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Stick with Regent. Go with the concierge suite for the night before and more important the early chance at booking tours and dinning reservations since you are new to Regent. Personally I would take the air credit and book my own flights, Regent doesn’t book your flights until about 70 days out, so for best flight choices, do your own. This doesn’t effect the hotel night and ship transfer. Flying to Alaska is tedious, and tiring, think about going earlier and renting a car for a day or two to explore the peninsula……. Beautiful!

Some places are very strict about meds like Singapore is. We have traveled all over the world since DH retired for months at a time with many flights…22 on one trip . One carry one is set aside for meds for us and we nearly fill it up when we are traveling for 4 or 5 months. All pills, gels and liquids go in together since meds don’t count against the 3oz rule. I keep all meds in original container and have the Drs prescription with the meds. Keep vitamins in original container also. There is usually no problem and the suitcase goes right through…especially in GB, Europe, SA and even Africa. In Asian airport they have looked but once they see the Drs note no problem. We carry it all together because we don’t want them to have s reason to open the checked luggage which happened a time or two when we placed containers in the checked luggage.

We stayed at Marriott Grand before before and between our cruises in Dec. nice well kept older hotel with large rooms and great view of the ships in port and turning in the basin. Lot of shops, food and other in building and near by. DH won’t use Uber, but the Taxi ride from the hotel to the port is short 10 mins, at the most, in rush hour traffic and a flat $20. From the port to the hotel on the meter it was $18 and change. They allowed us to keep the room until 1 pm and to check in with a room right off the ship between cruises no extra charge.

Better than sitting in the theater with all the passengers. We went through it on all 3 Dec cruises. We unpacked while watching it in the room.

Age is not really an issue with Tegent as long as you don’t need water slides to enjoy a cruise… good entertainment is readily available night and day. Regent cruisers are a friendly lot. But you do need a TravelAgent that specializes in luxury cruises…. Google some. You will get better all around service and usually more benefits.

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Maybe for the new ships it is not needed, but we ate there several times in Dec on the Splendor along with about 18-20 others. On the Navigator also Dec we ate there again several times with about 2 dozen people. The menu was the same every night, but not s problem there as the lamb chops and ribs were wonderful! We eat early and did notice everyone else out there were seated by 7:30. The pool grill is needed on the Navigator in on port days in warm weather, probably not so much on the new ships though. Maybe they can rethink this as feature for the ships without all the dinning choices. After all they are leaving it in place for this year world cruise and we begged for it to be open on the Navigators WC.

I posted as you saw a couple of daily programs. The menus are much the same as on the Regent site. We had suite 706, great location as we were in the shade everyday and used the balcony a lot. Except the last two days heading back to Miami. But you will miss that. Loved having room service snacks..cheese tray and drinks on the balcony in the afternoon. The room service regent club and hamburgers were very good also. Good cabin location, easy to get anywhere in the ship from the center bank of elevators. I think Bridget will be your stewardess, she was great … couldn’t do enough for us and always so friendly.

