Regent Seven Seas Mariner – December 2023 to January 2024
In December of 2023 we joined our great friends Dave & Cindy for an amazing cruise! It was a luxurious 25 night cruise, round trip from Miami, Florida to the Amazon River and back to Miami, Florida!
The cruise-line we traveled on was Regent, and the ship was the Seven Seas Mariner. We had traveled once previously on Regent – and really enjoyed the level of service and accommodations so when our friends asked us to recommend a great cruise-line, we didn’t hesitate to recommend Regent. Regent advertises their cruises as “An unrivaled experience” so our expectations were pretty high for this cruise. I’ll share my final thoughts and review of our experience near the end of this blog but overall, even though we had a wonderful vacation, our expectations were not quite met in a few ways. The good outweighed the bad though!
CRUISE ITINERARY
| Day TUE WED | Date 12DEC23 13DEC23 | Port Miami, Florida Cruising The Bahamian Waters |
| THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUE | 14DEC23 15DEC23 16DEC23 17DEC23 18DEC23 19DEC23 | Cruising The Atlantic Ocean Gustavia, St. Barts (unfortunately missed this port – too windy) Pointe A Pitre, Guadeloupe St. George’s, Grenada Port Of Spain, Trinidad And Tobago Cruising The Atlantic Ocean |
| WED | 20DEC23 | Cruising The Atlantic Ocean |
| THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUE WED THU | 21DEC23 22DEC23 23DEC23 24DEC23 25DEC23 26DEC23 27DEC23 28DEC23 | Cruising The Amazon River Santarem (Amazon River), Brazil Boca Da Valeria (Amazon River), Brazil Manaus (Amazon River), Brazil Manaus (Amazon River), Brazil Parintins (Amazon River), Brazil Alter Do Chao (Amazon River), Brazil Cruising The Amazon River |
| FRI | 29DEC23 | Cruising The Atlantic Ocean |
| SAT SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT | 30DEC23 31DEC23 01JAN24 02JAN24 03JAN24 04JAN24 05JAN24 06JAN24 | Cruising The Atlantic Ocean Bridgetown, Barbados Roseau, Dominica Philipsburg, St. Maarten San Juan, Puerto Rico Cruising The Atlantic Ocean Nassau, Bahamas Miami, Florida |
Pre-cruise for us though consisted of us parting with our sweet Bella for the duration of the cruise. We decided that the best place for her in our absence was back with her breeder: Rebecca Corso of Gravitas Golden Retrievers – who happens to own a training/boarding facility: Your Pro Dog Trainer. They took great care of her and sent us regular updates on how she was doing. Here are a few photos that they sent while we were away
After leaving Bella in the capable hands of Your Pro Dog Trainer – we prepared for a VERY early flight.
Our flight was to Miami where we would be staying at the historic Biltmore hotel.
Our trip from the airport to the hotel was a bit interesting! The transfer was arranged by Regent – so it was nice to have that as one less thing to worry about upon our arrival. The driver of our small bus seemed to be new at the job or unfamiliar with how to get to the Biltmore. He had his turn-by-turn navigation turned on very LOUD as we traveled, and even with that, he still missed several turns and had to do U-turns to get back on track. The crowning event was when we finally arrived at the hotel, he drove to the upper driveway and slammed into the awning above the lobby door! We had been texting with Dave and Cindy – whose flight had been delayed – and we giggled when the crash took place, they thought we were making it up! We felt a little bad for laughing and hope that the driver didn’t get into any trouble – it was funny because no one was hurt!
We took some time to explore the hotel and had a meal by the pool.
Dave and Cindy’s flight was very delayed – and they didn’t arrive until very late – they were able to catch a quick dinner at the restaurant before it closed and we chatted with them while they had dinner. We were all very tired so after dinner we all headed to bed. The next day we would be picked up and transferred to our ship!
The next morning – after a nice breakfast provided by Regent, we explored the grounds and a little bit of the golf-course while we awaited the time for our shuttle to the ship. It was unexpectedly cool in Florida!
Soon it was time for us to hope on a shuttle bus to the port to embark on our ship! On to…