Big day for the Birthday Girl

SSMariner is a very nice ship, equally as good as any we have sailed on previously. The ship is full on this the first of 4 segments. It’s been hard to take so far this the second sea day.Yesterday at lunch time there was a welcome to those sailing  the full cruise to meet the captain and officers and before dinner there was a block party. You took a glass outside your stateroom door and the stewardesses were there with champagne and wine and the captain and staff came along to meet you and other guests in the block.

Last night we had dinner with an ex US air force commander who has won all these medals and purple hearts for his achievements. He has worked the past eleven years with NASA and the Discovery spacecraft and only retired when they cancelled the programme.

They were a lovely couple. 

A mammoth occasion today. Gloria’s birthday. There have been a number of emails and comments on facebook.

Commenced with champagne and caviar for breakfast (only a small one) it’s going to be a long day, we do a tour of the galley this arvo and then we are booked into Signature’s for dinner tonight, a french style restaurant.

Our room has been decorated by Zena our stewardess, with balloons hanging from the ceiling and door and a message from the Manager with a cake and champagne to come.

We had a lovely dinner, the crew brought out a little birthday cake and everyone sang happy birthday. The birthday girl had a lovely day. Thanks to everyone who sent messages and emails.

Bugger it’s tough. No doubt we’ll come back to earth tomorrow as we have our first port of call Willemstad, Curacao.

Embarking Seven Seas Mariner

Well I find I need to catch up already.

Our friend from Orlando Susan drove 4 hours for us to have lunch on Wed. It was so nice to see her and to hear all her news since we saw her last on the Insignia cruise "Land of the Midnight Sun" that we enjoyed so much. The girls talked like long lost friends and it was a beautiful lunch at the Ritz where we were also witness to an impromptu performance from a person (those who might remember an eccentric Basketball player Denis Rodman). He was so funny making a nuisance of himself sitting at different tables and carrying on like a lunatic with the guests.

I took a photo of the girls with him. How tall is he?

Susan drove home again as we had a pre cruise cocktail party and dinner for the guests traveling the full 72 days around SA.

It was a great function met quite a few Aussies but in total there are 193 going right around!

Next day we had a special breakfast and then were transported to Port Everglades where we boarded RSS Mariner about noon. It’s a big port there were 8 ships in total and there was quite a line up of ships as they all departed about the same time.

Mariner is in good shape we have a nice cabin beautifully decorated and plenty of space and a huge balcony. I’ll post some photos later.

At dinner last night we sat with 2 of the most gay guys you’ve ever seen, who travel around the world constantly. When I commented they might run out of money, the reply was: we will never run out of money. One was 54 and the other 40. One was originally from Iceland who came to NY to set up a business importing Atlantic salmon from Scotland. He made his money from processing the different products and then selling them world wide.

He was made an offer too good to refuse, but wisely invested his money in gold and we know where the price  of that commodity is! They were extremely funny, but good company which we thoroughly enjoyed.

We've made it to Fort Lauderdale

After 26 hours of travel we arrived at our hotel in Fort Lauderdale at 8.45 last night.

The Qantas flight to LA was quite good, but found they have cut back their staff and services. We had 2 stewardesses (last time we flew there were 4) in our area and whilst one was very efficient and busy the other was quite inefficient and wanted to yap instead of serving.It was ok just the same.

Our travel agent had us on a later flight to Miami because he felt that we needed sufficient time to get through customs and security, Normally there are long lines, but it was very painless and were through in no time, so instead of a short wait we had to spend almost 4 hours sitting around.

The flight to Miami was good although the plane had almost seen better days.

We had a voucher for a transfer to FL,but there was no one flashing our name about however, there was a Regent rep there who had our name on the list so he kindly transported us to FL. it was a long wait, my bag was the very last one off!

Last night we stayed at the Marriott which was good considering the small amount of time spent there.

As Regent are providing tonight's accom I went for a walk this morning and found it right next door. Went in and spoke to a very nice young man who was kind enough to check us in at 7 am instead of 3 this afternoon. It’s a wonderful hotel. We have a lovely view over the ocean and across the canals to some excellent real estate.

We are to meet a friend of ours from an earlier cruise this year, who is traveling 4 hours from Orlando especially to have lunch with us.

We have a pre cruise dinner tonight so it’s all happening today onwards.

Just a week to go!

Well just a week to go to begin our new adventure.
Next week we fly to Fort Lauderdale where we spend a couple of days acclimatising to US time and will attend a pre cruise dinner at the Ritz Carlton the night before embarking on Regent Seven Seas Mariner.
Naturally we are beginning to get a little excited now most of everything is organised.
Just waiting for our final documentation and then the task of packing our cases and getting to Brisbane for the flight.
Right now as we post this we are about to experience one of many summer storms expected over the next couple of months.
May be they'll stay here and not remind the old fellow in the Caribbean and around South America.
Stay tuned folks its going to be a big one!!!!!!!

It's Getting very close to our next cruise

Fort Lauderdale to Fort Lauderdale a whole 72 days.


We depart Brisbane on Jan 4. for our long flight to Miami.
Sounds very scary, but we are determined to enjoy every second.
This is the itiniery.

