Regent

Having failed to do any posting whilst on holiday before Christmas, here are some random thoughts from our cruise:

Travel

Airport noticeably quieter on the way out. Shame that Dixons travel stores are no more, obviously another victim of lower travel volume during the pandemic. Breakfast at the Ramsay restaurant at T5 was decent but not spectacular. I spent the entire outbound flight watching the LOTR trilogy on the plane - certainly passed the time - made it half way through part 3 by the time we landed in Miami. Immigration still a pain, but wait probably less than an hour. We were last to our little minibus group to be transferred to the Mandarin Oriental for overnight stay. Mandarin good, but not a patch on the Four Seasons where we stayed for the last leg of our trip in Feb 2020. Slightly disappointed that we were sent to one of the conference rooms for breakfast with the rest of the cruisers rather than being able to use the main hotel restaurant.

Ship

Explorer awesome. Hard not to gush! Our 'penthouse' cabin (even if it was on deck 7) was extremely nice. Going to be very hard to contemplate going on a different cruise line in the future, although I would be willing to consider stepping down one level to 'concierge' to avoid the slightly painful butler. Food onboard amazing - main dining room (Compass Rose) had a great menu, and the speciality restaurants (Prime 7, Chartreuse and Pacific Rim), all of which we tried, were even better. Our favourite location for breakfast was al fresco on the veranda, and lunch at the pool grill. Spa was fab, and yes, I did have three massages during an 11 night cruise!

Ports of call

To be honest, some of the ports of call were not all that much to write home about. Nassau continues to be a bit of a dump, and Bridgetown (at least the parts of it we saw) didn't seem a very nice place. Most of the islands seem to be heavily reliant on the tourist, and in particular the cruise trade. A couple of the excursions were pretty good - the cocoa plantation in Dominica and the Rainforest adventure in St Lucia (where we thought we were going on a leisurely tram/gondola ride through the rainforest and ended up ziplining as well - along with the legend that was 84-year-old Bob).

Chatsworth

This was supposed to be Saturday's post, and I thought that I had reserved a spot for it, but obviously not.

Anyway, Saturday was reserved for Chatsworth, and after a mighty fine hotel breakfast, we took the very short drive over, parked up, went up to the carriage house to collect our picnic, had a quick look around the shop picking up a couple of things (and stowed the picnic away back in the car, which turned out to be a mistake, but saved us from carrying it around the house), and all nicely in time for our appointed visit to the house.

What to say - huge, impressive, lots of artwork, including a variety of old and new, but to be honest, the grounds were far more impressive, and once we'd blagged our way out and in again to collect the picnic we had a very pleasant time in the sunshine.

 

Bake

Our last day in the Peak District and what to do. We can't just head straight back to the motorway and come home - that would be a waste, and so we decide to head along the road to Bakewell - only a little way from the Peacock. Having driven through it a few times already, we'd seen that it could get pretty busy, and so we were a little alarmed to hear when checking out from the hotel that Monday was market day.

Still, undeterred, we stuck with the plan, but knew that the right thing to do would be to dive off to the right into the first car park (the one for the agricultural bit of the market, over the cattle grid with the farmers and their trailers). This worked a treat and we were able to park without a problem, and on the right side of town for a swift exit afterwards, and could follow the crowds for the short walk into town. Bakewell itself was worthy of a wander, not that we went in many places (sadly the antiquarian bookshop was closed on a Monday) and our main stop was at the cafe in the antique centre - found after a brief search based on the fact that it was the number one recommendation on Trip Adviser - for coffee and brunch - we'd had too long a lay in for hotel breakfast!

Fed and watered, we meandered back to the car and embarked on the journey home. We didn't stop in the popular-looking official Bakewell tart and pie shop as Nicky had already ordered some on-line for home delivery!

Peak

And so Sunday was spent exploring some more of the Peak District.

We decided that the first stop should be Castleton, where we tried not to be put off by the fact that we were in a bit of a minority for not wearing walking boots and carrying rucksacks. Nicky was not-so-secretly pleased to discover that the attractions of Castleton (either the Castle at the top of a steep hill, or an underground cave) were both unavailable to us as in the current environment required pre-booking, so we did what came naturally and went to the nicest looking tea rooms, had a cup of coffee, and shared a rather scrummy piece of bakewell pudding.

