the_dylaness

Greetings, We're sailing in 8 days on the Pursuit, Barcelona to Venice. I've been searching the boards to find the answer to this question but have been unsuccessful, so I'll ask here. All of our shore excursions are privately booked. A few require payment in cash. While we are happy to bring some Euros with us, we wanted to know if it is also possible to purchase some at the purser's desk *AND*.... if we do, must it be purchased in USD or can we charge it to our credit card? I'd rather not carry $2k equivalent in any currency around, and since we aren't exactly sure how much we need for tips, extras, etc, we don't want to change over too much USD to Euro and then have to also pay the conversion rate again on the way back. Thank you for any advice.

We booked concierge specifically for this reason... since we have never sailed Regent I understood we had NO status so wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to book the things we were interested in. Sette Mari sounds lovely!

agree on all points but not sure it is 100% generational… I am not yet 40 and abhor dragging my phone around on a cruise!

Unfortunately I don’t think it is overnight in port… but that does sound lovely!

Thank you for that info- we are a party of two. Maybe 8pm would be ideal if we want to make other events?

I think it's great to have an app as an additional option- like Mike said, not replacing anything, but just more info in more places. Like many on this thread, I come on a cruise to get as far away from my phone and technology as possible. We took our school-aged kids on a Royal Caribbean cruise (seemed like a good idea at the time...) in January. I was really disappointed that in most (all?) bars you could not get a printed menu to order a drink- QR code only. I don't carry my phone around the ship and don't want to do so. Also, if I'm at the pool, where am I even supposed to put the thing? Insanity. I would never sail them again anyway because we did not find it to be a great experience but honestly the "phones for everything" situation was just awful.

Hello all, Dining reservations for our Grandeur cruise will open soon. As I understand it, we can book one of each specialty restaurant (Prime 7, Chartreuse, and Pacific Rim) in advance. Is this accurate? Our cruise is fairly port intensive but I happen to have a birthday on one of the sea days. Looking at the menus, I think that Chartreuse is most likely the restaurant I'd like to celebrate in, but wondering if there are other "sea day" things (special chef's tables, etc) I should take into account instead? Best suggestions for ways to spend a birthday on a sea day on Regent welcome!

My cruise leaves in 11 days and I still have NONE of those items 😞 I am glad they are doing well looking forward but I feel caught in the middle.

So sorry to hear this! I broke my foot and was in a boot for a 2.5 hour flight some years ago... but I also had my 3 month old baby with me. I was at TSA for approximately... forever? They made me take off the boot to put through the scanner, and since I couldn't bear any weight I had to basically hobble through on one foot while also holding the baby, after having also broken the stroller down so it could be put through the scanner. They refused to break the stroller down for me, so I had to sit on the floor, put my baby on my lap, break the stroller down, stand back up while holding the baby, and then wrangle the stroller into the scanner. It was not great but the rest of the trip was fine! You will be ok 🙂 Good luck. (PS that baby is now 12 and is reading this over my shoulder, editing it for me!)

In June of last year myself, my husband, our two kids, and nanny were scheduled to depart for Rome for a 10 or 11 night cruise. It was not meant to be... About 10 or 11 days prior, the nanny comes down with COVID. She recovered quickly but at this time recent COVID + pax were required to have both a PCR test proving infection (no antigen tests!) and a certificate of recovery. She was on the very last day for the PCR test + certificate of recovery combo to work and I searched several pharmacies that evening to find her a place to get the PCR test performed. If she'd told me the next day, she would not have been able to go at all (unless a pre cruise antigen test was negative which is a big gamble if you're flying across the ocean.) Then, before the same cruise but just a few days later, my husband came down with severe flank pain. He was determined to have a kidney stone and initially told "we'll let it go for a month"... he was in such pain he could not even eat and just spent most of the time dry heaving, so much that his entire sclerae were red from the busted vessels. We pushed for a lithotripsy which happened the day prior to our transatlantic flight. He had to take an Uber to the surgery center as I was working (last day prior to vacation, no way I could call in!) and when I came to pick him up that afternoon he had a stent in... We drove 3 hours to the airport the next morning and boarded our flight to Rome. When we landed there he removed the stent himself after administration of some serious narcotics.

Following with interest. First Azamara cruise is in a few weeks... I've sailed on Celebrity enough times to be "Elite" (ugh, I hate that name) over the past 14 years. We have also sailed in everything from an inside on Carnival (never again) to balcony rooms on Silversea, Seabourn, and Crystal, and many things in between, so I think we have a good variety of perspectives... Celebrity, for us, has become just a bit predictable and in some cases too commercialized, for lack of a better word. I don't want a foot detox program, I don't want to go to an art auction, I don't want to be pestered for extra money at every turn. I will say that they had a much more user-friendly online shore excursion booking system, check-in, etc. The "Flights by Celebrity" was a serious debacle that I used once and regretted. (All said and done I spent over 17 hours on the phone with them fixing a problem THEY created.) Hoping Azamara is a better option for the cruises we take just as a couple. We also cruise with our school-aged children and Celebrity was overall a reasonably good fit there.

