macbest

“The seas were angry my friend. Like an old man ordering soup at a deli.” (Reference George Kastania from Seinfeld) From last night we had 10-12 foot swells as we go north of Iceland. We were woke at 7:30a in the room by the captain over the loudspeaker saying our port Husavik would be cancelled. It was a tender port and the seas were too high to safely get off. At first we were a little disappointed since we had a whale sightseeing trip that we were looking forward to and it was our last port in Iceland. But alas, safety first. Lunch today in compass rose was a special treat now that we have a sea day. They filled the menu with menu items from the alternative restaurants on the Splendor ship. We started with the tuna Niçoise salad from Chartreuse which is a modern adaptation. Beautiful presentation and yummy. We split one our favorites on Splendors’ Pacific Rim menu, the Duck Confit spring rolls. If this shows up, don’t miss it. For our entree I had the amazing Black Angus NY strip loin with Bulgogi sauce and wasabi mashed potatoes. A little much for lunch? Maybe for most but if you have had this before, you know it was not to be missed. Absolutely delicious. My wife had the Yellowfin Tuna salad from Prime 7. Creamy avacado, shaved vegetables with a ginger sesame emulsion. Good but not as good as the Niçoise salad. That was a real treat to “bring us back” to our newest favorite ship, the Splendor that we took in February.

Dinner Compass Rose, 2nd night We revisited the main dining room after our less than stellar service yesterday (primarily to the crowds). We were met by name by the Matire D and led to a table by our same server Nino. Service was excellent all night. More attentative, and personalized to our requests. Definitely chalk it up to first night issues. The meal tonight was exceptional. We started with the “always available” side of the menu, escargot. This is always one of our favorites. I mean what is not to love. Garlic, butter, herbs and delicious bread. It did not disappoint. I think I have said it before, I could bathe in that sauce! Next was a delicious asparagus soup. While it said, “cream of asparagus” we didn’t detect any cream which made it lighter and more enjoyable. It did have some smoked salmon that wasn’t to our liking (we still tried it because that is the rule!) but we worked around it. We both had salads, a mixed green and a Caesar which were nicely dressed. After a kir royal sorbet, dinner was a grilled lobster tail (our waiter steered us away from the steamed lobster on the main menu). The Beijing beef stir fry with oyster sauce and cashews was calling and this was my favorite dish of the night. I would order this again. My wife had a simples pesto pasta with some grilled shrimp. Very tasty but would have liked pine nuts with it. We also ordered steamed vegetables which we had last night and were very enjoyable. Ended with a hazelnut soufflé. Yum. Still having challenges with the included wines. The Pinot wasn’t drinkable. Tried a merlot that was much better. I have a meeting with the sommelier tomorrow to discuss other options on board. We had fun in the casino losing a little more money (but much slower than last night). By the time the meal ended the boat was really rocking side to side. We were warned about 10 foot swells throughout the night as we sailed around the top of Iceland. You had to hold on as you walked. At least it was side to side vs front to back as it just rocked us to sleep. I’m guessing others were very unhappy with the motion. It is all part of cruising.

Sorry for the delay. Internet out on ship for last 25 hours. The local village part of the tour yesterday continued to the cute town of Suoureyri, a fisherman’s town. We got to sample smoke salmon (done right on premise- I am not a fan but with the horseradish Mayo it was ok.) Then some fresh made cod cakes with a home made tarter sauce. Those were delicious. And then some dried cod which was hit with a sledgehammer as shown here first. Not a fan but we tried it. We ended up at a little cafe and had cod fish and chips (when in Iceland…). Might be the best I have ever had. Super creamy cod and a batter unlike others. Literally “crunchy”. We won’t be back to ship until 3:00 so why not try the local flavor? Our guide was super cute. Lived near us for a few years in Larkspur CA (40 miles from us) and then came back here to this fisherman’s town. She literally lives in the street above where we were. She worked in the fish house breaking down fish and smoking them, busing tables at the cafe and now a tour guide. She is seen in the picture sledge hammering the dried fish! All in all, a fun excursion.

