flossie009

Is the new offer (at todays price) more advantageous than the price you secured in November with the 25% discount?

MarineTraffic shows Explorer heading for Gisborne; scheduled to arrive 06:00 on Jan 16. The rest of Explorer’s NZ itinerary will have to be revised. Very frustrating & disappointing for guests; a nightmare for staff trying to deal with the changes. Just hope the latest hull cleaning attempts were more successful and pass inspection. I am sure NCLH, and the rest of the cruise industry, will be reevaluating the risks & costs of trying to operate in this region in the future.

There is a description of the likely cleaning process in post #19 of a thread about Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, also caught out by the NZ protocols:

UK mobile service providers only provide for Wi-Fi calling within the UK; hence my tip to use WhatsApp when cruising if regular texting does not work with mobile data roaming turned off. Worked a treat for Christmas & New Year messages to friends & family while on Splendor recently 🙂 (Honestly, we really were not just trying to remind those in cooler climes that we were travelling through a sunny Panama Canal on Christmas Day 😉 😎)

As above but use WhatsApp

Let’s hope this third(?) attempt at cleaning Explorer’s hull is more thorough & effective than the previous efforts. Commiserations to those on board suffering this ongoing frustrating saga.

It might be worth moderating their expectation of Wi-Fi connectivity and internet speeds on Regent ships 🤨

An impossible one to predict and it is very difficult to obtain entertainment schedules in advance of your cruise. There are numerous tribute bands plying their trade (some better than others); I believe Regent had the tribute band the Mersey Beatles on board for an anniversary cruise in July and they gave two performances. Even if there is no tribute band brought on board then the entertainment team will probably stage a Beatles Dance Party in one of the lounges.

Glad to see that Explorer has arrived in Auckland on time. Hopefully no further disruption to subsequent itineraries 🤞

Voyager plus points: - longer cruise - Horizon Lounge - cheaper because of a special offer Splendor plus points: - Suite layout, storage & bathroom 🙂 - cookery classes - Pacific Rim restaurant 😋 - Chartreuse and/or Prime 7 open for lunch - Sunday sea day brunch Both cruises have the drawback that travelling east you lose time - clocks will advance 1 hour a number of times during the cruise…………… but you will have a daytime flight going home. Decisions, decisions …………

You may have missed the point of this thread/topic. No one is saying they would rather fly in on the day of the cruise. The OP is simply trying to ascertain the likely hotel that Regent will allocate for the pre-cruise accommodation. It is Regent (UK) who use the rather quaint phrase "forced" when they supply overnight accommodation (at no additional cost) because of the available airline schedules Like you we normally arrange our own flights & pre-cruise accommodation. However, for our February cruise we left the arrangements for the outbound flight to Regent and were amused to see that in their terminology we were being forced to stay an extra night in Bali. This will not be a hardship 😂

You have the option of booking the overnight & transfers yourself if you are concerned with Regent’s arrangements; although the prices of good Miami hotels have risen dramatically. We have a “forced” overnight in Bali at the start of a cruise in February. The name of the hotel has just appeared on our itinerary. It looks to be a stunning property and we wish we had longer to enjoy it 😉

More on Splendor & Explorer than the other ships Not if the venue was not popular & therefore underused We enjoy the Pool Grill for lunch but have never had an inclination to use it in the evening. All the other venues offer plenty of choice for us.

In the U.K. a plumber who is trained and authorised to work on gas appliances and gas supplies is known as a “gas safe engineer”. It is illegal for anyone not on the gas safe register to work on gas installations.

Transfer from the hotel arranged by Regent to the ship is available for all; normally a bus transfer; in some ports your luggage is transported on the same bus; in some ports the luggage is transferred separately. Priority boarding and early suite access is available for named suites and Titanium & above SSS members

We did see papaya and mango (not ripe) on offer; usually at breakfast rather than lunch. As @Kristal Bladesays the tropical buffet lunch had an amazing selection of fresh fruit. If a particular fruit that you want is not on display, a polite request will often bring it to you if it is on board.

I am sure we can all think of other descriptors, which probably would not be allowed on a public forum 😮 We are not looking forward to the cold/rain when we arrive home on Sunday. Hope your boiler is fixed soon.

Sorry we didn’t manage the photo training session. Next year maybe 🤔 It was good to chat with you on board, rather than just on this CC Board 🥃

The protector on the bed yesterday signalled that the cruise would be over within a few hours After the excellent pre-dinner show by Anne (production cast singer), it was off to Compass Rose for our final dinner. Then the entertainment crew led a spirited Beatles hour in the atrium with many guests singing & dancing to the well known favourites 🎶 This morning we arrived in rainy LA. After breakfast in La Veranda, we left the ship just before 9am. DHS were a little slow in processing passengers; 45 minutes from leaving the ship to clearing immigration 😕 We do not fly back to the U.K. until Saturday so we have some time for retail therapy. We realised our Christmas adventures were over when we saw decorations being removed and the Christmas Tree being felled & shredded at an outlet mall today Hope this blog has been of interest. We can definitely recommend a Holiday cruise on Regent; it beats turkey sandwiches at home any day 😀

Guests on this cruise seemed comfortable making their own decisions about mixing, social distancing and masks. Those wearing masks were in the minority but all others respected their choice. Officers, staff & crew were unmasked. Hosted tables were back and block parties have recommenced.

You might hear/feel the tender winches below your suite, but only if there is a tender/lifeboat below your suite that is used in a tender port. You will only hear the winches when the tender is deployed (after ship anchors) and recovered (just before sail away) ……… but they are stored on deck 5 with the winch mechanism directly below the floor of deck 6

Some interesting figures for this cruise (16 nights) from the Captain last night: - cost of fuel: $1.3M - Panama Canal fees: $257k - eggs consumed: 23,000 I cannot remember the statistics for the number of bottles of wine & champagne, but it was mega 😮

Ensenada, Mexico, today; our last full day before docking in LA tomorrow We have just docked next to a “Mickey Mouse” ship 🤣 Sounds like they are having a crew drill this morning. Hope Donald remembers his life jacket; but then ducks are good swimmers so shouldn’t be a problem 😉 Internet seems to have taken a dive again (very spotty these last few days) The dreaded packing later today 😕. Only seems like yesterday that we joined the ship. We have thoroughly enjoyed this cruise 😎

Krew Kapers was excellent as usual & received a standing ovation from the packed theatre Some old favourites YMCA Plus a new hilarious routine “synchronised swans” The finale (Impossible Dream) was led by an excellent singer

Morning show was from the laundry yesterday