SWFLAOK

3 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

No,at least they are trying and can get garments altered to fit.

Those that don't try have given up.

And the light isn't very bright in the dining rooms for dinner. No one will see the quality of your suit or tuxedo, or of your "dressy" dress. You just need to try to meet the dress code, and you will have no problem.

As far as drinks being "free" or "included", they're included in your fare. If you don't drink wine or cocktails, then you are subsidizing the rest of us. The same is often true for excursions which are sometimes "included" and sometimes not and charged extra for. If excursions aren't included, they're often quite expensive and can really add up.

23 hours ago, RonWL said:

Exactly....  That's why I put "free" in quotation marks....  

Just a quick query.  You mentioned Regent.  How about Seabourn?  Anyone cruise with them?  How does that line compare with Silversea?

We looked at Seabourn but we didn't find an itinerary that we liked at a time of year we wanted. My brother found the Silversea cruise from Barbados to Barbados through the Southern Caribbean, up the Amazon and back, and it's easy to fly from Florida to Barbados. All 3 of us enjoyed this cruise, and having a Silver Suite allowed the 3 of us to dine in our cabin on one of the formal required nights. My brother had his own veranda suite cabin, and enjoyed it when he wasn't enjoying our much larger cabin with us.

21 minutes ago, RonWL said:

They have dancing on Silversea?

Of course they do. If there's music, there's dancing. Even on the Viking River cruises and Sea Dream Yacht Club, there's DJ music after dinner concludes, and there's dancing.

For those who really don't want to follow the Silversea dress code, which does exist and we have seen enforced, I would recommend Regent. We have cruised Regent more than any other cruise line (and we never cruise on very large ships). Regent only has "formal optional", so jackets and ties are never required. "Formal optional" nights are only on longer cruises, which I believe is 15 nights or longer. And you still don't need to wear a gown or a suit in the restaurants and bars. We sailed a few months ago on a 14 night in the Caribbean on Navigator, and while a few people wore jeans and sneakers to dinner, nearly everyone dressed nicely, but not in formal wear. Last fall, we did back to backs from Southampton to Southampton, and Southampton to Barcelona, and since each cruise was 12 nights, there was no "formal optional" night. We have always found the service, food, and housekeeping to be very good to excellent.

We are taking a world cruise on Silversea rather than Regent because the itinerary is what we were looking for. It stops at a lot of ports that we have not visited in the past, and the few that we do revisit are those we don't mind stopping at again.

7 hours ago, Rothko1 said:

 

That's a good point.  A French cuff shirt can be worn with a suit; although you see less of those these days (along with less suits in general).

My husband does wear a French cuff shirt with cuff links with his suit when cruising. I always need to remind him to bring the cuff links since they're very hard to find in most cruise ports.

10 hours ago, Rothko1 said:

 

Perhaps you misunderstood me.  I have cruised Silversea several times; for formal nights I bring one or two of my dinner jackets.  I would never wear a suit on the formal night; I'm happy to be in the ever-dwindling percentage of men wearing black tie on a formal night.  On the other nights, a blazer is sufficient.

 

I don't understand why a suit is a better option than a tuxedo, other than the fact that a person might not own a tuxedo but they own a suit.  Then of course I understand bringing what you own instead of renting a tux.  Although I will note that buying a tuxedo need not cost an arm and a leg; you can often find great deals out there. 

 

But otherwise, it really takes very little additional time to dress in a tuxedo than it does to put on a suit.

 

I mentioned your post to my husband, and he's looking online to find a tuxedo. He's 6'4" and not fat, so it's hard to find upscale clothes that are for tall people who aren't obese. He already has some business suits, and a number of nice jackets from past cruises that still fit him well.

He used to rent tuxedos when we celebrated big time on New Year's Eve, but that was a while back, when I bought a new gown every year for the party. I only plan to wear a nice dress since I have no need for a gown at this point, and donated them (except for the one for my  final arrangements, but it weighs too much to bring on a cruise).

We are booked on the Silver Dawn for the 2025 Silversea world cruise, so we'll have a lot of formal nights. We weren't able to book a large suite, so we won't want to eat in our cabin on a regular basis, and I was hoping they had gotten rid of "hot rocks" which we didn't enjoy previously, and it's likely to not be available on our "off season" world cruise. But, he will still need to have a jacket every night to visit the bars and entertainment, and he won't want to wear a tux after dinner, nor would I want to wear a gown for that. Dancing in a gown isn't something I want to do anymore.

7 hours ago, Rothko1 said:

At least for me, suits have always been associated with business.  I would never wear a suit to a social event.  It's either black tie, or blazers and tie (or no tie).  

 

So I would never pack a suit to wear on a cruise ship.

 

 

Then maybe you shouldn't be booking on Silversea, since formal nights list suits as an option, but not blazer.  To us, a suit is a better option than a tuxedo, which we would not bother bringing on a cruise since we would only rent a tuxedo for a special event at home. The need for a tuxedo otherwise is so rare that a different size would usually be needed, and on a cruise, a much larger size might be needed by the end of a long cruise. The suit jacket can always be left unbuttoned by the end of the cruise, and would be less noticeable than an unbuttoned tuxedo jacket.

Did anyone try La Dame for dinner? On our last Silversea cruise we were on Silver Whisper so the only upgrade priced meal was La Dame. We enjoyed it, and booked a second night. We were thinking we would like Kaiseki since we really liked Pacific Rim on Regent Splendor. On our numerous previous cruises on Regent Voyager, we've always enjoyed Chartruese, so we enjoy both French and Asian food as an alternative meal, even if there's an upgrade charge.

16 minutes ago, bitob said:

Cunard is really seriously formal on the gala evenings.  95% tuxes and gowns.  You would actually feel out of place and seriously underdressed in just a suit (although you do see a few).  Mr.Bitob has a tux and so we bring it. They really do not encourage anything less than formal although it can be managed.

 

It's not the size of the tie.  Mr.Bitob does not want to wear a tie (or even a dress shirt) if he doesn't have to and he doesn't have to on Silversea.  Unlike you we prefer Hot Rocks (and La Terrazza) to Atlantide so no sacrifice.  We don't do our own cooking.  We are on vacation.

 

We are probably better dressed than 75%+ of the passengers.  A tie doesn't make the man.  Lipstick on a pig, you know.

 

Nice that Silversea gives us all choices we feel comfortable with.

But he does have to wear a tie on Silversea in most venues. Is it because Cunard enforces the dress code and Silversea may or may not that makes you feel that you need to follow the dress code on Cunard, and not so much on Silversea? We would not want to be required to wear a tux or gown on Cunard on formal nights, but have no problem dressing up every night on Silversea.

We have most often sailed on Regent, and at this point, those onboard wear whatever they want to, with some in shorts, t-shirts, ball caps and tank tops are dinner where they might be asked to change or not. At lunch, swim suits might be asked to put a coverup on, but their swimsuit might still be wet, sitting on the chair that someone else will find wet when they go back to the pool. We prefer the rules for dress code to be enforced, and want the upscale environment for meals that we pay extra for on Regent and Silversea.

On 7/7/2023 at 9:43 PM, bitob said:

That’s us. We did not bring tie on our previous silversea cruises. We look smashing and elegant but a tie is a non starter. Leaving tues for 3rd cruise on Moon. No tie. Formal nights booked in la terraza and hot rocks. Very doable 

 

on Cunard we bring the tux and all the bells and whistles. No need to do so on silversea 

And why not? A tie is really small to pack. Why is Cunard worth a tux and Silversea not worth it? We would never bring a tux, or an evening gown, but we will dress well.

I've looked at Cunard and have never been tempted to book a cruise so why would you bring a tux ffor that cruise line? We have sailed on Silversea before, and I would rather eat in our cabin than hot rocks. Wind and hot ashes around the pool while everyone cooks for themselves on a heated stone was something I don't really want to do again. But we are booked on Silver Dawn for the 2025 World Cruise. We would rather dress up than eat at hot rocks, and sailing in cold weather at the beginning and towards the end  of the cruise doesn't seem like a good idea in cold weather.

4 hours ago, DaveFr said:

snorkle lover, the reason the Regent website says “up to $2700” is because you may only use Regent air in one direction. For example, if you were only using Regent air from Atlanta to Barcelona, the air credit would be $1350.

 

I don’t understand your reference to the “domestic flight amount.”

 

Dave

Wouldn't the amount of credit also be based on where your flight would be originate from, as well as the destination? For example, if I lived in LA, and my cruise boarded in Barcelona, I should expect my credit for booking my own flight to be less than if I lived in Miami and my cruise boarded in Barcelona. This should be based on a flight from Miami to Barcelona costs much less then a flight from LA to Barcelona.

