We are safely ensconced in the Element Miami Airport. Arlene has talked me out of arriving at terminal at 0800, we will select a more respectable time around noon. Looking forward to seeing everyone!!!!

Marc

Have a wonderful time on PALM !! We'll be with you in spirit

Looking forward to the sea mail!

Have fun everyone.

Marc - looking forward to seeing you and Arlene next Friday in Williamsburg. Let me know if anyone else is interested and I will see about a reservation.

Tim, Penny, Jan, and I are at Embassy Suites here in Miami.
Taking their shuttle to the ship at 11:30 am.
Seems there are others going to the port with us.
Don't know if they are on our cruise.
Will find out soon.

Have a wonderful trip and breathe some ocean air for me!

Have a great trip everyone! Looking forward to seamail.

Have a wonderful trip!!

We're at our house in the Bahamas now....maybe you could talk the Captain into a quick stop at Man O War Cay in the Abacos.....conch fritters and Kaliks for all! Have a wonderful cruise with smooth seas!

Oh my - conch fritters and Kalik beer! Sounds like heaven! Wish we were close enough to visit!

Can't wait to hear from you all!

Sitting in bed after a very calm night catching up on emails. We are in Nassau and the sun is shining and the water a beautiful blue. We had a great dinner last night in prime 7 with Yummy food, great company and lots of laughs. Always so nice to be onboard and find everyone around the ship. Lots of good staff as well so nice to see friendly faces.

Seem to be missing a whole roll of pins though cannot figure out where they are so do not have so many for the crew. One waiter was wearing his AFRICA pin last night so I just had to give him my pin. Will run out fast though and feel bad about that.

So happy the seas are calm but sorry about forgetting to bring enough pins. That's right up there with Tom forgetting to pack his underwear.

Prime 7 sure sounds good! Enjoy Nassau and the nice weather.

We are having a great time! The ship is in great shape and food and staff are wonderful so far. We too had a fantastic dinner last night with lots of laughs.

At the muster yesterday in Horizon lounge, I was sitting looking out to to aft deck and thinking of all the fun we had (on the Voyager's aft deck) on B2B! So much fun and laughs. Such great memories!

Just walked into Nassau today, so a nice relaxing vacation day!

It is so nice to be onboard after a couple of years away! John and I had a lovely dinner at Prime 7 last night to celebrate our anniversary. We were beat after a very long travel day yesterday so stayed on the ship this morning. Sail away was beautiful. Kathy, I was thinking of you as I relaxed on our balcony seeing the Bahamas fade into the distance. Wish we could have had some of those conch fritters!

Photos From Nassau, Bahamas - off the beaten path:


Government House, official home of the Governor General. A statue of Chistopher Colombus in front.


A very small local store at an intersection.








School girls posed for us.


Typical Caribbean port.

Trip has been fantastic! Good food, good service, good friends! We arrive in Bermuda this afternoon and have four excursions over the 48 hours we are in port. Trivia team has been second both days; actually we tied for first yesterday with 14/15 but came in second closest on tie breaker.

Can't complain about anything;life is good!

Not much to add from previous posters. Having a great time. ship currently is only doing 12 knots. Are some large waves but our direction most be right because there is very little rock & rolling.

Arrived in Hamilton Bermuda. Sun was shining a little windy but nice temperature. We arrived at 3.00 pm and just went for a little walk back onboard now. Signatures tonight and a whole new menu looking forward to trying it.

I was an embarrassment to our Trivia Team today; we came in third because of a number of wrong answers from me. Hopefully better tomorrow!

Priscilla and John wish we could have been there for the celebration. Have a great trip and tell everyone hello from Russell and me.

Susan

Another fantastic day onboard Mariner. A great bus tour of the islands; a fantastic (losing) scrabble game with Ngaire; yet another second place at trivia; and topped off with a wonderful dinner with wonderful friends. The ship is absolutely wonderful!

Titanium, Platinum, and Gold even tomorrow involves taking over Observation Lounge for sailaway from Bermuda; should be wonderful.

More later!

Marc, I'm sure your answers were correct. It was the questions that were wrong. Hang in there. Thanks for the posts!

Trivia. Well we all agreed with his answers as we had no idea so cannot see any liability for Marc at least he had an idea!

Constantly come in second to Jennifer's team by one point. Nothing wrong with second in my book and we are having a lot of fun

Lovely tour yesterday in Hamilton great guide and about nine of us on the tour. It really is a beautiful island.

