DeepFreeze63

On 4/17/2024 at 11:54 AM, JJean said:

Wondering if it is necessary to buy a travel card for just 2 days or easier to just pay

by the trip. Not sure yet how we are getting from the airport to hotel.

Just back from 14-night, Tokyo to Tokyo cruise PLUS 15 nights ashore on our own. Japanese cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka) are inundated with tourists! - locals and Westerners - as well as a large population! You don't NEED an IC card for 2 days BUT depending where and what you are doing on your full day, some Yen could be very convenient, to avoid long lines at Travel kiosks.

On 4/4/2024 at 5:34 AM, toseaornottosea said:

Looking for a luxury hotel in Tokyo for pre-cruise stay.  Suggestions welcome including best areas to stay.

Stayed at Tokyo Station  Hotel for 3 nights in early April - absolute luxury -but at a price. Book through hotel web site. Marvelous experience; terrific location for access to Imperial grounds, Ginza, and JR Maranote trains that circle Tokyo. Quiet; heard NO noise despite adjoining station handling hundreds of trains per day.

Forgot to mention! Am now in Taipei and taking Regent Air flight (UA) home - 19 days after disembarking from Explorer in Tokyo.

We have done 28 Regent cruises; except when I was able to snag reasonable FF flights, I have always used Regent Air and deviated.  We do live in a major hub area; that is a help.   Only once, I had difficulty with the Regent offerings; getting to Santiago, Chile. Didn’t like the Regent offerings; cancelled that cruise.

On 3/22/2024 at 4:53 AM, GMIAC said:

 

 

I'm not afraid to do touring and trains on my own, but I do want to see Osaka Castle, so I might just have to suck it up and stick to the tour that's offered. 

We visited Osaka Castle on a sunny day - great photo ops, magnificent signage in English, very interesting history displayed. Plan on about 2 hours inside and maybe a 1/2 hour wait to ticket machine. Top floor view not as good as I expected due to netting and safety bars. 
Came from Kansai airport by train& subway - right to entrance to castle park (vast). Information booths have detailed instructions on specific trains& transfers.
 

We were on the March 18th cruise. Had aGREAT time at the Toyota Museum in Nagoya. Mind blowing visuals, equipment and signage. Regent only allocated an our - should have been 2 hours!

On 4/3/2024 at 9:23 AM, forgap said:

Day Four - Tokyo to Kanazawa to Kaga

 

We arrived at the main Tokyo train station bright and early to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kanazawa.  It was a mass of humanity

 

and we quickly secured our bento box lunch for the ride and navigated to our platform where the train arrived and left exactly on time.  

 

 

The ride took us through Nagano, the site of the Winter Olympics, and the majestic mountain range in the distance.  

Kanazawa was spared from allied bombing during WWII so there are many picturesque districts dating back to the Edo and Meiji eras.    Our first stop was the Kenrokuen Garden, originally the outer garden of the Kanazawa castle.  This was an exquisite garden, reported to be one of the most beautiful in Japan.  

 

 

i was most impressed with the manicured moss, painstakingly attended by devoted staff.  

 

The trees were shaped into living sculptures, often supported by wooden beams to save them from the winter winds and snow.   

 

Kanazawa is located between the Japanese alps and the Sea of Japan, so it is known for its very rainy climate.   The winds blow from the north west (Siberia), and pictures of the winter landscape were beautiful and austere.

Kanazawa is also known for its production of gold leaf which is used in much of the Japanese decorative arts.  We visited a gold leaf workshop which was very interesting to see the process of fabricating paper thin sheets of gold.  We then went up to the classroom area and made our own gold leaf decorated chopsticks.   This will be such a nice keepsake!  

 

 

Of course, there was a gift shop with some absolutely beautiful things to buy, but difficult to bring home in one piece. 
 

In the late afternoon, we finally arrived in Kaga.  Our Ryokan was a modern building bordering a lake but done in a spare, beautiful, Japanese aesthetic.

 

Our guide instructed us in the required etiquette, including how to tie our yakuta, when and where to go shoeless, how to place our shoes in the shoe case, and how to navigate the onsen - no bathing suits allowed, birthday suits required. 
 

Our kaiseki dinner was incredible.  I lost count of the number of courses we were served.  We waddled out.  I had to remind my husband that he needed to monitor his gaping yukata.  No flashing allowed in a kaiseki dinner!  

