Scout16

I can add that as far as luggage goes, there have been times when we have to verify that our luggage is present before it is loaded and before we are allowed to board the bus. I guess that this is a safety heck to make sure that no luggage is left behind.

My rule of thumb is that I will try to wear the sports coat and tie on the nights when the ship's officers line up for a more formal greeting such as the Captain's Welcome, the Captain's Farewell, and some of the SS Society functions. I would also pullout the coat for some holidays and celebrations within the travel group. The nice thing is that I can still fit in wearing the regular cloths.

To add to the possibilities, if your 19 day cruise is a joining of more than one shorter cruises, such as a 7 and a 12 day cruise you will have the opportunity to book the specialty once for each segment.

I have no idea how the solo fare is determined, I have paid the full double fare and then have paid much less. The solo supplement appears to be based upon the cruise and I am not sure if the supplement changes as time goes by. If I want to go where the cruise is going I only have the choice to go or not go.

I tend to remember that I normally only needed the passport and credit card for the Regent people (and since the on line pre-check-in not the credit card). I needed to show various other documents to get past the local port security people.

I guess part of it depends upon how you were raised. I was taught to be kind and polite to both the crew and fellow passengers since we are all on the same boat. Please remember to try to smile and e helpful even when you have problems with some of the crew members. On my last back to back, there was a major change in crew at Rio and then the ship was full with many short cruise passengers. It took several days for many of the new crew members to either learn or get back in the flow. I had to help the person at the pool grille fill out the burger order and I gave up trying to explain well done tuna. I a few days there were no problems and they would ask if I wanted what I ordered the last time.

My last cruise was on the Voyager during January/February 2024 and most of the cruise was spent under Code Red due to intestinal illness. I now see that the Voyager is again under Code Red. This puts a real wet blanket on the cruise experience even if it is needed. The tables in the dinning rooms have nothing on them when you enter except the tablecloth and those off the pool grill have nothing at all. The menus are throw away sheets of paper with small print (shrink the normal menu down a sheet of paper). If you ask for salt and pepper you receive a paper packets. La Veranda has one door closed with everyone entering through the other where you are asked to wash your hands and you have to have food dished up for you by a crew member. This limits the number of crew who can serve you at the tables and reset the tables after use. Most of the restrooms have their door propped open. The puzzle and the library are closed down. There is more limited contact between passengers and crew, as a Solo we were not allowed to eat dinner with any crew members. I never had any problems with the intestinal problems, but I still have trouble believing how many passengers had to be constantly asked to go along with the health measures. I normally am careful to follow what I consider standard health measures such as covering coughs and sneezes, and washing or sanitizing your hands. I hope the other passengers will follow standard health actions so that the risk of having a health emergency is reduced and the cruise can be a more pleasant experience.

The one problem that I have with the non-Explorer class ships is that the Pool Grill does not have either the boiled shrimp or the lobster nachos. I would order both when I really did not want a full lunch. The Explorer also has the sink where you can wash up after the shrimp without having to open any doors.

There are really two topics here. One - The Sunday Brunch which is only offered on the Explorer class ships under limited conditions, Sunday sea days and then not always. I find them to be impressive, but I am not thrilled by them. The other topic is the Champagne and Caviar presentation every Sunday in, at least La Veranda, the restaurant at breakfast time. Again for me it is nice, but I am not thrilled by either the fish eggs or bubbly wine, I tend to stick with my normal breakfast. I do believe that if you ask that you can get various breakfast drinks any day of the week. I shutter at the healthy smoothies, but I believe I have seen Bloody Marys at breakfast.

I believe that part of the problem with the discussion of luggage tags is that that there are two different things, the tags which you permanently attach to your luggage and the tags which are used to send your luggage to your room on the ship or to the proper place for disembarking. Real luggage tags are now only sent to you after you have spent the required number of nights on the ship while the others are sent to you ahead of your cruise or with the disembarking instructions. It would be nice if there was some way that they could send true luggage tags, not real leather, to first time passengers, but many of us now have a drawer full of the old plastic luggage tags which they used to send with every cruise.

I try to get an extra mid cruise form since I know that they are read and responded to. I wish that the forms were left out full cruise.

I was with the Solos group and when my leg gave out for a few days I went to Destinations Services with another Solo who wanted to go on the shore excursion that I had and officially transferred the ticket to him. There was no problem and I figured if there had been any reason to contact anyone about the excursion it would go to the correct person.

I generally do not like to fill out surveys since they normally cover many things which I really have little interest, are written asking the wrong question, and miss the items which I find important. I would like to recognize the special crew members and bring up the items which I either found very good or had problems with. Does anyone know if there is a contact in the corporate office that you can send your comments about your cruise to?

The problem is that Reykjavik is a small city that has become a major tourist hub and the facilities are limited both in the city and at the airport. The airport reminds me of the airport in Columbus, Ohio in the early seventies. They do the best they can, but they are frequently swamped. I had wonderful tours of Reykjavik on cruises which passed though, but I am not sure if I want to embark or disembark from there or several other locations used by Regent. I will, it possible, add another segment to avoid embarking or disembarking at ports where I have heard of problems with the limited facilities. As for Reykjavik I also try not to change flights there.

I did the Portimao 4x4 excursion in May 2022. We were met at the terminal with enclosed jeeps and were mainly on secondary and gravel roads. I did not think it was overly bumpy, but I have been traveling to Boy Scout camping trips over similar road for decades. I liked seeing the natural countryside and hearing them tell about the wildfires which had been there several years prior.

You really do not need o find the machine, just ask your server. Your server will bring you what you want even if they have to go elsewhere on the ship to get it.

I know that the last time I was on the Navigator in 2019 that you could hear the steam coming from the coffee machines in La Veranda. I am not a coffee person so I cannot tell you what the offerings were or how it tasted.

I was on the Voyager this past January/February and the nights when the entertainment was just a movie tended to be on long segments when we were away from everything. The other thing that may hinder the performances is the health of the performers, at least one night was cancelled since both of the special performers were sick.

The concerns listed on this topic and several other what if topics are guessing at what will change, I think it may be best to wait and see what does change before worrying about the changes.

At some point we need to list the various problems with embarkation and debarkation ports, but I have few problems with Miami. There are hotels in abundance, the road system is not bad nor long distant, and the port terminal physical facilities and reasonable. There are ports that I would avoid including transfer airports which lack these things. I will admit that you may have problems if the port city has a visit by to Pope, an economic conference, or a large sporting event which you could not plan for.

I also have noticed that extra shore excursions are sometimes added to the offerings later. I guess that this is when they have problems nailing down the contracts with the groups on shore. I go check what is offered after I make my original choices to see if there is anything I want to add or change the excursions which were not favorites.

Air travel did not create many problems for me until Covid, but I have let my travel agent know generally what I want and he handles it and just sends me what he has come up with for approval. The one thing I do not really care for is the current need for up charges to get the desired flights. Basically I am still under the old feeling that from when you entered the airport to leave to when you arrive home from the trip it was all covered by Regent.

I was on the Voyager this past February and there were two people who had dietary restrictions who were part of the group of Social Solos. When I was at a table with either of them they normally had the waiter appear without needing to request help with a printed list of what they were having that evening. I do not know what they had to do to arrange this each day, but this was done for every night that I was with either of them.

In any case, talk to Destination Services. They will send out the disembarkation survey and will work with you to get you off the ship and on your way if you have needs not covered by the general schedule.

On the Explorer there are areas on both sides of the ship to the aft of the pool and the pool grill that are open on one side to the outside air with a wall of windows on one side and the ship on the other two sides. The rear areas have heater in the ceiling. When I went from Tokyo to Vancouver in 2023 most of the lounge furniture was moved elsewhere and the tables were moved to the sheltered areas from the exposed deck near the pool. This was needed since the outside area for La Veranda was closed due to the weather and on the Explorer class ships this makes up a rather large number of tables.