RetiredandTravel

Check the roll call section maybe more folks on your cruise there

Honestly I don't remember if the transfer to the hotel would have been included. The Regent bus to the airport worked very well for us, it was economical and well executed.

I'm not 100% sure but I think (2019) it was Tokyo MK, they were awesome. The Narita > Hilton fare was ~$230 for a Lexus and they showed up in a Mercedes S600, driver was the best. Private car the only way to go IMO after a long flight but some people prefer the bus or train. Yeah we also opted to buy the extra night ourselves much cheaper. I'm Hilton Gold because of AMEX so we had the included breakfast in the main restaurant which I think is quite a bit better than the "free" Regent one which was on a separate floor. Have fun. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1066451-d8569394-Reviews-Tokyo_MK_Taxi_Limousine-Minato_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

Our Tokyo-Tokyo cruise also included a free 3 day pre cruise package, we arrived a day early and made our own arrival transfer arrangements to the hotel. Regent provided transfer to the ship and we paid for Regent bus transfers to the airport (~$100 each). I'd still double check that you aren't paying for the transfer to the hotel. Enjoy your trip.

Are these supply issues due to shortages or running the ships with less inventory to optimize cash flow? Also, the Regent cruises I've looked at in 2023 & 2024 have significant price increases. We always make our own flight arrangements, in the past a concierge or lower suite (w/o air) usually ran ~$1500/day they are pressing 2k -$2500 on many 2023/24 cruises. (edited)

When we were on a Japan cruise in April 2019 they had a special Passover Seder dinner on the other side of La Veranda (according to our waiter) from Sette Mari. I too am surprised (actually stunned) that there was not a Menorah on the ship.

Those are both popular ports for Baltic cruises. I'm surprised there are no excursions showing but think there definitely will be, I'd check with my TA or Regent and get an explanation to make sure there is no error. When you look at the Regent marketing material for that cruise they show probable excursions. https://www.rssc.com/cruises/SPL230630/summary We went on a land vacation that included Berlin last summer, I'm a bit of a WW2/Cold War history buff and found Berlin fascinating. If you have never been to Berlin you can do a walking tour of about 3-4 hours which will give you the highlights of the 1930's - present era including Brandenburg Gate (very crowded). The Russians basically flattened Berlin at the end of the war so its important to have a quality tour guide. If you have questions about Berlin I'm happy to help.

OK I understand. Generally if an excursion is full the system would say wait listed just not be shown. Unless its a newer port I'm still surprised there aren't any excursions showing. You did after all pay for the excursions. May I ask what ports aren't showing any excursions? The Baltic is very frequently travelled and I find this surprising. We were at a new port for Regent in Japan and it took a while for the excursions to show up, in your case that's an advantage (edited).

Yes excursions are booked well in advance to sailing. Not only do concierge suites and higher rooms get priority (extra time) on booking excursions but so do frequent cruisers (Silver). I'm a little confused by your question are you saying only a few "free" excursions are available or pay extra excursions. Honestly this is a little late in the excursion booking process for a June sailing but there still should be a good number of free excursions left.

There are really no themed local meals other than as mentioned special requests. There is a very large selection of different types of food on the ship. Attached includes many example menus for various restaurants. Silversea Cruises recently introduced their SALT concept which serves the food and drink of the region you are visiting. IMO this compensates for a shortcoming of cruising which is not experiencing enough local cuisine. Sometimes this is also an advantage. Some excursions do include meals at local restaurants. https://www.rssc.com/experience/cuisine

To add to the misery the S&P 500 also had a couple major fails to get above the 200 day MA (4030) and may test the 50 Day MA today (3861). A double top may also be forming in the Dow (34300) going back to mid August. There also seems to be a decoupling of stock and bond prices which indicates the possibility the market is getting more concerned about a recession which probably wouldn't bode well for cruise stocks. but it is Christmas, never underestimate the power of Christmas 🤩

Hi Susan, We went on a Regent Japan cruise that stopped at the first few ports you mention. Kyoto is definitely the highlight. Here is a link where I reviewed our trip excursions. I've looked into Vietnam/Thailand cruises and some feed back was the ports a quite a distance from sites, not sure if that's true in your case but maybe something to look into. Japan is very cool enjoy your trip. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2859002-links-to-any-tokyo-to-tokyo-trip-reports/#comment-63378722

New analyst at JP Morgan assumes coverage of NCLH & RCL and is off to a slow start, had to issue a correction to his initial note (Tuesday) and price target. Ouch. https://www.barrons.com/articles/royal-caribbean-norwegian-cruise-stocks-51670351137

Thanks. Did you do a review or trip report from your QM2 transatlantic? We've considered taking that home from Europe instead of flying sometime.

Personally I found the $1MM comment to be outrageous, she is down this much YTD and has the hutzpah to say something like that and the media just goes along. Yes ARKK is down over 60% YTD. ARKK stock is also lower (marginally) than it was 12/31/2017, the S&P is up ~45%, QQQ up ~ 84%. There may be some capital gains and other considerations in there so I attached the Morningstar returns which says ARKK is up 1.95 over 5 years. Only in America. I've never heard of Tim Draper either but IMO its a similar situation CNBC runs a story on a guy who said crypto would hit $250,000 by the end of THIS year now he's pushing his target out to mid 2023. Huh. https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/arcx/arkk/performance

I thought Cathie Wood was on the aggressive side a few weeks ago on crypto https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-outlook-million-2030-crypto-cathie-wood-ark-ftx-collapse-2022-11 but Tim Draper (I don't know Tim) came out today I guess extending his timeline https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/05/tim-draper-predicts-bitcoin-will-reach-250000-despite-ftx-collapse.html can't make this stuff up

Definitely not for us either. Our next vacation the resort has 30 rooms and I'm not sure I've ever been on a water slide. Some people love the big ships, God bless them, hope they have fun. I totally agree on the logistics, what must be involved in just feeding 7600 people. It would be interesting to see how the whole thing works. Found this youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2vXbFp5C9o

What a beast. Not for us but some people love them. 6 water slides, 7 pools https://www.royalcaribbean.com/icon-of-the-seas/site/

I don't follow these things that closely but: 1) Was it SS or SB that fully recognize Crystal frequent cruiser days? I have to say if we cruised 100 days on a SS or SB and a brand new Crystal cruiser was given 500 transferred day benefits we'd be pretty steamed. 2) Did Crystal (not cc companies) refund all the money for future cruises and down payments?

Hi, because we took the air credit and made our own flights. When you take the air credit you also need to make your own transfers. Notice below at the end of the room categories. They did provide transfer from the hotel to the ship. "A Savings of up to $5,500 per person is available when arranging your own flights and transfers." https://www.rssc.com/cruises/EXP230314/summary?source=top results

Completely agree the toilets were all exceptionally clean. I will say there was a lack of paper towels after cleaning your hands in some areas. We are somewhat older and my wife in particular found the old style toilets to be challenging. Quite a few in the parks were even more primitive than pictured below. Sort of self explanatory. https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/japanese-style-squat-toilets-a-surprising-way-to-stay-healthy

We arranged our own flights to Tokyo. We had to set our own transfers from the airport to the hotel. The car service from Narita to the hotel was about $225, many use the train or bus we like the convenience with luggage. Regent provided the transfer from the hotel to the ship and we purchased Regent bus transfers ($100 each) from the ship to the airport at the end. We were in a Concierge suite and could not add the free night to the free 3 night pre cruise package.

This is somewhat off color but important to know. The bathrooms (toilets) in Japan can be challenging in many locations. 🙄

This link may be helpful, if you have any more questions please ask. Kyoto & Hiroshima are top picks. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2859002-links-to-any-tokyo-to-tokyo-trip-reports/#comment-63378722

We had a free pre cruise package in Tokyo (4/19) and stayed at the Tokyo Hilton, we mostly agree with AJCM. Very nice Hilton. In addition the elevators were packed when all the Regent folks try to go down at the same time so allow extra time. We were there on a weekend and all the restaurants were completely booked for lunch so if you plan on eating lunch there make a reservation. If you go down the escalators towards the subway just on the right is a convenience store to get water beer wine etc at a reasonable price. Regent farms out the pre cruise logistics and although the people were very nice they were very disorganized. Excursions themselves were well done once we got on the bus. The Japanese people are wonderful they are very sophisticated, professional and kind. Beautiful place to visit. Tokyo has exceptional restaurants but because of WW2 there aren't a large amount of sight seeing locations for a city of this size. We found Kyoto to be the most interesting stop on the cruise. One observation is if you have to pay for the pre cruise package it may be much cheaper and higher quality to do it on your own. Tokyo is a very manageable city.