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We got one also. They are nice! I laughed when I saw you canal picture…. Agree some of my best pictures have come to me by the ship’s bridge camera! They clean up nicely with a little cropping! Haha. Merry Christmas fron the Navigator. Carolyn

Merry Christmas from the beautiful Regent Navigator!! We are just now docking in Aruba. It is a beautiful sunny day and the huge NCL Epic is docked beside us. After a very rocky 36 hours that Eve. Slowed us down, we are now still! Christmas Eve was a day filled with activity in-spite of the ships movement. Dick went to listen to the two speakers, he is enjoying them with their different talks. We skipped Lunch as they had a beautiful Christmas tea. Dick went to Trivia and then we met in the NavigatorLounge for Caroling and a Christmas sing along with our two Rays. Before that Santa visited everybody during the block party. They had the traditional Christmas items in Compass Rose but we opted for Italian and went to Sette Mari. Good as ever. Since itt was so rocky they postponed the production show until 6 tonight as a pre dinner show and did the Christmas show, as the late show. We managed to stay up for that and the beautiful Christmas Eve worship service held afterwards. Ray and a passenger pastor lead the service.

Glad you were able to get some satisfaction on the Splendor. It is a much better story here on the Navigator. Lugging ceremony every night list in Passages

It has been a great day…..really the Regent we love from pre Covid days. Compass Rose lunch was great. Had the Leek Quiche that is served in the Splendor in Chartreuse. It was a staple for my lunch during the WC. Dick enjoyed the other speaker this afternoon and played Trivia. Do you know how long the Statue of Liberty’s nose is? That right Ray is leading it. Went to the Welcome Aboard Party and stayed for the early show. Ray is as good as ever. He sang several songs, told jokes and did a couple of numbers with his wonderful puppets. We usually don’t last to the late shows so it is nice to have sone early ones. Dinner at Compass Rose …..tired one of the plant based starters, the Apple Tart, very good! As we were finishing a very good meal, Sambu saw us and came over and spoke with us. Then he went and got Rishnu. It is so good to see them doing well and hearing about their family. They are super young men!

Kristal was at Sette Mari and no reservation allowed…. First come first served and Mr 400 days was not first. Glad you are having a good time. The Splendor has a lot of good things to offer. Just not necessarily a few long time cruisers sounds like.

Here is what is on offer today and a little bit about the ship. Dick went to the morning lecture and said it was interesting. We are going to Compass Rose lunch. It was our usual routine on the WC. The pool grill and LaVeranda is also open.

If interest is how different ship handle things. At 6:45 every evening there is a celebration of Hanukkah. With a candle lighting. To my knowledge there was no mention of that celebration on the last days of our Splendor sailing and Hanukkah had began. There were Carolers strolling the halls when we boarded yesterday. Really set the mood with all the decorations .

So far after barely 24 hours we feel like we have come home!!! Dick is so much happier on this ship. Ate at Prime 7 last night. It was packed…all tables filled by 7:15, but service was spotless and food wonderful. To my delight the restaurant actually had Holiday decorations inside plus a tree and Gingerbread house outside in the entrance.

As for Compass Rose on the Splendor, if you read my report, and I tired to be fair, as we love Regent. We were on the ship for 17 days, got off Tues and only ate in the Compass Rose one time for dinner. The service was really off and the food didn’t impress us. We also ate there for the famous Sunday Brunch and it was fancy looking but the food was just ok. We did enjoy all our meals in Chartreuse, service, attention to detail and food were great. We ate there the most, but Sette Mari was also very good. Prime 7 was hard to get into, service good but food less so. I had Alaskan King Crab, but the wedge salad was just some odd pale green leaves. Where as Prime 7 on Navigator was packed last night and service was spotless. The wedge salad look like a wedge salad should look and was good. Oh, I did report on the issues we had, no response except after three reports the hot water was turned on in our shower. We did get a little testy over that issue needless to say.

Just received the best Christmas present ever. Ray is our CD and the twins from India are are on board….Shamu and his bother. They are the greatest!.

One more time….we are off on our next part of our holiday. Got off the Splendor on Tuesday and spent two nights at The Grand. Huge older hotel with a fabulous view or the Docks and inland waterway. We rented a car and drove down to Key West. We had not been there since a camping trip in 2007. The idea was to have a seafood late lunch, the weather had other ideas and opened up just as we got to the restaurant. There was no close parking so we headed back up the keys hoping it would stop raining before we past all the seafood houses. We did finally have a nice dinner but slightly wet. Yesterday we spent in the room watching the boat traffic and the turning around of a huge Carnival ship as she headed out. The last time we did a Holiday cruise we had our three children and new daughter-in-law with us. It was a Canal cruise on the original Royal Princess. Now almost thirty years later two more in-law children and 7 grandchildren later, we are doing a Holiday cruise again….Alone! We tried to join the Splendor for her Canal cruise but never cleared the wait list. So a couple of months ago we bailed and joined the Navigator Holiday cruise. Several people are joining us that were on the Splendor also. It will be fun to compare the oldest and smallest of the fleet with the newest and largest! We love small ships in general, our all time favorite being Seabourns old three little sisters. We were on the Navigator for the 2018 WC and loved her. We are now on board waiting for our suite. We were behind two bus loads but checkin went fast. Now just waiting to go to our suite. The ship looks great…..all decorated with red and green and a Ginger-house display outside the Navigator lounge. Looks like she has been redecorated.since the WC at least the public rooms. We will spend Christmas Day at our first port, Aruba and I will report as I can. Feel free to jump it anytime.

Well just lost the Text. I will try again.

We only went to the Compass Rose twice , once for lunch and once for dinner early on so I don’t know when it was put up. I didn’t see any mention of it in Passages though I could have missed that also.

Thanks Flossie for the picture and information. Glad the ship got up to spend on the issue. For some it was a little late showing up.

I love it when the sea looks like that!! It was never that calm during our 17 days. Have fun. We board the Navigator today, can see her from our hotel room. Glad you and your luggage arrived safely. Have a great Holiday. Thanks for the report. Carolyn

They had Alaskan King crab as a small plate sampler and a regular plate the last 17 on the splendor. I had it several times.

We just got off the Splendor and while a beautiful ship and a wonderful staff there were just little( or maybe big) things that were off. The timing was off sometimes in service and they were definitely slow to decorate the ship for Christmas completely. It was very piece meal. But once finished very nice. Dick felt like there was a lot of new worker bees that were being trained from odd comments heard in passing between supervising staff and workers. We are boarding the Navigator tomorrow so it will be interesting to compare the atmosphere/service on the newest and biggest and the oldest and smallest.

Usually every active…..think hiking and scuba diving…..not for old people with walking problems. 🤣

Interesting , ours wasn’t. There was some general information at the end of the safety video from the CD.

One last picture…I think they have finally finished the gingerbread display. It is very nice. On that note Merry Christmas from the Splendor. I will pick up with the rest of our holiday cruising on the 22nd when we board the Navigator. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. Maybe someone will report on the Splendor as she goes through the Canal

Our last day on the Splendor….late afternoon, Chartreuse - floating island, Alaskan King crab salad and cream brûlée-all very good! Morning craft with Annabelle.

Cozumel

Costa Maya from the ship

Well I am now packed and we have early reservations in Chartreuse. I made them months ago for 6:30 but when they changed the opening times to 6 they moved ours to 6 so we will miss the Krew Kappers which is always good. I made them change the Prime 7 (same deal) so we could attend the Loyalty cocktail party, but didn’t realize at the time we had the same problem with this reservation. To catch up on the last three days, we were in Costa Maya Mexico on Dec 17. Most of the tours were 3 man ones so we passed. It was a beautiful day but very humid. The pier was long and didn’t look like there was much at the other end so we made it a ship day. And ended that with our Prime 7 dinner. It was a stellar meal and service was great. Much better than the last cruise. Yesterday was Cozumel. We have been there many times diving and more recently taking the grandkids on cruises out of Galveston. In fact my Dad use to go fishing there in the late ‘50 and’60s before there was really anything there! We docked right in town near the ferry dock which is nice if you want to explore on your own. We just took the bike taxi on the pier to the Welcome area and walked around a bit. The NCL Pearl was beside us and I think most of the crew and passengers were watching the game on a TV at the bar in the shopping area. I contributed to the economy getting some bead ornaments for our soon to be Christmas tree and we had a nice late lunch ashore. Last night we ate at the pool grill. We went at 6:30, about 25 people came in while we ate. We had the best pork ribs I have ever had. I think they are making a big mistake doing away with evening service. I don’t see how they need 8 suites for s staff of two cooks. A bartender, and a head waiter and an assistant and the man serving ice cream! We begged for casual out door service on the 2018 WC. Today I went to crafts this morning and we made a Morse code bracelet spelling out bon voyage. Cute…I think anyway. Dick went to Trivia this afternoon and placed 3rd while I packed! He got a visor for his efforts. I will post sone pictures after dinner but it is time to eat again!!!