June 21 - 26, New York to Sydney, Nova Scotia

Arrived in New York, a fashionable three hours late, thanks to Delta's exceptional scheduling plan.  This put us in the middle of rush  hour traffic and provided for a thrilling limo ride from La Guardia to Manhattan.  Had a lovely dinner at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel (look up about Leona Helmsley here before we publish).

We boarded our crappy little boat, er, ahem, the beautiful Regent Seven Seas Navigator on June 21.  All the luggage arrived in a timely manner as it did not come via Delta.  We set sail for ports north.

First stop was Martha's Vinyard, made famous first by Teddy Kennedy's adventures in Chappaquiddick and also by visiting presidents who have thought it a good idea to totally disrupt small towns by arriving with the entourage.  Now, here's our take:  what's the big deal about Martha's Vinyard?  We took a tour of the island and were underwhelmed.

OK, so on to Boston.  We've both been to Boston so we just took the Hop On-Hop Off to see the major sights, some of which we'd missed on our business trips.  It was a pleasant drive around with a great guide, who was named after a Chicago Cubs fan, apparently.

And then things got better.  Bar Harbor, Maine.  This is obviously the town that "seaport village" shopping areas all around the country are modeled after. We took a guided hike along their Ocean Trail, one of many trails in the Acadia National Park.  We followed the coastline for about two miles and it's just beautiful.  The town itself is a fairy tale village full of shops, restaurants, and hotels.  The population is quite small, but during the summer they can get up to two million tourists.  Lots of people, but it's a place we'd consider going back to.

And then things got worse.  The old fog horn was going for most of the night.  Fortunately, we're not right next to it like we were on the Queen Mary 2.  We ditched our shore excursion at the next stop, Halifax, Nova Scotia because it was a gale force winds and torrential rain in which we were supposed to be enjoying a walk.  Nope.  We stayed on the ship and took tea.   Overnight we caught up to the storm and the rough sea adventure on QM2 last year couldn't hold a candle to this one.  Overnight the boat was really rockin' and rollin'.  Sixty knot winds and 16-foot seas will get your attention.  By morning we were afraid to try to stand in the shower so we stayed in the room hoping that the sea would be calmer once we were closer to Sydney, where we were due to arrive two hours late and go on a pub tour.  The situation didn't improve and the port call at Sydney was cancelled.  Once we turned further north to head for Corner Brook, Newfoundland, the going got easier and we could at least finally get on with our day.

We're Off Again!

Here it is, June of 2018.  Last year we took the Navigate the World Cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Navigator.  By the way, we see that at a future date, Regent's going to do a world cruise on their Mariner.  So, then, are they going to Marinate the World?  They will if they have a sense of humor...

While we were Navigating, we had the opportunity to book this year's Grand Arctic Splendors cruise, 89 days starting in New York and running through Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the British Isles, far Northern Europe, Russia, and then around the corner to France, Portugal, Spain, and back to New York.  We don't usually like to cruise in the summer for a lot of reasons, but when you're headed toward the Arctic, summer's the time unless you have an icebreaker. 

So, here we go!  The luggage is already gone and it's sitting in a warehouse in Brooklyn waiting to be delivered to the ship.  We fly to New York and spend a night at the Lotte New York Palace being wined, dined, and introduced and then we board the Navigator again.  It'll almost feel like home.

This is going to be a busy cruise.  We've got 50 or more shore excursions scheduled, so watch this space for updates and pictures.  We'll do our best to keep up.