20250428 Regent Seven Seas Voyager Cruise Bangkok to Dubai, Day 7, Sea Day

Regent Seven Seas Voyager Bangkok to Dubai Day 7 - The Gulf of Thailand and a well-deserved sea day

We got up semi-early today, even after losing an hour last night. We're now on UTC+8 or a full 12 hours ahead of the US East Coast. After breakfast, we started getting involved in Regent activities.

Before we get into that, let's start with a look at our room. We are in cabin 664, described as an H-Dlx Veranda Suite. Here's a look at the room.

Coming in from the hallway into suite 664, you can see the bathroom door on the left

The bathroom - a single sink, but plenty of shelves on both sides of the sink and under the counter

An actual human-sized shower that you can turn around in and bend over

The other side of the sink with its shelves, plus a view of the large tub, not that we'll use it

Going further into the room, we see the closet door on the left

It is a decent-sized walk-in closet with plenty of hanging space, plus several deep and shallow drawers

The living area with a couch, a side table, and a large table

The desk with a mini-fridge on the left and a glass and wine bucket area on the right

The smaller but usable veranda with some of the most comfy veranda chairs we've seen on a cruise

There are only a few US 110V plugs around. There are more three-prong 220V plugs, so adapters/converters are a good idea. There are no USB ports in the room - a sign of the ship's age.

Overall, the room is comfy and I give it a thumbs-up. Having a good shower after that ridiculously small one we had on Seabourn is nice.

Other interesting things on the ship - a library. I know, most ships these days have some shelves of books to lend. Regent has that, but the area is huge. Plus, they have another set where you can leave books behind if you finish them onboard and don't want to carry them home.

The ship's books are color-coded

There were more shelves than this, but you get the idea

We wandered a bit.

A look down into the massive 8-floor atrium

On to the activities. Arlona made a bead bracelet. I handed her the pieces in order, and she whipped it together in about five minutes.

For game-type activities, the entertainment staff awards Regent Award Points. At the end of the cruise, they can be exchanged for Regent swag like hats, shirts, jackets, and such. It is exactly like what Ocenaia does. It's no coincidence since they are both sister companies under the Norwegian Cruise Line umbrella.

The first was what they call Top Toss. I've seen it before as ladder ball. You had three ropes, each with a ball on each end. You tossed it at a structure with three rungs - a top rung, a middle rung, and a bottom rung. If you got the balls to wrap around and stay in place on the rungs, you were awarded points. The top run was worth three points, the middle, two, and the bottom, one. If you got the rope to wrap more than once, each wrap got you a point. They randomly paired people and they went head-to-head, the winner scoring three Regent points, the loser, one. I won my match and Arlona lost hers, so we scored four points in total.

Next, we tried our hand at Baggo. They divided the 18 participants randomly into six teams of three guests. After everyone tossed three bags, the first-place team scored three Regent points, two for second, and one for third. Arlona and I both scored half of the points for our respective teams. Arlona's team took third, and mine won, meaning we got four more Regent points between us.

This afternoon, we tried Skittles. Skittles was a bowling game of sorts. They set up ten small pins, and you threw a small and decidedly lightweight ball, trying to knock over the pins. The light weight of the ball made it all but impossible to knock over the pins. Still, it was fun to watch people try. They played three rounds, making it increasingly easier with fewer pins and a closer distance. It was a fun event.

Next up was outdoor Baggo. I'll just sum it up that it didn't go well for either of us, but we still had fun.

The final event for the day was team trivia. We joined with four other cruisers, and even though we didn't need a team name, we called ourselves Titanic Swim Team. We finished in third place, scoring a couple of Regent points. Our misses:

• How many balls are on the table at the beginning of a game of Snooker?
• We had no idea and guessed 5 - it was 22 - so close
• Where does actor Anthony Quinn hail from?
• We guessed Greece - it was Mexico - we got an extra point by naming one of his movies - Zorba the Greek

We missed a bonus question - What do you call Bambi with no eyes? We answered "Bamb". What he was looking for was "No eye deer" (No idea with a Boston accent). We scored 14/17, which was good enough for third place.

Tonight was a formal night. Before we left for this cruise, we asked about the dress code and were told there were formal nights. Based on that, I took up half of a suitcase to bring a dark suit, dress shoes, pocket squares, and bow ties. Today, the Cruise Director, Callie, said that the formal night is totally optional. We saw perhaps five men in tuxedos, a handful in suits, and a few in jackets. So, things are definitely more relaxed, and we know better if we decide to cruise Regent again.

After a pre-dinner cocktail and conversations in the Observation Bar, we went to the Compass Rose restaurant for dinner. We both opted for the always-available side and both had a lovely filet mignon. As we ate, we watched the Sun bid farewell to this day.

We considered going to the production show tonight, but I was starting to shut down. The lack of sleep over the last week was catching up with me. We decided to call it a night.

The internet continues to absolutely suck. I'm not hopeful that I will be able to post for the duration of this trip. If that is the case, I'll write it all up and post everything once we're home.

Tomorrow, we will dock in Singapore for the next two days. We have a couple of tours tomorrow, so it will be a busy day.

20231109 AAAA Trip - Sea Day - we have a plan

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 54/105 - Gulf of Thailand and a phone plan

We're on day #54 of our 105-day trip so yesterday, we passed the halfway point. Thailand was our 56th country visited and Malaysia will be #57 in a few days.

We're in the Gulf of Thailand today, traveling south toward Singapore.  We'll pass through the Singapore Strait before turning north through the Straits of Malacca to Port Klang.  

This will be another long-drive port since Kuala Lumpur is around an hour away from the port.

Yesterday, I successfully ordered a new cellphone for Arlona. It will be delivered on Saturday. Our friend, Dave will get it and activate it. Our friends, Trish & Sue will pick it up and bring it with them when they join us when we reach Bali. It is amazing how dependent you become on a device, but especially on a cruise, you use it daily.  The cruise lines all have apps to track activities, check menus, and manage your cruise. It was a lot of hoops to jump through, but I'm hoping everything falls into place.

Since it is a sea day, Baggo was on the agenda.  Today, it was another battle of the sexes.  The men dominated.  Well, we dominated right until the second or third-to-last throw when one woman made an incredible throw, scoring 10,000 points.  She was the only thrower from either team who scored in that round, and that gave the victory to the ladies.  As usual, there were lots of laughs and everyone had a great time.

The sea was like glass this morning.

As we sail, we pass many ships including fishing vessels.

You can see the net dragging behind the ship

I expect that shipping traffic will increase as we get closer to Singapore.

We had another session of sea day trivia.  The Assistant Cruise Director left the cruise suddenly.  They talked our former Cruise Director, Harry, to come back from his break to fill in.  While we feel bad as he missed out on well-deserved time off, it was nice to see him.  Today, he opted to do flag trivia.  We were shown 15 flags and had to identify what country each belonged to. He gave a few clues and a few multiple choices.

From left to right, and top to bottom:

• Row 1
• Madagascar, Seychelles, or Botswana?
• Botswana
• El Salvador, Paraguay, or Chile?
• Paraguay
• No clue was given other than it is a popular cruise destination
• Mexico
• Row 2
• No clue given
• Finland
• No clue given
• Japan
• We were recently there
• Cambodia
• Row 3
• St. Kitts, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba?
• We guessed Antigua and Barbuda - it was Aruba
• African country
• Kenya
• South American country
• Uruguay
• Row 4
• No clue given
• France
• Croatia, Montenegro, or Serbia?
• We didn't recognize it and guessed Serbia - it was Croatia
• No clue given
• China
• Row 5
• Cayman Islands, St. Maarten, St. Lucia
• St. Lucia
• Oman, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E.
• Saudi Arabia
• No clue was given, but we know Harry and he always includes something about himself
• Philippines

Our 13/15 only got us second place as one team had 14/15.  It was fun and we look forward to a general knowledge trivia tomorrow.

With a relaxing sea day, we've spent some time on the balcony.  We have both noticed just how much junk is floating in the Pacific.  It seems like there is a lot more junk in the water than we're used to seeing when sailing in the Atlantic.  Bottles, boxes, just junk floating by.  And in a huge ocean, if we're seeing in this incredibly small area that we're sailing, there must be much more all over.  It's a bit sad.

The fact that these three were all in a line made us wonder if these were net markers

We have no idea what this is – several went by

This looked like a huge piece of Styrofoam

We had our usual evening, starting in the Explorers’ Bar and listening to guitarist, Indra before dinner in the World Café.

Tonight marks a significant change in the cruise because, for the first time, we are changing our clocks tonight and losing an hour rather than gaining time.  We’ll move to UTC+8 or 13 hours ahead of the US East Coast.  We will continue losing time as we move toward Sydney as we have three more hours to move to get to UTC+11 when we’re in Sydney.  Then, we’ll gain it all back and more when we fly to Dubai on December 12 and move to UTC+4, gaining seven hours all at once.  World travel is exhausting!

Tomorrow is another sea day as we make our way around the Thai/Myanmar/Malaysian peninsula toward Port Klang, Malaysia.

