Voyager over the Holiday season

[flossie009]

Just a few notes about the cruise segment Singapore to Sydney (22 Dec - 12 Jan). A fascinating itinerary, with some unique ports :) Weather is hot, hot, hot with the occasional tropical downpour

 

Demographics :

Total guests 677; US 261; UK 115; Netherlands 79; Australia 62; Canada 43

Returning guests 66%; Titanium 8; Platinum 45; Gold 168

 

Entertainment :

Production shows and visiting entertainers have been good, with some nice parties for Christmas & New Year.

New Year evening run-down:

6:15 Liars' Club

6:45 New Years Eve Reception

10:00 Celebrity Showtime

11:00 - 12:30 Ring out the old / Ring in the new

12:15 onwards New Years Party

 

Same lecturer as last segment but with new material

 

 

Children :

Very few children and teenagers - all very well behaved. This has been helped by The CD, Ray Solaire, doubling as the child catcher .........enticing them with Harry Potter trivia into the candy-cane encrusted cages down on deck 3 :eek:

 

Crew :

A few changes of staff and crew were made in Singapore, but in general we have enjoyed continuity between segments

With a day in Semerang and two days in Bali, many of the Indonesian crew were able to have their family visit the ship and/or make a visit to their home overnight

 

Regent Christmas Gift :

As others have reported the Regent Holiday Gift this year was somewhat underwhelming. Yes, we know it is the thought that counts.............so what were they thinking back in Miami when they made this year's gift choice?

 

 

 

Quite a number of guests have suffered from coughs and colds, but this has not dampened the party spirit (although it has severely lightened the wallets of those who chose to visit the ship's doctor ;))

 

As other have previously reported, some of the older and more infirm guests need to heed the 'difficulty-levels' on the shore excursion descriptions and generally adhere to the advise & warnings...........................what bit of 'do not wear red' when visiting the Komodo Dragons did some not understand................luckily we did not lose too many guests! Some might not be so lucky now we are in Papua New Guinea :rolleyes:

 

 

Internet remains patchy at best :(

 

 

Happy New Year to all on CC

[liptastic]

Happy new year to you too Flossie. Still giggling at the folk wearing red at the Komodo Dragons trip.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise it sounds a very interesting itinerary. Thanks for reporting. Jean.

[forgap]

So excited to hear all the details as this is our itinerary in 2018! LOVE the bit about the candy cane encrusted cages on deck 3!

 

Jennifer

[WesW]

Flossie, thanks again for taking the time to post very useful Voyager Holiday information and Happy New Year to you too. We can't wait to board the Voyager in Auckland. We also expect many of the crew to enjoy family time with their loved ones on March 1st when we dock in Manila.

[Gilly]

Great observations once again, Flossie! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yes, I too giggled about those wearing red in Komodo ;-) Have fun in Port Moresby, one of our most memorable ports of call and enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Wes, not long now! Are you counting the days?

[WesW]

Yes, Gilley, counting--subtracting--multiplying--dividing even doing calculus :) but darn still only 21 days left :) and we have 18 1/2 hours of flying to do to get to Auckland.

 

So grateful to Flossie for posting while she is on board since no one else did. Tho, do know many cruise critics avidly post pre/post cruise but do not want to take up cruise time posting on cruise critic--and do understand this perspective tho don't practice it.

 

Gilly, btw, am now on final stages of organizing the meet & mingles for both Auckland to Singapore and Singapore to Hong Kong with the Voyager Groups Coordinator--Robby. Thankfully, my sources at Regent have let me know we can expect a formal Regent and Cruise Critic meet and mingle soon.

[Gilly]

That's interesting, Wes. Persistence pays! We have just under a couple of weeks before we board Explorer, so I guess we'll be sailing in different oceans at the same time. I am envious of you and Ida sailing to some of my favourite ports of call but know that we too will have fun and discover some new ones. Though I'm looking forward to being on board Explorer, I do love Voyager so and have been reassured by Flossie's reports. Thanks Flossie!

