Those photos were just the best, more please!!

Anne and Gary, I hope you continue to receive good news about Gary's mom.

Anne - we're keeping our fingers crossed for good news about Gary's Mom. Thank you for the posts - we're glad to hear everything onboard is terrific!

Thank you so much for going to the trouble to post. I don't get to check in as often as i would like, but boy do i enjoy those sea mail posts. i sure hope Gary's mom is alright. My very best thoughts are with you!!
Cindy

WOW great photos - what a fun New Year's Eve you all must have had!! Thanks Ngaire for posting them - makes me want to be there.

Anne - glad to hear that Gary's Mom is doing better and you don't have to fly home.

Keep having fun guys and posting.

You are definitely the cat's meoOOWW, Anne! Love your "Scarlet" ensemble!
We are keeping Gary's Mom in our prayers that she has a complete recovery.

The photos are wonderful to see! Yes, more please! Keep on having fun, Ngaire & all - Michele

Hi everyone.

Back again. The town of Puntarenas is very small. Not much there if you don’t do an excursion and of course almost everyone did.

The group went on excursions though with the canopy being what most people did. Of course on their return there were many stories of their adventures that gave us a fun evening discussing what had occurred. I will let Anne post that she was there.

Last night we had dinner with Debbie and Clay and also with Jack and Mary (Dougburns friends). We had a nice time and a picture is being posted below. Cheutan joined us for the picture.

Last night was fun. We passed the Mariner at 10.45 pm. Both ships were lit up of course and it was a nice evening. The ships stopped and did what I would call a “ballet”. The Mariner did a 360 and hung a sign saying “hello little sister”. Then the Voyager started around the Mariner. It was really neat. The ships agreed to send each other a gift. The Voyager sent the Mariner a huge bottle of Moet Chardon and had the passengers sign the case. The Mariner sent up a map of the world signed by all the passengers. It was a kind of a “contest” between the ships to see who could come up with the best gift. I think the Voyager won.

Ken is posting some pictures below.

Clay, Ken, Debbie, Mary, Ngaire, Chetuan, & Jack

Oh, how magical! That is one event I would of loved to have witnessed!

Getting goosebumps reading about "The Ballet" What a sight that was. I remember the Navigator and Diamond doing something similar in St. Barths and how we stood on the pool deck and whistled and waved but no gifts were exchanged. How special! :app: :app:

That is so exciting passing the Mariner! What a beautiful site! I can't believe we'll be on her a week from today! I remember how thrilling it was when we passed the QE2 on the WC. It was so fun with the horns blowing back and forth...they really do quite a "ballet" (no gifts exchanged though!).

We love your seamails!!!

Thanks for the pixs - they are beautiful -

I am so enjoying the seamails, living vicariously through all of you.

Keep the seamail coming and the great pictures.

Anne, Gary's mom is in my thoughts and prayers.

Nancy

Neat deal with the ship passing. Leave it to RSSC skippers! Please tell Jack Messemer that he has a basket full of work waiting at the VA. That should ruin his day. Your cruise sure brings back pleasant memories of 2 years ago. Glad you finally got to meet Jack and Mary, Ngaire.

Thanks so very much for all your concern about and good wishes for Gary's mom. We appreciate it more than you can know. This is one very special community, and we are honored to be a part of it. She is heading home today, so she is over the worst of it.

The ballet of Mariner and Voyager was so spectacular last night! The two ships had coordinated the music, but because we were a short distance apart, it was like hearing it with a seven second delay. It was a first class sound and light show.

Marcie and Joanna, we sent you guys a message on the bottle. Now you'll have to find it when you get onboard Mariner. Marge has been losing at bingo so she laughed when I told her you had seen her win.

The canopy tour was every bit as much fun for us as two years ago. Seven of us went along on the trip. Along the way, we saw about 30 crocodiles lying in and around a sandbank in the river and lots of birds. We even saw a scarlet macaw in full flight on the way out to Chiclet's and another one on the way back. There is little risk any of us will introduce harnesses as part of our personal dress style. Getting one of those things strapped on your body will certainly get your attention.

