Splendor: Christmas on the Canal

[liv-2-go]

Booked WB canal transit on the Grandeur for '25 last week.  It will be our first Regent cruise.  Really enjoyed the write up.  Now the two year wait for our upgraded next cruise. 

[flossie009]

We were anchored off Cabo San Lucas today ………..

 

 

but we were not alone ………

 

 

 

More about our day ashore later ………..

[macnoir]

On 1/1/2023 at 2:57 PM, flossie009 said:

We have found WiFi/internet connectivity to be generally good in our suite and around the ship this cruise.

 

We initially had an issue in our suite on the last segment but a visit from the internet manager and a ship’s technician soon got things sorted (repeater rebooted)

 

 

I've been wondering if the device behind the tv also acts as a wifi repeater or if the wifi only comes from the devices on the hallway ceiling. Did they actually come into your room to reboot it? That may answer my question. 

Thanks!

[flossie009]

14 hours ago, macnoir said:

I've been wondering if the device behind the tv also acts as a wifi repeater or if the wifi only comes from the devices on the hallway ceiling. Did they actually come into your room to reboot it? That may answer my question. 

Thanks!

Yes, I think that the box pictured below behind the TV in suites on Splendor is a repeater. Perhaps someone with more technical knowledge can confirm

 

The internet manager and a ship’s technician came to our suite, but were then on the phone as the reboot had to be done from elsewhere.

 

 

We had a similar problem in a Horizon suite on Mariner last Christmas, but it was not sorted for a week as that internet manager was insistent that the problem was with our devices rather than the ship’s hardware. Only after constant badgering did he get a ship’s technician to check the local repeater and a reboot again solved the issue.

What that experience taught us (and that internet manager) is that full ‘bars’ on your device only indicates that your Wi-Fi is connected to the nearest repeater, but that if you still cannot connect to websites then that local repeater may not be connected to the internet.

All very frustrating 😤

[flossie009]

Today is a day at sea en route to Ensenada, Mexico.

 

Sunny skies but much cooler - pool deck crew providing blankets for those less hardy souls😉

 

Also plenty of inside activities are scheduled. The usual games & speakers plus a cooking demo and a discussion with the magician, Matt Marcy.

 

Prize redemption & Krew Kapers tonight must mean the cruise is almost over 😕

 

[flossie009]

Backtracking, here is a report on our excursion in Cabo San Lucas yesterday.

 

CSL-004: Lands End Boat & Cabo View

After tendering ashore we boarded a large boat for a trip along the coast viewing the rock formations, and were lucky enough to spot two whales.

 

 

 

We then boarded a coach which took in a picturesque viewing point, a glass factory and ended with free time in the lovely town of San Jose del Cabo

 

 

 

 

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the boat trip, but we found the rest of the excursion to be too long & a little tedious.

When we booked the tour it was scheduled as 4.5 hours, corrected to 5 hours when on board. In the event it ran to 6.5 hours including the time tendering from/to Splendor.

[Jimmcdaniel]

@flossie009 enjoy the Mexican sunshine while you can. It will be raining when you get to LA. We aren't complaining though--we need the water! 

 

Have so enjoyed your lovely photos and commentary. 

[Kristal Blade]

I think we did the same trip as flossie009,

We enjoyed all of it! Not having spent much time in Mexico we really enjoyed having time to stroll round the lovely town of San Juan Del Cabo. We took loads of photos, perused the shops and enjoyed the patter from the guide during the bus journey.

 

The glass factory was our least favourite bit, but it was an opportunity to see a bit of life behind the scenes. The stop at the hotel to have a beer or soft drink was lovely. The views in the daytime were fabulous but at sunset they must be dreamy.

 

We both said we could easily return to Cabo San Lucas because there was lots to do and see.

 

The tendering process wasn’t very well organised on the return journey. With 3 ships in it was easy to get in the wrong queue, we spoke to a couple of people who were lined up in the Norwegian tender queue. Our tender had to go round the other side of the ship as it was too jumpy to offload passengers at the original side. 
 

The packing has begun here and my room decorations are all down. I’m leaving my door decorations till tomorrow. The corridors are so empty and bland without all the door embellishments.

 

Good news for us. Regent has laid on a tour of LA that will drop us at the airport at 1pm so not such a long day of waiting at LAX. I’m not sure how much there is to do there but I don’t think it will be as much fun as a few hours at Changi airport.

 

I will do another post tomorrow, after our hiking trip when I will include some interesting photos.

[mrlevin]

Sorry I haven't posted much (and I still haven't figured out how to post photos) but let me say that this has been a fantastic cruise.  Learned today how much fun  CD David's unique way of running trivia can be.  On each of the sea days each team turned in their results so that an overall winner could be determined.  In addition to ensuring good showing at trivia and keeping the teams cohesive, this led to great competitiveness.  Ends up our team (three Americans, two Brits, and a Panamanian) easily won the overall competition.  50 tokens each!  Given we have yet to be off the ship in 22 days, trivia (along with eating, drinking, and having fun) has been one of the highlights of the cruise.  Hats off to David for a wonderful trivia experience.

