Mr Rumor

We enjoyed learning about Halifax's connection to the Titanic disaster on our afternoon tour. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, our first stop, has a small but good Titanic exhibit, but the highlight for us was our visit to Fairview Cemetery, where 121 victims are buried in three long rows, their simple granite headstones purchased by the White Star Line. There are no first, second or third class distinctions here. The numbers that appear on the headstones of those who were never identified simply refer to the order in which the bodies were retrieved from the icy waters by the three vessels that were dispatched from Halifax.

Tonight was Seas Seas Society Cocktail Party. Alluding to the humble beginnings of the group Captain Ubaldo Amellino recalled, as a second officer, attending his first party in the captain's quarters. On this cruise more than 200 invitations went out to the 400 SSS members on this cruise.

Singer impressionist Paul Tanner headlined again and, this time, earned a standing O for an amazing range of impressions, from Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson crooning "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" to Elmer Fudd spitting out the Pointer Sisters' "Fire." As soon as he reprised his spot-on Neil Diamond with "Cracklin' Rosie," Shauna began rocking in her front row seat, Paul's cue to stick a tambourine in her hand and have her join him in front of the stage, to the delight, once again, of the audience. We continue to be so pleased and touched by how warmly, even lovingly, our daughter has been received by our fellow passengers, crew and staff.

After such a fun, and very full, day, it is a pleasure to be able to turn the clock back one hour. Tomorrow, Bar Harbor, Maine!

Rich

Thanks, Sheltieluv and Sunrprince! Had a few minutes before a quick lunch and afternoon shore excursion, so I'm checking e-mails and posting this from the comfort of the Farmers' Market in the Halifax cruise terminal. The nice aromas of freshly baked this and that are helping me build an appetite!

Had a wonderful walk with DW and DD (dear daughter) in the bright sunshine and bracing cold this a.m. Made it all the way to the Citadel and Public Gardens and back. Looking forward to our Titanic-themed excursion now.

A Random Note before I go: More than 10% of the 353-member Navigator crew are married. . . to each other! According to the crew member who mentioned this, Regent has no problem hiring, and rehiring, married couples, and currently there are about 20 on the Navigator. After all, she explained, "If you're happy inside, passengers can tell."

Rich

It was bright and sunny this a.m. in Sydney, Cape Breton. But because of a forecast of high winds by early afternoon, we tendered in.

You know you like a place when you find yourself thinking how much you'd like to return for at least a week. Sunprince, you are fortunate to have a summer home here.

If we were to return we would spend a full day at the Fortress of Louisbourg, a faithful reconstruction of an 18th Century French fort, on the site of the original fort. Our tour included what our guide termed "workshops," actually, visits to several fort buildings staffed by costumed employees brimming with info on what life was like back then. My favorite tidbit: Good-looking calves on soldiers were considered manly, so soldiers would stuff their stockings to make their calves appear more impressive. Commented the staffer: "These were the 'falsies' of the day."

Tomorrow: Halifax, our last Canadian port.

Rich

P.S. Learned from Michael, the cruise consultant, on the tender ride back to the ship that more than 80% of the passengers on this cruise are "repeats." When you have a great product. . . !

Now I know what the three-man electrical crew was up to earlier today in our hallway: According to internet manager Ravi, the Navigator is going completely wireless by November 7. A good portion of the ship is already wireless, including the pool deck, which is why I was able to access the internet and post from the comfort of our table before our deck lunch yesterday. Ravi added the Mariner and Voyager are already completely wireless, which was news to me.

Regarding internet speed, a sore point to many, bandwidth on the Navigator was almost doubled, from 2.5 to 4.5, a few months back. While our at-sea internet experience still can't compare to our fast connections at home (bandwidth of 11 or more), 4.5 is still a big improvement. I'm having my most pleasant experience to date blogging a cruise.

Ravi took a moment to show me an ongoing project--tracking, hour by hour, day by day, how many seconds it takes to download a dozen or so of the most frequently visited sites. Facebook, at two to three seconds, is fastest. He reports the data to his home office. There the numbers are presumably crunched, to determine whether or not further bandwidth tweaking is warranted.

Rich

The Navigator is the 76th and final ship to call on Charlottetown this year. Ninety ships are already booked for next year, so these are good times locally, tourist wise (tourism is the second biggest industry here, after agriculture).

Sunrpince, you'll be happy to know that PEI is looking beautiful today, even in the light to moderate rain. I can heartily recommend our Green Gables and island drive tour, which afforded us a good look at a fairly big portion of Canada's smallest province, including Green Gables Heritage Place, the setting of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic, "Anne of Green Gables." The lush rolling hills are especially easy on the eyes and can lull you into a happy place.

We've now had a string of three excellent tour guides. However, I'd have to give the slight edge to today's guide, Donalda, a lifelong resident, for her rendition of a favorite Prince Edward Island ditty that is an ode to PEI's number one crop. The first verse goes like this:

It's Bud the Spud

from the bright red mud,

rolling down the highway, smiling.

Spuds are big

in the back of this rig,

and they're from

Prince Edward Island!

Had a minute before going up to La Veranda for a quick breakfast before our 8 a.m. tour, so thought I'd check in. Glad I did, as your posts, Sunprince and Rachel, have gotten us all the more enthused for this stop.

It is always sobering to see an ambulance on the dock, as we did earlier. However, it appears that the gentleman will be OK, and may even be able to rejoin the ship later today or tomorrow. Hope so. Thinking good thoughts for him and his wife.

Well, my daughter s hugging me, which means time to stop typing, dad, and go upstairs!

Hi Peggy, thanks for checking in--Royal Viking Line forever! Sbtraveler, I'm happy you happened upon this thread and hope to further stoke your excitement about the Navigator and this specific itinerary via future postings.

We've had a bit of a hit and miss experience with Prime 7 since 2010 (oversalted and overcooked Dover sole one night, overcooked filet mignon another), but all the right notes were hit tonight. Vegeterian DW declared her plate of various signature sides the best vegetarian dish she's had on the ship so far, and I relished my one filet mignon of the cruise--cooked medium rare as I had requested. But the standout of the dinner for me was the Golden Cake, 14 tiny layers of chocolate goodness. Ultra fresh and superb!

We secured our front row seats for "Dawning of Aquarius" minutes later and were truly wowed by this great show. We just love this particular Jean Ryan cast, and feel privileged to have the opportunity to see them again before they scatter to the wind, and other stages, the middle of next month.

Tomorrow it's Charolottetown. Temp is creeping up. A high of 50 is forecast, with a chance of rain. We're on a nice, easy excursion, "Anne of Green Gables and Island Drive."

Rich

Snackdaddy, happy for you that you have discovered and booked Regent. Warning: You could get hooked. We've been palling around with a single traveler from down the hall who sampled Regent and now doesn't want to cruise with any other ocean cruise line. It would take a special itinerary for us to make a switch, but we would return. That said, we're giving river cruising a shot and have booked a Danube cruise with Tauck for September, 2014. We're heard from several Regent cruisers that Tauck is the Regent of river cruising, so we're looking forward to experiencing Tauck, plus visiting places we've never been.

RachelG and TC2, yesterday it was the Mid-Cruise Comment card, today it is the Disembarkation Questionnaire for Miami on November 7! At least the back of the form had info about the "Hop-On Hop-Off" Miami city tour and airport transfer that we qualify for because our flight doesn't leave until after 2 p.m. The tour is free for those who booked their air through Regent.

We attended the two enrichment lecturers' first talks today (on the 1759 French-English battle for Quebec and "The World of Vikings from Norway to Newfoundland). While the profs were well prepared and their talks well-illustrated, I couldn't help but think: "I miss Terry!" We were lucky to have Terry Breen, who never uses notes and delivers the most engaging lectures, as our enrichment lecturer on our earlier cruises this year, so I'm spoiled, I guess. I just think it would be nice if Regent presenters were required to look up at the audience once in a while and not just read their entire talks from their computers.

Tonight it's the Block Party, followed by dinner at Prime 7, followed by the Jean Ann Ryan group's "Dawning of Aquarius" show. This is the same Ryan cast we enjoyed in May (most are at the end of their current contracts) and they are at the top of their game now, so we have high expectations for "Aquarius." Shauna will be down front with her love beads and purple shirt with the peace sign in rhinestones!

Rich

A first for me--a post from the Pool Deck on our daughter's new iPad! I souped it up by purchasing a combination cover/keyboard (saw a Regent passenger using one on Miami-Lima in January). Works great.

Beautiful sunny day, so we're chancing the Pool Deck for lunch, after all, in our jackets. We're aided by the handy heaters above our head. Our daughter was scribbling on a note pad a few minutes ago in her seat when Ray Solaire strolled by and asked if he could scribble, too. He wound up doing a caricature of a certain puppeteer named Ray--cute! He has been delightful with Shauna.