We were hooked up to the first zip line and started whooping it up. The howler monkeys started protesting at us. I think we are now known as the "howler humans". Thankfully I wore my Margaritaville shirt and went first. We could all remember that there were 11 zip lines between us and Margaritas. Suffice it to say we as a group introduced a few new techniques for zipping down those cables. After laughing so hard I cried when telling people about it, it was decided "what happens on the zip lines, stays on the zip lines".

After our zip line adventure, we all trickled in at the pool bar for a late lunch. Burgers, chicken, cold sandwiches and the biggest bowl of communal steak fries I have seen in some time were devoured.

A needed shower ensued and Gary ran off to get some genuine Costa Rican coffee. After that, we headed to the laundry room and up to the hot tubs to see the sun set during sailaway. Dinner was turkey in Compass Rose and then some went to the "lullaby of broadway" show. Others of us trooped up to await the Mariner meeting.

We invited our next door neighbors to breakfast this morning after asking us what our door sign meant. They are second-time Radisson cruisers. They were trying to figure out how we are traveling in a group that we sort of know with a travel agent who has a national following. You had to be there, but it sounded like an Abbott & Costello routine.

We celebrated lunch with long-time friends of ours (he turned 75 today) and now I'm getting my mind around trivia in another 45 minutes. Very lazy day today, indeed. I should head to the gym & get 20 minutes in on the bike ... but that is a low probability event.

Scaraoke night is tonight. I've got to get ready. The Scarlett dress is a must do, I think, for this event.

Cheers, Anne

So great to hear from you Anne and Ngaire, and happy to hear that Gary's mother is on the mend! I can't even imagine doing the ziplines and think it's great you all enjoy it so!

Keep enjoying and reporting!

Anne:

Glad to hear you guys are having a great time. Those zip lines in Costa Rica sure were fun. Like Doug, we are enjoying pleasant memories at the same time that we read of your fantastic activities. Keep the reports and pictures coming!

Missed trivia again by one point. GRRR. Had two answers that we decided against that were both right, thereby meaning we once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Double GRRR. Marc, can we get you on the cellphone tomorrow for trivia help?

Doug, Jack and Mary are simply delightful. I visited with them this morning. Jack did not look like a guy anxious to return to a stack of work. I'll pass the message on next time I see him.

Suzanne, Zaldy is on the Navigator and Sunny is working onboard our sailing.

Cheers, Anne

Keep having fun Anne and keep writing!!! Joanna

Love hearing from you Anne. Sure sounds like fun!!
Sonny (or is it Sunny?)is so sweet, kind of shy but such a gentleman! Loved hearing about the zip lines....brings back fun memories! Where's JimB, Jan, Bing Cherry (always makes me laugh thinking of him!)??? Hope they're having a great time too!

Love reading your very descriptive (and humorous) posts, Anne! So glad to hear that Gary's mother is doing far better!

Beautiful photos of the ships and lots of happy people having a wonderful time!

Marcie - I am so sorry to hear about the cars getting crashed by the pine tree. Suzanne, I'm glad you are hanging in there but what a mess. We are also all keeping our fingers crossed for those poor miners trapped in West Virginia. Yikes!

We started off the evening with the Seven Seas cocktail party. Jim, Jan, Carol and Bing were in fine form. As one of our members succinctly put it, “What did the six people who WEREN’T invited do before dinner?” The constellation was packed. Compass rose had the best menu with the famous Dover sole – lamb chop combination dinner. We started strategizing about song selections for the evening sing-along. Ngaire started the idea of rewriting the lyrics to Yellow Submarine. Gary grabbed that idea and ran with it.

We adjourned to the theater to see Beni Mason, comedian. I’ve managed to miss Kenny Smiles so can’t compare, but it was just the kind of entertainment to get everyone warmed up for scareoke. This group figured out scareoke meant safety in numbers.

The Voyager Lounge was overflowing. When they called for Ken and the Kennettes to do “She Loves You”, our beloved Master Princess Ngaire got entangled in one of the other ladies’ beaded dress. In the words of our K-Jay, we were on the verge of our very own Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction moment. Debbie deftly decoupled their dresses.