[freddie]

Flossie - I must add my thanks for your perseverance in continuing to post from the ship. It was most delightful to meet both of you. Our long, chatty lunch was great fun, indeed. It was quite interesting to discover how similar our reactions are to CC and the personalities thereupon.

 

Is the "hot, hot, hot" weather on this leg of your cruise worse than that in Singapore? The weather there almost did us in. We were grateful to return to the cool Pacific Northwest.

 

We look forward to reading any further observations you might have on your cruise and on the state of the "new" Voyager.

 

Cheers, Fred

Edited January 3, 2017 by freddie

[HongKongAlan]

Yes, Gilley, counting--subtracting--multiplying--dividing even doing calculus :) but darn still only 21 days left :) and we have 18 1/2 hours of flying to do to get to Auckland.

 

So grateful to Flossie for posting while she is on board since no one else did. Tho, do know many cruise critics avidly post pre/post cruise but do not want to take up cruise time posting on cruise critic--and do understand this perspective tho don't practice it.

 

Gilly, btw, am now on final stages of organizing the meet & mingles for both Auckland to Singapore and Singapore to Hong Kong with the Voyager Groups Coordinator--Robby. Thankfully, my sources at Regent have let me know we can expect a formal Regent and Cruise Critic meet and mingle soon.

 

As a Hong Kong local, if you need any local advice happy to help if I can add Hong Kong port info to anyone's itinerary

Edited January 3, 2017 by HongKongAlan

[Kitekat]

Hope you are continuing to enjoy your cruise, Flossie. We miss Voyager very much and are sad to hear that the coughs and cold are still continuing. We thought they would have run out of new bodies by now.

 

Most amused by the 'wearing red to visit the komodo dragons...' comments and Ray turning into a child catcher. I really can't see it, myself.

 

The internet problem is surprising as we had few issues on the Barcelona - Dubai leg.

 

Happy new year!

[flossie009]

Is the "hot, hot, hot" weather on this leg of your cruise worse than that in Singapore? The weather there almost did us in. We were grateful to return to the cool Pacific Northwest.

 

 

Glad to hear that you 'survived' Singapore and returned home safely.

 

The thunderstorm on 22 Dec in Singapore meant that the ship departed much later than planned; the charter flight bringing guests in from their 3day pre-cruise could not land during the thunderstorm.

 

Weather generally on this leg has been in the high eighties/low nineties with some overcast skies and high humidity. The most challenging day was on Komodo Island..............the heat & humidity was very oppressive, but it was worth it to see the Dragons

 

Funniest moment regarding the weather was yesterday in Alotau, Papua New Guinea; our local guide had to put on his knitted woolly hat as he could not cope with the air conditioning in the van ;)

 

 

It was a pleasure to meet you and hope our paths will cross again on future travels

[newlondon]

Absolutely agree with you Flossie about the weather on Komodo. We had two guests that needed assistance to complete the trip. Also agree seeing the dragons made it all worth it. I don't know where you are now but standby for even more heat. When we were in Darwin--same time of year it was 105f.

[Travelcat2]

Absolutely agree with you Flossie about the weather on Komodo. We had two guests that needed assistance to complete the trip. Also agree seeing the dragons made it all worth it. I don't know where you are now but standby for even more heat. When we were in Darwin--same time of year it was 105f.

 

Agree - Darwin was even difficult for the kangaroos - they laid on their back with their feet in the air in the Australia Zoo. :eek:

 

P.S. Just looked up temps. - not bad for Darwin - in the 90's!

Edited January 4, 2017 by Travelcat2

[flossie009]

We were in Darwin last Friday. Thunderstorms and heavy rain most of the day; nice warm rain, but most of us on tour just climbed into the tumble-driers when we got back to the ship :eek:

 

Today & tomorrow we are in Cairns; some heavy downpours are keeping temperatures reasonable

Edited January 5, 2017 by flossie009

[newlondon]

We missed Cairns because of a typhoon so I guess you are lucky!

[rcandkc]

We will be boarding in Sydney 1/12. Hope weather improves as well as the colds and coughs. We think we are boarding alone....no roll call posts at all. Guess we will have easy boarding😉. Seriously, looking forward to cruise.