Please help me retain my sanity!!!!

[Phillygirl3]

Wonderful idea to keep the memories coming!  Since my upcoming cruise will, most likely, be cancelled I find myself reading travel books and looking for films or videos that have a travel aspect to them.  I'm attaching a photo of the first thing we saw on our Rio to Barcelona cruise.  We loved Tenerife and best of all, we met two wonderful couples that we have kept in touch with and have even have had visits from, even though they live far away from me.  

Thanks, again for doing something to lift our spirits.  I love the saying that someone mentioned on our last cruise in December.  "We are travelers, not tourists."

[mountaindoc358]

19 hours ago, boblerm said:

My thanks to all that have been sharing their memories and photos of Regent days gone by.  What wonderful memories!

 

Drib- great stuff, I especially appreciative your heads up about the Cliffs of Insanity in San Remo, will make a mental note to steer clear should I find  myself there.

 

kjbacon, I must confess, I have never indulged in the cheese offerings.  So now, the question is, if I have the cheese, what do I leave out?  Or do I leave out nothing and only let out my waistline? 

 

mountaindoc358, the Song of Flower is a new one on me.  The ship looks very different than today's Regent ships!

 

My sanity is starting to come back but only slowly.  Keep the posts coming!

 

Here is another of my Regent favorites-  for me, the crown jewel in the treasure trove of Prime 7-

 

(cue choir music)-

 

The Caramel Popcorn Sundae

 

Song of Flower was one of 2 ships owned by Radisson Seven Seas Cruises. It had only 226 passengers and was sold in 2003 to a French company. Lovely picture of the popcorn sundae!

[Hambagahle]

Could it be that the Caramel Popcorn Sundae is what I had looked forward to the most on our Splendor cruise ??

 

Memories ?    2004 Mariner to Alaska:  HOT weather aside from Seward.  Then the Mariner hit a "growler" - small ice berg I suppose.   And we limped from Juneau to Ketchikan and to Vancouver.  Open bar after Ketchikan...not at all a normal thing in 2004.

2005 - Mariner from Los Angeles to Miami.   JUST the cruise we hoped to re-do on 14 March on the Splendor.   It was superb.  Fascinating, great lectures, etc.

2006 - Voyager Trans Atlantic from Rome to Ft Lauderdale.  They had the "Circle of Interest" and we joined...  it was terrific aside from the day we were in Monte Carlo and the guide to Vence wasn't wonderful.  I found myself "reverse translating" from English to French to understand her!!

2006 - Voyager to St Petersburg and the Baltic states.  With the Antiques Roadshow team from the BBC.  Just amazing!!  We had a private guide in St.Petersburg who got us into every place when it was closed... private tours with museum directors etc.

2008 - Mariner from Lima to BA.  (I got food poisoning in Lima which was not great!! Nothing to do with Regent though!)  Great cruise and again -Circle of Interest, this time on the Falklands with a British Navy Commander who had been shipwrecked TWICE on one day in the Falklands.  Truly memorable...plus by accident the British General who was a passenger who led the "mopping up" efforts there too.

2010 - I think this was the "Ash Cruise" - Mariner in the Med.  We ended in Venice and many people with Regent air spent a week in Padova waiting for the skies to re-open.  We had booked a Hertz car and simply drove home in 5 hours (maybe less...)

2013 - not really sure about the date but a TA on Mariner, Ray Solaire as CD with his wonderful show.   Lovely, lovely cruise

 

Since then - on Oceania.  We don't cruise often (and don't want to...we have too much to see and do here in Switzerland). but my heart is broken about the Splendor cruise and we will be BACK as soon as we can...

[flossie009]

Earlier this week we regained some sanity by booking shore excursions for a TransAtlantic on Splendor coming up in November this year. Hopefully the world will have regained some sense of normality by then.

 

It spurred us on to look back at our first Regent TransAtlantic; Seven Seas Mariner in March 2011.

 

In those days you could still make a visit to the Bridge while at sea.

 

Plenty of games on deck:

 

............ including the regular "Officers Challenge" (with a few familiar faces):

 

I think this delicious dish was served in "Signatures":

 

We were fortunate to have booked an Horizon suite ............... so we always knew where we had been

 

Good memories and we certainly hope that Regent are back in full operation again within a few months.

 

[boblerm]

Thanks again to those that are posting here.

 

Sheila, I really appreciate your sharing of your poignant memories and great photos.  Did I spy Risky between you and Herb in one of the photos?  I will make a note to toast your anniversary on March 27!

