Cruising on Oceania's Regatta

We've been gone a little more than a week. We're currently in the Atlantic Ocean, cruising on the Oceania Lines ship Regatta towards the Madeira Islands and then Barcelona. It's been very nice cruising, a little swaying of the ship, but not too much. Our room is near all three axes of rotation (pitch, yaw and roll), so any motion is minimized. We're also on deck 7, which is between the main decks 5, 9 and 10 where most of the activities take place. We just go up or down the stairs; we don't try to take the elevator at all.

After a severe rainstorm in Miami on our way to the ship, the weather has been quite nice - in the low 70s and no rain after we left Miami. We can sit out on the pool deck comfortably, and eat outside if we feel like it, as we did last night, because they serve a great selection of tapas and a huge selection of entrees buffet style, plus there is a band playing (guitar, clarinet and trumpet) lively upbeat tunes. It reminds me of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

The night before last we had our dinner in the upscale luxury of the Toscana restaurant, featuring Italian style food and ambience. Besides the appetizers (shrimp scampi), soup (minestrone), pasta (linguine with seafood), my main course was filet mignon served with an Italian motif. Kiyomi had a different combination that sounded just as good. Tonight we dine at the Polo restaurant, a steakhouse. Our first night dining was at the Grand Dining room. They have a really wonderful menu, so many delicious items to try; it's difficult to decide what to have. Fortunately, you can ask for a small-size version of the entrees, so can sample several without overloading your stomach.

At 4 pm daily they serve an afternoon tea, complete with little sandwiches and tasty sweets and a string quartet playing beautiful music. They play several times during the day, and there is also the Shago band (guitar, drums and saxophone), a piano bar, and a 12-piece orchestra that plays before the evening entertainment, which Sunday was a wonderful guitarist, last night was a comedian, and tonight is a musical revue featuring all the musicians in the crew, plus the orchestra.

We usually spend the morning relaxing and sleeping late, because the clock gets set forward an hour per day, and we stay up for the evening music in the Horizon lounge. Then we have lunch and check the activities for the day. There are all sorts of diversions, but we don't try to do too much besides the afternoon tea. We're not that interested in bridge, putting golf balls, shuffleboard, ping-pong, guest lectures, etc. that are offered. We often just sit by the pool and read or write (Kiyomi is still writing reports to file with the Japanese publisher).

The ship offers Internet access (which is why you're getting this now, rather than from Spain!), but it's expensive at about a dollar a minute, and very slow at modem speed; so we do our composing offline, then log in just to send and receive email. So if you send something, we'll see it in the next couple of days.

Fortunately, we have most of our reservations for the first 60 days or so already made, so we don't have to worry about that for a while. In Spain we're staying in interesting towns mainly in the south, where it's warmed up. In Portugal we'll be staying in Pousadas, which are converted old castles, mansions, country estates, monasteries, etc. that are of historical interest and in very interesting locations. They are a little expensive, but they are the kind of place guided tours don't usually go, and are often small, so not many rooms are available. Fortunately as a senior, I often get a discount, so the price isn't unaffordable.