GeorgiaPeach51

@ON cruiser  nice to meet you both.  Thanks for adding your take on things.  The more who add on the better overview for those who read about our experiences.

So, yesterday.  Port Canaveral was fabulous.  Everyone had to exit the ship yesterday, so they called the tours first so they could get us out of their hair.  We remained in our suite and they called us and we went straight to the bus.   It was a nice PC bus, and the fabric on the seats was interplanetary looking, and the floors were moonscape.  The child in me was delighted.

I have not heard how the rest of the disembarkation went for the remaining passengers but hope someone will chime in.  Someone we spoke with during the day said that passengers were lined up sitting on the stairs and probably in everyone’s way in order to be RIGHT THERE so they could escape the ship.  I don’t get it.  You only have to walk a few feet no matter where you are on this little ship.  The teacher in me wants to give them the teacher look designed to freeze them in place as I suggest they listen carefully and look at me as I repeat that guests are asked to remain in their cabins.  Sheesh.

You may remember that last cruise we had to all leave the ship for immigration or customs, whatever it was, and the whole ship was kept waiting while they searched and searched for a missing couple who finally traipsed drunkenly down the gangplank to a chorus of loud boos.   I hope everyone just did what they were doggoned asked to do.  My husband calls it, “shut up and color”.  Just do it!  It won’t kill ya.

Bsck to PC.  Short bus ride to the entrance…about 15 minutes or so.  They suggest that you first go to the Apollo section, which is another 15 minute ride on a different bus.  We did that and were glad we did.  For me, it was the most fascinating area.  When it is time for the bus back to the ship you don’t want to be on the wrong bus…the one coming back from the Apollo area, as the bus to the ship is leaving.  Doing that part first lets you gauge how much time to spend in the main area.  We spoke to one couple who never did get to the Apollo area, but then there were some things in the main area we missed.

All of it is so well done.  Two comments…..there is precious little seating in almost every area.  There are multiple standing movie areas with only one bench in the back.  In the display areas there is almost no seating.  So take that into account if you need to rest frequently. There is plenty of outside seating for snacking or eating lunch.  The other thing I noticed is that every presentation was in English only.  I didn’t see anyone with translation headphones on, so it pains me that POSSIBLY there is no accommodation for  non English speakers.  People surely come from all over the world to see this one of a kind amazing facility.  
 

I will attach plenty of photos if Wi-Fi helps.  One area I found touching was the memorial section to all the space heroes who lost their lives.  So many.  There was a display for each, with personal and heart tugging personal objects like their coffee mug, bible, binoculars for bird watching.  All this families without them, and the kids with no Mom or Dad.  
 

the bus!  😀…first two photos

Below are photos of Galileo’s Bar and our Voyagers.  These drinks were perfect.  An earlier try in the theater during trivia was way too sweet…..so there is variation with how drinks are made on this ship.  We were hoping to find the consistency we found on the Explorer, but not so much, so far.

We loved Ray’s show!  Wonderful voice, entertaining and funny.  Thoroughly recommend. I know many of you have seen him a kajillion times, but we were charmed.

Dinner in Compass Rose.  Whew.  Long, drawn out affair.  Not sure why.  The room was busy for sure.  Not sure if the logjam was due to the kitchen or the staff, who were evidently working as hard as they could.  So this is a stating of facts, rather than a complaint.  It’s not like we had anywhere we needed to be, so we just waited it out, which was not hard since I love the company I am with.  Start to finish was just short of 2.5 hours.  We arrived at 6:35 and left a little before 9.  When people are clearly doing their best, it doesn’t help to fuss at them.  Our waiter apologized multiple times for the long waits, so it was what it was.  I had yummy risotto as an appetizer….they do risottos so well, no matter what kind it is.  Rolf had his previously tried and true lobster bisque with a lobster tail cut up and added.  There was a communication gap and the bisque arrived sans tail and a wait ensued as our flustered waiter tried to put the two pieces together.  All ended well and he was a happy camper. 
 