This is a good moment to mention that Shauna has now gained a small measure of celebrity status aboard the Navigator. She had a front-row seat for Paul Tanner's fun show last night. Paul does some excellent songster impressions, including a spot-on one of Neil Diamond. As he blasted into "Sweet Caroline," Shauna started rocking in her seat and waving her arms. Before she knew it, she was waving only one arm, as Paul had the other. He finished the tune with Shauna by his side. A big round of applause followed, and our daughter has been accepting accolades from fellow passengers since.

More later, but for now it is time to partake of the American BBQ-themed buffet. Somehow we've worked up an appetite.

Rich

Received the Mid-Cruise Comments card last night, on only the third night of our 15 night cruise. It asks, in so many words, what can we do better? My reply: Wait until at least the sixth or seventh day to ask--you're messing with our Warm Fuzzies!

Thanks, for the nice words, ededmd. As I guess is pretty obvious, we're Regent fans. The WFs (warm fuzzies) have already kicked in, the sum of the wonderful service, excellent dining (Compass Rose and Sette Mari are both excelling so far), great conversations with our fellow passengers, all the smiles and greetings, and more. 8dimsum, hope you'll have a good feel for the Navigator and this itinerary by the time we reach Miami.

I confirmed today that the Navigator is sailing full. Of the 481 passengers, 250 are female, 231, male. Here is the breakdown by country:

USA, 353

United Kingdom, 51

Canada, 26

France, 13

Australia, 7

Spain, 5

Brazil, 5

Argentina, 4

Bulgaria, 4

Mexico, 2

Netherlands, 2

Austria, 1

Italy, 1

We have our first sea day tomorrow. A high of 48 is forecast, not quite pool deck lunch weather yet!

Rich

Greetings from Saguenay's welcome pavilion. Noticed a handful of Regent crew taking advantage of the free, and fast, wi-fi, so I thought I'd do the same. The pavilion by the way is only four years old, which is how long ships have been able to dock at this port. Saquenay saw 25 cruise ships this season, with 40 already signed up for next year. And every cruise passenger, I suspect, received the same warm welcome--on a chilly morning--from locals, some in costume and everyone sporting an umbrella (yep it was raining) that we did.

Shortly into our drive to New France, a onetime movie set transformed into a living history museum, we bore witness to the first snowflakes of the season. But it was just a tease--only had a light rain to deal with after that. And now the sun has broken through!

I can recommend the Discovery of New France excursion, which also includes a visit to the Fjord Museum (the Saguenay Fjord is one of the world's longest, at 100 kilometers). We didn't exactly have the run of New France, about a 45 minute drive from the ship. Its season is over, in fact, and was only open for our tour. But we got a nice taste of the attraction via visits to a couple of stops where employees in costume (a cook at a 17th century Quebec fort and a Native American) spoke to us.

Meant to thank you for the thanks, Nancy. Glad I'm bringing a smile or two, Jackie. I wasn't smiling myself yesterday when one of my "quick replies" didn't post. Which is why I'm trying to keep my posts on the brief side.

BBfromCA, thanks for your captain update. I had his presence confirmed this a.m. He was actually a neighbor of ours on our May cruise. Glad to know he's doing well.

By the way, the internet connection has been quite good so far. Today's Passages included a blurb headlined "Internet Upgrade." It reads: "During this cruise we will be upgrading the bandwidth of our internet. We will endeavor to keep the disruption to a minimum and most work will be undertaken when guests are ashore on tours." Will try to find out the details of the upgrade.

I'm finally thawed out after our day in Quebec and able to type out a post. We heard mid-afternoon at one of the stops on our tour that the current temp was 38 degrees, and that didn't include the wind chill factor. However, the chill didn't deter us from our morning exploration of the old city on foot. Rachel, we took your advice and walked to the citadel (magnifique), even eschewing the funicular for the stairs! Our daughter's a real trouper, especially when she gets into her stair-counting mode (after a while, though the numbers get a little "random"--she has a special fascination for the number "8" for some reason).

After defrosting in La Veranda over lunch, we were ready for our afternoon tour, Countryside of Quebec. I was on my own, however, when we had the opportunity to walk over to Montmorency Falls for a photo op. At the next stop we all enjoyed the chance to sample freshly made (before our eyes) maple toffee on a stick at a ninth-generation maple syrup family business. We returned to our room with just enough time to prep for the Captain's Cocktail Party, followed by dinner in Sette Mari. We're catching our breath at the moment, as our day isn't done yet--can't miss the Jean Ann Ryan troupe's first production, "Broadway Tonight." According to Ray Solaire, the show was recently retooled.

We predict our daughter will sleep very soundly tonight. So, I predict, will we. A fun, full day despite the challenge presented by the weather.

The forecast for Saquenay tomorrow? Snow!

Rich

Knowing that some veteran Regent cruisers succeed at getting into Prime 7 on the first night of a cruise without a reservation, we thought we'd give it a shot. No luck. In fact, we were turned away a little brusquely by the maître d'. So we opted for Compass Rose, where dinner (salad, main course, dinner and decaf) clocked in at a speedy 90 minutes. Our daughter's fresh grilled Atlantic salmon was scrumptious (dad is her official taster), as were our entrees (Tofu stir fry with glass noodles for the vegetarian DW, and tandoori chicken for me). The misses: not being served the sparkling water I had asked for, and a Lobster Salad Monte Christo (appetizer portion) in which the lobster slices were a little gristly.

A high of only 41 is forecast for Quebec, our first stop, tomorrow, so I'm not sure how much strolling of the old town section we will be doing in the morning before our afternoon tour, "Countryside of Quebec." Might get some rain, too. Oh, and it will be windy!

Testing the internet (not bad at the moment) and saw your post, Rachel. Thanks for the tips! Our daughter let out a big "Wow!" from her second row seat on the bus at her first sight of the Navigator.

We were on bus two of four from the Sofitel (final Regent passenger count at the Sofitel: 170) and arrived at the ship a little after one. Had a hug right at the security station with officer Rhea, who remembers Shauna well. Saw other familiar faces too, including dancers Matt and Gemma. Sign-in in the theater was a breeze, and before we knew it we were caught up in the lunchtime swirl at La Veranda. Had a light lunch, while making acquaintances with a couple from Arizona.

After that we decided to see if our room was ready. We got our answer in the positive before we even arrived in the form of an announcement from a familiar voice over the PA, that of Ray Solaire. So now we know who our cruise director is. I haven't had a chance to find out about the captains yet. I use the plural intentionally, because I'm suddenly wondering if "the captain," the passenger who lives aboard Regent ships, is still on the Navigator. To be determined!

Rich

Thanks, Jackie. Actually we made our first memory on the 30 minute drive from the airport to our hotel yesterday, in a white stretch limo that we had all to ourselves. Our daughter is fascinated with different modes of travel (especially buses), and was captivated by a vehicle she could get up and walk around in.

We felt our "Regent experience" began over breakfast with fun chats with couples from Illinois, Pennsylvania and Louisiana. Midway through our meal we were delighted when Alison from northern England came over to re-introduce herself. Alison and her hubby were on the May San Francisco-Vancouver cruise with us, and it was Alison who danced up a storm with our daughter at the Beatles bash in the Horizon Lounge. I remember Shauna walking back to her seat to take a break when Alison grabbed her by the arm and exclaimed, "You can't sit down now--they're playing 'Twist and Shout'!" So Alison and Shauna proceeded to twist and shout. She has already made her dance date with our daughter on this cruise.

I didn't know that Montreal is home to one of the largest underground shopping complexes in the world until I read the literature that we received at the Regent hospitality desk. It is now my solemn duty to keep that info away from my DW until it is time to board our bus in about three hours

Late night greetings from the Sofitel Montreal, where we are happily ensconced along with about 100 other Regent cruisers. Before turning in I thought I'd grab this parking spot on Board-way for another stab at a trip blog.

Montreal-Miami will be our third Regent cruise this year. We hadn't planned on becoming cruising fools quite this young (I still work--for myself, luckily). But we had such a wonderful time on our May Alaska cruise with our daughter, who has Down syndrome, and were so pleased with how well she was received by staff and fellow passengers, that we decided to book another cruise for the three of us as soon as we returned home. We had actually been eyeing the Montreal-Miami itinerary for some time.

This is the first time we've had a pre-cruise hotel arrangement with Regent, so we're curious to see how things go tomorrow with the transfer. Our bus is scheduled to depart at 1 p.m for the 15 minute ride to the ship. Then let the memory making begin!

Rich