UUNetBill

Definitely a distinction. But something very easy to get used to...on other cruises, even if you purchase a package you still need to swipe or sign...I much prefer the Regent business model of just getting what you want...regardless of whether it's pre-paid or not. 🙂 I've often told people that you can definitely spend a few weeks on board a Regent ship and not pay a penny past what you've already paid. Granted, some bumps make it better, like better wine and some upgraded excursions...but those are optional and not necessary to have a great vacation, IMO. I will say we haven't seen this often, but we have seen it. We always let DS know (politely, of course) when we're unhappy with an excursion, especially one we paid extra for, but fortunately that's not a common thing.

Now I'm waiting to see how long it is before someone blames Regent for having the audacity to book them through LHR... 🤣

Fudge - I agree with Flossie that it seems to be your TA who missed the boat on this one. Included transfers from the airport to the hotel are only included when using Regent air - I'm sure the logistics of keeping track of hundreds of people flying in from God knows where every cruise would be a nightmare. Unless you've got a long-standing relationship with your TA (and even if you do) it might be time to look for one who has experience with booking Regent cruises. It could help you avoid problems like this going forward. I hope you get it all worked out and have a wonderful cruise...

For years I've wanted Regent to change that to 'Included' instead of 'Free'. More accurate, and doesn't seem as tacky, IMO.

FWIW, before our first Regent cruise way back in '09 I did the same thing - looked at the fares and was like, "This has to be for two people - it can't be one bunk" - but it was. On our third day on board we had already met with the cruise consultant to book our next cruise. Once you're on board it's really easy to justify the spend...

Just ordered a 4-pack from Amazon. I hear good things (and a few minor quirks, too) - looking forward to giving them a go.

The mornings I walk out of my house and get hit in the chest with the oppressive, muggy heat make me think that summering further north might not be a bad idea. I saw something online the other day that said something along the lines of: Want to experience summer in the Carolinas? - Take a hot shower - Don't dry off - Put on all your clothes

I don't think you're an entitled complainer at all (and this is coming from a confirmed Grumpy Old Man) - it's pretty common for Regent's pricing to be kind of nutty on some things, hotels and transportation among them. At least it is in my experience. Must be their way of limiting the number of additional reservations they need to manage - and it seems to be working.

A very good point that many are overlooking right now - most cruise lines, even though they're sailing, are NOT making money - they're simply reducing the amount they're losing. I don't know what the 'break even' point is on one of their ships, but I know they're not hitting it, at least not on very many sailings (if any). I'm sure it'll be a year or two before they start making any money again. Even with the hiccups I still think Regent delivers a great product and I'll keep leading cheers for them so maybe they can avoid Crystal's fate...

Amen to that. Hope you thoroughly enjoy your cruise, even with a few possible warts...remember, being on board a Regent ship is always better than being in the office. 🙂

Sorry, I got on another side road on my last post...your comparison is valid - when everything else is equal except the price, people will vote with their wallets. And if enough people abandon Regent to sail on one of the other lines, well, that's the market at work. I've often considered Seabourn (still not sure about Silversea) and I've seen some interesting sailings, but when it's time to write the check we always write it to Regent. Maybe it's a comfort level, maybe it's the feeling of family on board, maybe I just don't like change - but who knows - if Regent's prices get to high, I may try another line - and may like it more... But you're right - we're all very, VERY fortunate to have such tough decisions.

Yeah, that's kind of my point - Regent will raise prices until they start driving people off, and then they'll adjust to stay in the sweet spot. Business Economics 101. I looked at the Ritz Carlton brochures, thought "Hey, these look cool" - and they are (or will be if they ever sail) but when you total it out it's quite a bit more than Regent, or at least it was the last time I looked. The way I figure it, you can sail Royal Caribbean, you can move up to a premium line, you can move up to a luxury line, you can lease a yacht, you can buy a yacht, you can take your private A380 to the harbor to sail on your private yacht...there are levels, there are tiers, there is comfortable, there is wealthy, there is %$%& loaded, there is f%#$ you money, there is 'Elon, grab my bags, wouldya?'...we're at the point where a Regent cruise is a big spend for us, even in Cat F. We enjoy being pampered. Would we enjoy a 300' yacht with our own personal Michelin starred chef and unlimited massages from the Swedish Bikini Team? Sure...but that's not realistic. What kills me is the people on a Regent cruise who think they're at the 'Elon, grab my bags, wouldya?' level...and they're not, and never will be. I've met people on board with a net worth over $300 million who were as down to earth as they come...my point, I guess, is that no matter what you're worth or what you're spending, you don't need to be an asshat.

