20220425 Embarkation: Got up about 7:00, washed, dressed, did final packing of our suitcases, tagged them, and put them outside our door by 7:45. I have to say I was none too neat in packing. Just stuffed things in knowing I would fully unpack in the ship.
After breakfast, we went outside with our cameras and did about an hour of street photography. Just sat or stood still and watched the world go by around us. About 10:00 we went back to the hotel, collected up our hand luggage, went to the lobby and checked out and sat and relaxed. We were to go on a bus to the dock. Our boarding time was supposed to be 11:30, but, given heavy traffic, we got there closer to Noon. The boarding process is quite thorough. In the big dock terminal, as we entered, we had to show our PCR test. Then we waited in line for an agent. She needed to see passport, vaccination record, PCR test results, and boarding pass. We got a yellow bracelet and sticker and were sent to another bank of agents. Here we showed the same stuff as at the previous station, had our passports copied, had our picture taken to match against the ID picture we had sent in to Regent. Then we got our key cards for our suite and went through the terminal’s gift shop, up an escalator, down a walkway and onto the ship. Before going aboard, they took our pictures to again match against images from us.
Suites were not to be ready until about 2:00, so we checked our carryon gear in the casino and went up to the Pool Grill on Deck 11. Sat by the pool and had lunch. Then we went up a level to where there is a balcony/track around the ship and walked a full circle, so to speak. Retrieved our hand luggage, sat in a lounge until the suites were ready, and then went up to Deck 9 for our suite, 929. It’s very big with two rooms. One is a living room/dining room and the other a bedroom. There is both a full bathroom and a half one as well. So, we each can have our own space. Also, a very large walk-in closet and dressers so that we could fully unpack everything. Our butler, Anbu, came in and let us know stuff about the room and services.
Upon entering the suite, there were some envelopes with our shore excursion tickets. And two letters telling us that two of the excursions we were supposed to be on were not going to be held. One was a small group tour of Nice, St. Paul de Vance, and Eze. The other was no Cinque Terre at all. I went down to the Destination Desk, waited in line with lots of other folks in my same predicament. I looked over the current list of excursions and knew what changes I wanted to make. I was an easy customer when it came to my turn since I just had to tell the agent for the first change that we’d do about the same itinerary in a regular-sized group. For Cinque Terre, there was no option of going there at all. I opted for a trip to Sienna and San Gimignano instead.
Climbed the stairs from Deck 5 to Deck 9 and back to the suite for some champagne that was in our room in an ice bucket and some sweets as well. Did some work on my computer. About 6:30 we went onto our balcony as the ship pulled away from the dock. At 7:00, we went to Chartreuse, the French specialty restaurant (had to make reservation about three-months in advance) for a wonderful meal. The maitre’d recognized me and knew who I was since he had seen me during boarding in my red hat! The Man in the Red Hat strikes again. Then another climb from Deck 5 to 9 and we’re in for the night.
Tomorrow it’s Menorca, an island of Spain. Filled in our breakfast order to hang on our door. Might even go to bed before midnight!
Oh, and we got $150 each in shipboard credit from Virtuoso. Used part of it tonight on some nice wine.
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