Our Island Excursions

First stop -- Oranjestad, Aruba -- and after 2 1/2 days on the ship we were more than ready to set foot back on land! We had decided to play a round of golf at the Divi Village Golf Course rather than Tierra del Sol because we had stayed at the Divi Village years ago and thought it would be fun to revisit. Wow! What a difference two decades make!! Our former little compound of the Divi Divi and Divi Tamarijnd has now turned into a sprawling mega resort area. The course itself played well and was in good condition for an island course. Fortunately wind was not a major factor that day, but I would imagine it does come into play quite often. In the afternoon we had planned to go to Palm or Eagle Beach, but fellow cruisers that we ran into post-golf told us that both beaches were packed so instead we chose Machebo Beach which is actually close to port and a hop, skip and a jump from Alhambra Casino. The beach was lovely, with soft white sand, plenty of lounge chairs and convenient thatched roof tents to provide shade. There was also a bar/restaurant right on the beach and private massage cabanas. Mike left early but I stayed to play at the Alhambra casino for a while. Small, smoky, not highly recommended. I thought I could catch a cab while on foot heading back to the ship -- I was wrong! It's about a two mile walk, but the sidewalks are littered with broken glass so I suggest wearing something other than the flip flops I was sporting for your own safety.
Curacao was our next stop and again I had booked us a tee-time, this was at the Blue Bay Golf Club. I had originally reserved a rental car, but we couldn't find the rental car office. The thing about the Curacao pier is that it is verrrrrrrry long and if you are at the far end (which we were) you will walk for quite a while before you even come to the cruise terminal. The people on the pier are also not all that helpful when it comes to getting information. Needless to say, we ended up just renting a taxi to take us to Blue Bay (and that in itself was a project; be prepared to have a lot of patience). It was just as well, because Curacao's streets are not clearly marked and I believe we would have gotten quite lost if we had driven ourselves. The Blue Bay course is decent for the most part, some holes are truly spectacular as they play along the ocean, but it is designated cart path only (for what reason we could not determine) and therefore pace of play is slow, slow, slow. The resort caters to European visitors and that was primarily who was clogging up the course; they must not have standard rules of etiquette in Holland or Germany and it was difficult to make them understand that they should let us play through. Pay attention when you finish your round here, the club house is NOT right off the 18th green as is traditional. We drove around in the golf cart for twenty minutes before we finally found the club house by locating hole #3 and going backwards! Due to the 5+ hour round of golf, we were too tired to head back out to the beach after we dropped our clubs back off on the ship. Mike elected to stay onboard while I took a walk into the downtown area. There was a casino two blocks over from the cruise terminal that I spent some time playing in. The tables weren't open but the slot machines were. Interesting, they paid out in tickets, but you couldn't put a ticket IN to play. Like our ship, you had to go to the cashier cage to cash in the ticket. Make sure you add the tickets you are handing in (if more than 1) because they make a lot of errors and more than once I had to have them re-add the amounts.
Bonaire was a short stop so I booked an excursion through the ship. We did the Mushi Mushi catamaran sail & snorkel. The Mushi Mushi is a small family owned/run business with the husband sailing, the wife on the pier tying and untying the boat, the brother in law assisting with the snorkel gear, etc. After sailing for about 20 minutes, they anchor in the Marine Park and you have about 45 minutes for on-your-own snorkeling. The tour guide was insightful and entertaining and we learned a lot about the island. On the way back, refreshments including rum punch were served.
St. Lucia was also a short stop, so we again did a ship-sponsored excursion. This time it was a Countryside Tour and Beach Getaway. Our vehicle was an extended length Jeep with its top off. It had 6 wheels and needed all of them! This island has a topography very similar to St. Kitts and Dominica -- lots of hills, verdant vegetation, rain, crazily insane winding roads...you get the picture. Our driver may have been a madman, cutting through these wicked hairpin curves at hair raising speeds. Steep drop-offs of 400-500 feet lead us to pray that if he cut another turn too closely, we would have a head-on with an oncoming car rather than go off the side of the road! We stopped at the top of one mountain for the obligatory 15 minute local vendor stop & shop. We bought a "hematite" bracelet, necklace and earrings and took some pictures. Then it was back onto the jeep for an ungodly trek to Anse La Vouette -- a private beach at the base of a mountain with NO PAVED ROADS! We bumped and thumped over rocks, through mud, under trees; a couple of times we had to stop, back up and get a running start to make it up the next plateau. Finally arriving at the beach, it was very rugged and small but there were no rocks in the water which is often common in the Caribbean, it was all soft sand. The rum punch they served was extremely potent and I was feeling no pain after only a half glass. Back up the same mountain and then we came down into the city which was obsessively overcrowded. We were of course late returning, but the ship waited for us.
St. Kitts is an island I have seen in its entirety but Mike hadn't so we hired a private driver and I told him where to drive us. His name is Cecil and he was very informative -- highly recommend him. Mike loves learning about the history of the islands we visit so enjoyed the tour immensely. A requisite stop at Romney Manor/Caribelle Batik where we bought some tropical shirts for Mike and Richie. I had asked Cecil to drive us to the new Marriott megaresort which is at the southern end of the island, close to Timothy Beach Resort where I had stayed previously. I did want to see the Marriott, but my main concern was that I needed to find an ATM since we didn't bring that much money with us off the ship. Once I popped into the Marriott, I fell in love! Ran back out, told Cecil to bring us back to the ship instantly for lunch and then to come pick us back up in an hour to go back to the Marriott which we did. Played in the casino there for a while then went out to enjoy their beautiful beach and pool areas. The beach is on the Atlantic side of the island so the water is not as serene and tranquil as the Caribbean side, but it has a personality all its own and the facilities there are ideal. Even the loungers by the pool have personal cabanas over them. Heaven!
Old San Juan, Puerto Rico was our 2nd to last stop and it is my least favorite of all the islands. The port security are nasty and the downtown area is loud, crowded and dirty. I would avoid OSJ and stick to the Condado and Isla Verde areas unless you are a purist which I clearly am not. While taking a cab to Condado Plaza Hotel Mike left his key card folder with $$$ in the cab and someone was nice enough to finally get it to the security guards (with the $$$ still intact!). Another thing to note -- all of the casinos are completely smoke free! I have no other comments on San Juan.
Grand Turk was our final stop and I had planned to make it a beach day. For convenience, I set up my towel, book, sunglasses, etc. on a nice lounger right off the pier. Even with another ship in port (Carnival Destiny) there were still plenty of lounge chairs available. Spent some time shopping in the stores right there in the Cruise Center square. Water was cold and there was a rock shelf you had to get past so this is one of those island where water shoes might come in handy. Mike took an island tour and said it was very informative. If you go out the front of the cruise center, there are lots of vendors there offering various tours and excursions.

