“Live From the Explorer” or Z and TB Mambo in the Caribbean

[Zqueeze1]

Good Morning. We are enroute to the beautiful Cayman Islands 🇰🇾. It is still quite early as dawn is breaking over the Carib. 

We had rough seas last night and little sleep.
Yesterday was a typical day for us. I wake up at zero dark thirty and write for this thread while having two glorious French press coffees. 

Once The Boss graces me with her presence, we get chow, walk, cancel our tours, and spend the day poolside napping and swimming. That’s it. Dolce far niente is this cruise’s theme. 

The exception to our routine was that we booked a cruise from NYC to London for April 2022 and The Boss is now greedily spending my half of the onboard credit awarded for making this booking.  I also skipped breakfast, a Regent first for me. 
Clumsy me is taking a day off from walking five miles a day since my left foot went through the drain cover in the jacuzzi. That’s three injuries to my left foot that now looks more like a calzone than an appendage. 
We are really enjoying ourselves as we meet new folks and spend time with new friends. The BM&M Society is alive and well represented at 1100 daily. 
One interesting turn of events is that Bonnie has embraced Pam’s drinking philosophy of asking for half the liquor for her cocktail.  Bonnie jumped on the bandwagon and is ordering a single Tito’s rather than a double. 

We had a few drinks and laughs with Bonnie and Debbie before dinner last night. TB and I ate in Compass Rose where we had a great salad:

 

And a Waggyu beef puff pastry:

Followed by Pam having a seafood risotto:

She also strapped on the feedbag and had a NY strip steak:

I had braised beef in a burgundy reduction. It was so good, it almost gave me the vapors and made me faint:

We also split the Dover sole which was magnificent: 

Later on, we searched for Ben and Ophelia, but were unsuccessful so we headed to bed and buckled down to rough seas. 
Z and TB

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Zqueeze1

[RJ2002]

You guys are having lots of my favorites.  Everything looks delicious.  Thanks for making us all hungry!

[Mudhen]

We're so glad that the BM&M society is being well represented! Any other particularly good watering holes and bar tenders that we should know about? How full is the ship? Keep us posted....

J&L

[Zqueeze1]

25 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

We're so glad that the BM&M society is being well represented! Any other particularly good watering holes and bar tenders that we should know about? How full is the ship? Keep us posted....

J&L

Although reception won’t give me that info because it is classified Top Secret no peekie, a little bird told me that there are 600 passengers on board. 
Z and TB

Edited March 9, 2020 by Zqueeze1

[Zqueeze1]

[Zqueeze1]

Disregard pics from above. I’m having serious issues with CC posting and all my text disappeared. 
 

I just lost an hours’ worth of writing and it was good stuff. Here we go again:

 

We had soap opera level conflicts yesterday. It all started when the Captain cancelled our port call to the Cayman Islands 🇰🇾 due to toxic smoke layering our anchorage spot coming from burning garbage. 
 

Some folks either protecting themselves from the smile or getting battle ready to storm the bridge (more on that later). 

 

After a week of peaceful bliss, in comes Putz Number One and demands to have his loungers back from the current users. He demanded to talk to a member of the staff, yelled at him for allowing folks to move his stuff, then got into an argument with more customers. 
Putz Numbers Two and Three hogged their chairs for a few hours. Two older couples looking like one had a serious comb over and the other like SAM the Eagle from the Muppets, took up residence for a couple of hours. Putz Number Two and Three came in and chased them away. 

Trouble Maker Number One hogs the pool bar and backs it up while she has my favorite alcoholic beverage supplier, Vita, follow her instruction to the letter to make a cocoanut margarita (what is that?). She tasted it and puts it back on the bar because “you did it wrong.”

Meanwhile, Trouble Maker Number Two tallies the troops French Revolution Style and prospered to st the bridge and take hostages until the pool is filled up wrk water. Trouble Maker Number Two has made an expert assessment of the weather and came up with the conclusion that the seas were calm enough. In a show of force, the Captain sends in reinforcements in the form of crew members to make pool repairs.  This was interpreted as a slap im the face to the would be pool guerrillas who were under extreme suffering from swimming deprivation and lack of ice in their gin and tonics. 
Meanwhile, Trouble Maker Number One comes back and demands to know why the ship does not carry Coco Lopez  for her cocoanut margaritas. As a world renowned Hispanic I know the Coco Lopez is cream of cocoanut and one of the three main ingredients for making piña coladas (Advanced Puerto Rican History101). She also asked to talk to a senior officer about this travesty of justice and deprivation of pleasure. 
I’m watching this show with Norman, a gentle and kind New Zealander and retired military seventy eight years young gentleman. Trouble Maker Number One swoops in on her broom and wants Norman to do the traditional New Zealand war dance, the Hakka. She keeps asking him and making him uncomfortable, so I told her that Norman ain’t doing sh*t for nobody. I told Norman to go take his nap before we were going on the prowl to help him find this Belgian lady that he had the hots for. Trouble Maker Number One has a rep as an egocentric attention grabber and I had been forewarned by some new Brit friends to stay away from her.  She is not a nice person and is also a Red Sox fan. 