Dynjandi waterfall tour and local village In Isafjorour, Iceland today, our first stop. I love waterfalls (and pipe organs) and this was a wonderful tour to see the extensive set of waterfalls. We had great weather (any day without rain is good!) which allowed for a trek to the top (base of the largest waterfall). It is a thundering waterfall, the ultimate expression of Icelands countless bridal-veil cascades. The hike allowed for wonderful views of the beautiful fjord including the table top mountains nearby. This one was completely different than the other waterfall we visited on the pre-cruise, the Gullfoss falls (preview of that excursion below).

Boarding was painless although since we were on a Regent pre cruise, we had to Covid test at the port. We missed the “no more Covid proof tests by 1 day, it starts Aug 1). That process took maybe 30 minutes due to the 27 people that were on the pre-cruise. After that test, it was probably 15 minutes and we were on the ship. Given our pre-cruise arrived at the port at 2 PM there was no one else there. Our rooms were ready when we walked on the ship and we went out for a quick lunch at the pool grill. The new Matador hamburger was exceptional. One of the pleasures of cruising is to have a pre dinner cocktail. We always seek out the lounge with a piano player. Austin Ray is the pianist on board and in the Observation lounge. First impressions - wow - excellent. Very talented. This is exciting. The only negative as far as the drink scene goes is their is no Hendricks Gin on board like they normally have. And tonic is Schweppes. Sounds like a first world problem but I really like a good G&T and the Gin on board to me is substandard. Dinner in Compass Rose was packed. Arriving at 8p was probably a mistake as it took over an hour for us to get even our first dish. The staff was just slammed. In hindsight I thought about dropping into prime 7 as I’m guessing we could have gotten in as a walk-in. Despite the slow service the food was excellent. The beet carpaccio was simple but very tasty especially with the addition of the hazelnuts. The shrimp cocktail was smaller than we remember and was not cold. The cauliflower soup with chicken canelle was incredible. Soup smooth and silky, great cauliflower taste (with some snipped chives). We both had the veal picatta (mine shown with extra sauce). Best veal I have had in a while but I recall that is typical for Regent. A Kalua coffee soufflé and cheesecake finished the evening off nicely. Wine selections tonight were not to our liking. We ordered off the limited menu a New Zealand Pinot Noir ($70). Nice fruit forward on the nose but typical of most NZ Pinots the taste falls off in the back of your mouth. It was, however, good with the veal picatta. The limited wine list only has 3 Pinots just like in Feb. This is very disappointing. Surprisingly they are all relatively old also. Ours was a 2015 and the others are of similar vintage. A 7 year Pinot is getting near end of life. While I would have expected this due to the build up during Covid on our Feb cruise, I’m surprised to see this now

Overall summary of the precruise- excellent. Our guide was one of the best we have had on any precruise. Ingvar Einarsson. Super knowledgeable and somewhat a local (went to boarding school here) he spoke perfect English and knew all the perfect pronunciations of Icelandic dialect. He really knew his history about Iceland. While it is the luck of the draw on who you get, if you get him I think you would be very pleased. The geology and geography is as interesting here as anyplace we have been. Especially when it is explained in great detail on why. Like the numerous Table Top mountains that I though only existed in Cape Town South Africa. The heavy ice during the ice age, near the north and south poles “weighed” on the land creating a similar mountain type that is only here, Canada and Cape Town. The hotels were very good and comfortable and the bus very comfortable (holds 50, we were 27 so plenty of room to sit). I would definitely recommend this precruise despite the what seemed like a relatively high cost ($3999 as I recall per person). The entrance fees can add up (Blue Lagoon is $140 alone) and they did a lot of surprise, unique experiences like the lunch at the tomato greenhouse, and the lava tube let alone the famous falls, geyser, etc. and everything is expensive in Iceland. More to come on the adventures and meals precruise. We stayed at the Hotel Borg in downtown Reykjavik the first night. I had followed Rick Steve’s advice (I pick up his books in every European country for tips, tricks, dining, and touring advice) and are at the Food Cellar, about a 5 min walk from the hotel. Food was excellent. The pepper steak and the Angus ribeye were both tender, perfectly cooked and nicely accompanied with sides. We started with a tuna tartare and a Jamon Iberico (here shown half eaten) both which were excellent. I was amazed at the Gin Menus in Iceland restaurants (this one shown from the restaurant above) Fun. Here was the itinerary for the pre cruise. I’ll add pictures of the highlights soon.

Precruise July 27-July 30 Voyager July 30-Aug 11 Post cruise Aug 11/12 Copenhagen We are a 40 year married couple in our early 60s that have cruised on Regent for 130 nights (and many other cruise lines). Regent has always been our favorite cruise line and we are excited to be back on board the Voyager. This cruise was a rebook twice due to Covid. We love the line so much we did a future cruise credit rebooking so they wouldn’t have to refund us during those tough times in 2020 when so much money was being returned. That Future cruise credit enabled our 14 day Caribbean Splendor cruise in Feb. I’ll post that link shortly. This post will be a near daily update on our adventures with a heavy weighting on food and drink. We sailed the Spendor in Feb and did a similar post that was well received so we thought we would do it again. I hope this is viewed as complimentary to the excellent post started by mdunne48 and not a competition. Just a different viewpoint. We paid for a flight deviation and got an Alaska flight SFO-Sea, 4 hour layover and then an Icelandic Air nonstop to Reykjavik. Both segments were business class. Ironically we had more legroom on the Alaska flight than the Icelandic flight. I asked for another routing through Newark on United connecting United to Reykjavik but it was $3000 extra. The included business class lounge in Seattle (upstairs from gate S9) was nothing special but frankly way nicer than the mob scene at the gates. Icelandic air has been well written about and all is true. No bed in business class. So so food. Ok service. We attached the Apple AirTags to our luggage (actually put them inside) and it gave us a nice comfort knowing where our bags were at all times. Both while at the airport and also when bags were moved by hotel porters and Regent. Others on the precruise had lost luggage so something to consider. We arrived a scant 7 hours later in Reykjavik and were swiftly picked up by the Regent representative at baggage claim. We are doing the Regent 4 day precruise in Iceland to see the highlights and the golden circle. I’ll include some pictures of that as we go. Overall summary of the precruise- excellent. Our guide was one of the best we have had on any precruise. Ingvar Einarsson. Super knowledgeable and somewhat a local (went to boarding school here) he spoke perfect English and knew all the perfect pronunciations of Icelandic dialect. He really knew his history about Iceland. While it is the luck of the draw on who you get, if you get him I think you would be very pleased. The geology and geography is as interesting here as anyplace we have been. Especially when it is explained in great detail on why. Like the numerous Table Top mountains that I though only existed in Cape Town South Africa. The heavy ice during the ice age, near the north and south poles “weighed” on the land creating a similar mountain type that is only here, Canada and Cape Town. The hotels were very good and comfortable and the bus very comfortable (holds 50, we were 27 so plenty of room to sit). I would definitely recommend this precruise despite the what seemed like a relatively high cost ($3999 as I recall per person). The entrance fees can add up (Blue Lagoon is $140 alone) and they did a lot of surprise, unique experiences like the lunch at the tomato greenhouse, and the lava tube let alone the famous falls, geyser, etc. and everything is expensive in Iceland. More to come on the adventures and meals precruise.

We join you today. Did the Regent three day precruise. Our guide was excellent. One of the best we have had. I wonder if the great entertainment will continue on the next leg? We generally haven’t been to impressed with the entertainment but what you described over your last segment sounded excellent! I’ll be starting a new blog with a focus on food porn and a few of our adventures.

Darn. I have a hard time believing this is a supply chain issue. Wonder if they are starting to phase out (slightly) higher booze.

Can you let me know if they have been able to restock Hendricks gin on board? Ie it is actually at the bar vs maybe just on a list? Appreciate it!

Enjoying your blog. We join next week in Iceland after the three day Regent precruise. What has the attire been on the excursions? All bundled up?

We are on that cruise and the precruise. If you are doing the precruise they will test us the day before the cruise. Their expense.