Dreps

Just remember in these calculations that one should include the potential air credit in the total cost of the flights. We just used Regent air for the first time for our Sydney-Beijing cruise, and it worked very well for us on that extremely long-haul itinerary. However, in deciding whether it was worth it to do this, I not only had to count the costs of the business class upgrade and the deviation, but also the $1200 air credit I did not take. We still decided to do it because of the excessive number of miles needed to get FF business class tickets using Delta Skymiles.

From our TA's Web site (I assume it's up-to-date):

Time Plan #1: $0.45 per minute - 100 minutes for $45.00

Time Plan #2: $0.35 per minute - 250 minutes for $87.50

Time Plan #3: $0.25 per minute - 800 minutes for $200.00

Pay As You Go: $0.75 per minute

One-Time Account Activation Fee - $3.95 (Applies to all users on first login only)

Please note that a Time Plan cannot be used on more than one computer at the same time.

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Of course, after 20 days, Internet is complimentary, which is probably the single most favorite perk of Regent Seven Seas Society members.

A very interesting discussion. I want to interject a few thoughts, primarily related to excursions. While we haven't been on Oceania, we were scheduled for a 19-day S. American cruise in 2009 on the Insignia. Because of what I had read about Oceania's excursions, I had made detailed private arrangements for all of the ports, based on travel books and the relevant Cruise Critic forums and other travel forums. It was interesting, but a lot of work. We ended up canceling only because an opportunity arose to return to S. Africa that was too good to pass up.

Then when Regent announced a longer S. American cruise that included Antarctica, we opted for this one, and went earlier this year. Based on our first experience with Regent's included excursions in the Baltics last August, we felt very comfortable relying on the included excursions for S. America. In general, they were excellent, though of course this varied somewhat from port-to-port. I really think that Regent goes out of its way to choose excellent excursion operators and in most cases succeeds. Therefore, without intending to quote out of context, I'm not sure what Hondorner is referring to when he remarks, "I find absolutely no difference between the cruise lines in that regard."

Yes, I am sure that there are a number of people who would prefer that Regent had not started including excursions so that they could do their own thing without feeling that they had already paid for excursions. However, I think that there are also a large number of people who prefer to have someone else take care of everything. Aren't those passengers the primary target group for the Regent model? I think it is safe to say that the people who post on these forums tend to be very proactive and that they are not necessarily representative of the majority of cruisers on any cruise line. I venture to say that they are probably much more comfortable making their own arrangements than the average cruiser.

All I can say is that we have been very satisfied with the Regent experience on our two most recent cruises in terms of quality of service and food, as well as the quality of the included excursions. And we are looking forward to the two Regent cruises that we currently have "on the books."

I posted a bit more details on the new excursion on our Roll Call (Insignia, February 17, 2009). We are very interested in doing this excursion and, it would be great if another couple could join us. Let me know. I posted my contact information on the Roll Call thread.