papaflamingo

That's the truth!!! We have more than one 10-12 hour excursions booked between Egypt and Israel! Gonna need a month to recover when we get home. At least it'll be SEC Football season so lots of time watching games when we get back. 😎

Thanks for the great review. We are also on Voyager next Oct. from Athens to Rome. Really looking forward to the cruise, especially Israel and Egypt. Coincidentally we live just south of Atlanta. Will see you on board in Oct.! 😎

It's one wifi connection per suite unless Concierge or higher or you have Gold status. Here is the quote from Regent's website: " FREE Unlimited WiFi includes one log-in, one device, per suite"

We were on Navigator from May 28-July 7 and we had the full on Sunday Brunch on our Sunday day at sea. So it's not just the 3 ships.

It could depend on which itinerary you're on. But most likely you'll stay on ships time for the entire cruise (EST). If you're concerned about dinner, just make the reservations dependent on what time your ship leaves each port. Just keep in mind the posted sail times are based on the ship time, not port time. A word of caution...make sure you're Cell Phone is in "manual time" not "automatic update." If the ship doesn't change time but the port is 1 hour behind, your Cell phone could update without you knowing, causing you to miss the ship.

I was in the Coast Guard. If a ship is in territorial waters it's governed by the nation whose waters it sails. So their law rules. We claim a 12 mile limit, but 200 mile Exclusive economic zone. That's why the cruise lines don't open the casinos until outside the 12 mile limit off the U.S. coast..

To parrot the above.... FCC on board is really an Open Booking. You lock in all the perks you get with an On Board booking such as reduced deposit, OBC, etc.. Then when you find a cruise you like, you can use the FCC to book. We did this very thing in July. We were on Navigator and there was a cruise soon to be released, but after we got home, that we wanted. We bought an FCC and when the cruise was released had our TA activate it. Got the cruise at a very significant lower deposit and got the other perks too. If you simply book a cruise on board with the intent to change the booking, you only get one change. With an FCC you can book a cruise later (within the time constraint), and still have the one "free" move. That's the real advantage to booking an FCC onboard.

You really have to look at the bottom line. We also have a cruise booked on board. If I was to rebook at the current rate to get the pre-cruise excursion, I would lose some OBC and it would cost more, about equal to me simply purchasing the excursion through Regent. And you are correct, Regent hasn't lowered the prices so your price guarantee isn't in effect.

Regent tours, in my experience, have been the same as most cruise line tours. If it's a bus tour, it's a bus tour. The descriptions are pretty accurate (In general). If you read the description and it seems boring, then it probably is. Just book a different tour. We had some great tours on our cruises, and some boring ones. But. I wasn't surprised in any way. If I don't see a tour that interests me, I go my own way.

What ports are you visiting? We did some great New Zealand tours that were included and one that was additional but worth it.

Yes. It was very nice. Lots of amazing options from Eggs Benedict to a carving station. And caviar of course. 😎

We had a Sunday Brunch on Navigator in June during a "sea day,."

Interesting question. Let us know how they price the cabins,.

Compare policies and premiums on line. Regent charges 8% of the cruise cost (I believe). I have always found as good or better policies on line at a cheaper premium. There are lots of websites to compare policies, I tend to use insuremytrip.com. You don't have to buy through them, you can simply compare policies and go directly to the company if you wish. But cruise line insurance will not cover your air fare if you book independently, nor any pre or post cruise stays if you don't book through the Cruise line.

As others have said, correct, you only pay the deviation fee if you accept their offer. It's changed since the last time we deviated. Now, it seems, you have to get your T/A to contact them with your request, then you'll get their routing offer and you have a few days to review it and decide if want to accept it or not. We were doing this last May for a cruise in Jan. that we ended up canceling. The counting offers were not what we wanted so we proposed alternate routes, but canceled before we got a new offer. So what is best is if Regent will talk to you on the phone directly. Not sure if they've started taking calls again or not. If so, have all your "ducks in a row." Know what flights you want. If they have contract seats on those flights, then they'll get them for you. If no contract seats they may offer an upgrade cost to book them. I simply look at 2 or 3 alternatives and see what I can do. They don't charge the deviation fee until you accept the flights they offer you. So it's free to do a deviation request. If you choose not to deviate, then yes, you agree to accept what Regent gives you or book your own flights and take the air credit. But Regent won't assign flights until around 75 days or less before sail date.

Ahh... sorry misunderstood. Yeah..as DaveFR stated, at most you'll have to get your key card updated. When we did ours, I was able to get it updated fairly early, before the actual arrival/departure port for the second segment. If you look at your key card, look at the dates. If the date on it goes until the end of the second cruise the, theoretically. you're good all the way through. If not, you'll need to visit guest services. Do it a day or so prior to the end of the first segment so you can avoid the hassle of turn around day.

Testing will be according to local regulations. So it all depends on where each segment of the cruise begins. When we did b2b in May/June, we were still required to show a negative test prior to boarding. Since the second segment was headed to Canada from NYC, we had to also test on board due to CANADIAN regulations. It was very easy. The simply had us come down to medical (actually outside medical) during certain hours for the test. But all the regulations have changed. So if you're vaccinated it's unlikely you'll have to test, local regulations dependent. But it's very unlikely you'll have to test for the second segment. If you do, the ship will have it all set up for you.

According to the website no proof of negative Covid test is required if fully vaccinated unless local regulations require it. If you are vaccinated you shouldn't be tested at the pier. So it depends on local regulations at the boarding port.

CWN is correct. You will book your dining reservations on line before the cruise, but you get 1 reservation per specialty restaurant per cruise segment. If you want more you book on the ship. And CWN is also correct that you can to all this without a butler. For us, we found our butler to most useful in many other ways. When we had 2 tours in one day he would have lunch waiting for us in our cabin upon return from the first tour so we could eat while changing for the second tour. Of course we could have simply gone to the pool grill, called room service, etc. But we had only a short time from a water tour to a land tour so we wanted to shower, etc. We simply told our butler what we wanted and what time we wanted it and it was there for us,. We enjoyed the afternoon canapés. We enjoyed room service dinner and he would present it whenever we wanted it and course by course if we wanted. We often did room service breakfast for our early excursions. We would simply pre-order with the butler and give him the time and there he was. He made sure we had water, ice, etc. at all times. He kept us up to date on all activities. When we cancelled a shore tour we told him and he handled it for us. Any issues ANY issues we simply called him up and it was handled. No going to Guest Services, calling maintenance, etc. Simply let the butler know. Do we NEED a butler? No. Did we use him to the fullest? No. We didn't have him unpack or pack for us (even though he offered). We didn't use him to shine our shoes (although he will). My wife wouldn't let him pour my bourbon on the rocks (even though I was more than willing to let him and avoid walking across the cabin to pour bourbon on ice) 🤣. But on our last cruise we really missed him for all the reasons we DID use him. I would not pay thousands just for the butler. BUT, on Voyager, if you get a Penthouse B or A, you also get a bit larger room. IMHO it's a nicer layout than the concierge. We are doing 70 nights on Voyager in 2025 and I splurged on the Penthouse B for the nicer cabin layout and yeah....we'll like having the butler. So as CWN said, you have to ask yourself if it's worth the extra money? If it's $70 per day for a Penthouse B (bigger cabin) I'd do it. For a Penthouse C, not so sure. But it's sure a nice dilemma. 😎

Who does your husband fly for? My son is a FedEx pilot. I was Delta.😎 DCA to MIA, I'd book my own ticket. Yes, you do get a rebate of around $150 or so from Regent for not using their flights. You can still use their return. In fact it should tell you on the website what the airfare credit is. The majority of the airfare will be the International portion. I'm fairly sure the Domestic is $150. You shouldn't have much problem getting from DCA to MIA. Of course time of year is a factor for weather, but if you have a couple backups you SHOULD be ok. I really don't think that once you deviate, you get any real benefit from Regent other than their airfare. For international Business Class, they can't be beat. But domestically you go Coach so it isn't always a savings. I purchase my domestic flights with my Delta discount. Between the $175 deviation fee and the $150 cost of one way domestic, I can get First Class for close to the same. I've done this on both cruises I've taken, paid for my flight to the cruise, but used Regent for the International return. In fact, I'd suggest you look at Deviating home from Barcelona. For the $175 you can select a flight that may be way more convenient for you and you'll be able to secure it up to 270 days out. Even if you are coming home the same day the cruise gets in. For me, it's worth $175 to pick my airlines and flights ahead of time. If they can't offer you something you want, you simply don't deviate and let them figure it out.

I may have missed this... where are you flying from and to? If the flight cost is less than $175 then by all means simply make your own arrangements. If they fly the night before, then you still have the ability, if something happens, to get out early the next day and to the ship on time. Are you taking out cruise insurance? Your screen name "flyboyswife" makes me wonder.... I am a retired airline pilot. Is your husband a commercial pilot? If so, then you are very likely aware of the workings of the airlines. That will certainly help in your decisions. Anyway, if your city pairs are U.S. domestic, and not transcontinental, then you may not have much to worry about.

On our 2 cruises we found that entertainment stopped in lounges during the theater show. On Mariner the piano player would play until the show started then would start after the show ended, so about an hour break. Also the duo performed every night in the Observation Lounge. And they were very entertaining. But after the show. On Navigator every night the band (4 members) came up to Galileos after the show and played from about 10 to midnight. I don't remember when the piano player performed on Navigator, but I believe she was playing around 5 pm for a while then sometimes later after the show was over. Remember, these are small ships. There isn't enough interest in the shows to warrant 2 shows per night. Regent is a quieter experience than the major cruise lines. The service is impeccable and for me the food is excellent. For me, the entertainment is more than sufficient. But I don't sail for the shows. If I want non stop entertainment I'll head to Royal Caribbean. They are just very different styles of cruising.

Interesting. I wonder... will there be a $500 fee per person if you cancel the cruise prior to final payment? We have had to do that a couple times due to Covid but before the cruise line cancelled the cruise.

A quick comment... if you choose to book a Penthouse on Voyager, you may want to get a Penthouse B or A. The Penthouse C is the exact same as a Concierge. The Penthouse A and B are a different layout and a bit bigger. In my opinion they are a nicer layout. As for the Butler, we had one on our first cruise and turned out we really loved having him. As you said, much more personalized service. He did everything for us from booking extra dining in a specialty restaurant to bringing canapés in the afternoon. Any questions or issues he handled. We didn't have a butler on our second cruise and turned out we missed him quite a bit. If the cost between a Concierge and a Penthouse isn't significant, then you may want to consider it.

Exactly. I was really just responding to the comment "well why don't they choose 10am instead of 4pm." Again..... as Jimmy Buffett said, "it's Five O'Clock somewhere." 😎