Here comes know-it-all Miimito4 on her first Alaskan Regent cruise.

[mimito4]

I'm like a little kid night before Christmas (always this way for a new adventure), so i'm still chatty.

 

But anyway, wanted to say, TC2, that I originally booked us for the biking excursion in Astoria, but when I told Don about your suggestion for the Ale Trail, he looked at me, an eyebrow raised and simply said, "uh, beer or exercise. . .what do you think?"

 

I'm thinking I will need to change that excursion as soon as I get onboard tomorrow. :p

[Travelcat2]

The pictures are great. We live only 50 miles from Vancouver. . . such a lovely city. Enjoy the Ale Trail tomorrow:-)

[WesW]

T, nice to see the 2011 Bengals Hat...maybe will bring them luck :)

[xrvlcruiser]

Thanks Nancy,

 

I "followed" your trip as well . . looked great!

 

Stay cool.

 

Peggy

[sea lover]

Theresa, have loved reading your comments and looking at your pictures. I hope that you have a perfect cruise and that you will like Regent as much as I do. Hopefully you will have calm seas, good weather and a wonderful cruise. Do go to the Welcome Aboard and shake the hands of the wonderful Captain Felice. He is a delight.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thnx for the pics, T. And you are cute as a button!

[nancygp]

Thanks Nancy,

 

I "followed" your trip as well . . looked great!

 

Stay cool.

 

Peggy

 

Thanks Peggy! I was surprised to read you're back again doing the Alaska cruise...good for you. We had a great time on our cruise despite the rainy Alaska ports. We did have glorious weather in Victoria and Vancouver. It was great to get out of the heat and now we've been back in the horrible weather!

 

Bon Voyage,

 

Nancy

[mimito4]

Our ship has come in. :D.

 

Off we go downstairs. yippee!

[mimito4]

Just a quick btw. I'm so glad other CCers are posting on this thread about our adventure. It should be a group effort.

 

If I could I'd change the title. I must admit I was 2 Bombay Sapphires in when I started it. :o

[Island Cruiser]

Teresa, you are a treasure! We will be hanging on every spunky word.

[Queasy Cruiser]

I agree with every wonderful thing you said about Vancouver. It's definitely on our list of cities in which we want to spend more time. Love your pictures, and you and your dh are adorable and look like you are having so much fun already. Glad you enjoyed Al Porto... pretty sure I blocked out the whole weight-gain thing. ;)

 

Will be hanging on every word about the Navigator... and Alaska too. :)

[mimito4]

So far, lovely.

 

Loved the block party.

 

Cocktails, service, other passengers and crew have been just great.

 

Internet is sucky.

 

For sure unless it improves I will not be as talkative. Remember, I have to pay. . .don't have free.

 

Anyone want to start a collection?

 

Got our invite from Larry & Linda for our CC get together tomorrow. Thanks for organizing!

 

Later.

[mimito4]

Also, we cleared our only wait list excursion, but thanks to TC2’s suggestion and my husband's love of beer we got ourselves a new wait list one.

 

Night. I'm pooped. We were kept busy from the time we boarded. This Regent is a young-at-heart ship. I need to submit my birth certificate and perhaps the'll slow down for us. Seriously.

[nanook21]

I'm following this thread too, what a delight to read your posts from onboard! Brings back a lot of memories - both of past cruise to Alaska (2005) and of my time living in Vancouver. It's fun to read of other people's perceptions of a city that you've lived in. It really is a wonderful city. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your cruise!

[mimito4]

Now that I find myself relaxing a bit, as well as recovering from a slight case of seasickness, I can give a little update. Today is a cruising day and we had very rough seas earlier in the day, so we went to the reception desk where we found the meclizine to be plentiful, and not to be mistaken for mescaline, as perhaps some children of the 60s might <wink wink>.

 

70 some degrees F, gorgeous blue skies, happy fellow passengers and Terry Breen narrating, made for a memorable, picturesque sailaway from Vancouver.

 

Unfortunately for me, I seemed to miss a lot of it because Don started telling people I was a photographer (I'm not. . .just have an amateurish interest), and rather quickly I found myself moving people around and setting couples up and taking pictures of them with their own cameras, in between glaring at Don. :cool:

 

Since I didn't have my reading glasses, I could have been taking pictures of buildings for all I knew. Wonder if they would have been so enthused, had they realized that? *Oh well, I hope at least some turned out ok. I did at least autofocus each time, so they had that going for them.

 

Don promised not to do that to me again.

 

We were kept busy, busy, busy from the time we boarded. There was the required muster of course, and then the block party, which was really quite fun. I think this is a very clever idea. *

 

Thus far, we have found our fellow passengers to be quite friendly and very fun. *We already have dinner plans for tomorrow with 2 British couples we met at the block party.*

 

While I certainly don't have the real demographics, we seem to be meeting many Brits & Texans. I figure there are so many Texans because the poor things have been so desperate to get away from the heat and see a raindrop or two so they don't forget what they look and feel like. *I have no theory about the Brits. *

 

Of all with whom we have chatted, only one couple has ever sailed Regent, and it was the Mariner. I have seen no children, but have heard one baby crying (during the muster meeting).