I would be hard pressed to find it again but when I was browsing some of the included wine list options the other day I actually saw they had the nerve (on whatever AZ list I was reading) to list Beringer White Zinfandel... I would be ashamed. This wine costs like $4 something at the drugstore. I understand that the included wines may not all be 1er crus but really, that's awful. We are not purchasing a package for our upcoming cruise. We will likely use some OBC for a couple of bottles and the rest we'll pay $10 corkage. If we can't pick up good wine in Spain, France, Italy and so on along the way, we are doing something very wrong.

Thank you! This is helpful. Now it brings up the issue of my Discover status (incorrect and as yet unrecognized)... but I am NOT going there just yet! 😅

Thanks all... sounds like just wait and see. Appreciate the input.

Hello, Such a basic question... I can't find the basic information on the AZ website about checkin time, exact location, etc. Nearly everything I've tried to do on there since the revamp has been a mess, why should this be any different? Literally I just want to know like, where to show up and when. We sail in 24 days. Thank you!

I need Google to translate this to English!

I have had several email exchanges with my TA and Azamara about this same issue... I finally booked some inexpensive transfers, thinking they were paid for with OBC... got an email from my TA 2 days later asking for a CC to put them on... I have $1100 in OBC why would I pay for this in cash? But to get through to Azamara has been impossible and the email agents don't even send replies that make sense. I am starting to wonder if our first AZ cruise will be our last.

Will they upgrade your room category if ship is not full?

My situation is very similar (I have over $1000 in OBC but none shows on Azamara's page). I wrote them and got this incomprehensible reply: "We have your onboard credits with your reservation. I apologize that it does not show on our end. Ahead of your cruise you may use your obc to reserve your shore excursions. When you are onboard you may use obc to pay for anything offered onboard, such as the spa or booking more excursions." I wrote back to inquire how to use them if they don't show up...

I haven't sailed Regent (yet) but my answer is still NO... but it's based on my experience taking young children on many cruise lines (Disney, NCL, RCCL, Celebrity, maybe another that I can't recall?) These were trips, not vacations. When I was expecting my first child, I booked a cruise (scheduled to take place when she would be 8 months old). I remember so well the part of the conversation where the TA asked for the name and DOB... I had to explain that the child was not yet born but I'd be happy to update her in the future. We had a good laugh. We took our 8 month old daughter on a Disney cruise. This has to be among the biggest wastes of money I've ever spent in my life. Even on Disney there is very little to do with such a young child. I now have two children and have sailed with them at nearly every age along the way (minus a 3 year COVID hiatus). At age 1, 2, 3... it's exhausting. It gets a little better as they get a bit older. My oldest is now a "tween" and she's easy enough, no problem, the younger one is still elementary school aged but it's not bad at all. Also, if there are only two adults- you will have NO alone time. No quiet morning coffee, no jazz at night, no leisurely dinners.... Every moment of every day you will be otherwise occupied. Good luck with whatever you decide!

I am the all day 24/7 maid at home... that's why I want my room to be "shipshape" on vacation.

Is the 2125 per reservation, or per person?

Why would you want input from such a limited team... gyn, urology, and orthos doing only symphyseal fx reconstruction?

Apologies for probably describing this all wrong... not a lawyer or finance person. We are part of the Moecker class action lawsuit. I have heard nothing. I looked back through the last couple pages here and haven't seen any updates (if they are there I missed them)... I see the 1k per cabin offer has been extended but there's no way we can take 5 or 6 Crystal cruises by 2025, maybe 1 or 2 at the very most. What I'd really rather have back is my money. Are there updates on this that I snoozed on? TIA.

Some years ago, I was boarding Seabourn Legend with my husband. For the story to make sense you need to know that a) He is 16 years older than I am although he doesn't look a day over 15 years older 😉 b) He has a doctoral degree but is not in medicine and does not use the title "Doctor" socially c) I am a (medical) doctor and do use the title When we walked up to the man with the checklist, he asked for our last name, which we shared. We are correctly listed on the manifest as Mr. and Dr. Dylaness. He looks directly at my husband and says "Welcome aboard, Dr. Dylaness!" and then to me and says "Welcome aboard, Mrs. Dylaness!" My husband doesn't miss a beat and says to him--- "You've got it all wrong- SHE'S the doctor. I'm just her trophy husband". We all had a good laugh and I love telling this story. So many assumptions all rolled into one faux pas!