Pam,
Your tour sounds wonderful. Another guide to add to the list.

La Verandah is a nice change of pace. They have great Osso Buco.

Keep having fun.

Pam, Let the fun never stop, or the chocolate never stop flowing!!!! Enjoy, enjoy, I may just head in to the freezer and pop a chocolate chip (ick) in your honor!!!

Oh, joyful happy dance; my laptop is fixed! There is a discussion board for Mac owners, and I posted a question. It got one answer and that was the right one. So, if I ever slow down, I'll try to get some pictures up on Kodak Gallery. (For you swooning Dag fans, I think I got a good one of him in blue jeans, driving a little rubber Zodiac boat)

Today was Isle of Skye. We wandered around the little town of Portree, I bought some Scottish story books for the grandkids, and a few other things. Then we had fish 'n chips (YUM!!!) from a "take-away" place. The real thing.

Then was the Chocoholic Tea. Tons and tons of chocolate pies, cakes, and tortes. Not. One. Truffle. So, a couple of people can rest easy; no truffles for Pam to steal away to her suite with.

Tonight was the Seven Seas Society party; Rose Clark is onboard, and she talked to us. The ship is basically full (I asked at reception), and 3/4 of the passengers are repeat cruisers. One gentleman has over 1,000 nights with RSSC. He didn't come to the party, because he's been to so many of them. Yes, they still had the caviar and the giant shrimp.

Pam it all sounds great...glad your laptop is back up and working! We love seamail!!! :cool:

Pam - please keep good notes for the non-FJORD cruisers. They are itching to get off the farm & see Portree!

I did have the dark chocolate mint ice cream for a breakfast chaser. Perhaps there's hope for me yet.

Cheers, Anne

Hi Pam,

Glad to hear your laptop is back in business.

Enjoying your seamail. Sure will miss you on TUSH!

Hello from Belfast! We rode the sightseeing bus, then returned to the ship. Belfast seems to still be VERY divided, Catholic vs Protestant. We also know where 75% of the world supply of brown brick was shipped to. We were downstairs on the sightseeing bus, so I didn't get but two or three pictures. And there were only a couple of things that I would have liked to get a picture of that I didn't. One of those was a set of "Peace Gates" that are actually closed every single night, and separate the Catholic area from the Protestant.

I also turned in the comment card today, and stressed the fact that prunes were never meant to adorn a truffle tray in the evening. We got somebody else's "tree mail" on our clip last night, and I opened it before I put my glasses on. Of course, once it was open, I had to read it, right? It was an answer from the guest relations guy, from their comment card. I didn't read further, to see what their comments had consisted of; just slipped across the hall and put it in the right clip.

Hopefully, I'll manage a load of laundry today.

Good to hear from you, Pam. Glad your laptop is fixed. I hate it when that happens!

What has the weather been like?
Don't spend too much time in the laundry! Looking forward to more seamail from you.

Pam, glad your laptop is fixed! I am resting better now that you didn't walk away with all the non-existant truffles!

HI Pam, thanks for the seamail. We will be in Belfast next SEptember on our cruise. The ship will only be there for 5 hours. We did a British Isles cruise a couple of years ago and just loved it! Have fun!!

Nancy

The weather has been absolutely incredible! I keep waiting for our luck to change, but we've had sunny pleasant weather almost the entire time. The day I toured Culloden (when we got back on the ship in Invergordon; I'm losing track of which day is which), it was really chilly and there was some rain off and on. Luckily for us, it rained either when we were inside Stirling Castle, or when we were in the car going to another location.

The American Express cocktail party was tonight. The Guest Relations Manager (this position is new, isn't it?) told us that there were 115 AmEx Platinum people onboard. I thought that was a rather low number, seems like some trips the theater has been far more populated than tonight.

Tomorrow is Dublin, we have an excursion (Powerscourt Garden/Shopping) at 2:00. Sailaway won't be until 11:00 PM.

Portree was a pretty little town, but I would recommend Pitlocherie(I am sure I mangled that spelling, I'll check it later) to the non-Fjorders. Much more to do. Although, Olivia is going to be so thrilled to hear that I bought a 60% cashmere shawl in Portree. She worried about my deprivation.

So glad the weather is holding and the shopping opportunities are co-operating! We'll add your recommendations to the non=FJORD scouting reports.

So great to hear all about it Pam! I do hope you have good weather for Powerscourt; it's a beautiful place, with good photo ops. What else do you plan for Dublin? The Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity is very interesting.

Thanks for keeping in touch!