My problem with all of this is that I really want a cruise that includes airfare. I don't want to worry about my flight being delayed and my cruise line doesn't know that. I don't want to worry about transfers, and I want pre and post nights in a hotel if that makes it more convenient. I want one whole package for my vacation. That's one of the reasons we've booked more cruises with Regent than any other cruise line. If they don't want customers like us anymore, then we'll look elsewhere. Not booking included flights for us until later than we would book then for ourselves, even though we've paid them the non-refundable deviation fee, makes us very uncomfortable. I really doubt we'll book another Regent cruise, and if they don't book an acceptable airfare before our final payment is due on the cruise that we booked long ago for next year, we'll ask for our money back while we still can.

We don't want any more metal bottles on any of cruises. We have never used them onboard, and still felt obligated to take them home, even though we didn't really have room for them in our luggage. We even got them in a hotel in Aruba, and didn't use them. Is there any market for them on ebay? If not they will have to go to Goodwill to help others be more envirommentally aware.

I don't like anything about metal water bottles. They're heavy, aren't pleasant to drink from, and seem to make the water taste bad. When I fly, or board a cruise, I bring at least 2 empty 1 liter bottles in my carry on. After I arrive, I refill these with drinkable water (the glass vero water from the glass bottle on Regent) and put them in the fridge to drink bedside during the night. I wash these every day, and refill them from the glass bottles. I leave the empty glass bottles in the cabin and they're refilled by our room steward. I also bring water bags that we normally use for hiking. I wash them after use, and refill them from the vero water bottles in our cabin, and put them in the fridge. They get lighter and smaller as we use them on excursions so they're convenient and don't take up any room or weight in our luggage.

3 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Hah.  Count the crew and over 11,000 peeps.  I surely hope they never have an emergency.  In an emergency I trust SeaDream's crew to get us all off the ship efficiently.

And I hope that we never end up in the same port on a cruise on a small ship when there is one of these overpopulated ships in the same port. That would ruin the whole cruise experience. I hope that more ports put limits on the size of cruise ships, as Venice has. But if the tourists from the large ships can get cheap food and drink in port, I think that won't happen. We take excursions from our ship, and eat and drink onboard, or as part of our excursion. Ports may find they make more from the giant ships that don't include anything other than room and onboard buffets. Once we see a lot of that, we'll stop cruising. There were several ports in the Caribbean in late April/early May on our Navigator cruise this year, and it made it unlikely that we would do that route again.

We have enjoyed both Regent and Sea Dream. Even though I get sea sick, I love the smaller ships where you can easily interact with the other passengers. Bonine works for me, and I take it whenever the Captain predicts high seas.

On out first cruise from Barbados to St. Thomas on Sea Dream 1,  there were fewer passengers than crew. We had a great time, and didn't miss the balcony that we always feel the need for on bigger ships.

We enjoyed Regent Splendor last September on our around the UK cruise, followed by Southampton to Barcelona, There were more public spaces, and more restaurant choices. Lunch at Prime 7 was often offered, and we had a great wine pairing lunch at Pacific Rim with only 14 guests. We more recently tried to sign up for the same type of lunch for the same price on Regent Navigator. It was the same extra cost, but there were 40 guests, and was lunch at open sea, which would have been very rocky. We didn't need to worry about cancelling it since they lost our reservation. But we always enjoy Compass Rose for our meals.

The biggest ship we've ever sailed on was the HAL Prinsendam (sold off around the time around the UK we sailed on it), which was a beautiful classic ship, but even in a huge Neptune Suite, it was way too crowded for us. It was a Florida to Florida 2 week cruise, and had many scooter chairs clogging up the halls, elevators and restaurants. We recently did a 2 week cruise from Miami to Miami on Regent Navigator. We didn't have a huge suite, but we enjoyed it much more than the Neptune Suite since there were so many fewer passengers.

On 6/18/2023 at 1:05 PM, Wendy The Wanderer said:

Figured as much, but it seemed weird.

For our April 2024 cruise, it had always shown as Business Class airfare included. We would not have booked this cruise at that price if it didn't include BC since it's a very long flight from Miami to Bangkok and back to Miami from Abu Dhabi.

Early in June, our TA asked if we wanted to pay a (now) non-refundable fee to book early for our flights. We never want to wait to book our included flights, and have always paid for early flights. After paying the non-refundable fee, our TA was told that no flights would be booked for anyone before September, and if we didn't want the flights offered we were on our own (with no refund) at that time.