We'd been entertained on our way up to Castleton to see brown tourist signs for a 'Cutlery factory' and thought that the Peak District must be a bit short of attractions if this was the best they could muster. However, we then went past it, and Nicky was excited to see that it was the David Mellor factory and gallery. I tried to look like I knew what she was talking about, but she reminded me that we'd seen it on Grand Designs a couple of weeks before. So, we decided on leaving Castleton that we should pay it a visit, and it was well worth it. Favourite fact: David Mellor designed the traffic lights that we see every day. Nicky's purchase: salt and pepper shakers to go with the trivet that had been a Christmas present from Jake.

Next stop on our Peak tour - Buxton. Had a wander round, admired the architecture, saw the spring water, that was about all.

Back to hotel. Overall scenery driving around during the day beautiful.

Peacock

M1 took rather a long time, but it was worth it to arrive at the Peacock in time for a relaxing drink in the garden, followed by dinner in the bar.

 

Saratoga catch up

Time for a mid-week blog catch up!

Having posted on Sunday morning, and generally had a slow start to the day, we went out for a drive, ending up at our (my) favourite bookshop, Barnes & Noble. After a good browse, we both found a book, but then found it rather harder to find somewhere to go for Sunday brunch. We had a look at the development on the opposite side of Sand Lake Road to B&N, but it was too early for them to be open for brunch, and nothing looked appealing, so we headed further north to Windermere. Either we haven't found the centre of Windermere yet, or it is a bit strange and doesn't really have restaurants. In the end we came back down SR535 almost to WDW, tried to get into iHOP but it was jammed with a Sunday crowd, and so walked over to Denny's and had their regular fare.

We had afternoon fast passes at Animal Kingdom, and headed in with enough time to spare to do a wander through the animal trail in Africa before going on the Safari. We did pretty well with animal sightings (giraffe, elephants, rhino, cheetah, and even the lions), and then we were over to Pandora for our flight. It was excellent, as before, although interestingly we were right in the very bottom left corner of the screen, which didn't make for the best view (three tiers, two sets of sixteen seats, for a total of 96 riders per show).

Afterwards we tracked down another of the recommended snacks of the world - the Pongo Lumpia - a pineapple cream cheese spring roll - might sound a bit odd, but well worth tracking down.

Next stop was the Nomad Lounge, on the way out of Pandora - excellent spot and not too busy - we got comfy on a sofa outside and had drinks and snacks (satay and truffle poutine). In fact it was just so comfy that we decided that we couldn't be bothered to trek over to the other side of the park for our fast passes to the Rivers of Light show, and made do with watching a little bit of it on Youtube instead!!

Monday started with shopping trips, firstly to Mall at Millenia, where one or two gifts were purchased. This was followed by Old Navy (which is kind of in the car park of the mall) and lunch at Panera Bread, before going a couple of stops down I-4 to the outlets (Belz as we still insist on calling it) including important stops at Coach (for handbag consideration, but we were in there for so long that I ended up getting tempted by an outrageously expensive leather jacket), and the usual regulars - Hilfiger, Adidas, etc.

We had evening plans at Epcot, albeit we skipped our fast passes for Spaceship Earth in favour of a leisurely stroll around World Showcase checking out the festival stalls. We may well have to go back to sample some of the festival food. Dinner was at Via Napoli in Italy where the food was pleasant, the atmosphere was chaotic, and the service was typically rapid leaving us feeling like we'd been rushed through. Jake will at least be pleased to hear that we enjoyed the arancini balls.

We stopped in at the America Gardens theatre for the 8 o'clock show, and the singers were impressive - both from Broadway Disney productions, and then walked around to our spot for Illuminations (fast pass reserved in front of the walkway from Future World). View was good from there, but there were a decent number of open spots in other areas around the World.

Tuesday morning we headed in to the Studios, and our appointed time for the Slinky Dog coaster, which was great fun - the best thing about the new Toy Story land (given that Toy Story Mania was already there). We did join the queue for Toy Story Mania, which said 65 mins when we joined it, but gave up after about 20 mins as it was moving very slowly, and sure enough when we came out it had changed to 120 mins, and the fast pass line was very long as well. Next stop was another of the recommended snacks - the key lime pie on a stick. Nicky had that, and I had a monster choc chip cookie (and tried the key lime pie).

