SWFLAOK

Is there small print with the 2025 cruise that says it's that hotel or equivalent? And if so, can they tell you what they consider equivalent. We were told by a different cruise line that the Fiji Pullman hotel was equivalent to the Fiji Sofitel. We did not agree. One is on the beach in a great location, with a wonderful, large pool. The other was near a small beach with almost no amenities, and next to the end of the runway, and still a long way to the airport terminal. The Sofitel is still there, and the not at all equivalent, the Pullman, is now permanently closed. That cruise was cancelled due to Covid, and after trying 4 times to reschedule it, we asked for our money back instead of yet another FCC, and they said yes. Hopefully we get it soon. B

The 250 amount for the credit was told to us by the other couple onboard that was automatically upgraded, and we did receive something around that amount. But we had already paid for unlimited wifi for 4 logins on both segments, and we should have had that for free with gold status, so maybe that was part of the credit we received. And really, 100 dollars as compensation for everyone getting free laundry, is way too little if you want to consider gold status to be a reward for loyalty. I stopped counting our laundry receipts when we reached 800 dollars. And we didn't have anything dry cleaned, we didn't have any formal clothes, and we wore many of our clothes more than once. If we had a launderette on our deck up front, we might have used that for our socks and underwear, but there wasn't one.

Even after they acknowledged that we had gold status, we didn't get a newspaper (which we didn't care about since we paid for upgraded internet and could read news online), and we had to ask for our 250 onboard credit, which seemed unfamiliar to them. When we boarded the first segment of our cruise, we expected to have it mentioned in our arrival letter in our cabin that we would be reaching gold status shortly after our 2nd segment began, but it wasn't mentioned. Nor did we get any additional letter welcoming us to the 2nd segment. We spoke to another couple who reached gold on the second day of their 2nd segment, and had already received their 250 ship board credit, and a letter congratulating them when they boarded for their first segment. A few days after we reached gold, and saw it on the Regent website, we went to reception. We didn't really see anyone in the office type rooms around reception to speak to. They were probably in their offices while everyone was off the ship on excursions, or trying to find a place to have lunch after our late return from the excursions. In retrospect, I should have mentioned to reception when we boarded that we were qualified for gold during the B2B cruise that we were boarding. Maybe they would have looked into it to make sure it took effect while we were onboard.

We took a taxi from the Vancouverb airport to the Pan Pacific hotel which is attached to the cruise terminal for an Alaska cruise in August of 2018. It took over 30 minutes to get to the hotel, and was between 35 and 40 dollars, before adding a tip. It was Canadian dollars, which were worth considerably less than the US dollar at that point, but we put it on a credit card with no foreign transaction fee, but they didn't give us a great exchange rate.

We only cruised on Silversea once before. We enjoyed it, but only booked it because we could easily get to the starting and ending point in Barbados with a roundtrip on Jetblue from Florida where we could drive to the airport and use Jetblue points to fly. We enjoyed our Silver Suite, but hadn't booked again since there we no other "local" cruises we were interested in. While we're not a new customer, we have always preferred to cruise on Regent, and the reason is the included airfare, pre boarding hotel, and often a free or post 3 night land extension. We've cruised on Regent 6 times so far, and have 2 more cruises booked. One is with a credit taken since we don't need airfare. The credit given was insignificant, and less than we expected. But the business class flights on our previous cruises have been the reason we've kept cruising to destinations that are intercontinental. Because Silversea offered door to door, and we had enjoyed our 1 previous cruise, we booked the 2025 World Cruise on Silver Dawn. If D2D had not been offered by Silversea, we would have done a World Cruise or 2 Grand Voyages with Regent instead.