Food has been consistently good. Last night we both left very contented and happy campers after a delightful dinner with Marc, Alene, Priscilla and John. Today I. Have a special order of mussels fir lunch.

It has been great having my daughter Cindy and son in law Mark aboard. Nice for them to meet so many great LCT people. They are having a great time.

Photos from Bermuda:


Our sail into Bermuda.


We docked right in Hamilton in front of Front Street.




Very clean public toilets.


KLT Cocktail Party.




Captain Serena draws 2017 preliminary cruise winners.

St. George's, Bermuda:


A UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why oh why can't my pictures be as beautiful as Ken's?

Well finally we won at trivia!

Was a nice day in Hamilton today everyone enjoyed their tours. The sail out was truly stunning such sensational large homes right on the ocean. We missed the gold,plat,titanium party as we have been busy today with the opening of Regents summer collection. It probably was lovely in the observation lounge with that great scenery.

Now a day at sea and then Norfolk.

Beautiful photos, Ken! I love Bermuda. So clean, green, and lush! Glad you are all having such a nice time.

We are having a wonderful, relaxing cruise. The ship is in great shape, the staff and service are terrific and the food is better than I remember. Bermuda was beautiful! Today is a sea day and we are rolling a bit ....just enough to remind you that you are at sea. Tomorrow...Norfolk and a tour to Willamsberg. We are also planning to meet up with JoAnn and Frank so we are really looking forward to that! Wish more of you were with us!

Looking forward to seeing you and Marc. I sent Marc an email. We will meet you at the restaurant.

So envious! Wishing we were there!

Leaving Bermuda:


Scooters are a way of life - gasoline is $9.00 per gallon.


Carolyn & Don in front of the post office.


A nice park.


Chickens everywhere.






Farewell Bermuda.




Two Tugs followed us out of Bermuda waters named Faithful & Powerful.

Great day in Norfolk today. Ken, Sheila and the two of us decided not to take the long tour we had booked. Instead I looked online and found a unique sounding coffee shop in a lovely area called Ghent.

So we debarked and saw a taxi and waived the taxi down. Our driver was adorable 86 years old! Apart from being a little concerned with his driving skills (which was no problem at all) we liked him immediately. He had been retired from the Navy for 48 years. He knew the town and shared all the places of interest and took us to a beautiful area of Ghent where there were old homes and lots of churches. Azalea's were in full bloom, every house was different. Absolutely lovely.

Then to Stella's Cafe we went. What a hoot that was and we have pictures to tell the story. The music was playing from a RECORD PLAYER in a suitcase. A giant Bean Roaster was in the cafe where they roast their own beans. It was fun to just look at all the junk in the store from very old scales to all types of items. Ken and Sheila recognized bowls that they have at home with a fish in the bottom. Amazing plates from Australia were found in all this antique "stuff".

The food was terrific, between us a banana nut bread, two carrot cakes, apricot scone, all very nice and home made in the cafe. Coffee was good too.

So we needed a taxi and decided to try Uber. We have never used Uber before and neither have Ken or Sheila.. Never having done this before we had to sign in online and set up an account to organize the ride. All turned out well and half the price of the taxi but our taxi driver was worth every penny extra.

Back on board and a nice lunch now catching up on emails and posting here.

Ken will follow with pictures.

Just want to share with all the hearts players out there. After playing a lot of hearts during the cruise Marc had not "shot the moon". Then on our last day for cards within 90 minutes of play he shot the moon FOUR times. Once on a hold hand. We decided he was just holding back on the earlier days lulling us into a false sense of security and then let the bomb drop. Pretty impressive play.

OMG, that's fantastic (well at least for Marc, not the rest of ya).
He is so amazing, what a day for him !!!
Keep having fun, love seeing the beautiful pictures, thanks Ken.

That is fantastic and I am glad I was not playing against him. But wonderful for him.

Wonderful tour today to Magnolia Gardens followed by a wonderful sail away; Charleston Harbor is wonderful. Two more days of trivia. Pretty inconsistent; one day we get 15 of 16 but lose out to first in a tiebreaker; yet yesterday we only had 9 of 15 and we still got second.

Ship is in great shape; Service has been great and so has the food. There are so many options for meals that it is hard trying out everything in a 12 day cruise. Will be 11 months before we are back onboard so trying to fit in as much as we can in last two days.

Marc, so glad you have had a great time!

Ngaire, years ago we once had a house in Ghent when we had a biz in Norfolk, beautiful old house with lovely Stueben glass fixtures in the dining room, it was just perfect and I loved spending time there!

A Group Photo: