WEDNESDAY, MAY 12TH--DISEMBARKATION

The night before we had been invited to cocktails and dinner in celebration of Marji's birthday (which is actually today). Dave did a great job planning this and the 18 or so of us had a great time. We managed to get our luggage, all 9 bags we were checking, out in hallway by 10pm that night. We were out of our suite today by 8am as they requested and then had a nice breakfast down in Compass Rose where we waited for our luggage tag color to be called so we could disembark the ship. We sat with Kathryn & Bruce Cay also from Dallas as we waited. I guess it was about 9:45 when they called our color. So with our 2 additional roll aboard bags and our 3 1/2 foot giraffe, off we went. What followed in baggage claim was TOTAL CHAOS. Regent has to get a better handle on this. I think they are blaming the port folks. Of course with all the extra bags all passengers had everyone needed a porter. We were informed to get in a line but everyone was grabbing a porter as they reentered the terminal. There was a lot of unhappy people! US Customs was no problem and they should be commended. Did I just say that? Next we had to drop the 5 bags that LuggageFree was shipping via Fedex. That was also a disaster. Jeff did not have enough men to load the bags on the truck and as a result there were bags everywhere. Hightlight of problems was the Regent provided transportation to the airport. Once again we were told to get in line but there was so many people it was impossible to determine where the line ended. Lots of pissed off people!! I did not need this hassle so went further down the side walk and hired a van to take us and another couple to the airport for $11 a head. Sailed right to airport and American Airlines porters checked our bags curbside so no hassles there. Great job American! Security was a bit slow but we made it to gate with 2 hours to spare. Our inbound flight was late arriving so we departed a half hour late but still arriving at DFW close to our scheduled time. We were in back of plane so by time we arrived in baggage claim all of our checked bags were already there. Our limo driver was parked right outside the door so off we went. Yes, I made the driver stop at Costco so I could get a pizza. Stretch limo infront of Costco got some looks! So our journey sadly ended when we arrived home at 4:20pm. What a great journey it was and it was the fastest 4 months of our lives. Kudus to Regent but especially the staff of the Voyager for providing us with wonderful memories that we shall treasure forever. Rebecca misses Putu, our favorite bar server, pouring her St Fransis Chardonay every evening. Last night I missed the waiters, as after my chicken fried steak dinner, I had to clean up. Well, back to reality!!! I will be posting some more pictures in a day or two. Hope you enjoyed this blog. There may be another in 2012 depending on that itinerary and the stock market.