DeepFreeze63

Thanksgiving at sea. Turkey to be served in all passenger dining venues at dinner. Had "County Fair" on deck this AM - well participated in and great fun. Apparently hasn't been held recently on Voyager. Ate our dinner last night at Pool Grill for the first time in all our 22 Regent cruises (we made Titanium level at start of this cruise). It was a nice alternative as we wanted a quick, casual meal. Both the sausages and the steaks were grilled to perfection.

The "adventure" continues, another sea day added to itinerary as Ivory Coast stop cancelled at 10AM! Not clear from Captain's letter if cause was the port or us. Despite disappointments with port cancellations, the cruise continues to be enjoyable for us. Jam-packed with activities that we like and an affable group of fellow passengers.

Yeah! We spent yesterday in Banjul, the capital of Gambia as scheduled. Hot at 95F; lots of cars (many were older Mercedes); and lots of people (many were young), Interesting; highlight for us was meeting lovely school children near a mosque. Apparently, our shipboard account will eventually be charged 63 euros for a Gambian visa - Regent handled obtaining such. We now have 2 sea days before arrival in Cote D'Ivorie. Terrific having access to WC games. England vs. Iran was well attended - with English flags being supplied by a guest!

Correction to earlier post: CD John E. is on board for last 2 months of the World Cruise; Paul ? does the 1st two months. The husband/wife team, who had been CD & Social Hostess on WCs retired.

Navigation Officer says we will pass about 300 miles from Null Island. GM says that we will have an on-deck celebration when we pass the Equator several of the Production Cast have never sailed across the Equator - they get to kiss the BIG fish!

Entertainment continues to be terrific! last night's show was Piano Showman and the quest tenor collaboration - they got a standing ovation. Reference to a question - John E the CD departs soon to do the world cruise on the Mariner preceded by a vacation. 2nd stop in Cape Verde was BORING. Praia is the capitol and the biggest city of the 10 islands. Again, relatively clean and neat with bright colored buildings. BUT, on a Sunday morning everything but churches are closed - even the souvenir shops!

Yes, being shown in the Conference Room of the Voyager.

Our 2 stops in the Canary Islands were beautiful, interesting places. Cape Verde is relatively clean and neat with bright colored buildings but not very interesting. Saturday morning fish market in Minelo was fascinating for a short visit. The magician/humorist last evening was fabulous! CC said we have 638 guests aboard; the Voyager handles this number well. The passengers that we have met are well-traveled (but not necessarily with Regent) and very affable; makes for very enjoyable dinners (we always share dinner tables). We have been having a "civilized" breakfast often in CR. Extensive menu and attentive service but leisurely.

The "adventures" continue; Dakar was just cancelled - an extra day in Cape Verde was added. Other notables: newspapers are not yet back in the library, dinners with passengers are allowed for "non-licensed" staff, Voyager's computer room is spacious with 11 computers, 2 printers, and desk area for personal devices - Nice.

Yes, great time continues. Last night, Chris Hamilton "Piano Showman" performed - another wow for us. Tonight, it's a magician, we'll see. Trivia back at 4:30 every day, even on sea days. Haven't heard yet how many on board but I'm sure it's a big number. Cruise Consultant maintains that the Grandeur is on schedule. Block Party held last night - great fun. The tenor and the "piano showman" are in Cabin 713, our neighbors. Staff Captain ran the route in lieu of the Captain, Off now for a full sea day.

Our cruise continues as a Very Good (except for internet) to Great experience for DW and I. 2nd night of female vocalist and 1st night of British/Israeli tenor were both WOWs for us. Some barrel chairs being removed from theater; makes for easier and more efficient seating. Trivia being held in OL at 10 AM on sea days - controversial as this conflicts with a lecturer! Yesterday's winners had 15/15 with several 2nds doing 14/15. Today, several had16/16 and questions were not "trivial"!

Cruise going GREAT! CD John is very good organizer and very, very affable. Super directing Trivia - a packed house in Observation Lounge. Had Voyager's first Formal Optional night yesterday - very well attended. I saw about 6 white dinner jackets and about a dozen tuxes; almost everyone else was in sport coats with maybe a third wearing ties. English female vocalist on second night sang Dusty Springfield, Barbara Striesand (sp), Judy Garland etc. - a WOW for DW and I. Last night was first Production Cast show - high energy, great scenery, super choreography but voice quality was mixed. Tough performing songs of the great artist of our youth! Internet - SLOW.

Yes, as noted by Turn8A. Maitre'd La Verandah said "but only periodically".

TAP flight - We flew a TAP A321LRneo aircraft from Dulles to Lisbon using Star Alliance FF miles. It was a very satisfactory flight for DW and I. The aircraft is very small for transcontinental trip and had an unusual configuration. Business Class ("Executive") held 17 passengers and was configurated as 2-2, 1-1, then 2-2 etc. Seats, when flat, would only be comfortable for persons under about 5'10". Also, window seat passengers may have to climb over the aisle passenger in the 2-2 aisles.

Monday AM. Am now aboard the Voyager, my home away from home - great to be aboard after the CHAOS of the pre-cruise excursion. Venues and events were great BUT the hotel and the Regent contractor were not prepared to handle a group of about 150. Transport to/from the hotel involved using 1 14 passenger van (nice but small) to get downtown to board a 40 passenger bus. As embarkation was easy as our "morning "tour bus reached the port at 3:30. Process was very efficient with emphasis on passports, proof of vaccination, and Yellow Fever vaccination card (or waiver). No one looked at our Regent Boarding Passes! Public areas of the ship looks great but our F cabin is in need of refurbishment soon. Lots of new crew from when we were on the Voyager 6 weeks ago. John E is the CD and Ugo is the GM. We shared a table in Prime7 last night; very tasty meal and very enjoyable conversation (2.5 hours) with couples from London and from Oslo. Very nice international feel to passengers; CD said there are 150 Brits aboard.

