Lost at Sea - 2

Thursday, 11 December 2008 – S16 W146

I’m afraid that some people have misinterpreted the traditional “improvement of the product” discussions in this journal (and among us guests on the ship) with my having a bad time or otherwise being fatigued with this experience. As we say here in French Polynesia, “Au contraire”, which I believe means “To the country.” See, I fit right in.

The ship, most of the other 425 (paying) guests, just about every crew member, the food, and the overall experience is meeting, no, exceeding my anticipation. I have been so used to Silversea Cruises that any difference on Regent is stands out. It is clear that with somewhat newer and slightly bigger—well twice as big—ship there are some things are by nature are different here, but the pluses and minuses kind of average out. It really is a case of none of us frequent cruisers can entirely enjoy the plusses and ignore the minuses, but that’s what we do on a string of sea days when we are just getting to know each other. Also, some of the plusses and minuses can not be ignored when you are on an essentially sea crossing and not on a very port intensive cruise. The latter of course makes the ship more of the product since you are exposed mostly to the facilities during “public” times, but the former is most important when service and food is essentially what you are buying on a cruise of many sea days. (I know this is counter intuitive, but ya gotta be here to understand. And it’s worth the ‘learning experience’, by golly.)

Some trivial but telling curiosities on this ship:

1 The Observation Lounge 6 am coffee service is hosted by an attendant who stands with his back to the bar, a) reading the newspaper, b) allowing the number of unbused tables grow to large number in an essentially empty room before cleaning up, c) randomly switches the decaf and regular coffee pots each morning, and d) seems to enjoy observing but not helping guests as they balance their pastry plates, coffee cups, and juice glasses as they move to clean tables. On Silversea, the equivalent experience is marked by the attendant intercepting all groggy (well hung-over sometimes) guests and making pleasant conversation while pouring the juice, coffee, and bringing it to their table. All tables are spotless and the attendant is a people person. Of course, this can be a bit intrusive in the early morning, but fewer Danishes fall on the floor or coffee on the carpet.

2 The laundry rooms seem to be populated by the Laundry Trolls during the day but it’s the domain of unshaven men at 6 am and late in the afternoon. All accesses to washers and driers are commented on by all other laundry participants, but the male conversations are less confrontational and never include the statement, “You will make some lady a great wife”. The guys never say, “These machines are taken ALL DAY. Come back tonight, late!” This morning at 6 am an elderly man was attempting to do his laundry (AT 6 AM) but unable to figure out the machines’ controls. He, as the somewhat more adept younger (my age) guy a few mornings ago was unshaven, dressed in sleeping clothing, and otherwise right out of bed. Unfortunately he had a serious halitosis issue making leaning over to help a bit troublesome. No attendant came by to help him, but on Silversea I get free laundry service. I’ve already spent $50 sending down shirts and trousers; so self-serve laundry is necessary here I suppose. If there is a show stopper on this line for me, it’s the laundry thing.

3 Little service issues are manifest. The engineers among us notice these. Spouses and liberal arts majors don’t know they exist. Included are, a) the GPS display on Channel 2 locks up for about 4 out of each 5 minutes. Oh my heavens, what’s the speed AT THIS INSTANT? Is the pod acting up?, b) ONLY FOX NEWS IS AVAILABLE on the ship’s interactive and live TV systems, c) the continuous loop on shore excursions is detailing the excursions of 3 days ago. Perhaps this would be useful if we were to cross the date line again. Maybe I have to think more on that one, d) the TV in the room has two remote control sensors: the one in the TV for on/off and volume control and one on a tether with double sided sticky tape holding it to the top of TV for channel changing and interactive services. The sensor falls behind the TV quite regularly which generates dozens of calls a day from various guests to Reception with complaints of TV problems. The Reception personnel complain to each other about this. Some of us just fish it out from behind the wooden partition behind the TV hiding the interactive/digital TV modem, e) the ship’s 6 page general news newspaper “US TODAY” is not being delivered to each suite any more since the ship ran out of metric 10 x 8 ½ paper (according to one of the experts onboard), and f) ONLY FOX NEWS IS AVAILABLE.

IN OTHER WORDS, I’M HAVING A SUPER TIME EXCEPT FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO REALLY COMPLAIN ABOUT.

Time to dress for the 2^nd formal night. I plan to wear my Canarsie Line label pin, an “L” within a gray circle. There are a number of New Yorkers onboard. I will be the hit of the party.

TTFN