Voyager Auckland to Singapore, January 26 - February 20, 2017

[JC174CA]

Hello, Wes.

 

My wife, Kathy, & I have enjoyed reading your posts and viewing your pictures! We will be joining you in Singapore for the run to Hong Kong.....a "bucket list" trip for us. This will be our 4th Regent Cruise in the last 7 years (2nd on the Voyager) and reading/viewing your adventures has definitely added to the anticipation!

 

Would love to have a drink with you and Ida at some point.

 

Enjoy!

 

Jim

[mysty]

Thanks so much Wes for your wonderful pictures and delightful descriptions of the fun you are having! I'm enjoying every vicarious moment!

[newlondon]

Wes, You knew I would eventually bring up the Super Bowl, but I won't be obnoxious since the other big game went your way.

Glad you're having such a good time. May I say "You never should have left RSSC "

[WesW]

JC174CA/Jim & Kathy, first thanks for sending your booking# for our Singapore to HK voyage. Ida and I look forward to having a drink with y'all. And thank you for the cruise well wishes too.

 

Misty, you're more than welcome, happy to know your enjoying sailing along with us.

 

Bill, thanks for your gentle reminder of the endstate, Ida lost her lunch appetitive (we were on a Brisbane excursion and checked the score with 17 min left, 28-3 and she rushed to watch the end of the SB and saw Brady crush Atlanta's tired defense. Quinn should have never had Ryan pass on 3rd and (bonehead)

 

Today we have one more Sea day until we arrive in Cairns. We have a skedaddle excursion (snorkel) planned with our snorkel/cruising buddies (Kia Orana) who we last snorkeled with in Phuket.

 

Today we have a couple Smithsonian lectures (Great Barrier Reef) and a guest (former diplomat, staffer who worked directly for Kissinger) gives us his second lecture on Vietnam.

 

Ida and I mixed it up last nite and enjoyed our pre dinner drink on the pool deck.

 

Bubbles time at sunset on Regents Voyager with w/my beautiful bride Ida--enjoying jacuzzi and champagne bubbles. We enjoyed drinks with a British couple Don and Sue (who brought their blue tooth speaker and shared Motown hits with our bubbles)

 

Oh, please excuse the bad hair day (wes).

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Pamela1]

Your enthusiasm is wonderful and your joy and lust for life is a real inspiration. I love it!

 

I'm also wishing we were the couple that want to meet with you on the next segment.

Hope to meet up one day too.

 

Pam.

[WesW]

Pam, thanks again for your warm/gracious words. We'd love to sail with you. We may do Norway on Regent next in the summer of 2018. Just waiting for Ida to pull the trigger on the Navigator 20 day Norway cruise in 2018 (prefer doing Norway on the Navigator vs Explorer in 2018 since Nav has open decks on top, Explorer does not).

 

 

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[Travelcat2]

Hi Wes - sorry to disrupt this thread (only for a moment), I'm sure that you are aware that Cruise Critic is rolling out their new "format" and that some of us are viewing your posts with the 'old" format and other with the "new" format. Finally getting to the question :D What camera are using to take photos and also, are you using photbucket.com or ??? I ask because I can see photos the way they were meant to be seen on every thread except yours. I would really like to figure out why this is happening.

 

Thanks!

[purpleally]

Wes, your posts and pictures are coming out great from where I am seated. I have the new format but no issues. Not too big, not too small, not blurry. It looks as if you are having a blast. Thanks for taking us along!

[WesW]

Hi Jackie, using an IPad mini--and tapa talk medium format for all pix except very early in thread where I learned the best size was not best.

 

Your very welcome purpleally, glad to have you cruising virtually beside Ida and I.

 

We are headed to spin class next, then afternoon workout.

 

We have recruited a few more couples for our pre dinner jacuzzi drinks.

 

Also, don't, Hernry, Carol, Stan and I all have come down with the NZ crud (bad sore throat,cougg( Stan and I have taken our z pack and are nearly recovered.

