Provisions came onboard today in Rhodes that didn't make it yesterday due to the transportation strike in Athens. Yeah, the raspberries are back.

Jim and Pat's team came in first in trivia today. Good job, guys!! Tonight was formal night with everyone gussied up. Of course, Capt. McNeill had on his kilt. Crystal and I ate dinner with a delightful couple, Shirley and Ken, from San Rafael, CA. We thing they are keepers!! Good Soft-shell crab appetizer and lobster, of course. We are off the Alexandria and Cairo tomorrow and Saturday. Be back online Sunday.

Beth, we found vendors at Giza pyramids VERY pushy and insistent!

One shoved a head covering at us and said it was "free" Of course we knew it wasn't but it was difficult to give it back. We set it down and walked away - not the end of the world but annoying. We try to be polite and say "no thank you" but that's not always effective.

I was taking a photo of Cathy near a statue at Memphis and two soldiers ran over uninvited to get in the picture. Of course they wanted money - she had none - and I had walked away by that time, hoping the guns weren't loaded.

We found more hands out throughout Egypt than any place we've traveled (we haven't been to India). BTW, Egypt gets more US aid than any other country except for Israel.

Ted, Thanks for the heads-up. Just docked in Alexandria. Excited about our first view of the pyramids.

Just back from an amazing and tiring day at Petra and Wadi Rum. Lots to see, contemplate and take in. Wadi Bashing in the old Toyota trucks transformed with 2 benches was excting. Our guide, Sallah, said that he and his buddies go out into the desert for the weekends. Sound like a guy's camping trip back home. We had a great barbeque and buffet in the desert then road back to the ship. The best part was the full moon rising over the mountains. This couldn't have been planned better.

Off to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and Queens tomorrow with Karnak on Wednesday.

Thanks for the update Beth. Keep enjoying. We are all living through you, Crystal and the other lucky souls onboard.

Thanks for checking in Beth - we love the DC Sea Mail from everyone! :)

Thanks for the updates, Beth. I've been following the blogs, too. Interesting to see the two angles on the reporting.

Hi All,

We are back onboard after two amazing (the adjectives pale as I feel I use the same ones over and over) days in Luxor. Yesterday noon, we arrived at the Temple of Luxor, then lunch at the Sonesta Hotel. Afterwards, we were off the the Valley of the Kings with passes to 4 tombs. No pictures are allowed inside, so our memories will have to do.

Back to the Sonesta, Crystal and I lucked out and had a small suite, with three balconies overlooking the Nile and a whirlpool tub. Last night was the jewel of the Luxor trip. Full cruisers were served dinner in the Habu Temple. Rugs laid all around, spectacular lighting, a trio playing and dinner under a full moon. It was one of those special evenings never to be repeated.

This morning, we awoke to hot-air balloons over the Nile off our balcony. What a way to wake up! We had a morning visit to the Temples of Karnak then the 3 hour drive back to Safaga.

Now 3 sea days and rest!!!!!

Beth and Crystal, I am GREEN with envy, your journey sounds pretty much perfect so far! Thank you so much for updating us!

You certainly are having the trip of a lifetime Beth. So far it sounds wonderful. I too am green with envy over your two days at the pyramids, but actually over the whole thing. Thanks for the updates, can't wait for more.

Loving your mail - trip sounds so perfect and will only get better -

Thanks for the update, Beth! I'm loving your SeaMail! You and Crystal keep having fun, o.k.

Thanks for the great sea mail!

Nancy

Sounds like a wonderful few days. Egypt is a very special place that is for sure. Karnak and Luxor Temples are truly a incredible sight. Few remained untouched by the wonders of the Luxor area.

Navigator Notes: The walls are magnetic, so we are posting the Daily Passage is a magnetic clip. Also the ship is printing a Social Calendar, a nice at-a-glance way to find out the goings on on the ship, per segment. Tonight is formal. Time to get gussied up!!

We're all trying to recover from an excess of overnightis and it's nice to have 3 sea days to look forward to. I've finally been able to get my blog set up at

http://jim-pat-discoverycruise2008.blogspot.com

but all of us are having trouble adding photos with the slow internet on the Navigator. I'm trying to get my Nikon photo blog set up and will post a link when or if it works.

Sorry, my earlier attempt at posting got wiped out. But I can only add superlatives to the above. The trip so far has been magical.

I'm slowly adding to my blog. The link is below, under my signature. As Jim mentions, we are unable to add photos to the blog. I'll be working on my photo album, and hope to have pictures up soon.

Crystal,Beth,Pat, and Jim,
Love your blogs and how each has different presentations. Thanks for taking the time to share. Lots of fun to travel along with you through your posts and blogs.

I'm caught up on all the blogs now and am also enjoying the different perspectives. Thanks for posting them and checking in here.

We had to make an emergency stop in Aden, Yemen at 4:00am today for a passenger in need of medical help. Captain said he is doing better.

Enjoying our sea days working on photos, blogs, watching movies, reading, avoiding the hot sun and room service.

Our stop tomorrow in Salalah, Oman will be shortened to 3 hours mainly to pick up provisions and maybe shuttle buses into town. All excursions are cancelled due to time.

We've been having temeratures hovering around 100 degrees these sea days, but today it cooled down a bit as the wind came up. The ship is staying quite smooth and the old BOOM & BANG cavitations seem to have been cured. Many guests are commenting that the food on the Navigator has been better than on the Voyager & Mariner, although I've always found it goodon all Regent ships. I'm sure everyone joining in Cape Town will be pleased. A bar waitress and a bus boy recognized Pat & me from ICE and I'm sure they'll remember the other ICErs joining later.

Our LCT/B&K trivia team won again today - that's 6 out of 8 times we've played. Marcie & Ngaire, you can't have Jan Hufford - she's on our team. Study well before you get here.

No Pooch yet but we'll be ready for it.
Jim

Ah dont worry, pooch cards, pins and scoring sheets will definitely be in my luggage - my HAND carried luggage. Pooch championships will take place I guarantee it.

Yes, I know Jan is a whiz at many things including trivia as are the Bittle's I might add. We dont stand a chance but that is okay as long as LCT and BK clients pull in those tokens I am a happy camper.

I think the food has improved on all the ships. I have been told that the food budget was increased so that may be the difference you are now experiencing.

Wow - that is neat to have staff from ICE and the explorer on the Navigator. That was truly one of the best crews I have ever experienced. So glad it worked out for them to come to Regent. I wish we could have taken the whole crew over to Regent.

This is Regents last year to do exploration trips to Antarctica. In 2010 they will not be on the Regent's itinerary. Shame, but things are always changing.

Congrats on all the wins Jim....yes, Jan is wonderful at Trivia , glad she's on your team.

Do they still give out tokens? I had heard on the ;08 WC that they were having a final token redemption and wouldn't be using them anymore.?? I have around 80 tokens left over.are they still good for things in the gift shop ?

Beth,
I think 3 hours will suffice in Oman. All we did was shop. We bought some Frankincense that they are wellknown for and I bought a really cute handbag with camels on it. A woman I shared a taxi with bought a beautiful Italian gold necklace and earrings at a fraction of what she would have paid in Italy. Other than that there wasn't much to do.

The stop in Salalah is essential because there are 3 containers there waiting for us but, since we're at a commercial port 20 km from town, there isn't time to run shuttle busses to town and back for 400 guests, so no getting off the ship. At 5:30 the officers will be serving cocktails & caviar to guests on the pool deck and we can look over the side at the crew unloading and storing provisions. I guess the officers are serving because the regular crew will be busy with the provisions.

The Captain said that there was so much hassle with Egyptain authorities and such an enormous amount of Marlboro & Scotch bribery required that they are rethinking Egypt for next year's DC

Last night there was a large group doing karoake in the Stars Lounge as we went into the show and after the show Cody (the lead PGT singer who was on the Mariner recently) sang 50's songs for dancing. The staff said the dance floor had never been so full. We warned them that after Cape Town the LCT group will do even better.

Marcie, They are out of tokens and are handing out cards. They would probably love your spare tokens and would give you a voucher for them. The WC is the only time tokens are used in the gift shop.

It's interesting that the current captain on the Voyager is from Oceania. Our HR manager and some other staff came from there and Capt McNeil said that Jarle's replacement on the second half of this cruise might come from Oceania. It looks like Frank Del Rio is starting to make some subtle mixing of personnel from the two cruise lines.

For those of you who were on ICE and will be joining us in CPT, Neils the Executive Chef from Regent who was with us is Executive Chef for the Discovery Cruise and the food is excellent.
Jim

Jim and Pat - great to hear from you! Sounds like I need to take Pat with me next time I visit the casino.

