DAY 31---AT SEA

 

Our position at noon today was sitting offshore Cabo San Lucas.  We stopped here to off load a passenger with a medical issue.  Not sure why we are still here as a boat came out and picked he/she up over a half hour ago.  Moving again now at noon.  They say this will not delay our planned arrival in San Diego on Monday.  Sunny and 85 degrees.

This boat to transfer the person to shore for medical treatment.  Mexico is the last place I would want to be dumped off at.  I take that back as there are MANY places we have been to on cruises in the world that I definitely would not like to be sent to a hospital.

LAST NIGHT:

We both had Ceasar salads with dressing on the side so we could add tabasco to the dressing.  I also had my usual 5 anchovies.  We both had the duck but mine was mostly bones and gristle so I sent it back and ordered the half roasted chicken.  Not as good as usual.

                                      I had to have the chocolate profiteroles for dessert.

                                 This is Angelina delivering table clothes in Compass Rose.

After dinner we stopped and I Viktoria make me this drink, a "Happy Happy".  It has Bailey's, Chambord, Godiva, Kahula, and heavy cream in it.  Low cal for sure!

Most everyone was at the show but we had a nice chat with these two ladies at the bar.  Red head is from Colorado and other is from Australia.

TODAY:

        My alarm went of at 7:15 but I had a hard time getting up.  I slept good but was still tired.  It was still very dark outside when I opened our drapes.  We'll get an extra hour of sleep tonight as setting our clocks back one hour.

        Rebecca did her hour on the treadmill but I did 30 minutes there and then went up to the track on deck 12 to do the other half hour while we had stopped in Cabo.  Pretty warm!

        We went up to La Veranda for lunch.  They were carving brandy glazed country ham.  So I got a bun from the pool grill and made a delicious ham sandwich.

        Rebecca is keeping track of the Tennessee football game this afternoon while doing her nails.  We will take her phone to dinner this evening so we can keep track of the Alabama game.  We cannot stream and watch the games but can see play by play on internet.  We should, however, be able to stream and watch the Dallas Cowboy's game tomorrow as it is televised on CBS and we can stream it from Paramount +.  

        We will definitely be going to tonight's show featuring singer, Mark Preston.  He has performed on some other of our Regent cruises, most recently our world cruise earlier this year.  He has been Phyllis Diller's opening act and was lead singer for "The Lettermen" from 1984 to 1995.  I spoke with Mark not long after he boarded the ship yesterday in Puerto Vallarta.  He will do two shows and leave the ship in LA on Tuesday.

      I picked this up when we were in San Francisco earlier.  Why you ask??  On tonight's menu in Compass Rose is turkey, stuffing, and giblet gravy.  Well, Regent's idea of giblet gravy is a yucky, dark brown liquid.  I wouldn't call it gravy!  I tried when on the world cruise to get what Americans know as turkey gravy, unsuccessfully.  So I will ask them to heat this up and serve it to us tonight.  I might share some with the chef.

        Quite windy this afternoon as it is a 25 kt headwind and we are doing 17 kts so the relative wind is 40+ knots.  So far the ride is good but more swells than past couple of weeks.

Don't think we will get very thirsty.  The Vero bottle on left next to the champagne is water, just in case!

        I asked my "reliable source" if there any passengers isolated with covid.  He said there were none but a recently boarded crew member is in isolation.

        There is a large group of bridge players on this segment.  I asked one of them how many in the group and she thought roughly 100.

        The thing about being on a ship for so long is you don't know what day of the week it is.  Good thing we brought a calendar.  Calendar says tomorrow is Sunday so I may go down for some caviar and eggs benedict in the morning.  We shall have another day at sea tomorrow.  Roslyn is to hit Puerto Vallarta tonight.       

        

DAY 30---PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO (AGAIN)

So here we are today in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post our itinerary has changed now due to the tropical storm (soon to become a hurricane), Roslyn.  Our call at Manzanillo has been canceled.  It is cloudy and a chance of rain here today.

LAST NIGHT:

As we departed Mazatlan there were several fishing boats at work just outside of the harbor.

                                                Pilot transferring after we had left the port.

