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In all respects-a success! Covid did not prevent any of us from going (or coming home)! Planes were on time. We got to travel with old friends and meet new ones. We ate (too much), we drank (too much), we laughed a lot and I think everyone had a good time. For the most part the weather was phenomenal- not too hot and hardly any rain. What more can one ask for?

The ship was elegant, the food spectacular and the entertainment, entertaining! A big question might be is it worth the premium you pay to sail with Regent?  It is certainly more expensive then sailing on more modestly priced lines like Celebrity, Princess or Holland America. But the rooms are significantly larger, the food is more elegant, there are fewer people, you are flown business class and you sign for nothing (well, not quite true as the spa and shops are extra $). At our stage in life we choose to indulge a bit and treat ourselves by sailing with them.

My biggest complaint, as I said earlier, was the trip was almost TOO busy-too many ports of call!  Part of that is my fault as I will always go on an excursion when in port; I do not want to miss anything! With only two days at sea we missed appreciating some of the amenities offered on the ship. We laughed in that no one ever went to the 12th deck to see, let alone, play any of the outdoor games offered there-no time. No one lounged by the pool. I think only Dave Romoser visited (and actually used) the fitness center!  It was a busy 15 days! We never made it to the afternoon tea, which I recall from previous cruises are really good.

Biggest disappointment: Not getting into La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona to see what has happened since the last time we saw it. Biggest surprise: Bilbao and the Guggenheim museum. Worst meal: the Mexican luncheon buffet on the ship. Best meal: dinner at Arcada in Bordeaux and the meals in the specialty restaurants on the ship. Not that the rest of the meals were bad; food was above average at all meals.

I am thankful we had the opportunity to travel once again!

Thought for the day:  “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer”  (Anonymous). Very, very true!

We were in our disembarkation port of Southampton, England early this morning. The disembarkation process worked smoothly. We had enough time to grab a fairly leisurely breakfast as our “yellow luggage tags” suggested we would be called to depart around 8:20AM.  We were actually called a few minutes before 8. We had to briefly pass muster with UK immigration personnel who came on board the ship to review our paperwork. It took all of 3 minutes. An aside: all passengers were scheduled to be off the ship by 9AM.  I queried the front desk to see how many of the passengers were staying aboard for the next trip- 10 days circling England & Scotland. Turns out there were 78 people doing that.

Our luggage was waiting for us off ship neatly sorted by color. They were easy to spot. As Southampton is at least an hour from Heathrow airport, Regent offered bus service (free for certain category rooms or $69 if you were in the low rent district. Ours were free).  We were on the road by 9AM and arrived at Heathrow around 10:30; plenty of time as our flight was not until 3:10 PM.

There was very little mask wearing at Heathrow-by workers or flyers. The Delta/Virgin Atlantic desks were chaotic-lines everywhere, even the priority lines for business class  check-in. It took almost 30 minutes to check our luggage and get our boarding passes. And they did ask to see our Covid test results (I had wondered if they would). Although the check-in was agonizingly slow getting through security was rapid- less than 10 minutes.

Delta uses the Virgin Atlantic business class lounge at Heathrow. It was our first visit to one and we were blown away. It is the most modern, futuristic and fun lounge we have ever seen. It certainly reflects its owner- Richard Branson. There is a small gym, a pool table, variety of funky seating chair options, and even a sit down restaurant (besides the usual help yourself buffet). And everything is free. We ended up having a sit down lunch which rivaled those we have had in conventional restaurants.

Boarding of our Delta flight was on time. There was hardly any headwind so our flight time was to be about 9.5 hours, over the pole as is the usual route to Seattle from Europe. Food was pretty mediocre on this flight, certainly not as good as we had going to Paris. Also the plane was an old 767, which has been pretty much retired by now, but it was clean and performed beautifully, so I cannot complain.

Whole we were gone Seattle had tons of rain but today it was sunny and 70 when we landed a bit after 5 PM local time. We got to go through the brand new international arrival terminal. It is big and glitzy. There has also been a change to entering the country. Previously you passed immigration and then collected your baggage; now you are required to collect baggage first. Also the kiosks for global entry are gone; you do a face-to-face with an agent who does a facial recognition scan and clears you to leave. We were the only plane landing so the entry hall was empty and clearance went quickly.

We managed to not have to wait long to catch our ferry home-tired, but safe and sound. I have always been a believer that unless you come home from a vacation tired it was not a good vacation! Opinion:  It was a good vacation!