Even more disturbing is that our cruise reservation no longer shows Business class. It now just says "Round trip airfare for two, from MIA".  If that's the case, we won't be going on this cruise, and will ask for our deposit and the "non-refundable" early booking fee to be returned to us, and we won't ever book another Regent Cruise (or any of it's affiliates) again.

On 6/28/2023 at 3:53 PM, Camden lady said:

I have taken two Viking river cruises and never found the hallways narrow.  Did I just not notice?? I am not a big drinker so I never purchase the beverage package and have found the included wines (especially the white) quite adequate.  The cabins were quite comfy also for my sister and myself so I had no problems there either.  These are the only river cruises I have ever been on, so can't compare them with anything else.  Maybe if I had been on other cruise lines river cruises, I would notice extreme differences.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my river cruises and ocean cruises on Viking.  Of course, it could be that I am just so happy to be sailing and seeing places I have never seen that I don't notice minor inconveniences.   If you see me on a Viking cruise, (one coming up on July 15) I will have a big smile on my face from the time I embark until I have to leave.  Happy sailing to all.

There were definitely guests onboard our Viking River Cruise who we could not pass in the hallway without making passing arrangements to pull into doorways. We are not obese, but quite a few other guests were. This was on the upper deck of cabins. We didn't go through the hallways of the 2 decks of cabins lower than ours.

We're not beer drinkers, although we tried some on excursions, but the wines served with lunch and dinner were mostly good, and we had very good food at all meals. We enjoyed most of the included excursions, and the overall nice atmosphere onboard with some music and entertainment that we enjoyed early in the evening. We met many couples that we enjoyed spending time with on our cruise.

But, we still don't like the layout of the River Cruise boat, and hope our Viking Ocean cruise will meet our expectations.

22 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

 

Intriguing post. I'm curious as to why, given your negative experience with Viking River, you would choose to sail with the same company, let alone invest in the second-most expensive accommodation  on Viking Ocean? Many pax would have sought out a different company in hopes of finding a more satisfying cruise. 🍺🥌

Our experience wasn't entirely negative on Viking River. The service was very good, the food was very good, as were the excursions. We didn't like the narrow river boat. Masks were still required last May, as were daily Covid testing for our first 5 days, and the corridors on the Viking Longship was too narrow for comfort at the time. We're hoping that the bigger ocean ship, and the larger cabin, along with more dining options will work for us. We also don't need to rely on Viking airfare, which we had problems with on our Viking River cruise. We've been wanting to do a Panama Canal cruise, and we hope this works for us.

Compared to cruising on Regent or Silversea, the price of the larger cabin on Viking Ocean for a Panama Canal cruise seemed quite reasonable.

We will be taking our first Viking Ocean Cruise in December through the Panama Canal. We previously did a Viking River cruise, Amasterdam to Budapest in May of last year which was our third attempt at a cruise we had booked and paid in full for back in November of 2018, which was cancelled  by Viking many times without an offer of a refund.

We paid for the beverage package, and they didn't include it on our first day onboard when we booked it. A bottle of cheap wine was provided to us on the first afternoon, and we paid 60 dollars for it, despite paying for the beverage package that day. We were in a Veranda Suite and had the same bottle of wine in our refrig everyday that was included.

There was no drink menu provided at the bar, and there was no bar tender that could recreate any simpl;e cocktail from one day to the next

.The bar service was extremely dissappointing, We have no reason to expect any more from our next cruise, BUT,  we will be in a really big Explorer suite up front so at least we won't have to squeeze through those narrow hallways on a Viking River Longboat where only 1 average size guest can fit through, even if they turn sideways.

On our April cruise, we had booked 3 cabins; Concierge D for us, and for our single female friend in the cabin next to us, and my brother who took a chance on the gty which could have been a window cabin.

We were embarking on Friday, and he was informed of his cabin number on Monday. He was assigned a very nice Veranda cabin on the Port side near the front of the ship, which he really enjoyed. He was under the tables in the restaurant, and heard no noise. He was very happy with his choice of gty,

I've found what I love every morning for my pre-breakfast. That's when we head to the Coffee Connection, and I have the cro-nut of the day and 1 or 2 cappuccinos.If we have no early excursion, we then head to Compass Rose at 8 for a leisurely breakfast. We are sometimes offered an additional cro-nut, but I limit myself to the first one.

The cro-nut is made of pastry, but looks like a fried doughnut. It has frosting/glaze on top, and an injected filling of flavored cream, or sometimes jelly. They are absolutely delicious. While I like a cinnamon roll or sticky bun, the cro-nut is smaller and more decadent, so I love it even more.

