Advertisement
Our primary reason for choosing this last segment of the ‘08 World Cruise was to see our shipboard family and to enjoy life onboard during the many “sea days”. We’ve fine tuned our schedule; up at 8:15, breakfast in the main dining room “Compass Rose” at 8:45 with our favorite waiters and the daily update and “Vords of Visdom” at 9:00 from our Norwegian Captain Dag. Then we split up and I go to the morning enrichment lectures about subjects varying from history (by our favorite resident speaker-Sandra Bowern whose birthday is the same as Chuck’s) to astronomy (by another of our favorites-David Aguilar who we had a very thought provoking lunch with he and his wife) to various political subjects. Chuck participates in the many organized games of bocce, baggo, croquet, top toss, golf putting, shuffleboard and whatever other fun games the new sports director Eric can think of. At midday we come back together for the Cruise Director Jamie’s “noon game” which might include guesstures, Pictionary, password, family feud, brain busters or the top ten lists. All of the games are competitive with the token or Dag dollar as the prize (redeemable in the gift store). Lunch for us
is again in Compass Rose so we can control our food portions, but there are alternatives like the Pool Deck buffet. Afternoons include more games, lectures, walks on deck or in the gym, a 1st run movie or maybe even an afternoon nap. Then at 4:00 we all meet for afternoon tea-which is an elaborate affair with a live pianist and various themes like chocoholic, flambé, Viennese, German or cheesecake. This is followed by a serious game of trivia with teams of 6 competing and then the daily Bingo games. And these are just the activities we choose to participate in. Boredom is not a possibility, other activities that we’d like to do but have no time are arts & crafts, board & card games, bridge, the community jigsaw puzzle, fitness classes, art lectures & auctions, book reading, pool activities, wine tasting, writers class and I could go on and on. For the evening activities, there might be a Captains welcome, farewell or a Seven Seas Society (past passenger) cocktail party before dinner with caviar and champagne. The majority of the time the dress code is casual but we did have 3 formal and 3 informal nights this segment. Our
biggest decision is which of the 4 restaurants we should dine in-the main dining room Compass Rose, the formal French Cordon Bleu Signatures, the Indochine sometimes themed Latitudes or the informal Italian steakhouse La Veranda. Because dinner is generally a 2 hour affair this is the best way to get to know your fellow passengers and make friendships. Plus the food is wonderful with a lot of local ingredients from recently visited ports. Twice, we special ordered items that weren’t on the regular menu-an Indian lunch of chicken vindaloo and a dessert of baked Alaska. What a treat! This is probably a good time to rave about the Voyagers crew. Many have become friends and it’s so exciting to see them and to keep in touch by email when off the ship. They are as important as any other aspect of the cruise experience and their dedication and caring is top notch. One of our favorite events was the crew talent shows; the truly talented participants put their heart and soul into entertaining the passengers. Another fun event was Jimbo’s Truck Stop in the crew mess. Many dress the part (notice our t-shirts which got a lot of laughs) for
this dinner of meatloaf and other comfort foods. As the Captain tends bar, others dance and enjoy being in an area of the ship that is usually off limits to passengers. Other fun after dinner entertainment venues were the passenger talent show (yes, Chuck sang again for the 3rd year straight at the cruise directors urging), the Regent singers and dancers with all new production shows, and visiting entertainers from a tribute to Elton John to a concert pianist to a vocalist singing Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett favorites. This year we participated more in the after show activities at 10:45 in the Horizon Lounge with themes like James Bond night, comedy club, liars club, Beatles night, hard rock café and our usual favorites of karaoke and disco in the Voyager nightclub. So, it was midnight almost every night before we threw in the towel only to get up the next morning to do it all over again.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0227s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb