Voyager Auckland to Singapore, January 26 - February 20, 2017

This early evening we begin our journey for our 40 day Voyager Auckland to Hong Kong voyage (s). For this leg, will blog on the Regent board primarily leading Auckland to Singapore myself (hopefully other Auckland to Singapore cruise critics on board will join in the fun). For the Singapore to Hong Kong we will have a trio of lead bloggers; Mr. Rumor/Rich & Ginny, RachelG/Rachel & George , and Ida and I. So, please look for that Voyager Singapore to Hong Kong thread in less than a month. Plan to also (with GM Franck's assist) about every third day of the voyage, profile Voyager crew members.

For example the last time we were on board our fav ship (Dec, 2012) here is a VCP (Voyager CrewProfile):

VCP (Voyager Crew Profile) this afternoon features a behind the scenes (in the Galley) crew member Junar. Will endeavor to find crew members that work very hard behind the scenes (that on a daily basis these crew members (e.g. members of the deck washing crew, laundry team members, et. al.,) do not have face to face contact with guests) to make our Voyager cruise so special and include them in our VCPs. Junar makes the delicious finger sandwiches we enjoy. Junar now lives with his famil in Laguna, Philippines. He has three children ages 20, 16 (two girls) and one boy age nine. Junar has worked on the Voyager since early 2010, and his two favorite reasons for working for Regent/Voyager are: to support his family, and Junar likes to travel the world free of charge. Please see Junar's pix below:

__________________

Colonelretwes@yahoo.com

Ida and I head for the Atlanta airport about 3:30pm and look forward to meeting emptywallet (Henry & Carol, also from Atlanta and on board our Auckland to Singapore leg) and on board our same flights from Atlanta to Auckland. We leave Atlanta at 6:55pm arrive in Los Angeles, then fly from LAX to Auckland a little after 11pm and arrive just after 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

We will have one day in Auckland prior to boarding the Voyager this Thursday, January 26th. We are planning to do the Auckland Explorer (Hop on Hop off bus) depending on how we feel after 18 1/2 hours of flying on Wednesday, January 25th.

Our Regent/Cruise Critic Auckland to Singapore meet and mingle is scheduled for 6:30pm in the Observation Lounge on January 28th, thanks to the Voyager Groups coordinator's assist Ryan Doke. Plan to post pictures during Regent/Cruise Critic get together.

Wes,

Best wishes for your vacation

We tried to leave Voyager and its crew in good order for your cruise ;)

Look forward to reading your, and other's, reports

Safe travels Wes and Ida. I'm so looking forward to reading your reports from Voyager! Thank you for sharing the fun.

Bon Voyage Wes&Ida! Lynn and I hope you have great cruises with fair winds and following seas. Hope the weather cooperates getting out of Atlanta.

Safe travels, Wes & Ida! It is a very long flight!! Really looking forward to your blog!!

Karen & Wayne

Wes wishing you and Ida safe travels and have a wonderful cruise. I very much enjoyed your Silversea transatlantic blog at the end of last year. Great photos and information in every post. Look forward to this one too.

Best wishes, Jean.

Safe travels and fair winds and following seas, Wes and Ida! It was one of your terrific Regent live blogs, Wes, that inspired me to start blogging Ginny's and my Regent cruises in 2012, so it's great to see you cruising Regent again, and back on this page with a live blog. Will be relishing your posts as we begin our final countdown to joining you and Ida aboard the Voyager for Singapore-Hong Kong!

Rich

Wishing you and your wife a wonderful cruise and really looking forward to everyone's posts.

Z and TB

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We are also looking forward to your posts (and especially Mr. Rumor's statistics:))

Hi Wes,

Pat and I took the Auckland Explorer today. Just wanted to let you know the museum is a must and you need at least two hours there. See you on the 26th!