We were on SDII last spring for B2B cruises before they headed transatlantic from San Juan. Both of our cruises were quite full. They did a covid at the dock before boarding and if it was positive, you needed to be checked by the doctor. Since the doctor was doing the covid swabs, I don't know what happened, but there were a few positives. After that, we had to look at a monitor on the reception desk every morning, and facial recognition would identify us and record our temperature. I don't know what happened if you had a fever since we never did. I doubt that the unoccupied staterooms on deck 4 is due to covid. Quarantine cabins are normally on the lowest deck. We heard that there were quarantine cabins on deck 2, and someone who was staying on that deck told us that food was being delivered to one of them for several days before those guests left the ship. If I were going to take a transatlantic on either SD ship, I would book a commodore suite on deck 3. I'm prone to seasickness, and even if you're not, deck 4 feels the waves a lot more than deck 3 (having felt the waves on both decks on our past Caribbean cruises). We really liked our commodore suite on deck 3 on our spring cruise. It felt really spacious, and the 2 bathrooms was a big plus when it came to showering after an excursion, or when getting ready for dinner.

The 2024 cruise is really just a cruise around the Pacific, with the most port intensive areas being Alaska, Australia, and New Zealand. Having already cruised to Alaska and Australia, and taken more port intensive cruises in the South Pacific (3 times) and 2 cruises out of Singapore to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, and been to Hawaii by air, so the only part of the 2024 cruise we were interested in was Japan. That's why we're booked on the 2025 World Cruise, which is on Silver Dawn. It has many stops in Japan, which will be a long flight from Florida. It has really nice stops in Vietnam and Singapore, with great special events. It then heads to the East coast of Malaysia, and on to India, and Egypt and the Suez canal (with a special event to the pyramids and the Cairo Egyptian museum after hours). It then goes to Turkey and Greece, and Naples and Sicily. It then heads to 2 ports in Spain that we haven't been to before. There's only a few ports in Europe that we've been to before (Lisbon, Bordeaux, Southampton and Amsterdam), but we don't mind visiting them again. We've never been to Paris, and there's a special event with an evening party at Versailles. We've never been to Scandinavia, Iceland or Greenland. This cruise covers most of the places we haven't cruised to. We're really looking forward to the 2025 WC. We've sailed on Silver Whisper to the Amazon in the past, and loved that ship, and expect Silver Dawn to be even better.

We enjoyed everything we ordered, but did not include anything from the meat selections (we got that elsewhere) the vegetarian selections (that's a selection of last resort if we don't see anything better) or soups and salads. But the Miso cod and the Lobster tempura were good, and the appetizers and dim sum were all delicious. We even went back and ordered more. We enjoyed the Asian mushroom, fried rice and fried noodles. And yes, soy sauce and miso are salty, as are many sauces such as Hoisin. Leaving salt out of the sauce isn't going to happen, We signed up for a wine tasting menu on Splendor that was held in Pacific Rim in the early afternoon. The food was made by the chef, and the host was the head sommelier. It was the best meal we had on our 25 days onboard. And the wine was great too.

We've seen teens in PJs sleeping on the floor in airports. And not jut at night, but waiting for their flights during the day. They're in the departure lounge, where everyone is walking on the carpet, including pets having accidents. Sometimes, they have their faces on their back pack or other carry on, but we've often seen them with their face on the carpet. We always wonder why their parents didn't teach them not to do that. But maybe since it was tolerated in school, the teens considered it acceptable, and ignored what their parents told them. Maybe enforcing civilized behavior should be part of what their education in school requires. And if not, maybe no one under 21 should be allowed to travel without a parent or legally responsible guardian.

Just logged in and checked and there are all blanks for our next cruise in April, and our April 2024 cruise isn't there either. I'll wait until tomorrow to complain. Software upgrades are often done on the weekend, but should be corrected by the next day,

And he looks like he has a bad case of toenail fungus. Ugh!

Whenever I hear someone say "rules are made to be broken" it always annoys me. Rules were made to prevent problems that occurred in the past. We spent so much time with causal analysis, resulting in new rules, and then they were just made to be broken.