We attended the Seven Seas Society party where drinks, caviar, and canapes were served.  Our name was mentioned as having 839 nights on Regent.  The Shelton's again beat us out as they had 1100 nights.  I think they will not be on the next segment so we may be the "most cruised".

                        Again the production did some ABBA songs to entertain us.  Well done!

I had this Alaskan crab and avocado with bloody Mary sauce for my appetizer.  Very good but very filling so I could only eat half of it.

                                                We both had the Greek salad.  Excellent!!

Highly anticipated miso glazed seabass with sticky rice.  Well, we were disappointed as the seabass was chewy.  Not nearly as good as on previous cruises.

        One on my favorite desserts is this white chocolate croissant pudding.  There were 4 nice ladies from Dallas/Ft Worth at the table next to us who we had a nice visit with during dinner.  There first time on a Regent cruise and were on this one for playing bridge.  I had Dara take them this dessert so they could try it.  They all loved it too.

        We had a more leisurely dinner as was in no hurry and Dara was very busy attending to others when we arrived in Compass Rose after the SSS party.  During dinner we watched the Saints/Cardinals NFL football game on my phone on Amazon Prime Video.  Bet that was a first in Compass Rose!  We were not planning on seeing the show anyway.  Clocks moved ahead one hour again last night to comply with time in Puerto Vallarta.  We are now on the same time as Central in the US.

TODAY:

Up at 7:15 as usual and it was still dark out when I opened our balcony drapes.  Tours went off at 8:00. Siva brought breakfast to us at 8:00.  It was light outside by then.  At 8:30 I went up to deck 12 to see exactly where we were docked and take these photos.  We are at a slightly different pier than last time we were here on October 6th.

                                             The gangway today is right below our balcony.

              Taken from our balcony looking towards town.  The ocean is other way.

                                                   Looking forward is the Pacific Ocean.

                Not sure what the structures on top of the terminal are for.  Decoration I guess.

                                                               Tour boat leaving the pier.

There it is!!  The crew's "Mecca"---Walmart next to a Sams Club.  They will be going there on their break today as it is just across the street.

                                               There is also a shopping mall next to Walmart.

                                              Mall on other side of this interesting ship.

                            Tour boat loading pier with locals lining the fence to see our ship.

                                                          Looking toward downtown.

The deck was very wet from rain earlier so this guy was squeezing the water off.  I will be going back up to do my 4 mile fast walk now.

        At 9am I went up to deck 12 for my hour of fast walking which was 4 miles.  It was 82 degrees with 76% humidity.  My t-shirt was soaked by the time I finished.  During my walk this US Coast Guard ship arrived and was having a difficult time docking.  It has no thrusters to push it sideways.  Needed a tug to help but did not see any.  The US Navy has some small drug interdiction boats based here.

        We have a scales in our suite (at our request) so while getting cleaned up after my walk I hopped on it as it does not weigh accurately when at sea.  So I have gained a couple pounds!  No pigs or poppers for a few days now during cocktail hour.

Healthy lunch in Compass Rose.  The salmon was perfectly cooked medium rare and delicious.

        It is 5pm and should be sailing but the Captain said we are waiting on a crew member coming from the airport.  Guess he made it as we are departing at 5:03.

        Usual plan for this evening.  Cocktail hour in the suite but having shrimp cocktail instead of the pigs in a blanket.  Planning dinner in Compass Rose so here is the menu.

        We are planning to have the "quack-quack"--Crispy duck L'Orange.  There is a production show, "Tuxedo" after dinner but we will be passing.  Plan to see all the shows next segment with Jeff.  He will want to be on the front row to see the female dancers!!  Me too!!  Like father, like son!!

        Ok, now two days at sea.  I hope the smooth sailing will continue.

DAY 29---MAZATLAN, MEXICO (AGAIN)

 

We're in Mazatlan, Mexico, again today.  Sunny and 83 degrees already at 8:30am (90 degrees by afternoon).  This is our second visit to this port as was here back on October 7th.  We'll be back here again on the 29th.

LAST NIGHT:

                     I had this Chilean carmenere red with dinner tonight.  I like Chilean wines.

