Embarkation Day, Sail Away and first day at Sea

 The day we have been waiting for has finally come as we boarded the Seven Seas Navigator. Was a very smooth process with a bus taking us from the hotel to the ship. Processing onto the ship was a little slower than what we were use to with Royal but it was pretty painless. As we boarded a glass of champagne awaited us and then off to a 1 minute safety briefing and we were then free to roam the ship. This is a very small ship, pretty much the size of the NCL cruise we did out of San Juan back in the early 1990’s, I think the tonnage is ~28,000 as compared to the Mega Ships today are ~200,000 tons. We were let into our room at 1:00 PM and what a room it is!

 

After checking our new digs and unpacking our suitcases we wandered around the ship to get a lay of the land, stopped by the Compass Rose to get an understanding of how dinner seating was handled. Afterwards we checked out the pool deck to see where we were going to meet up with some of the members of the Cruise Critic Forum that we have had going for the past year and a half. As I figured we had 8 members show up (actually thought it would be 4-6) it was nice to meet face to face with this group. Now we have people to talk with as we wander the ship. 

It was time to sail away and as always was a great time watching the ship leave the port. We headed back to our cabin to shower before dinner as I got out of the shower I saw a look that I knew wasn’t good. The sea had 6 foot swells and this ship was a rocking and that wasn’t good for Lisa. So this ended our first day, Lisa in bed and Mike watching Sheldon rerun’s, oh well such is life.

It’s a new day now and like clockwork, Lisa was better after a rough night and finally some sleep. We headed to the Compass Rose for breakfast at 8:15 and there was not a sole in the place, I guess everybody else were late sleepers. By the time we finished breakfast several other tables were full. Since I didn’t get dinner the night before I decided to combine the meals at breakfast, Lisa could barely eat and had a few slices of bananas and a danish.

Decided to try Bingo, weren’t sure how much it was but decided to head up anyway, pretty much like breakfast except this time there was another couple. They waited and nobody else showed up so we played a coverall game and the winner won a free Regent beach bag. We played until there were probably 5 or 6 numbers left and Lisa and the lady from the other couple both got Bingo on the same number, so they both got a new regent beach bag to go with the one we already had, can’t have enough beach bags 😁 

So we decided to try our luck at the casino and again there was nobody else there, so we had the pick of machines, we basically lost $30 by the end of the day. We had a quick lunch at the Compass Rose and then headed to the pool since the sun had finally come out. After a couple hours headed back to the room to get ready for Formal Night (Optional) we waited for the Butler to bring our canapé for the night. He didn’t show until we were ready to leave for the Captain’s welcome aboard party. Since he brought 6 wonderful Jumbo shrimps we made time to give them a go, just heavenly tasting!

The Captains reception was held in the small theater and the bottom section was pretty much full, had drinks and appetizers but we just had those jumbo shrimps and wanted to savor that taste so we opted out on the appetizers. After the introduction of the crew was completed the Cruise Director did a one man show and he is very talented. His name is Ray Solaire and is of the age where he blends in well with this crowd, I would estimate he is in his mid 70’s. He seems to have been around Regent as I have seen many post about him and his one man show.

Next was dinner in the Compass Rose and we had a wonderful meal, Lisa had the Filet and I couldn’t pass up on having a lobster tail with my filet. For those that cruise a lot they will understand how awesome this is, the Filet and Lobster Tails are both on the Always Menu in The Compass Rose.

After dinner there was a Comedian, Darrell Joyce he was excellent, definitely was spot on with his audience of mostly 60-70 year old passengers. That’s it for now Saturday is another Sea Day, they will be doing the Regent Block Party, will post some pics after that!