Date	Day	Port	Dress Code	Arrive	Depart
Jan 06	Fri	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida	Elegant Casual		6:00 pm
Jan 07	Sat	Cruise the Florida Straits, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 08	Sun	Cruise the Caribbean Sea, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 09	Mon	Willemstad, Curaçao	Elegant Casual	11:00 am	11:00 pm
Jan 10	Tue	Oranjestad, Aruba	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	5:00 pm
Jan 11	Wed	Cartagena, Colombia	Elegant Casual	3:00 pm
Jan 12	Thu	Cartagena, Colombia	Elegant Casual		1:00 pm
Jan 13	Fri	Transit the Panama Canal, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 14	Sat	Cruise the Gulf of Panama, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 15	Sun	Manta, Ecuador	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	7:00 pm
Jan 16	Mon	Guayaquil, Ecuador	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	6:00 pm
Jan 17	Tue	Cruise the Coast of Peru, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 18	Wed	Salaverry, Peru	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	4:00 pm
Jan 19	Thu	Lima (Callao), Peru	Elegant Casual	9:00 am
Jan 20	Fri	Lima (Callao), Peru	Elegant Casual
Jan 21	Sat	Lima (Callao), Peru	Elegant Casual		6:00 pm
Jan 22	Sun	Pisco, Peru	Formal Optional	7:00 am	4:00 pm
Jan 23	Mon	Matarani (Arequipa), Peru	Elegant Casual	2:00 pm	10:00 pm
Jan 24	Tue	Cruise the Coast of Peru, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 25	Wed	Antofagasta, Chile	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	6:00 pm
Jan 26	Thu	Cruise the Coast of Chile, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 27	Fri	Valparaíso, Chile	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	5:00 pm
Jan 28	Sat	Cruise the Coast of Chile, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Jan 29	Sun	Puerto Montt, Chile	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	5:00 pm
Jan 30	Mon	Puerto Chacabuco, Chile	Elegant Casual	11:00 am	9:00 pm
Jan 31	Tue	Laguna San Rafael, Chile	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	8:00 pm
Feb 01	Wed	Cruise Estero Elefantes, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Feb 02	Thu	Cruise the Estero Amalia and the Estero Peel, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Feb 03	Fri	Punta Arenas, Chile	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	8:00 pm
Feb 04	Sat	Cruise Cape Horn, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Feb 05	Sun	Ushuaia, Argentina	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	8:00 pm
Feb 06	Mon	Cruise the Tierra Del Fuego, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Feb 07	Tue	Port Stanley, Falkland Islands	Elegant Casual	7:00 am	4:00 pm
Feb 08	Wed	Cruise the Atlantic Ocean, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Feb 09	Thu	Puerto Madryn, Argentina	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	4:00 pm
Feb 10	Fri	Cruise the Coast of Argentina, International Waters	Formal Optional
Feb 11	Sat	Montevideo, Uruguay	Elegant Casual	10:00 am	10:00 pm
Feb 12	Sun	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Elegant Casual	9:00 am
Feb 13	Mon	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Elegant Casual
Feb 14	Tue	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Elegant Casual		6:00 pm
Feb 15	Wed	Montevideo, Uruguay	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	8:00 pm
Feb 16	Thu	Punta Del Este, Uruguay	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	5:00 pm
Feb 17	Fri	Rio Grande, Brazil	Elegant Casual	10:00 am	6:00 pm
Feb 18	Sat	Cruise the Coast of Brazil, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Feb 19	Sun	Porto Belo, Brazil	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	5:00 pm
Feb 20	Mon	Santos, Brazil	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	8:00 pm
Feb 21	Tue	Ilha Grande, Brazil	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	6:00 pm
Feb 22	Wed	Paraty, Brazil	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	6:00 pm
Feb 23	Thu	Búzios, Brazil	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	6:00 pm
Feb 24	Fri	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Elegant Casual	8:00 am
Feb 25	Sat	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Elegant Casual		5:00 pm
Feb 26	Sun	Cruise the Coast of Brazil, International Waters	Formal Optional
Feb 27	Mon	Salvador de Bahia, Brazil	Elegant Casual	1:00 pm	10:00 pm
Feb 28	Tue	Cruise the Coast of Brazil, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Feb 29	Wed	Fortaleza, Brazil	Elegant Casual	7:00 pm
Mar 01	Thu	Fortaleza, Brazil	Elegant Casual		3:00 pm
Mar 02	Fri	Cruise the Coast of Brazil, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Mar 03	Sat	Macapa (Amazon River), Brazil, Brazil	Elegant Casual
Mar 04	Sun	Alter do Chão (Amazon River), Brazil	Elegant Casual	3:00 pm	7:00 pm
Mar 05	Mon	Boca Da Valeria (Amazon River), Brazil	Elegant Casual	7:00 am	2:00 pm
Mar 06	Tue	Manaus (Amazon River), Brazil	Elegant Casual	8:00 am
Mar 07	Wed	Manaus (Amazon River), Brazil	Elegant Casual		6:00 pm
Mar 08	Thu	Parintins (Amazon River), Brazil	Elegant Casual	Noon	6:00 pm
Mar 09	Fri	Santarém (Amazon River), Brazil	Elegant Casual	7:00 am	1:00 pm
Mar 10	Sat	Cruise the Coast of South America, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Mar 11	Sun	Devil's Island, French Guiana	Elegant Casual	1:00 pm	6:00 pm
Mar 12	Mon	Cruise the Atlantic Ocean, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Mar 13	Tue	Bridgetown, Barbados	Elegant Casual	9:00 am	6:00 pm
Mar 14	Wed	Castries, St. Lucia	Elegant Casual	8:00 am	4:00 pm
Mar 15	Thu	Gustavia, St. Barts	Formal Optional	8:00 am	5:00 pm
Mar 16	Fri	Cruise the Atlantic Ocean, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Mar 17	Sat	Cruise the Atlantic Ocean, International Waters	Elegant Casual
Mar 18	Sun	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida	Elegant Casual	7:00 am

It's a very intense cruise as you can see.
Hopefully we can get good internet coverage and we can post lots of items and details of excursions and of course the happenings on the ship.