Wendy The Wanderer

19 hours ago, pingpong1 said:

Actually, I love corned beef hash.  Along with eggs over medium and whole wheat toast.  😉

Me too, although I don't indulge except occasionally on a cruise ship or a diner.

Here's one we got in the form of a little printed card given after our mid-cruise review.  Now granted, the Paul Gauguin was a very intimate ship, and my husband had gotten quite chummy with Martha and had joked about this with her:

Dear Dr. & Mrs. Harrison,

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback regarding your cruise experience so far.  we are always very keen to receive the opinion of our guests which enables us to maintain and improve our high standards.

I sincerely apologise for the fact that corned beef hash was not available one morning.  I hope that the remainder of your cruise will be memorable and if there is anything I can do to make it more enjoyable, please do not hesitate to contact me at Reception by dialing '0'.

Sincerely,

Martha Hanley

Guest Relations Manager

19 hours ago, taxare said:

Wendy, I respectfully disagree with you as this itinerary was attractive to us as we will go to ports that we usually wouldn't enjoy sailing out of Miami.

Sure, I understand.  Yes, the itinerary is very attractive, it's just getting back and forth from Barbados that is not.  Are you booking your own air and hotel?  We winter near Tampa so would have to fly thru Miami or Charlotte to get to Barbados, in Coach.  Driving to the Port of Miami is much more convenient for us. 

I looked seriously at those itineraries in and/or out of Barbados, and I have to wonder why they are doing this.  Limited, horrifically expensive hotels, limited and annoying air routes from many parts of North America, and on top of that, they get to give you Economy Air because they consider the Caribbean to be "domestic" (I believe.)  I hope that in terms of itineraries, this is a mistake that Regent won't repeat.  (I guess it  may be different for those from the U.K.--it may be dead easy to fly into and out of the Barbados, so maybe that's who Regent is targeting?)

Regent was all-inclusive long before they added excursions to the mix.  And it was quite different from Oceania even then.  No carding, no happy hour crowds in the bars, better food, better service.  I like that Regent is all-inclusive, and that's despite that I don't drink alcohol any more.  I also don't go to many of the big shows, preferring listening to musicians in a bar.  

The inclusive excursions was something Regent tried, probably to enhance the "all-inclusive" identity.  It worked for a while, but right now it's failing, perhaps mostly because of Covid.  On the other hand, we've had some wonderful private excursions organized with small groups of fellow travellers in the past; on Azamara, Oceania, Seabourn, and yes, even on Regent.  So this is different, I believe, than the other included amenities because it materially affects your trip in many cases.

On 5/27/2023 at 4:08 AM, wristband said:

Roll Call CC offers a good opportunity for O passengers to book privately a small group tour. 

That's the one huge benefit of Oceania, in my view.  I wish Regent would stop including tours, frankly, then that roll-call model would come into play.

I was with David, above, in 1022.  Form me the only slight downside was occasional noise from the pool deck when they were setting up. You may want to look at where your cabin is, ours was right under the area near the ice cream parlor, and we did hear chairs being moved a couple of times.  As I said, really minor.

2 hours ago, MarEll1 said:

Can I jump in here and ask a question as we will be on our first Regent cruise in August as well? Can we drop our carry on luggage in the cabin when we board even though it’s not ready yet? Is there such a thing as a sea pass card in Regent? Do we pick that up at the cabin as well?

As someone else has said, there's a secure check-in onboard for carry-on bags--they discourage you from trying to drop them off at your suite, although that worked sometimes in the past.

What is a sea pass card?  If you mean your ID card, you get it when you check in.

12 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

One more thing - I have several cooking classes booked. They start at 4 PM. Does anyone know how long they last, as that will impact dining times as well. 

In my experience, they don't impact on dining times, but you might want to consider not doing a specialty restaurant that night, since depending on how much you eat at your class, you may not be that hungry.

20 minutes ago, Lenbro1944 said:

Thank you to those that have responded to my post. We do have $10,000 per person coverage by our credit card

Make sure to look at the fine print.  It often ends after a certain age.

I've read on FB that they have Starlink internet up and running.  Would be interested to hear any reports on this.

36 minutes ago, Roccaforte said:

I agree with MoneyGuy.  I rely on my American Express Platinum card and have never bought additional insurance.  After eight cruises I’ve saved enough for another cruise.  I will admit that on longer cruises it’s taken nerves of steel.  We’ve also been healthy and lucky.