 

Best, Wes

 

 

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[flossie009]

Wes, your posts and pictures are coming out great from where I am seated. I have the new format but no issues. Not too big, not too small, not blurry. It looks as if you are having a blast. Thanks for taking us along!

 

Wes, likewise your photos are displaying fine on my desktop (new format), laptop (old format) and tablet (new format)

 

Yes, early photos came out too wide viewing on laptop with CC old format but just checked and they are OK viewing on tablet using CC new format

 

Thanks for the regular posts; enjoy the rest of your cruise

Edited February 8, 2017 by flossie009

[DreamflightPat]

Wes, your posts and pictures are coming out great from where I am seated. I have the new format but no issues. Not too big, not too small, not blurry. It looks as if you are having a blast. Thanks for taking us along!

Coming out fine on my laptop, iPad mini and on my iPhone.

[liptastic]

Wes pictures perfect here on iPad and iMac. Jean.

[Travelcat2]

Hi Jackie, using an IPad mini--and tapa talk medium format for all pix except very early in thread where I learned the best size was not best.

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Thanks Wes. For whatever reason, my desktop remains in the old format (as mentioned earlier, I do get the photos on my Kindle in with the new format but photos are, IMO, best seen on a larger screen.) It may be a good thing that you are at sea while the arguments, etc. continue on CC regarding the new format. Everyone seems to have a different experience and are blasting Cruise Critic..... it is amazing the anger and spitefulness that comes out when a simple thing like a format change occurs. Personally, it is like being at sea..... I roll with the waves with a smile on my face.:)

 

In any case, I'll read your thread on my Kindle. Looking forward to hearing about your experiences in Cairns. While the water is amazing, we were taken aback by the fact that you need to cover your entire body before entering the water due to box jellyfish and other critters. We could see hundreds of box jelly fish from the ship.

[Pamela1]

Wes and Ida, we are loving your pictures (all working well here) and your fun loving take on your cruise that we feel involved in. There are many pictures of places that most of us have been privy to at some point so it's a breath of fresh air that you are willing to share your personal snaps with us.

Thank you and hope you keep having a blast.

 

Pam.

[UUNetBill]

...we were taken aback by the fact that you need to cover your entire body before entering the water due to box jellyfish and other critters. We could see hundreds of box jelly fish from the ship.

 

Bill's rule #763: "If you need to cover your entire body to avoid jellyfish in the water, there's no real need to enter the water."

[Travelcat2]

Bill's rule #763: "If you need to cover your entire body to avoid jellyfish in the water, there's no real need to enter the water."

 

We did go into a stationary submarine type "thing" while on an excursion and did see fish but the divers/snorkelers have to cover their heads and faces in addition to arms, legs, feet, etc.. Apparently "box" jellyfish are extremely deadly (and do look like boxes;) )

 

P.S. I love the prayer wheel (off topic but I'm sure you know what I'm referring to:-)

[Pamela1]

Wes and Ida, we are loving your pictures (all working well here) and your fun loving take on your cruise that we feel involved in. There are many pictures of places that most of us have been privy to at some point so it's a breath of fresh air that you are willing to share your personal snaps with us.

Thank you and hope you keep having a blast.

 

Pam.

 

OK, so this format has just changed here. (i.e.) colours and word format but still the same for the pics. Keep doing what yo do.

 

Pam.

[WesW]

Good Morning as we are just about ready to dock in Cairns.

 

Flossie009, Dreamflightat, Jean, Jackie, Pam--y'all are very welcome--happy to hear you're enjoying the snaps. Any feedback is helpful as we share our experience.

 

Cairns is most well known for it's access to the Great Barrier Reef--the reef stretches for more than 2000 kilometers along the northeast coast of Queensland. Will take pics when we go on our snorkel excursion (link below) from noon until about 4:30pm (hoping for no jelly fish). Kia Orana (Frank & Susan have organized this private excursion at half the cost ($200 vs $400) for the Regent excursion.

