Voyager - Dubai to Barcelona 5/2 - 5/23/16

[forgap]

I forgot to mention that after our LONG day in Jerusalem we returned to the ship just in time for the BBQ extravaganza. The dining staff takes all day to set up the pool deck with all sorts of delectables: sushi, middle eastern specialties, lobster tail, steak, sausages, all sorts of salad.

 

Arriving hot and tired mid BBQ was daunting. All the tables were full and I despaired for a moment that we wouldn't find a spot until I noticed that deck 12 was set up and it seemed that no one had yet discovered this little oasis. The breeze was cool, the food was magnificent, the wine was flowing, the music was lively. Life was, once again, very, very good.

 

L'Chaim!

[WesW]

Hi Jennifer & Georges,

 

Continued wonderful reporting, thanks so much. Your thread is a gem to read each morning over a hot cup of joe.

 

Look forward to sharing voyage stories/pictures soon here in ATL. Rose?

[forgap]

Bien sur, Wes! Although we need to give our livers a bit of a rest after this trip!

[forgap]

We were in Cyprus yesterday and are now sailing towards Rhodes. The wind is strong so we are rocking and rolling a bit. The weather is perfect with temps in the '70's and low 80's which is in marked contrast to the oven of the Arabian peninsula and Israel.

 

Cyprus was another unexpected charmer with beautiful Roman and Greek ruins set on mountains overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Our tour included the village of Omodos which is nestled among terraced vineyards. There were lots of shops with hand-crafted items, jams, carob honey, and local wine. The only downside was our tour guide had a strong accent and monotone delivery. I'm usually pretty good with accents but not this time. She kept up a steady patter for 4 hours. Luckily I had a book with me!

 

We are still immersed in the Artful Traveler program having said goodby to Justin Weinstein and Lois Vossen and welcomed Dr. M Sanjayan, a conservationist and host of the PBS/National Geographic series "EARTH - A New Wild".

 

We had dinner with him last night. He, his wife, and our table mates were absolutely charming and engaging. Once again, we were about the last table left in Compas Rose.

 

We normally choose cruises based on itinerary, but, in the future, we may choose the cruise based on whether it is an Artful Traveler cruise. The program has really added to our experience.

 

The BeTles dance party was last night. We peeked in but quickly opted out in favor of a good sleep!

[newlondon]

Forgap, I don't have your e-mail so I must press for an answer here. Would you please comment on the day in Jerusalem v Nazareth and Sea of Galillee

I posted my concerns about Jerusalem before and you seem to have confirmed them, but I don't know whether the other trip would be equally troublesome.

I'm sure in your conversations you must have gotten some info.

Thanks

[forgap]

New London....I have no scoop on Nazareth or the Sea of Gallalie. All the excursions were very long - at least 12 hours with the exception of tel Aviv/Jaffa which was about 6.5 hours. We had intended to do Jerusalem and Bethlehem but opted out for the shorter tour.

 

I had heard that Bethlehem was difficult. It is in the Palestinian sector so there was a lot of barbed wire and security which was intimidating for those on the tour. The church of the Nativity is also under restoration and there were huge crowds so you couldn't really see. The Masada trip was daunting with reports of 117 degree heat. As I mentioned, Israel was in the midst of an unusual heat wave when we visited. When we left, the temps dropped 20 degrees!

 

If you want me to find out more specific info, you can email me at forgap at bellsouth dot net.

[forgap]

Rhodes was a delight with the port within spitting distance of the walled city. As soon as we docked, we walked in to the old town which was packed with shops and restaurants and warm, gracious people. Since we have been very shop deprived this trip, we seized the opportunity to spend money and tic off all the gifts we felt obligated to buy.

 

We spent the afternoon on a tour to Lindos and it's incredible Acropolis which is perched on a cliff (300 + steps up!). This is the site where the "winged victory" sculpture was found. It is now in the Louvre.

 

As luck would have it, our cabin had the million dollar view of the ramparts, so on our return, we popped some champagne and toasted the best voyage ever.

[newlondon]

Thanks forgap, As i suspected that part of the world is difficult. Great to hear about Rhodes; wish the Colossus was still there.

[forgap]

We are in Sicily today after a relaxing sea day yesterday. We had a lecture, a documentary by our guest lecturer from PBS, Dr. M Sanjayan, and the country fair which was loads of fun. It was a delight to see the hard working staff creating fun games of chance and having a ball with the guests.

 

Taormina started cloudy and cold but now it is sunny and mild although Mt. Etna is still hiding herself. She has her own climate and just erupted two days ago. The ship rails are covered in ash and the cars in the town are covered in ash and sand - thanks to the Scirooco bringing wind with sands from the Sahara.

 

Taormina is a delightful town with shops, restaurants and a magnificent Greco-Roman amphitheater. We are anchored in the Naxos harbor and this was our first tender port. Getting on the tenders was easy, getting off - not so much. We are pretty agile and one had to follow strict directions as to when to step off in harmony with the swells. We have an old crowd on this cruise - some in not great shape - but all seem to have sufficient grit to give it a go!

 

We had dinner at Prime 7 last night - a porterhouse for two cooked to perfection. They pushed 18 oz for each of us and we limited our order to 18 oz for both of us, and thank goodness we did! Tonight we go to Signatures although I have been very happy with compass rose. Our chef is sourcing local fish and promoting local specialties so we have had a very nice culinary journey!

 

We have another sea day tomorrow and then Palma de Maillorca, our last port before disembarkation in Barcelona and home. Georges says I think every trip is the best ever, but, this time, it is!

[WesW]

Jennifer, Georges took the words right out of my mouth--just plain refreshing to daily enjoy your on board reports budding with excitement and awe.

 

btw, Stone Mountain erupted today and we are also covered....kidding...tho today in ATL it is in mid 60's with rain/thunderstorms. Safe travels home and thanks again for taking us along on your middle east/med journey.

[forgap]

Mt. Erna finally showed herself in the late afternoon. What a magnificent sight! We left Sicily about an hour and a half late due to the scirocco (gale force winds) that suddenly picked up. The captain had a hard time getting the last two tenders on board and even raising the anchor was difficult. I went up to deck 12 to take some pictures and the deck was covered with a fine orange sand. It almost looked like dust. It is literally everywhere. Even the windows in the observation lounge were blurred with it. The deck crew is going to have to work overtime to clean the ship!

 

For those of you who may think I'm too optimistic about Regent and this cruise, for the first time in three weeks we had a negative experience. We had dinner in Signatures and it was so slow and disorganized we finally left before desert.

 

I'm not sure what the problem was...perhaps our waiter, perhaps the expediter in the kitchen...perhaps the maitre d'hotel. We waited 15 minutes to give our order, 20 minutes for our first course, 15 minutes for our main course, then when our waiter didn't appear for our desert order, we left. Even the wine steward was sluggish. The restaurant was almost empty when we finally left. What a dissopointment!

[forgap]

Hate auto correct..Mt. Etna....je m'excuse! Trying to post pics now through tapatalk. The Internet continues to be of dial up speed! Nothing uploads and sends unless you are sleepless at 3 am. This is the deck post scirocco.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[forgap]

The Internet is too slow to upload on tapatalk...very frustrating, indeed! I'll post pics when I get home in two days.

 

We have a sea day today after a movemented night with lots of rocking and rolling. Two bonine later, I'm good to go! Great seafood buffet at lunch with a Thai green curry - clams, lobster, mussels, Calamari...major yum! I stron-armed the recipe from the chef so I am locked and loaded for a repeat on my return home!

 

We had a great lecture today through artful travelers....this time the lyricist David Zippel. Krew Kapers is tonight.

[forgap]

 

Tapatalk is working which must mean that everyone is still asleep so we have enough bandwidth! This is the mess that the scirocco left when we were in Sicily.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[forgap]

 

Transiting the Suez with a huge Mersk container ship in front of us.

[forgap]

 

Our final day of the cruise found us in Palma de Mallorca. We opted for a tour of the Santa Caterina vineyard which was high in the mountains. It was a scenic and hair raising ride through narrow hairpin turns that barely contained our coach.