 

Gerry, thank you for your post.  I embarked the Mariner on the "ash cruise" on the cruise after yours.  It was a ghost ship on the day of embarkation, we stayed in port for a few days so that others were able to make it on board.  Still, the most empty cruise that I have been on.

 

Flossie009, thank you, and oh, if only we still had Signatures!

 

Keeping things going- here is Kasia getting the party started-

 

[SusieQft]

3 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

They had the "Circle of Interest" and we joined...

This sounds interesting.  Could you explain it for us Regent Newbies?

[Hambagahle]

8 hours ago, SusieQft said:

This sounds interesting.  Could you explain it for us Regent Newbies?

Unfortunately Regent only did this for two years.

 

Basically Circles of Interest were offered on various topics.  On the Voyager TA cruise we chose Art and History.  At most ports we had specialised tours which included historical sites, art museums etc.  There were lectures on board too.  On the Lima/BA cruise we chose the Falkland Islands war.  The leader was a Royal Navy Commander and he spoke several times about various aspects of the war.  By chance a member (like us) of the circle was a British army General who had led the "mopping up" operation after the war.  Both men were fascinating.  Then when we were in Port Stanley we had a tour of the battlefields, lunch at a farmer's house at Goose Green and our guide was a man who was at the radio station there throughout the Argentinian occupation.  It was a fascinating experience.

 

I think we paid about $300 each for these circles.   I wish they would do them again!

[daetchief]

Before Regent my LW and I enjoyed cruising, but it was kind of like casual golf or bowling; we didn't plan on doing it, we went when the opportunity arose.  Then, in 2013 we were inching along in traffic - heading to work - when one of the morning drive time personalities came on the radio to announce the "Hawaii Kidney Foundation - 25th Anniversary Kidney Cruise".  It was 7 nights in the Mediterranean Sea from Rome to Barcelona on a ship/line we hadn't ever heard of Regent.   Since my LW always talked about going to that region of the world and also since it was [nearly?] our 25th Wedding Anniversary (and I did NOT know what to get her) I said "We should go!"   Even though it would be closer to our 26th anniversary when the cruise happened we booked a suite (The 'Vegas Suite' on Mariner - "777")  Even though it was a Veranda Suite, and even though we flew coach from Honolulu to Rome, it was the best vacation we had ever taken.  We were greeted by warm and caring individuals as we disembarked the plane. [Sir, can we carry your carry-on bags for you?]  Traveled in comfortable cars or tour vans and once we embarked the Mariner - I got a glimpse of what it would feel like to own my own MegaYacht [without the overhead pain].

Rather than reciting all of the luxuries that Regent offers all its guests, suffice it to say that first experience changed every thought or expectation of what level of perfection is possible.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

22 hours ago, boblerm said:

Sheila, I really appreciate your sharing of your poignant memories and great photos.  Did I spy Risky between you and Herb in one of the photos?  I will make a note to toast your anniversary on March 27!

Yes that was Risky. Two different cruises. Mariner 4/2017. First cruise to Cuba and TA- Explorer 2016..

Thanks for your toast on our anniversary. 
We shall meet again on a future RSSC cruise..I know it. 
sheila

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

BTW.. I have never posted some of my grandchildren photos. Here’s one:

my four granddaughters. (Missing my three grandsons.)

Sheila 

[boblerm]

Sheila, your granddaughters are beautiful. No surprise. 😊

Surely you don't think that you can get away without showing us your grandsons! 😀

[Pam]

We sailed on Voyager, the Circle of Interest was Chocolate!  They had people from Godiva onboard and demonstrations with samples.  It was decadent!

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by Pam

[Cool Fool]

On 3/19/2020 at 2:02 PM, boblerm said:

 

Sheila, I really appreciate your sharing of your poignant memories and great photos.  Did I spy Risky between you and Herb in one of the photos?  I will make a note to toast your anniversary on March 27!

Risky saved one of our cruises!  Some in our traveling party (not me or DW, we go with the flow) were having some issues with dining. We were put in Risky’s section and all was well. She’s special. 

Quote

Edited March 21, 2020 by Cool Fool

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Love Risky!

[flossie009]

Sorry to move away from Regent cruising for a moment, but yesterday was the first day of Spring and the sun and our trees decided to come out in support:

 

 

 

We are definitely missing the sight, smell & sound of the sea. We should have been flying to Bangkok next week to join Voyager ................. sadly we are now resigned to not cruising again until the Autumn

 

Over the coming months we will have to make do with memories of some great cruises and those lovely touches that Regent always offers; particularly on special occasions:

 

 

 

[tampadee]

On 3/19/2020 at 5:14 AM, kjbacon said:

Omigosh, talk about a small world ... hello again! As I recall, we had a terrific table with lots of swapping and trading of oysters and other goodies ... just a lovely day!

 

Bob, that’s just the trouble! Most days, well at least half, we opted for just splitting the cheese tray. To be fair though, how would that make the pastry chef feel? We simply felt obligated not to hurt anyone’s feelings so we sucked it up and ordered dessert to split too. 

 

I had to repost your caramel popcorn sundae picture. Easily the best picture I have ever seen of it and besides, it is soooo good that there’s never too many pictures of it.

Our favorite dessert!  This one looks like the best I've seen!

[boblerm]

20 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Sorry to move away from Regent cruising for a moment, but yesterday was the first day of Spring and the sun and our trees decided to come out in support:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flossie009, your spring colors in Bucks is ahead of ours in New England.  At least Mother Nature will keep us entertained over these next weeks.

 

I am getting a flashback of our first cruise on the Navigator in 2009- this was before Sette Mari was introduced, but I seem to remember that in the evening, La Veranda was open for dinner with an Italian theme, you were served a main course, but everything else was buffet.  Does anyone else remember this?  Am I suffering from false memory syndrome??

[Sheltieluv]

Boblerm,  our first Regent cruise was in 2009 as well, and you are correct that part of la veranda was partitioned off, and they served Italian food.  I don't remember a buffet, but we were served all courses.  (I was an inexperienced traveler, and had never had salad served mid-meal!☺)

They also had a guitar player and some singers and staff entertainers.  It was a fun evening.  So, no, you are not suffering from memory syndrome!

[boblerm]

This may be Regent forum heresy, but I gotta believe that there are a number of us that crossover between Regent and Crystal.  And even for those that have no interest in Crystal, it may interest you to know that the performer who is arguably the most popular Crystal entertainer is doing a daily gig from his home.  His name is Mark Farris, and he is a truly great performer, giving generously of his time, bringing some sunshine during these somewhat dark days.

You can see him here

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=680777029327864

 

[irishwitchy]

On 3/18/2020 at 2:31 PM, Wendy The Wanderer said:

Our first sailaway.  This was 2000, on the Paul Gauguin, which at the time was a Radisson ship.  The ship sailed away just after dark, on a Saturday, so the dock area in Papeete was alive with people, and the Roulottes (food trucks) were in full-swing.  One of the Gauguines (entertainment troupe) came and joined us at the railing--it was her first sailing and her parents were at the pier to wave her goodbye.  Very poignant, and when the ship began moving away from the pier, to a tune from their wonderful band, Siglo, it was unforgettable.  I cry still when I think of it.  Unfortunately this was pre-digital so I have few photos, although here is one of our spectacular beach bungalow on the Tuamotus island of Manihi, the best hotel room I've ever stayed in, and our spectacular sunset cruise around the island of Moorea.

 

We went on to sail several more times while the PG was under Radisson/Regent management, and since then under PGcruises management.  I have not been on her since Ponant bought the ship.  They also are suffering greatly during this time, with the ship sitting in port in Papeete with nowhere to go.

I want to sail with these guys!!!! 

[irishwitchy]

We wanted to go to Alaska in 2009 and do a land and cruise vacation. (We had never done a cruise, but we have done quite a bit of travel.)  We worked with a wonderful TA that specialized in Alaska - I told her I wanted to write one check and be done,   I don’t know what time I want to eat dinner and I want to choose to eat with anyone we meet or by ourselves.  Needless to say,  Regent was picked.  
 

Highlights: 

 

1) Rock climbing with the 30 year olds on the ship outside Sitka  - I was a bit older, but in Shape and held my own! 
2)  Having dinner with an older couple from Las Vegas that we really enjoyed talking with at the bar.  
3) The second night we had dinner with the captain.  We really didn’t think much about this, but our TA arranged it and well ok let’s go.   We were very happy we did.   It turned out the two women from Arizona lived in the same neighborhood that a friend from NJ had just moved to - small world.   My husband mentioned his love of Hendricks Gin and later that night when we turned to a non suite room - a bottle was waiting for him.   Mind you that was funny, because he was thinking he was going to have drag it around with him.  

 

We have only done a couple of additional cruises, because I like planning land trips better.    Nice treat to read a pleasant thread.