First Impressions of a New Ship

 Hello at last! We're in the midst of some technical difficulty in sending photos taken on my iPhone to my Google account so we can add them to the blog. Once we get that resolved, we'll add the photos to the blog posts. Late update: I finally got the photos transferred, but then it was almost impossible to get connected to the blog to update. I'm finishing this up at 11 p.m. after a time change...hopefully everyone has gone to bed so the internet is available!

We arrived in Barcelona early on Friday afternoon and fortunately were able to check in to our room immediately. The forecast was calling for possible showers in the afternoon and it would be getting dark at 5:30, the same as at home, and Park Guell was at least a 20 minute taxi ride away. All of these things conspired to keep us in the hotel for the evening instead of visiting the park. We heard from fellow guests on the ship that you need at least 3 or 4 hours to see it properly, so we're planning a full day there on our next visit in Barcelona.

The Sofia Hotel was very nice, obviously new, and quite modern. All the furnishings in the room were very sleek and minimalist, and quite comfortable, even if only for one night.

The next morning we transferred to the ship along with about15 other couples. It was quite a surprise to see one of these couples, as we had been sitting beside them in the Air France/KLM Lounge at Pearson Airport on Thursday afternoon. They left the lounge before we did, on a different flight, and we thought no more of it. Then to see them waiting to board the bus was a bit of a shock. Of course, we've seen them all over the ship since then, but have never spoken to them. They probably don't remember us anyway.

Regent Seven Seas Splendor is quite a beautiful ship. The public areas are all spacious and bright, and decorated in neutral colours. Everything seems wide open and there's lots of space between table in the lounges. The ship carries about 700 guests, and even though this transatlantic sailing is full, we so far haven't felt crowded anywhere except at the elevators after a show. So we've been using the stairs quite a bit!

Our suite is on Deck 8, not one of the fancier ones, but spacious enough with lots of drawer space and a large closet. Here are a couple of photos:

Everyone we heard from before we came for the cruise raved about the quality of the food on board. Just the design of the specialty restaurants is impressive!

Pacific Rim, the Asian restaurant

the entrance to Pacific Rim

One of the lounges. There's lots of live music
around the ship every night

The main dining room, Compass Rose

Chartreuse, the French restaurant

Steakhouse, Prime 7

We met one of Larry's Cruise Critic acquaintances on Sunday. It had been arranged that we would get together sometime and we happened to find each other in the Observation Lounge. They had space in their dinner reservation at Chartreuse on Sunday evening and asked us if we'd like to join them. So we had a first example of specialty dining almost immediately.

We had a great meal with Laraine, her husband Bob, and their friends Laura and Dave. The star of the show was, of course, the food!

Larry's Steak Tartare appetizer

Cheese Souffle appetizer

Duck Breast with marinated rutabaga...
it's amazing how they can make boring
food taste delicious!

Opera Cake for dessert

Sunday night we also passed out of the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic Ocean. The captain had been asked when we would see the Rock of Gibraltar - around 11:00 - and we sailed by right on time! Surprisingly there was enough light around that with the help of Night Mode on the camera, I was able to get a fairly good shot of it.

We were in for one more sea day before arriving in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands on Tuesday morning. The weather turned out to be not so warm, and we spent much of the day 'vegetating' in the lounge. 

The social hostess, Annabel, also hosts crafting get-togethers on sea days. For the transatlantic sailing she's created a Needlepoint Challenge. Those of us who are interested have received a needlepoint kit that is really for a frame where the blank centre section is cut out after the outside frame area has been stitched. But the challenge is to design and stitch something for that centre part of the frame. We have until almost the end of the cruise to complete the work. All the challenge pieces will be displayed and our fellow guests will get to vote for their favourite one. Whoever gets the most votes will win a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne and a bag full of small needlepoint kits. Just something to add to my knitting project and blog writing.....

Our tour in Lanzarote is all day, so we're gearing up for that. Laraine has told us that it is well worth seeing the whole island, so we're looking forward to it.