We both had Caesar salads with dressing on the side as we add tabasco to the dressing before mixing in the salad.  Of course, my usual 5 anchovies!

This is the Compass Rose chef's idea of chicken parmesan.  Jeff, we will have yours up in Sette Mari as chef Seigfried knows how to make veal and chicken parm.  Don't get me wrong, this one was ok as I asked for a bowl of extra tomato sauce.

                                Apple tart with ice cream is one of my favorite desserts.

The gentleman on the left is Enzo.  He is Director of Quality Services for Apollo Group.  Apollo Group is a full service hospitality management company headquartered in Miami, Florida.  Apollo manages the food services and housekeeping services for Regent and Oceania cruise lines.  All crew members who work on the Regent ships in food services (restaurants and everything to do with food) and all of the housekeeping crew members are hired by and work for Apollo.  Enzo has worked for Apollo for many years.  Roberto was a Food & Beverage Director on the Explorer during our transatlantic cruise last fall.  He has been promoted to Corporate Service Manager at Apollo and is now responsible for all of the Regent ships' restaurants.

TODAY:

Our pier today is at the commercial dock again.  We are not allowed to walk due to the truck traffic hauling cargo off ships.

        We went to the fitness center at 9am to do our treadmill hour.  We had the place to ourselves today.  One of the 4 treadmills was still inop this morning as yesterday.  So after my workout I reset it.  I watched it done earlier during the cruise so knew where the on/off switch was.  It works now!

        Last time here I did not leave the ship.  Today I decided to ride this shuttle to the cruise terminal to see what was there.  

If you enlarge the photo you will see there is a pharmacy in the cruise terminal.  I bought two more z-pacs as they were $3 less then I paid in Ensenada.  $12 for two.

                                                                       Bar outside

                     Found this t-shirt interesting.  $15  May get one next time we are here.

                               Returned to the ship at 10:45 and cleaned up before lunch.

On our way to lunch we ran into our new cruise director, Jude.  This is her first contract on Regent and previously worked on Holland America ships.

This is "The Captain".  That's what the crew and us passengers who know him call him.  He has lived on Regent ships for years.  Now he just stays on Mariner.  He can hardly see and hear now as is in his late 90s.  He dressed nicely and is a true gentleman.  This is "his" table in the corner of Compass Rose and you can set your clock by his arrival there for every meal.  He has the same foods every day.

Lunch in La Veranda today.  I tried the empanada and Cuban fried chicken off the buffet line but both were not good.  So I tried a couple slices of pizza with hot dog slices on it.  Then I had a plain ole hot dog.  I did not order the fries so did not eat them.  They must be trying to fatten me up!

Jolanta, on left, is our head housekeeper.  On the right is Jasna, Corporate Head Housekeeper for Apollo.  Seems several corporate types have been, are now, or coming to check out Mariner's service and crew.  Wolfgang, corporate chef, will be on board until we arrive back in LA.  Then coming on board will be the Corporate Pastry Chef.

Fishing boat passing by our balcony this afternoon.  There a lot of 6 inch or so fish jumping up out of the water this afternoon.  

        This evening at 6pm is the Seven Seas Society party in the theater.  Cocktails, canapes, and some entertainment.  We do plan to attend this as may be announced as the couple with the most nights cruised on Regent for this segment.

        So we asked Siva to bring our poppers at 5:30.  I will take my martini with me to the SSS event at 6pm.

Yea!!  Sea bass is back!  Yes, miso glazed sea bass is on this menu for tonight.  They have been substituting black cod as no sea bass.  And we love the Greek salad (Mykonos salad on menu).  

        At 3:15 this afternoon the Captain made his departure PA.  We were to be docking in Manzanillo, Mexico, tomorrow but he said there is a tropical depression affecting the port with his winds expected up to 90 knots.  So our itinerary has been changed.  Now we will be docking in Puerto Vallarta tomorrow instead (we were to be there the next day anyway) from 7am to 5pm.  Then we will be heading back north and have two sea days before calling on San Diego on Monday (new stop).  That's good as we will be clearing Customs and Border Protection in San Diego then so will not have to do it when we arrive in LA on Tuesday when Jeff is to board.