I thought the point was that the "Ship Capacity Reductions" that were the subject of this original post are a thing of the past a year later. On our cruise in April, we had more passengers than the stated capacity of the ship, which was more than the listed double occupancy of the number of cabins.

Since our cruise companions were each solo in their cabins, there must have been more than 2 in some cabins. It was more crowded in Compass Rose on most nights than we've experienced before on Regent in our nearly 100 nights onboard. It was our least enjoyable cruise, and while we haven't cancelled our next Regent cruise, we won't be booking another until we see how our next one goes. We're already having trouble booking our business class flights for that cruise even though we paid a non-refundable deviation fee. They blame the airlines.

We are gold members, and were booking Prime 7 on Navigator for the 2 of us in our Concierge cabin, along with our 2 single traveling companions, one in a Concierge cabin and the other in a guaranteed cabin (which was a veranda cabin 4 days before boarding). We were allowed to book the reservation for ourselves and our concierge friend when first available, but had to add our other dinner companion later. Since there really are no tables for 3 in Prime 7, this worked for us.

We were just on a 2 week cruise to the Caribbean from Miami to Miami on Navigator. It was chilly in Compass Rose in the evenings, even though it was quite warm on deck. I don't know if they turn on the heat when in Canada,

The cabins have a thermostat so you can set it to whatever you feel is comfortable.

Back near the end of 2018, we did a cruise on the Silversea ship Silver Whisper, from Barbados to Barbados, up the Amazon to Manaus and back. We really enjoyed our firs Silversea cruise, even though we had to dress up more then we usually do. We were able to afford a Silver Suite, which was very nice.

In January of 2019, we were notified of the 2021 World Cruise on Silver Whisper. While we couldn't afford the whole cruise, we booked 2 segments, Fort Lauderdale to New Zealand. We are a 2 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale, and had friends in New Zealand at the time that we wanted to  visit. The first segment was wait listed right away, but it cleared in a few months. We were really looking forward to it, especially Easter Island. Since we were boarding in the first port, we weren't worried about joining those already onboard. We did understand that those doing the whole cruise would have advantages over us for reservations, and included perks.

Then I started following the 2020 Silversea World Cruise here on Cruise Critic. As it turned out, they didn't stop at Easter Island, after 4 days at sea. There were passengers who had taken an excursion to Machu Pichu, and they flew to Easter Island. A boat took them to the ship anchored offshore, but no one on the ship was allowed to go ashore. A crazy guy had recently crashed a stolen truck into the only statues you could previously see from the ship. Some passengers onboard had tried 4 or 5 times to go to Easter Island from a cruise. Hmmmm.... I thought to myself. That was the biggest destination on my bucket list for that cruise. How would I feel if we couldn't go ashore?

Shortly thereafter, Covid shut down cruising (including my dream cruise which was booked 2 years earlier, Fiji to Bali on the Paul Gauguin, for a celebration of my Birthday on our 4th PG cruise). We then checked if we could get our money back on our future cruises, and we still could on the 2021 Silversea cruise the following January. There were other cruises later in 2021 that we could not get any money back for 2021, so they were all postponed, and mostly were taken in 2023. Ponant had bought our Paul Gauguin, and they only offered us future cruise credit for the cruise they cancelled  less than 2 weeks before it sailed. But after many reschedules to other cruises, with each costing more than the one before, and a health related problem with insurance coverage, we didn't lose much, and while we loved the Paul Gauguin, we wouldn't book with Ponant again.

But the chance to do a World Cruise to ports we mostly haven't visited before (or loved the first time), rather than any specific port that was on a bucket list occurred last August. We booked the 2025 Silversea World Cruise, from Tokyo to New York on Silver Dawn. We couldn't afford the Silver Suite, but Silver Dawn has a lot more restaurants, bars, and public spaces than Silver Whisper. We're down to just 603 days until we sail from Tokyo and are still hoping to live long enough to take this cruise.

15 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Earliest booking time for excursions and dining is 8pm ET which equates to 1am BST (midnight GMT) for those of us in the U.K. 

I understand Regent changed the timing to make it more convenient!!! 🙄
 

 

 

Last month I made excursion reservations for next April. Living in Florida, it was so nice not to have to set the alarm for midnight as I've to do for my previous cruises. Only Regent would know what would be the most convenient time for the majority of their customers since I'm sure there are almost no customers in some time zones. Did they look at that? Probably not.