Saturday May 9, 2026
Hi Gang! Today we were in Cape Town, South Africa for the day and if you’ve never been here, put it on your bucket list. It is such a beautiful city! With the backdrop of Table Mountain, Signal Mountain and Devil’s Peak Mountain it is surrounded by beauty. And that’s not to mention it’s beautiful city buildings and waterfront areas. Just spectacular!
We did a tour called “Cape Town History City Tour” and wow did we learn the history. Of course both good and bad since I’m sure you all know about the history of apartheid and all the sad things that were done to anyone who was not white. But when you travel you see and learn everything.
We learned Cape Town was founded in 1652 by the Portuguese. During that time slaves were used for both hard labor as well as shipped to other countries for money. But by 1834 slavery was ended in South Africa.
Even after that, they had three classes of people, Blacks, Coloreds and Whites. Here Colored is not a derogatory term like in the US. It is considered someone of mixed race, with one race being black. Colored people were considered second class citizens but they did have some rights. Blacks had no rights. Coloreds had the right to be educated, own property, and own a business.
But it was terrible what they did to Black people. If you had to go to court and see the Magistrate, you couldn’t look at your family in the courtroom or you would get 3 months in prison. Sometimes when Blacks gathered in groups of three they would say it was an unlawful gathering and put them in prison. But thankfully that is all Non-existent today.
Things also changed for the better on Feb 11, 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison and came to the balcony of City Hall to give a speech. Funny thing was he had to borrow his wife’s reading glasses since he left his in prison! In 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratic president of South Africa.
After our tour we came back to the ship and had a late lunch and got an afternoon nap in. We’re still tired after all those 5 AM game drive wake up calls! We then got ready for dinner.
We got invited to eat dinner in Chartreuse with Dean Brown, the Cruise Director, and two executives from Regent’s Corp Office, Janay Ford, the Manager of Brand Experience & Loyalty for Regent as well as Teresa Brady, Regent’s Special Events Director. (Well Lah-Tee-Dah! Lol). But seriously, we were honored to be invited to dinner with them.
They were all lovely and we had a fantastic dinner and great conversation (but of course no food pics). They did ask for feedback and we told them how much we love Regent and all the things they’re doing right. Since nothing is perfect we also gave them ideas to make Regent even better. It was a very nice evening dining with them!
After dinner we went to the Horizon Lounge for the “First Night Party” hosted by the Regent Singers and Dancers with music by the Arista Duo. There were lots of new passengers who came on today as well as some of our World Cruise friends. It was a fun event and a nice way to end the day.
Our last segment was from Singapore to Cape Town and we traveled 7,377 nautical miles. This next segment is from Cape Town to Lisbon, Portugal and goes from May 9 to June 2. Regent calls it “Western Africa & Isles of Wonder” and many of the ports we’ve never been to so we’re excited about that. And I can’t believe it’s the next to the last segment!
We are excited to have a sea day tomorrow to sleep in and play lots of passenger games. We missed that! Hope everyone had a great day!
The Wandering Italian 