Oh Karen, I can't wait for the humidity to puff up my hair! It is flat as a pancake right now!

Betty, I laughed over my coffee when I saw that. This is going to be such fun!

Betty that was funny! I think I know those gals. Didn't I see them over on the frequent flyer board? LOL

I was just checking weather.com to see what the temps average for our trip and here is what I found.

Ft.Lauderdale:
December 10th and 11th
Sunrise 6:57 AM/6:58 AM
Sunset 5:30 PM
Average High 77/78°F
Average Low 62°F
Average precipitation 2.65" in December

Bahamas:
December 12th
Sunrise 6:45 AM
Sunset 5:22 PM
Average High 78°F
Average Low 64°F
Average precipitation 2.0" in December

December 17th
Sunrise 6:48 AM
Sunset 5:24 PM
Average High 78°F
Average Low 63°F

San Juan:
December 14th
Sunrise 6:48 AM
Sunset 5:50 PM
Average High 83°F
Average Low 72°F
Average precipitation 4.7" in December

St. Thomas:
December 15th
Sunrise 6:44 AM
Sunset 5:46 PM
Average High 86°F
Average Low 73°F
Average precipitation 2.7" in December

Don,
Wow...will you look at those temps! Can it be any better than that?

Yes, Julie, you are right, this cruise is gonna be fun!!!!

Karen, my dear, you can be any gull-dern bird you want to be. Hat...no hat...puffed...no puffed hair. We love you all the same!!! :)

Don, even those low temps look good right about now! It's drizzling, cold and dreary today.

Hey, Karen,

You can come stay with us in the dead of winter any time. Sunshine and 77 here going up to the 80's tomorrow and even 90's by week's end.

Yeh, I'm with Karen (literally and figuratively). I would love those lows! It's winter here, although no snow yet, just rain.

Wendy and Karen, I feel for you both. I don't do cold well. Also, I'm not sure how my little girl is going to fair now that she is moved to the frozen northern tundra, having been purely a sunbelt child. Looked today at the temps in Wisconsin and they are in the mid 30's, dropping into the 20's tonight, and expecting snow by this weekend. I guess she is getting winter clothes for Christmas!

When it says we are in port at 8:00am, what time can you typically disembark the ship on Regent?

We were last off the ship on WAVE - they forgot to call our color! We were forcibly removed at 9:45 - just in time to see Ngaire and Ken and Ray and Penney boarding. Never been off a Regent ship later than 10-10:30 unless you want to count the day late disembarcation we had on MUSH.

Don, the only thing good about living in the frigid north is that we are pretty much guarenteed a white Christmas! I don't remember having a green Christmas for many years!

As for your port question, do you mean when we disembark on the last day or when we are pulling into a port for the day?

Karen, specifically I wanted to know about when we are in San Juan.

Oh - we can plan on being off generally about 1/2 an hour to an hour after we arrive. We should check the port calendar. i bet we can be off the ship at 8:30. The dock is right outside Old Town and no tendering.

I believe someone was asking about renting a car at the agency located in the Sheration. It is right down the block from the pier. When I was on the Navigator in March, I stayed there one night and literally walked with my luggage to the ship. It is that close.

Is it easier to get off the ship in port on Navigator than Voyager? I'm betting so, I can't remember any kind of significant line-up on Diamond, but there was certainly a "buzz" around the gangway on Voyager once or twice. That was really the only annoying thing about that experience.

Wendy - one exit - 400 passengers vs 700 passengers.

Thanks Phyllis!

Another Navigator question--is there a CD player in the room, and if so, is it any good? (The CD player on Voyager was pretty bad, no Bose for sure!)

I have so much work I'm getting nervous, but I *so* need this holiday!

Wendy - same set up as Voyager. And I relate to the work. But I would rather be there than sitting here. I can't believe we're getting so close!

Kathy, who could relate to work more than a vacation on Regent? Not me! But hey, it gets us THERE, usually! Can't wait to hear from everyone aboard SAND during the cruise!

Yes, won't be long and we'll send some seamail! Maybe we can even send some photos.