We just booked our first Viking Ocean cruise, after taking a long delayed Viking River cruise last May. We are most often Regent cruisers, but have also cruised on the Paul Gauguin, Silversea, Sea Dream, and a "one and done" on HAL We have never cruised on a ship with more than 1000 passengers and never want to. We really enjoyed the Viking River Cruise, but we found the ships very confining, especially with extreme Covid measures still in effect for the first half of our cruise. Having to turn sideways and face the wall, while wearing a mask, to allow someone to pass you in the hallway (or turn back and wait until a larger person exited the hallway) became old very fast. We loved our Veranda Suite which used it's square footage so well. We loved our room steward who always knew when we left the cabin, and kept it really clean. We enjoyed the food, but we didn't enjoy all of the tables in the main dining room being for 6 or more diners. This might have been acceptable before Covid, but we were uncomfortable with it since we had to provide saliva for a Covid test every morning. And we often prefer to dine alone after a busy day. We had no complaints with the other cruisers onboard, and we enjoyed the excursions. There were no dress code problems. But on our recent Regent cruise, we did see some of the same things that are being mentioned here. People would go to the Coffee Connection in the morning in their pajamas. They would wear their bathing suits to restaurants at lunch, putting on a coverup on top, but sitting with a wet bottom on their chair. On several Regent excursions, the cruise guests became very rude and demanded to have the itinerary changed, or to be brought back to the ship because they were tired, or wanted to get back for lunch, or weren't enjoying the excursion. They didn't react well to being told that the excursion would continue as scheduled and they could pay for a cab to return to the ship. While we have seen guests decide to leave an excursion in the past and return to the ship at their own expense, we had never seen this level of rudeness before. We also had problems in the specialty restaurants at dinner, with large tables of loud and obnoxious people as early as 7 PM. They seemed to have had quite a few drinks before arriving for dinner, and weren't very interested in an upscale meal. So this could be a new trend on all high quality cruise lines. I think there might be many people who have cruised on the huge ships in the past, where the cabin was low priced, and the drinks weren't free, but they partied a lot and had a good time. Since they haven't been able to take a vacation in a few years because of Covid, and they've also saved money since they couldn't go to restaurants, they're looking for a more upscale experience. However, they're looking for a party experience, and expect to be accommodated. We're looking forward to our first Viking Ocean cruise, and if someone tells us to clear their view, we'll definitely offer them some advice.

On our recent B2B on Splendor, our key card continued to work on our second cruise, with out any changes. We did however, ask for a new one since we reached Gold status a few days into our second cruise, and hadn't heard anything about it. When we finally decided to ask about it, we actually received pushback from reception, saying that we were wrong and had not reached that level. We had to show that the Regent website showed the correct number of nights sailed and that we were gold status for a number of days. Reception still needed to check with the general manager before they got back to us. We asked about our onboard credit that came with it. She had to check again, and we received it. We donated to the crew welfare fund since we still had credit from our cancelled shore excursions and were getting close to the end of the cruise. Destination Services and Reception had a number of under performers on our B2B cruises. They were the low point of our cruise. Otherwise, we were very satisfied.

We have taken 6 Regent cruises, and after our first dinner at Sette Mari on our first cruise, we have never eaten there again. For 2 people, it was just too food much for us. All of those wasted appetizers put on our table, a few dinner entree choices, and a dessert buffet, isn't the way we eat, on cruises or at home.

We were in business class from Prague to Heathrow to Miami on June 5th. Our first flight was BA landing in Terminal 3, and our second was American taking off from Terminal 5. Our first flight arrived on time, and we were among the first off the plane. We had 2 hours and 50 minutes, had studied the map, and tried to move quickly. We were good until we got to the line for the bus. It was long, with buses not arriving very often. After nearly 30 minutes in line, with the lines getting longer all of the time, buses suddenly started showing up as soon as the previous one left. We then got to the terminal 5 train, and everything moved more smoothly there, but we were misdirected to our gate by 2 different employees toward the end. We made it with enough time to stop at the restrooms before boarding. Our luggage also made it to our plane. It came off first in Miami, so it might have made it at the last minute as well.