Stan

Flossie009, Gil, Doug, Txlady/Karen, Liptastic/Jean, Mr. Rumor/Rich, Zqueeze1, TC/Jackie, alainciao/stan; thanks so much for your cruise well wishes. Ida and I, Henry and Carol (empty wallet) enjoyed our flight from Atl to LAX. Now, we are on board and about a third of way into of flight from LAX to Auckland. Stan, we plan to ck into the Auckland Hilton Wednesday about 10 a.m, freshen up and then for the Auckland Explorer. Ida and I are blessed/fortunate to be in good health and be able to enjoy another wonderful world travel adventure on Regent. Please see us toasting our good fortunate in our American Airlines PJ's--our tradition before we head to any cruise.

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Wes & Ida, we hope you enjoy Voyager as much as we do. I also hope you get better weather than we are experiencing! Navigator is 1/2 the size of Voyager and one can definitely feel the motion of the ocean!

Thanks Jennifer and Georges

We are at 40000 feet and less than four hours from Auckland. We can't wait to board the Voyager again. We met a delightful Atlanta (Brookhaven) couple, Henry and Carol and spent time with them in the Admirals club in ATL and LAX. Henry worked for Coca Cola for 40 yrs.

Completely understand about feeling the motion of the ocean on the Navigator--we were on the 290 pax Silver Wind for the fall crossing in November. We could not even dance in 17 days due to the motion...for us Jennifer only ships above 600 pax.

Auckland Airport welcomes incoming passengers with this beautiful hand carved entry point once you deplane. The additional pictures below are take from our wonderful Harbor View room in the Auckland Hilton. We're hoping to wake up in the morning and open our suite's curtains to view the fabulous Voyager waiting for us to board :).

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Wonderful, Wes. So glad you've arrived in good spirits and I can well imagine how pleased you'll be to see Voyager tomorrow. Sleep well both of you....sweet dreams of life on board!

Ha ha, I just had a senior moment and thought Voyager looks very different to the elegant lady I know and love.

Looking forward to hearing about your adventures. Good luck on the Tasman crossing, it's been pretty lumpy the last few days but that nasty weather system seems to be moving away now.

Those Harbour View rooms at the Hilton are great - you can almost embark from your balcony. The boat right outside your room is worrying - ICBM used to stand for Inter Continental Ballistic Missile.

Bon Voyage, Ida & Wes.

Get ready for a wonderful, be it steaming hot, adventure. Looking forward to reading all about it!

Gil, Rusty, Beth; thanks so much for your gracious comments and cruise well wishes. Yes, Fletcher we love the Hilton Auckland Harbor room...please take a look Apollo has landed...err mean the Voyager has docked :). Rushed back from an hour on the elliptical to hopefully at 6:40 am catch the Voyager as she docked (scheduled for 7 a.m.) however she was early. Five hours to boarding :)

Hope you have a smoother cruise than we did. I'm on ship right now. We had some very rough seas. At one point the winds were 70 knots and 10 meter waves (32 feet😳).

Thanks so much rcandkc, hope y'all had a terrific cruise. Had to share these pix of us swimming in the near infinity pool here at the Auckland Hilton.

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Excited for you boarding soon. Bon voyage have a wonderful time . Jean.

Bon voyage. See you in 3 weeks.

The Auckland Hilton is one of our favorites. The frozen mango dessert is just about the best thing I have ever put in my mouth.

Thanks so much for Bon Voyage wishes Jean and Rachel. Rachel, see George and you in Singapore!

Voyager far exceeds our expectations, she is absolutely drop dead gorgeous--makes most Silversea ships (until the muse) we have sailed on in last year (Silver Wind, Silver Spirit) look tired. Service outstanding except internet speed--could not post after 10:30pm last nite or beginning at 5:30 am this morning. Going on a choice excursion in Rotorua including lunch--we missed out on included highlight excursions all sold out since we rebooked this seggie mid dec. Pls enjoy some pictures of the sail-away & party last nite

Internet slow for second time can't post pix--will try later. Off to gym for a.m. Workout

Thank you for sharing your voyage with us and your photos are wonderful.

Hope you have a fabulous cruise.

Pam.