Some Pictures

Before I go into any further detail about my twelve days on the Mariner, I've gotten a few e-mails asking where my pictures are.....so without further ado, here is my mini-slideshow! If you click on the picture at any time, it will open up the album into a reasonable size where you can actually SEE the picture and READ the caption at the same time. Enjoy!

How To Gain 10 pounds in 10 days without even trying

Everyone relates cruising with eating but the food served on Regent was arguably the best food served at sea.

Compass Rose (the main dining room) serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in an open seating environment. I only ate there for dinner. Reservations are not required, but a healthy appetite is as there are a plethora of menu choices each evening. Portions are perfectly sized -- not mammoth -- so you can enjoy eating more than one course and still have room for dessert if you so desire. Mike desired! He desired creme brulee every night we ate in there and now he is having some trouble buttoning his pants!!!!

Signatures is the Cordon Bleu restaurant (French, intimate, sophisticated). Even the menu itself is classy; so classy in fact that I did something totally classless and took one home with me. I couldn't help myself -- it was just too pretty to leave behind! Anyway, in here you will get the most top-notch service to be found on the ship. Food is beautifully prepared and presented and served with a flourish: Voila! The silver domes are removed in sync by two waiters to reveal your dish. The staff in this restaurant have just the right air of snobbery needed to make you feel you are dining in an exclusive French venue and you can rely on them to help you select just the right combination of dishes to make your dinner a culinary experience to remember. If you can get two reservations at this restaurant right away-- make them. You will most definitely want to return after you have dined there once, and it is sometimes difficult to get a second (unless you are flexible with day/time) if you wait too long.

Prime 7 is the newest restaurant to grace the Mariner and is fashioned after an American high-end steak house. Dinner choices are predictable to some extent (various cuts of steak, lamb, pork, surf & turf, etc.) but the meat itself is of the highest quality. The filet mignon accompanied by lobster tail could be cut with a butter knife! The chop house salad is a treat, but the Ceasar is uninspired although they do include a whole anchovy. As for the side dishes -- the potato dishes look better on paper than in actuality and the vegetable choices are again predictable. This is a dining venue for those with a hearty appetite looking for a BIG meal. Take a look at this lamb chop ordered by one of our dinner companions...it reminded me of something from a Flintstones cartoon with a giant prehistoric bone! We ate here more than once, and enjoyed it immensely, but there was nothing offered here that couldn't be found done just as well at a high-end steakhouse on land. They do, however, have an original concept: everyone is served an amuse bouche before dinner which consists of a miniature kobe beef burger on a miniature bun, smothered in some kind of tasty sauce. It's very good -- try it!