At this point we were pretty much content with our trip to the Studios, and headed back to Saratoga, and enjoyed some time by the pool in the splendid sunshine, taking it easy before our Membership Magic evening at the Magic Kingdom. We headed in on the bus at about 7pm, collected our wristbands and vouchers, and were there just in time to catch the Happily Ever After Fireworks. Amusingly, we watched from about half way down Main Street in a big crowd, and when they had finished, we wanted to go deeper into the park, whilst several thousand people wanted to leave, and so it was quite a challenge to move in our chosen direction, but with determination we made it through eventually.

First stop dinner, and we went to Pinocchio's Village Haus. As far as we can recall, the last time we were there was on Jake's 4th birthday, when he was serenaded by the band as we were having lunch. This time we got a table by the interior windows and watched the Small World boats go by.

During the evening we did a great job of getting on rides (Small World, Buzz, Astro Orbiter, Little Mermaid, Tea Cups, Dumbo), watching the fireworks, and talking to the DVC executives - it will be interesting to see if they get back to us about our comments this time.

And that brings us to today. Late start after a late night, and another trip to the pool to relax in the sunshine, and we are just planning a trip to Springs, hoping that we might go to the new Wolfgang Puck restaurant to try it out.

(Aim for a version of this with pictures later on.)

Saratoga

Here we are at Saratoga Springs, with an overdue first holiday blog from Sunday morning.

Going back to Thursday, we were up and away at about 7am, with little evidence of any snow left around at home (but wow how that seems to have changed in Walderslade since we left!). Airport + parking + check-in + security was all very smooth and we were having breakfast at the Grain Store in Gatwick South before we knew it.

BA flight to Tampa was fine. We appreciated the extra legroom of the premium seats, and food was ok. No sign of any children on the flight - looked mostly like older couples (not young couples like us, obviously) going for their winter break. Tampa immigration was better, but not massively better, than MCO. There were still lots more immigration desks than immigration staff, which is always frustrating. Our overall wait time was about 45 mins, but once we were through the rest of the airport process was very efficient - picked up our bags straight away, then a couple of shuttle trains to the car centre to pick up our car (no queue for the car desk as we could use a kiosk to get the paperwork, and then straight to collect the car). Car journey from Tampa to WDW was 90 mins, but very straightforward - a little slow past downtown Tampa, but then straight up I-4.

By the time we got to the hotel it was about 8.30pm, so it was a case of check-in, collect a few provisions, unpack and bed.

Friday morning we had our Keys to the Kingdom tour, so it was straight up and away to MK on the bus, but we were there in time for a quick stop at the Main Street bakery for provisions before meeting our tour guide (Justin) at City Hall, where we made our lunch orders for later on (Pecos Bill) and collected our earphones. The tour was lots of walking and talking, with Disney history and trivia, and the route was down Main Street (windows), into Adventureland (Jungle Cruise), into Frontierland (backstage to see the production area, floats and the water tanks for Splash), lunch stop, Liberty Square (Haunted Mansion), Fantasyland, into the utilidors and under Main Street to reappear near City Hall for the end of the tour.

One thing we learnt on the tour was the 'Four Keys' to a great guest experience at WDW. They are (in this order): safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency, and are guiding principles for cast members when they are interacting with guests. Very interesting, and worthy of a longer discussion than a holiday blog warrants.

Once our tour was done we headed out of the park. Our plan had been to get the bus to the Springs, but for some reason buses didn't start to Springs until 4pm, so we got the bus back to the hotel, and took a break back here before walking over to Springs a little later. We ended up having an early dinner at Chef Art Smith's, sat outside watching the world go by (shared the devilled egg started, Nicky had fried chicken, and I had the pulled pork with mac 'n' cheese). Food was excellent. Servings were huge - should have shared a main course.

We had a little wander around the rest of the Springs (including a enjoyable trip to Sugarboo) before coming back to the hotel. After a break here we steeled ourselves for a final trip out of the day to the supermarket to stock up with provisions.