 

We received a lovely note for our roll call from Larry & Linda to meet in Galileo's at noon. *When we got there we saw that bingo was going on, and we didn't know where they might be, so we left. L&L, if you're reading this, hope you'll get in touch again.*

 

We dined last night in Compass Rose, where we had a lovely window table. *Service was a bit slow, but it was understandable, given the crowds on the first night. *We really like our waiter, Alberto, and plan on asking for his area each night. He was charming, hard working, and was calling us by name within minutes. *His advice was very good as well.

 

Our dinner was excellent. *I like the portion sizes. . .you don't feel like you are eating at a trough, or like a lumber jack. . .which, by the way, is a good thing, considering that we had to reveal our weights on a form regarding the helicopter excursion. If you weigh over 250 lbs, you have to pay a surcharge of $300. Yikes! *I'm having just a salad tonight.

 

We have found all crew members to be extra friendly, accommodating and eager to please. *This is for sure in contrast to some of the negative reviews of late.*

 

We found a lovely bottle of single malt scotch in our suite upon boarding, presumably courtesy of our friend. *Clive, our steward, quickly accomodated my request for a bottle of Bombay Sapphire, and "customized" our refrigerator based on our preferences. *The wine and cocktails have flowed so freely everywhere though that we haven't cracked those bottles yet.

 

Looking forward to our first excursion tomorrow--the Sea Otter & Wildlife Quest.

 

Thanks for "listening.” I do go on and on.*

[mimito4]

My apologies. The mysterious asterisks must be from the iwriter app on my iPad that I am using to write offline before posting.

[Queasy Cruiser]

Looking forward to our first excursion tomorrow--the Sea Otter & Wildlife Quest.

 

This was our favorite excursion! We saw scores of sea otters and several whales, even one which - to the amazement and thrill of our naturalists -- was not seen in the area we were sailing. Practice the rapid-fire mode on your camera. We were able to get some great whale shots once we got that down. ;)

 

One thing, though... be sure to eat the lunch they give you, even if it's not particularly appealing. My son didn't eat his and ended up getting seasick on that little boat, and it lasted through that whole evening, which I believe was our last on the ship. The rest of us (who all ate) were fine.

 

Enjoy every minute!!!

[Travelcat2]

We also really enjoyed the otter excursion. Those little ones are so cute. . . . floating on their backs. In May, the females had their babies on their tummy's. I am such a sucker for animals:-)

[RachelG]

LOVE otters. They are my favorite animal, with seals being a close 2nd. My mom took me to seaworld when I was 4 and I have been stuck ever since.

[TheSeaAroundUs]

LOVE otters. They are my favorite animal, with seals being a close 2nd. My mom took me to seaworld when I was 4 and I have been stuck ever since.

 

What a wonderful tidbit, Rachel!

 

let me see if I can attach a photo here... it's an otter mom with her pup. (It worked, but seems to have attached a mini-version, even if you click the thumbnail.) (edit2: if you search "otter mom", the big version is the fourth result on Google, or the first on DuckDuckGo.)

 

 

p.s. mimito4, I *LOVE* following this thread! You sure must be fun to cruise with!

(edit1: Too bad the internet's so sucky up there, or you would be more voluble....)

[ededmd]

 

We dined last night in Compass Rose, where we had a lovely window table. *Service was a bit slow, but it was understandable, given the crowds on the first night. *We really like our waiter, Alberto, and plan on asking for his area each night. He was charming, hard working, and was calling us by name within minutes. *His advice was very good as well.

We really like Alberto too. He was wonderful with the adults and children alike.

 

Looking forward to our first excursion tomorrow--the Sea Otter & Wildlife Quest.

Definitely enjoyed this one. Agree on eating a little something carbo prior. I don't typically get seasick but this little boat bouncing the waves got to me.

 

Thanks for "listening.” I do go on and on.*

And please do go on some more :)

[Suite Travels]

Teresa and Don are only on loan to Regent.:D Let the party begin.

[SnoBirdCruiser]

Teresa and Don are only on loan to Regent.:D Let the party begin.

 

From where are Teresa and Don on loan?

 

Where are Teresa and Don on loan from?

 

Oh my, neither of these statements look correct....please feel free to correct my grammer.

 

I think I would like to cruise with them....they seem like a fun couple.

 

Pat

[WesW]

Pat, Don and T (aka Teresa) in the past have regularly cruised Crystal (Suite Travels fav line), but they have also cruised Sea Dream et. al. In fact, they canceled a Crystal cruise to Alaska and its place booked this Navigator Alaska cruise.

 

T, look forward to more on board reports, thanks

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I definitely have the otter trip on my list for next spring. And a nice big box of meclizine, for sure. Enough of the "on loan" stuff, okay? We get it.