 

Our Cairns private excursion for those of you going to Cairns in the future:

 

http://www.skedaddlecairns.com.au/the-tour

 

For those who covet Jewelry in the boutique and getting your partner to cruise. Ida mentioned she likes the Lemonde Globe necklace in the boutique. So priced the globe and then sent an email to lemonde (price direct from lemonde is almost 30% less than the price in the boutique. Emma from the boutique is checking to see if they will price match (they asked for a copy of the email from lemonde). So, knowing Ida has not pulled the trigger on our Navigator Norway voyage in August 2018 (Captain Felipe told me the Navigator would be wonderful for Norway) I said Globe for Navigator--so let's just say we're close to booking :)

 

http://Www.lemondeglobe.com

 

Please enjoy a picture of Frank/Susan/Ida and I enjoying dinner last nite in Sette Mari. To whet your Cairns visual appetitive here a few pics taken during our sail in now.

 

 

 

 

 

Really like that the Voyager staff have place a wall map (on pool deck just by stairs leading to jogging track) of the area of the world we are cruising in and penciled in our route from Auckland to Singapore by date we stop at each port. Sorry for the reflection on the photo--will try at another time to get clearer pix--but do find this pictorial display of our cruise useful:

 

Edited February 8, 2017 by WesW

[liptastic]

Wes I like Ida's skills here re the necklace for the cruise booking. I must remember this for future use ( my husband does not use cruise critic ).

Hope the boutique can price match and you can go ahead and get booked up. Photos are looking great. Jean.

[Gilly]

Hehe, like Jean, I admire Ida's style ;-)

 

Great photos again today, all of which are looking good on my desktop PC. I'm enjoying the fun too.

[RustyRollock]

If you do go snorkelling on the GBR ( or anywhere else in the general area) please wear the stinger suits recommended by your dive operator(s). Not glamorous but essential protection against the infamous box jellyfish but also the even nastier and tiny irukandji jellyfish - the size of your pinky fingernail and transparent. A sting from one of those will put you in hospital for days in indescribable pain that large doses of morphine won't touch. Welcome to Australia!

[WesW]

Thanks so much for your continued thoughtful, very kind always upbeat comments Jean and Gil--tho am disregarding your jewelry advice for Ida :)

 

RustyRollock, thanks for your helpful suggestion, all 12 of us on the skedaddle boat stinger suited up. Tho, we saw hundreds of jellyfish we did not see stinger jellyfish thank goodness.

 

 

Fantastic day snorkeling at Hastings Reef (outer reef) at the Great Barrier Reef. We saw 6 sharks, 8 turtles, 5 mermaids...kidding, but we did see Nemo, Dory and beautiful coral formations.

 

Tonight, Don, Frank, Susan, Ida and I have a post snorkel dinner in Regent Sevens Seas Voyager's main restaurant to regale ourselves with our snorkeling experience.

 

We disembark Cairns Australia tonight and have two sea days until we reach our next port, Cooktown.

 

Please enjoy some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

[Gilly]

I'm delighted you had such a great day, Wes - snorkeling on the GBR(about 20 years ago!) spoiled me for snorkeling anywhere else with the possible exception of Maui, where the whales' songs made that a truly memorable experience. I hope you were left with such vivid images in your memory too - undoubtedly reinforced by great post-trip conversation and dinner.

 

As for Ida's jewellery strategies, it sounds like she needs no further advice from any of us but I for one, could learn a great deal from her!

[JC174CA]

Wes, hope your view today is better (and warner) than mine! 1 week until we leave for Singapore. Jim

 

 

 

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[UUNetBill]

Wes, hope your view today is better (and warner) than mine! 1 week until we leave for Singapore. Jim

 

 

 

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Which is precisely why my wife doesn't really ever want to move back to NJ...although we'll probably have to wait until Saturday to get back up into the 70's. :p