We had a nice time in Anchorage and a great meal at the Glacier Brewhouse. Yesterday Regent put us on a bus and took us down to Seward in the driving rain. We were supposed to do a Kenai Fjords boat trip, but the weather wasn't conducive so they just took us to the ship. We were onboard and having a Bloody Mary at around 11:00 am. But here's the BIG NEWS!! Terry Breen is on board. She told us she has left Holland America and is back with Regent. She told me it was OK to break the news, so I'm sure she'll post herself in the next few days. Needless to say we're excited to have her here. We don't know too many of the other crew except for the CD, Barry Hopkins. The captain is Phillipe (can't remember his last name) and the hotel director is Marcel. We had a great meal with Betty and Al and a couple from UK last night -- prime rib and rhubarb pudding for dessert. Today we're docked in Kodiak and the weather is much improved --we'll be headed out to explore the town on our own later on. Just had to post the news!

Peggy, so happy to hear you're off and running! Hope the weather improves for you.

How exciting that Terry Breen is back with Regent....why in the world they EVER let her escape in the first place is beyond me!

Hi Betty & Al! Look forward to lots more seamail from you guys!

Sounds exciting. So does that mean Terry will be staying on for PANDA? And beyond?

--------------

Eugene

Terry Breen AND Capt. Phillipe? We are in for one great cruise, PANDEEs!

Cheers, Anne

Peggy,
If you get to ask, any chance that Terry might be on for Circle South America?
Thanks, Debbie

Woo-hoo!!

Captain Phillipe is wonderful. I've heard so many great things about Terry. I hope she'll still be on-board for PANDA :D

Debbie,
Alaska & South America are Terry's specialites so I bet she will be on for S.A.

I hope Capt. Phillipe will still be on for LAMB, he's great!

Terry is back with Regent - that is FANTASTIC!!! How we loved listening to her last June and now I hope she'll be on our May 2008 sailing from San Francisco to Alaska! :banana:

It's wonderful that Terry is back with Regent - she gives the best talks of any enrichment lecturers (she calls herself a "Storyteller" and keeps you spellbound.
If the GAP cruise is like lasy year's, Captain Alfredo will replace Capt Phillipe in Hong Kong or Singapore for the duration of the cruise.
Jim

You're right, Jim. Captain Romeo will be getting on the ship in Hong Kong. I'm not sure if Captain Phillipe is getting off there, or staying on until Singapore. Terry will be getting off the ship in Hong Kong, so she'll be around for PANDA.
Just a quick rundown of what we've been doing. We took a quick trip into Kodiak the day before yesterday. There's not a lot to see there, but it's a neat little Alaska town -- kind of like "Northern Exposure" on the sea. The big deal in Kodiak is that it has the largest Coast Guard Base in the U.S. -- we had a nice conversation with the wife of a Coast Guarder from Texas. She says it's pretty different from home! Yesterday we had a great sea day. We went to a couple lectures -- one by Terry and one by a former British spy --not James Bond, but equally as entertaining. The most exciting thing that happened was that we came upon a huge number of humpback whales--around 200 of them. They were on their annual migration down to Hawaii and the Baja peninsula. It was fabulous to watch them over a period of a couple hours. We had a fantastic dinner last night with Barry Hopkins, the cruise director. I had white salmon from Kodiak--Jerry had steak and lobster. Here's the big news from dinner: Regent will announce soon that they're building another ship. The new ship will be slightly smaller--around 650 passengers. Yay!!!
We have another sea day today. Captain Phillipe tells us that we are sailing into some very rough weather. Sounds good to me--I love it when I can really tell I'm on a ship. This ship is so stable, you can barely tell you're sailing unless there is a little rough weather. I'll let you know how it goes. Peggy

Peggy, such exciting news about the new ship! I wonder what her name will be!

White Salmon, I never have heard of that but it sounds wonderful!

Hi Peggy,

Thanks for the report. That's so exciting about the new ship. Something to look forward to!

Great news about the new ship!

Wow, Peggy, you are just full of GREAT news on this cruise...keep up the Sea Mail! :app:

Very exciting news, thanks Peggy.

I too, am excited about a new ship! I was lucky to be on shakedown for Voyager, and loved it! We will now have even more itineraries to choose from!

Peggy,
Please ask Barry to introduce us, he may know who I am. Would very much like to meet ya'll!
Gay Rie

Great and exciting news Peggy. Glad Terry is back with RSSC, New ship sounds fantastic!

Thanks for keeping us updated. See you a little over a month from now.

Thanks for the great news, Peggy. We'll see you soon!

Great report and exciting news, Peggy!

See you and Jerry very soon on CROSS!

Wow, Terry's back and onboard for PANDA?? New ship build for Regent?? :D :app:

Masaki

Another fantastic sea day yesterday. Did I mention we saw over 200 migrating whales the day before?? There is such excitement about the new ship that I think everyone must have missed that. ;) We've discovered something else wonderful about this trip. There's a fairly large group of jazz musicians onboard who are all in a tour group. They've been doing jazz concerts at various places around the ship throughout the day. We're really, really enjoying them--especially a jazz singer named Brady McCay--she's fantastic. We have more concerts today at noon, at six and at nine. Can't beat that! And if anyone is a little more high brow than we are, there is also an Opera company onboard who are doing some concerts. The gold and platinum event featured a special performance by the opera group. The one thing we haven't done yet is play Pooch--we're just sooooo busy all the time --and we do spend a fair amount of time eating, you know. The food has been fabulous. One more sea day tomorrow and then we stop in Petroplavosk. We have a son who is an officer on a submarine, so we'll find this stop very interesting from a historical perspective. If you're interested in submarines, read "Blind Man's Bluff" about how we tapped into the Russian communications system during the cold war--it all happened under the water near Petroplavosk and the Kamchatka peninsula.

Peggy, love hearing from you. Seeing 200 whales must really have been fantastic!! I could pass on the opera and just watch the whales all day!
Can't wait to hear about Petroplavosh...should be very special.

The weather has really turned. It started getting rough yesterday afternoon. All entertainment was cancelled last night except for a movie in the Constellation Theater, and Veranda was closed for dinner.

By the time the movie was over it was a challenge to walk back to the cabin. During the night things really started flying – our bathroom floor was covered in stuff that had fallen out of the cupboards. When the captain came on this morning he said that the winds last night were up to 85mph and the waves 30 feet high. There certainly wasn’t much sleep to be had. We were too busy just trying to stay IN the bed!

All activities have been cancelled today and we’ve been asked to stay in our cabins as much as possible. All the elevators are off. Lunch time room service was limited to ham, turkey, or tuna sandwiches. And with the elevators off the poor room service guys have to walk it up and down the stairs.

It’s now almost 2pm and I think it’s calmed considerably. It’s still a challenge to walk across the room but it’s no longer necessary to hang on to something the whole time. I’m happy to avoid the hallways and stairs. I expect all the entertainment tonight will be cancelled too.

Peggy and I don’t mind this – it’s kind of fun to have the ship really moving for a while. But I know some passengers are seasick and there have been some falls. However I am glad we’re not in one of the cabins on deck 10 or 11!!

Betty

Why I like being as low and midship as possible, Betty! Guess there's not a whole lot the captain could do getting you from "here" to "there", as you were in the Pacific, no place to go in between!. When we were in that storm in the Bass Straits on WC 2005, capt. took us to Sydney early, and we were there for extra nights to get us out of it. Glad you are all doing well.

Talk about rocking and rolling ..

I'm glad you and Peggy are not getting seasick in this weather. Hope you stay relaxed and the seas calm down somewhat.

Cheers, Anne

Betty, what an amazing update! I hope the seas calm for you soon!

Wow, last year when we did the same cruise we had such calm seas...just goes to show...nothing is ever "just like last year".

Peggy - enjoy...wish we were with you like last year but will see you on CROSS.

