ON THE HIGH SEAS
Finally, a bit of time to relax! This is Tuesday and we have been on the ship
since Sunday afternoon. Backing up a
bit, we left Lakeland on Saturday morning and stopped in Ft. Myers to see
friends we met on our last cruise (Myrna and Terry Nelson). It was great to catch up on the past year.
We drove to Miami across Alligator Alley and enjoyed the
beautiful scenery and wildlife.
Our walk through the evergades
At Miami we got a hotel room near the airport … not the best
part of town to say the least. On Sunday morning we piled all our luggage in
the car and left it at the cruise terminal, then we returned the rental car to
the airport. We were amazed that the car rental area is a whole separate
complex with a train to the airport. We figured we would have to take the train
to the airport and then take a shuttle back to the cruise terminal, but they
had a free shuttle right from the car rental area to the terminal. There were 5
cruise ships docked; 2 Carnival, 2 Norwegian and our ship. Our little ship was dwarfed by the other
ships.
Leaving Miami
It felt so good to get back on board! This ship is 5/8 the size of our ship last
year, but still has all amenities. The cruise appears to be nearly
full with about 470 passengers; 430 of them being returning passengers. For a cruise with so many challenging ports
and aggressive shore excursions, we are amazed at the number of wheelchairs and
infirmed passengers … they just love to cruise.
Bruce and Jane had friends on the cruise and we got together
with them the first night. Lovely people
and I am sure we will have lots more good times with them. First morning at the
coffee bar we met another couple from
Musquodoboit Harbour! What a small world. We were so glad to see our friends Pat and
Gordon Gray once again. They have one of
the Master Suites and have invited us to a private formal dinner in their suite
on Dec. llth.
Eric doing his daily walk ... got to get those blood sugars down!
The sun feels SO GOOD!!
We love to play bridge with the Gray’s and have had two days
of bridge so far. The director is Patti Miller and this is her first cruise
with Regent. There is a new agent in
charge of bridge for Regent and she is just thrilled to be on board. Pretty
cool way to cruise.
The food on board is as good as ever; in fact, it seems to
me to be better than the other ship.
Wonderful good choices, something for everyone. Actually, too much for
everyone!
The weather has been good, but it is now cloudy and there is
a risk of thunder showers.
We just finished the “block party” where we all go out into
the hallway with our empty wine glasses and meet our neighbours. The captain,
first officer and cruise director come through and meet everyone. I always find
it interesting as people are all bragging up their cruises, where they have
been and where they are going. When
asked where we were from, there was a blank look from them all … you are so far
from home! I felt like mentioning that
we are much closer than the couples from Britain and California!
Not too much excitement so far. Tomorrow we visit St. Barts and we are going
to trek the island. Also tomorrow we start to take our malaria pills.
Oh yes, the air temperature was high 80’s today and the
water temperature was 84!
Tonight we went to the new Italian Restaurant for our first
time. This is a new feature on Regent cruise ships and is absolutely
amazing. It is totally Italian and was a
wonderful meal. Our waiter was Italian and looks like her and her husband have
been hired to work only in this restaurant.
Our other waiter was Indian and says he can see the sunrise and sunset from the same place.
His wife is due to have a baby in February and he is going home then. His
Father fishes and he gets all the shrimp and lobster he would ever want. I told him we were from Canada and can say
the same thing. He kept coming back to
talk to us, saying that he could never put his arm around another women in his
culture (as he put his around me). He
was so happy as are most of the employees, especially those from the Philipines
All this food …
yikes! Well, my size 10 pants still
fit!!!!!! This is only day 3 of 23!!
We now have the warning to keep our balcony doors
closed. This is to keep out the humidity
as well as the bugs. It is starting to get humid ….. I absolutely love it, but
poor Eric is melting.
Tomorrow when we go to St. Barts we are advised to wear our
bathing suits under our cover-ups.
Yippie!! I have been waiting for
this.
Our first shore excursion …. More to come after we complete
the next three days,
Much love to everyone ……
