Wendy The Wanderer

Oh good. I assume you can get a Daily Passages on your phone too, but I like the paper.

If the hotel stay and flight were booked as part of your package, yes. If you booked your own, then you'll have to take a cab.

I concur about the taxi!

Looking forward to following your adventures. And @lprpthanks for the tip on the Crystal thread. Both relevant to us since we'll be boarding Splendor for the first time in a couple of months.

It looks like it's about a mile away if I'm reading Google Maps correctly.

And silly me, I didn't even know that Splendor had a vibration zone!

Of course you can bring flowers onboard for your room. The issue will be if the steward can find a vase for you. Normally not a problem as I remember. Once we brought a stupid collapsible vase (picture it). That didn't work too well.

I agree with Portolan, it's unlikely your requested tipple won't be included. Not exactly sure what the "connoisseur range" would include, other than perhaps aged Courvoisier or 10-year old single malt.

That's good to hear, hope it's true on Splendor!

Good point! That's another reason why we often paid deviation fees, so that we could choose our own flights and routes.

Yes, Regent usually flies people in on the day of departure. So unless you're Concierge level (and thus have an included one-night hotel stay), you need to pay the deviation fee to fly in earlier, UNLESS you purchase a pre-cruise hotel stay through Regent. I myself have almost always paid the deviation fee and booked a lower-level cabin. That way you can choose your own hotel and decide how much to pay for it. And then get a cab to the port (which is way better anyways than taking the provided bus.)

I have loved your travelogue, thanks for sharing. You seem to have a great attitude as well! Cyprus seems like such an exotic place to live, especially for us in North America. I remember back when we were getting the show "Escape to the Continent", when real estate prices tanked in 2008 and after. Lots of exotic locations then.

I presume your mother and the rest of you will have two cabins? As was already said, your mom's Gold status gets her some benefits, but not you, unless you're booked in the same room. We're Gold and recently booked a Concierge cabin only because that's all there was available, hardly any benefit to us. If she is adamant about using Regent Air and a hotel the night before, then there is no benefit of her booking concierge class, since a good-old G cabin mid-ship is just the same cabin. She can then just purchase the pre-cruise hotel night, which will get her the perks she wants--she won't have to pay a deviation fee for flying in early, and she'll get a transfer to the ship. For you, in your separate cabin, there is an advantage to booking concierge. There's lists of those perks above I believe. On the other hand, the PH cabins on Voyager are very nice--not huge, but laid out better than the standard cabins. Plus you get a butler and all the perks that come with Concierge.

Hey Kathy, that is indeed a downer, and very surprising. I know the uptake of artists onto the ships is slow since I have a friend who works as a musician on Carnival. He is recruiting his fellow-musicians via FB. But that's something we look forward to, since we seldom go to the show. Hope the other aspects of your cruise are wonderful!

In PH and above only, not concierge? Asking because I left my good binoculars at the cottage so won't have them. I will be bringing my own bluetooth speaker.

Yes, I'm with Catlover54--how do you get guaranteed reservations every evening? And if you're doubtful about Pacific Rim, does that mean you'll avoid it, i.e., so that you "will eat well and to our liking" every night? Sorry, just don't get it.

The 'original' idea when (then) Radisson Seven Seas went all-inclusive was that they provided a nice red and white of particular types each night at dinner, changing every night. And if you didn't care for that wine, they would suggest alternatives of included wines. There was no list. Theoretically that 'nice' wine was good enough that most people were happy. And if you liked a particular style of wine, once you'd found it, your servers would get it for you. And if you wanted to splurge, you could buy a premium bottle.

My expectations of Pacific Rim are low. We live in a city where we can get any kind of reasonably-authentic Asian cuisine we wish. I'm hoping it will be a merely pleasant experience ; the quality of the food is paramount. I remember the similar venue on Oceania Riviera being pleasant, somewhat ersatz and the ambience overdone as were all the specialty restaurants on Oceania, one of the several reasons why I didn't like Oceania.

I happen to know a ship musician (on another line), and the cruise lines are having great trouble re-assembling their talent after the pandemic. Our friend, in fact, is trying to recruit musician buddies to sign up. Regent never did terribly well for big production shows, but the performers were often very good. I think this is jut going to take time.

Thanks to the OP for bringing this up. We started out cruising 22 years ago, and now we could use all those accommodations for age-related limitations. Any such changes will be too late for us, but time marches on!

That's always been a difficult question to answer--I don't think there is a way really.

I've been a member of one of these group cruises, long ago, and I doubt if we had any overall effect on the cruise experience. On the other hand, we've been on a very small ship (the Paul Gauguin, under Radisson management) with a large corporate group, who really did their best to spoil things for everybody on that cruises. From commandeering tenders, to closing the dining room to 'regular' guests, to dominating the small pool with their trophy wives (sorry), it was a debacle. But that again was years ago, and on a very small ship. Oh, and the first group cruise was on the same ship, btw. On that same ship another time, there was a group of 50 (out of 325) celebrating a man's 50'th birthday--all Hollywood types, no problem, they actually were entertaining. We also had some tour groups from Vantage and Grand Circle over the years on the PG as well, and once we "got over" the feeling they were invading "our" ship, they were fine people, nice to meet.

January 21st! Here's hoping.

I know Ross the pianist is on Mariner right now. Anyone care to ask him his plans for the winter? Would love to have him on Splendor on January.

In fact you never know, it could be quite chilly.