Jane Mitchell

Rhyme and Rhythm. They were on our Splendor cruise which ended 7th March as well. Sorry I don't know when their contract ends.

Splendor 868. Hope I've attached the file ok! Very happy with 868. No noticeable movement, despite being nearer the back. No noise heard from neighbours. No noise heard from crew service door/room immediately opposite. Splendor 868 CC template.xls

I'm truly sorry that you had these issues @vistaman, I hope it hasn't tarnished the rest of the cruise too much for you. There were definitely a large number of Regent passengers on our flight back to LHR. Barbados is a small, but very popular, island. And a lot of people choose to holiday there. Hotel accommodation is definitely limited and I believe this is one of the reasons that Regent has decided not to use Barbados as a start/end port in the future.

I disembarked this same cruise yesterday but it appears we had a very different experience. Our flights and transfers were arranged through Regent. We were offered (and accepted) a half day tour of Barbados before being dropped off at BGI airport. We were told to expect disembarkation at around 8.15 am. We were called at 8.13 am. We were speedily directed to a shuttle mini bus (which wasn't air conditioned but the windows were open and the journey took no more than five minutes from the ship to the customs shed). No queue for the passport check. Luggage was lined up in the shed in colour/number tag order. We identified our bags, they were checked off (twice) by staff and were taken away to be delivered to the airport later for us to collect. We were taken to a mini air conditioned coach (probably seating around 30 but there were 18 on our tour, so plenty of space) and had a great morning seeing some of the island's highlights. We were then dropped at the airport, directly by the area where our luggage was lined up, and we reclaimed our bags. Unfortunately, we then had a two hour wait before check in for our flight was open but we found an air conditioned coffee shop and waited it out. BGI airport is small and facilities are not exactly luxurious but we found seats and refreshment when needed. Interestingly, we were told that more than half the passengers on Splendor this time were Brits, probably a reflection of the ease of getting to Barbados from the UK.

I had problems with the form yesterday, but today it all seems to be working ok. I saved all the sections but the form wouldn't submit. This morning it worked. Give it another go, hopefully they were just having a glitch. @-Lew- not sure whether it's new, as I've not been to Barbados before. I believe (but happy to be corrected if anyone knows different) that it's an online version of the immigration and customs form that used to be completed manually before clearing immigration upon arrival in Barbados.

I know that Star Clippers had a cruise that linked with the Ryder Cup in Italy last year (I wasn't on it). But I think these tie-ins make a lot of sense. I'd certainly look at combining a cruise with a major sporting event if something came up that fitted my interests.

I contacted my TA and explained which excursions we wanted to swap. She sorted it for me.

Maybe designed to appeal more to the European market. Formula 1 is a big thing here.

Another bath fan here! Love the luxury of soak in a bubbly bath - and much better for relaxing aching legs and feet after lots of walking on excursions! Bliss.

Original poster is from the UK.

Not strictly true. As I mentioned above, we didn't deviate and we had our flight details a good 10 months before our cruise. This may be a UK vs US situation, but it's what happened for us.

Ah but what a beautiful empty ocean picture it is, Crisy!

I would talk to your travel agent. We booked last March for a cruise starting in Feb 24. We didn't deviate ie pick our own flights but the TA gave us the flight details about a week after booking. We don't have an extra step involved as we are relatively close to Heathrow but I don't see why this should make much difference. They should at least be able to give you a timescale as to when things might happen if they can't provide details straight away.

Forgive me for jumping in. I cannot comment on Regent's tours as I am waiting to go on my first Regent cruise in February next year. However, I did a clipper cruise around the Greek islands last year and the highlight of that whole trip was probably my time on Delos. I only wanted to go to Mykonos so that I could take a tour of Delos. The excavations are incredible. The detail of the ruins and the stories they hold are amazing. If you get a chance to go, please do. We were on a tour arranged by the clipper company but there were only 9 of us. There must be a way to do a private tour if Regent does not provide one.

They may not have scheduled them yet. When I initially booked a cruise for next February, although excursions were available to book, the culinary arts cookery classes did not appear until later. You could always ask your TA to check with Regent to see whether they are planning to do any on that segment.