have fallen madly and deeply in love with the thing -- but basically I've spent the past few weeks doing nothing other than reading novels. I kind of figured it was about time that I put the damned thing down and so something else; what might that something else be?? Of course, it's on to the computer to do some OTHER reading!

So, anyway, I decided to start looking at the places we will be stopping and one of the things I am most looking forward to is the transit of the Panama Canal. Even though there is no beach. Or no casino. Or no golf course.......

But, it is important to know about geographical "things" and really I might get the chance to try out for Jeopardy again (did you know that about me??). So here I find myself reading all kinds of interesting narratives about the construction and general history of the Panama Canal and seriously it is quite amazing!

I've taken the liberty of "lifting" a few pictures that show 1) an easy-to-read detailed map of the canal and 2) an illustration of how the locks work. I am now going to attempt to insert these pictures right here in the same general vicinity of this paragraph ~~ here goes!! Okay, well they appeared kind of all around this paragraph but that's okay, a couple of months from now I'll have this all down pat again!

Here is how the route we will be taking works: Ships approaching from the Atlantic first pass through the Gatún Locks -- a series of three lock sets that lift vessels 85 feet (26 m) to Gatún Lake. Once there, ships wind through the lake's channel for about 23 miles (37 km) before entering the Gaillard (Culebra) Cut. After about 8 miles (13 km) spent crossing through the Cut, ships reach the Pedro Miguel Locks. These locks lower ships 30 feet (9 m) to the Miraflores Lake, where they pass through a mile-long (2 km) channel. Ships then approach the two-stepped Miraflores Locks that return them to sea level. A 7-mile (11-km) passage takes them out to the Pacific. From deep water to deep water, the canal is 50 miles (80 km) long.

Each of the locks is built in pairs to allow for two-way traffic. With a total transit time of eight to 10 hours, it just wouldn't make sense to run a one-way street. To raise a ship, water is released from a lake (Gatún, Alajuela or Miraflores) or from a higher lock through valves that open on the upper end of the lock. To lower a ship, water drains to a lower lock or to the ocean through valves that open at the lower end of the lock. The locks are powered by electricity.

Because so much hinges on the locks' integrity, safety precautions prevent large ships from sailing through on their own steam. An out-of-control large ship could plunge through a lock. Large craft are instead escorted by electric towing locomotives.

To find more information, or to read the whole story, visit Panama Canal Authority -- I believe we all only have time for the Reader's Digest version!

Booking the Mariner

2010-01-03T07:55:00.000-08:00

As readers of my previous blog already know, last year Mike and I took a luxury cruise aboard the Seven Seas Mariner to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. I had high expectations ~ and all of my expectations were met AND exceeded by the wonderful ship, the wonderful staff and the wonderful group of passengers we had the pleasure with which to sail.

Although I had high hopes and dreams, I thought it would be quite a long time indeed before we were in a position to spend that much money on a cruise again. I wasn't overly morose about it; after all, I had checked the Regent website and scanned the brochures, and the Mariner wasn't heading anywhere I wanted to go at the time I wanted to go. So, instead, I booked a cruise for Mike and I aboard the Norwegian Gem for 2010. Sailing out of New York City was a major plus; and it enabled us to treat our daughter, son-in-law and our #1 grandchild to cruise as well since we only had to pay their cruise fare as opposed to 3 additional airplane tickets. Having this family cruise to look forward to kept my mind off of what was going on with the Mariner. I stayed out of the Luxury Cruise Talk chat rooms and the Regent threads on Cruise Critic (why torture myself with hearing about others' upcoming trips). I barely glanced at the Regent brochures that came in the mail before unceremoniously throwing them away. And I deleted all Regent-related e-mails without even opening them up.

Then, finally, right before Christmas, one of the brochure descriptions did catch my eye. It was for 2011 sailings and it showed my wonderful Mariner heading back into warm climates in January. Oh Joy! Here was something I could consider ~ the first leg of their Circle South America voyage ~ two weeks in warm waters and transiting the Panama Canal (a first for us). Then I saw the price and sticker shock set in. Was I insane to consider paying that amount for a 2 week vacation?? I wasn't even sure I should mention it to Mike...he might think I'm even crazier than I thought I might be! But when I showed him the dates and itinerary, he didn't hesitate at all: "Book it!" I hemmmmed and hawwwwwwed for a couple of days before finally calling my old friend Joe at Chic Luxury Cruises and reluctantly gave him my credit card information for the deposit.

Mike is generally more pragmatic than I am, but even he convinced me that the old cliche "you can't take it with you" is probably right on and after all what is the point of busting your hump day after day after year after year if you are never going to enjoy the fruits of your labor. And just looking at our cabin pictures brings back so many incredible memories....we truly cannot wait to be back on board.

So, this blog begins another chapter in the cruising lives of Diz & Mike and it will probably become quite active in the second half of 2010.

Join me in my journey!