jeb_bud

They should have euros but coins might be a stretch.

Might be a little pricey but how about this? Book a room at the Pan Pacific for the night before with prepayment. Keep your luggage in your room, get up early and debark as early as possible. Take the short walk to the hotel, do a late check in to your prepaid room and lead the meeting. Or maybe just book a meeting room at the hotel for the morning.

On Voyager last month Compass Rose was open until 9:30. The specialties were open until 9:00.

I think you need to provide a little more context to make this an answerable question.

I don’t remember but I will say it really doesn’t matter. You already have the room so you’re not competing with anyone. Regent gives you a few weeks to get checkin completed.

We cruised out of Barcelona in 2019, flying from SFO-EWR-BCN on United. The domestic leg was in First Class. We got into BCN in the morning and were in our hotel before noon which gave us some time to do some touristing before dinner and bed. If that routing is still available I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I showed our butler the shower and asked if the flow/pressure was normal. He said it wasn’t and told me would have it taken care of. By the time we returned from the show we had a new shower head and significantly higher water pressure in the bathroom.

We boarded Voyager on Sunday. Our experience was basically the same as my_holiday’s pre-COVID experience. Hotel check-out time was 11:00. We checked out, took a taxi to Piraeus port. Porters took our bags and we went inside and sat until around 11:30 when they started check-in. We were at the Pool Grill before noon. Our rooms became available a little after 2:00.

If you’re staying in a hotel in Barcelona before the cruise the front desk can break 100Euro bills into smaller denominations.

Probably no afternoon tea on embarkation day but the pool grill is generally open until 4:00pm.

We’re also on Voyager, our fourth Regent cruise but first on Voyager. Our shower pressure is a little weak but that’s the only negative thought I have about the ship or staff. I haven’t decided whether the shower is annoying enough for me to talk to the butler about it. Prime 7 the first night was excellent, food and service. We had a late lunch on our excursion in Santorini so we just ate appetizers in Compass Rose(plus desert of course). Last night was the Captain’s Welcome, which we skipped so we could beat the crowd at Sette Mare. There were maybe one or two empty tables in the first seating, then around 7:45 tables started clearing out for the second seating. Again food and service were great.

I think the F&B manager is on the management roster in your room.

That's not necessarily correct. If a tour provider tells Regent that they plan to be sufficiently staffed to provide the service, then comes clean at the last minute, Regent has no choice but to cancel at the last minute.

The H is 219 sf. The Gs are 253 sf.

The April 14 Athens to Istanbul cruise has many available categories. I think that's the one to which Pack Leader is referring. I don't know what the deal is. At the time most people were booking this cruise Greece was still requiring cruise passengers to test negative for COVID before boarding. That might have discourages some prospective guests. The return cruise from Istanbul back to Athens is waitlisted in every category. Go figure. Fifty empty suites is not good for Regent but to me it means easier access to the specialty restaurants and hopefully less-crowded excursions. I'm OK with that.

Since you're booking your own air you will also have to get yourself to the hotel. You can book the second hotel night on your own and then negotiate with the hotel staff over whether you can get the same room Regent reserved for you. I have heard of petting one room for the entire stay and also people having to move. The included hotel stay includes the transfer to the ship.

I don’t know when the deadline is but I do know you can wait a while after booking to decide. If I’m traveling internationally for the cruise I wait at least until the deviation window opens so I can do some price checking. If my flights are all domestic I just take the credit up front. I haven’t actually checked but the anecdotal evidence is that it’s cheaper to book my own first class domestic flights than use Regent Air to deviate into domestic first class.

Thanks Countess. I had searched under Regent and didn’t think to try RSSC. I downloaded the app just in case but I suspect our experience will be the same as cwn’s.

I just checked the App Store and there is no Regent app. The app is also no longer on my iPhone.

Cruising Librarian, how was the WiFi/internet during the cruise? We’re gettin on in May and after the recent reports about Explorer I’m curious.

Joining the waitlist gets you on the waitlist. Joining the waitlist and paying a deposit gets you higher on the waitlist. I don’t know if a larger deposit makes a difference. My only experience with a room waitlist is I have been on a waitlist for a Penthouse suite on Grandeur since last July and have heard nothing so far. We’re booked in a Concierge suite but after being offered an upgrade on Splendor last year we tried to upgrade the upcoming cruise but the ship was booked by then. Still keeping our fingers crossed.

Several guides used the system on our Splendor cruise last July. I found it very useful but also a little frustrating. Some people had trouble connecting which meant a few minutes at the beginning of each excursion of tech support. Then during the tour there would be occasional dropped connections, which could be fixed by reconnecting but was a hassle. I heard on this board in the following months that Regent quit using it while they work to make it more dependable or find a better option. I’m hard of hearing. On top of that I like to pause and look at things or finish reading a sign, so I can’t comfortably stay next to the guide. I hope Regent comes up with a good solution soon.

To each his own.

You mentioned that although you were booked in a Penthouse, which includes a pre-cruise hotel night, you were booked on flights that arrived on embarkation morning. Did you request that or did Regent just do it on their own?

I had a problem that might be similar to yours booking excursions for a cruise last year. I would get to the checkout step and nothing would happen. I eventually noticed a small error code in red nestled among the other text on the page. The error could not be cleared and I ultimately booked the excursion over the phone. I think I am on the same Grandeur cruise as you and had no trouble booking cooking classes. It seems like a somewhat random issue.