Live-Mariner December 4 Ft Lauderdale round trip

[tallship]

Had a rough evening at sea last night. Rocking and rolling.

Wonderful special order lunch in Compass Rose and dinner in Signatures last night

[purpleally]

missed the rocking and rolling last night; must have been the wine?

just left the private island, where it was overcast and not so warm

the wind has kicked up--again and everyone got kicked out of the pool

 

yesterday it was so windy; there was a water show in the pool, the splashes went up to deck 12, there were oohs and ahs as if we were watching fireworks! but then, the pool was emptied and our fun was over

 

seafood and sushi buffet yesterday; so good!!!

 

last night the Christmas fairies came by and decorated the boat so we get to enjoy it for one day

 

ran out of limes today! no mojito, no margaritas, what???

almost 3 o'clock and our room has not been made up, hope you don't get our guy

 

filled out the surveys and wrote a book; mostly the excursion

 

last night the magician/comedian and his show was as bad as the first one was good, strange

 

ready to go home now

[TheSeaAroundUs]

purpleally -- was the good one English, with styled blond hair, and a lovely blonde wife as assistant? Had dinner with them and Ray Solaire once. They were tons of fun in person, and are heavily steeped in old-school British stage humour among other things. Names escape me; I'm apparently having a stupid moment.

[Hambagahle]

Purpleally -

To help future pasengers you really should go to the GM and tell him in detail the problems you have experienced with your room steward. It simply isn't acceptable not to have a suite done by 3pm!! And your chap obviously needs some training...

[purpleally]

Docking right now. Hope debarkation is better than embarkation. It would have to be!

It was the same magician/comedian both nights. It's just his first show was so much better. His wife has red hair.

 

Yes I do believe our room steward needs more training. Not sure if he is new but he always seems so timid around us.

 

Last night went to horizons to meet a couple before dinner. My bartender, Mehmet sp? Wasn't at the bar. Waiter came by, I asked if he was there, told he was on break. I said I would wait be wise he knows what I want to drink.

Husband orders a drink, couple arrives, orders drinks. I see bartender come back and within minutes the waiter brings over vodka martini with blue cheese stuffed olives. That is the Regent service I love!!

[OrpingtonT]

Docking right now. Hope debarkation is better than embarkation. It would have to be!

I don't suppose you will read this for a while, but thank you for the up to date postings. They have been a joy to read.

[purpleally]

I don't suppose you will read this for a while, but thank you for the up to date postings. They have been a joy to read.

 

thank you, I enjoyed the posters from the crossing and wanted to give back and now I am reading about the current sailing; can't believe their embarkation was worse than ours--by the by, our debarkation was no picnic either

 

a recap in a couple of days

[poss]

Many thanks for these posts!

[shuguley]

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine, he gets me my drinks for free and he's quick with a joke and he'll light up your smoke ......

 

I think Billy Joel sang that.

 

Anyway, is John still the bartender at the pool grill? He is great.

[purpleally]

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine, he gets me my drinks for free and he's quick with a joke and he'll light up your smoke ......

 

I think Billy Joel sang that.

 

Anyway, is John still the bartender at the pool grill? He is great.

 

he helps out but Catalin is the bartender and he is great!!!

John spends his evenings in the Mariner bar.

[drcandon]

Hey..we were on the cruise as well - did not bother with the internet although brought the stupid laptop...some thoughts..

 

Our cabin stewardess - Oka was amazing best we have ever had - sorry to hear yours was bad - although the folks down the hall were not getting theirs done on the last sea day until late...

 

we had a very good waiter in CR - Michael...my only complaint is they never get to really know you and your name as in other lines - but that is a small complaint...CR food was consistently good beyond other lines- so we did not bother retrying to get back into Sig or Prime...Oh yea - just a personal opinion but I found Sigs food to be okay and the servers to be "stuffy" except for Veronica.

 

We always sat on the starboard side of La Veranda..the side with the very pretty "egg lady" and the service on that side was excellent...We sat on the other side for breakfast one morning and that chef, needed training.

 

I agree with the observation of some of the excursions, the Luxury4x4 was bad..many folks complaining - the other bad one was the Self drive jeep in Dom Rep...once they got you down the jungle path, they trapped you in what amounted to a hour long infomercial trying to sell junk..many people were ready to drive out by themselves...

 

This was our first Regent criuse and I can say we are ready to switch...what an amazing cruise line...the cabin was very nice for the category, food overall excellent, drinks ( well what can I say), excursions on the whole were good...

 

Oh yea, as far as excursions go it is not Regents fault- per se..on other cruise lines the excursions sucked and we paid for them...yes, I know you are paying for these as well, but it does not hurt as bad when the money is hidden...

[OrpingtonT]

Hey..we were on the cruise as well - did not bother with the internet although brought the stupid laptop...some thoughts..

 

Our cabin stewardess - Oka was amazing best we have ever had - sorry to hear yours was bad - although the folks down the hall were not getting theirs done on the last sea day until late...

 

we had a very good waiter in CR - Michael...my only complaint is they never get to really know you and your name as in other lines - but that is a small complaint...CR food was consistently good beyond other lines- so we did not bother retrying to get back into Sig or Prime...Oh yea - just a personal opinion but I found Sigs food to be okay and the servers to be "stuffy" except for Veronica.

 

We always sat on the starboard side of La Veranda..the side with the very pretty "egg lady" and the service on that side was excellent...We sat on the other side for breakfast one morning and that chef, needed training.

 

I agree with the observation of some of the excursions, the Luxury4x4 was bad..many folks complaining - the other bad one was the Self drive jeep in Dom Rep...once they got you down the jungle path, they trapped you in what amounted to a hour long infomercial trying to sell junk..many people were ready to drive out by themselves...

 

This was our first Regent criuse and I can say we are ready to switch...what an amazing cruise line...the cabin was very nice for the category, food overall excellent, drinks ( well what can I say), excursions on the whole were good...

 

Oh yea, as far as excursions go it is not Regents fault- per se..on other cruise lines the excursions sucked and we paid for them...yes, I know you are paying for these as well, but it does not hurt as bad when the money is hidden...

 

Good review, Thank you, DRCANDON. We, too, noticed the "egg lady" . She serves up a scrumptious omelette. Mind you, on our crossing the chap, a very short fellow, was equally good. Just not as nice to look at!

[poss]

Thanks DRCANDON. When you have a chance, I'd enjoy hearing what excursions you especially liked.

Glad you liked Regent; we do too.

[drcandon]

Poss...here we go...first I want to warn you that I am an avid photographer, so while others are folowing the tour guide I am off wandering about at the back of the bus taking photos and goofing off - drives my wife nuts..and usually gets the group I am with cranky...

 

Grand Turk - Dune buggy safari...love the Polaris dune buggies - we had some breakdowns and the tour was shorten , but these things are a blast and on a good day - would recommend..2 passenger..

 

San Juan - El Yunge Rainforest long Hike..for a photographer it was heaven for some of the older folks in our group it was..uhhh heck...beautiful scenery, long drive there and back...Loooonnnng walk. if you are in reasonable shape - recommended

 

Trekking in St.Barts - cancelled..grrr so got on the St.Barts overview..not bad open air bus...again if you are a photographer sit in the very back seat - okay

 

St. Lucia - tree top canopy adventure - what can I say - 12 zip line stations..for an adrenalin junkie like myself - heaven but we had a lot of older folks as well and they really enjoyed it - however they did not do the last 4 lines (long walk and quite a climb)

 

Barbados - luxury 4x4 safari - well lots of complaints on this one - rough roads - however we had a very funny great driver, who went the little extra - recommended if you have no back problems

 

Dominica -Rainforest jeep safari - again I kinda strayed away from the pack and took my own photos, for example at one stop they totally ignored and old small fort and instead talked about some trees..- the fort was great...also there were huge caterpillers on one bush - 4 inches long!!- again a lot of complaints because getting in the "jeep" was crappy. Also there was supposed to be a beautiful high waterfall, but little did we know to see if you had to swim through a cavern to see it..yea , like I am going to haul and drown my camera..that really made folks ugly on that tour

 

Virgin Gorda - we had a baths transfer until we heard that a couple of huge tour groups were coming in on jet boat. so we took the overview instead - not bad - ended up at the baths anyways - SUPER crowded...if this were on a different day - recommended - also later I found out that just a few steps away another beach was basically empty...duhhh

 

Dominican Rep - Self drive jeep tour - well this is the one they kept you captive at for an hour..I wandered off by myself and ignore the junk and photographed all sorts of stuff - the others in the group were super mad...also at one stop for a waterfalls, it was supposed to be a guided hike- yea we found out why, the jeeps pulled up and about a hundred locals swamped us..what they were supposed to do was hang by and see if anyone needed help , yes, there was a few treacherous parts, but after the hour of captivity it was too much half of the 20 people never even bothered going in..too bad they missed a beautiful waterfall..the jeeps were fun, the lecture a pain...like I said I simply wandered off myself...giving my wife stress wondering if I had been mugged...

 

So, like I said these things are what you make it...I know I make the rest of the group ugly by wandering off and taking photos...so, in reality if you followed the guide some of these are a bust..also I don't hold up the group...if I fall behind then I run to catch up..

[RachelG]

DRCANDON, you sound just like my husband with your wandering off. Drives me crazy, esp when the guide notices and gets aggravated about it. But he always turns up and doesn't hold up the group.

 

Thanks for your input on these ports as we are on a cruise in Jan 2013 that includes some.

[Hambagahle]

DRCANDON - I see nothing wrong with wandering off (especially when the guide is boring) provided that you do not hold the group up, nor have the guide spend time looking for you!! What I tend to do (once I discover that a guide is boring!!) is to quietly tell the guide that I will be off a bit on the side taking my photos and that s/he is not to worry - I will always be where she says she is going if she tells us where... this seems to work well.

 

An interesting guide can make a dull thing come to life. I remember a walking tour of Dornstein on the Danube when the guide was amazing and a little town took on an allure of its own!! But too many guides give a "rote" presentation and turn people off. And spoil something that has potential to interest people by making it dull!

 

I would love to see your photos...

[poss]

Thanks terrifically for the report on excursions. My favorite thing in the world next to snorkeling is rain forest exploration. Not a zip-line enthusiast anymore, but we still love the trekking. I wonder if there are any of those very cool "hanging bridges" on any of the islands.

 

Sorry you missed The Baths. We've spent several weeks on Virgin Gorda (also used to sail that area) and do love that very unique place (also some fine hiking on that island). Doing the Baths (there's even a part called "The Crawl") is kind of like spelunking in a way. Very groovy and spooky and magical. But, yup, often very crowded. May you have another chance to play (and photograph!) there some day!

 

And thanks once more for your excellent reports.

[blue whale]

Did you ever get any feedback about the odors on deck 7? What the cause is? How Regent is attacking the problem?

 

D