SWFLAOK

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.

We also just returned from from Splendor, Southampton to Barcelona, following the previous Southampton to Southampton. It was our first experience with Splendor, with most of our previous experience on Voyager. Our last cruise on Regent was back to back Singapore to Singapore, Singapore to Sydney, Dec to Jan, 2019 to 2020, on Voyager in a Penthouse B, which we loved. This was our 3rd attempt at this Splendor cruise, due to Covid delays, in a Concierge E. We loved the layout of our cabin on Splendor since it was wider rather than narrower. It wasn't quite as wide as the Penthouse B on Voyager, but it worked for us. We didn't miss having a butler, and our room stewards provided really excellent service. There was definitely a problem with staffing. At many ports, we saw staff leaving and new staff arriving. Quite a few of the staff had been asked to extend their contracts. We felt that the staff was doing a very good job, while bringing the new arrivals up to speed. We did, however, have problems with Prime 7. We had booked the first night of our first segment, and everything was perfect. Both my seafood and meat choices were perfect, and the service was well paced. We ate there for lunch during the first segment, and it was also a good experience. During the second segment, the service was slow at lunch and dinner. Our dinner near the end of the cruise was not good at all. There were several large tables, even at 6:30, and one had an officer dining with them. They were given all the attention by the waitstaff. The food that night came poorly cooked, and of inferior quality to what we had previously. We totally enjoyed our 2 dinners and 2 lunches at Chartreuse, and our 2 dinners and a wine lunch at Pacific Rim. The food and service were all excellent. Our biggest complaint was with Destination Services. They seemed to schedule too many excursions at the same time, and normally it was over lunch. When 500 people return to the ship at the same time, and the only place still open to eat lunch is the Pool Grill, it's hard to find a place to sit. They had to reopen La Veranda a few times to provide lunch. I'm sure that affected dinner service. I think our second segment was near capacity. The first was not.

We did a SilverSea cruise from Barbados to Manaus and back in 2018. At the time, Brazil required those entering the country to have a Yellow Fever vaccine, or a doctor's note explaining why you did not have a vaccine. We were required to provide this to board our cruise ship. It was required by Brazil because a number of tourists had entered Brazil and needed treatment for yellow fever. I found information on one of them who was a sailboater from Canada who probably brought it with him from Central America. But Brazil didn't want it to spread, and required everyone else entering the country to be vaccinated. Not long after our cruise, they discontinued the requirement. We're in our 60's and had the vaccine a several months before our cruise with no after effects at all. If Namibia is currently requiring the yellow fever vaccine, then I would not expect you to be allowed to board the cruise that goes there. Previous tourists may have brought yellow fever to Namibia, as was the case with Brazil. Staying on the ship will not be an option since you could have already passed it on to others on the cruise.

We normally give to the crew fund if we've had a great cruise (which we have had all but once, but we had a refundable cruise credit so we donated it anyway). We have given an additional tip to a few crew members that went out of their way to make our cruise great. We don't just pass out tips to every crew member that we have encountered on the cruise. The cruise's included tip covers that.

The ship has only been owned by Ponant since mid 2019, and cruising ended by March 2020. Many of us have not been able to cruise on PG since then due to cancellations. We do speak some French, but have never needed it onboard the PG to make ourselves understood. Les Gauguins and Les Gauguines always seemed to enjoy the chance to speak English. We translated some words and phrases for them now and then, just as French speaking people in the Caribbean have done for us in the past. Hopefully none of that has changed since the last time we were onboard, but I can't just dismiss the previous review if the officers onboard are now all from France.

On our Alaska cruise on Regent, there might have been "fresh" fish, but it was terrible. I'm a fish person, and after a few tries of Alaska fish, I went for something I expected to be frozen - tuna, which was good. My first try was salmon which was totally dry. My second was rockfish which was good, but when I ordered it again a few days later, it was tough and fishy. At the end of our trip, we visited family in Anchorage who had fresh caught salmon. It was terrible. We ate a few bites, and said we were full. They later fed the rest of it to their dogs. In late summer, the salmon are easy to catch as they swim upstream. They've also used all of their fat to make it to their breeding crowds. At that point, they're easy to catch and to serve as "fresh" salmon. On our other 3 Regent cruises since then the food has been much better than our Alaska trip, and I still eat mostly fish and seafood. We still love Regent, and will finally be back onboard next week, but Alaska just did not do it for us even before Covid. I was wondering how the OP got to Juneau by land? It's my understanding that there's no road that goes there. I will say that our favorite part of Alaska was borrowing our Anchorage family's small RV and spending 4 nights and 5 days exploring Denali, Fairbanks and Valdez. But the cruise to Seward from Vancouver was the least favorite cruise we've ever done on any cruise line. We didn't hold it against Regent.

The second cruise we ever took was a Regent cruise from Vancouver to Seward in August on Mariner. Our first cruise ever was the previous January from Papeete to the Marquessas and back on the Paul Gauguin. We enjoyed that first cruise much more than our second cruise. In fact, we enjoyed traveling around Alaska in an RV for a week after our first Regent cruise much more than the cruise itself. However, we have taken 3 Regent cruises since then, Barcelona to Venice, and Singapore to Singapore, with a back to back Singapore to Sydney, all on Voyager, and we will be on Splendor from London to London and London to Barcelona starting next week. We also have booked a 2024 Bangkok to Abu Dhabi on Navigator. We've done the Paul Gauguin from Papeete to the Cook Islands, and from Papeete to Fiji, and are booked on Fiji to Bali in January. We've done 4 Caribbean cruises, 3 on SeaDream and one on HAL We did a Silver Seas cruise from Barbados to Manaus and back, and are booked on the Silver Dawn world cruise in 2025. Of all of those cruises, the Alaska cruise was our least favorite. There was nothing wrong with the Regent Mariner, but the ports just didn't do it for us, and I'm sure they're even more crowded now than they were a few years before Covid. Large ships full of people in small ports with a limited number of things to see and do, and almost nowhere to go on your own, with iffy weather even in August doesn't make for an ideal cruise.

The last time we were on the Paul Gauguin in September of 2019, they had gone from upscale toiletries in small bottles to large containers mounted on the wall that were refilled with something of unknown origin. I expect that we'll have the same on our cruise in January.

I didn't see that at Prime 7 on Voyager on our last cruise. I did order crab legs out of the shell, although I think it was an appetizer, but the legs were just cracked, and it took a lot of picking to remove the shell from the meat. If they have the seafood tower on the menu, I'll give it a try. Normally when I think of a seafood tower, I think of those served at upscale restaurants in NYC, where there's a lot of raw clams and oysters included on some floors of the tower. I avoid raw seafood when I'm on a cruise since I don't want to take a chance of having a very bad excursion experience the next day.

I mainly eat fish and seafood, and have never really enjoyed a meal at Prime 7. An appetizer and adessert are the best I could do. It would not be my choice for my Birthday or Anniversary. Chartreuse or Compass Rose would be my preference for a special occasion.