Our 2 worst cruise experience with groups were on the Paul Gauguin in the past few years pre-Covid. One was a group of 45 to 50 French Canadians with their TA. They weren't bad onboard, as they mostly spoke English as well, and interacted with other guests. But the TA was loud and obnoxious, and while she spoke English, she made a big deal about having everything spoken word in every venue being translated to French. The worst experience we had was on an excursion to One Foot Island in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. On the boat, there were only 6 of us who were not with the TA, and 30 with her. The captain of the boat was very entertaining, and the French Canadian guests were laughing at his jokes. But about 15 minutes into the cruise to the island, the TA realized that he wasn't speaking French, and insisted that he do so. The Cook Islands are not French speaking, and the captain spoke no French. At that point, the TA insisted that he start from the beginning of his remarks, and stop after each sentence so she could repeat it in French. By the time we reached One Foot Island, I was tempted to swim out to sea and drown rather than travel to the 2 additional stops on our excursion. Fortunately, some wine was served with our lunch, and the captain and TA came to an agreement which limited the captain's stories, and the TA's translations to a minimum on the rest of the trip. We had one additional excursion on that cruise with the TA and here group, and were able to switch to another one at the last minute after mentioning it to destination services. The other one was with a shorter round trip cruise to Papeete. It was a group of people who had received a free cruise for their sales performance. I never found out what business they were in, but it seemed to be a not-for-profit, and most of them had never traveled far from their mid-west homes. They were all in the porthole staterooms, but had 2 of the largest suites booked for gatherings. They all tried to stay together for the first few days, but since they didn't really know each other, they blended into the rest of the guests after that, and were no longer a distraction. We had actually encountered a similar group many years ago when we stayed at the IC Moorea for a week, but they were kept busy everyday with seminars and group meals, and remained annoying for most of our stay.

We had a very good first experience with SS back in 2018 on Silver Whisper with a cruise from Barbados to Manaus on the Amazon and back. We loved our cabin, we felt the meal at La Dame was well worth the cost, we had a great butler in our Silver Suite, and a great waiter at The Restaurant that we met again at Compass Rose on Regent Voyager a year later. We just completed our 6th Regent cruise a few weeks ago on Splendor. While it was still very enjoyable, and we had already booked a cruise in 2024, and just booked one for April 2023 with friends and family, it was not up to previous standards. Our boarding in Southampton was slower than expected, there were supply chain problems with wine and spirits, there were several very incompetent restaurant staff, and destination services planned very poorly, and were sometimes rude. Some of these problems were solved during our 24 nights aboard. However, the supply chain problems and destination services scheduling became worse on the second leg of our cruise which was fully booked as compared to being more than 100 less than capacity on our first leg. We had already booked the 2025 World Cruise on Silver Dawn, and are still looking forward to it. With all of the cruises that are taking place now on the luxury lines, there will be many more crew members coming on board and being mentored by the long time employees that are still there. Hopefully the supply chain problems will be resolved. We continue to see more of these problems in our local stores and restaurants than we have seen in Europe on our Viking and Regent cruises this year, and the prices were significantly lower there for food and wine as well.

We stayed 3 nights at the Fiji Intercontinental after a PG cruise back in 2019. It was really nice. We felt like it was an extension to our vacation rather than a waiting for our flight home. The water was crystal clear in the shallows at the beach, and we saw many small fish, some beautiful shells, and several small sea snakes walking in water less than knee deep. While the sea snakes are venomous, they're too small to bite without assistance, and swam away from us. There was a snorkeling area around the corner from the beach, but we never made it there. The adult pool was really nice, and with plenty of lounge chairs. We had an included buffet breakfast that was great, with so many food options, and there was a happy hour in the main bar with drink and appetizer specials while we waited to watch the torch lighting ceremony each night while looking out to the ocean. It's a bit of a drive to the airport from there, but we had a shared shuttle bus included, and we thought it was worth the extra time to not be at the end of the runway, or in a much more crowded beach area.