 

Our last port of call was to been Saint-Malo, France. However, a couple of days ago the captain said because of tide issues (?) we would not be able to dock there and he was going to have to divert us to Le Havre, France. Bummer, as the former port is in a beautiful location (Mont-Saint-Michel is nearby) whereas Le Havre is simply a major industrial seaport with no particular famous landmarks people might want to see. We had previously visited both Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel during a land tour of the Loire Valley so it is not as disappointing for us as it is for others. C’est la Vie!

So here we are in Le Havre, France. The local weather is not promising; rain is predicted, so it might simply be the equivalent of a relaxing day at sea. It will be a busy day on board as we must get our Covid antigen tests to allow us to fly home tomorrow. The ship is providing and administrating the tests for us which greatly simplifies our lives. We also have to pack as our luggage must be outside our doors by 10 PM tonight. One of the major perks of sailing with Regent is that they provide laundry service free of charge so we have been gradually having all our clothing laundered and will arrive home with mostly clean clothes-ready for another trip!

Some interesting statistics about the sailing habits of people on this cruise. As is typical cruise lines award people for their loyalty with on board perks depending on how often you have sailed with them. The Regent program is :

Bronze membership achieved upon completion of your first voyage. Silver membership achieved upon reaching 21 nights sailed. Gold membership achieved upon reaching 75 nights sailed. Platinum membership achieved upon reaching 200 nights sailed. Titanium membership achieved upon reaching 400 nights sailed. Diamond membership achieved upon reaching 1,000 nights sailed. Commodore membership achieved upon reaching 2,000 nights sailed.

We achieved Gold level status on this trip, having now completed 78 nights sailing with Regent. What is mind blowing to me is the makeup of our fellow travelers on this cruise. On board our ship there are 432 Seven Seas Society members with the following classifications:

2 Bronze (1 cruise)

225 Silver (21+ nights)

169 Gold (75+ nights)

25 Platinum (200+ nights)

11 Titanium (400+ nights)

What really astounding is that there are 5 people in the world who have reached the Commodore level! Do the math. They must virtually live on a ship.

By mid day it was raining pretty hard so not going ashore turned out to be the right decision. Surprisingly other than the brief showers we had in Santiago this is the first rain we have seen in two weeks. Also, for the most part, the temperatures have been pleasant other than the two hot days in Bordeaux. The locals say it is rare to have this high a temperature this early in the season. Global warming?

The ship’s medical staff scheduled several time frames during the day for free Covid testing of the passengers as we needed clearance to fly back to the US.  I was a bit concerned that it would be a messy process and was pleasantly surprised at how efficiently it was run. No lines, a quick swab (antigen test) and a request to remain in our rooms for a short period until the test results were in. Within 20 minutes we got the “all clear” text and we were told there would be an official paper copy delivered to our room that evening. It was. By the way we never heard that there were any Covid incidents on the ship during our cruise.

Today was the last day for trivia and, no, we still did not take the top prize. We agreed we all needed to go home and dig out the old trivia game and practice for the next cruise! After trivia it was time to redeem those “Regent Reward” tickets. I was amazed at how many people showed up and how many had enough points to redeem the coveted Regent fleece jacket (with hood). Unfortunately I had nowhere enough points but I did manage to have enough (25) to get a Regent golf shirt! Others in our group managed to get  lesser gifts, like a golf hat, so everyone was happy!

There was to be one final pre-dinner production staff entertainment show but it had to be canceled because of illness of some of the members. We sat and drank in the observation lounge instead. Dinner tonight was back in the Compass Rose main dining room.

There was a scheduled 9 PM movie, ” Marry Me” with Jennifer Lopez, but many of us has seen it. Besides we had to finish packing and prepare to leave the ship tomorrow morning when we arrive in Southampton, England. It was time to say goodbyes to our travel companions as we were all going separate ways and were scheduled to leave the ship at varying times.

Steps today:  4,397. Winding down!

 

 

Our biggest complaint about this cruise is how busy it is, with ports of call almost every day. There is no time to simply rest!  Today is one of the few days we can do that. We actually slept in until 9 AM. Yvonne says I am the energizer bunny, always on the move. Today I attended the 10AM lecture on the history of wines in this part of the world, giving by our on-board history professor from California. Later on I attended a question/answer session with the production staff, which gives us a chance to delve into the lives of young people who perform on cruise ships. I find the discussions to be informative and interesting.

Yvonne and Marlene tried their luck again at morning Bingo. This time Marlene won the first game and received $91 for her effort. Yvonne had won a game earlier in the cruise, but today she had no luck.