BTW, if I suddenly stop this it is because we have been summoned to exit for our Port Canaveral tour…

Back to bisque….when we left CR we had the pleasure of meeting Steve Q and Denise, and due my earlier trip report that mentioned the bisque/lobster tail combo, she ordered the exact same thing last night, end enjoyed it.  Both mentioned that it is filling, so be warned.  
 

It took almost 30 minutes to be approached for food orders, but the wine service was excellent.  I had Dover Sole, baked potato and spinach.  It was good enough but had obviously suffered from heat lamp storage.  Rolf tried the redfish entree, which he didn’t love.  He said it was different than the description.  All in all, I’d give it a C- meal.  Dessert was chocolate mousse and a vanilla cream something with a squishy berry filling.  Tasted good, but if squishy is not a texture you enjoy, I’d give that one a pass!

We departed Freeport and she is swaying along slowly.  We stuck doggedly to our agenda today, which was blank save our 4:30 appointment to play trivia.  Lots of reading, a little dozing,   We had lunch at the pool bar, which was nice, with a sweet breeze.  We both had salad, with a few fries snuck onto the plate, and split a Cuban sandwich.  I had a margarita which was a little bland, but ok.

We only got 10 right out of 15 at trivia, so not our best showing. Elton John is older than King Charles and Hilary Clinton.  Who knew?  

We are sitting in the Galileo bar having a pre-show drink.  It will be our first Ray Solare show, so we are looking forward to seeing him.  So, the show at 6, then our first dinner in Compass Rose.  Tomorrow we have an early tour to Cape Canaveral, so it will be an earlier night for sure.

I keep being startled by how few people played trivia, and how few attend tea, etc., because I’m not used to the much smaller passenger count.    I am enjoying the little shimmy in the back of the ship, and the very slight tinkle of the bottles behind the bar rubbing shoulders.  Something about it is charming to me.  I might feel differently if our suite was low and in the back and I was trying to put contacts in or something.  Or sleep.  I’ll let you know more about the shimmy as we progress.  It’s definitely there, but I don’t know....I just like that she’s not a cookie cutter ship.  So far.

Forgot to congratulate our British friends on the coronation of their new king!  We lived in England during the Cold War, 1981-1984, when my husband flew A-10’s and was stationed at RAF Bentwaters.  I remember that all the wives in the squadron got together to watch Charles and Diana marry…it was a big day!  Fond memories of England.

After our lovely meal, we discovered it was already 10 p.m.!  We wandered into the casino and hopped around on slot machines, finding one that liked us, to our utter astonishment.  We started with $100, got as high as $330, and ran for the hills with $200.  Such a rare occurrence.  We certainly are not big gamblers or high rollers by any stretch.  We may get brave and play roulette later.  I’ll let you know.

We are now in Freeport and do not intend to get off the ship.  We have been here many times and are really enthused about a day of doing a whole lotta nuthin.  We did pick up the Mensa quiz this morning and plan to play trivia and that will be about as much energy expenditure as we will do.

I will take photos of the little Navigator spaces today.  Because she is little, with lots of people on board it is harder to get photos without getting people, too.  She definitely does not seem crowded, I just try not to include people without their permission.

Breakfast, BTW, was nice, in The Veranda.  Love the tablecloths.  It was not crowded when we got there around 9.  I had my first cronut of the cruise, but it was the only one I saw in both the Veranda and the coffee bar, so that is worrisome.  I will be sorely disappointed if cronuts are not readily available every morning.  I am also a fan of sticky buns, but the ones they had looked dry and crunchy, therefore masquerading as sticky buns but impostors thru and thru.

Here’s breakfast and the area at the back of the ship and Freeport.  Uploading is fairly slow even though we are in port.  

@WNcruiser  thanks for the kind words.  My way to pay back for all the lovely people who share info so we all can have more fun, not miss something great, save money, whatever.  I hope we do meet someday!  That’s one of the big benefits of writing about a trip…you just automatically meet wonderful new people.