20231103 AAAA Trip - Sea Day in the Gulf of Thailand

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 48/105 - Gulf of Thailand sailing

Sea days are slow days and we're OK with that.  Today was that kind of day.  Slept in a bit, lazy breakfast, chatting with friends, until...Baggo!  Today, Cruise Director, Graham, decided to go a different way and asked guests to raise their hands if they were American.  Then he asked all non-Americans to raise their hands.  The split was close enough to 50/50 that he decided today's game would be the USA versus the world.  How fun!

The Americans lined up on one side, the Aussies, kiwis, Brits, Germans, Canadians, and more on the other. The US was ahead most of the game, but in the final round, the world team dropped three 5,000-point bags into the hole in the last round to take the win by 2,000 points. It was great fun.  

A highlight came in round #2.  If you've ever played Baggo (Cornhole), then you know the target is a slanted board with a hole.  You score points by landing a bag on the board and more points if it goes in the hole.  They mix it up here on the ship.  In round #2, the right-hand board was in its normal orientation.  The left-hand board was rotated to the right so the high end butted up against the right-hand board - like a sideways "T".  Contestants went halfway up the atrium staircase to toss the bags.  Bag #1 had to go into the left hole (the sideways board) for 1,000 points - no points for anything else.  Bag #2 had to go in the right hole.  Bag #3 had to land anywhere on either board, but not in a hole.  Bag #4 had to go into either hole, but you had to choose the hole - no points for anything else.  The total possible for the round was 4,000 points.  Unless... you were perfect through three bags and made your shot on the fourth bag, your final bag was worth 3,000 points for a total of 6,000 points.  Only one played had achieved that throughout this voyage until today.

This lovely young lady drained all four bags in round #2

That put the USA in the lead until the final round

It was a stunning performance and she received thunderous applause from both teams for her perfect round

As we sat talking to friends, there was a very bright *flash* followed very quickly by a very loud *boom* as we sailed through another thunderstorm in the South China Sea.  We were in and out of weather throughout the day, but the Captain does try to avoid nasty weather whenever possible.

We nearly won trivia today, but talked ourselves out of a couple correct answers and that cost us the win by a single point.  The misses:

• What are the three corners of the Bermuda Triangle?
• We had this before and knew Bermuda and San Juan, Puerto Rico, but couldn't remember the third and guessed the Bahamas.  It is Miami, Florida.
• What country did Celine Dion represent in the 1988 Eurovision song competition?
• We guessed France - she sang for Switzerland
• Every 12 days, your body generates a completely new set of...what?
• We guessed eyelashes - it is tastebuds
• What is the diameter of a basketball hoop in inches?
• We guessed 16", it is 18"
• According to Google, who is the most Googled person?
• This was controversial as it really is time-sensitive - the answer was Justin Bieber, but that's old information - she also gave credit for Taylor Swift which is a more topical answer, but there are so many ways to interpret the question, it just wasn't a good question
• What is the 11th sign of the Zodiac?
• We made the mistake of thinking that Aquarius was #1, therefore Sagittarius was #11, but since Aries is the actual #1, that means Aquarius is #11
• What was Marilyn Monroe's natural hair color?
• We talked ourselves out of choosing red and went with brown - of course, she was a ginger
• How many publishers passed on publishing Harry Potter (9, 12, or 15)
• We guessed 9, it was 12 - I'm sure they're kicking themselves now

Oh well, sometimes we win, sometimes we get smarter.  Today, we got smarter.

Fellow world cruisers and musicians, Susan Mazer and Dallas Smith are on this leg of this journey.  They always travel with their instruments and they asked Viking if they could do a private performance for friends.  Viking obliged and offered up Torshaven at 2 p.m. today for the private concert.  With about 40 people in attendance including many of the Viking musicians, Susan and Dallas played about an hour of their music with Susan on her travel harp and Dallas on flute and clarinet.  It was a mix of original music and their version of other pieces, all in their improvisational jazz style.  It was a nice addition to the cruise and certainly something out of the ordinary.

You can learn more about them at Mazer and Smith

Of course, we spent some time in the Explorers' Bar.

Explorers' Bar's main guy, Kristijen, makes the magic happen

Explorers' Bar's main gal, Ferlyn, whips up her own magical potions

The sunset tonight was very nice, with the sun playing hide-and-seek through the clouds as it sizzled into the ocean.

Even the east sky was beautiful.

The World Café featured a taste of Asia tonight.  Everything was superb.

It was a good day at sea.  We have a five-day port run coming up with two days in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, and then three days in Laem Chabang, Thailand for Bangkok.  We will be ready for another sea day by then.