jeb_bud

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.

Checked luggage.

Same thing May 8-14. Maybe a lot of work to do this spring?

I bring along a bubble-wrap wine carrier for that very purpose.

Paying with OBC is automatic. If you select a Regent Choice excursion and you have enough OBC to pay for it Regent just does it. As I recall you need to enter your CC information to pay by card, although my memory is a little vague on that point. As rallydave said it’s best to check out every so often while selecting excursions. I do it every few free excursions and after every paid excursion.

The list of spreadsheets is in Post #1 at the top of the first page of this thread. Click the double left arrow to the left of “PREV” on the page list.

The Regent website doesn’t show all available cabins unless the ship is nearly full. They show six or seven cabins for each search. You can get more data by selecting decks and port/starboard but if there are more than six rooms available in any category you won’t get a full count.

Dave, I think maybe you don’t understand how Regent brochures are organized. At the back of the brochure is the contract, which is the legal document with the terms of the cruise. The front of the brochure is marketing hyperbole, not actually legally binding.

I won’t speculate on future promotions but I will note that the cost of canceling a booking more than 121 days before departure is only $100 per person, which can actually be applied to another booking. If you know when you would go but are not certain if you will be able to, you are only risking $200 to book it now and locking in a price you are comfortable with. If the deal gets better later I have found Regent willing to apply the new deal to my existing booking.

I NEED my service horse, and he can’t function properly without his comfort pig so…