Nerves of steel indeed.  Along about 2015 I thought that I would have been way ahead if I hadn't bought cancellation insurance for our cruises since 2000.  By then, we were too old and decrepit to risk it.  As they say, hindsight is 20-20.  Made it out alive so far, only one cruise without insurance, no cancellations for cause, so no experience with the process, fortunately.

In our experience, tables for 6 are quite common.  It's our favourite size, if we are in the mood to share. Small enough to have conversations around the table, large enough group not to feel trapped with another couple with whom you're incompatible.

Hmm, well I wonder what people are saying.  I haven't been on Voyager for quite a awhile, but she was always a lovely ship.  The only thing I would say is that there's a vibration aft, so some say to avoid aft cabins, especially on lower decks.  But this is similar to Navigator.

On 5/3/2023 at 1:55 AM, sollan said:

Thanks for information!

We don't know which cabin we will be in, only that it's a category H veranda. Have been looking for reviews for that category but havn't found any.

Can see that it's only 12 of them and wonder if there is someone that have been in this category and can tell us what they are like? Most of them are in deck 6 just above the lifeboats and I wonder how obstructed the view is? 

Thanks in advance!

If you have an H GTY, you might get an upgrade.  No, I haven't seen those (smaller) cabins myself, but they are probably about the same size as a standard balcony cabin on Azamara.

Outside of your (very nice) small cabin, Splendor is a simply glorious ship.  Wonderful service, great food, bars everywhere, what's not to like?  We did do one Azamara trip and really enjoyed it, mainly because of the friendly attitude onboard (andwe did it in a Club Continent Suite, but saw the standard balcony cabin and thought it was adequate.  I think you'll be happy with Regent.

2 hours ago, mrlevin said:

We are booked Barcelona to Sydney.  A bit disappointed to learn about the $500 per person NON-REFUNDABLE (i.e., no longer a future cruise credit) cancellation penalty for the new Grand Voyages.   We now have three Grand Voyages and five other cruises booked on Regent; I sure hope the market doesn't tank.  🙂

I agree that's a bummer.  Doesn't sound like a good business decision.  I realize they don't want people booking these big cruises on a whim, but still, making it transferrable once would still make it much more palatable.

Well, when you say "same cabin category", that doesn't tell the whole tale I think.  Look at the square footage of the cabins, and the layouts. I just looked at a Concierge Veranda on Vista and it looks tiny by comparison with the standard cabin on, say, Splendor.  No walk-in closet either.

Commiserations, everyone.  Our sole Azamara cruise was in 2016 and we were just talking about how it might be nice to try another one, since Regent seems to be pricing itself out of our budget.  Oh well, sure not going book any time soon.

I have been curious about this too.  Flying from Tampa, we'd have to connect through either Charlotte or Miami. One hour from Tampa, four hours from Miami, and the aggravation of Miami airport. Six to nine hours overall if we're lucky.  

On 4/26/2023 at 12:32 PM, Lonedaddy said:

I would book the air upfront you can always have it removed if you find something better - if you add it later it might go up.  

Our TA always does it in reverse--books us on cruise only, and then we can add the air later if we wish.  It makes the deposit a bit smaller that way.

We have used Regent Air, and have rolled our own.  By all means use points or miles if you have lots and you can find the flights you need.  Always deviate and fly in the day before the cruise.

The times we have used Regent Air is when we could not find a Business fare comparable to what they could offer (deviation fees included)--they can often do much better than paying those fares.  But if I have the points, I will use them.

Our waitlist deposit was $1000 I believe.

We waitlisted for our Splendor cruise this past January.  We waitlisted in June and cleared and booked in July.  Paying the deposit allows you to book up to three categories.  We jumped on the first category that came, but presumably if you didn't like the first cabin that came up, you could decline it and still be on the waitlist.  Perhaps someone can confirm that.

10 minutes ago, ChatKat in Ca. said:

The Mariner was in poor condition and the tours for our sailing left much to be desired. It was very sad for us as the Mariner was our first Regent cruise on the inaugural sailing.

Kathy, I'm betting you'd love Splendor (and therefore probably Grandeur.) 

When did you last sail Mariner?  We were on her in 2017 and she was in fine shape then.

4 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Because there are 600+ business class seats a day into Port Louis?????

For real?

Why the heck would they start a voyage in Mauritius?