golfgirls

Thanks.  Your view of depth = my poor description of width so question answered. Thanks. 

If I understand this correctly, an upgrade courtesy of Regent from a Penthouse B to a Seven Seas Suite.  Wow.  Happy for you but now even more ticked off for us.  Would love to know how these decisions are being made.   

We are looking at Penthouses on the Explorer.  It seems to me that there is quite a difference in balcony size (width) according to the deck plans.  As an example for the Penthouse A rooms, the balconies on deck 14 look very narrow and the ones on decks 9 and 10 much wider.   I tried to so some sleuthing via Suite Guru.  I know for example the balcony on Penthouse B, room 818 sounds great. It looks like the wider balcony size.  Balconies might not mean much to some but for sailings in the Caribbean, which we have planned, the bigger the better in my view.  
 

Does anyone have info to share here?   Thanks in advance.  
 

Looking forward to setting sail again in 6 months!  Yahoo.  

We are in a very similar situation.  Good news is that our cruise is to be transferred from the Mariner to the Explorer and we will be sailing in December!  We were to receive updated suite assignments on June 2nd as communicated directly by Regent.  This has been an unmitigated disaster in my books.  Ok well, compared to the pandemic, of course not really.  It has though, been an uncharacteristically awful Regent customer experience.  The TAs are in as much of the dark as we are.  It is even more frustrating when I see other postings on CC that some people on our cruise received their new bookings over a week ago.  Unfortunately, this situation has taken a bit of our joy away from our first sailing after not only the pandemic but a previous year of health issues. 

I know that this has been a simply indescribably difficult year and more for the cruise industry.  I am of course sympathetic to all of the challenges that have been and will be faced.  I really just look at this as a total mismanagement of expectations.  Clearly Regent was not prepared to get all of this sorted out by June 2nd and is still having challenges but unfortunately not providing timely info to TAs or their clients. Hopefully lessons learned here. 
 

Still hoping for a positive outcome.  

If you are looking for a larger balcony,  not a larger suite, then the Penthouse C suites at the end of the respective corridors are the ticket.   Agreed that a room under the Veranda isn’t ideal.  Other decks, apologies didn’t look it up, but I think deck 8 works well.  

We are definitely enjoying this cruise vicariously.  Have a wonderful time and we look forward to your posts.  

Laughing about recognition.  Don’t get me wrong as we love the perks.  But....not only were we not recognized for Platinum status but we asked for our pins twice on the cruise that we achieved that status and only received them on the next cruise after we asked again.  It was kinda disappointing just from the recognition of loyalty.  Perhaps we are not the most vocal Regent cruisers, but we are big fans and I think relatively easy ‘customers’.  This was a silly miss from my perspective. 

 But the beat  goes on and we look forward to our Christmas cruise on the Amazon!  

So delighted that you had a warm and friendly experience in Corner Brook.  Yes Newfoundlanders are indeed kind and giving by nature.  If you don’t know the story of Gander on 9/11, made into a musical called Come from Away, I encourage everyone to look it up.  It highlights and celebrates the true nature of these folks. 

I have posted several times on this board about our affinity for Holiday cruises.  We have done several: Caribbean, Sydney to Singapore, Amazon, Panama, Capetown to Capetown and I am sure a few others.  

We thoroughly enjoy the different Holiday festivities onboard.   The ships are decorated with beautiful gingerbread houses and Christmas trees and lots of festive decor.  They are magical.  There are special entertainment events with Holiday themes throughout the cruise.  The dining menus certainly recognize the many different celebrations throughout the season and there are, I am sure, services to be attended for different faiths.   

The Entertainment staff do an over the top effort on New Years with a show, singing and dancing in public areas, food, champagne and I am sure anything your heart’s desire.  We really enjoyed the crew partying along with the passengers last year on the Explorer. A wonderful dance party with music, drinks, food and dancing well into the wee hours.  

I do do agree that there are more families on Caribbean cruises, so they pose a bit of a different dynamic.  But for your cruise, and ours, there will be a wonderful celebration of the Holidays.  As with anything in life, it will be whatever you put into it!  

Thanks for the help in finding the documentary on Facebook.  I watched the two episodes last night and enjoyed them. Can’t wait to be back on a Regent Cruise...fortunately not too much longer.  Holiday cruise to the Amazon.  

Looking forward to hearing of your Crystal experience.  I keep searching for Regent alternatives but haven’t found anything compelling to make a change as yet.  Some day...

Gmomie1 will try to find the videos on FB without an account!   

Easy answer is that I believe in privacy and I believe Facebook is a forum where privacy is non existant, and leave it at that.  This may be ‘the new world’ but not mine.  Perhaps easier for me at this point as we do not have family that we need to follow. 

Interesting that a few of Regent’s requests for stories about crew experiences have been to respond via Facebook.  I would love to send some great stories but will not do so via FB.  

So Regent, would love an alternative contact vehicle!  

Btw, this is not a technology issue as I had a wonderful 30 year career in IT.  

For those us us who refuse to be on Facebook, is there another link to this tv series.  We love John Barron and Georgianne!   

Sorry, back to the entertainment for a moment.  I think we know Nell as well.  She did some solo performances on a different cruise.  Very talented indeed.  And if I am not mistaken, is engaged to CD David Nevin.  

