That is so cool! You wouldn't find a better group to treat Clay and Brooke more "gently"! Oh, lordy, if only Marty will take them under his wing!

Ngaire, you've never met me but you already know I need to be kept in line, I'm impressed ;)

Kathy, I don't have a cabin assignment yet but I will let you know when I do.

Wouldn't miss the Bimini boatyard, that's an extra day of vacation!

Welcome to SAND, Clay & Brooke!

How great we get to meet more of Ngaire's family! Welcome new SANDies!

Ngaire,

We'll make sure they have a good time! "We are family"!

Julie, glad you are meeting us for dinner. I think it will be a great way to start the festivities.

Ngaire, we promise to take good care of your son and daughter-in-law. So glad they are joining us.

Ngaire,

Please tell your son that for what he is about
to receive, may he be truly grateful! Since I
worship the ground you walk on, I will do my
very best to keep Charlotte, Erika and Gretchen
as far away from Clay and his wife as possible,
but this truly is mission impossible...
Your familly should be advised to invest in some
asbestos underwear - it's going to get awfully
hot in the Caribbean!!!

All I can guarantee is that since you send us your
son, we'll send you back the MAN - age has no meaning here..."Treat them gently" - hah ! not a
chance, but treat them like family - will do !!!
Marty

We're booked! We are in 715. I've been told I'm very lucky to be doing my first Radisson cruise with such a great group of people and I don't doubt it.
Quick question: Is a shirt and jacket sufficient for informal or should Chester bring ties?

See you at Bimini boatyard!

Yipeee Julie!! That is great news!

As for ties, I think I will probably pack a couple for Mark and then decide later if he will wear them. I think he likes to wear one on the
Captain's dinner night.

I will sneak a tie into the suitcase, but I doubt very much if David will wear it.

Julie - Looking forward to being next door neighbors - I am in 717.

Phyllis

I do not think that Larry will be wearing a tie. Actually, that was one of the "selling points" for this cruise....no formal night! He will, more than likely, wear a silk tee and jacket!

Julie no ties for Moi!

Wow, this is going to be a first for us - travelling light. Put us on the list for the group dinner at the alternative restaurant on board.
It will be fun to try a new line. The last few times we have cruised we have been on Seabourn. But we have been on Silversea and Crystal too.

Julie, you need to check out the Silversea thread. They are testing going away from formal as well this year. Don't think that will ever go over on Seabourn and Crystal.

So Seabourn is really formal, is it? That probably rules it out for us. I would be very happy if R did away with formal nights completely. Well, it's really David who would be happiest, since I would wear pretty much the same types of outfits on informal nights too. All CCC would be even better, but probably too much to hope for.

Seabourn has really relaxed it's formality. They have cut back to one formal night on seven night cruises and there are more men wearing a dark suit that night. We actually love formal nights. Chester doesn't mind wearing his tux and I love to see everybody in their finery. I don't realy go very formal. I don't wear long dresses there or "ballgowns." I wear the same types of dresses on formal night as informal.

I cut and pasted this from another thread:
It's fun to plan a lunch in advance on a sea day in the Compass Rose. We've done it with 6 to 10 people and have had such lunches as lobster thermidor or beef tartare (prepared at the table by the Dining Room Mgr)and also planed the type of salads and deserts we wanted. We even brought our own special wines we had picked up in various ports. When you do this, everyone has the same menu.

Is anyone up for this? I saw the pictures of groups special ordering crabs legs as a group, yummy! We always eat in the dining room at lunch time. I really don't like buffets because the hot food usually ends up cold.

One more question about dress for the ladies. What do women wear during the day? I don't usually wear shorts, in fact I don't own any, but I've been thinking about getting a couple of pairs if that is customary during the day.

Julie,
I think that a group lunch in the dining room would be fun. We too like to have lunch there, but we try not to miss, the day they do the bbq on deck. That is always sooo good!!!!
As for what to wear during the day, I think, whatever is comfortable for you, shorts, jeans, capris are all approiate.

Betty, the BBQ is our favorite too, as is the seafood theme day on deck!

Karen,
I may be confused (wouldn't be the 1st time), calling it the bbq. I meant the day they do the lobster and shrimp and stuff on the grill.
Yeah.....yummmmmmmm

Well those lunches on the deck sound terrific. Pity this cruise wasn't longer...
If we are on Seabourn and Lucca is the dining room manager, we always request a lunch where he makes his "Lucca pasta" tableside. It's essentially piping hot spaghetti carbonara. I can't stand cream sauces once they are cold.

Do they try to have a BBQ on deck on one of the nights? I know on Silversea and on Seabourn they had a BBQ out on the deck on one of the nights that they were in ports, accompanied with music and dancing. Does Regent do the same thing?

Don,
I will not say never, 'cause I don't know, but I do not recall there being an evening BBQ on any of our cruises. Sounds fun though!

What did you all decided about the night in Sigatures? We are looking forward to dining with y'all. Is it a certain night and should I book in online or is someone making a group booking? Sorry, don't know my way around Regent yet, but I will by TAP!

I don't know much about kayaking....er, never been in one. Chester went kayaking somewhere in Alaska on Crystal. They were two person boats. He partnered up with a friend of ours on the cruise. Is that the norm? And if it is, does anyone need a kayaking partner?

Julie, we are booking Portofino's for Wednesday night. Everybody is to book their own online in a little over a week and reference in the comments (SAND party). Then somebody is going to go to the Maitre' D as soon as we board to make sure that they have all the reservations set.

Looks like you and I are going to be the Regent newbies onboard. LOL I have heard though that the Navigator is just about the same layout as the Silver Whisper and Shadow (having been built in the same ship yard), so getting around shouldn't prove to be too difficult. Portofino's is like La Terraza, Compass Rose is like The Restaurant, and the Seven Seas Lounge is like the Venetian Lounge. The Navigator does have two extra decks though, so I may find myself getting off on the wrong floor a few times!

Ok, got it. I've been on the Silver Shadow. It's a lovely ship, except for the revolting floral decor in the cabins (my personal opinion). I can't wait for this. Wish it was tomorrow!

No Signatures on Navigator. :( Only Compass Rose and Portofinos (and Room Service). We prefer the dining room for lunch and dinner. We do like Portofinos, but, we aren't big on any buffet - except the seafood BBQ.

We've been on when they've done the Pool BBQ at night on Mariner and they had dancing under the stars on Voyager. Not on the Navigator though when we have sailed on her.

Don, our cabins are in such a good spot - probably the best onboard and you might not worry about getting off on the wrong floor - you will probably do the stairs most of the time. I try to do that on that ship - very easy to get from one place to another.

I'm revisiting my excursion bookings. I'm thinking of changing the St. Thomas excursion from the Castaway Girl 3-hour catamaran and snorkelling trip to the 4-hour Honeymoon Bay trip. I've got questions posed about those places over at CC, but several posters have said the snorkelling is better at the latter.

But, if I change my booking, do I run the risk of not getting either, if they are both full? If I re-book online choosing the new excursion, I know they cancel the old one, but if there's no room in the new one, would they maintain the original booking and just tell me that? I'm presuming they will not let me book two conflicting excursions.

I'm pretty well convinced, by the way, to cancel the rainforest trip in SJ, and just spend our time in the city, since we've never been there.

Oh, on the subject of food, what are the lunchtime options? I actually like a good buffet, and the poolside buffets on Voyager were excellent this summer. Is there something similar on Navigator?

(Part of this is that I like to be outdoors as much as possible, especially in the winter, when we get so little light up here, and being south is such a treat.)

Wendy, They will do the outdoor buffet several days from La Verandah. Plus Princess Cays will be like a Motu day! In San Juan, the Old City is quite charming and you can easily walk around right from the port.

Wendy, I am like you, I can't stand to be inside for lunch! It must be a Northern thing :) I sure hope the Navigator has a pool grill, I was just assuming it did!

I finally got my flights booked. We arrive in FLL at 10am on the 10th. We fly out of FLL on the 18th at 11am.
I booked the cycling trip for San Juan and the overview trips for Nassau and St. Thomas.

Karen, I also hope they have a pool grill. I know on our Silversea cruises, they actually wheeled out grills out to the pool to barbeque and those were the best hamburgers.

There is just something about the warm sea air, laying by the pool, and not having to go back in and put something on to go INSIDE to eat that makes it all the more enjoyable. I'm getting hungry already! LOL

Do you know though if RSSC has a galley lunch tour like on SS, where they actually open up the kitchen and they have a giant buffet all laid out as you walk through it? Now, that was a time that was worth getting dressed for.

Julie, thanks for the reminder. I need to go back and look at the excursions again and make our final decisions.

Should only be a couple of weeks until we can start our doc dancin'.

I'm so fair skinned I rarely lie around the pool and it would only be in the shade. This is why we have never done a carribean cruise before. Probably why we eat in the dining room too, even in the med. I own one swimsuit and no shorts. Still, we are looking forward to the break, the people, and the ship.

Don, they don't have a tour with lunch but there is a galley tour and a bridge tour - sign up at the reception desk when you board. The Galley tours I've taken were before dinner so you see what it takes to get dinner together.

They do have a pool grill for hamburgers and steak sandwiches. And they do poolside buffet lunches with a theme every day. The only one I do is the seafood buffet although the others are good. Frank detests buffets and we like Compass Rose most of the time.

I looked at the liquor offered in the suites. If I have a mixed drink, I usually have a margarita. Would it be possible to get a bottle of tequila and a bottle of margarita mix instead of what's offered? And when do you order that? When you get to the suites?

Julie, maybe you should ask for a bottle of tequila, a bottle of triple sec and then ask for some mix to be sent to your room.

Editing to add, you can order when you first get to your room, the sheet with the choices will be waiting for you. If you have a special order, such as triple sec which is not on the form, you can just ask your room stewardess.

I just saw that they added a two tank SCUBA dive in St. Thomas, so I signed up for it. Any other divers going, that would like to buddy up?

Julie - I might give my friend in Boca a grocery list before we board. She will buy me some stuff for the ship so I don't have to pack it. I like to have Cointreau from my Cosmopolitans and they don't give that and with the carry on restrictions, I might ask her to pick up some for me with real cranberry juice. I seem to get Cranapple from Regent. Lime is not usually a problem. I can add Sweet and Sour mix to the list