Live from the Voyager, R/T Venice:"long time, first time"

[GOARMY]

Lurking on this Threat for a time, as we are aboard Navigator. Currently at Jamaica, en route from LA to NYC. This was a short stop, but the best so-far (and the last) until arrival at NYC to meet our grandchildren later in the week. Cast-off in about an hour.

 

Father's Day. Champagne and caviar for breakfast. The TS has provided wonderful pictures throughout that European experience. We observed similar visuals when at La Veranda this AM in the very-hot Carib.

 

As to, IMO, Navigator converts La Veranda into an alternative Prime 7 evening restaurant experience in about 1/4th of the spacing; and the other space into an alternative Italian venue--

 

Our history over prior sailings during the past 12 years is, very well. It is all in the lighting, ambience, time of day, and guests' mind-set in an evening environment. On Navigator, due to timing of shore excursions, a portion of the Prime 7 space is opened for breakfast and luncheon dining. This accommodates overflow from Pool Grill and main La Veranda.

 

No problem. Attentive staff recognize the situation, and reset necessary tables to preclude passengers from wandering around with full plates looking for a place to roost. Today was no exception. There is little reason for a "willing suspension of disbelief" to understand Prime 7 as a separate evening dining venue. Navigator is what it is. Staff makes maximum use of limited evening dining venue space.

 

Best,

 

GOARMY

[Tucruisers]

Paul -I will never, ever forget your comment when you came back on board in Albania. Your parents, Ken and I were in the Observation lounge. I asked how your time ashore had gone...you said “it looks a LOT better than it is”. !!

You father was a very special man. I miss him...

How is Barbara?

Take care, Gerry

 

 

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Hi Gerry

He was, and so do I. Thanks also to Travelcat for asking about my Mother. Not much good news I am afraid in that Mum has very little mobility and is in residential (nursing) care. She takes pleasure in visits from great grandchildren (and maybe even other family members!) and when we chat about cruising experiences, we were talking only the other day about our very enjoyable dinner with you and Ken in Signatures, our time in Padua and what a dump Sarande is!

Apologies for interupting your thread Boblerm and look forward to hearing about the rest of your cruise, Santorini is a magical place, I can still remember the pungent odour of donkey poo!

Paul

[Got2Cruise]

We’ll be in our first Regent Cruise on July 2nd! Yes the food is delicious, the staff is attentive but sooo many nice, friendly people cruise Regent. We can’t wait and thanks for posting the pics and commentary.

[boblerm]

I didn't think I'd enjoy Sette Mari--but I did and had the same problem eating too much before the main.

 

 

It's funny, now and again I run into people who say that they haven't been to Sette Mare,don't think they would like it. My advice is to give it a try, worst case scenario is that you won't care for it that much but at least you will have experienced it. Best case scenario is is that you now have yet another nice option to enjoy dinner.

[boblerm]

As to, IMO, Navigator converts La Veranda into an alternative Prime 7 evening restaurant experience in about 1/4th of the spacing; and the other space into an alternative Italian venue--

GOARMY

GOARMY, just to clarify , am I understanding correctly that on the Navigator,in the evening, half of LaVeranda converts to Sette Mari and on the other half, part of it is set aside as an "annex", if you will, of Prime 7? With the same menu as Prime 7?

If I am getting this right, are reservations required?

I have not heard of this before

[boblerm]

Hi Gerry

He was, and so do I. Thanks also to Travelcat for asking about my Mother. Not much good news I am afraid in that Mum has very little mobility and is in residential (nursing) care. She takes pleasure in visits from great grandchildren (and maybe even other family members!) and when we chat about cruising experiences, we were talking only the other day about our very enjoyable dinner with you and Ken in Signatures, our time in Padua and what a dump Sarande is!

Apologies for interupting your thread Boblerm and look forward to hearing about the rest of your cruise, Santorini is a magical place, I can still remember the pungent odour of donkey poo!

Paul

Paul I am very pleased that this thread has provided an opportunity for you to reminisce and to catch up with others.

All the best,

Bob

[boblerm]

We’ll be in our first Regent Cruise on July 2nd! Yes the food is delicious, the staff is attentive but sooo many nice, friendly people cruise Regent. We can’t wait and thanks for posting the pics and commentary.

Have a wonderful cruise, I hope you will let us know how you like it

[boblerm]

Yesterday we anchored in Gythion, Greece, a lovely port.

 

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[boblerm]

Our excursion was to Liotrivi Mansion, which is on an estate that produces olive oil. We received quite a thorough education on olive cultivation, olive oil production, and baking of kalamata bread. I think it is safe to say that I have now become quite the expert on these topics. Or would have been, surely, had I been paying attention throughout the presentation.

To be clear, what I am holding is a recipe for kalamata bread, and NOT a diploma.

