KathyPet

The great thing about cruising is trying new foods! if you tell your waiter is was not to your taste they will bring you something else and it's all included.

Did the OP,actually say his wife won't eat anything but American food? What the heck were they doing taking a European River Cruise? they need to stay home and go to Ruby Tuesday.

Did our first River cruise on the Rhone with Tauck this past September. First class all,the way! from our wonderful tour guides to the food and wine served on board it was perfect. I have not a single negative thing to say.

I will never, ever let the terrorist win and if we are afraid to travel where we want then they win. I was on a plane to Newark exactly one week after 9/11 and never had a moment's hesitation about getting on it.

We have cruised with Regent and Seabourn and I would certainly compare Tauck very favorably with these two. Actually I felt of the three the food on the Swiss Emerald was the best of the group.

Nana - Many CC members who have been posting and reading posts on this board and on other CC boards (i.e. Regent, Silversea, etc.) have become quiet accustomed to certain posters making unreasonable demands for information or insight. This particular poster has become notorious for requesting precise measurements of the bed widths on various ships, as well as suggesting that the ship's crew should be responsible for the welfare of her DH while she takes excursions.

 

I would respectfully suggest that certain posters will never find a satisfactory answer to their questions, since they are not willing to accept any answer other than the one they wish to receive. Indeed, there may be a time to stop cruising, as no cruise experience, whether on an ocean-going cruise ship or a river boat, can possibly be the same as being on a chartered vessel.

 

This post is not intended to be either insulting or cruel; but it is reasonable to

suggest that there are limits to which any provider of travel products should be willing to go to satisfy the very particular preferences of a very particular client.

ITA. The extreme pickiness of some cruisers whether ocean or river vessel never ceases to amaze me.

Somewhat of the same experience at breakfast in the Grand Intercontinental in Paris for the French Waterways cruise. The morning we arrived our room was not ready and we were given a coupon for free breakfast inthe hotel dining room which was just lovely. The two following mornings we were told to go to a separate room which they obviously use for small parties. This room was not nearly as attractive as the main dining room and service for coffee and juice was spotty. We obtained our food at the same buffet in the main dining room and carried it back to the room reserved for us but the same elegant feeling was missing.

I've never travelled with Scenic but I can tell you that Tauck do not offer a butler service yet if you're in your cabin and you'd like a bowl of ice cream or some cakes or perhaps a cheese plate all you do is pick up the phone and order it and within 10 minutes it arrives in your cabin or anywhere else on the boat you may want it. I'm not so sure whether butler service is that big a selling point.

I must agree about the need or usage of a butler. We were on a ocean cruise once where a butler was part of the package and I found the service quite useless and rather annoying to be honest. I was awakened from naps twice by "my butler" delivering my late afternoon snack whic we barely touched.

our recent Tauck cruise consisted of 108 guests not the 170 referenced above for Scenic.

Tauck placed us in the Paris Intercontinental Grand Hotel for our French Waterways cruise and if our room was a ,standard, room I cannot imagine what a upgraded room would look like. I have never been in a larger hotel room anywhere.

As far as cabin size yes the standard cabins are small (very small actually compared to any on a ocean cruise ship). However I did get a peek into one of the suites on the Swiss Emerald and They are substantial. If size is a issue for you then a suite may be worth the extra dollars for you.

As far as Tauck taking care of you they certainly do. one passenger fell ill in Lyon and one of our guides accompanied him to the hospital in order to translate with the hospital staff. I also heard a couple of conversations between our guides and Air France en Francais assisting passengers with rebooking flights due to the strike.

Let me also say that the food was superb. The best I have ever had on a cruise ship. Not only did it taste wonderfully but the presentations were beautiful.

So far we are half way finished with our first Tauck River Cruise (French Waterways) I am very well pleased. My vote goes to Tauck.

We leave for the airport in a couple,of hours for our flight to Paris for the French Waterways cruise and are so,excited. Glad it was everything you expected.

As a member of the "trust but verify club" I have some additional questions. If you buy a certificate and then find a cruise a year later does the certificate entitle you to get the "on board booking price" that is in effect at the time you book the cruise. If so how can you confirm the accuracy of that price? Obviously the reduced amount would not be a figure easily obtainable to you at home booking a cruise. Do you just trust that Regent is giving you the correct pricing based on using the certificate you bought and that they are giving you the current on board pricing for that cruise?? Is the certificate stating that you will receive the current on board,pricing for the cruise IF there is a current reduced on board pricing figure for the cruise you want?? Does the certificate provide for a OBC for the difference between the current going rate for that cruise and a on board booking price or is it a actual $ fare reduction? I am not a big fan of OBC credits on Regent as I find them difficult to spend and if it is a Regent issued OBC it is my understanding that if you have credit left at the end of the cruise you forfeit it. I would want a actual price reduction using the certificate not a OBC. Help please!

I'm not new to Regent but have never heard about cruise certificates. Can you elaborate a bit. What's the benefit to buying one?

Check out the thread entitled "Benefits of booking On Board". it is very recent and should be on the first page

So to clarify if you give them $2000.00 it gets you one of these certificates. Applying the certificate towards a specific cruise that you book,after you return home allows you to,get the same on board booking price that you,would have received if you had booked that specific next cruise while on board. So if you don't see a itinerary that is what you want on the current schedule you can get the certificate and keep looking for another cruise and if you find one up to two,years in the future you get the on board booking price? How much of a discount do you get by using the on board booking feature?

What is a "future cruise certificate"?

Have not been to Nassau with Regent but have been there with other cruise lines. it is a tourist trap of the first magnitude. I will never get off the ship if a cruise I am on stops there again.

did a Regent 10 day Barcelona to Rome two years ago. Loved most of the shore excursions.

The entire concept of holding 50 people on board a ship almost a hour after their scheduled departure time because two passengers in that departure group had not "checked in" is beyond my comprehension.

RCCL and RSS are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I have done one RSS cruise and we have booked a Tahiti cruise for Feb, 2015. have about 5 RCCL cruises in. RCCL has their hands in your pocket constantly during your time on board and they are constantly selling their upgrades. My perfect example of what you will find on RCCL is the "gentleman" we passed leaving the dining room as we were entering for dinner. he was wearing a tank top which exposed his hairy arms, chest and arm pits along with shorts and flip flops. What a lovely sight across the dinner table. I certainly wouldn't ask him to reach over and pass me the salt. RCCL does have a posted dress code for the dining room but there is no attempt to enforce it.

Does anyone have experience in selecting seat assignments on line? I have looked on their web site but don't see where or how to accomplish it.

I don't know but I must say that I have been on at least a dozen or so cruises on various lines (HAL, RCCL, Celebrity, Seabourn and Regent) and I have never that I can recall had a single conversation or interaction with a cruise director beyond seeing them at their various public appearances that they make on board. I have never been able to understand why they are considered so critical to the success of a cruise. I really don't care who they are or what they do.

Just to update. We are booked on the Air Tahiti flight leaving at 10:40 PM from LAX. returning on the 10:45 AM flight on the 14th landing at 9 PM West Coast time. No connection flights that late so we will stay at the Courtyard at LAX and fly UAL home the next morning. RSCC did not charge us a deviation fee.

We snagged FF seats on UAL both ways at the Saver award level so only 50,000 miles R/T for both of us.

Both the PG and Mariner have cruises embarking on 2/4/15. So around 1000 people if both sail full. Some may come early if on Mariner in Concierge level because of the "free" pre Cruise hotel night but that still leaves a whole heck of a lot of passengers flying from LAX via Air Tahiiti on 2/3. Both cruises are 10 nights whic means everyone is departing back to LAX on 2/14. When I check the Air Tahiti website for flight I see one flight from LAX. To PPT at 11:15 PM on 2/3 landing early AM on 2/4. Coming back there are 3 flights but two of them appear to be early in the morning and one at midnight. So, how do they get all these people back and forth with only 1 viable flight coming and going?

Sorry to be asking such specific questions but I am a over the top Type A.

I cannot see why they would charge a deviation fee if I am saving them $$ by only needing flights from LAX to PPT and back and I am not deviating from the Regent arranged flights to and from those locations but I guess I will find out.

Does anyone know how much a day room costs at a hotel and which hotels will allow you to book such a arrangement

We live on the East Coast. Obviously we would be transferring to Air Tahiti at LAX. Does Regent care if we only want to use the Air Tahiti flights to and from LAX and not use their flights from the East Coast to LAX? Will they charge us a deviation fee? We would like to use FF miles to LAX on united and stay over at LAX Marriott one night prior to flight to Tahiti but I do not want to pay a deviation fee for this.

If we book a concierge suite we get the one night "free" hotel stay in Papeete. However check in time at the hotel is late afternoon. Our flight arrives very early in the AM. Will we be able to check in when we arrive? Obviously sitting in a hotel lobby for 7 hours waiting to get into a room would not be my idea of how to start a vacation.

It appears that the flights leaving Papeete depart in the evening. Can you stay on board or is there a lounge to use at the airport?

I sent a E nail to customer service complaining about my personal information being given to these two travel agencies in order for them to solicite me to sign up for a cruise using their agency via marketing calls to my home from a company called Full Service Travel who called three times to sell me a cruise. The third call was made after I had told them the day before on the second call that I was not interested in using their services. The E mails were from Aroya Travel wanting to answer any questions that I might have to ensure that they would give me the best possible price for my cruise.

The response from customer service stated that they were sorry I was getting these types of contacts and they would delete my information from the PG database.

I have read your privacy policy. It does not say anything about providing customer's personal information to a third party so that the customer can be the target of a sales pitch from two travel agencies. You are violating your own privacy policy by allowing this to occur and I do intend to follow up on my complaint with a formal complaint to the dept that is in charge of administering the Privacy policy. When I provide my name, address, E Mail and phone # on a website for a specific purpose I expect that website to safeguard my data and not to turn it over willy nilly to a outside entity. I have no knowledge or information as to the safety and security of these additional entities who now have my information in their databases and I was not given the option to not have this information turned over to them.