LaVerandah is the casual dining venue. Daytime it offers a breakfast, then lunch buffet. Breakfast has typical fare (eggs, breakfast meats, hot & cold cereals, muffins, etc.) plus some unexpected items like cold cuts. Lunch offerings change daily with numerous hot dishes, a carving station, and pre-made cold sandwiches. The concept here is similar to the Pool Grill where you pick your seat/table either inside or outside, and then waiters are available to assist you carrying plates that you have loaded to your table. The waiters will also get food from the buffet for you if you wish although most people want to go up to the buffet themselves to see what they are in the mood for! At night time, they keep only one side of this restaurant open and also close down the outside patio. The buffet is then only comprised of appetizer and antipasti dishes while your main courses are ordered off the menu. The food here also is very very good and you have the added bonus of not having to dress up for dinner which is a major plus it seems, especially for the men who hate to wear a suit and tie.

Room Service is a final dining option and I think self-explanatory.

Food is also available outside of regularly scheduled hours: mini tea sandwiches during the afternoon tea time (whether or not you are playing trivia!) can be found in the Horizon Lounge; fruit and cold cuts can be found in the Coffee Bar; cookies and hot refreshments can be found in the Garden Promenade between Stars Nightclub and Coffee Connection 24 hours a day

There is no shortage of ways to gain weight on this cruise!

Let The Games Begin!

Before boarding the ship I had already decided that I was going to attempt to win as many tokens as possible. Let me tell you a little bit about this because even after cruising for a week and a half I still met many, many passengers who had no idea what a token was and what to do with one if they won it!

Rather than give out silly plastic visors, water bottles and other tchotchkes, to the winners of the shipboard games, Regent awards tokens which are basically a generic plastic poker chip with the Regent Harp logo imprinted upon it. On the last full day of the cruise, a booth opens up where you can exchange your tokens for Regent logo merchandise that is NOT sold in the store. Well, let me clarify that.....first of all, the company that was the consignment for our store had ended their contract with Regent and the new company was not scheduled to take over until the end of the month. So for all intents and purposes, we really didn't have any onboard shopping available to us. What we did have was a 90% off store which would have been great if you wanted to buy a shot glass with a pewter Regent logo, or a glass beer stein with a pewter Regent logo, or a small t-shirt with an embroidered Regent logo, or a travel coffee mug depicting a map of Alaska..... you get the picture. Great buys, not much selection. Anyway, so back to the tokens! The items "for sale" the last day included: polished metal bookmark (2 tokens), magnetic memo holder (4), metal luggage tag (8), leather bound journal (12), jewelry roll (16), tote bag (20). You don't know what the items will be in advance -- I just knew I wanted to claim that I won something so therefore I knew that I had to get my hands on some tokens.

There are generally 3 ways to win tokens. There are two early afternoon activity games each day around 2:30 and 3:30. These games are conducted by the Social Staff (Bradley and Elsa) although when Bradley's contract expired he left the ship in Grand Turk to head home. As an aside, if anyone from Regent management happens to read this: SEND BRADLEY ANOTHER CONTRACT -- he was great fun and a definite asset to the Regent experience!!! The activity games include things like shuffleboard, golf putting, baggo, ring toss and require some skill. They would generally play these in teams -- at least they did after the first day when I got involved in organizing them!! During these games, you see a lot of the same players so if you are looking to meet new people, this is a great place to be! It was clear from the very first Baggo Bean Bag hurl that Jennie and Alan were out to give Mike and I a run for our money and what a grand time we had all week long competing against each other.

Another token opportunity for the more sedate set is the afternoon Trivia game. This game takes place during the 4pm tea time and is another great chance to meet people. You can set up your own team (believe me, some of these teams I think have been together since Nixon was president) or you can just go in and find other people in pods of 1, 2 or 3 and join up with them. Concept is simple: Host asks a series of 15-16 questions, you write down your answer on an answer sheet and then exchange papers with the closest team for "grading". The team who gets the most answers correct wins a token for each team member. After 10 attempts -- my team finally tied for 1st place the last day! A picture of my winning team (minus me because I'm taking the picture) appears at left. Left to right: Gudrun (Guti), Robbie, Bonnie and Joel. A motley crew yes, but we emerged victorious!!!

