Friday, May 8, 2015
Clay was up pretty early today, maybe 5 or 6am. He went up
and walked on the aft Deck 15 Fitness Track. 10 laps is a mile. He said they
were out squeegeeing water and replacing the cooler of cold bottle water as he
started. He said it was still so foggy he could barely see anything outside the
ship. I was up with the sun, by 7 or 7:30am and the sun was burning off the fog
or else we were closer in to shore. I could see the cliff side mansions as we
sailed past and the fog dissipated. We went up to the Terrace for breakfast. I
had yogurt, coffee and a single Eggs Benedict just because it was offered. They
also had Swedish Pancakes. Another cruise weekend special breakfast for me!
Regent never had either of these at the buffet on a weekday. I will have to
discipline myself on this long trip if I want to keep wearing my clothes!
Our first whole day on Marina and our first visit to
Newport, Rhode Island. Not without hitches, but we accomplished everything I
had planned plus some. The day did not get off to a good start. Evidently there
was a medical emergency ashore very early and a tender was used to transport
the Doctor, Nurse and a Medic ashore. So no time for passengers. That
apparently set back the tendering process by an hour. We were in no hurry so
did not go to the theater at 8am. We showed up at reception to turn in our
Canadian customs forms and the guy there told us a local tourist office woman
would be at a blue table out front in the reception area at 8:30am. We pointed
out that it was 8:35am and he made a call. He told us she was on the tender on
its way now and would be aboard within 20 minutes. We decided to wait. I wanted
to visit The Breakers Mansion and do at least part of The Cliff Walk. We waited
until 9am which was when we had decided we would go into the theater to get our
tender tickets (after which you aren’t supposed to leave until you go to your
tender!). We were first there and my main question was whether we had time to
do what I had planned and how. She had brought 4 maps aboard and they were all
snatched off the table before she could try to answer. She had forgotten to
bring her maps. She knew they were in a pile inside the Harbormaster’s Office
and she told us to look in there when we got ashore. She answered at least 3 of
our questions incorrectly as we learned once ashore and she never offered the
bus/tram/trolley service #67 to and from the Newport Mansions until asked. Then
she told us the closest place to catch a ride on one was at Memorial and
Bellevue. That was not true as we later saw the line at the bus shelters/stop
lot behind the Visitors Center as we approached it. We walked on past the
Visitors Center (which we later heard was a good thing from those who were sold
expensive tours!) and past to Newport Gateway Center, a transit hub. There we
saw the bus timetable of every 20 minutes today, a map of the route and the
fare of $2 each way or $6 for a day pass payable to the driver onboard. We had
about an 11 minute wait. The driver was hard to understand but he was very
helpful to all the tourists and all the other passengers were Salve Regina
University students, but it turns out they were going where we were going. So,
by ignoring all questionable advice we turned the day into a success. Yeah!
After we got our Cream tender tickets, we sat in the theater
for about 40 minutes before we were called. They did not call the last 2 ship’s
tour tickets until after 9:30am. Those people and the 7 or so independent
tickets before ours had evidently been in there waiting and holding their
tickets since just after 8am and they were hot! It was hot in the theater again
as it had been during the muster drill, plus they were angry. The ship’s tour
of the Cliff Walk and the Breakers was supposed to leave at 9am and last 3
hours for $149. We did the same thing by showing up for tender tickets at
9:15am, getting a tender about 9:45am, took a bus at about 10:21am for $4 each
roundtrip. We toured The Breakers at $20 each. We walked The Cliff Walk from
The Breakers to Forty Steps, about 1/3 of a mile, for free. We took 67 bus back
from the green trolley signed stop in front of Salve Regina Admin. Bldg. about
12:21, closer to 12:30pm. The driver offered to let the “ship people” off in
the middle of the street about 2 blocks before the Gateway Center when he saw
the long line for tenders. Technically, I think you are supposed to be dropped
off or picked up at the round green trolley signs but it seemed to pretty much
be on demand. We all accepted gratefully and jaywalked en masse. Not long after
we got in line, 2 tour buses unloaded at the curb and the line extended for a
full block! I would have been livid if I had been on a ship’s tour at those
prices and many of them were. Regent would have radioed from the bus that they
were on to the ship and a tender would have been waiting or arrived about the
same time, in our past experience and if not someone would have been in trouble
and there would have been lots of apologies.
We went to lunch at Waves Grill even though it was Mexican
buffet lunch at the Terrace. I had the Q-ban sandwich and it was very good.
There was a pretty good line to order at the grill so we knew we had a wait.
The line at the ice cream place next door was not so long, so I offered to go
get us cold drinks. I had a chocolate malt made with skim milk (which was not
very good, but looked great) and Clay had a mango fusion smoothie which he did
not much like either. Clay had a beef frank with crispy fried onions on top. He
was disappointed in no chili dogs but he seemed to like it. We had a dining
companion by this time, so I went and found the cappuccino machine after and I
quite liked it better than morning coffee.
This afternoon I did some hand laundry and did yesterday’s
blog entry while Clay napped here and there. The fog began rolling in again as
we started to sail and only got thicker the further we go from the coast. We
almost missed the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail party because I was so behind on everything
and Clay didn’t really want to go because it meant changing clothes and he was
asleep. But, our sailaway was delayed by at least an hour and a quarter and it
seemed that the 5:45pm Captains welcome happened on a delay as well since we
walked in 30 minutes late and got to shake his hand, get a free drink and see
the presentation of the ship’s officers. They were given free booze in all the
bars until 8pm, so the bars were full and the Terrace was pretty empty when we
got there at 6:30 and when we left. We may never make it to the Grand Dining
Room. The food in Terrace overlaps with the other restaurants and you can set
your own pace. We waited 30 minutes the first night in Jacques just to place
our orders. We could have been in and out of Terrace tonight in that time. I
had a cheese soufflé, beef wok cooked to order and marshmallows and
mini-eclairs dipped in a chocolate fountain. I had another decaf cappuccino
because I want to go see the Jean Ann Ryan singers and dancers tonight. Clay
had sushi, salmon and pistachio cherry torte with ice cream. He loved his. After
dinner we looked for the Fitness Center, all the way forward on Deck 14 on the
starboard side. We looked for Deck 7’s laundry which is all the way forward on
the port side. There were 3 washers and 3 dryers all available for $2 per load
per machine according to the signs. They take tokens to operate, but there was
a token selling machine on the wall which took $1, $5 and $10 dollar bills.
The fog horn has blown all afternoon and evening in really
heavy fog but calm seas. We are off to the show now, more later. On our bed,
tomorrow’s newsletter states that Oceania will run a first come/first served
free shuttle from the Black Falcon Terminal where we’ll be docked in Boston to
and from the Quincy Market every 30 minutes or so. That will work perfectly for
us since we had only planned to walk some of the Freedom Trail and I wanted to
eat Boston Baked Beans at Durgin-Park Restaurant. We won’t get to Boston before
noon and leave at midnight, so it will be a short day ashore for us anyway.
We both went to the Jean Ann Ryan Co. Backstage Pass show
which was Broadway tunes. It was over-amplified as we have found all the music
thus far but only those with hearing aids seem to mind it. Otherwise it was
very good, as good as any show we ever saw on Regent, not as good as on Disney!
The theater has airline pull up type tray tables in the armrests and bar service in there.
We got fog and rolling swells all night. The doors were
swinging in the cabin some, so we knew it was definitely rougher. We still
slept about the same.