 

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[boblerm]

Of course, we were given the requisite Greek snack, which as far as I can tell, is a statutory requirement when taking a Greek excursion. I think this was our favorite of the various and sundry of the offerings we were presented with over the past several days. We had locally grown olives, their own olive oil, freshly baked kalamata bread, delicious tomatoes.

 

No exclamations of "opa!", however.

 

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[boblerm]

The grounds were quite nice

 

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[boblerm]

Q: do we ever tire of having a view of our ship, boys and girls?

 

 

A: no, we do not.

 

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[Rocky of London]

Hi

Really enjoying your reviews and experiences....so many positive comments and good information on the ports and the ship......

[boblerm]

Hi

Really enjoying your reviews and experiences....so many positive comments and good information on the ports and the ship......

Hi Rocky, thanks so much, glad you are enjoying.

Bob

 

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[boblerm]

Last night we had a wonderful dinner at Compass Rose. We usually have 2 courses, but we threw caution to the wind and ordered 3.

Jeannie started with the sushi-sashimi, and I the beef carpaccio.

Next Jeannie, the beef consommé, and I, a small portion of the pasta of the evening, rigatoni with pork ragu

 

Then the pièce de résistance, the aforementioned pre ordered miso glazed seabass

This is one of our favorite cruise ship meals, moist, tender, flaky, succulent.

 

Service was at a nice, leisurely pace, all in all, quite the fine dining experience.

 

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[boblerm]

The show last night was "Broadway in Concert", the Regent singers performing classic Broadway tunes. No glitz, no special effects, just 6 very talented performers, giving perfect deliveries of beautifully arranged, lovely tunes accompanied by a flawless orchestra.

I loved every second of it.

 

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[boblerm]

Here are the lounge performers on our cruise, pianist Kathy, the Regent Signature Orchestra, and Nature's Rhythm Trio

 

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[boblerm]

I would like to say a few words about dancing options on the ship.

 

Jeannie and I are not ballroom dancers. When we get on the dance floor, we like to get down. Get jiggy. Work off some calories.

This is an area that for us many of our Regent cruises, as well as other cruises on luxury lines has fallen short.

 

Case in point - the performers in the Voyager lounge is the Nature's Rhythm Trio. Let's stipulate that these nice gentlemen are talented musicians and pleasant to listen to. It seems that people in the lounge are enjoying doing so. But we find their music very difficult to dance to. When they do an uptempo song, they usually do it in their own style, which is a slowed down version.

 

During the course of a set, after every few songs, they ask for requests. On the first night of the cruise, I requested a song to which they replied, "that one is not yet available". That is the very same reply that they gave me to the very same song request that I had made on a cruise roughly 5 years ago. No lie.

 

In fact, this is the reply that one is likely to get if one requests an uptempo song that has been recorded in this millennium. If they do know it, they are likely to play it slower than expected. They said that they would be doing Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk". OK, that's the type of tune I was waiting for. But they played it in roughly 2/3 the tempo of the original.

I asked them if they can do something fast, something we could do some fast dancing to. They said sure, and proceeded to play "Fill Me Up, Buttercup". Not what I had in mind.

 

I want to be clear, this is our opinion and our opinion only, I fully understand that this group has it's fans, and I totally respect that.

 

In contrast , on our last cruise on the Explorer, performing in the Explorer lounge was Boogie and Kasia, who are favorite cruise ship lounge performers. And I am aware that opinions vary on this, someone did a report on the very same cruise we were on and said that they "wouldn't cross the street" to see them perform. Different Strokes.

 

In their pre dinner early sets, they tend to do more mellow tunes, but in their later sets, they do just the type of music that we like to dance to. If Kasia can't get the party going, no one can. She gets down on the floor to dance with the guests, her personality lights up the room, and Boogie totally rocks out on the keyboards. I only wish they could clone themselves and be on all the ships.

 

A final thought on this- when we had the deck party a few nights ago, the singer's and the orchestra were performing fast dance music with a few slow tunes in the mix. The dance floor was packed, people seemed to love the opportunity to be doing this type of dancing. I'd love to see this option extended to the lounges on more regular basis.

 

I guess it turned out to be more than just a few words.

 

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[Hambagahle]

Hi Gerry

He was, and so do I. Thanks also to Travelcat for asking about my Mother. Not much good news I am afraid in that Mum has very little mobility and is in residential (nursing) care. She takes pleasure in visits from great grandchildren (and maybe even other family members!) and when we chat about cruising experiences, we were talking only the other day about our very enjoyable dinner with you and Ken in Signatures, our time in Padua and what a dump Sarande is!

Apologies for interupting your thread Boblerm and look forward to hearing about the rest of your cruise, Santorini is a magical place, I can still remember the pungent odour of donkey poo!

Paul

 

Apologies in advance to Bob -- Paul, please give Barbara much love from Ken and me. We had such fun together on the "ash" cruise! And yes, dinner in Signatures was lovely. Take care!

