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After having dreams all night about the great dinner we had at Mina’s and some crazy idea that we were going away for 65 days we woke up about 7:45 which seemed early to us…except that it was really 10:45 and the bus was leaving for the port at 11:30. Oops. So we got up quickly, packed and I went (OK, sort of ran) down to check out and met Margaret at the bus staging area. It was still way too cold for Florida but at least it wasn’t raining. We were the last ones to get on the last bus which suited us just fine. While we were waiting to board the bus we met a guy and a girl who were working for the company that arranged the bus. Of course, I took their picture and told them they would be famous when we put them on our blog (but I forgot their names already!). Here they are anyway:
We met a couple of nice ladies across the aisle named Mary Beth and Arlene from Los Gatos area (by San Francisco). They are big cruisers and took the World Cruise in 2003…108 days. They are on for the full 65 days with us. Their picture is in the Picture Gallery (see below for the link). There was another lady sitting by herself right behind us on the bus and we said, “and who are you?” or something like that. She said she was Terry Breen and she was a speaker on the entire cruise talking about the places we were going to go from an anthropological and historical standpoint. (Later edit: Of course, we now know she is the “Wonderful” Terry Breen that is always present somehow around the ship on the PA system, TV, Constellation Lounge, etc. giving us the lowdown on where we are and where we are going. It’s a bit embarrassing now that we weren’t aware of who she was!)
The whole embarkation process was a bit, let’s say, uncharacteristically unorganized…for Regent anyway. The computers were down, there were a couple hundred people sitting in plastic chairs waiting for over an hour, no one seemed to know what was going on, etc. Of course, we were in the special 65 day cruiser group that got to go to the “front of the line” and we were whisked through only to stand in line to get on the ship on the gangplank. We met a few more people, eventually got some champagne and finally got on the ship. In the process of all this I forgot to take our boarding picture!
The first thing that happened is we got on an elevator with Regent’s Latin American Anthropologist (hard to believe that got through the spell checker!). The elevator got stuck for a few minutes and finally we got the doors to open and had to walk up the stairs with the bags we kept with us. An auspicious start? (Later edit: Turns out that we should have paid more attention to this as it definitely was!).
We found our Penthouse C room at 915, saw the Welcome mat on our bed, dropped off our carryons and proceeded to Deck 11 (Pool Deck) and walked from the front of the ship where our room was to the back of the ship to the La Veranda restaurant for lunch. We sat at a large table that ended up totally filled with what were strangers but now are our cruising friends (Douglas, Jenny, Alan, Marcia, Tess, Joe, Chris and Dennis).
Jenny fell in love with Margaret (what’s not to like?) because Margaret was pouring the wine (service was slow and there happened to be an ice bucket with wine right behind Margaret’s chair :-). Jenny has an infectious laugh and laughs often. She and Alan are from Surrey, near London and are big cruisers as well. More later on that. A fun time was had by all at lunch.
Here’s Tapin, who would be our butler for the entire 65 days. (Later edit: He did a fantastic job and we miss having him around!)
Here’s our housekeeper Gloria. (Later edit: She also did a fantastic job despite Margaret having the Privacy sign up most of the day.)
We headed back to our room and, at 5:00 pm were still waiting for our Veuve and our bags. Things just seem out of sync with the whole Regent crew. Hopefully, not a sign of things to come. (Later edit: And, it wasn’t. Things calmed down once the new crew members and captain caught their breath!). Our second and final (it turned out) butler of the day Tapin has finally brought the champagne and I have snagged all of our bags. A LOT of unhappy people walking around looking for theirs, however. I gave our mixed nuts to a guy I met bag searching named Norman straight across the ship from our room and also gave him a Diet Coke and then took some movies from his room (he had the ocean view rather than the noisy dock worker view). Nice people from New York. When I told him that I had to uncork the Veuve, he said “What’s Veuve?”. I said it was an upgraded Champagne. He said, “She must be a Princess!”. He was the third person to say that today. Margaret loves that as she really does think she is Princess Margaret. And so do I! Here’s what the sunset looked like. Really. It did! Virtually no editing on this picture and more in the Gallery.
Margaret is still busy unpacking. And, the Mariner is still sitting on the dock as the sun sets. The confusion still persists. I think we are in an episode of Lost or something. More on Lost later. But, in the end, we got all our bags went over to Prime 7 Steakhouse restaurant (see the blog entry on Mariner Dining) and met Alvero (who would later become a good friend!). We decided to splurge and ordered a 1988 BV Magnum that was a great price on the Reserve Wine list. It made quite an impression on the other sommeliers for some reason and we shared some with all of them. Here’s Alvero:
And, here’s us enjoying the wine and dinner! The first of many to come we might add.
Of course, Margaret had to finish the night having a cigarette in the smoking lounge (she doesn’t smoke much but likes the social aspect and we meet a lot of interesting people in the smoking lounge. She then finished the night in the casino where she met Bob1, Bob2 and some others that would have to get used to her “21, 21, 21” banter for the rest of the cruise. Good times!
Embarkation Picture Gallery:
http://travelwithdm.smugmug.com/Travel/SAEmbarkation2011/25151636_CjKqbF#!i=2062475893&k=RMXTqsh
Dale
Cheryl - Just wanted to say hi and let you know I enjoyed reading about your ventures. My life is boring, dull, lonely and empty compared to your experience and in spite of the snags along the way…I’m jealous! I hope you have a safe and wonderful trip. The Byrne family has a way of writing that is interesting. Some people might think we write too much, but I love it! I look forward to your next blog posts. Until then I love you. Your sis, Cheryl (not a princess and far from a princess!)
Dale - Oh, you are too a princess! I will post the picture of you and your Starbuck’s in Manhattan to prove it! OK, I’ll try to make my stories shorter from now on. Excitement or boring is a state of mind that you can control. We’ll work on that as we go along. Thanks for commenting!
jthor2054 - Stowing away today was more difficult than expected. I had to take down the whole computer system to slip past security. Fortunately the architecture included a massive inscrutable spreadsheet by some unknown programmer listed only as MK. This I was quickly able to infiltrate, and from there the rest was easy. Gaining access to their on-board charge account number was the final easy step.
I am now safely ensconced on board. Have already charged two extra bottles of Veuve to their account, plus an intriguing bottle of Michel Couvreur Scotch for the nightcap, here in my secret stowaway location. Cheers!
Dale - You are a piece of work! OK, so you are asking for more creative and I would guess intriguing stories from our ship. Once we settle in we’ll see what we can do about that. Actually, we don’t think that even the one bottle of Veuve that was finally delivered was billed to us at all. Cheers to you too! Dale. (PS: Margaret is soundly sleeping….literally….after the river tubing trip this afternoon and the nice dinner tonight.)
Dale - You are a piece of work! OK, so you are asking for more creative and I would guess intriguing stories from our ship. Once we settle in we’ll see what we can do about that. Actually, we don’t think that even the one bottle of Veuve that was finally delivered was billed to us at all. Cheers to you too! Dale. (PS: Margaret is soundly sleeping….literally….after the river tubing trip this afternoon and the nice dinner tonight.)