Not There Yet!
But we're READY.
Came in last night on a flight only 1/2 hour delayed. Smooth skies. Nice dinner at Bimini Boatyard.
Sitting in Embassy Suites now, staring at our 16,694 pieces of luggage(mainly shoes) that we will soon have to unpack. Will be heading to ship in about an hour. CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Of course, we shall be reporting from Sea.

Gil & Arlene

HI Gil, almost bon voyage to you and Arlene!

Nancy

Have a great cruise!

Gil and Arlene, have a great time!

What a way to ring in the New Year. Y'all have a wonderful cruise!

How exciting! Only 16,694 pieces of luggage? You won't even care about that very soon! Have a ball you two!

Bon Voyage, Arlene and Gil! You are in for a great time!

Is that one pair of shoes per hour?

Please say hi to Hal Fraser for us if he is onboard. He is the lounge pianist and he was on the PG and WAVE with us.

Bon Voyage Gil and Arlene...we'll probably pass you between Fort Lauderdale and PR. If we see the Voyager on the horizon we'll wave hello!

Hope you have a very Happy New Year!

Happy New Year's on the sea, Gil and Arlene. You are living my New Year's Eve dream! Have a great cruise. I'll look forward to your sea mail.

Have a fabulous time as I know you will. I only wish we could have stayed on. Lots of seamail please.....

FIrst of all, Arlene wants me to tell everyone that she has ONLY 7 pair of shoes.

Everything going smoothly so far - seas are calm about 1 1/2 hrs out of FLL.

Some interesting little touches that I don't recall before. A full pot of mums instead of the single flower we had before. A box of truffles & a bottle of champagne in the room. And then a shrimp cocktail showed up. Stewardess askd if we would like any special drinks delivered each night - a very nice touch.

Ran into Pam (Pammy) and Jim, and will be seeing them along the way.

Hal Fraser isn't on this sailing, Cathy.

Of course we'll wave back!

Time to eat!

Have some port and cavier for us! Wish we were greeting the New Year with you two. Happy sailing from Doug, Andi, Leigh and Molly.

Gil and Arlene, looks like you are off to a beautiful start! May you have warm weather and calm seas on your voyage!

This is Arlene. Seas so far are calm and tomorrow is a very tough day...massages and lazing around. Of course I'll be drawing for the book, but I consider that relaxing.

As Gil mentioned some wonderful small touches. Grey Goose is considered a regular liquor and not premium. Dinner was better than the food on the navigator and was actually quite good. Even dessert was very good tonight. The chef is Tobias Schreiber who was the chef on MINT. Jamie and his wife Dana are onboard and we'll introduce ourselves sometime tomorrow. More tomorrow.

oh and gil exaggerated slightly on the number of bags we have...we only have 999.

Tobias is back!!!! (this is very good news)

Great sea mail, Gil and Arlene. Have a great cruise!

Masaki

Wow - Jamie and Dana and Tobias on one Cruise! All they need is Giuseppe, Arnold, Kenny Smiles, Hal Fraser. Any of the Captains would work.
A PERFECT STAFF!

Gil and Arlene, Hope the seas remain calm for you. Don't miss dinner in Lattitudes it was GREAT! Tobias is in every dining room every night, I don't know how he does it. He was even in La Veranda for breakfast because he had blueberries hidden away for us, and running around the pool buffet at lunch. Amazing man. Who is the Captain this trip, is it still Knute or is Dag back. Enjoy your day at sea as we finish unpacking.

I adore Tobias. He is a chef with a great personality who really cares about the passengers. Each cruise has its star personnel and it seems each cruise we meet someone new and another star emerges.

Part of the joy of a cruise for me is getting aboard and seeing who all the crew are for the voyage. The crew are such a big part of the whole experience.

Gil and Arlene,
So happy you're having such a great time and everything is going so well! I hope the seas stay calm! It won't be long until we're on as well...it will be a fun reunion with Jamie, Dana & Capt. Dag.

Thanks for the great seamail.

It's Arlene. Last night was our block party. We met our neighbors, all very nice folks and we found out that across and on our left were people from about five minutes from us on Long Island.

Today we woke very early...for me...6:45 so we'd be ready for our 8AM bus to Chitzen Itza (sp). I enjoyed the trip alot, only wished it had been longer. We're now back in the room and I used some of Gils free phone time to call my kids and wish them a Happy New Year.

Tonight is formal night and the New Years parties...yes I said parties. You have your choice of three different venues to celebrate. We'll choose the main one...in the Atrium. The party tonight is black and white themed. But first is the Captains reception at 6:30 and then dinner.

One of us will report on it tomorrow. Thankfully it's a sea day. Happy New Year to everyone.

oh the Captain is Captain Knute. We met him and Jamie last night at the block party.

Happy New Year, Gil & Arlene!! And Happy Cruise!! What a great way to bring in a New Year!