Jan

Wow, last year when we did the same cruise we had such calm seas...just goes to show...nothing is ever "just like last year".

Peggy - enjoy...wish we were with you like last year but will see you on CROSS.

Jan

Duplicate..computer being weird!

Hope it settles down for you guys soon!

Masaki

Oh my goodness, sounds really rough. I'd be popping my pills for sure!

Good luck guys, hope things settle down soon.

Peggy-Wow! Good thing you are such a seasoned sailor. I'll add my wishes for smooth seas and better weather. See you soon-

Well, today was a beautifully sunny and calm day in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, Russia. It's really a lovely area -- water, trees, mountains -- some beautiful volcanoes.

The down side is that the ship arrived at 7am. the Russian Immigration officials boarded around 8am. They then went through every single passport of every passenger and crew-member, entering the details on a new laptop keyboard with which they were unfamiliar. To make a long story short, we were not able to leave the ship until about 2:30 pm. Jerry and Al compensated with Bloody Marys once again. But while we were up in the Observation Lounge we could see lovely mountains on the port side, a spectacular volcano on the starboard side, and a submarine going back and forth and finally out to sea in the bay. It really was NOT a hardship!

Jerry and Peggy took a farm excursion which they enjoyed immensely (I think vodka was involved!) Al and I walked into town and finally found a 'Russian Souvenir' shop. Walking along the waterfront was wonderful. There was a mini-carnival and lots of kiosks selling beer. There were lots of locals -- most with beer in hand -- and many of them taking pictures of Mariner. Surprisingly, there was also a US Coast Guard ship docked here, and we talked to several of the crew members. They're out of San Francisco, have been out for 6 weeks, and are headed for Kodiak. Their cutter was at least twice the length of the Russian Coast Guard cutter docked next to them.

Dinner tonight in Compass Rose with the four of us and our trivia partners, Joe and Chuck.

Another stressful day ....

Betty

So glad the rockin and rollin is over, Betty and that you had a lovely day in Petropavlovsk despite the bureaucracy. I'm looking forward to more seamail.

Nice report, Betty! I'm glad that the weather has improved for you. Keep having fun and keep telling us about it please!

Petropavlovsk - one of my favorite places. The sail in is truly spectacular. We had a delay as well with immigration.

We hired a taxi and went to the mountains and drove around the homes. A family invited us in their house. Picked us vegetables, and we had no earthly idea what to with those. NO english we used sign language. They were so wonderful and friendly I will NEVER forget this port. It was a magical day for us.

Betty, we are so glad the weather is co-operating. I think I might have heard a limerick about a "Petusevsky from Petropavlovsk" at one time! :D

Betty, thanks for the report! You all more than deserved a sunny day after what you went through to get there!

Ah yes, we had a glorious day in Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky (also known as PK). Betty talked about the immigration delays. We were going to try to get one of the Russian army folks on board to smile a little, but were told by one of the ships officers not to even try. It was a very frustrating situation for the ship's officers and travel concierge crew since tours had to be postponed, etc. Fortunately our tour wasn't scheduled until 2:00 so we were only slightly late getting going. We really wondered about our sanity when we started the tour on a rickety Russian bus held together with wire and duct tape. We saw some great scenery on the way to our "farm" which was really just a dacha. Basically the "tour" involved hanging out in the woods with a bunch of crazy Russians singing songs, cooking salmon over a fire, eating strange dishes made from Russian herbs (well, they were really Russian weeds) and drinking vodka -- mostly drinking vodka. It was a hoot and we had one of the best times we've had in ages (and those who know us will confirm that we frequently have a good time). I'd do it again in a heartbeat, we loved it. We also got a chance the talk with some of the Coast Guard officers. They told us they were in Petropavlosk for PR purposes--they're there to play a soccer game. Apparently they play this game every year and it's one of the major highlights of the region. Who knew??

Peggy, Good to hear about your great day in PK. Vodka=Fun!!!!! Sounds like a motto to me.