All this stuff happening at the pool bar reminds me of being a kid and watching the world go by while sitting on the stoop in my old neighborhood in NYC. 

after a nap, we got dressed for dinner and met up with our usual person we crowd for drinks. We then headed out to Pacific Rim where we had the best meal so far on this cruise. 
Pam started with an app portion of the gigantic tiger prawns:

Followed by pot stickers?

And Korean bulgogi:

We both had soft shelled crabs:

And I had the dim sum:

Followed by the Korean lamb chops. I heard cherubs singing and Michelangelo himself painted a portrait of it:

Followed by the succulent and deliciously tasty miso cod fish:

 

After dinner we went to the Explorer Bar to with Ben happy birthday. While there, the duo said they had a song request the previous night from Norman and were not familiar with the song. Twenty four hours later, they hit every note perfectly as they sang Nessum Dorma for Norman who was in tears. It was a beautiful closing to a perfect evening. 
two more days left before reality kicks in. 
Z and TB

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Zqueeze1
Operator error

[Mudhen]

HOLY.......ah COW! I self deleted the explative!!!! What a report! I guess even though Regent is a pretty classy operation, they can't choose whom they have as passengers! I'm so glad you defended Norman from the attack of the idiot(s), and kept the pool bar up to BM&M Society standards. "She" most definately doesn't deserve a seat!

The PR food looked absolutely amazing!!

How is the broken leg doing.....or, oh, it was just smashed toes, etc? haha!

Keep drinking and carry on!

L&J

[Zqueeze1]

13 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

HOLY.......ah COW! I self deleted the explative!!!! What a report! I guess even though Regent is a pretty classy operation, they can't choose whom they have as passengers! I'm so glad you defended Norman from the attack of the idiot(s), and kept the pool bar up to BM&M Society standards. "She" most definately doesn't deserve a seat!

The PR food looked absolutely amazing!!

How is the broken leg doing.....or, oh, it was just smashed toes, etc? haha!

Keep drinking and carry on!

L&J

Toes and Achilles' tendon are partially mission capable. I took a day off from walking yesterday to rest it up and plan to walk for just an hour today.  However, I will try to go back to my 90 minutes' walk when we get to Key West tomorrow. 

You will be pleased to know that I have about five couples who have signed up for the pub crawl for tomorrow. 

Z and TB

[Mudhen]

awe......! Please have one (or a couple) for us in absentia! Will be thinking of you!

[tnr]

1 hour ago, Zqueeze1 said:

Toes and Achilles' tendon are partially mission capable. I took a day off from walking yesterday to rest it up and plan to walk for just an hour today.  However, I will try to go back to my 90 minutes' walk when we get to Key West tomorrow. 

You will be pleased to know that I have about five couples who have signed up for the pub crawl for tomorrow. 

Z and TB

Wish we were pub crawling with you.  Aah, such good memories of another crawl.

 

[Zqueeze1]

As of last night, we are in code red. According to a crew member, this is a fleet wide condition taken as a precautionary measure. This means that we cannot serve ourselves when at any buffet lines.  However, I noticed that salt and pepper shakers are still in use.  
Z and TB

[ronrick1943]

Wow what a day.  Haven't seen anything like that, but the  Food looks great.  

[UUNetBill]

1 hour ago, Zqueeze1 said:

As of last night, we are in code red. According to a crew member, this is a fleet wide condition taken as a precautionary measure. This means that we cannot serve ourselves when at any buffet lines.  However, I noticed that salt and pepper shakers are still in use.  
Z and TB

I'd guess that this is being driven by the Fed to try and stem the...well, you know...

[liptastic]

Oh those food photos are just so good 😊. What a carry on at the pool area! Sounds like a really unwelcome behaviour towards staff and other passengers?  Hopefully they have been put in their place good and proper after that outburst.

Thanks for posting , Jean.

[bebop bonnie]

Forget my idea that Z should take over as tour director for the destination services department. We need to have a chat with the entertainment director. Z  would outshine the comedian by miles!  Actually maybe he could do both jobs. But that would mean that he would have four jobs. Excursion director, top comedian on stage, listening to and behaving appropriately for TB, and holding down the pool bar. That is one busy dude 😎

[Travelcat2]

4 minutes ago, bebop bonnie said:

Forget my idea that Z should take over as tour director for the destination services department. We need to have a chat with the entertainment director. Z  would outshine the comedian by miles!  Actually maybe he could do both jobs. But that would mean that he would have four jobs. Excursion director, top comedian on stage, listening to and behaving appropriately for TB, and holding down the pool bar. That is one busy dude 😎

 

Agree that Z should be a "Regent" tour director but you should be his assistant!  Anyone that can make crossing the street sound interesting is great in my book!

[Gcto]

On 3/9/2020 at 4:28 AM, Zqueeze1 said:

Jackie:  I think GCTO was kidding around. Hence the smiley faces. 
Z and TB

thanks 

Yes, I was....  Sorry if it didn't come through ..