I said I would do a comparison of the newest and the oldest after our trip so I guess this will be it. It is personal and you may feel differently, I know many do. Others have a lot more time with Regent than we do at just -250 days. We have sailed on most major mass market ships and SS, Seabourn and Regent over the last 40 years. And we have sailed recently on a couple of the newer mass market ships. Our favorite ships now are the Navigator and the Mariner for the over all experience. Next are Seabourn Sojourn and her sisters. We do not like cruises of less than three weeks. We proved this again to ourselves this Dec with 17 days on the Splendor and then the following 14 days on the Navigator. I am the wrong person to ask about a sailing on the old or the new because I/we would do a cruise to Asia on the Navigator, we spent 137 days in her on a WC, in a heart beat! but never on the three new ships, Splendor and her sisters. Once on the Splendor this past Dec was enough, we did not enjoy that cruise like we usually do. She has some nice additions but those don’t make up for her short comings. It has nothing to do with staff quality or food quality, they were the same excellent quality on both ships. But for cost verses experience I would spend my money on a top suite on a mass market ship where there were no exclusions on things like dinning in specially restaurants. To me the suite class differences are more apparent on Regents larger ships. Why then….yes she is a beautiful glitzy, fancy ship to look at but she doesn’t function as well due to lay out and is more impersonal due to her size. She is beginning to feel like the big mass market ships. And look like them in the lay out of spaces. ( the LaVeranda was the same plan a Carnival ship we have sailed on several times and the elevators or placed like on RCL) I know she has great art work and lots of marble but that is just so much fluff. We have always said anything over 650 passengers or so is too big. We like the personal touch and the friendliness of the staff when there are less people for them to deal with. Sure they call you by name on all the ships in the dinning rooms where they know your suite #, but on the dock or passing in the hall? It is a feeling a smaller ship has, that is lost with over 700. Also the dinning is different with the more specially restaurants. Certain dishes and wines are assigned to certain restaurants. It is harder for waitstaff to get to know you preferences with more places to dine. Where as on the Navigator all you had to do was to ask and it appeared in Compass Rose. Not this is reserved for xyz. Maybe we would get it maybe not. On the Navigator Daily things like ice in our water glasses after the second day, it just appeared as long as we sat in the same section which we do. When booking our next cruise on board last week I did notice that the new ships are doing more 7-10 cruises cruises from home (US) ports and sone other popular places, to me another thing more like the mass market ships. another slight shift in marketing. These are our personal feelings, we pick our cruises for the ship as much as anything any more. But we will stick with Alaska or Canadian itineraries or maybe Grand Voyages as opposed to the Caribbean. Everyone has different things that are important to them for their vacation. That is why there are so many cruise ships. Regent has to navigate a mine field to stay afloat, let’s hope they can continue to appeal to their base and not try to grow too much or too fast. That has been a death knell for many companies.

We were both divers as long as we could go with out risk. I suggest you do one of the submarines especially if your partner is not a water fan. We loved diving but still like to see what’s down there even though we.no longer dive. They are fun Our non diving adult family members enjoy the subs and it gives us something to talk about.. Often we have seen divers especially the subs that go to a wreck. The dive usually goes down to about 100 ft so you get the color change, it’s air conditioned with a porthole for everyone for good viewing. But you are not on the actual sub too long about 30 or so mins. Cozumel is a.great one, you glide along the ocean shelf. We have also done the Hawaii ones.

On the Splendor out of Miami this Dec Named suites were ready about 1PM the rest were ready about 2:30. On the Navigator Holiday cruise the names suites were ready about 1 and the rest were ready about 2. chech in on both cruises was a breeze. Some other ports not so much…depends on the port people.

The Navigator is different from Regents other ships in a good way. But you have to like a small ship. Glad my report was of help. I tired to include some info on the tours offered. We don’t do pure bus tours(though they are more geared to our stamina). There are several beach tours on most islands if you like that and many did…..also sailing tours looked good. Most ports had an interaction with sea life also. We really enjoyed the one we did. Just be aware that the buses are small and tight, Transportation is not the best, but the people were friendly and the Islands pretty! Have a good time!

We got home last night. Safe and sound. Thanks for reading, now all I have to do is turn this into a memory book! We booked another Amazon cruise while on board. Something to look forward to! Peggy have a great time on the WC. Let us know how many WCers are on. It started sold out at first but I think I heard they opened some .segments. It should be interesting with so many doing the whole trip!! Have Fun!!! Carolyn

Thank you. Dick is just a little banged up but is not to sore anymore. We are having our last breakfast in the room and waiting for wheelchair assist…for me…should be here about 8 and then we taxi to the car rental and then make the trek home. We docked about 7 right on schedule.

