jeb_bud

4 hours ago, vegasdriven said:

Hi all! Back again with some more pondering over the flight booking. I have sent in options to my TA, and she will start the process on June 10.

 

Just wondering at what point if we are paying an up charge it would be an idea to book the flights ourselves in order to receive points on those flights- for instance, if we are originally charged 3000 with an up charge of 2000 (for a total cost of $5000), and the cost to book the flight ourselves is $6000 do you think the $1000 difference would be justified to be able to obtain those airline points?

 

I guess I have to take into consideration also having lounge access, and ability to choose seats.

 

We will be flying in at least 3 days before our pre cruise excursion.

 

I think I might have just talked myself into this idea, but would love to get input from you all.

I wouldn’t assume that you won’t get frequent flyer miles on a Regent-booked flight. Our Regent Air has always been on United or other Star Alliance. We got our miles for these trips. American changed their rules as mentioned earlier but I saw a report a few days ago that due to the “feedback” they received they reversed the change. 

When are you cruising?

On 6/4/2024 at 10:25 AM, irishwitchy said:

Raising Arizona was where my head was.  I can tell You have never heard anyone say this in New Jersey! 

Actually my mother was from New Jersey but the saying came from my father who was from Arkansas. 

20 hours ago, GMIAC said:

And if a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its ass a-hoppin'.  

When I was a kid, way before 1980, if I used the word “If” my dad would say that, except he said “If a bullfrog had wings…”. This is the first time I have encountered this saying outside my family!

Regent has a list of prohibited items in their FAQ. Alcohol is not on the list. 
 

In years past it was possible to submit a request via your TA, or maybe the butler request form if you have a butler, for non standard liquors. I think they required a few weeks notice. If they could get it for you they would, possibly with a surcharge depending on the price. 

The only difference I can see between what Regent has been doing for the last year or so and what they will start next month is the inclusion of the Blacklane “benefit”. Your interpretation may turn out to be correct but the words in the announcement leave plenty of room for my interpretation as well. 
 

When we choose to deviate we take in the risk of a higher price for air travel. But we don’t have to deviate. No matter how complex your cruise itinerary is, your flight itinerary was a simple open jaw. 

I can’t help with the hotel question. Our first cruise on Regent was Vancouver to Seward. We booked the six hour Kenai Fjords cruise and it was the best water excursion of the trip. The six hour tour goes further from Seward and most of the wildlife was in the more remote part. 

2 hours ago, ysolde said:

One of the things we liked about Regent was the fact that if we liked a cruise, we knew the price as soon as we figured out our cabin category.  It did not matter whether we lived in NYC (as we used to) or in Scottsdale (as we now do).  You booked your cruise and you paid your price.  You would get international business and domestic economy (often upgradeable, if you had status with the airline booked).  It was part of Regent's all-inclusive ethos: one fare.

 

Now, it seems, booking on Regent will be no different than booking on Norwegian.  Want a flight with that?  No problem!  Tell Regent where you live, and they will price out an economy flight for you.  Want business class? No problem!  You'll have to pay for that, of course.  Just as if you were cruising on NCL.  Or any other mass market cruise line.

 

What's next?  Drinks packages?

I think you’re conflating Regent’s included air, which is part of the all inclusive fare, and deviating, which is a decision the passenger makes after the booking is completed. I don’t recall reading any complaints about Regent adding a surcharge to a booking that used the included air. 
 

Deviating is harder to do without a surcharge due to issues already covered on this thread but extrapolating that to not being able to know your price anymore seems a little extreme. We have two cruises in Europe booked for next year. I’ll be interested to see if deviating or booking on my own is the best way to go by then. 

We’ll be boarding on the 12th. Who is the CD?

19 hours ago, eric4395 said:

I noticed  prime 7  & chartreuse both on level 10 side by side looking much the same set up. Any reason for chartreuse in particular. 

It’s entirely subjective. Chartreuse just feels a little more “fancy” to me. If you choose Chartreuse the mushroom soup is mmm-mmm good. 

I agree with @papaflamingoon this. If I could only book one extra dinner it would probably be at Pacific Rim but if I want a special dining experience I would choose Chartreuse. And I would ask for a table by the aft windows. 