 

 

A final note- Georges had a close encounter of the third kind!  Not with aliens, but with an alien toilet!  The Japanese are known for their wonderful Toto toilets.  They are everywhere, both in public and private venues.  They heat the seat, play music to mask unmentionable noise, and clean your nether regions.  In the ryokan, he mistook a flashing button for the flush, got spayed in the face, couldn’t turn it off and yelled for help.  I couldn’t turn it off either and the bathroom was quickly flooding.  I finally unplugged the damn thing and showed him the flush which, remarkably, looked EXACTLY like the flusher we know and love.  

Web have been in Japa n for 3 weeks and have had some “ near Today DW used a public facility and photoed a sign over the commode that stated: “Please do not stand on seat.”

49 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

Two new ships will be hybrid so they can go into Norwegian fjords and other protected waters.  Voyager will be gone in 2026. 

Great news on new ship! Mary and I will(hopefully) spend our 65th anniversary on its Maiden.

Just completed 3 days at Tokyo Station Hotel. Magnificent stay! Beautiful venue, great location for: imperial grounds, easy access to Ginza, and Yamanote line that circles Tokyo. Extremely helpful staff, especially during our medical difficulty.

Surely can’t promise it, but we (by dumb luck), got to see the Emperor,s horbse-drawn carriage take the Ambassador from Honduras from the Hotel’s imperial section toward the Imperial Palace.

20 hours ago, mwike said:

We're doing one in 2025 and has the typical overnight in Kobe.  After reading this thread, I'm thinking it would be best to get a hotel in Kyoto instead of staying on ship in Kobe.    We could take a small backpack to get us through one night.  I just don't want to waste 6 hours traveling if it's 1 1/2 hours each way, each day.  Any thoughts/suggestions for this plan?

Great idea! Had planned an overnight in Kyoto but first day in Kobe was cancelled because of high winds. Had a reservation in hotel in Gion section of Kyoto for one night. Got permission from to leave ship for overnight. Getting around Kyoto with out a car is time consuming; plan to at least use a taxi between major sites. Bring Yen to expedite ticket purchases at sites, etc

Am on Explorer now. have had no difficulties with Destinations; they greatly helped with our private an tour of Kyoto.  They have handled the mechanics of getting us (including 295 "new-to- Regent") passengers out the door efficiently.

On 10/30/2023 at 3:58 PM, Snowcat1 said:

We are looking to book a cruise around Japan in 2025. I see that Regent has several cruises that include Japan. I would like to hear from people who have done one of the Regent Cruises in Japan, about which cruise itinerary they chose, why and would they recommend it. Thanks

Are presently on 14-day Tokyo to Tokyo - a marvelous experience! We wanted the 14-day in order to visit Korea (first time) and Shanghai  (return after 27 years); otherwise, I'd have taken the 12-day all in Japan cruise.

We had previously (2017) spent 3 nights in Tokyo with regent pre-cruise excursion. This time. we went 4 nights early to decompress after 14 hour flight and 13 hour time zone change. Stayed ON OUR OWN in Odaiba (where regent put passengers not on pre-cruise excursion). Grand Nikko Daiba was very nice and located in interesting entertainment district with easy monorail access to both downtown Tokyo and Tokyo Cruise Terminal.

We are taking the included past-cruise "Vibrant Tokyo". With post-cruise excursion, well arrive wide-a-awake and have a full first day.

We rented a private van (we had 4 people) with guide for Kyoto (from Kobe port). Expensive but in 8 hours we visited the 5 most popular sites and had an exterior visit to Osaka castle.

I'll write a trip report on my return home in mid-April (we spent 2 weeks in Japan and a week in Taipei after the cruise.

On Explore now. Shanghai tomorrow as part of 14 day cruise to /from Tokyo. Our 28th Regent cruise; 6th on Explorer. Having, as usual, a great experience. 295 "new-to- Regent" passengers on board.

We have a 61 day "Grand Asia" cruise booked on Explorer in early 2026, which we are eagerly looking forward to.

4 hours ago, crusin7 said:

We had a wonderful dinner in Compass Rose with our other Dennis groupies!  @MarinerLad Patrick and Ross and Patty and Gerry.  We were lucky enough to have Massimo and Nino join us.

 

Great! This could be a poster response to questions about dress code at dinner in CR. Women dressier than men. Men in collared shirts (with long sleeves and sweaters for the chilly venues) and chinos and slacks

Love this threads; thanks to posters.