A third token opportunity arose on the 2nd to last night of the cruise when Assistant Cruise Director Handre hosted a Name That Tune contest. The premise of this game was that Handre would play a couple of notes from a song and then ask you to write down the title and/or which movie it came from or who was the composer, etc. Strangely enough, one of the friends I had made (Bill from New Mexico) was an ace at this game back when it was on tv so of course I recruited him for my team along with his wife Sue and another couple Sue & Henry. I had high hopes for us UNTIL I discovered that the team sitting next to us was made up of predominantly gay men and I thought to myself that to remain competitive I would need a gay man on my team as well in case we needed help on the Broadway questions. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince any of them to "defect" to my team :P In any event, Bill came through for us and we tied for first place (although we still maintain we were shorted a point because Smoke Gets In Your Eyes did in fact appear in the movie American Graffiti) so we should have scored 23 out of 25 instead of 22. No matter....we got our tokens! Best of all, my amazingly wonderful teammates gave me ALL the tokens saying that they only played the game for me anyway so I ended up with 5 for that challenge. Oh, and as for the boy's team -- they scored a shabby 15 which I teased them about mercilessly for the rest of the night! A picture of my winning team appears to the right. Beginning from the left we have Sue who belongs to Bill, Henry, Me, Sue who belongs to Henry and Bill.

There are two other games that are played on the ship (not for tokens) and I highly recommend them both. One is the Liars Club game and I don't want to give away too much but suffice it to say that it is one of the most entertaining events to be found during the cruise. Seriously....I laughed so hard I think I may have bruised a rib. Tears were rolling down our cheeks from laughter! Do not miss this whatever you do! The other game that is played most afternoons is bingo. And the wonderful thing about this bingo is that it is not a money-maker for the Corporation..... 90% of what is taken in through card sales goes back to the players in cash prizes, the remaining 10% is donated to the Crew Fund. So when you play bingo, not only do you have a good time and a chance to win some serious money (prizes on our cruise ranged from $120 - $501) BUT you are also helping to contribute to the Crew Fund which is a most worthy cause. Here are some of my bingo friends Rose, Georgie and Sid. Notice how happy we all are because at this point we still really believe we are going to win! Actually, by the end of the week, both Rose and I had each won a game; no such luck for Georgie or Sid.

Mariner - Day 1

We entered the ship on deck 5 which is the lowest passenger deck (there is a deck 4 where the crew "lives" and which is used for most ports). Greeted by smiling staff, with flutes of champagne, our carryon bags were taken by Ronald who escorted us up to Deck 11 and explained how the pool grill worked. Basically, you want to commandeer a table for yourself by putting something down on it (drink, bag, book, companion, etc.) and then you go to grill to order what you would like -- ham/cheeseburger, hotdogs, chicken wings, fries, etc. You tell the order taker your table # and when it is ready he will deliver it to your table; rather than you having to stand there while they cook it. In the meantime, you can help yourself to salads, snacks, fruit, etc. And when you are sitting at your table, drink servers will come by to deliver whatever beverage your little heart desires! When the waiter brings your grill order, he will also bring the necessary condiments so don't worry about that part either. Also, the pool grill will have additional "themed" food items freshly prepared on the remaining days of the cruise. One afternoon it might be an American Grill theme with traditional steaks, chicken, grilled fish and other seafood, etc. Another day it might be a Mexican theme where they make big pots of taco/enchilada spiced beef for you to make your own tacos and nachos with all the trimmings and toppings.

Cabins are scheduled to be prepared for occupation at 2:30pm but we checked about an hour before that, found our steward (Christian - a doll!) and were able to drop off our carry-on bags in the cabin so we didn't have to tote them around.

The Mariner is a beautiful ship and is even spiffier I'm sure because we were the first cruise post dry-dock so all of the bedding, curtains, carpeting, seating, etc. is all brand new.

Our cabin was ready by 2pm and my suitcase was the first to arrive so I was able to unpack and commandeer all of the drawers in the actual walk-in closet itself. (No worries for Mike -- there were 3 large drawers left for him in the living room area entertainment center).

Two separate Cruise Critic members recognized me from my picture and introduced themselves: Carol (screen name Catenai) who I saw only on days 1 and 11, and Ralph (screen name CruiseDiver1) who was travelling with his buddy Tony. I was happy to spend some time with Ralph each day and counted him among the many new friends I made over the week and a half.

