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Published: January 18th 2014
After seven months ashore, it's time to set sail across the high seas. We enjoyed our home time and took several long car trips; one to South Dakota for a family reunion and the other across country to Florida. We managed to do quite a bit of cruising on our own boat when we were in Sausalito, mostly to San Francisco and the East Bay. We spent the months of November and December soaking up the warm Florida sun and then flew home on Christmas Eve in order to get packed for our upcoming cruise.
We drove to Los Angeles on Jan 6 and boarded the Silversea Whisper for a two month Pacific Ocean cruise hosting for Cruise Specialists. This is a big change for us as it will be the first time in 14 years that we will not be doing a world cruise and the first time in 12 years that we won’t be on a Regent ship. We feel that changes make life interesting. This cruise will take us from California to Hawaii then to several South Pacific islands and on to New Zealand. From there we will cross the Tasman Sea
SUSAN & KEVIN
Hosting on the Silversea World Cruiseto Australia, sailing up the East Coast and making several stops in New Guinea, Micronesia, the Philippines and ending in Hong Kong. We plan to rent a flat in Hong Kong for a week before flying back home. We are very much looking forward to this voyage and meeting up with lots of cruising friends and visiting some new ports and revisiting many favorite ones.
The Silver Whisper is a small ship, carrying 382 passengers when fully booked. For our first segment there are 270 cruisers aboard. Captain Corsaro said that there is more crew on board than passengers. This is quite nice for all the travelers. The ship is expected to be full from Auckland to Sydney. Although small, the Whisper has many of the amenities of larger ships but without the crowds. There are four dining venues, a well-stocked library, extensive fitness facilities, a small casino, card room, theater, gift shops and lounges. There are numerous guest speakers booked for each segment who will be lecturing on subjects ranging from Broadway musicals to Hawaiian geology, health issues and marine biology and geopolitical topics. There are port lectures detailing the ins and outs of each of our scheduled
PALM TREES
They were waving goodbye as we sailed into the Pacific Ocean stops. There are bridge and dancing lessons and language classes. Although there is not a tennis court on this ship there is table tennis and a jogging track and two hot tubs and a nice pool. Current movies are available all day on the interactive TV as well as many U.S. and European television stations. So there is no reason to ever be at a loss for something to do.
We dropped off our luggage at the ship terminal in San Pedro and then returned our rental car. The boarding process was the smoothest we have experienced over the years and we were checked in and checking out our stateroom within an hour of boarding. We met up with many perennial world cruisers, Suzanne, Cele, Jerry, Red, Sue, Ann etc. The biggest surprise was running into the General Manager, Norman Rafelson. We first met Norm in China when he was the manager of the Shanghai Regent Hotel back in 2006. Then by chance we were at a dinner party in Tiburon, California several years ago and who should show up but Norman. Now all these years later he is the manager of a floating hotel on this luxury, six
USS IOWA
She's still looking good in San Pedro star ship. Nicolas is the Food and Beverage Manager. We cruised with him in 2004 on Regent when he was a bartender. So it is always fun to renew these acquaintances and share memories.
It takes five days to sail across the Pacific Ocean from the West Coast to reach the Hawaiian Islands. That is a good way to start a long cruise. There is plenty of time to unpack and get settled into the ship’s routine and to slow down after all the last minute frenzy of preparing to be away for several months. It’s time to take a deep breath of ocean air, get our sea legs and relish the fact that we are on a beautiful ship heading out for another adventure at sea.
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Marge Goddard
non-member comment
Will miss you on regent
Just had breakfast with Allison & Joe Trum. They are boarding the Crystal Serenity in San Pedro, 20 min from our home, for a voyage to Tokyo. Your ears must have been ringing, as your names came up. Enjoy your voyage. We are headed to Fairfax next weekend. In April we will be boarding the Voyager in Dubai, heading for Rome. Marge & Dave