On 2/16/2024 at 7:30 PM, GDTBATH said:

I signed up for the salmon bake in Juneau, but I'd like to exchange for another excursion. How to I change it? I'm a newbie and having a hard time figuring the website out. Thanks for helping.

 

It's easy. I have done it many times and am preparing to change two excursions for a 12/2024 cruise.

For us in the U.S., call 877-5055370 for the Regent call center; follow the prompts; have your Booking number ready; tell the Regent rep the date(s) of the changes and which excursion(s) that you now want. Oh yes, don't be connected to "My Account" on the Regent website. If space is available; change will be made while you're on the phone.

Ps: I've done the salmon bake excursion in Juneau - an enjoyable event at an attractive outdoor/indoor venue (supposedly a place where gold was discovered) near downtown.

Amen, Amen

29 minutes ago, mj_holiday said:

The ship provides the detergent and this is done so there is little impact to the ocean after the water get run through the various cleaning processes before getting put in the ocean.

On the Grandeur, Regent provides detergent BUT it is not automatically added to the machine so maybe you could use the Tide modules.

Almost didn't give away this tip. There is a tailor on board. Tailoring is NOT an included item but is at a very competitive price AND this tailor comes to your "home"! have used this service on about 5 cruises and results have always been satisfactory.

Another included fun item, not mentioned often, are postcards from Reception Desk. Also, Regent pays postage and mails - been sending to grandchildren and friends for years - they often arrive after we have been home for weeks.

We have cruised in 608 on the Grandeur (and also on Explorer and on Splendor); love location. Will again be in 608 on Grandeur in 2024 and on Splendor in 2025.  Very quiet - 606 is even further from elevators and hardly anyone takes the forward stairs. Can't remember any crew other than infrequent Officers coming out from forward crew access. I think all forward cabins can hear the dropping of the anchors and the tender operation; the latter we regard as photo ops.

Something that I noticed in both our two Grandeur cabins (foreward and aft) - I could hear (faintly) the TV in the adjoining cabin when I sat on the sofas. Didn't have that experience on Explorer or Splendor.

Several times, I tried for an up-sell to 606 - haven't been successful YET!

Same here. No downside and many advantages to using a TA experienced with Regent.

5 hours ago, Winemaker_1 said:

We're looking at some upcoming Regent sailings.  Is the upgrade to Concierge class from an F2 or G2 worth it?  What's your experience?  Thanks in advance.

Have done 26 Regent cruises and made many decisions between F and E cabins. Until I hit "Platinum" status, I considered: 1) the price differential vs. deviating ($175 p.p.) on my own and 2) coming in a day early (which is the minimum that I do) and getting to the port vs. using Regent's transport and hotel night (included in an E price). I've never gone D as being a "poor sailor", I want to be as low in the ship as possible.  Have only been E for sailings on the new ships out of Southampton and Athens unless I was lucky enough to snag an "up-sell" at a great price.

It would be hard for me to take a G cabin if an F was available!!

I was on the ship for 21 days BUT your photos are great, no people. Thanks.

1 hour ago, Tsunami74 said:

On upcoming April's trans Atlantic cruise on the Grandeur, when we booked much of it was waitlisted, so we upgraded to a pent house (first time!) but the only available one was on deck 6.  

I especially enjoy sitting on the veranda watching the ocean.  However, someone said that the verandas on the lower decks are often unusable due to sea spray.

Has anyone been on deck six in any of the newer (Grandeur, Explorer, Splendor) ships?  Did you find that to be true?

That would be so disappointing

Just off Grandeur in Cabins 608 and 662; did TA on Splendor in April 2023. Sat/slept on verandah almost every day that temperature would allow but wasn't out there during rough seas (we hit 3 significant storms). ps: Those usual big, blue, heavy wool blankets weren't available on Grandeur TA ("they haven't arrived yet"); weren't available on pool deck either I got 2 long velour "blankets" that were more like large towels!

We had a terrific fun and interesting activity on the Grandeur TA that will probably be repeated on the cruises between Miami and LA - an Art Scavenger Hunt. About 54 items of ship's art /decor to be located via clues from photograph snippets. Not easy but a terrific way to appreciate what thought went into the Grandeur's outfitting. Developed by Asst CD.

We didn't have any Formal Optional on the TA. Yes no tuxes on guests but many jackets.

Our experience is much dressier when FO - a few tuxes but almost all men in sport coats (and even suits) and many ties.

For Christmas and New ears, it's all out shine!