Cruising the South Pacific
On the way to New Zealand
Day 47 of 136.
Morning. Last night when returning too our suite a note was on the door from the Serene Spa letting us know about our appointments at 2:30 and 4:30. Not one appointment each but one for each of us at those times. Two message appointments on the same day. Decadent to say the least, and not something we would do. It would have to be dealt with in the morning. Probably doesn’t need to be said but this didn’t make the night’s sleep go any better.
The night was restless. The ship was swaying quite a bit. That feeling that something wasn’t quite right with my constitution was still there. Morning didn’t see any real improvement. The morning cappuccino and brioche were fine, but the anger at the spa just continued to grow.
Just before it has gone eight it was time to march off to the spa and find out what the heck happened. They were open when upon my arrival and when I explained it to the staff person behind the desk they went and got the spa manager, Benji. He was happy to cancel the one for more of the appointments, or change them anyway way he liked, but he stressed these were the appointments we made. Oh, and cancelling one of the appointments will cancel the promotion price we were taking advantage of when we made the appointment.
The package called for a 15% discount on three appointments made at the same time. Actually, it was 10% on the first, 15% on the second and 20% on the third. So, now he wanted to charge me for the discounts given when they were booked. I told him that we also booked others in advance, so just apply to 20% to the next one. His reply was I didn’t have any appointments in the future.
Fuming I just left saying I would go to the room and get the appointment slips which would show him I didn’t indeed have other booked appointments. Fume, fume and more fume. Going for a cool down walk seemed like a good idea. While doing so I walked past Luis, the executive concierge. Well, I probably should have walked by, but instead I sat down a ranted and raved for a good fifteen minutes. He was extremely sympathetic, listened very well, and offered to make a note of the conversation. I left feeling a lot better and under the impression that I wasn’t the only one unhappy with the spa situation.
It was time to wake Mary and get the day going. She wasn’t any happier than I was about the spa situation and response. She got dressed, and without coffee for her, we headed to the spa. Boy did I feel sorry for them. Upon our return we learned that Benji was in conference and couldn’t speak to us right now. So Mary dealt with Annji (sp).
It took a good hour, but the end result was, we would get our discount. That yes we had more spa treatments booked in the future. There would be no penalty for cancelling one of the treatments each today, and our appointments would both be at 4:30. It should be noted while we were there another guest arrived fairly steamed about the errors in her bookings and seemed a little upset at having to deal with Benji. I hope Regent figures this out and returned to using Canyon Ranch Spa in the future.
After this we went upstairs to La Veranda for breakfast. Still not feeling my best I was hoping that a little breakfast would help me relax. After breakfast we sat in the suite and talked about future trips and plans. This year is fairly well planed, not from a teutonic perspective, more from a non-planners perspective. Loose plans. Flexible plans. A good general outline. A beginning. Learning to deal with flexibility, and plan outlines. It is difficult to teach old dogs new tricks. And I am an old dog.
We had a date to play canasta with 2 with Stuart and Chrissy in the card room. We headed down to the card room before it had gone two and set up the cards. Stuart and Chrissy shows up a little later. We played one hand of canasta using Serra-Falk rules. The we played one had using the Hess rules. They are similar but completely different games.
Hess rules call drawing one card at a time as opposed to Serra-Falk rules of two. This changes the strategy of the game. The other big change is you only need one canasta, not two, to go out. There are more hands per game this way, and conceivably the game could take longer to reach its conclusion at 5,000 points. It was decided we would play one full game using the Hess rules. The Hess’ won, but we learned a new game and a new strategy for playing.
We were at the spa at 4:30 for our respective massages. I met my masseuse and we went to the treatment room. She immediately started to explain the charges etc. I told her it was already paid for. She said her slip said it wasn’t and that she would get the manager. I informed her brining Benji into the room would be bad for his health, perhaps she could bring Annji with whom all of this was already worked out. She went and got Annji. We worked it all out, and all was good. The next hour and a half was a really good massage. The staff at the spa is really good, it is just the manager who need to be replaced. A quick shower and back to the suite to get ready for dinner.
Tonight, we are having dinner with Stuart and Chrissy in Prime 7. They already had a reservation for 7:30. Apparently it is easier to get a reservation for more than two than it is seeking a table for just two. It was very easy to add us to their reservation. We got dressed for dinner and met them in the bar outside Prime 7 for a drink at 7. They were already there when we arrived.
Dinner was very nice. Prime 7 really does put out a nice spread. The sommelier was able to retrieve our bottle from the other night that we didn’t finish from the wine cellar. Strange to say wine cellar on a ship. We shared the bottle with Stuart, Chrissy isn’t a fan of reds, and spent the next two hours enjoying dinner. It appeared we closed the place down.
Stuart and I left and had a cigar before retiring to our wives in our suites. The day started out a bit rough but ended quite nicely.
Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico
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