Now we have had two sea days. There have been 3 lectures and trivia to entertain Dick. Though his team hasn’t done well recently so I guess Jack doesn’t get another visor. We ate lunch at the pool grill yesterday. It was.very nice outside. And there were plenty of empty loungers available if you wanted one and the deck had room to move around.. This was so different on the Splendor. The deck was packed with loungers to the point it was hard to move around and there was a terrible problem with chair hogs to the point you heard complaints in the bars and reminded that the loungers could not be reserved. I packed most everything yesterday except what we need on the 3-4 day drive home.makes the last day move relaxed to have that done!. krew Kappers was last night was was fun as usual. We ate in Setti Mari last night. We enjoy that restaurant. We like the set up there better than on Splendor also. On the Navigator it does not look like every ship’s buffet restaurant we have been to. etiday we are just enjoying the lasts!!! Last eggs Benedict, last having everything done for us!! It will be hard going home!

Our last port of all was Philipsburg, St Maarten on Jan 2. We had picked a tour that would have taken us to both sides of the island, the French and the Dutch. Our TAs travel group also was providing us with a tour which we turned down because it started at 8! Well, as it happened the ships tour canceled at the last minute. That was disappointing but as it turned out we could not have done a tour period. Dick had fallen on sone rocks at the plantation site the day before and was very banged up.So we made it a sea day and watched the fabulous yachts come and go in the bay from our balcony which was nicely shaded and breezy all day. Boy there were some beauties! At 6:30 we hobbled down to Compass Rose where we had arranged with Rishnu for my favorite dish shrimp tempura. It was just as good as we remember from the WC. It tuned out to be a fine day of just doing nothing after days of touring. That why we like lots of sea days mixed with a few ports, not qthe other way around. It’s hard to not feel like you must do something.

In answer to the pool deck, here are some pictures of the Navigator pool deck yesterday on a sea day afternoon about 2 in the Caribbean. Plenty of loungers unlike like on the Splendor two weeks earlier lounge hog were a definite orioles.

Yes most people if they do a tour on Regent do the ship ones. After all you are paying for them. Sone people just walk around in the port and a few do private but not many. If you have done the ship tours on the bigger ships you can tell when they are going to be a bust. We have been on a month now (-16 ports) and if we toured did a ship one. (About half the ports) There are all kinds of tours, we usually avoid the bus sightseeing. Go for wine tasting or food tours. Or the ones marked strenuous are usually good.

At least on the Splendor earlier in Dec and in the Navigator now both out of Miami there is plenty of fresh fruit. There have been a hand full on wonderful ripe sweet strawberries in our room every day plus many choices in the food venues. It might be different in others parts of the world.

We visited James Fort, a Sugar , Devils Bridge and Long Bay Beach which was popular with families on this Sunday afternoon.

Happy New Year! The ship was very quiet today. Not many people up for breakfast. We are in StJohns Antigua today. The nominally busy pedestrian shopping street is empty and many shops are closed. Ships tours are running though and the Seabourn Sojourn is beside us. Today we had one of the best tours so far…..photograph Antigua. It was an afternoon tour so we met in the pier. After another argument with the same clueless destinations person from the other day we got to the bus. The guide was wonderful and we visited four scenic places where he gave us lots of information on how to improve our pictures even using a cell phone! We were dead tired after we got back to the ship so we had drinks in the room from our room supply and ordered hamburgers with all the trining, sat in the balcony and were entertained by competing bands at the open air water front bars. We sail at 10 but we won’t see the sail away!

He se two different entrees for us. I don’t care for the sea bass but Dick loves it. I love lobster but he doesn’t. Than goodness for choices!!!

We, that is the ship celebrated hardy last night. Ray and friends had a pre dinner, show pre dinner dancing, a wonderful dinner, an after dinner show and finally dancing on the pool deck. At the stroke of 12 the Captain blew the ships horn officially ringing in the New Year! I hear the horn as I watched fireworks on TVr we we aa but the rest of my company was sound asleep!

On our cruises they have restocked with local wines, beer and even some sodas. Though I sm not a fan of the Asian version of ginger ale! It will curl your hair!

Thank you for kind words. Happy New Year to you too. Carolyn