CINGULARONE

January 12

On 1/9/2024 at 4:53 PM, NYC-London said:

Unfortunately, as Regent continues to cut costs it will affect the overall experience and one way to cut costs it to provide a lower grade hotel. Over the past few years I have noticed that the hotels

Regent uses are not what they used to be and most of the time we now take the credit and book our own and the credit covers the cost of a nicer hotel. Even if it doesn't, there is a lot to be said about the peace of mind of being able to arrive without hassles.

It is also nice to arrive at the port on our terms without having to deal with the bus - I will never forget one cruise we were all on the bus ready to depart for the port - they asked if we had our passports and then required us to show them and it appears that one couple could not locate theirs. First they emptied all of their hand luggage and then all the luggage had to come off the bus so they could look for their passports (turned out to be in the pocket of the jacket one of them was wearing on the plane) and then we had to get out to identify our bags before being reloaded onto the bus. Instead of getting to the port at 12:30, it was closer to 3:00pm. If this had been me, I would be apologizing non-stop to the other passengers, that did not happen here. Since that incident, we have always arranged our own hotel and transfers.

I did not like the idea of others picking the hotel and the flights, we booked our own. King George in Athens, JW Marriott (Maybe the Ritz, TBD) for Istanbul.

January 10

51 minutes ago, NYC-London said:

I know that I have been working for long hours and am tired, but I cannot follow this post and have no idea what it means - can someone please enlighten me?

I simply ADD a GitHub sticker when tipping. Developers (and kids) love pasting them on their laptops. Sorry for any confusion.

January 10

My wife works for big tech, a company that is quite well known. Off of a ship, 9 times out of 10 when she identifies her employer the first questions is "Do you have a stickers?". What we have figured out is that when we tip on a ship, we will always add a sticker for the server (along with a small cash gratuity). Most of the time the recipient will recognize what it is and seems to be grateful. Yes, over a sticker, I still shake my head at this. This practice works well on Non 6 star or all included ships, not yet sure how we will handle tipping on the Voyager in April, but vast quantities of stickers have already been ordered. I have never been accused of being ordinary!

January 8

We will be on our first Regent (39th overall) cruise in late April (Athens to Istanbul). After doing much research I decided to book my own hotel, at what I hope is the somewhat nicer King George. I now might need to look at the Grande Bretagne

January 11, 2023

On 5/10/2022 at 5:21 PM, travelsoftwo said:

Thank you for this description - we will be there in two weeks and this is very helpful. Glad you had such a good visit.

On 5/6/2022 at 7:51 PM, bonsai3s said:

We defer to euro cruiser as the expert.

Just wanted to share our DIY, May 6, 2022, experience from the eyes of first-timers in La Spezia.

Goal: Visit 3 of the villages in Cinque Terre.

We got off the Odyssey at 8 am. There were free shuttles shipside that took us to the cruise terminal...took about 5 minutes.

We had no clue which direction to walk to the train station (La Spezia Centrale) and politely asked for directions.

We walked through a palm-lined promenade. After the last palm tree, we turned right and crossed the street, and walk through a park.

After exiting the park, we crossed the street and found ourselves on Garibaldi (a major street lined with many shops and restaurants.) Tourist Information office was closed so we simply followed the signs/directions pointing to the train station. Note: The last 2 blocks, we followed a couple pulling luggages...that took us right into the train station.

We were at the train station at 8:40 am. The Cinque Terre train card was 18 20 Euros for unlimited use of the trains between the 5 villages. * My favorite part...the train ticket gave us free access to restrooms/toilets.. would've cost 1Euro per visit.

The first train was at 8:55 am, platform 5, and we decided to visit Monterosso, Manarola, and Riomagiorre (sorry for the spelling). The weather this day was rainy and chilly...but we found each of the 3 villages lively and crowded.

It was 1pm when we decided to call it the day and take the train back to La Spezia.

Summary

* The train ride between villages are short and quick. For example...Manarola to Riomagiorre was 2 minutes.

* The views, with the rain, were absolutely breathtaking.

* Walking can be difficult...hillside villages with steep hills and many steps.

We had a truly memorable day.

Thanks for this, will be doing likewise in May of this year aboard the Celebrity Edge.

November 23, 2021

16 hours ago, GenerationX said:

A quick post with a request for assistance:

If you’re onboard Equinox with me and you happen to walk by the luxury handbag shop and see me inside trying on this handbag in front of a mirror, do me a HUGE FAVOR and for the love of Poseidon, do something.

Create a distraction. Come right on in and take my shoulders and look at me and say “this is for your own good” and then shake me, if you must.

I DO NOT NEED this Louis Vuitton. I could have a whole ‘nother cruise for the price of this Louis Vuitton. I do not need to buy this gorgeous, gorgeous Louis Vuitton that would go perfectly with my beige leather boots and grey winter coat.

Damn. We will be on board on Sunday, my wife has been dropping hints about a Never Full bag, I wonder if we will end up with one. LOL

March 6, 2018

We have stayed onboard and written our Christmas Cards and also Thank You notes for wedding gifts. On both occasions we went to the buffet and sat a t a table until everyone needed to leave.