Saturday morning we were up in time so we decided to stick with the plan and use our fast passes, so we went back to MK and rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - always fun, and then went over to Gaston's Tavern to share one of their mighty cinnamon rolls. Next up were trips on the carousel and Philharmagic before our next fast pass on the Winnie the Pooh ride! It had been some time since we'd been on that one - probably because Jake had refused to go for at least the last ten years. I think they'd even changed the 'honey pots' since last time. Then we even had time for a trip on the Carousel of Progress - always brilliant, although I find in fascinating that the first three scenes are 1900s, 1920s and 1940s, and then the last one is a big jump to an attempt to be approximately up to date. Presumably this reflects a commitment to keeping the first three scenes consistent with the original show from the 1960s Worlds Fair, whilst keeping it in some way 'relevant'. A tricky balance.

After the show we headed out of the park and took the boat to the Grand Floridian and had lunch at the Gasparilla Grill, before getting the bus to the Springs, where we did some shopping (Sephora) before coming back to our room for a relax. Dinner was at Perkins at the Crossroads, and that brings us about up to date.

Cinderella

Today I have inserted a new 'widget' into the website - a holiday countdown. I had one before, but I deleted it, and so I've had to google to track down the necessary HTML code (as I don't want some crappy commercial widget with its associated advertising), and now we can see that it is 179 days until we go to Orlando in the summer.

This may not seem significant, but it is. Specifically it is less than 180 days, and this means that the window has opened for restaurant bookings, and so Nicky has already taken advantage, with a lunch reservation for 'Cinderella's Royal Table', the restaurant that is inside the Castle in the Magic Kingdom, where we will be going on the first day of our holiday.

This was, I believe, a special request from one the new members of our holiday party.

Fine with me, as I will have a whole new excuse for more castle photography, and not only that, I may even get my photo taken with a real-life Disney Princess! :)

Day 14 - finishing off

We've actually been home for a week now, but I thought I should wrap things up with a report of our final day in SF!

We packed up at the Zephyr, left our bags at the front desk, and headed out into the City, albeit our first stop was only a few hundred yards down the road - brunch at Denny's. Jake partook of another cake batter milkshake - some story about getting his calories in prior to the long flight later on!

After brunch we wandered along Fisherman's Wharf contemplating final souvenir shopping, Nicky got her red San Francisco hoodie, and we had a little walk into the 'San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park' to go along the piers and take some photographs.

By this point we definitely deserved an ice cream and a drink at Ghiradelli's. I had a chocolate malt, and mighty fine it was too, and maybe one or two spoons of the shared sundae. Then it was back to the hotel, pick up the bags, and into our booked town car for the 40 minute ride to the airport. The driver took us straight across the middle of the City, including the 45 degree hills, which caused the occasional moment of concern from the back of the car.

SF airport turned out to be easy to traverse. No queue at check in an fairly quick through security. We'd decided against a trip to SF MoMA on holiday, but their shop at the airport was very good (I bought a maths book!!) and after a meal, we were on board on time and away.

I watched a film called Norman, Nicky watched A Dog's Purpose (and managed not to cry too much) and we all got a reasonable amount of sleep on the way home.

Day 13 - around SF

Today we have:

• been to the Fortune Cookie Museum - albeit only for a couple of minutes, but we do at least now know how they are made
• had lunch in Chinatown (not as good as the Chinese restaurant at Universal in LA)
• been shopping in town, including a trip to the Hayes Street area, which had some nice stores
• had a ride back to the hotel on the 'F' line trolley
• enjoyed a sourdough bowl of chowder at Boudin's bakery
• done some souvenir shopping on Pier 39
• played some table tennis and pool in the hotel games room.

Day 12 - Disney museum and Fog City

Another late start - we're really getting the hang of this holiday thing. Out the front door of our hotel, turn left, and into ihop for brunch. After food, Jake headed off to do some shopping, whilst Nicky and I headed towards Union Street, and then the park, and eventually the Walt Disney Family Museum.

The Museum was excellent, and definitely deserves a separate post all of its own (or possibly several) another time! For now the pictures below should give an idea.

After meeting up with Jake back at the hotel, we went out for dinner at the Fog City Diner.

