Jomurbie

It is now almost 2 years later, covid restrictions have been relaxed, but this legitimate dress code remains in place, and still people are asking about it! My roll call for the 3/28/23 cruise to the Amazon has this as the primary topic! We are going to the AMAZON! And the dress code is an issue? lol Apparently, If you were on one Regent ship and saw no one wearing even a sport coat, it must apply across all the ships? It is kind of funny!

On 3/31/2022 at 11:09 PM, ChrisNY2 said:

 

Thanks for the info! Disappointing, but I'll deal with it. I'm boarding this ship on Sunday right after you on a cruise compliments of the Casino, so I'll have to be in there at least a bit!

 

I just cruised last month on Celebrity Millennium on another comp casino cruise and they took the opposite approach - no smoking at all in the casino. Made for a much more pleasant time in the casino.

Same with HAL in February on the San Diego/Hawaii loop-no smoking in the casinos! But there was a strong masking policy in place as the January loop had quite a few covid cases. Apparently none on our Feb trip.

Does anyone have the time for tomorrow's Meet & Greet? I seem to recall it is later-like 11am?

22 hours ago, GTVCRUISER said:

Are they having Happy Hour 🍺 at 4 in the Billboard Bar and Martini Hour🍸 at 5  at  the Panorama Bar ? 

Yup!

On 2/3/2022 at 6:50 PM, DAllenTCY said:

The ships do not re-provision in Hawaii. 

 

By the time the prior 17 night reached San Diego the ship was low on just about everything.

 

Those items that were delivered to the pier days ago because they do not spoil, were the last to be loaded.

 

 

David

 

 

Oh wow! Did not know this! Was hoping for fresh Sushi out of Hawaii! Yikes!

Passed our Covid test- 'No phone call'! Hawaii, here we come. Hoping it gets warmer as we get close. But will definitely continue to wear serious masks. PSA: I am amazed at the # of people who will pull down their mask from its most contaminated spot!! HANDLE MASKS ONLY FROM THE EDGES OR STRAPS! If you pull it down from the front, you are touching the one place it is intended to catch and STOP the virus! The front is a NO TOUCH zone! Wash hands immediately if you touch there.

Our meet & greet was such a delight to have! Thank you Eddie for your MC skills and all you both did to pull it off. Some Covid tests were done today (2/4), the rest tomorrow. Here's hoping the 95 masks are as good as they say!

Went in to Avalon, took an open air bus tour (via Trip Advisor)! Pretty little town!

On 2/2/2022 at 3:49 PM, Newly Retired Teachers said:

Not sure why we are upside down.  It’s only martini #1.

So funny!

Hi Bob & Steve!

Thanks for setting this up. It will be fun to do some posting along the way and to track any covid issues.

JoAnn

Wow! Thank you for the pictures!

This is what I want to see-the whole point of the cruise for the 18th! I am afraid it will be shut down even if we are allowed to go into port. A friend who lives in Honolulu says they have been asked to self-quarantine.

3 hours ago, awhcruiser said:

Love this.  We are doing a Circle Hawaii cruise in April!  

Very pretty!

2 hours ago, Jeff_Lori said:

 

The best restaurant in Kona (IMO), right in the middle of the market area, is Bongo Ben's. (Full disclosure: We're good friends with the owners, but we'd recommend it anyway. Definitely a locals' favorite.)

Glad to hear no issues with going in to port. Any other suggestions for Kona?

Awesome! The classes sound fun. I hope to make a lei, also. What is your itinerary? It sounds a little different from our loup on the 18th.

2 hours ago, sansterre said:

Day 5 - still at sea

After breakfast in the MDR,  Coffee with the Dutch Tenors was nice.  They come from different parts of the Netherlands, are 26-29 years old, and were created 2 years ago by Rose, a woman who runs the organization from the Netherlands. There is a fifth member who is also a violinist (does the music they sing to) and fills in as a vocalist in case of illness or family emergency. You can friend them on Facebook!

