DAY 13--AT SEA

 Last Night:

     We had a delightful evening with Joan & Charlie Davis for the Bay Area, San Francisco.  We started with cocktails in the Meridian Lounge then proceeded to Compass Rose restaurant for dinner.  I had ordered soft shell crabs for our appetizer but they were very small and not prepared as I had talked with Chef Dino about.  Disappointed!!  Oh, well, everything else food-wise has been great and always served hot.

     We have known the Davis's since our 2010 world cruise and have sailed with them several times since.  We had a lot of catching up to do so the conversation was lively and non-stop.  What a great evening!!!  They are also booked on the 2022, 2023, & 2024 world cruises as we are.

     I have organized a four day safari in South Africa when on our 2023 world cruise and they will be in one of the six suites at the Phinda Rock Lodge.  I am working with a travel agent, Samantha, in Cape Town, South Africa, and we have all six suites booked now.  Five of the suites will be other friends who will be on the cruise also and includes us.  The last suite is booked by two of our Dallas friends who will fly down for the safari.  We will be leaving the ship in Richards Bay and rejoining it in Cape Town.  We did a safari in 2010 but to a different game lodge.

     I know you would be disappointed if I did not put at least one food photo on today's posting.  It is a chocolate volcano with vanilla ice cream.  We both had turkey with stuffing last night.  Getting in the mood for Thanksgiving!

     During dinner there was a PA saying, "Code Mike in Sette Mari".  Code Mike is a medical emergency and certain designated staff members are to respond to it, including obviously, the medical team.  Not sure what prompted it.  I asked Shogun about it when he brought our breakfast this morning and he said the ship did have to return to San Juan to disembark the passenger for the hospital.  With all the older aged passengers on this cruise I'm very surprised that have not been several more Code Mikes.  I hope our arrival in Miami will not be delayed.  Rebecca came close to having one called several cruises back when she got a piece of meat lodged in her throat.  I managed to remove it with heimlich maneuver on her.  We caused quite a stir in Prime 7.

     We went to the show but did not stay long.

Today:

     This is a shoe horn that Regent has in its suites.  I love it so asked if I could purchase one, and of course, the answer was "yes".  So it only cost me $20 which I had ship board credit to use anyway.  The thing I like about it is it is thin and I do not have to bend over to put my shoes on.  That's important for an old man!

     Captain Saro said on his noon PA daily update that we would indeed arrive on time (7am) in Miami. Now I won't have to worry.  Well, I always worry!

Our position at noon was 70nm off the north coast of the Dominican Republic.  It is partly cloudy but still lots of sun and 82 degrees.

          There is another cruise ship off our starboard (right) side also heading to Miami.

     After a nice lunch in Prime 7 we went down to the boutiques as we still had $148 ship board credit to use up.  It's use it or lose it!!  So we got Rebecca a nice Explorer vest jacket and some of her Lancome skin cream.  We ran over what we had to spend but the skin cream was $15 less she could get it at Ulta and no tax.  I liked the chandelier in the shop so took a photo of it.

     This afternoon we are starting to pack.  Two of our three big bags should be mostly packed.  We received our luggage tags for disembarking on Sunday.  Our time is planned for 8:30 after a 8am start but all the luggage has to be off the ship before they will let passengers to disembark.  The Port of Miami's longshoremen are the absolute worse and slow to get bags off.  Just so we can make our 12:20 flight out of MIA.  We have a private car that will take us to the airport and should be no more than a 30 minute drive.

     This evening at 6pm is the Krew Kapers show.  Certain crew members put on a show of singing and dancing for us passengers.  It is always very good.  Later at 9:30 the last production show titled "My Revolution" with the singers and dancers cast will be in the theater.

     Dinner tonight in Compass Rose has one of our favorite entrees, beef Wellington.  YUMMY!