June 2, Leaving Lisbon and on to our next part of our trip.

We got up ate breakfast and repacked our stuff. At 11am we left the apartment to walk down the hill and over to our next ship, Regent’s Seven Seas Mariner. This is a new cruise line to us. It is a smaller luxury ship. It holds 700 passengers and all rooms are suites with balconies. You need to dress more for dinner than other cruise lines (collars for men – elegant casual they say). David shipped a bag from home to arrive with his suit jacket, 2 dresses for me, dress shoes for both of us and our snorkel gear. That saved us from dragging that suitcase around when none of it had been needed before this.

We took our time walking to the ship and looking around. Of course it was a much easier walk as part was down hill and we knew where we were going. The cobble stones in most of the streets make it more challenging to roll the suitcases but so far our wheels are doing well. We have seen a few suitcases have their wheels fall off and that is something we don’t want to have happen. We arrived at the ship and checked in quickly and easily. Of course many less people checked in then on a larger ship plus this is the end of a World Cruise so about 150 have been on the ship for a while and don’t need to check in. We don’t know how many are on the ship but no more than 500.

We ate a quick lunch, watched the safety video and then unpacked. Of course we took pictures of the room before we messed it up. We then got the great news, free laundry for this trip. We were excited just to have access to washers and dryer and now we don’t have to do anything. Nice! The ship sailed out at 6pm and we saw things from the water that we had seen on the tour from the land.

Off to our first dinner, what a huge fancy menu. Of course Jackie had her first day of lobster, David had a rib eye stake. We asked for a shared table and we met a nice couple from Florida that had been on the ship for 5 months on the World Tour. They will return to Florida when this cruise ends and complete their World Tour. The World Tour is a big deal, The cabin next to us has 12 magnets on the door to show all of the World Tours she has been on, the cabin 2 down has 6 on their door. Many wear a special pin on their shirt or jacket to show they are on the tour. Many are nice and appear to have made lots of new friends, a few look a bit tired and disinterested in any new people arriving on the ship. A couple appear crabby but that is probably true of any large group.

The show was at 9:30pm and the theatre isn’t even full. The ships singers and dancers are fantastic, better than most ships. The show as great.