At 10:00,  I (and about 100 others) made a bracelet with Keoni.  It is made by weaving rafia into tree bark which is split.  To finish there is a circle of small shells.  Mine turned out a little too large for my wrist so thinking about taking it apart and remaking it smaller.  I'll take a photo of it and post it as soon as I find out where my downloaded photos go. ( I may have to email my photos when we reach Kona.)

Perfect weather today so spent a little time on our veranda.  Many walked the outside deck.  During his meteorological and nautical noontime report, the Captain said the seas tomorrow will be a little rougher.  The next day is our arrival in Kona so we will keep an eye out for whales as we near the Sandwich Islands, aka Hawaiian Islands.

We came in second in the Pop Quiz; it was on Movies.  But we won again in the 4:00 trivia.  Today there was a 2:00 lecture by CD on Surfing.   Other subjects have been on Whales, and Sharks.  This morning there was a talk about the history of Leis which I meant to attend but was tending to my knitting up in the Crows Nest instead.  

We enjoyed dinner in the Pinnacle.  I had the wedge salad, petite fillet, French fries, and chocolate soufflé.  I would order the same again except perhaps change the dressing on the salad (it comes with creamy ranch-type dressing).  

There was a vocalist for entertainment but it was late and a full day so we didn't attend.

 

 

Curious. Are there soap dispensers in the cabin bathrooms or is it still a bar soap?

Cat Shepherd-thank you for that link. I noticed there were very limited recent reviews for a lot of HAL's excursions!

What does surfer cover?

5 hours ago, sansterre said:

Boarding seemed to go well.  We had to complete a survey asking 3 questions about if we had a fever and if we had been in China, Japan, Hong Kong, etc. or in contact with anyone  who had coronavirus.  We checked "NO" in three boxes and signed at the bottom.  I was surprised that there was no one taking temperatures.

We were given a letter at check-in written by Dr. Tarling, Chief Medical Officer titled Health Advisory - Coronavirus.  It listed adopted measures intended to keep us safe.  #1 said: "Guests who have traveled from or through mainland China (including Hubei Province) in the past 14 days, will not be permitted to board the ship.  This does not apply to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan". That one surprised me but the rest of the letter was full of tips to stay healthy and what to do if experiencing any symptoms of illness.

Everything went smoothly once on board.  After dropping off our carry-ons in the cabin, we met our room steward Frank, then checked on dining arrangements at guest services.  By the time we returned, our luggage was in the room. We emptied most of the suitcases before and after the drill, then enjoyed dinner and our head waiter named Made.

Day 2  It is a beautiful day outside with blue sky and sunshine.  But it is windy and that makes it difficult to walk a straight line on the Eurodam.  The outside doors are closed to prevent injury etc.

We were up early, breakfast in the MDR (main dining room) when it opened at 8.  

By 9:00 I was on the Lido Deck with a pile of orchids in front of me.  I made a lei to wear to dinner tonight!  (pictures tomorrow)  It wasn't difficult, just took some time with cotton thread and a special long needle that allowed us (about 50 cruisers) to add 5 flowers at a time.  In Hawaii people earn about $9 an hour making leis and they sell them everywhere.  We might even find them in Walmart!  

At 9:45 I entered B.B.Kings venue we held our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet.  Since I had made the arrangements with HAL, I arrived 15 minutes early to be sure things were set up properly.  Tables were set up and staff was just beginning to bring in coffee, water, and cookies.  Of the 80 people signed up, about 50 attended and for the next 40 minutes we put a face to the names we had seen on our Roll Call for the past few months.

At 1:00 DH and I attended Pop Trivia, 30 questions pop quiz on a theme.  The theme this time was "animals".  We missed two - what is a Flemish Giant?  and what animal can go 10 months without water?

Trivia is at 4:00 and the evening trivia will be a music trivia, which we probably won't do as we don't remember many songs.  BTW a Flemish giant is a rabbit.......and a camel can go 10 months without water.  We thought that was too obvious so went with Giraffe which is also able to go without water for long periods of time.

The captain has told us the windy weather should continue throughout the evening.  But the Eurodam is cruising well through the wind and waves.

If you have any specific questions, ask away, and I will try to respond to those that I can.

 

 

 

Great info! Thanks so much for posting. New M & G greeting should be elbow touches! lol  (a little like the macarena?)