58 minutes ago, TheShag said:

To add, there were a couple other non-upcharge options outbounds but they had either a 45 minute layover in LAX or a 1.25hr layover in ORD. Again, with what I read on these boards, a bit too risky at that time of the year especially when I look at on-time performance stats. Am I being too risk adverse?? Should I be calling them before my 3 day time limit is up and tell them to 'try harder'?

 

I don’t think you’re being too risk averse at all!  Between continuing labor shortages and changing weather patterns these short connections are getting more and more stressful. In the last couple of years we have made several short connections mostly through dumb luck(a broken plane had to be replaced for example). The good luck got balanced out last month when we missed a connection by about five minutes and had to spend the night in Denver. 
 

we have a couple of European cruises next year and I’m looking for three hour connections where I can find them. 

20 hours ago, Pcardad said:

Retrofitting malfunctioning sliding doors in multiple suites is probably a drydock issue. I am sure the ship's senior crew have reported it...not much else they can do.

I don’t know about that. Thinking back to the “whistling doors” complaints when Explorer and Splendor were new, it seems to me that the issue faded away well in advance of any dry dock. I got the impression that onboard maintenance and adjustment largely resolved the issue. 

10 hours ago, Lady Meer said:

Tea needs to be made with boiling water - not just ‘hot’ 😳!

Now I know. 

If you run the coffee maker without a pod you will get hot water. I don’t know if that would be appropriate for tea but it would be hot. 

Did you book your air through Regent?  If Regent booked the flight they will definitely get you to the airport on time. If you arranged your own flights they will probably still take care of you but might require some extra focus on your part to make it so. 

If you read through this thread you will see some examples of shoreside experiences for world cruisers. 

On 5/9/2024 at 11:04 AM, mnocket said:

Somehow I was under the impression that there was some benefit to using Chase's travel department to book.  I'll have to research that as I'm considering breaking my "never book flights thru a TA" rule for an upcoming overseas Business Class booking.  I'm not experienced with booking with points and I'm a bit apprehensive about moving my points from CSR to an airline and then finding that the airline doesn't have frequent flyer seats available for my desired flight. I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on this.

The benefit to using Chase’s travel department is that your points have extra value, e.g. $5,000 worth of points has $7,500 of value at booking time. There are some internal pricing shenanigans that need to be taken into account but my experience has been that using Chase has usually been cheaper than booking with airline points. Of course and as always, YMMV. 

I have been on Voyager once, last May departing from Athens. A great time to cruise that area, not too crowded and especially not too hot. We were in a Penthouse so not exactly the same as you. 
 

We had a small number of US sockets, mostly European. We carry a three-socket terminal strip(non-surge protected) and multiport charger and needed them on this cruise. No USB charger ports as I recall. I think there was a US shaver socket in the bathroom. 

We have been on several Small Group tours and have had none of the issues @SWFLAOK mentioned. Might have been itinerary-based. 
 

I don’t know how much influence Regent has over the port tour operators and whether they will stagger bus departures. 

16 hours ago, CardowMD said:

Where are you staying in Istanbul? I have a Navigator cruise booked in early November, staying at Intercontinental and will look for feedback on my choice.

hope they clean everything out so you have a safe journey!

We stayed there for a night post-cruise last year. We liked the hotel. It isn’t walking distance from the tourist areas but there are plenty of taxis. 

17 hours ago, edgee said:

OP's opening sentence says he checked airline site.

First, that’s not what the opening sentence says. 
 

I can be pretty literal minded, which I considered a positive characteristic as an engineer. Maybe not so much as a poster on Cruise Critic 😜. I didn’t think the opening post was completely clear about whether they had verified that the record locator still existed or had disappeared. 

Can you access your booking on the airline’s site?  If so then you can relax. Sometimes due to site maintenance or ??? Booking details disappear from the Regent site only to reappear later. 

A travel router is probably a better idea but another option to get multi connections to the internet might be to use your cellular device to connect to the cellular at sea service. Although expensive I think Regent does supply a cell signal while at sea. ATT offers a plan for cruisers and your carrier probably does too. 
 

I have no idea how good the cellular at sea service is. My only experience is using it as a reminder to go into Airplane mode. 

They have applesauce in La Veranda?