When we last communicated I was sitting on the balcony.  Our luggage came quickly after that and we got down to it and got it over with, successfully hiding all things of importance from ourselves in nooks and crannies.  Subsequent days are guaranteed to find me muttering to myself as I search high and low for object x only to find, aha!, objects y and a.  Guaranteed that x will not show itself until we pack to go home,

we went to the Seven Seas lounge for pre dinner drinks last night, and had the lovely surprise of again meeting Ray and Katrina, friends from our very first R cruise.  So, that was fun, and after getting an update on Ray’s recent adventures, we came away with renewed gratitude for health and life and the chance to travel and enjoy being on this little planet.  Gosh, what a blessing!  Grateful for reminders so we don’t take it for granted.

We both had the Voyager cocktail and part of a second one and they were consistently made, which was nice.  On Splendor last cruise we had some spirits adventures where ingredients were maybe a little too enthusiastically poured with the result that some would cause your eyes to pour tears and lungs to momentarily cease to operate.  Requests for a do over were always gracious and brought more consistent results.

We had dinner in Prime 7 with friends.  Wonderful meal.  Service was good, if a little scattered, with food being delivered to the wrong person at the table a few times but that was quickly fixed.  Everyone enjoyed their choices.  Food was really excellent.  I did not take photos because I didn’t want to be that person in front of dining companions, but I will always take photos when it is just the two of us.  I had the chowder and smoked salmon, which I had never tried due to the name.  I’m not of fan of smoked salmon, gravlax…this is not that!  The salmon arrives with a dome and when it is lifted there is a lovely smoke that wafts out from under and there is a yummy salmon of the kind you think of as a dinner entree.  My husband had the lobster, which he, picky Connecticut boy that he is, loved.  He said it was cooked perfectly, and I was so glad because he always sends tough lobster back.  Our friends had chicken and the veal chop.  The chop was perfect and very tender, so success all around.

I couldn’t resist the popcorn sundae and since this is our only reservation in Prime 7 this cruise, so far, I wasn’t going to let the chance pass.  More in a minute.  We are on the back of the ship in a windy area and are relocating.

Continuing the trend, lucky us, embarkation was simple and smooth.  Remember the Sheet they gave us yesterday with details about checking out, breakfast, etc.?  In the upper right hand corner was a blue dot. I’m not sure what other colors there were, but they called the buses by color, two of them,  I believe.  So off we went, an orderly line of little ducks, boarded the coach with I’m guessing about 50 people for about a ten minute ride to the terminal.  They had not started check in yet, but did so within about 5 minutes of our arrival.  They very appropriately called the named suites first, then Diamonds, and I’m sure they must have called some other levels, but I was talking and didn’t hear the specifics.  Check in was super quick…they took our passports, BTW.  That was a first.  Got a chance to hug Beth and Crystal, friends from a previous cruise, and it made me happy to see them.  We are all excited to be on a ship again.  It has been a minute for all of us.
 

When you get off the bus at the terminal, I suggest that you have passport and boarding pass in hand.  The person is RIGHT THERE inside the door and you don’t want to have to scramble around haphazardly as we did, getting in each others’ way, trying to find said items as people line up behind you.  We had anticipated an escalator ride or something similar to get ourselves arranged, so now, after our experience, you can be like the Boy Scouts or whoever they are that are Always Prepared.  
 

First impressions of the Navigator.  She’s charming!  Cozy and seems functionally laid out.  We had lunch in La Veranda with friends, more people we are so happy to see again, and that was a great way to start the cruise.  Someone said the little Navigator is kind of like a country club, and I would agree….except some of my favorite people are people who cruise, and I’ve met a few fearsome people at country clubs.  🤪. 
 

One thing I really like about this little ship is that when you forget something and have to go back to your cabin it’s pretty much practically right there close somewhere.  I can remember being on a big Celebrity ship and realizing I had left something in the cabin and dropping my head and thinking I would rather dig a ditch in the sun than have to trudge all the way back to that cabin in a round trip that is at least the length of seven football fields.  Whatever I forget on this one, it will be easy-peasy.

here are photos of our cabin, 724, before we mess it up.  No luggage yet, at 2:45.  I’m on the balcony, amusing myself by writing to you and watching boats full of young folks blasting past with music I don’t recognize blaring, excited for a day in the sun with probably a year’s worth of beer in coolers somewhere.  Whew, so glad not to be you on the way home tonight…

Morning.  Beautiful day in Miami.  We just went to the breakfast provided for Navigator guests.  Held in a large “salon” on the fifth floor.  Coffee/tea station, bagel and toast station, yogurt and muesli station, and a long buffet with the usual suspects…fruit, bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, potatoes.  Sufficient for the task, nothing to write home about.  Met some nice people from England, Sue and John, Rod and Sally, and were thrilled to see friends from a prior cruise, Jim and Karen.  
 

It is now 9:25 and we are dilly-dallying around till time to meet in the lobby to board the bus/buses.  Last night while sitting on the little balcony we heard ship’s horns at 6 and again at 7 and saw one ship sailing out of the harbor, but our distance-challenged eyes couldn’t tell what ship it was.  We can’t see the Navigator from our room, but we are excited that she is there waiting for us.

Boarding the ship day = Christmas morning when we were little kids.  How blessed are we all to get to do this!

Well, I promised a photo so you will know us if you see us, and can come say hi!  I figured the background might make up for the foreground!

Lovely room.  Nice view.  Sliding door into the bathroom. I highly recommend the Mandarin, and it is a big improvement over the previous hotel, The Brickell, I believe, according to posts on CC.

Miami!  Beautiful weather, low 80s with a nice breeze.  Traffic was kind, as was TSA, so it was effortless and with zero stress.  Most importantly, two people arrived and so did their bags!

We did not use Regent air so had no transfer from airport to hotel, but we will have one for tomorrow to the ship.  Taxi from airport to hotel was $35.

At the hotel, there were two R reps in the lobby.  Their Hospitality Desk is open 11-7 on the day prior to sailing and 9-2 on the day of sailing.  They gave us a sheet with the following info…breakfast for R guests is in a 5th floor ballroom from 7:15-9:15.  Have suitcases ready to go and lined up at the door.  They will begin pickup at 8 a.m.  You don’t have to be in the room.  We did this before when we sailed out of Barcelona and it worked like a charm.   So lovely to not bag drag.  Makes me feel special!  Be in the lobby at 11:00.  Board the bus at 11:15.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  

Here are some photos of the Mandarin Oriental.  Just lovely.  We had a late lunch/dinner at around 3 at the pool bar.  Rolf had the lobster sushi and I had the truffle grilled cheese sandwich, and we split a salad.  It was all very good, but I need to get back in the habit of photographing food for you!  We both had an excellent margarita, and yours truly, being such a lightweight drinker is ready for a nap already.  Good grief.  

Well, I just slammed that sucker shut and zipped it for the last time, dragged it to the scale and it weighed 43 pounds!  A new record for sure.  Of course, I also have a carry on that weighs 140 pounds but never mind about that….

I wasn’t going to take a carry-on but learned a tough lesson the last vacation we took, which was a family ski trip to Park City, Utah.  This is The Traumatic Tale of the Lost Luggage I mentioned previously.  Long story short, the tale is in the title.  Just saying, hard to do a ski trip without ski clothes.  We arrived at the Atlanta airport 2.5 hours before the flight and the lines at Frontier were not to be believed.  We were traveling with our granddaughter and when we got to Park City her suitcase appeared and ours did not.  It stayed gone the whole week of skiing, and put a serious damper on the trip.  I spent hours and hours trying to communicate with the good (not) folks at Frontier to no avail.  
 

Would you believe it when I say that our suitcase stayed gone for 28 days and on day 29 a United Airlines employee called to say she found our suitcase sitting in a big storage facility somewhere in the back of beyond at the Atlanta airport.  She was searching for a person’s bag and happened to turn her head and see our suitcase sitting there with its’ REGENT CRUISE luggage tag and take it upon herself to call us!!  Someone had apparently yanked all the tags off except that one, which was, of course, buckled on.  Then the suitcase was pitched into THE PLACE LUGGAGE GOES GO DIE AND THEN BE SOLD TO THE PLACE IN ALABAMA.  If not for her, God bless her, taking the time to call us, it would have stayed long gone.