Pam it sounds wonderful and that shawl....mmmmmmmmmm so soft! :)

Yes, Pam, your shawl sounds so soft that i can feel it now. Scottish cashmere how wonderful. Enjoy wearing it & looking grand.

Guest Relations Manager= concierge (sort-of) although I really miss a real consierge.

Peggy

Pam, you're shawl sounds beautiful. Thanks for the seamail. Looking forward to more.

Hi Pam,

Sounds like you purchased a beautiful treasure. Hope when time allows you can post a photo!

Enjoy the days to come!

And tonight we are broadcasting from the Port of Dublin. Not much scenery around the ship, it's a working port, but we left early, caught the shuttle bus into town. Did a tiny bit of shopping (much less than I was promised, I might add) then got on one of the hop-on, hop-off buses. There was SO MUCH traffic! I made Mark get off and walk several blocks in order to catch the last shuttle bus back to the ship, before they took a lunch break. He didn't appreciate that, but he lived through it. We had the Powerscourt tour at 2:00, so we had to catch that shuttle.

We had the most delightful lady as our tour guide on the way to/from Powerscourt! She had such a dry sense of humor, and she made no apologies for her comments; we loved it! It did sprinkle a little bit while we were there, but that was all, in spite of a forecast for absolutely foul weather.

Ladies, do I have a treat for you! Remember that I said I took a pic of Captain Dag driving the little rubber boat? Well, it turns out that he and his three cohorts were on an adventure, and they taped it; it was on television last night. I saw Captain Dag at breakfast, introduced myself, and told him that Ngaire's Faithful Flock needed a DVD of his adventure. After I assured him that I didn't really mean that HE had to send everybody their own DVD, he told me to leave my suite number at Reception. Tonight, when we came back from dinner, the DVD was on our table. I may be able to copy it at home; if not, I'm sure one of our techno geniuses will be able to.

He came into the Seven Seas party with a 5-gallon bucket. During his talk, he mentioned that they were running out of rewards for upper tiers, and that he had come up with a new gift which would be in all Platinum members' cabins. He reached into the bucket and pulled out a live crab; the videotape shows him pulling the trap out of the water to get it (he had the trap owner in the boat with him by that time).

Tomorrow is Liverpool, we don't have any excursions planned so will probably just do the overview. I am terribly spoiled; the bus doesn't pull over when I say "OH" like Gordon did.

Wow! Can't wait to see Capt. Dag! Score for you Pam!

Another fantastic day! Sounds like you're having an incredible time.

Oh, how I wish I were in Liverpool tomorrow! No Beatles (Cavern Club, etc.) touring on your agenda????????

ENJOY!

How funny about the crab, Pam! Sounds like you are having a great time - thanks for posting.

Pam - sounds wonderful! Capn Dag is so creative .. he is a joy to have as master on a cruise.

Cheers, Anne

Pam,
So glad you're enjoying yourself! I sure thought of you this morning when John did morning announcement of where the "Regent sister ships" were today and he said the Voyager was in Dublin.

Can't wait to see/hear more about Capt. Dag's DVD. Please tell him that the Matassa's send their greetings and look forward to seeing him in January.

Keep having a ball and hopefully find lots of shopping time!

Hi Pam! Please tell Capt. Dag that "the sistah's" will see him in June! Sounds like you are having fun...had a storm come through my neck of the woods and cleaning up is a drag...sure wish I was in Dublin!

This is what makes sailing with Capt. Dag so much fun. Can't wait to see the DVD.

Please give a premature hello to Captain Dag and find out if he'll be on the Dec 29 cruise the the western caribbean? Thanks in advance.

LOL! Okay, y'all, Captain Dag and I aren't having tea every afternoon; this was a chance encounter. Portree is very small, but even then it was sheer chance that we got on the tender just as he and his cohorts got into their little rubber boat. And I thought absolutely nothing of their excursion until he mentioned it at the Seven Seas Society party that night. Seeing him at breakfast yesterday was extreme coincidence; that's the first time for it. So, don't count on me being able to say "hey" to him for all of you; I seriously doubt it will happen. I guess there are a lot of Gold and Platinum folks onboard; we haven't gotten an invitation to dine with ANY staff member, so I'm positive we won't be dining with him.

Today is/was Liverpool. We didn't have anything scheduled, so when we saw that it was raining sideways, we were in perfect agreement to staying onboard. I got a couple of loads of laundry done, but other than that we have rested. I did try to get my pictures to load into my laptop, but it wasn't happy about it. I'll try later to get it to load selected pictures; I don't want to endanger any of my pictures so for now, I have changed out the memory cards.

