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 ……