We’ve had luggage go missing and then be delivered, but this was the first time we truly had a lost suitcase.  And it was a royal pain during the trip to be without everything on the vacation, and then at home every time I reached for something, it was in the suitcase, and I had no mascara or tweezers or socks or sneakers or my favorite sweater, on and on and on.  Drove me nuts.

So I have a carry-on so I can survive if it happens again, and we are leaving in order to be at the airport THREE before the flight.  Fooled us once,  but not again.  When you consider all the travel we have done, even when Rolf, my husband, was in the Air Force for 21 years of travel, we are really blessed to have only lost one suitcase.

Anyhow!  Wooohooo!  See you in Miami at the Mandarin, if you are there.  Otherwise, will see you on the ship.  Safe travels to everyone!

@Steve Q Looking forward to meeting you!  We can share impressions about Explorer vs Navigator.

@wishIweretravelling and @NCCruzQueen 

Looking forward to seeing you both on the ship!  We are excited, but I haven’t put anything in my suitcase yet.  I keep circling around it as it sits in the bed, and so far today I am even avoiding eye contact.  🙄🙄

@forgap here is the initial itinerary…and the changes, as I understand them, in caps. I hope this formats correctly when I post it.

Miami.  Sail at 7 pm

Great Stirrup Cay, 7-6.  NOW FREEPORT, 7-6.

Port Canaveral…..8-6.  NOW 8-7

Fernandina Beach. 8-6 NOW JACKSONVILLE 7-5

Charleston.  7-4.  NOW 7-2

Sea

Hamilton. ARRIVE 2 pm. NOW ARRIVE 6pm

Hamilton/St. George.  Depart 6 a.m.  Arrive St. George 8 a.m., Depart 3:00 p.m. 

Sea

Halifax. 11-7.  NOW ARRIVE 11:30

Sydney. 11-7.  NOW 12-7

Corner Brook. 11-7.  NOW 11:30-7

Sea

Saguenay, 12-8

Quebec City 9-7

Montreal. 7 a.m.

So,  unless I have lost track of some, the major changes are the loss of Great Stirrup Cay to Freeport (unless you are a fan of Freeport…we are not);  the loss of Fernandina Beach to Jacksonville (we were looking forward to FB, Jax not so much); the lost afternoon in Hamilton, the two hours lost in charming Charleston.  The changes in the Canadian stops are negligible, by just an hour.  We gained an hour in Port Canaveral, so that’s a plus,

Our hotel changed from the Brickell to the Mandarin Oriental, which has to count as a BIG win in my book.

There have been several changes and three cancellations to our scheduled excursions.

My reaction to all this is to shrug and carry on being excited to go.  As I said previously, it is out of my realm of influence so “What ya gonna do.”  We will probably stay on the ship in Freeport and Jax, having been to both many times and having no need to go back to retrieve anything left there….😘. Two extra days relaxing and being waited on, and no laundry or cooking or driving or anything except doing as little as possible is a great vacation to me!

@doncarlos Hello, neighbor!  We live up the road in Big Canoe.  Looking forward to meeting you!  I have to say that we’ve never seen so many changes on Celebrity, where we have a lot of experience, nor did we see anything near this on our previous two R cruises.  So, I am puzzled, but just waiting to see what they have to say about it.  In our brief experience, R is very responsive to most concerns.  At this point, since it is so far removed from my realm of influence, I am just letting it go out of my mind and not wasting energy on it.  Perhaps it is a perfect storm of odds and ends that have made these things happen in a big bunch.  We will see and can report back to our eager readers once the mystery is solved.

1 hour ago, irishwitchy said:

Enjoy!  Wave to me in NJ as you sail by.  What are you doing in NYC? 

@irishwitchy We are doing the same as we are with you….waving as we sail by!  We don’t stop there and we start in Miami and end in Montreal, and fly home from Montreal.