 

The vineyard itself was very beautiful and we had a tasting of 4 wines with accompanying olive oil, flavored salts, bread and cheese. We universally cut short our scenic drive back so we could stay longer at the winery.

 

Since it was Sunday, we opted out of going into the center of town in favor of packing and drinking our final glasses of champagne in the observation lounge as we watched yachts and sail boats return to port .

[liptastic]

It sounds like a perfect end to your wonderful cruise. Thanks for your informative posts and pictures it's been a great read each day . Enjoy the evening sunset with chilled champagne and safe travels home. Jean.

[forgap]

 

We are in the BCN lounge waiting for our flight. I'm blissfully uploading pics on tapa talk that take seconds to upload - in marked contrast to the ship where it would take minutes if you could upload at all!

 

It is always a melancholy sight to see the Bon voyage mat on the bed! After a somewhat sleepless night, we woke to a beautiful sunrise. Debarkation was very organized and before we knew it we were whisked to the airport and ensconced in the lounge.

 

This really was our best cruise to date with the only flaws being the Internet, service in Signatures, and a slap dash rug installation in our cabin hallway that was a tripping hazard. I'm not sure what happened but it looked like a do it yourself job rather than a professional installation. They tried to fix it the first day, but it still looked like a slap dash job.

 

The best part of the cruise was the itinerary, the staff, and the Artful Travelers program. I will certainly seek out cruises that feature this program in the future. It was far better than the smithsonian lecturers.

[Eager2Travel]

Thanks for your wonderful reports that helped us relive our voyages to that part of the world. We so enjoyed our Regent cruises to the Middle East that we did it twice.

[gnomie1]

Thank you for your wonderful posts - did you sign you for future emails from the Artful Travelers program? They have numerous programs across various venues and we try to pick trips that coincide with an Artful Travelers program.

 

gnomie :)

[Travelcat2]

I also enjoyed the commentary of your cruise. We loved this area so much that we visited the area twice (only once through the Suez Canal but twice to Egypt and Israel on Regent and once to Egypt on our own). After the second visit (October, 2015), we decided that we would not return unless/until things settled down in that part of the world.

 

We are likely beyond the "Artful Travelers program" but I am sure that many would enjoy it (based on Cruise Critic reviews).

[Mr Rumor]

So fun for me to re-experience many of these ports through your engaging and delightful commentary. Thanks, forgap!

[WesW]

Jennifer, artful traveler upcoming Regent (Fjords (2016), Caribbean (2017), and (Alaska (2017) at link below:

 

http://www.artfultravelers.com/

 

Atlanta now in mid to upper eighties in next few days--welcome back to near Hot Atlanta.

[1982CruzStart]

Thanks for all your updates. Like others it has helped me re-live some of our past trips.

[forgap]

For those of you who are interested in demographics, we had 680 passengers on this voyage, of whom 350 were Americans. I couldn't get a breakdown of nationalities due to "security" reasons (although I've gotten them before - go figure) - the purser had no problem giving me the USA stat. The rest of the passengers were a nice mix of Canadians, Brits, Aussies, Dutch, and a few French and Spanish speakers.

 

The average age was OLD - although I'm now heaped in that category, too. Many had gait problems but that didn't seem to keep anyone down. I admired the considerable grit in evidence. We had many hot, long days and no one seemed to get cranky.

 

I didn't see anyone behaving badly and Lorraine, our cruise director, said we had a good convivial passenger mix. Everyone was very social and friendly. Although I did hear a story from a couple who arranged to spend the night in Jerusalem. When they met up with their arranged tour to return to the ship the next day, they had difficulty securing a seat on the bus. The busses were running 3/4 full so many had claimed their own seat and were unwilling to move to sit with their partners. It finally worked out, but not without intervention from the guide!

 

There were some interesting characters on board as well. I won't go into details to preserve their right to privacy - I also tend to make up colorful back stories in the absence of the facts!

 

If you have any questions about this voyage, don't hesitate to ask!