Just cancelled our Saigon Visit on Voyager!

@gnomie1 - Thank you for generous compliment! I am sure I enjoyed your mother's presence in my art classes as much as she enjoyed the experience! Please give her my best regards.

@JMARINER - Of course you are correct. Regent would treat all instructors equally and fairly. I was merely being exuberant and indicating, in general, I'd be happy to be on the ship offering guests an art experience on sea days.

@travelcat2 - Jackie, you are so kind! Making baskets in La Veranda was a so much fun. Clean up...not so much. ;) I have not contacted Oceania. I understand they have a dedicated art room which would make classes a breeze.

Marcia

Marcia - I think you would do so well on Oceania. Wish you would contact them! With Regent on your resume, they would be smart to jump at the opportunity to have you on their ships.

Suite Travels - you are correct - I did mention the specialty restaurant charge on Crystal. I know that this charge went into effect prior to the new ownership. The new owners are definitely not cutting back but I remain stunned about the ship they intend to refurbish. It should be interesting:-)

Jackie, I am stunned as well. It was on CBS Sunday Morning that GHK will spend 700 million to refurbish the SS United States. I can't wrap my head around this one.

I know we are off topic. We have friends who sail Regent exclusively and they said that they really have not noticed any cut backs at all. They are comfortable with Regent and and love the size of the ships.

Jacquie, Don't jump the gun. They have an option to refurbish and manage, the final decision has yet to be made. In this day and age of financial discipline I will be surprised if this project makes it to completion.

I hope it does as I might pay Crystal's prices to sail on her.

OK, so we are in Brunei now for 2 days. Since they had previously cancelled our all-day "Regent Choice Excursion" we are now scheduled for a short excursion that doesn't start until 2:45 PM--so doubt it will even be for the promised 4 hours. During our second day here tomorrow, they are not able to provide ANY excursions for the passengers "due to logistical reasons" so will only have a shuttle bus to a shopping center.

Now we have found out that during our additional day in the Philippines, they will ALSO not be able to provide any excursions (99% sure, according to Destination Services). I am now scrambling to try to find my own (self-pay) private tour so that we are not stuck another day with nothing to do....Not my definition of "all-inclusive" At this late date, not even sure we can find something on our own--I was unable to book anything privately for our extra day in Brunei.

I understand weather can lead to missed ports. We don't really understand why this means we missed Borneo as well, since we are quite close in Brunei, with no bad weather in sight. Not providing any excursions for extra days in 2 different ports in unacceptable in my book.

Yes--everyone is very nice about it all--but results matter, not words. I really don't feel as though the passengers have gotten acceptable responses from Regent. We are trying to keep positive, but it is becoming increasingly difficult.

I understand the reason is because of the change of dates we will arrive , the ship has to rebook the shore ex. Not easy to do since every thing is shut down for Chinese NewYear. I agree it is a mess, but all was started because of bad weather in Vietnam.

Fro anyone who believes Crystal is charging $30 a head for an extra reservation in the specialty restaurants so everyone will have a chance to try them I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Not sure if anyone has been following the news regarding the RCCL ship that seemed to have sailed directly into a storm on the east coast - the ship left New Jersey on Sunday and yesterday afternoon was caught in hurricane winds - google it to see the pictures and damage. Many of the passengers have been posting their pictures and videos and there is a very active discussion on the RCCL board.

The news media, esp the weather people, are all over trying to second guess why the captain.

Originally scheduled to go on to their first port in Florida, it was just announced in the last few hours that the ship will be returning to NJ.

Seems to be wild weather all over the world!

gnomie :)

Lucky indeed. I'm certainly not second guessing the decision to skip Saigon. Even skirting the edge of the storm, we had impressive swell, with lots of scary sounding crashes and booms. Wind was at 50 knots. Sitting at Sunday breakfast, all of the glasses at our table fell over, and one staff member told us the TV in his room crashed to ground.

Yesterday was better, as we finally got off of the ship for a few hours, and the guide was a charming young man who put us all in a good mood. We arranged to have his friend take us around today for our second day in Brunei. The Executive Concierge has been helpful in trying to help us arrange a tour in Manilla for our extra day there.

Fro anyone who believes Crystal is charging $30 a head for an extra reservation in the specialty restaurants so everyone will have a chance to try them I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Really? You have no clue how popular these speciality restaurants are and for most people on Crystal they don't complain about thirty bucks....give me a break. We had four free visits on a 18 day cruise and we paid for one extra visit to Nobu. On the Serenity they have three.

Other luxury lines do charge for speciality venues as well such as SS....Le Champagne ....no free dinner there.

BTW, we could have had more with our large OBC we had but we bought gifts for our stewardesses and butler.

How many off-topic Crystal posts can someone make before they are considered to be trolling?

If you READ the thread the topic was brought up other than myself and I responded. I am not a troll and have cruised on Regent five times albeit several years ago.:p

suite travels,

-1

I happily volunteer to join the Voyager again to teach art classes! They were so well-attended, fun and provided not only a great way to spend time on sea days, they were perfect venue for meeting fellow guests. We created art and life-long friendships!

 

Marcia

I am interested in the art instruction.

Are you a "passenger" that has gotten permission to use some space to volunteer to teach?

You are not hired by the cruise line?

are these cruises longer than 7 days?

We would be very interested in the specifics of the cutbacks you noted and on which ships

 

We sailed on Voyager and Mariner during 2015 and did not notice cutbacks. Yes, we had a few minor complaints; yes, there were occasional annoying staff errors..............but no significant differences in service to our first cruise with Regent in 2009

How about having the exec chef stating flat out that the per diem he was allowed for passengers meals was too low?