Gerry

 

Bob - I, too, remember not only the "pungent odour" at Santorini but also having to be hyper-careful not to step in something I didn't want to! That was well in the days before the cable car... Have fun. Now I am off to see if our 2020 cruise has a Sunday sea day!! Great tip that one... And (drum roll!!) we DO. Sunday 29 April - cruising the Florida straits. Apparently we have 3 Sundays on the cruise and this is the only sea day. I am already looking forward to that!!

[Delboy1]

Boblerm I only came across quite recently. I read it from the start to the current page and very much enjoyed your gentle but incisive observations. We only once have sailed with Regent: SanFrancisco to Vancouver via of course Alaska. Your health issues resonated with me. We were about to go on a cruise from Barbados to celebrate my wife’s 7x10 event when I was struck down with a life threatening illness so we had to cancel. It has taken me nearly a year to recover sufficiently to go on a cruise last month in the med.

[xrvlcruiser]

>>GOARMY, just to clarify , am I understanding correctly that on the Navigator,in the evening, half of LaVeranda converts to Sette Mari and on the other half, part of it is set aside as an "annex", if you will, of Prime 7? With the same menu as Prime 7?

If I am getting this right, are reservations required?

I have not heard of this before<<

 

Prime7 on the Navigator is a separate room, normally entered near the elevator/stair area on deck10. La Veranda/Sette Mare has a separate entry in that area as well.

 

Once you are in that area (LV), past the buffet and on the left, there is a curtain which covers an entry into the back of Prime7. During breakfast and lunch, the curtain is open and P7 is used for extra seating when LV is busy. At night, the curtain - and the door behind it - is closed and P7 is totally separate.

The menus at night are totally different and yes, reservations are needed at P7 but not in Sette Mare.

Peggy

Edited June 18, 2018 by xrvlcruiser

[boblerm]

Apologies in advance to Bob -- Paul, please give Barbara much love from Ken and me. We had such fun together on the "ash" cruise! And yes, dinner in Signatures was lovely. Take care!

Gerry

 

Bob - I, too, remember not only the "pungent odour" at Santorini but also having to be hyper-careful not to step in something I didn't want to! That was well in the days before the cable car... Have fun. Now I am off to see if our 2020 cruise has a Sunday sea day!! Great tip that one... And (drum roll!!) we DO. Sunday 29 April - cruising the Florida straits. Apparently we have 3 Sundays on the cruise and this is the only sea day. I am already looking forward to that!!

 

So did you actually ride a donkey down?? For me, that is only something to dream about., [emoji1][emoji2]

It occurs to me that without a cable car, from Thira the only way down would be donkey or walk, so that would not have been a place for someone less than robust to visit.

 

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[boblerm]

>>GOARMY, just to clarify , am I understanding correctly that on the Navigator,in the evening, half of LaVeranda converts to Sette Mari and on the other half, part of it is set aside as an "annex", if you will, of Prime 7? With the same menu as Prime 7?

If I am getting this right, are reservations required?

I have not heard of this before<<

 

Prime7 on the Navigator is a separate room, normally entered near the elevator/stair area on deck10. La Veranda/Sette Mare has a separate entry in that area as well.

 

Once you are in that area (LV), past the buffet and on the left, there is a curtain which covers an entry into the back of Prime7. During breakfast and lunch, the curtain is open and P7 is used for extra seating when LV is busy. At night, the curtain - and the door behind it - is closed and P7 is totally separate.

The menus at night are totally different and yes, reservations are needed at P7 but not in Sette Mare.

Peggy

Ok, I get it, I had quite forgotten that on the Navigator Prime 7 is located right next to La Veranda, temporary (hopefully) brain freeze.

 

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[boblerm]

Boblerm I only came across quite recently. I read it from the start to the current page and very much enjoyed your gentle but incisive observations. We only once have sailed with Regent: SanFrancisco to Vancouver via of course Alaska. Your health issues resonated with me. We were about to go on a cruise from Barbados to celebrate my wife’s 7x10 event when I was struck down with a life threatening illness so we had to cancel. It has taken me nearly a year to recover sufficiently to go on a cruise last month in the med.

About the same for us, after about a year, we were able to take a long planned cruise in the Med on Oceania. It pretty much came down to the wire and just did get the thumbs up from my docs to take the trip just days before our planned flight. What a great feeling it was to step on that ship, as I am sure you experienced as well.

So glad to hear that you are now doing well and able to travel.

 

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[Bellaggio Cruisers]

We, too, had to cancel a Regent cruise in the Mediterranean in April 2014. It was less than a week before we were flying to Venice, and I was diagnosed with pneumonia and was hospitalized.

Fortunately, we have been able to cruise afterward. We have rebooked that itinerary for July 2019. Let’s hope the second time is the lucky charm.

Sheila