Final thoughts

This was a fabulous experience and we both would take the trip again, as we would like to see the River during the dry season after seeing it during a record setting wet season.  However, there are many other places we would like to visit before we would return to the Amazon.   Regent provided an enjoyable experience and the Navigator is a small comfortable home for extended traveling.  Some on the ship were very ready to get off at the end of 25 days, but we both are willing to try an even longer cruise.

One thing that made the trip so enjoyable were the lectures offered by Michael Scott from the Smithsonian.  A Scotsman who wore his kilt on formal nights, he introduced us to each port and provided both history and context for what we were going to see. A botanist by education, he is married to a marine biologist.  His stories of her work on the remote island of Tristan da Cunha were every fascinating.  Michael will be the lecturer on the segment of the 2018 world cruise scheduled to visit Tristan da Cunha.

Also contributing to our enjoyment were our fellow passengers.  There were a good number of folks from Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  Most have traveled extensively and this made for good dinner conversation.  On Regent ships, you do not have a set dinner time or table.  When you wish to eat, you go any restaurant.  You will be asked if you want a private table or want to share a table.  We almost always ask to share and dine with new travelers every evening.

Since we last traveled on the Navigator, there were a few changes that were disappointing.  One was the timing of the nightly shows.  Most were scheduled to begin at 9:30pm.  Due to the late hour, we only attended one show.  We also missed the cheese trolley.  If you are unfamiliar with this practice, it is a cart with an array of cheeses that is brought to your table, usually for dessert.  You pick the cheeses you want and the server prepares a plate with your selections.  It was one of my favorite things from our Alaskan cruise but, alas, it is no more on the Navigator.

If you travel to a hot, humid location and travel with a camera, be prepared for your lens to fog up.  Taking a camera from an air conditioned room to the outside resulted in a 20-30 minute delay before we could take a picture.  We missed serval great photo ops due to this issue.  By the end of the trip, the first one up was responsible for placing the cameras on our balcony so they could acclimate.

We hope you have enjoyed the blog and pictures as much as we have enjoyed doing it.  If you want additional information regarding our trip, please feel free to post using the comments.  We will periodically check the blog over the next few months and respond.  Our future plans include making a book of this trip and researching where to go next.

Link to photos:

6/15/17 Final days