Fun but chaotic day! Group overwhelmed the breakfast venue as half the tables were set up on a patio- beautiful but- Brrrr outside. Morning tour was 34 “tuk-tuks” , 4 passenger, electric, open-air. Vehicles. Had “whispers”. Our diver got separated from the main group on the downtown portion, so we winged it. Got back to the hotel (an oasis) about 2; now preparing for a group dinner with Fado.

we’re at the Lapa Palace hotel on the Regent pre-cruise tour(about174 of us). Beautiful property! Arrived at LIS at 5:15 AM. Had a VERY NICE direct flight on TAP- Yes really. I’ll post about the flight in the Sticky above in this forum. Had to wait about 30 minutes for our luggage. Regent reps were waiting; saw our baggage changed us into a private van. Wewere the first of the day to arrive and immediately got a beautiful rom overlooking an extensive garden surrounding the outdoor pool and the river -way to go Regent. The hotel is in a residential area; on the same street as the Chinese Embassy and around the corner from the U.S. Embassy. The Regent local contractor appears to be very efficient; we,ll see how they handle this big group.

We leave tomorrow evening for a B2B on the Voyager from Lisbon to Cape Town with return on 12/22. This includes a 3-night Regent pre-cruise excursion and 39 nights on-board – our longest cruise. I am starting this thread but, should some more extensive thread start (with photos and menus), I’ll piggy-back on it. We have had this cruise booked since 11/2020; developed a well-edited/modified set of notes (11 pages); and already experienced several “adventures”: do we have enough blank pages in our passports; do we need malaria meds; can we get Yellow Fever vaccinations; and, oh yes, also Regent “forgot to make payment for our return flight in time” so the airline cancelled it (Regent got us an acceptable substitute). I expect more interesting events as several of the African ports haven’t had cruise boats since before the pandemic and I have tracked only 2 ( German) cruise lines with 3 ships in southern African waters as yet this year. I just checked in for our non-stop flight from Dulles to Lisbon on TAP’s Airbus 321neo. We are using Star Alliance FF points going and Regent Air for return home. TAP has a spotty reputation but so far so great! Have spent hours on You Tube and TripAdvisor researching the aircraft, Lisbon (although, it is our 4th visit), and various ports. We’re taking 4 suitcases and 2 carry-ons, the most luggage that we have ever taken! We know from our 2 earlier 2022 cruises on the Voyager that we’ll need to store some stuff in a suitcase under the bed. The standard cabin (F) on Voyager has a terrific walk-in closet but sleeping/living area storage is minimal. The bath has plenty of storage (drawers and shelves) for personal sundries. We use the tub as a clothes hamper; we send out laundry almost every day. Happy to run down any questions that you have but expect very spotty internet will delay responses.

That works for 2023 but WC 2025 "starts" in either Miami or San Fran!

Hi: We're 85 & 82, frequent Regent cruisers who have done 2 Voyager cruisers in the last 4 months and leave in 10 days for 2 more Voyager cruises. In July, we cruised with a 16 year-old grandson and on our December cruise we will bring 2 adult children with us. I assume you will have 2 cabins with 2 in each. Regent will convert a normally king-size bed configuration to two twins if you choose. If 3 of you are in one cabin, the Penthouse-B layout is terrific (with the big sitting chair removed) - it worked wonderfully with 3 of us in one cabin for 15 nights the 5'10" grandson slept "like a log" in the pull-out sofa. There are still plenty of available cabins for the April Voyager TA. So, you can still change categories; just do it this year as prices will probably jump again on 1/1/2023. Your grandmother has made a nice choice in Concierge - it removes a lot of hassle. The Regent hotel is very nice, we stayed there for a Regent cruise in April 2022. I'd be happy to respond to questions now or when I'm back on the Voyager. This CC Forum has lots of good "stuff" for your planning.

We are with you on LIS to CPT and the pre-cruise excursion. It'll be our 23rd Regent cruise. My advice would be - relax; you'll have a nice cabin. As of a few minutes ago there were at least 9 unassigned E cabins and some Ds. Never had a GTY cabin but also have never heard of any GTY left behind but some GTYs reported that they only found out their cabin when they arrived at the ship. We will do on-line check-in tomorrow when its initially available. Won't you? See you at the hotel.

My guess is that there is a on-deck special dinner those nights.

Regent, our TA and Jason Montague told us that there would be "significant" price increases on October 1. Our booked cruises went up from $700 p.p. (2022 cruises), $800 p.p. (early 2023 cruises), $800 p.p. for Grandeur inaugural, and 1850 p.p. for 1/24 grand voyage. Wow - used to be about $100 p.p. every 3 months! Thankful that we booked earlier. While I was digesting these increases and the stock market swoon, I noticed Regent had 4 FULL pages of ads in the Wall Street Journal. Oh well, as a Brit informed me years ago, many of us are SKI-ers.

The ship is kept cool. I am always cold in the public areas and bring a sweat shirt for days and nice sweaters for dining areas. Breakfast areas outside near the pool are sheltered from the wind but open on the aft deck.

Pretty easy to determine which have larger balconies.. The Deck plans on the Regent website (Our Ships, Deck Plans) show the comparative size of EACH cabin.