Cef123

I attended the ‘Sweet, Salty etc’ class earlier this year (on Explorer). I’m a reasonable cook, but this class opened my eyes to options that were novel and delicious. So much fun…. I’d highly recommend this class.

We, too, like to make our own cups of tea in our suite. On our recent January/February cruise on Explorer, we contacted Regent ahead of time and asked for an electric kettle to be placed in our suite (F2). Sure enough, it was there when we boarded. Yet another reason to love Regent and their willingness to say “Yes”. (IMHO, making a cup of tea with lukewarm water is heresy!).

@lesliew… I celebrated a big birthday on Explorer in January 2024. Yes, our wonderful stewards decorated our suite while we were on an excursion. My DH asked that a special bottle of champagne be placed in our mini bar the evening before so that it was chilled ready for us on my birthday. Last, but not least, I’m not a chocolate cake fan, so again, my fabby hubby made a special request for a passion fruit birthday cake which was our dessert that night at a lovely table in P7. The remainder was taken away and miraculously showed up in our mini bar to be enjoyed for several days thereafter. Great attention to detail, great memories, and why Regent is really the best. Just give everyone as much notice as possible for special requests…particularly because it’s a switchover day for the crew.

We were so looking forward to our 40th anniversary Mediterranean cruise on Explorer. Postponed due to Covid and now it was really happening, sailing from Barcelona to Istanbul in May 2022. We had planned 10 days with family in the Loire Valley, then extra days in Barcelona before boarding. On the TGV from CDG to Nantes, my husband’s passport was stolen… lots of lessons here, but we will never place anything on the overhead rack ever again!! No passport=no travel. After train security, police reports, US embassy phone calls, TA phone calls, travel insurance phone calls etc, we turned around and took the next train back up to Paris. As instructed, at 0800 the next morning, we were in line at the US embassy. Turns out that a ‘temporary’ passport is a piece of paper that will get you back into the USA and that’s about all. We opted for an expedited full replacement passport, which takes 10-14 days. Our wonderful cruise was literally sailing away and disappearing before our eyes….there was no amount of Champagne that could cheer me up! To cut a very long story short…. the replacement passport arrived at 4pm on the day that Explorer was sailing from Barcelona, but we knew that Marseille was the port of call the following day. We were still in the Loire. The next few hours are a blur. Multiple phone calls, a hurriedly scheduled Covid test at a local pharmacy, TGV tickets to Marseille on the first train, hotel booking next to the train station that night, taxi to the hotel, Regent arranging with Marseille port services to give us access to the Port. Hoping beyond hope that the French Railways wouldn’t decide to strike! well…… we made it! Boarded the beautiful Explorer at 3pm in Marseille. Best of all, while Bruno was checking us in at reception, out of the corner of my eye I saw the wondrous sight of a waiter approaching with 2 glasses of champagne held aloft on a silver tray. champagne has never tasted SO delicious. I can’t begin to say how helpful Regent was throughout this whole ordeal. We are back on Explorer again this coming January (Sydney to Singapore) and we’ll be holding onto our passports VERY tightly!