We have thoroughly enjoyed following along your journey via this thread.  Well done and thank you!  You have travelled to one of our favourite destinations on our favourite ship with our favourite CD.  Yes...a bit envious to be sure.  

I have a question for you regarding the talented Entertainment crew that you enjoyed so much.  We had a similar experience last Christmas with the best ‘cast’ ever.  Do you remember if a young lady named Janneke was the lead female singer?  She was out of this world fantastic and I hope Regent has been able to keep her as part of their team.  

Thanks again for taking us onboard vicariously. 

Just one quick note about flying Emirates.  I agree with Flyertalker  that the A380 is a far superior product on Emirates than the 777 offering.  Having said that, we have done Emirates 777 flights twice in the last couple of years - Orlando to Singapore and Orlando to Cape Town.  Both included lovely stop overs in Dubai with a complimentary hotel to get some rest and freshen up and a voucher for dinner.  Though the A380 is a much, much better configuration, the 777 was perfectly fine with great service and service offerings.   

Now back to Vancouver....

Don’t remember the name of the restaurant but turn left as you exit the hotel and walk uphill on the street.  It will be, I think, the first corner on the upper and left side of the street,   Would say north west but not sure if that is correct!  Head up the street and you will see a ‘Maison’ type of restaurant.  Hope it is still there. And enjoy Happy hour at the bar upstairs in the hotel.  Very nice.  Envious that you are on a cruise departing from Reykjavik. It will be lovely.  

Definitely do the extended safari option before or after your cruise.  Even better to do more than 3 days if you can.  Kruger Park is outstanding.   The one day safari excursions from the ship are really not the same experience at all, in my experience.  

If you are looking for a nice Happy Hour in Reykyavik before embarking, the Canopy by Hilton CIty Centre was a wonderful place to enjoy a drink or two and then head out for dinner. We dined at a lovely French restaurant up the street where they had the best mussels ever.  Not sure if this is would be on your list of to dos but it was fantastic.  

Also so look for lava bracelets down by the waterfront.

Hope you will post along the way.  This is a wonderful itinerary and we are sure that you will have a spectacular time.  

We love to spend the Christmas holidays and New Years aboard Regent.  We now try to do this every year because we enjoy it so much.  The ships are decorated beautifully and there are some really nice Holiday events put on by the Entertainment staff.  

We have done a number of itineraries, the Caribbean, Panama Canal, the Amazon and Asia to Australia.  Our least favourite was the Caribbean, due to the number of children onboard, but honestly anywhere would be great.  In fact we are doing the Amazon for the second time this year to enjoy the Holidays onboard the Mariner.  It was a close call between this one and a redo of Singapore to Sydney.  So different strokes for different folks about itinerary vs timing.  

If it fits into your plans, you will thoroughly enjoy it.  

Bob, thanks for posting this article. As you know, we were on the same cruise when Georgiana was promoted. Walking into Compass Rose to find Cyndy in a Sommalier jacket and Georgiana in the Head Sommalier uniform was a highlight of the second leg of our back to back cruise last Christmas. I have to say that we find Regent pretty great at encouraging their employees to learn and grow and aspire to greater opportunities.  Cyndy also has a fantastic Regent story. 

I won’t mention all of those folks we love to follow.  I am sure each of the CC posters have Regent employees that they have met along the way that they love to see again and to see taking on more responsibility.   I really do think that this makes a difference for us as it does for others.  

At the end of the day, happy staff makes for happy guests and I think Regent does a very nice job of training, encouraging, supporting and promoting their employees. 

Sorry I am off topic, but to me Georgiania is one of those lovely employee success stories.  

When we said beware the Veranda, it was because once we were on deck 10 just below La Veranda restaurant.  So I would say pick decks 8 or 9 for this suite away from the lounge below and the restaurant above and you will enjoy it immensely.  

No no vibration there and no noise if you are a deck removed...

Here are some pictures, our door, the display in the atrium and my favourite cookies.  

Perhaps in in reverse order....

Ronrick, we would highly recommend sailing at Christmas.  Pat absolutely loves Christmas and the ships provide all the decor and spirit that she loves and more.  I am a gingerbread fiend and the various gingerbread houses around the ship more than make up for the lack of gingerbread cookies available!  Better to look than to indulge I suppose.  

Have to confess that my birthday falls between Christmas and New Year’s, so we always have lots of excuses to celebrate over the holidays. 

In fact we we are hoping one or other sailings(not Caribbean) go on promotion soon  so that we can book something.  As Canadians, we are getting thumped with our dollar so any type of promotion makes a huge difference for us.  

Will see see if I can find some photos to post from previous holiday cruises.  

We love to sail on Regent at Christmas.  Think we have done this four times now and would do it every year as long as it is not in the. Caribbean. 

The ship will be decorated more beautifully than you can imagine.  There will be music and celebrations galore.  Just fabulous.  Have done Amazon, Asia and Africa and they were all fabulous, with very few children.  

We we did have one ‘awful’ experience having chosen a Caribbean cruise, which included several large families and the biggest kids being the parents.  Definitely will not do that again but it is a party if that is what you are looking for.  

Since you are doing South Africa, expect it to be great, with few kids.  And New Years is a not to be missed experience onboard!  

We are jealous, enjoy.