Although I was concerned initially going into this cruise that I wouldn't be able to feel a part of things since so many Regent cruisers are repeat guests and seem to know each other already, my fears were unnecessary. I found myself at the end of Day 1 having met a number of other people, all of whom played a part in each of my days on the ship:

Patty; Jennie and Alan; Mario and Elaine; Doug and Kevin; Gudrun (Guti) and John; Rita and George; Sue and Henry; Sue and Bill.... and by Day 3 the following were added to my "posse": Jordan, Justin and Nicholas; Bobby (Rob/Robbie/Robert/Bob LOL); Sid and Rose; Georgie and Tim; Eleanor; Don; Bill and Rick.....and I hope I haven't missed anyone!

All of these wonderful people added something special to every one of my days and made such perfect travel companions that I know my future fellow cruisers will pale in comparison.

The rest of our first day on the ship was spent in acclimating ourselves to the layout, taking books out of the library, testing out the bars, and lounging poolside thinking that although it was a little windy, it was certainly better than the weather in New York which was at 1 degree! That first night, we dined alone in Compass Rose at a window table for 2. Can't remember what we ordered -- but do remember that it was very very good although the service was slower than I expected.

That night, the show was Ken Bloch who is a comic impressionist. My impression is that he is not much of a comic!

Embarkation

Once we had retrieved our bags from the carousel, it was only a few steps out the door to pick up one of the waiting taxis to take us to the port. The cost $20; the time about 15 minutes. We got to the pier around noon and I was prepared for a long wait since I saw a number of people queuing up around the door waiting to pass through security. As the taxi driver was unloading our bags to turn over to one of the stevedores, the most horrifying thought struck me.....My Regent color-coded luggage tags were not on my bags. When Mr. Stevedore said, "that's okay, just put them on now" the second horrifying thought struck me: I DON'T HAVE MY CRUISE DOCUMENTS! Remember earlier, in my blog when I was talking about how nice the documents were presented? And I took pictures to post? Well, I left the whole damned package in my home computer room!!!! I did in fact have a copy of my paid Regent invoice showing my name, cabin #, etc. which you DO need in order to pass through Port Security but you don't need the actual cruise documents in case the same kind of thing ever happens to someone else!

We were given a # and instructed to wait in a "pod" of people until it was time to be checked in but by the time we figured out we were supposed to be in the "pod" they called our # and we headed over to wait on the check in line. It seemed like it might take a while, but actually went rather quickly.

Once the check in was completed and we had turned over our passports (yes, that is something that Regent does unlike other cruise lines) and received our room key cards -- presented to us in a handy little credit card holder/business card holder -- it was time to climb aboard for our first view of the Mariner.

Gotta Love January in New York!

It's our day of departure and woke up to what else....SNOW!!! Naturally Mike is in a panic that our plane is not going to make it to Fort Lauderdale in time for embarkation but I know better. Limo picked us up right on time at 3:30am and we had a hair raising ride to the airport but arrived at Newark with plenty of time to spare. Our plane was already on the ground having arrived from Houston the night before, so that was a good sign. Checked our suitcases and golf bags -- two of which were well over the 50 pound limit but gotta love those skycap guys; we didn't have to pay any extra weight fees. Settled in to the food court outside of our gate for some coffee and laptop time. Our plane was all systems go for a 7:35am departure. Spent some time finishing up computer work, checking e-mails, etc. Next thing I realize, I look down at the little clock icon on the computer screen and it says 7:17!!! Holy Crap! We're the first people in the airport and we almost miss boarding anyway!

Mike and I had aisle and window seats with an empty seat between us but the plane filled up at the last minute so we end up having a passenger between us. Before I explain what ensued, you must first use your imagination to picture the passengers on this very crowded plane. Think....who is going to be flying from New York to Ft. Lauderdale?? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first two don't count! Anyway, the girl who ends up in the middle seat is a bratty, teenager (17-19 y.o) who is pitching a fit and calling her father on her cell phone to complain about having to sit "in the middle". If she had exhibited even a modicum of decency and civility either one of us would have switched seats -- but there was no way in hell I was about to let this little bitch have her way.

The plane was delayed for about an hour while they conducted the de-icing procedures. It didn't matter to me -- I was sound asleep anyway. And, I probably would have slept all the way to Ft. Lauderdale, EXCEPT, I was rudely awoken by someone someone pummeling my arm, pinching and poking me. It was the middle seat Bitch who was having a fit that my arm was on HER armrest. Groggy from Dramamine, I can barely get an intelligible sentence out but I think I must have said the word SHARE because she then started screaming that she didn't have to share -- since she was sitting in the middle, she got the use of BOTH armrests. Mike thought I was going to slug her but the dramamine was too strong and I just fell back to sleep making sure to keep my arm well clear of her arm rest!