jeb_bud

It’s the one on the left with the frosted glass. Auberge if you request sparkling water for your room it will be the clear one? The bottles are big and heavy; definitely a two-handed pour.

If you fly out of SFO and connect at another North American airport before flying over the ocean you may wind up in a coach seat on the domestic flight, especially if you change airlines. When we flew SFO-EWR-BCN in 2019 I requested that routing with the proviso that I only wanted it if the domestic leg was in first or business class. It helped that both flight were on United. United-Lufthansa in May also got us the domestic first class. Other combinations I don’t know.

Planning to arrive a day early sounds like a great idea. Traveling to and from our Athens to Istanbul cruise in May I had booked flights with what I thought was ample connection times and still it was dumb luck that we didn’t get delayed. Late arrivals were thankfully matched with delayed departures. Until the air travel industry gets straightened out we will always add time before cruises with intercontinental flights.

That’s what we do too. I like to get some Euros from an 🏧 after I arrive in Europe for tips and bathroom money. If I run out of Euros I fall back on dollars. Turkish tour guides happily accept both.

My experience has been that if I search for flights on an open-jaw itinerary my selection for the first flight determines which flights are displayed for the return leg. I have selected from dozens of choices for the outbound trip and been presented as few as four choices for the return home. I now search each direction as a one-way trip to get the maximum number of options. I don’t think Regent Air cares one way or the other. When I was a young man a round trip was always cheaper than two one-ways. In today’s world it doesn’t seem to make as much of a difference.

I’ve noticed that too. I have changed my embarkation day routine to go through our excursion tickets and check the excursion flyer in the suite for changes in exertion levels. We do occasionally change our plans based on this new information.

Most, maybe all, of those items are for sale in the gift shop. Penthouse bathrooms have a men’s kit that I think includes shaving supplies.

In May on the Voyager dry cleaning ranged from $1.95 for a handkerchief to $19.95 for an evening dress or two-piece suit. A lot of items were in the $10.00 range.

I am under the impression that the lowest price guarantee expires after final payment. I seem to recall a live thread about a cruise post-COVID where there were a bunch of Brits who had booked a “bargain” cruise. The poster was not amused by their antics.

Some agents seem to look for the first available page to stamp and others just put the stamp wherever is convenient for them. On our Athens to Istanbul cruise in May we got stamped in Frankfurt(our first stop in the EU), Greece mid-cruise after a Turkey stop and in Istanbul as we disembarked. We had to surrender our passports while on the cruise for the first time in four Regent cruises.

I rinse our water bottles with hot tap water every evening and let them dry overnight. We take them with us on every excursion. When full they’re heavier than the disposable plastic bottles but so far it hasn’t affected us.

You call it a problem. I call it the reason I chose Regent in the first place.

I have flown restricted business class to/from cruises that included domestic legs in first class. In my case always on the same airline or alliance. Maybe the restriction refers to trips with mixed nonaligned airlines.

Yes, they are AirTags. TSA and the European equivalents have never said a word.

I put mine inside our luggage. They use Bluetooth so no cellular data.

We take the cash to avoid the risk of having credit card points deducted due to the “refund”.

GoArmy, was that refundable OBC in lieu of a rebate from your TA or something more? Our upcoming Mariner cruise in October had a promotion with a $1,000 non refundable OBC. I had our TA rebook with the promotion and now we’re trying to figure out what to do with it. I’ll look into if there will be a wine pairing lunch. Or maybe it’s time to buy some jewelry.

On Voyager last month the ship was thick with routers and access points. We had a router mounted to the wall behind the TV and it looked like every 40 feet or so there was an access point in the ceiling of the hallways. We had full bars everywhere I looked. speed was nothing to brag about but way better than our last two cruises on Explorer and Splendor.

I believe you’re right Wendy. For some that’s just fine but for others(like my wife and me) having to take turns might lead to marital strife. We’ll be Gold after our next cruise and then we can reevaluate the value proposition.

I don’t know the answer but it wouldn’t surprise me if you will be able. As a service to their American customers they will exchange dollars for euros on European cruises. It would not surprise me if, as a service to their European customers (and Americans with extra euros), they would exchange euros for dollars. In my experience the exchange rate is pretty bad though.

I know the dollars and cents don’t really add up but that’s a big part of why we have always booked at least Concierge.

Yes you can book “nonstandard” airports and extra days. We pay a modest surcharge to fly from/to our home airport which is not on Regent’s list.

The pool grill on Splendor has radiant heaters in the ceiling. Always warm enough to sit out, sometimes a little too warm.

Dinner will be indoors unless you choose to eat on the veranda at Sette Mari. The temperature in the restaurants is controlled by the thermostat. In my experience people wear the same clothes to dinner on an Alaska cruise as any other Regent cruise.

If you are staying in a hotel before the cruise you can probably also get some change at the hotel front desk. We did that last month in Athens. A hotel desk probably has some coins too.