 

Marc

[flossie009]

Morning show was from the laundry yesterday

 

 

 

 

[flossie009]

Krew Kapers was excellent as usual & received a standing ovation from the packed theatre

 

Some old favourites

 

YMCA

 

Plus a new hilarious routine “synchronised swans”

 

 

 

 

The finale (Impossible Dream) was led by an excellent singer

 

[flossie009]

Ensenada, Mexico, today; our last full day before docking in LA tomorrow

 

 

We have just docked next to a “Mickey Mouse” ship 🤣

 

 

 

Sounds like they are having a crew drill this morning. Hope Donald remembers his life jacket; but then ducks are good swimmers so shouldn’t be a problem 😉

 

Internet seems to have taken a dive again (very spotty these last few days)

 

The dreaded packing later today 😕. Only seems like yesterday that we joined the ship.

We have thoroughly enjoyed this cruise 😎

 

 

 

[flossie009]

Some interesting figures for this cruise (16 nights) from the Captain last night:

  - cost of fuel: $1.3M

  - Panama Canal fees: $257k

  - eggs consumed: 23,000

 

I cannot remember the statistics for the number of bottles of wine & champagne, but it was mega 😮

 

 

[Kristal Blade]

Well, I was all set to do my cruise review… it took 5 minutes to enter my date of birth and then I got the spinning wheel of doom and unable to register. I had a list of staff I wanted to mention as having provided service above and beyond but now it looks like that won’t happen. Grr.

 

I promised some interesting photos in this post. Can you spot the difference in these 2 pictures? After asking politely we were given a kettle but told not to tell because apparently there was only one on the ship! We have made full use of it, morning cuppa in bed, tea on demand during the day. It arrived within a couple of days of boarding, after we mentioned on the mid cruise comment card that the only thing missing from our enjoyment was a kettle.

 

We had a really good excursion in Ensenada. The El Salto hike. A lovely walk to a canyon  along sandy  then rocky paths. Lovely trees, interesting flowers and a couple of birds. The guide asked us to try to keep quiet so as not to scare off any animals but that message obviously didn’t penetrate the brains of all the participants! Never mind, we loved being in the fresh air under bright blue skies. A great end to our time in Mexico.

 

We are right now arriving in a very rainy LA.  I'm going to try with the cruise review now before wifi cuts out.

[Dr. Cocktail]

Really continuing to love the review and all of the various interpolations!!!

 

A curious question - are any people wearing masks and any dirty looks, if so?

 

We're still more comfortable in crowded spaces putting on a mask as required - can't shake our 30+ years of practice!

[Huggsy]

2 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

Well, I was all set to do my cruise review… it took 5 minutes to enter my date of birth and then I got the spinning wheel of doom and unable to register. I had a list of staff I wanted to mention as having provided service above and beyond but now it looks like that won’t happen. Grr.

 

I promised some interesting photos in this post. Can you spot the difference in these 2 pictures? After asking politely we were given a kettle but told not to tell because apparently there was only one on the ship! We have made full use of it, morning cuppa in bed, tea on demand during the day. It arrived within a couple of days of boarding, after we mentioned on the mid cruise comment card that the only thing missing from our enjoyment was a kettle.

 

We had a really good excursion in Ensenada. The El Salto hike. A lovely walk to a canyon  along sandy  then rocky paths. Lovely trees, interesting flowers and a couple of birds. The guide asked us to try to keep quiet so as not to scare off any animals but that message obviously didn’t penetrate the brains of all the participants! Never mind, we loved being in the fresh air under bright blue skies. A great end to our time in Mexico.

 

We are right now arriving in a very rainy LA.  I'm going to try with the cruise review now before wifi cuts out.

Enjoyed reading your write ups and pleased you had use of The Kettle 😁.

For our April Med cruise on Splendor I'm debating whether to ask for a kettle (or The Kettle) but as hubby and I are both light sleepers I'm sure that 2 or 3 in the morning I'll get elbowed in the ribs followed by "Go on, make us a cup of tea". Might be making a rod for my own back🙄.

Look forward to seeing your review. Safe trip home 🏡 

 

[Kristal Blade]

7 hours ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

Really continuing to love the review and all of the various interpolations!!!

 

A curious question - are any people wearing masks and any dirty looks, if so?

 

We're still more comfortable in crowded spaces putting on a mask as required - can't shake our 30+ years of practice!

Some people were wearing masks but to be honest it seemed to me that those who should have masked up due to coughing weren’t wearing them!

No dirty looks to those wearing masks but definitely dirty looks to those who were coughing in lounges!

[flossie009]

8 hours ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

are any people wearing masks and any dirty looks, if so?

Guests on this cruise seemed comfortable making their own decisions about mixing, social distancing and masks.

Those wearing masks were in the minority but all others respected their choice.

Officers, staff & crew were unmasked. Hosted tables were back and block parties have recommenced.

 

[flossie009]

The protector on the bed yesterday signalled that the cruise would be over within a few hours

 

 

After the excellent pre-dinner show by Anne (production cast singer), it was off to Compass Rose for our final dinner. Then the entertainment crew led a spirited Beatles hour in the atrium with many guests singing & dancing to the well known favourites 🎶

 

 

This morning we arrived in rainy LA. After breakfast in La Veranda, we left the ship just before 9am. DHS were a little slow in processing passengers; 45 minutes from leaving the ship to clearing immigration 😕

 

We do not fly back to the U.K. until Saturday so we have some time for retail therapy.

We realised our Christmas adventures were over when we saw decorations being removed and the Christmas Tree being felled & shredded at an outlet mall today

 

 

Hope this blog has been of interest.
We can definitely recommend a Holiday cruise on Regent; it beats turkey sandwiches at home any day 😀

 

 

[flossie009]

On 1/3/2023 at 8:55 PM, mrlevin said:

and I still haven't figured out how to post photos

Sorry we didn’t manage the photo training session. Next year maybe 🤔

It was good to chat with you on board, rather than just on this CC Board 🥃

 

[ChucktownSteve]

Flossie and other contributors did an excellent job preparing us to have an excellent cruise. 
 

we met so many nice people at the fairmont before getting our transfer today to your disembarked ship. 
 

my DW had left her hat in the gathering waiting area but didn’t realize it until we were on the bus enroute  to the port. 
 

I called the hotel and was transferred to their concierge. He got our information about the Stetson straw hat. Then called me back shortly, even thou I hadn’t given him my phone number.  He told me another passenger had picked it up was on a following bus. They said  they would drop it at the ship’s list and found. 
 

we quickly retrieved her hat. They were so Kind and considerate that I wish I could find out who they are. We ran into someone who rode the bus with them but didn’t know their name. 
 

the crew on this ship, even though we haven’t sailed yet are incredible!

 

I went into the restaurant reservation office and the gal welcomed me warmly by name. She was the hostess we saw every night at compass rose on the navigator last May that took such great care of us.  We got an extra pacific rim reservation already. I now understand how it feels to make contact with crew you’ve sailed with before. I never expected it on other cruise lines. 
 

Our Nicaragua pot turned into a sea day but I expected that from this thread. 
 

this is already starting to be the best Regent cruise. Thankx for setting it up with such positive information!

 

fair winds and calm seas. 

 

 

[Dr. Cocktail]

4 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Guests on this cruise seemed comfortable making their own decisions about mixing, social distancing and masks.

Those wearing masks were in the minority but all others respected their choice.

Officers, staff & crew were unmasked. Hosted tables were back and block parties have recommenced.

 

Thanks!

[SALAD MUNCHER]

On 12/21/2022 at 8:44 PM, flossie009 said:

 

 

We are doing this same trip on the Grandeur in Dec 2023 to Jan 2024! Great to read all about it, thank you.

[Kristal Blade]

Remember Mr 400 days? He was at the airport with us today.

Turns out he’s not just a twit with the Regent staff. 
 

We were checking in for our flight, Upper Class. There was only one lady doing UC check in. As we were being checked in Mr 400 days came from his place in the queue to berate the staff for not having more people checking in UC passengers. The lady was very professional, told him she was alone, nobody else was coming to help and everyone would be seen to. 
 

Behaviour like that does nothing for the reputation of the Brits, but we managed to turn things round with the check in lady. Had a laugh about it and thanked her for great service. Obviously he needs another holiday to help him chill out.

 

In other news we were delighted to go on the Regent organised pre flight tour of LA. Due to the slow processing our trip was only 3 hours long but we got to the Walk of Fame for a quick walk around then we went to a fabulous farmers market where we could get lunch. Choices ranged from huge doorstep pastrami sandwiches to pizza to hot dogs to… you get the picture! 
 

We are home now after a fairly nasty drive home, rain, wind and lots of spray made visibility poor. And now our boiler has broken down! Why did we get off the ship?

[flossie009]

1 hour ago, Kristal Blade said:

a twit

I am sure we can all think of other descriptors, which probably would not be allowed on a public forum 😮

 

1 hour ago, Kristal Blade said:

We are home now after a fairly nasty drive home, rain, wind and lots of spray made visibility poor. And now our boiler has broken down!

We are not looking forward to the cold/rain when we arrive home on Sunday. 
Hope your boiler is fixed soon.