Next up were Gary and the Annettes, bravely singing back-up without the benefit of the rewritten lyrics or mouseketeer ears, singing “Yellow Submarine”. It went something like this:
“We all live on the Radisson Voyager, Radisson Voyager, Radisson Voyager;
Capt. Dag is our choreographer, choreographer, choreographer;
We danced last night with the Radisson Mariner; Radisson Mariner; Radisson Mariner;
Arnold is our Drinks Connoisseur; Drinks Connoisseur; Drinks Connoisseur”

Following this performance in the broadest sense of the word, Ngaire once again was caught in a soon-to-be wardrobe malfunction. Again, careful workmanship was needed to separate them and save the dresses. I decided it was time to sit between them for, quite literally, damage control. Our collective capability to disentangle without damage was dropping with every sip of cocktails at our table. Thank god the lens lads were not quick enough on the draw to add those photos to the blackmail folder. Russ was assisted by Ken, Gary and Bing as the Rough Riders while he belted out “Green Green Grass of Home”. He has a marvelous voice, indeed.

There were a lot of solo singers who turned in marvelous performances. Simon should be stalking the Voyager Lounge for American Idol contestants. The highlight was the kids who chose “YMCA”. Everyone I could see was dancing with them. It was great! We stayed on for a little disco and then either scattered to our cabins or to the casino.

Today we’ve got tea time trivia moved up to 12:15 and Huatulco at 1 pm. Chetaun, Gary & I are together on the Robinson Crusoe excursion. Satellite permitting, it's the Rose Bowl in its entirety in Voyager Lounge tonight.

Cheers, Anne

Anne, you are having so much fun. Scareoke must have been quite an experience. Would have loved to have been there. Thanks for reporting in and keep the news coming.

This sounds like a lot of fun. Hope we can have a repeat (well not the bead tangling part) on MUSH.

Ann:

Egads, I've been getting some really funny internet jokes lately and now have had a good chuckle out of the tangling dresses episode.

I wouldn't mind getting involved in such an ordeal but am not sure what it takes equipment-wise to participate.

Cheers! Ray
To the person that sent me the "Can you hear me now" joke, you should know I can't get it out of my head. Too funny.

Just read there was a 6.7 earthquake in the Sea of Cortez - wonder if it will affect the port stop at Cabo San Lucas

Looks like it was pretty far from Cabo

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Maps/10/250_25.html

Ray, I sent you that! Hope you liked it as much as I did!

Bing, Carol, Ngaire, Ken, Jan, Jim

Anne is even dancing with strangers

A new dance called THE CANOPY

Anne is even dancing with strangers

Yes she did that in Ponte Vedra too!!!!

Love that dress, Anne. Looking like that you should get to dance with whomever you choose! Thanks for the pictures, Ngaire. Where are you dancing? At first I thought it was on the pool deck but now I can't decide. Teach us "the Canopy" on MUSH?

Party time looks like a great time!

Another great dress, Anne!

The dancing was during the Kareoke night in the Voyager Lounge.

It is late so I am not going to post much just checking in to see that Ken posted the pictures. Had another wonderful evening, great dinner with prime rib tonight.

Off to see the cliff divers in Acapulco tomorrow.

Seas have been calm for the entire trip and that good weather continues.

When one of your own from New Jersey sings “New York, New York” and pleads for dancing girls, a home girl HAS to respond. Now we can add Thomas to The Boss and Bon Jovi as current music powerhouses in New Jersey.

Our Driver, Capt. Dag, got us into Huatulco nearly two hours earlier than expected. It was wonderful to have the option of more time in port. We had a bonus round of tea time trivia yesterday at noontime, though, so stayed onboard and won handily. We’re now trying to make a coherent sentence using all of the answers that we missed on the quizzes, so that’s produced some pretty funny results. We got to reminiscing about our days in England, so we asked if they would make a summer pudding dessert for us this evening. Patrick as ever was obliging with this request.

We took the Robinson Crusoe tour, a 43 foot cabin cruiser yacht sailing over to a private beach. It only held 10 passengers and was a lot of fun. They had a shaded canopy for us to sit on the beach and several of our party went swimming and snorkeling. Reports were good sightings of turquoise and yellow fish near the coral. The water is choppy near Huatulco so it felt as if we were going very slowly while we rode the waves. It was wonderful to get outside of the main little town of Huatulco. I’d do it again if I could arrange it with a private tour operator at a more reasonable cost. At $245/head for the proverbial Gilligan’s Island tour, it was pricey. Debbie and Russ did the snorkeling tour and saw many, many more fish. The biggest downside was getting back too late for trivia.

After that, it was nap time. It took tremendous willpower to get up and go to dinner. We met a lovely couple from Colorado at Latitudes, so we wound up closing the place down. Afterwards, we wandered out to the coffee bar to catch the back half of the Rose Bowl. Lots of ardent fans for each team made for a lively atrium. The bars were awfully quiet as all the attention was on orange or crimson. Congratulations to all you Longhorn fans .. the USC guys will get you next year.

We are greeted by a stunningly beautiful tequila sunrise this morning as we are pulling into Acapulco. This is our third visit so we’ll just walk around, do a little shopping and possibly hit the beach. The on board activities are very light today. Dinner is with Jamie and Dana Logan – Marcie, I’ll send your regards.

Cheers, Anne

Dear Partiers....it's been great sharing your cruise with you!

Thanks for giving us the vicarious pleasure.

Enjoy Acapulco.

Anne - hope someone took photos of the sunrise - it was incredible when we did the cruise. You are all having so much fun. Jamie and Dana are a delight. He published a Cruise Quip a Day calendar two years ago that was terrific. And they remembered us from our honeymoon cruise - not on RSSC 6 years earlier. They are pretty special.

Sounds like such fun! I see you on the dance floor too Ngaire! Brings back such wonderful memories of our cruises with Ngaire, Ken, Anne and Gary! Thanks for giving our regards to Jamie and Dana, we miss them!!

I was just told by RSSC that the larger suites don't have the provided computers anymore. Is there some way to verify that while y'all are right there? And that there aren't going to be ensuite computer hookups anymore.

DONT KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED THIS POST IS FROM NGAIRE - ANNE MUST NOT HAVE LOGGED OUT OF LCT SOMEHOW AND I AM ON THE SAME MACHINE AND ON HER LOG IN.

Pam when you call RSSC the people there just read what is on their computer screens. My best guess is that the representative was looking at the MARINER not the VOYAGER.

The larger suites on the Voyager, Seven Seas Suites and up STILL have the in room computers and service. That has not changed. They are working on putting WIFI in all the suites but they are coming slowly it is a big undertaking. Some cabins have it and some dont.

WE WON TRIVIA again today - always feels good to get another highly valuable token.

I loved Acapulco today. It was nicer than I anticipated it would be. We drove around and saw the Las Brisas area and the church - beautiful. Then onto the Princess - also an incredible hotel. The highlight of course was the Cliff Divers and we loved that. Hopefully Ken got some good shots. PERFECT weather again today. Warm but not tremendously hot.

Have to rush off to get ready for dinner and the inevitable rack of lamb.

I kept going to LCT with no news. I finally asked why and found seamail !! We limeys are a bit slow !!
Gary, hope mom is OK.
Glad that you are enjoying it all.
On our cruise I found a REAL quiet spot to read or just sit and think, and noone knew !!
The Conoisseurs club.
Thanks to Linda L. for suggesting a suite change. It worked with a great assist from Jamie. Please thank him for me, Ngaire.
A belated happy new year to you all and have fun. Sorry I couldn';t make it

Nagire: we stayed at the Princess in Acapulco years and years ago - it was spectacular and, at that time, you could use the facilities at the "stuffier" sister hotel the Pierre Marques right next door - we paid $100 per night including b'fast and dinner on some outrageous "special" I found in a travel magazine- the good old days - editing to say Anne your dress is gorgeous what a color!!! Joanna