judi666

While Regent was very nice, the general vibe was more reserved and less casual. The cabins were very nice. Service good. The food was not as good. The low point were the included excursions, which were good to absolutely terrible. This was 2019 pre Covid. They were sometimes outrageously misrepresented as to itinerary and activity level. Several of the tours marked as easy, required miles of walking, ( I wear a fitness tracker) very rough terrain and in one case getting into some giant all terrain vehicle ( called a jeep in the description) the first step being as high as my shoulder, no step or help from the tour operators. After two or three very uncomfortable experiences, I started dreading what would be next and canceled several. They were not all bad, but enough that were a long glorified bus ride or ridiculously catagorized as to physical ability. Another aspect of the included tours that I did not consider, was many sea days and loss of several ports due to various reasons. This significantly reduced the overall value. If you are a drinker, you will not find yourself lacking. One couldn’t sit down for 3 minutes without being offered or many times just handed a drink. After a day or two most servers knew I liked a glass of white wine and I was served one without asking in minutes. This was my only Regent experience and it was in their newest ship. I have done many more on Oceania and overall I prefer them, particularly the smaller R ships.

It’s quite a distance to the airport in Reykjavik. May take longer than 45 min.

I agree it makes thinks easier for some (including myself). On a recent Holland America cruise, there were many people unable to deal with it. All the excursion tickets were sent to the app wallet. This caused a huge hassle with people missing tours and giant lines at guest services every day. I found it much easier to have everything on my phone. That is until the internet went down for two days and the bars and specialty restaurants could not charge items to the passenger except writing receipts by hand! I did not miss, having all the paper, cluttering up everything.

We had similar issues on Regent. Several excursions (easy to moderate) required long hot slogs to the bus. One was over 3/4 mile, according to my Apple Watch. This was never indicated in the pre excursion info. One(easy) we ended up being walked around a small town in Morocco 3 times, for a total of 3.5 miles. It became obvious we were going in circles and the guide didn’t care. He also made us wait over an hour in the street for a museum to open (it never did). All would be fine, if the description and amount of exercise would have been noted. A second excursion (easy)required getting into a huge Jeep thing that was over 3 feet off the ground to enter, with no step. I’m less than 5 ft and in my 70S. So every stop I had to jump out and then have my husband and others help me back in. It was truly embarrassing and horrible. Regent is in the “first class category” while ship service was fine, many hassles and misinfo on excursions. These are included in the price and so totally not worth it. Complaining, in the interest of improving the experiences for others, fell on deaf ears. I learned a a long time ago, one has to be flexible and roll with travel. Still you expect to get what is promised and paid for. At least you got a response and compensation. It becomes more difficult to do things as we get older and ironically, have the finances to do them. While not perfect we have had mostly good experiences with Oceania.

The Lisbon HOHo bus is great. 3 routes. Quite a bargain.

I was on the Noordam in May. It was in good shape. Our Sig suite was like new. The only thing I didn’t like was the cloth shower curtain. There were service issues ( first cruise with passengers in over 700 day). Staff seemed in chaos a lot. Ship itself is good and was very uncrowded. Liked the Lido pool area!

That seems like everything that could go wrong did. Sorry! we did a 19 day HAL cruise in May. It was the first time the Noordam had sailed with passengers in over 700 days. It was pretty hit or miss. Our Sig Suite had about 1/4 inch of dust on all surfaces. Our travel companions the same, plus find unflushed feces in their bathroom! The stewards did a great job and all was ok by day 2. No bites, but I did have some lingering allergies, probably from the dust. The staff seemed like they rounded up a bunch of guys off the street in Indonesia and gave them a 1/2 hour briefing on service. The dinner in Rudi’s was probably the worst meal of my life. ( we were compensated for the cost). Canelletto was always good, but seldom open. The Dining manager was a clueless jerk. There was no sommelier of anyone to ask about wine selections. In the end we had a great time and spent wonderful time with family members. It was far from perfect, but we kind of knew that going in, considering Covid protocols etc. I hope your next cruise will be a better experience.

I just booked a cruise in Mar. No problem with them taking my deposit. 10 hours later, they charged the whole amount to my cc. ( not due until Dec 2022.) it took 3 hours waiting on the phone to resolve. Really unacceptable.

It was ok when we were on it May. Much better than Regent. That said, on a 17 day cruise it was completely out for 2 days. Since everything is done with the app, it was an inconvenience.