I remembered in La Verandah today, to ask why there wasn't any ice cream out anymore. It seems they were having temperature control problems, so now you have to ask for the list of what flavors are available. I had peanut butter (with little chuncks of chocolate covered peanut butter), with chocolate sauce over it. I'm glad I didn't know about that list several days ago; I only brought so many sizes of clothes, you know.

Tomorrow we have an 8-hour excursion to Kilkenny, so tonight needs to be an early evening for us. The weather has cleared this afternoon, so hopefully we won't have drenching rain tomorrow.

Oh Pam, I love that peanut butter ice cream! I saw it on our Asian cruise but it didn't souond good to me. One of the waiters highly recomended it so I tried it & it was wonderful. I don't see it much anymore so you have to grab it when you see it. Or sounds like they hide it & serve it only when asked. Like I do with especially yummy things at home that I don't like to share.

You trip sounds wonderful & your seamail is very informative. Thanks.

Pam,
I'm enjoying your SeaMail. Thanks for taking the time to post for us. Hope that the weather cooperates for your excursion. Enjoy!!!!!

It's late, so this will be short. I just wanted to report that tonight's chocolates were a powerful dark chocolate piped into a boat-shaped cookie crust; there was some liqueur involved, too. I allowed Mark one bite.

No chocolate filled "dried plums" tonight.

Tomorrow is an all-day excursion to Kilkenny. The last days of our cruise are upon us.

POWERFUL DARK CHOCOLATE??!! that's more like it! Keep it up.Looks like your little talk with the chef worked!

Hi Pam,

Loving your seamail!

Sorry there's no more chocolate filled dried prunes for you. Eat your heart out - prune filled Moon Pies on TUSH!!!

Hope your day in Kilkenny is terrific! Hard to believe your cruise is coming to an end. We just said Bon Voyage! However, I think you'll make it back in time for DENIAL! We're holding precious space for you and Mark!

Well, we weren't able to safely tender in, so we aren't going to see Southern Ireland. Captain Dag tried early, then again just now (11:00 am), but we have 36 knot wind and he said it just wouldn't work. I'm disappointed, because I really wanted to see Kilkenny, but we'll just have to come back.

Sorry to read you could not see S. Ireland Pam, but it sounds like the way the winds are Captain Dag is doing the smart and safest thing!

Hi Pam! Well, make that a week and a half return trip so you included Southern Ireland!

Sorry you are not able to tender. We've had 45+ mph winds here or better most of the week moving up the East Coast. They are not safe, that's for sure.

Keep up the great reporting! Good to hear from you & give our best to Mark.

Cheers, Anne

Oh yes, oh yes! Please do hold our places on Denial!

Anne, you were with me for lunch today. I caught the french fries just as they put them out! We scarfed down two or ten, for sure!

Tell me, you who are so much more advanced in this. Is $750 a good price for black pearl earrings? They are attached to gold chains. It's like $1250 less 40% of that price. I just don't know what the going price is.

Hi Pam,

So sorry that you were unable to tender, despite Capt. Dag's best efforts. Good reason to take this cruise again!

Not a bad price for the earrings. What size are the pearls? Check to make sure there is no pitting and the pearls are uniform in size. Some people don't feel that almost exact uniformity is a major concern when you're buying earrings. Comes down to personal preference. Color is also a consideration. If the color is to your liking, go for it!

Have a great day!

Hello from Dartmouth, England! What a charming place, but it's exhausting to trudge up and down the hills. We got to see another old church, and were taken through by a lady who was apparently a docent. I took tons of pictures, because Sonja will devour them; I guess I offended the lady because when I asked how to get into the absolutely ancient graveyard, she informed me that people wouldn't think it appropriate for me to take pictures of the graves. So, we left. I have taken pictures of cemetaries all over the UK, why not here? But, while we were wandering and rubber-necking, a local lady stopped and asked if we were lost. Once she knew where we came from, she stood there and chatted for quite a while; so charming.

We thought about fish 'n chips, but it just sounded too heavy, so we came back and had the typical La Verandah salad.

Today, they gave us bag tags; that's always such a sad occasion! We need another one, I guess I'll call for it in a few minutes.

So sad to see your cruise coming to an end, Pam. I've been enjoying your seamail. Sorry about missing Southern Ireland, Capt. Dag hates to disappoint his cruisers! Did you buy the earrings?

Thanks for the seamail, Pam. So glad you are having a good cruise, weather, high winds or not. Isn't it fun to talk with the locals? It's fun to find out that there are pleasant people all over the world. So sorry to hear about the arrival of the luggage tags. :mad: I guess it means this party is almost over and plans for the next cruise will begin soon!!! :D