Day 11 - Berkeley and SF

We didn't get off to a particularly early start today, and when we did we had another look around the Zephyr, and enjoyed the courtyard here. Nicky and I even had a game of giant Connect 4. I came a close second.


Then it was off (over the very long Bay Bridge) to Berkeley for a look around. The summarised version is: better than Caltech, not as good as Stanford!

Once back in the city, we dropped the hire car off at the Hyatt (after a rather lengthy detour to fill it up) and then found a light late lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Then it was time for an explore around on foot - Nicky and I went to Union Square and Chinatown, whilst Jake went rather further afield, and ended up joining in a game of basketball.

Day 10 - Stanford to SF

Check out at Ho Jo Santa Cruz this morning, and up the Freeway to Stanford. Once parked (sounds easier than it actually was), Jake set off for a good look around whilst Nicky and I stopped in for a quick coffee before embarking on our own tour.

It is a lovely place!

Definitely in the running. It passed on all fronts - ambiance, facilities, and just general impression. It passed my bookshop test, and certain members of the family will I am sure be pleased to know that we had lunch at the on-site Panda Express!

Once we'd had a pretty thorough look around, we headed up the rest of the way to San Francisco and checked in at the Zephyr hotel, which seems pretty good. We've had a wander along the wharf area this evening. Dinner at the In-n-Our burger joint, and we all agreed it was much overrated, followed by hot chocolate and a shared ice cream from Ghirardelli.

Day 9 - Aquarium and Boardwalk

We couldn't leave Monterey without one very important stop, and so after checking out from our hotel, we walked along to the other end of Cannery Row, and went in to the wonderful aquarium.

Our first stop, of course, was to see the sea otters, followed by the sea otter film in the auditorium, all about the amazing work that the aquarium does to support the local population (which if we heard correctly has increased from about 50 to 3,200 since the aquarium opened).

Lots and lots of photos taken as always, although a combination of low lighting in some areas and moving sea creatures makes for some blurry pictures. I think we managed some decent ones between us, but will have to check and upload later!

Once we'd had our fill of the aquarium, it was farewell to Monterey, via a late lunch at Denny's, and an hour or so in the car to drive up to Santa Cruz and the Ho Jo.

This afternoon / evening we've been along to the boardwalk to play all the silly games, win prizes, eat corn dogs, and have ice cream on our way home.

Day 8 - Whale Watching

If ever there was a day for letting the pictures do the talking, then today is the day:

Day 7 - to Monterey

A moving day today, starting with checking out in Santa Barbara and walking the 50 yards or so up the road to iHop for a slap up breakfast before starting the long leg of our north-bound journey. Apparently the coast road (Highway 1) is closed somewhere around Big Sur, so we stuck to the 101 for this leg of the journey. It was probably a wise move anyway given how far we were travelling. Not sure exactly how far we came today, but we joined the 101 around exit 100, and left it around exit 330, and our total mileage must have been close to 200. Lots of impressive Californian scenery on the way, as well as many miles of agriculture, including lots of vines!

Before coming to Monterey we stopped off in Carmel for a look around. Looks like an affluent and expensive area. Came up to Monterey via a drive along 17-mile drive past the golf courses and nice houses.

The Clement at Monterey is as lovely as last time. We are in a large room in the corner of the main building this time (still with zen garden!). This evening we've been next door to Bubba Gump's for dinner, and even managed to do well at the waitress's film trivia quiz.

(Our room is the second one up on the left of the main building in the first photo below.)

Day 6 - Viva la Fiesta

It turns out that we came to Santa Barbara at the right time. August 2-6 is the 'Old Spanish Days Fiesta', which includes lots of entertainment and parades. This morning it was the children's parade, and we had lots of fun watching it. It seemed like a really community-spirited event, with groups in the parade from lots of local schools, clubs and other community groups.

For the rest of the day we have been enjoying taking in the sights and sounds of Santa Barbara - mostly based around State Street or down by the sea front an pier. We had lunch at Joe's, which was considerably busier and louder than last time we were there, and dinner at a restaurant on the pier just after sunset, watching the amphibious party boat go out, and thankfully come back in again.

State Street is a long road, so depending on whether you believe the fitbit or the phone, either 22k or 35k steps today.