Yes there is a DVD player which I am sure will play your CD. Not a great sound system but I am kind of tone deaf anyway. Cannot tell that much of a difference unless it is really put in front of me.

When trying to decide if I could upload to my mp3 player using the wma format, I went to a website that compared the different formats, wav vs. mp3 vs. wma and at different speeds. I could not tell the difference.

Phyllis

Wendy, we always bring our pre-loaded I-Pod and our fold up Altec-Lansing speakers with us. It has auxilary jack that you can plug the cd player into and has great sound. Also, we always sleep with a fan on at home and then find it difficult to sleep when we are away, so we also take our small noisemaker that we got from Brookstone and plug it into it.

We bought ours at Costco.

I have the same one from Imotion and it's terrific. Only problem is that when Frank's using it, we hear classical music and I am a rock n roller!

Thanks Don, so far we're not ipoders, so we're stuck with CDs.

But luckily we both like classical music, rock and roll, country, bluegrass, motown, to name a few. I tolerate jazz (some of it I like quite a lot), and swing.

Well, then Wendy ,we'll just have to turn up the volume when the music in our cabin is to your liking!

Yeah Kathy, we can synch ours together, crank it up, and cover all of deck 6 in sound surround! LOL Which makes me wonder who is in cabin #623, between us and Karen and Mark. Sure hope they like our selection of tunes! LOL

Well, Delta just changed my flights incoming from Non Stop to a change of planes in ATL with a 3 hour layover - I would arrive at 11 PM! I am on the phone with India re-changing it back to Non Stop. Good thing THEY did this. The award seats wouldn't be available. But the Non stop flight I had coming home is full and now I have to change planes in ATL. This is Christmas week. <img border="0" alt="[bang]" title="" src="graemlins/banghead.gif" />

Oh what a drag, I hope it turns out okay Kathy. Yes, I forgot about Xmas too, I'd just as soon forget it! I think most of the traffice between Florida and Toronto on the 18th will be going south, not North, luckily!

Yes, I worked it out, we still don't leave FLL until 4:30 the day of departure and we change planes in ATL; Good thing is that we are in First Class and at least the flights are free with miles.

I guess we will be hanging out in FLL together then! We leave at 4 something as well,but we connect through Chicago. Don't get home till almost 11pm. YUCK....Flying United BTW...

My dearest friend, Donna lives in Boca Raton. She will most likely be joining us at Bimini Boatyard and I will probably have lunch with her before we head back home unless her mom has surgery. They're waiting for a date. They just found out that her Breast Cancer has returned after a number of years of being clean.

Kathy, Sorry about your friend's mother. Sad, when you think you have it licked, then....

I do not envy you folks who will be flying through ATL. It can be a zoo, on a good day! And holiday time...

Thanks, Betty. I will pass the word on do Donna. And if we miss our flight to LAX we're in trouble. There is only one more that day so you can prepare that guest room!

Three more weeks <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" /> , but who is counting? LOL

Yeh, I'm counting the weekends I have to get ready! Got David a new bathing suit on Saturday--I think it was one of the few in the city of Toronto, I swear! I have not got the suitcases out, nor have I looked over my clothes. I have to get David's jacket to the cleaner's, I think. The weekend before I'll be ironing.

Toiletries got packed with our trip to Vegas a few weeks ago. I've decided what to pack and I will get them out of the closet onto the guest bed this weekend.

My assistant quit today without notice :ohmy: :mecry: because of her personal problems. I think packing for a trip is just what the doctor ordered. Talk about overwhelm!

Oh Kathy, that's too bad! But I wish I had my clothes ready! Still don't know if I have a pair of capris that actually fit me! :(

I guess we better start making a list. Sure glad that I don't have to pack formal stuff this time. I think the more relaxed dress code will make it so much easier to pack. Who was it that said when travelling, take twice as much money as you think you will need and 1/2 as many clothes? So what do you think that people that go on clothing optional cruises pack, other than loads of sunscreen? :eek:

I am going to attempt to take only three suitcases instead of the usual 4 this time :eek:

Mark will never miss those socks and underwear ;)