Tobias was on Voyager when we were (along with Jamie and Dana, although we saw more of her so I tended to call him Dana's husband). At the SSS party, there was one guy who kept trying to get a much bigger serving of caviar; during his argument, Tobias slipped behind the table and dished himself (I guess) up quite a large serving. The guy said "look, that guy got more"! Tobias just looked at him and raised an eyebrow, then walked away.

I hope you both had a great New Years on the ship it is fun to celebrate holidays on board, always memorable. Thanks for posting I love to hear from people onboard.

GOOD MORNING & HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE VOYAGER.
Sailing once again through calm seas & a sunny sky. Just finished a breakfast of Caviar & Champagne. AHHHHH!!!! Sipping champagne on deck, a nice breeze, sunshine, and someone special. Can it get any better!!!!!

Last night was WONDERFUL!!! It was Times Square with a Formal Flair! Everyone decked in their Black & White finset! I don't think I have danced so much(or had as much champagne) in years, maybe decades.
Caviar, pastries, finger foods, and nonstop Champagne, music in 3 Venues, dancing in the Atrium to live music & then Disco at 12:30, ice carving of 2006 changing to 2007, Taasteful black & white & gold balloons everywhre, streamers, noisemakers, hats, tieras, light necklaces,and some poor staff member who drew the short straw & had to dress as Baby New Year!
And how often do you toast in a New year, turn to wish the person standing next to you a happy new year, and that person is the ship's Captain!

The Food: Was talking with Tobias, and he told us he needed to clear his head for a year. Well - his head is well-cleared! I've been on 5 or 6 Radisson/Regent cruises, and the food on this sailing is better than any of the previous sailings. And tonight is Signatures - with Rack of Lamb on the menu. :D

Now of to the hard work of reading my book & possibly (probably) napping, while Arlene does some drawing for her book.

Gil

Gil,

Would you do us a favor?

When you're in Club.com could you ask Marco if Skype will work on the Voyager? I know it did during the 2006 WC but we heard rumors that it had been blocked . . .

Much appreciated and Happy New Year

Peggy

TOBIAS! My personal favorite chef. Can you tell me, please, if he will be on for the WC?

Sounds like you had a wonderful time last night Gil & Arlene - enjoy the rest of your cruise!!!

Yes, Tobias will be on the WC

Oh, I am SO, SO happy! Thank you for getting the information for us.

Congratulations on a new year's celebration, Voyager-style. I'm proud you & Arlene are living it up proud. It is simply remarkable! Welcome to the club.

I am thrilled Tobias is back, too. Give him a hearty "hello" from us.

Cheers, Anne

We've done XMAS onboard. After your review and others we have read regarding New Year's Eve, we've got to do this one day. Thanks for letting us live vicariously.

We've aloready given TObias a warm hello from you all, by name. He is glad to be back on board!

Just finished doing trivia with Pammy & her family. We lost by one answer - and that was an answer where we all overruled Arlene, but she was right. Oh well - live & learn! :D
This morning we did Pictionary - our team lost by 1 point, despite having Arlene & another artist on the team. Seems we are the perennial runners up (or is it runner ups?).

More caviar! Sitting here on balcony with caviar & a grey goose writing this note. This cruise is exceeding expectations.

gil

This is ARlene. Peggy, I'll check for you about the skype...might take me a day or two as we're trying to keep our computer use to only the times we're in the room relaxing...isn't wifi great?

As Gil said the cruise is wonderful. I'd have to say this has been my best new years to date. It took me just 24 hours to be totally relaxed...of course the massage first day out helped.

The crew is excellent. Of course today they're looking a bit rundown (when I asked our stewardess what time she made it to bed, she told us 3 am) but considering they were all partying at the staff party (we heard it from the back deck of the Horizon Lounge) it's understandable. Even with them being a bit rundown today, service is top notch and then some.

I haven't met Captain Dag, but Captain Knute is a charming man. A wonderful combination of friendly and European polite.

Time to go get ready for dinner. Oh, bars are full before and after dinner.

Thanks Arlene . . much appreciated . . .

Keep the ship warm for us!

Peggy

Caviar on the verandah? Is caviar complimentary now?

I love the seamail, you two! It's good to hear you're having such a great time.

I am a little mixed up. (not unusual they tell me !!)
We sail on Mariner Jan. 9th. Voyager was supposed to sail on the same day, and we were meeting at Princess Cay for a combined beach party. What happened ?

My mistake. I thought that this was the world cruise. Perhaps some passengers are remaining on board. Please tell Dana or Jamie that Neville and Hannah will be on board.
Keep having a good time, and thanks for the information via your reports.
Free phone calls for frequent flyers !! Wow !
And free internet for gold members ?

Neville.
I think Jamie and Dana will be on Voyager
not Mariner.
See you Tuesday the 9th after "muster drill" in
observation lounge. :app: