Well, friends, while Pat is off watching the afternoon lecture by a kind old British gent who has a remarkable inability to focus upon the actual subject of his “lecture du jour” (e.g. a couple of days ago, he was booked to explain the defense of the Panama Canal during WWII and managed to give us far more info regarding the defense of Bermuda and Newfoundland than of the Canal – we still have no idea whether any battleships were ever stationed off either end of the canal, although we heard lots of stories about ships based in Newfoundland), I will dive into the discussion of this wonderful cruise with a few observations, most of which will likely be about as useful as those of the afore-mentioned British gent.

If anyone has a low tolerance for stream-of-consciousness blithering, it might be best to move on and find some rational post to read.

First, to remove any doubts about my general attitude towards this cruise so far (despite any comments I might make later), this has been and appears completely likely to remain an excellent cruise. As Pat & others have noted, the ship looks lovely. The soft goods replacements are good, with the exception of those ridiculous chairs in Compass Rose, which are still too large and heavy for the space, but are, thankfully, not as intrusive as the new chairs in CR on Voyager. The wait staff uniformly hates those chairs, as did the staff on Voyager. It is clear that the designer of the Compass Rose makeovers has never had to carry a tray amongst the chairs in a real dining room.

With the exception of La Veranda, the restaurant staff does not seem as stressed or overburdened as we have seen on our last three or four Regent cruises. In fact, the Compass Rose and Prime7 staff have been delightful. The service is the best we’ve experienced in several years, offered with smiles and an obvious pleasure. (Okay, Okay – both of those may be faked; but I don’t care. It’s a hell of a lot better than it has been a few times in the past.) La Veranda is a different matter entirely. (To make full disclosure here, as they say on the cable news shows, neither of us has ever liked LV and consider it a venue of last resort for any meal.) Due to the cafeteria nature of LV, the place is hectic; and the staff has a hard time keeping up with simple passenger requirements such as beverage service. Further, the boss man of LV seems to create an atmosphere of tension and mad rushing about. All in all, we avoid the place to the greatest degree we can.

With the low bandwidth on the ship’s satellite signal, I will post this segment of my blithering dithering and post some reflections on the ship’s tours and entertainment shortly.

Having a marvelous time, I leave you for now - Cheers, Fred