TC...now worries

[Gcto]

9 hours ago, Zqueeze1 said:

As of last night, we are in code red. According to a crew member, this is a fleet wide condition taken as a precautionary measure. This means that we cannot serve ourselves when at any buffet lines.  However, I noticed that salt and pepper shakers are still in use.  
Z and TB

we were on Explorer last week and felt very safe. Lot's of cleaning going on on a constant basis. Met a lot of great people (guests and staff). Flight back home was more scary. Contemplated going back to the ship this week to be safe again (considering where we live 🙂 )  But then...we'd run into the Putz family....oh boy....

 

[RachelG]

Catching up again.  Hope your foot is better.  It looks to be a fabulous time.

[Travelcat2]

On 3/9/2020 at 11:02 AM, Zqueeze1 said:

Although reception won’t give me that info because it is classified Top Secret no peekie, a little bird told me that there are 600 passengers on board. 
Z and TB

 

That is really a shame.  Loyal passengers should know how Regent (and other cruise lines) are suffering as the result of this virus.  If they are sailing less than full, it is nothing to be ashamed of,

[Hambagahle]

Let's just be happy that Regent IS sailing.  The loss of revenue must be huge.

[Gcto]

Z....  following your cruise and your postings. Having a blast reading it and I wish I'd be there. (we missed you by a week). 

Thank you so much for taking care of the gentleman from NZ and keeping him under your wing when Mrs Puts ?  accosted him. Next time, I'll do the Haka for her, but she wouldn't know what hit her :-)  I hope we will meet you one of those days on a future cruise. We've met wonderful people on our cruises before including live long friends from Australia and others. And we've been honored to to meet special people like GoArmy, ColWes. I hope to cruise with them again. I'm already looking forward to meeting uunetbill one of those days (just to talk internet, not gin included) ...and I would like to add you to the list. People like you make the world a better place.    

 

Thank you

 

[Zqueeze1]

5 hours ago, Gcto said:

Z....  following your cruise and your postings. Having a blast reading it and I wish I'd be there. (we missed you by a week). 

Thank you so much for taking care of the gentleman from NZ and keeping him under your wing when Mrs Puts ?  accosted him. Next time, I'll do the Haka for her, but she wouldn't know what hit her :-)  I hope we will meet you one of those days on a future cruise. We've met wonderful people on our cruises before including live long friends from Australia and others. And we've been honored to to meet special people like GoArmy, ColWes. I hope to cruise with them again. I'm already looking forward to meeting uunetbill one of those days (just to talk internet, not gin included) ...and I would like to add you to the list. People like you make the world a better place.    

 

Thank you

 

Aww shucks. Thank you very much for the kind words. We would also love to sail with many of the folks you mentioned and get to k ow you all better. Cruising has opened up a whole new world of people for us. 
Z and TB

[Zqueeze1]

Good Morning from Key West.

As Rich would say, the table is almost served and we are almost done. Today is our last port call before docking back into reality in the morning. I’ll be in my office in forty six hours from now. 
Anyways, not much to report from yesterday. I had a disappointing walk (30 min) while Pam rocked out 18,000 steps.

After a great lunch with Bonnie and Debbie, we ended up in the cabin watching movies. The ship’s stocks of tequila and beer were left virtually untouched. 
In contrast to the afternoon, Bonnie and Debbie got us an additional reservation on Pacific Rim and we spent two and a half delightful hours enjoying their company. 

I’m a little worried about Norman since we haven’t seen him since Monday night when the singing duo serenaded him with Nessum Dorma. I need to find the little guy so we can swap contact info. 
Troublemaker Number One just arrived and took over the room with her voice. Ughhhh.

i would call these Yaki Mandoo if I were back in Korea:

Salad with duck:

Vietnamese Pho soup which was superb:

Awesome pot stickers:

Beef tataki. Not the best dish of the evening, but also very good:

The pork ribs were great. The restaurant manager, Natasha, thought mine were overcooked so she brought me a second order. I ate both of them: 

Needless to say, I only posted pics of food we did not have during our previous PAC Rim dinner. It was the most we have eaten in one sitting during this cruise. 
Today promises to be bittersweet. We check in with CBP at 0715, have breakfast, then are planning to go out into town for our PT walk. At 1100, we meet Ben and Ophelia for some oysters. Then the highlight of the day starts at 1300. Our Key West pub crawl!!!  It should be a blast. 
Adterwards, the dreaded packing begins. 
Z and TB

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Zqueeze1

[UUNetBill]

2 hours ago, Zqueeze1 said:

The pork ribs were great. The restaurant manager, Natasha, thought mine were overcooked so she brought me a second order. I ate both of them: 

Z and TB

Kind of on topic, I guess - have you noticed that the portions overall seem to be smaller, i.e. 'right-sized'?  I noticed that on Explorer in January and was happy to see it, I just wondered if anyone else thought the portions were more normal recently.