raiderette

Rally Dave, good to hear from you. We were on the same Alaskan cruise a few years back. Yes it was an old article, my point was that both cruise lines are owned by Apollo. We met quite a few of the staff who had come over to Regent from Oceania as I am sure the other has occurred.

I am sure many of you were aware of this but for those that were not Apollo Group bought both Oceania and Regent. The following was an excerpt from a CC article “Oceania and Regent will remain independent and separate brands. Mark Conroy will remain president of Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which will continue to operate from its Ft. Lauderdale headquarters; Oceania Cruises will remain in Miami, headed by President Bob Binder. Both Binder and Conroy will report directly to Frank Del Rio, who's been named chairman and CEO of PCH. Del Rio, who's served as chairman and CEO of Oceania to this point, will assume the same title with Regent by default as both lines are now owned by PCH.”

I am so confused. I was on that cruise and experienced non of the above. You need to read Ping Pongs review of live from Voyager. It was a great cruise and everything was awesome. This was my fourth Regent cruise and we will cruise again with Regent. I could not find the review you referred to. You will have an awesome time. Go in with an open mind and experience it for yourselves.

We are back in Oklahoma after our wonderful Baltic cruise which started in Stockholm. We began flying to Atlanta, then Paris then Stockholm which came off without any hitches. We had great food and service in Business Class. We arrived in Stockholm the day before our cruise started and were well taken care of by the Regent Crew. We ventured on our own in Stockholm and had dinner at our hotel. It was really nice and met some nice Swedish people while having a drink.

We got to the ship by noon on the 14th and embarkation was quick and easy, had lunch in LaVeranda and drinks in the Observation lounge and got to our rooms by 2:30. We had a great butler and room steward which met us when we arrived in our room. Our butler always had ice in our bucket and great crab claws and cheeses daily with a great red wine ready when we returned from excursions.

The excursions on our cruise were well done and on time every day. Would have liked to had a longer cruise as we were quite port intensive. But getting my husband away from work is like pulling teeth.

The entertainment on this cruise was quite good and the entertainers were awesome to talk to at trivia and other venues on the cruise. I will say that we met some of the nicest people we have ever encountered on this cruise. Ping Pong and his lovely wife Mary were great fun. Other cruisers as well made meals and after dinner drinks so much fun. Our excursions were always fun and entertaining with the group on this cruise. That being said we also encountered Mary Kay China which were some of the rudest people ever. They cut in front of people, bumped into you quite frequently and stepped in while pictures were being taken without a care. We did a wide berth around this large group. We also encountered some of the nicest children on this cruise who were well behaved and great fun on excursions and venues on the ship.

The food overall was good with a few exceptions in the Compass Rose. Regent needs to address some of the meals in the Compass Rose as the standards in there were not as they have been in the past. Signatures was good and Prime 7 was the best meal we had on the ship. LaVeranda was better for breakfast but Compass Rose better for lunch. We did one evening meal in LaVeranda on Italian night and it was good, I had the Filet. I will admit I gained 4 pounds.

On a side note Park West was still on the ship and had a art show. The people on this cruise said they were going to remain.

Overall I give Regent 9 of 10 stars for this cruise. It was a great cruise and the Staff on Regent were great. Can't wait for their new ship, we will be booking.

Ping Pong, we are back in the States and back to work, glad you are enjoying a few days after the cruise. I do agree with your assessment of St. Petersburg but glad we got to see it. Overall we had a wonderful cruise and met some of the nicest people we ever had cruising, you and your wife included. We enjoyed our nightcaps in the Observation Lounge. Hope you have safe travels back to the states, the jet lag coming home is not much fun. We have great memories from this cruise and hope to maybe see you on a future cruise. Best regards, Dave and Cheryl.

Hello ping pong. Have been looking for your family but as yet no success. I did wish Caty happy birthday at the lifeboat drill. I also was surprised Park West was still here and they said they had no intentions of leaving.

As far as St. Petersburg we enjoyed the cathedrals and especially the Church of the spilt blood.

The ship is very empty. We had dinner in Prime 7. Best meal so far on this cruise we ordered a special wine to compliment our meal. Everything was fabulous.

Hope we can meet up before cruise is over.

We have a butler on our upcoming cruise next week and I have a question. What exactly does a butler do that is different than your suite person? Will they unpack your suitcase? Just wondering, we had a butler on our first cruise and he did very little.

Funny you should mention the fork and spoon. We lived in the Phillipines when I was little and my mom and dad had those on the wall all the years I lived in their house. I also put them in a garage sale after their deaths. Brings back memories. Thanks for the information on the money situation. I wonder if we will even be allowed in St. Petersburg?

My husband and I are going on a cruise beginning in Stockholm, then on to St. Petersburg, Berlin, Tallin, and onto Copenhagen. Can I use my credit card or should I have currency that is used in these cities?

We did this excursion and totally enjoyed it. Our guide was fantastic and I believe a good friend to the people who owned the restaurant in the countryside. The owner showed us how to make noodles while serving us wine and cheese before our meal. The meal was marvelous as well. It was a long day but well worth it.