On Voyager, the better choice is Penthouse B. These are larger than 1055 which is a Penthouse C, and doesn't cost much more. We spent 32 nights on Voyager just before Covid, in cabin 862 which is a Penthouse B. Instead of being long and narrow as is typical for most cabins, 862 was wid,e with the bedroom and sitting area side by side. The long desk with a window next to the bed was my husband's favorite place to sit. That left the sitting area with the TV to me, so I could watch movies on sea days, while he spent time on his laptop, looking out at the sea. But with only 364 passengers, you should have a great time. We just finished Southampton to Southampton on Splendor which had just over 600 passengers, and Southamptom to Barcelona which was near its full capacity of 750. Excursions were a big problem, with almost everyone leaving the ship within 30 minutes, and then returning after lunch ended at all restaurants except the pool grill. They had to reopen La Veranda several times, and people were still eating lunch late in the afternoon. The cabins on Splendor are bigger than Voyager for the same cabin level, but they're also more expensive. Our Concierge E on Splendor as larger than our Penthouse B on Voyager, but we thought the layout on Voyager worked better for us. Hope you have a great time. We love Regent cruises.

That's the same hours as we had on our recent Splendor cruises.

Although the seas were high (we spent an extra night in Bordeaux and skipped Saint Malo) the weather was good, with some clouds, and moderate temperatures. Favorite excursions depends on what you like to do. We tend to enjoy excursions with a lot of walking, and seeing things that are very old, since we don't have those in the US.

We just finished Southampton to Southampton, and Southampton to Barcelona on Splendor. The seas were high on many days, and we were happy to be in our deck 6 cabin near the front elevators rather than upfront on deck 14. In hurricane season, the storms that make a north turn after coming off the coast of Africa (which we always hope for since we live in Florida) head up far enough to affect the British Isles, the English channel and the coast of Spain and Portugal. We missed several ports due to high waves, and the restaurants on deck 10 and 11 were doing some rolling. Compass Rose and the Coffee Connection were much more stable, although they did board up the starboard windows in Compass Rose for a few days.

On Splendor, it's right across from the Meridian Lounge, and is the Coffee Connection the rest of the day. We spent our after dinner time at the Meridian Lounge almost every night. The Sapori E Amari had aperitifs before dinner as well as after dinner digestifs, and wasn't another place to have a cocktail. They had small bites available, that were replenished. We actually had only that for dinner one night since our excursion (with lunch included) fed us a huge meal at a restaurant from 3 to 4 PM before returning to the ship. There seemed to be just 2 people handling the Sapori E Amari area. On our 2 cruises, there were a number of excursions with lunch included, and many excursions that did not include lunch, but started just before lunch, and returned to the ship just after lunch. If you were lucky, you could find a seat at the Pool Grill and eat before leaving for the excursion, or after returning. But since all excursions were scheduled around the same time, food (and drinks) during the day were hard to come by unless you skipped the excursions (or had a day at sea). In that case, lunch at Prime 7 or Chartruese were available, and were always exceptional. I might avoid the "lunch included" excursions in the future since the food was nothing special compared to the food on Splendor. Many of the excursions included free time (even those with lunch included), and I would rather stop for a glass of wine and a small bite rather than have a large lunch.

It seems a bit odd to me as well. We had half a bottle of Bombay Sapphire in our fridge when we left Splendor. I didn't feel a need to pour it into my complimentary Vero water bottle and put it into my luggage to bring home. I like to pass through the "nothing to declare" line in the airport without worrying about something they've found in my luggage. On our recently completed cruise, the "express" security lane that our Regent Business Class flights allowed us to use in Barcelona had the most stringent search of luggage we have ever seen (and we weren't the only ones). A recharging cord for your phone could cause you to empty your carry on into a gray bucket, and send you to the back of the line, where you were then "randomly" chosen for a body pat down when going through the metal detector on the second pass. Some purchases that were allowed back on the ship through ports that did security checks were confiscated at the Barcelona airport. The requirements for what needed to be taken out of your carry-ons and personal items and placed in the gray buckets was only documented on signs in Spanish, and there were only Spanish speaking agents helping passengers getting ready for the security checkpoint. We don't speak Spanish and would definitely not want to explain leftover liquor from the cruise.