susar

Our friends are in a mini-suite, we are in an aft suite. Will they be able to go to specialty dining with us on Embarkation day and have club class dining with us? We are on the Emerald, not sure what special pool area is available, can they go there too?

Any updates for upcoming cruises? My coordinator email failed for the Crown Princess. I just emailed the group onboard address from above ...

On 4/3/2021 at 3:07 PM, Slyfox16 said:

Is there a 11/6/21 MOB for the Crown Princess that I am missing? I find ones before and after that date/

On 4/4/2021 at 4:33 AM, paul929207 said:

the prior cruise was 10 days (like this one), CDC prohibited cruises longer than 7 days thru October 31, 2021.

 

I haven't seen a M&G for this one, but we will be there.

I started a spreadsheet for our Nov 16, 2021 cruise to add info. We only have 5 on our Roll Call, so no M & M yet. Hope we'll sail!!

On 1/15/2021 at 7:59 PM, Papa Yoda said:

 

Dolphin definitely - Marina deck balconies are uncovered.  We definitely enjoyed the balcony of D737

We booked D737 on our November Panama Canal cruise. Hope it's nice! We haven't gone on Princess for 14 years!!

We’re having our first cocktail at the bar in the observation lounge. 

susar, It is important to note that Regent does not use the least expensive flights*. It is also not true that you always have to arrive the day of embarkation. If you are in a concierge or above suite, you arrive the day before embarkation and stay in an included hotel. You receive transportation to the hotel and from the hotel to the ship.

 

if you have a TA that regularly books Regent, they can give you an fairly accurate idea of what airlines will be used if you wait util 75 days out.

 

Getting into specifics, I did a search for fights from LAX to Barcelona. There are no non-stop flights. The shortest flights with one stop are with KLM, United, Air France, American Airlines, American Airlines operated by British Airways and Lufthansa. Regent does have contracts with most of these carriers (it can change year to year). Then we go to Yapta.com to see the flights that are offered (there are other sites where the can be done - I just prefer Yapta). I select the flights that we are most interested in. Next we go to seatguru.com and check out the seating for the flights that we like (looking at whether or not they have flatbed seats, etc.)

 

Assuming that we want to deviate at 270 days before the embarkation (highly recommended) and once we have the flight(s) figured out, we send our top 2-3 fights to our TA who runs them by Regent. Most of the time our preferred flights are approved. Alternatively, you can call Regent Air directly and run your flights by them.

 

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

 

NOTE: I would definitely look for fights that have their one stop out of the U.S. From what I checked out, the only airline listed above that has a stop in the U.S. is United. A stop in the U.S. means a coach flight that we avoid if at all possible. All international flights on Regent are Business Class.

 

*On our upcoming flights to Vancouver to Bali on Cathay Pacific - one of the top airline in the world - we booked ourselves due to the very high air credit offered by Regent. We booked the exact flights that Regent will be using. The flights are definitely not the least expensive but rather is probably the best airline to use in that area. Our flight returning from Hong Kong is non-stop.

Wow, looking at flights this will not be a simple business class flight to Barcelona! :confused:

If you let Regent do your flights they will have you arriving on the day the cruise embarks and flying home on the day you disembark. In order to arrive early or head home later, you have to deviate which entails a $175 pp charge plus any additional flight costs if any. You can also specify your flights and not pay the deviation fee until you accept your itinerary. While flight schedules are available now for most Nov. flights (approx 330 days out), you cannot request Regent for deviation flights until 270 days prior to your departure. Have no clue how you will find out your airline this week. Regent won't tell you until about 75 days prior to your cruise.

 

Since you say you want to arrive early you have 2 choices, deviate or take the credit and book your own flights. Search deviations to get further info regarding the process. Lots of threads about this process

Yes, I know this, was hoping they might know something about what flights they use from LA to Barcelona. Hoping it's straight there. We can fly SWA to another gateway if better flights as we live in Las Vegas. I thought it would be best out of LA. It's all good. I see the prices went up for the cruise by $100 pp since Saturday. It's still better to pay them $1500 for airfare and get business than anyone else I could find one way to Barcelona Business class.

We are taking the Voyager transatlantic crossing out of Barcelona next fall and our outgoing domestic flight will be coach with the international portion in business class. My question: do we get business free luggage on the first leg that is coach? (Probably AA from Charlotte to Miami, then AA to Barcelona)

We are going on that cruise also if you are talking Nov 2018. The roll call is messed up and lists the date as the Navigator. I have two emails into CC to try and change it so we can get more people on our roll call! We will fly from LA, hope to find out what airline this week, but don't know what they can tell us at Regent. We will go a couple days early so we can do some tours in Barcelona and heard we will have to pay a change fee. We didn't have to do that on our Regent cruise from Rome a few years ago :(

Our room steward(s) were great, always had ice and the room was made up right after we'd leave. We had a balcony on 13 and it was the smallest we've ever seen after many cruises, but did not spend any time out there...Good storage, little niches all over the room and a great bathroom. It was a great location for the Cafe and the Spice H2O deck. Loved our bartender in the Chill bar and when he moved over to the inside Sunset bar at night. Great Margaritas at Chill!

I was not happy with the food selection in the complimentary dining rooms and would book different evening dining next time if we do Norwegian. I wish they would have an outdoor fresh grill for lunch as I've had on every other cruise. The dining staff in Savor was great, very personable and quick, not so much the other two which were very slow. Of course we love Isaac (morning "Banana Man") and he was the manager in Savor and that may have made a difference.

Loved Silas, the cruise director!! Sad that our Roll Call Meet and Mingle only had about 15 people between the CC group and another 35 on my other group. We got VIP daily appetizers and desserts in our room and complimentary Ice Bar entry on Saturday (not that exciting, but we went).

Not impressed getting on and off the ship-longest lines we've ever had to go through, including customs line. Loved that we didn't have to fill out the form or declare anything. Boarding was a bit confusing as my son had to board in a different terminal after being in line with us for 20 minutes, but got on way ahead of us after changing from b to c terminal. Since we hadn't cruised NCL since the 80s we didn't know the regular restaurants were open and went to the Mosh pit in the cafe and wandered around trying to find a table and was very frustrated and starving.

We have stayed at the York by Swiss-Belhotel twice. It is not as close to the OPT or Circular Quay as are hotels in The Rocks, but even so, from the York it is only an ~10 min (slightly downhill) walk to Circular Quay. Also, as compared to hotels in The Rocks, the York it is closer to "downtown" Sydney and to Darling Harbour. For us, the main attraction of the York is the fact that it provides spacious suites with full kitchens at a competitive (for Sydney) price. And as OzKiwiJJ said, there is a supermarket below Wynyard Station, about a 5 min walk from the York. We have stayed at several other places in Sydney, but are likely to go to the York again, at least when cruising from the OPT.

 

John

Thanks for the update on the York. I booked it 6 months ago for 2 nights prior to our Nov 2 cruise. Went looking at the prices for Mariott and Sofitel since they were on the other side of George street as I hear it will be torn up as of Oct 4. We got a better price on the York, and when checking now, the price has jumped! The other two hotels are still about $200 more than what we're paying...

Absolutely. In our opinion, the aft wrap balcony is not as deep as the cove balcony, which gives a slightly claustrophobic feel. However, it is much longer than the cove balcony. Also, the cove balcony is closer the the ocean so it seems more relaxing from the sounds and aids anyone who has a fear of heights. Lastly, when disembarking at a port, we were one of the first ones off and didn't get stuck on the stairs because the cove balcony is near the bottom of the ship. Also when re-embarking, we had just a couple of flights to climb and didn't have to wait for an elevator. Both are nice rooms, we just prefer the cove balcony.

I'm trying to decide on aft 6470 or cove for Jan 2016. Had a cove on the Dream and loved it especially with Cheers and close to the Atrium bar. We have had aft wraps several times, and my hubbie loves the balcony...money is not the problem, love the aft water and the cove water...help

Trying to decide is I want another Cove-which I loved on the Dream or the Aft Wrap balcony, 6470. I love watching the water aft but loved the location of the Cove too!! This may be the last time we do a ship with the Cove but also hard to get the Aft wrap! Help

Here is a photo of 1249 http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=36585333&postcount=158

 

1247/1124 have the largest balcony with 1249/1126 having a larger than normal balcony.

 

Here are some other photos (these are 1608/1610) but the balcony sizes should be the same. Scroll dow

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=31675647&postcount=7

How do you get these pictures and do you know if I can get them for 2149?

My husband and I will be sailing on the Celebrity Constellation starting October 25. We will need cash to pay for private tours we have booked. Rather than look for an ATM machine at the ports, we would like to use guest services on board the ship. When I called the concierge desk at Celebrity to ask how much cash we can get on a daily basis from Guest Relations I was told "it varies by ship".

 

Can anyone give me an idea of how much money we can get on a daily basis from guest services?

 

Also, will the cash be in US dollars or in the currency of the port?

 

Many thanks

Rmcruisers-just wanted to tell you we have a very active Roll call for this cruise. There is a meet and greet sail away, and you should register for the Cruise connections Party (see above your initial post for info on how to do this. You can also ask on the roll call if room on tours, money, etc. Some are on the ship now doing B2B.

We have 2100 OBC that doesn't show up on line. I have it confirmed on email and will bring that, but it's worrisome not to see it on line!

What about tipping the butler in a suite when they bring your morning coffee. It is one of the duties they perform, should you give a few bucks just like regular room service? We will be getting coffee every morning. Some people tried tipping them at the beginning and were told not til after...

You may be interested to see that the company that owns Prestige also owns 20% of NCL!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/02/us-prestigecruises-m-a-norwegiancruiseli-idUSKBN0GX18R20140902

Mine said they do not give them to you anymore and the porters will do it at the pier. I'll look again...

Do they ever upgrade a booked suite. or only guarantees?

We'll be there for 3 nights before our TA cruise. Glad to hear you enjoyed it; we've seen very mixed reviews. We'll check out the restaurant you mentioned.

Is that TA out of Rome on Nov 5th? We disembark from the Connie that day, will take the train into the city and will have til 8pm to walk around and talk the train to the airport.

Sorry you do not believe me. I do not have any agenda nor need to convince people of something that is not true. My only purpose in my prior post was to share accurate information based on what I've learned from Celebrity.

 

Quite a few years ago Celebrity added a category to their gratuity schedule covering a nondescript group of employees in addition to the stateroom attendants and dining room staff. I believe it has been called both "alternative service" and "Other Service Personnel". At the time this was introduced there was a lot of discussion on Cruise Critic as to whom this might include. I emailed Celebrity to ask about this and was given a list of staff this applied to and recall that it included room service staff. Unfortunately I did not retain that email. In early 2013 there was a thread or two on this subject and the subject of whether room service staff was included or not. Since I could not find that earlier email I emailed Celebrity again to ask about this and specifically asked if room service is included. In my post above (#9 on this thread) I included a quote from their email response. If you haven't already done so then please take a look at it and believe me that I am not making this all up.

 

I've noticed that recently Celebrity has stopped breaking down the gratuity pool and now just states a total gratuity amount. But if you look at a brochure from a year or two ago you'll see the allocation for "alternative service". I've attached a page from a 2103 brochure which shows this. This is the category which is shared, in part, with the room service staff.

 

Again: I have no agenda here and have no desire to persuade people not to tip. I believe the staff works hard and deserves everything they can get. We do tip extra in cash but that is our personal choice. But at the same time I believe people need to know the facts as presented by Celebrity so they can use the information to make their own decisions.

Larry, not to beat a dead horse, but do you have suggestions for tipping the Butler in a suite? Our tips are $15/day. I would love to let them unpack and I guess deliver breakfast,and other "things they give us", make dinner reservations, etc.

I read about a packing technique for carry-on bags over on the fashion forum, and decided to try it out. It's called bundling, and you layer long pants, shirts, shorts, finally folding everything in, like a, well like a bundle :). Happy to report this worked extremely well for DH-he fit 4 pairs of pants, 4 shorts, 4 polo shirts, 4 silk guayabera type shirts, one bathing suit, one t-shirt, and 6 pairs of socks in a standard carry-on bag.

 

So where were we....For our tour in Rome I read reviews on Tripadvisor as well as in the ports of call forum. I eventually went with a tour company that included everything we wanted to see. I was impressed when they contacted me by email with an update on restoration projects currently that involve the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. Instead of visiting these sites the tour will now include a walk-through of the Roman Forum, the site of Caesar's death, and a lunch stop in the Piazza Navona. We will have 3 hours in the Vatican and the Basilica. I'll post a review of tours when we return.

Just wanted to tell you that I've used the bundling method for the past two years and like it! Since you have days pre and post "unpacking", you could make two bundles so you can just pop out the top bundle for the days you need it without unbundling the whole thing.

Booking the Inspiration for July 28 next week. No Roll Call...

Looking for off site parking. Anyone know any cheaper parking??

So does anyone know of any less expensive parking than the pier if we are driving in??

Our balance is wrong. And the prices for the drink packages went up last week when the site came back up!:mad: