HONFLEUR (PARIS), FRANCE

Saturday, June 1st
     We have spent day docked in Honfleur, France, which is just across the English Channel from Southampton.  Rebecca did not go on the 4 hour tour that I did as she stayed to finish packing last bag.  We have toooo much "stuff".  Nothing new there!
     My tour was to "Deauville & Pays D'Auge".  Waste of 4 hours!  I should have just taken shuttle into Honfleur.  We drove through it and it was much more interesting than the places on my tour.  I did get some photos so will put them on and also photos of some friends and our dinner mates last night.  Not much time to say more as is 5 pm already and lots to get done.
     We will be leaving ship at 6:30 am tomorrow for bus to London Heathrow airport.  Our US Airways flight is at 12:15 pm and will stop in Philadelphia before continuing on the DFW.  Arriving there around 8:30pm.  Will be a long day.  Worse part of our trip.  Got to say bye to all our passenger and crew friends tonight.

                                                          Some photos of Honfleur

                                               Saturday morning market in Honfleur

                                                        Thatched roofs in this area

Deauville, a well known place for the rich and famous to come.  Big casino behind ferris wheel.

   Distillery we visited.  They make a very strong liquor from the apples raised in the area.

                                                                  Owner's castle

                                             Tasting room.  I did not care for the liquor

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CRUISING ATLANTIC OCEAN & ENGLISH CHANNEL

Friday, May 31st
     The meeting with Mr Frank Del Rio, Chairman of RSSC, was suppose to last 30 minutes but took an hour.  Actually we could have spend 3 hours and would still be having a nice discussion.  It was a very frank and candid sharing of our thoughts and his.  I was impressed with the man but did not like some of his responses.
     I was a half hour late for our dinner with Joe & Allison, our friends from Galveston.  One of the issues we discussed with Mr Del Rio was the length of dinner in Compass Rose.  It takes nearly 2 1/2 hours for dinner service and did last night too.
     Another rough night and morning of Atlantic Ocean cruising.  Captain usually makes PA when about to sail to tell us about forecast sea conditions.  He didn't last night as we did not sail until 11 pm.  I did not put on a patch and by time I did in early morning hours I was already not feeling too chipper.  I was not sick but felt like I might be.  We had another mandatory life boat drill for all guests at 10 am.  Thanks to Costa and Carnival's events it is law that all ship must have one every 14 days.  Kind of silly since we leave ship day after tomorrow.  We did not go and told them we were sick when they came to do check of suites.  I have been in the suite all day but feeling much better now.  Ocean is better now too.
     We are in middle of packing suitcases.  Such fun??  I have one packed and weighed (we have luggage scale).  We are allowed four 70 pound bags by the airline.  First bag weighs 64 pounds.  Rebecca about has another one filled now.  Tonight we have invited the Jean Ann Ryan company male singer, Ron, and his dancer girl friend, Alex, to join us in Compass Rose for dinner.  We had dined with female singer and another dancer earlier in cruise.  These kids are lots of fun and so talented.
     Photos for today are from yesterday evening when several buses were returning to the ship from their tours.  I had a great view from our balcony of all the activity.  We have experienced this "Welcome Home" treatment on our other Regent cruises.  I got some good photos with my telephoto lens.  The passengers are first greeted with hot towels then some glasses of champagne.  A lot of the crew members and senior staff are lined up to cheer and greet them back to the ship.  I felt so sorry for the crew as it was very windy and quite chilly with a passing rain shower too.  They were out there for nearly an hour and a half.

Tara and bar staff trying to set up champagne glasses on table setup on pier but so windy the table cloth knocks glasses off on concrete.

                                             Ice carving and starting to roll out red carpet.

                        Hot towels will be available when passengers return from tours.

                                                                     This is Judy

                                          This is taking place right below our balcony.

    I felt sorry for the crew as it was cold and windy.  They stood out there for hour and a half.

                                                                Staff Captain, Jozo

                                            Goren (F&B Mgr) and Ray (Cruise Director)

                                                     Crina (Asst F & B) and Ray

       Senior staff:  from left--Staff Capt, Chief Engineer, General Manager, Captain.

Crew lined up to greet and cheer passengers back on board.  The band is playing from promenade deck.

   

                                                  Hot towels and champagne

                                        They hired two local, very athletic guys on stilts

                                                           Started raining, damn!

           Our suite stewardess, Jane,  and her husband who is a butler for penthouse suites.

                                        Our good friend, Joe, with his trade mark blue hat.

                Joe again without hat.  Not is wife on his left.  Allison did not go on tour.

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BORDEAUX, FRANCE--DAY TWO

Thursday, May 30th
     Another dreary day here in Bordeaux with little showers passing by all day long.  I did get go ashore at 2:30 for an hour or so but started looking ominous so headed back.  We are very lucky as our side of the ship is facing the city so we can watch everyone stroll by on foot, bikes, cars, or the tram.  We are not sailing until 11pm.  We have a sea day tomorrow and will be entering the English Channel tomorrow afternoon or evening.  Our next port is Honfleur, France.  It is in northern France on the English Channel and closest port to Paris.  There are a couple tours offered to Paris but they are 9 hour tours.  We have been to Paris, and frankly, don't care if we ever go back.  Parisians are borderline obnoxious.  Our experience anyway!  It is the last day of the cruise so just doing a short tour so we can finish packing.
     Regent has been making a lot of changes lately.  Unfortunately, none are good for those of us who have cruised on Regent multiple times and have been their best customers.  It all started back in 2011 when they discontinued world cruises.  Our 2010 world cruise was the last one.  Now it seems the "bean counters" at Regent are making numerous cuts in the name of cost savings.  Seems they are saying to hell with us.  All they want are segment cruisers.  Mr Del Rio, chairman of Regent Cruises, is on the Voyager now.  There is a committee of seven long time passengers who signed a letter to the general manager requesting a meeting with Mr Del Rio to discuss some issues and try to find out what is going on.  This meeting will be at 7pm today.  I will be attending this meeting.  It should be interesting!
     Jane, our stewardess, brought the two suitcases we had in their storage room back to us today.  I have folded my shirts already so tomorrow we start packing.  Where has the 78 days gone??  Actually 76 as have two more.  We have been to 23 countries and stopped in 51 ports.  I would have to say the month we spent in the Middle East was the most interesting.
     Not many photos today.  In fact the ones I have I took last night.

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