Well, I dithered about whether to attempt this again, given the erratic nature of the Wi-Fi on board, but I’m thinking it might be tolerable since we are sailing up the East coast to Canada.  Time will tell!  I’ll give it my best shot.  On two cruises I have so far resisted the urge to throw my iPad off the deck, so I will go for three in a row.

This cruise begins in Miami on May 5 and ends in Montreal on May 20.  So, warm weather to cooler weather.  As usual, most of my clothes are hanging on the bedroom fireplace mantel, having been yanked out of the closet a few at a time every time I spied a likely culprit that might cover a 20 point temperature spread.  Sigh.  Stay tuned on that.

This will be the smallest ship we have ever sailed and I am really curious to find out what we think.  In previous trip reports if you followed along, you know that we rolled right along and had no issues falling in love with the sizes of Explorer and Splendor after the comparatively gigantic E class ships on Celebrity, our former favorite cruise line.  Turns out that was just a silly crush, but expensive….and we are fickle and now totally smitten with R.

That is not to say that we think R is perfection, but we frankly don’t expect that anyhow.  If you don’t know us from prior reports, we are on the easy to please side.  Totally thrilled to be able to cruise and boggled that we are able to sail a true luxury line.  Most things are not worth getting in a knot about and we only complain if we feel something is egregious.  We will sometimes send food back if it is not up to par, and staff is always eager to make us happy.  We sometimes send a drink back if the first taste makes our eyeballs spin due to two drinks worth of an ingredient in one glass.  If an excursion causes us dismay we report it to Destination Services.  We just try not to get upset with little stuff, so we don’t.  Lord knows there is enough going on in the world to get upset about and not drag angst along on vacation.

So, I will report as honestly as I can without hiding flaws or concerns.  I’ll try to answer questions if I can, but know that I’m learning Regent along with you!

I am absolutely unconcerned about others on the ship offering their observations on this report.  Feel free to hop in.  The more the merrier.  I decided on the last report to post a picture of myself just so I could meet people on the ship, and that was a success.  Last cruise we met lots of nice people who introduced themselves when they recognized me, so I’ll do that again once we start to travel.  If you’re on the ship, please say hi!

We leave oh-dark-early on Thursday morning and I’ll come back before then to tell you the Traumatic Tale of the Lost Luggage, and why we will be leaving so early.  
 

Joanie

Hmmm, just notified that our scheduled stop in Great Stirrup Cay has been changed to Freeport, Bahamas.  This is May 1.  Ship sails May 5.  No excursions listed so far.  This is after previously losing Fernandina Beach to Jacksonville and changes to our Hamilton, Bermuda stop.  What in the world?

Really enjoyed your trip report!  Thanks for taking the time to post, and especially, to upload photos.  
 

Joanie

Looking forward to following this!

Joanie

Wow! What a great summary!  I picked up a few dining tips from you.  Glad you had such a great trip and appreciate you taking the time to post.

Joanie

Sheila, this whole thread made my heart hurt.  I’m so sorry you experienced this.  There are multiple ways your experience could have been improved and resolved and I am glad you are not just letting it go.  I sympathize because I have recently discovered that my knee that was injured in a ski accident 30 years ago is now very unhappy when faced with sifting sand at the beach and deep snow.  It has caused me to evaluate what I now can do and I find that somewhat difficult.  A new reality.  But you seem to me to be very realistic about your own capabilities and very conscientious about affecting your fellow passengers.  I sincerely hope Regent reads this and finds ways to improve the passenger tour experience.  
 

Joanie

@Yankeeclipper1 Let’s see if we can work out a meal in Sette Mari….we are big fans.  The steaks we had there several times last cruise checked all the boxes plus some.  I still laugh when I remember you saying you had the Food and Beverage Manager of a certain ship from a line starting with S on speed dial!  I agree about the chair hogs…the entitlement that encompasses that whole issue just makes my head hurt.  We are looking forward to a nice, relaxing cruise.  We hope to fall in love with the little Navigator…going in with open and undemanding minds.

Joanie