We've been having so much fun and keeping so busy.....I wish I could figure out a way to slow this ship down! Only four more days left. This is such a small group, but such a good one!

Marc, with a little luck and a lot of practice, we hope to be able to give you some stiff Scrabble competition by Grand Prix:)

SPLASH, SPLASH, that's all we've been doing here in Cleveland with all the rain so we're over-joyed that someone is high and dry.

However, with a tinge of revenge and jealousness, I went out and bought a carmel apple pie from Gray House Pies and a shawarma wrap....burp.

So who's jealous now, Al and Kathy?!

Cheers! Ray

I have worn my black pants so many times, I'm worried they will just walk off without me and visit everyone !

I had a couple WOW moments with service. First I was in the cabin and Jim was at Trivia. The doorbell rang and room service brought cheese and crackers and grapes. I said "I didn't order room service" but it was complimentary. WOW !! Then I was very busy on a lounge chair watching the world go by and a waiter came by and cleaned my sunglasses. WOW !! The service has been very good.

Today we had Mexican for pool deck buffet. What a treat. Although the food has been very good, this was just a break and something we really liked. Nice change of pace.

Jan and Jim

Since you all were in Funchal, here is a shot of Ngaire & Ken sledding down the hill. This was taken a few years ago when we did the crossing.



We were right behind them. What fun!

Doug

Am pleased to report that an LCT team won in trivia today - Pete, Emily, and yours truly won in a 3 way tie-break (with an assist by Emily's dad). Who knew that my knowledge of Kraft Mac and Cheese would come in so handy!! A bit of rain mid day today after the ice carving demonstration, but otherwise the weather is quite fine, even, at times, Caribbean warm. Tonight we are doing the Signatures dinner and a show and will report tomorrow on how it went. Second dinner at Prime 7 last night as good as the first. Until later, Jeff

Sounds like a wonderful crossing - loving your pixs and mail!

Kathy, know just what you are saying, while those big groups are great, I do love the smaller ones when you really get to know each other and just roll from day to day not worrying about whether you will get to spend time with others on the cruise, you will on this kind!

We on land continue to enjoy whatever dribs we get along the way! I do love crossings, what a way to spend a vacation. Haven't done one since my working days.

Marc yesterday at scrabble I scored 531 and Mary scored 405 - an incredible game may never beat that joint score. Something to shoot for in the future for both of us to beat our own top scores.

There are actually 33 BK guests on board but a smaller group of LCT guests that are mingling together. AJAX -Tim and Penny are a lot of fun and it has been a pleasure to get to know them.

Yeah for Jeff, Susan, Pete and Emily having an LCT team win. Nice of them to keep up the tradition of at least one team win.

Little rocking and rolling last night but it is clearing up a bit now and we are supposed to have a County Fair this afternoon but that remains to be seen due to the weather.

Off to play scrabble. Al is my scrabble mate today and he is doing great did his own seven letter word yesterday.

"Amazing" Al (that's my 7 letter word) :D :D

The County Fair was a lot of fun. They do a great job and the weather was fine. It has calmed down again and the sun was shining about 75 degrees. This is the first time I have ever seen this event.

Getting ready for dinner now nice filet on the menu tonight sounds good to me.

such fun

Enjoying all these reports. We so enjoyed CROSS a few years back and your weather sounds a lot like ours, only one bad rocky rolling day and night in eight. The Country Fair really was fun we thought and something different.

Cannot wait for next year and Grand Prix.

Thanks everyone for keeping us involved, know you only have another day or two, but it sounds like its been a really great group and a great cruise.

Weather is calm, no white caps out there at all. Only two nights left- boo hoo!!

Next trip ZODIAC. It is amazing how quickly time passes so looking forward to that cruise Antarctica is one of my favorite destinations in the world.

Lovely crew onboard some really great people. Rommel is as usual fantastic and always seems to be everywhere in the dining room.

Menus have changed a lot and I think for the majority of people for the better. There are many dishes that have more spices. I eat such BLAND food but there is always plenty to chose from they have more items now than they used to have to life is good for everyone.

The dinner and a show is a venue that I usually do not attend as I prefer not to rush dinner and I am not a show person. However, the reviews from everyone were so good that we decided to catch the show. They were really fantastic. THE PERFECT GENTLEMEN was the name of the act. A "barbershop quartet" type group but with tons of humor, jokes and skits. They did "Shine on Harvest Moon" through about the last 100 years with all the different influences in music as the times changed. It was absolutely fabulous. So if you see them on a ship be sure NOT to miss them.

Okay off to scrabble only two days left to get ready for Marc on Zodiac!!

I'm glad to hear how nice the ship is. We embark Sunday after you get off and join the Huffords and another B&K couple for 12 days in the Caribbean. Jim & Jan B - enjoy the warm weather because you'll be heading back to really frigid weather in Montana.
Jim

THE COUNTRY FAIR ON THE MARINER:




Dodge the water balloon.


It was wet and wild.


A little football action.


Anyone for darts.


Al bringing in his steed to the finish line.


Two tries for a basket.


Al, Ngaire, Midge, & Kathy.

PHOTOS FROM LAST NIGHTS DINNER:


Al, Tim, Midge, Penny, Kathy, Ngaire, Jan, & Jim.


Jim & Jan Sharing a Chair.

Loving seeing your pix. Thanks, Ken!

I am so envious! Great pixs!!!

Great photos, looks like everyone is having a great time.

more fun

Made it to Billings in fine shape other than it
is 11:45 pm MST
Hopefully get home around 3 pm Monday.

Jim, I can't believe your cruise is over. I will miss reading your fine reports and seeing the pix. So glad you all have such a nice time.

me too

I can see why none of you all were ready for this cruise to end. What a happy group. It appears as if you all laughed the entire time. Now that is one fine cruise!

You guys took good care of the Mariner on Splash II and she looked good when we boarded yesterday. With the new rules forbidding non-Americans from doing any work off the ship the inefficient locally hired staff made a real cluster**** of the check in process. From noon until past 4:00 guests were made to wait nearly an hour before passing through security to check in at the terminal because of the back up at the check in area. Once we boarded however the smiles returned and things seemed ship normal. Mark Conroy was on board and we got to spend about an hour with him. There were about 10 cruise ships in port, including the 2 Royal Carib "monstrosities of the seas" and the Mariner was the runt (in size) of them all. The winds were brisk and later at night we had rough waters with 12 meter swells and wind gusts up to 100 knots that lasted until lunch time today which is a sea day. Needless to say, restaurants weren't very busy at breakfast or lunch. Six of us traveling together had pre-arranged a steak tartare lunch and the F&B manager decided to have the preperation done in P7 by the Exec Chef and then we were served in CR. Our group does this whenever we're cruising together and it has become popular with some of the officers so Capt Stan, staff capt, hotel mgr and GM all eagerly joined us. It was one of the best tartare any of have ever had. Time for trivia now.
Jim

Are they going to be able to fix the boarding problems in Ft. Lauderdale soon (I hope--like before Jan 6)?

They probably won't fix it in FLL since they use local port people for the check in. There doesn't seem to be any "good" time to arrive.

Starting next spring Regent will begin using Miami.

The boarding was the same in FtL last winter . . . and it was local people.

Maybe Miami will be better.

It would be nice to know that this is local union, rather than state, that controls this, but I've got my doubts. Sometimes it is just never clear what drives a business out of one area into another. Certainly, if ease of operations is better in Miami, it will be better for cruisers. I have had difficulties, though MINOR, of one kind or another every time I have ever gotten on or off a ship in FLL. Always the little "blips" in getting on and off, as many have mentioned. Not a big deal to me to fly to one port or another, but a big deal for a city to lose a whole cruise line's business, albeit as small as Regent is in the big picture.

Getting back the important things, WELCOME HOME, all you Splasher's!

I had dinner with the Exec concierge last night and she said that Regent wanted to do check in on board but it wasn't allowed by the Port Authority. The people doing the check in do it for all the ships. Regent staff weren't even allowed in the terminal to assist or give advice. It was so bad that she took Mark Conroy down to the check in area to see for himself. I don't know if Miami is any different.

I doubt if the move to Miami has to do with the problems with boarding - to state the obvious - the office is there so it makes sense. Hopefully a by-product will be less frustrating boarding.

I'm getting on a ship in Miami in less than a month - not Regent - so it will be interesting to see the differences.

And I had heard what the Executive Concierge told Jim as well.

I remember last Jan for FUN2 the check in process was a nightmare and so totally disorganized, it took almost two hours from the time we arrived at the port and in our case our luggage did not show up until after 6pm and we had to go find it ourselves so we could get ready for the evening. I have always preferred FLL to Miami, smaller, less crowded, etc and years ago it was that and very efficient, but not of late. When we came back from CROSS in 2007 same thing in reverse the disembarkation was almost an hour late starting and some people had early flights and were really getting nervous. Lorraine the CD was running around like crazy waiting for them to clear the ship and people were really grumbling and complaining.

My recollections of MIA are actually much better, they seem to have it fine tuned with all the large ships in and out of there, but we haven't left from or arrived into MIA in a long time, again they use local people and with the larger and larger ships nowdays, hard to say how it is. Guess it won't be long before we find out how it works for Regent.

Last Feb, I had prepared my mind for boarding in Ft. Lauderdale to be a mess. Much to my surprise, it wasn't. There were local people doing it, but there was no line at all. But I think most of those who had booked Regent air and transfers had already arrived prior to us. At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised.
However, it appears my good fortune was an anomaly. Maybe Mark Conroy can get something done to improve things, since he saw what was really happening.

Mark was on the pier - and on the ship - for the FUN2 fiasco in FtL last January. He has no control over anything there.

I'm sure he would do what ever he could if it were possible.