The promise for the luncheon buffet by the pool was Mexican and we were ready for it, after eating rich food this entire trip. Unfortunately, it was a bust in our opinion-everything was bland and there was no salsa! Given how fabulous the rest of the food has been on this trip the buffet was a big disappointment. We did soothe our egos by having some of the marvelous cookies the pastry chef produces each day.

My afternoon was consumed by playing a bit of blackjack (broke even) and joining the sports competition to win the coveted reward points that can be redeemed for prizes at the end of the cruise. The sports competition include such strenuous activities as ring toss, ladder toss, shuffleboard, putting on the carpeting in the atrium and other crazy activities that the sports staff can come up with. The good news is even if you are not the best you are awarded “participation points” so gradually your point total increases throughout the cruise. My goal is to receive enough points this trip to earn a Regent baseball cap!

Yvonne’s afternoon goal was to watch the 2 PM movie about Kurt Warner in the theater. Unfortunately, she fell asleep in our cabin and she missed it!

Our team showed up for trivia again but we probably should not have bothered as it was one of the toughest we have endured, scoring on 8/15 points! Luckily cocktails soothed our bruised egos.

Prior to dinner we went to a show put on by members of the staff. This has become a tradition on many cruise ships and we are usually surprised at how much talent some of the staff have. There were some folk dancers, and several singers as part of the show.

Dinner tonight was in the last of the three specialty restaurants on the ship-Chartreuse, where the cuisine was French inspired. Most of us chose one of their specialties, Dover sole, and we were not disappointed. It was superb! I added escargot and lobster bisque to my meal while Yvonne treated herself to foie gras. Even the desserts were exemplary. We all agreed it was one of the best dinners we had experienced this trip. Too bad we do not have time to visit it again.

The after dinner entertainment was performed by our English lady fiddler. Tonight her performance featured more fiddle/jazz numbers which did not appeal to me but she did finish the show with a rousing version of Orange Blossom Special.

Tomorrow we will be in our diverted port of Le Havre, France, rather than the original scheduled visit to St. Malo. Needless to say we are disappointed at the change, but cruise lines have the ability to make these sort of changes if they deem it necessary.

Steps today:  surprisingly, 4,348, more than I expected since we were on the ship the entire day.

Another unseasonably hot day in Bordeaux- prediction is that it might get to 93 degrees. I had booked both and AM and PM local tours of Bordeaux itself. Yvonne liked her “rest” day and decided she needed another and I even said I would do the morning tour when it was cooler, but skip the afternoon one.

The 2.5 hour city tour included about a 15 minute bus ride through various parts of the city including driving by the huge abandoned (used now for exhibitions) submarine base built by the Germans during World War II. Nearby are a series of new “artistic” apartment buildings that reflect today’s style of living.

We then left the bus or a 1.5 hour walking tour of old Bordeaux which is surprisingly fairly large. Bordeaux is situated on the banks of the Garonne River with a city population of 261,000 (metro population of 1.3 million). It is the 6th largest city in France. From the 12th to 16th century Bordeaux was part of the British empire because of the marriage of Eleonore of Aquitaine to Henry II of England. It became part of France in 1653 when Louis XIV invaded it. 40%of the city was listed as a UNESCO Heritage site in 2007.

We walked through the many pedestrian only streets ( I wish we had more of these in the US)  containing shops and many restaurants. I asked our tour guide if locals eat out a lot (to support all these restaurants) and she said they do.

Our tour ended at the Cathedral of St. Andrew (Saint Andre) which dates back to 1092. Over the centuries it was expanded to be the large structure it is today. We returned to the ship just in time to have lunch. The good news was it had not yet gotten too hot.

Yvonne and I both lounged around in the afternoon and entered our daily trivia contest at 4:30 PM. We have not gotten any better! There is a team with an Asian lady who seems to dominate the game. We learned that she watches a LOT of television, so that is what we attribute her knowledge to.

We were able to book another reservation at Prime 7, the specialty steak house on board the ship for this evening’s dinner.  Tonight I had the filet mignon and we collectively ordered a serving of king crab legs for the table as an appetizer. That is one of the perks of cruising-order as many entrees as you like. And, of course, the favorite dessert was their famous popcorn ice cream sundae; most of us ordered it once again.

 

Our scheduled departure from Bordeaux was 8:45 PM and we again left on time.

Other then after dinner music in the lounges there is a nightly 9:30 show in the main theater. Tonight’s entertainer was Jeff Stevenson (the British comedian) again, and he was as funny as the first time we saw him, having all new material that kept us laughing throughout his performance.

Tomorrow we finally will have another day at sea, allowing us another day to simply relax.

Steps today:  8,544-slowing down!