Thanks for all the ICE updates. I'm glad some of the staff has signed on with Regent. They were terrific.

Loving these updates, DCers. Great way to start my day.

Cheers, Anne

Has Jarle been replaced? I was looking forward to seeing him again.

We've been told that he broke a leg, and thus will not be able to join for the latter segments of the DC.

Actually, Jarle broke an ankle in a motorbike accident. McNeil thinks he'll perhaps go to Cape Town instead of Mumbai before being replaced.

We also have a different Captain on the Voyager. Gianmario Sanquineti from Oceania is on board. Dana and Jamie are our Cruise Directors, but there seem to be others that may have been on Oceania before.

So far it is a seamless transition, although the block party did not happen, but a sailaway party did. Good food and service.
...............
Susan

When I was on the Regatta this summer there were waitstaff that were previously on Regent ships as well. I think we will see a lot of crossover.

I was told while on our recent PG trip that crossover would be quite common and included those on the NCL ships. This to me is not good.....I think there should be distinguishable differences between NCL, Oceania and Regent. This is just my two cents, but the cruise director on NCL should not be hosting the type of contests (hairy chest etc) on the other lines. I guess I am a bit concerned that the lines may end up merging in to a complete mess. The staff member who told me about the crossovers is also worried about the same thing.

Cheers, Pam

Pam, I definitely agree with you. I would think that it would be a huge morale buster for Regent staff to be "demoted" to Oceana or NCL. However, if there's going to be crossover of staff, then they should also have crossover of all the frequent cruiser benefits as well (e.g. SSS members get all their benefits if they sail on Oceana or NCL).
Frankly, I would hate to see any crossover of anything from Regent to the other cruise lines.

We were on the MUSH Alaska cruise when the Mariner damaged a pod and arrived in port a day late. Really really big deal. All of the crew on Mariner except one handled the situation very well. The exception was the Hotel Director who had just signed on with Regent after working the mass market lines. The fool offered us a free drink as compensation for arriving in port a day late. One drink! He would have been better served offering nothing. Understand he was quickly fired.

We were on the Silver Whisper in April for CAMEL. They had a new executive chef on board. He had signed on after working the mass market lines. The food quality on that trip was a disaster because it was hugely inconsistent. (Remember the melted ice cream desert you were served, Peggy?) Understand he no longber works for Silversea.

Lots of potential challenges with crossovers. Lets hope Regent is prepared to make the necessary in-service training to make them work for us.

Pat

I think this is the parent company Apollo talking. They are interested in the bottom line and crossovers would benefit them and those cruising on their lower level lines, Oceania and NCL. We will be back on the Voyager in December and will see how things go.
Cheers, Pam

I would love to have SSS Benefits on Oceania. You won't find me on NCL - I won't say ever, but it would have to be for some kind of cruise where maybe kids were joining or for a client event....

And I think the service on Oceania was excellent. In many cases, you could swear you were on Regent. Quite itnerchangeable there.

What is more important is that they keep all the people with length of service who do a great job.

34*C today in Muscat, Oman, our first "real" port after 5.5 days at sea. Crystal and I took the shuttle to the old souk. My big purchase was a nice silver box for a gift. Lots of wonderful smells and sights.

Crystal had booked us on a snorkling trip this afternoon, but after waiting outside the port gate for over 30 minutes, we felt it was a bust. Oh well, the pool was nice!!

Tonight is Formal night and we have an invitation to dine with Florian, the Food & Beverage Manager.

Tomorrow begins 2.5 days in Dubai!

Hello from Dubai!!!

It's great to be on land again. Everyone was doing different things today. After we cleared customs, Crystal and I got on the shuttle to the Diera City Centre Mall. We picked up a few necessities and had loads of fun shopping in the Carrefour store, a Wall Mart type store.

Tomorrow we get on the HOHO to travel around the Old Town section of Dubai and hit the souks.
We will lose some wonderful friends tomorrow as it is disembarkation day. By to Marsha & Kelly and Holly & Randy, Jenny & David and to David from KC.

Anne & Gary, we had dinner last night with Herb(formally from NYC, now Orlando area) and his lovely lady, Larraine (from Toronda). He sends a big HI to you, both. We plan to join them for dinner soon. How funny was it to have two elementary librarians end up sitting side by side at dinner.

More later from Dubai.....

Love reading about your days......it won't be much longer for us now !