frankpc123

Yes sir - We're just off Splendor and did this ... you give Regent a $1,000 deposit and then have one year to book the cruise (not actually take the cruise) with the onboard perks. If you miss the one year cutoff you loose the onboard booking perks. The $1,000 deposit can still be applied to a Regent cruise. Frank

As a die hard Yankee fan I suppose I can understand a Fenway tour under the "love of the game" scenario ... but , but ... did they make you sing "Sweet Caroline"? I'd draw a line at that 🙂 Nice pics ! Thanks for sharing, Frank

We’re just off the Splendor where we did an Air Dev. If you peel back the onion you should simply price shop the total Air Dev cost from Regent vs what you can book flights for yourself (net of any Regent “no Air” price concession). I’m sure it can go either way depending on Regent contracts, routing, travel dates, airline pricing available, etc. In our case the Regent Air Dev was less expensive (for an acceptable routing) by a significant amount. In a rare twist of fate, every one of our five flight segments for the cruise arrived on time or early. 😀 Frank

It depends on cabin category. Concierge and up allow four logins at no extra charge. Below Concierge is one login per cabin. Streaming is extra. You’ll get about 3 Mbps per user best case. Unless you’re a very casual user your concern should really be how poor the Internet on board actually works.

We’re on a 19 night cruise on Splendor now. As noted, 2 formal nights scheduled. During the first formal night more men had jackets and ties than on a non formal night - normally about half the men wear jackets and essentially no ties for non formal nights. Women seem to dress well no matter the night, although maybe a bit more glitz on the formal nights. Frank

Splendor has had Starlink at least since Sept 3 (we’re onboard). As noted above, it’s full of problems. I think I saw an email earlier today announcing Starlink is live on all Regent ships now. If you’ll excuse the bad pun, the Regent Sales and Marketing rhetoric and the service delivery on board the Splendor can be oceans apart. The Starlink implementation being just one example. Frank

A couple of glitches …. it seems like the sign up process for the Internet has billed all or most of the folks onboard. Reception indicates the charges will be reversed tomorrow. Also some folks are complaining about emails not downloading properly. Not sure why, perhaps their email server blocking the Starlink IP address. Frank

Just boarded Splendor in Oslo. Starlink up and working …. Seems reliable enough if a bit slow … from our cabin:

Thanks for the responses. We did a Viking River a couple of years ago and agree that the Quiet Vox worked well. I'd be happy with a basic Bluetooth feed to my ear buds, but understand that might not work for everyone. Cruise norms aside, the typical Regent passenger demographics skews towards folks that might need a hearing boost so it would seem to be something they would consider. Frank

Does Regent currently have a listening device for passengers on a Shore Ex? Something like a Quiet vox? A search here indicates that a bluetooth enabled app was tried early last year and that was withdrawn. Since then (pun intended) its been quiet. Thanks, Frank

The payment policies are pretty well documented - even if "unique" in the industry. My issue was for a trip booked during Covid for 6/22. Viking (Rivers) was offering a "No Risk" guarantee to get money in the door. Part of the guarantee was to support any future fare reductions prior to sailing. About two months before sailing they offered a better deal by about $4k. I asked for the new rate. They informed me they would happy to oblige but they would have to cancel the existing booking (and air) - a process that would take up to six weeks. Then I could to rebook at the lower fare depending on availability. I get that its hard for a business to just refund revenue, especially during the pandemic, so I suggested that they allow me to keep the existing booking and provide a future cruise credit for the $4k. Nope, not possible. So when we were completing our on board evaluation at the end of the cruise we talked to one of the staff about our disappointment with Viking concerning the pre sail issues. The staff person encouraged us to document it in the evaluation and assured us a Viking staffer would call post cruise to discuss. Never happened. Now the three or so Viking marketing mailings that arrive each week are deposited in the recycle bin before entering our home. Plenty of options with other companies ... I'm sure they don't miss me :-), but that Delta FA might think twice about her next vacation.

Exact thing happened to us on our last DeltafFlight. The FA noticed the Viking tags on our rollaboard during boarding. She asked - "Did you like Viking?" My standard answer - "The actual cruise itself was very good but I believe Viking is ethically challenged in supporting their pre sailing commitments" Perhaps not what Torstein had in mind .... 🙂 Frank

Delta to join the “unbundled” business class … https://viewfromthewing.com/delta-air-lines-confirms-plan-to-unbundle-business-class-pay-for-only-what-you-need/

Regent will book Business Class. You are responsible for what that means in terms of seating and amenities (i.e. priority handling, lounge access, etc.) as this varies by airline. As mentioned, you’ll get seat assignments, lie flat business class seats internationally and typically first class seats (if available) on domestic connections for airlines like AA, Delta (Delta One) and United. If Regent books you on a different airline then the seating / amenities can vary as “Business Class” is not a universally defined product among all the airlines. And within an airline equipment issues can also provide inconsistencies in the product. Paying for an Air Dev provides a bit more flexibility and control at your end at a very modest cost. The individual airline websites generally do a good job of providing information to you on what is provided (lie flat seats, lounge access, etc) for the flights you are looking at. It can be a bit of a contact sport with Regent but the itinerary we chose with an Air Dev would have been almost 40% more than the travel credit to book ourselves. So Regent has some great fares in their control.

Similar to papaflamingo above Delta changed the departure time of our last flight segment from London to Raleigh (through Atlanta) leaving only 90 minutes (originally 120+ minutes) to change in Atlanta. While Atlanta is generally a good connecting airport the whole Border Control/Bag Claim/Customs/Bag recheck/Security process makes 90 minutes a barely legal DL connection. We wanted to move our flight reservation to the next Atlanta to Raleigh flight giving us 180 minutes to make the connection. Since we were already ticketed (we requested "early ticketing" as that was a requirement to get Business class seat assignments on the outbound segments on SAS) Regent wanted $900 in fees to make the change. I called Delta and after a bit of discussion they agreed to make the changes at no charge. In doing so, Delta apparently took over the reservation from Regent so any future flight changes need to be made with Delta. I'm fine with that ... Regent will still honor our airport transfers as those flights did not change. Lots of moving parts with this whole process but options do sometimes exist.

Regent started "cold" mailing brochures about a year ago ... I laughed them off because I figured there was a reason they never included a price. All the focus on what was included in the cruise price seemed sorta irrelevant without knowing the price. Booked our first Regent cruise a couple of months ago .... maybe those Marketing folks know what they're doing after all 🙂

If you accept one of the deviation options provided by Regent, then the $75 is then included in the overall Air Dev fee. Our TA (technically not the TA but the Customer Experience team that the travel agency has) interfaced with Regent on the Air Dev process with lots of input from us. We still paid the $75 fee upfront and then it was deducted from the overall Air Dev fee.

Just another wrinkle in the world of Biz class flights to consider ..... We did an Air Dev, selecting a Delta/SAS itinerary (SAS "Business Smart" provides the outbound International and intra Europe flights). Regent was able to reserve seats on DL but not SAS. Indeed, SAS assigns seats for "free" 30 hours before departure but charges before that time. We had to request "Early Ticketing" from Regent to be able to call SAS and reserve (and pay for) seat assignments. Early ticketing, of course, does exposure you to change fees ... Here's the amenity list for SAS Business Smart from flysas.com : With SAS Business Smart, you can relax in the highest level of comfort in a seat that converts into a fully flat bed. You also have access to Fast Track through security control and SAS Lounges. SAS Business Smart tickets can be rebooked at no extra charge, but are non-refundable. SERVICES & CONDITIONS Carry-on 2 x 8 kg Checked baggage 2 x 32 kg Fast Track (where available) Lounge (where available) Rebookable Non-refundable

Delta flights here too. Routings that priced exactly the same at Delta.com can be included or upcharged. So it’s beneficial to know what routings you would like before talking to Regent. Without inside Regent knowledge it’s about impossible to predict the answers.

I’ve asked our TA to confirm this very question. The Regent Air Dev itinerary we have states this : ”Complimentary transfers are only offered to and from the airport/ship in conjunction with the air program on the day of the ships embarkation/disembarkation.” Perhaps this is to cover Regent from responsibilities to transport folks who Air Dev to create their own pre/post. One would “think” that folks with a Regent provided pre are covered for transport from airport to hotel to pier but thinking often gets me in trouble ,,,,

Hi, Hopefully this helps some folks through the Air Dev process ... We're Regent newbies booked on the Oslo-London sail 9/3/24. We did an Air Dev with Regent and our TA. We decided to do an early Dev for two reasons: 1.) Outbound flying on Labor Day weekend in the US 2.) We live in Raleigh, NC and RDU has flights on Icelandic Air to Oslo which connect in Reykjavik that offer Business Class at a very attractive price but don't have lie flat seating. We wanted to avoid this. We pretty much followed the process outlined in this thread: 1.) We provided our TA with a list of eight different itineraries that we wanted to consider (flight numbers, times, airports). We built these itineraries to arrive Oslo in the AM (we have one night pre cruise/Concierge) with generous connection times. Our departure from London was timed to be early afternoon to avoid having to leave the ship at 4AM. 2.) For $75 Regent responded with notes on those itineraries - either "OK, no upcharge" or "OK, but an $xxx upcharge", or "Regent cannot book this- out of contract"). Regent also provided an itinerary on Delta/SAS on the outbound leg that we hadn't put on our list as an option (no upcharge). The interesting thing (I'm sure due to Regent/Airline contracts) was that the airline online website pricing was not indicative of which flight would be "free" vs an upcharge. As an example, the Delta Business fares were roughly $2k more that the United fares in the online pricing but Regent didn't charge more for Delta. So there's no harm in trying ... 3.) After you get the response from Regent you have 72 hours to choose from the options provided. If you choose one of the deviation options you then pay $175 per person for the Air Dev with the initial $75 charge applied as a credit to your Air Dev total. So the total Air Dev cost is $350 for two (assuming you choose flights w/o an upcharge). 4.) Now you have another decision - Early Ticketing or not. We elected Early Ticketing primarily because we wanted to reserve seat assignments on SAS. SAS is an interesting creature ... they're just exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy, changing from Star Alliance to Sky Team on 9/1/24 and, well, charging extra ($100 +/- per seat) for advance Business Class seat assignments (we knew this before booking). All in all, I thought Regent was fair and reasonable through the process. Business class fares are crazy these days and when I priced the routing we picked it would have been in the $10k range (per person) to book ourselves. Frank

Thanks all … my bad, I missed the 75 minute gap time in the Regent docs. Understand that tours do tend to open up on board. Last time we were in Lerwick it poured rain all day long. Hopefully better this time …. Take care,,,,

Hi, New to Regent, booking shore excursions for the Sept Splendor Oslo to London. Expected to find some tours full but surprised to see at least one port with no free or pad shore excursion availability, especially on a ship with quite a few cabins available. Does anybody know the minimum gap time for booking tours between the return of a shorex and the departure of another shorex? The RSSC website seems to prohibit booking two excursions in the same port when there in an hour gap between the return time of the first tour and the departure time for the second tour. Or am I missing something? Thanks .....