Gilly

@lincslady he was Captain of the first cruise we sailed! Happy Memories, eh? I'm glad you are enjoying sailing along with us. It's a nice itinerary though like many short cruises, it's a bit full on! We are just getting ourselves together for dinner in Chartreuse tonight and I'm trying to put together the bare bones of my blog before going for a drink. A bientot!

Success with the internet as I have found "my secret spot" where the connection was more stable and didn't keep falling over. Today, we don't arrive in Corfu until lunchtime, so morning Trivia and a different routine. The fun doesn't stop!! Gx

Well, a first for me. In however many years of cruising with Regent, I didn't manage to get my blog posted yesterday due to glacial slow Internet speed. Wherever we have been, however slow or intermittent service there, I have found a way. But, this one will have to wait. We had a great day in Ravello, went to a family winery for a simple lunch and tastings. Highly recommend the Ravello and Apicello Wine tour. An interesting show last night unlike anything we have seen on Regent previously. I shall hope to be able to share more in the coming days but for now, bucketloads of patience are needed here!

Jan, I'll find out. I believe they all started in March, so it might be around changeover time?

@lincslady you'll see that I have been blogging for a few years (!) and having "invested" so many memories online, prefer to have them somewhere that I can control (no ads, no chance of it all disappearing suddenly and so on...) I really write it for my friends and family but of course, it's there if anyone is interested in my ramblings too 😉 We are finally on board! It seems like it's been quite a journey though. I can't say the W hotel in Rome was quite up to managing groups such as ours - breakfast service was not up to scratch (staffing I guess) and the buffet badly organised. We gathered for our transfer at 11.30 and reached the ship sometime after 1 - but long queues for check in and patchy management of the admin process (CV checks as well as ship check in) meant it was after 2 by the time we were on board the ship. However, as soon as we stepped over the threshold we were HOME! Seldom have we felt so happy to be on board and amongst friends. The Regent magic, administered by "The A Team" - Davor, Vladimir, Sylvester, Alin, Emiliano and Francisco - kicked in and I don't think we have stopped smiling since. We are feeling incredibly lucky right now. Life is good. Very good, in fact.

Well, I'll do my best, but I don't normally focus on recording daily menus, I'll admit - far too busy enjoying the results 😄 As @RetiredandTravel posted above, there have been recent posts with typical menus - I'll see if I can post something along those lines.

@jessandarnie with you 100% on that one. So sorry that you missed most of your much longed for cruise due to CV. It is so important that we all take responsibility for getting tested before getting on board, not only for insurance purposes but respecting our fellow guests and crew too. CV numbers are creeping up in Europe again. It's not going away any time soon.

Hello from Rome, where we and our luggage arrived safely together with what seemed like thousands of other people boarding cruises. So many different signs being held up at the exit: Carnival, Celebrity, Princess, Viking, ...and Regent, of course. As always, that bit between disembarking, collecting luggage and getting on our way to the hotel is the worst part. We none of us like being herded like sheep through a crowded airport and this was one of the most crowded we'd ever seen (even worse than Athens!) But once on board a small bus - about a dozen of us - all set for three different hotels in the same neighbourhood, it was just fine. Our room wasn't ready so we had a drink and a bite to eat before heading out for a bit of fun. I'll post some photos and so on on my blog, but for now, can happily say, we are on our way!!

@Cruisin7 I am so sorry for only just picking up on your horrible experience! (Duh...the Santa Barbara clue might have been key for this detective, you'd think!!) Good grief, lesser mortals might have jumped ship before they even got on board! Bravo for your patience and for staying cool! How are you all?

We have very much enjoyed being with you in the last few days, especially since we didn't have to listen to the foghorn from our side of the screen 😀. I really enjoy your positive approach, @RachelG - your cruise really didn't go according to plan, did it?

Excellent advice @lincslady - whilst our bags are in our company or in the care of British Airways, they are already well identified. The previous panic set in when we were to leave them outside our room without any Regent id (or worse, the Silverseas label offered by the hotel!) We'll attach the Regent labels before we leave them ready for collection.

We're just getting our act together and will leave later for LHR for our 7am (gulp) flight to Rome tomorrow morning. We'll go for our CV test in an hour or so and were anticipating a more relaxed approach to CV precautions from that which we experienced on board Navigator in August. Having just read Rachel's report from Navigator, I'm now wondering if we will encounter a similar situation. I'll let you know 😉 I'll drop in here now and again, but will mainly post to my personal blog at elegantsufficiency as usual. If there's anyone else here sailing with us, do please chip in here with your 2p as well - the more the merrier! Incidentally, this time, we received a set of sticky luggage labels in an envelope about two weeks ago, so we don't have the anxiety we had last time about identifying our bags. All the other documentation is online - that's fine.

@rkaratsu 100% in agreement re Compass Rose!