I know, I know...I shouldn't play into the chatter, but good Lord, it just hit me the other day...we should be thankful that we even have the opportunity to sail on a line like this and pamper ourselves a little bit after a lifetime of hard work. In the grand scheme of things, the little foibles on board are just that - foibles. At the end of the day, you're still on an amazing ship with an amazing crew going to amazing places. You can wait another 3 or 4 minutes for a refill on your marginally acceptable wine at dinner. 🙂 @DeepFreeze63 we met briefly on one cruise several years back and although we didn't spend a lot of time together you guys didn't strike me as the types to complain. I'm sure after that many nights on board you've seen some changes - some for the better, some maybe not so much. But the fact that you keep coming back to Regent speaks volumes to me. I hope your upcoming cruises are all you anticipate - and more! @Wendy The Wanderer no, fares haven't gone down. And in some cases have gone up. Some quite a bit. And as much as I'd love a 10% rollback on my upcoming cruises, looking at it from a business angle I sure don't see that happening. Fact is, we booked our cruise last January knowing that there'd be some hiccups - amazingly, there were very few. We have two more booked - at whatever prices were current at the time. But with prices climbing on almost everything all over the world, I don't see any price cuts on the horizon. I think that everything is a matter of expectations. I'd venture a guess that you'll hear more complaints from more seasoned Regent cruisers than you will from newer Regent cruisers...just because we have a wider frame of reference. As I said, we had a few hiccups on our last cruise in January but nothing 'deal-breaking'. Was the cruise 'substandard'? Not to us, no. Have there been problems with substandard experiences post-Covid? Sure have according to some of the threads on here. But I remember hearing rants about terrible cruises pre-Covid, too. Makes me think that although Regent strives for excellence, sometimes it just doesn't come together. It's just more annoying on a cruise because of the cost involved. I honestly believe that service and amenities will reliably climb back up to pre-Covid levels...but I don't see any fare reductions in the cards. Hell, EVERYTHING is more expensive than it was in 2019, and it's getting worse. I just hope we can kind of hold the line on cruise fares... I haven't looked lately, but it seems to me that prices have held steady on Silversea and Seabourn, and we all know what happened to Crystal (we'll see if the 'new' Crystal is able to regain the goodwill they had before). There seem to be a lot of other options popping up in the premium and luxury cruise offerings - it'll be interesting to see how the pricing and service play out on some of these newcomers... @Portolan keep us posted on your next cruise, please. We don't sail again until January so hopefully things have smoothed out by then. Of course, we're on Splendor again, so that's already a good sign. 🙂 Good attitude! My feeling is that a bad day on board a Regent ship is much better a good day in the office. Maybe we're just offering our observations and opinions too? 🤣 Slow internet? Chair hogs? Clunky web site? That's it...I'm off to sail Carnival... Ha! I always tell people not to expect to get any work done onboard...kind of sucks for those of us still working who need to be able to get some work done while we're gone. I'd much rather be gone for 14-20 days with a few hours of work scattered in than resign myself to week long vacations completely unplugged...but that's just me. Now about that Dover Sole shortage...horrors!! You're not wrong about the wine in '19. Ten years ago it was definitely better at the 'entry' or 'included' level - but the last few years we've found more OBC being throws our way that we used to spend on laundry, but now that laundry is included we can throw that money at better wine. It seems to even out. And as to the 'faithful following' - I think we're more realistic than say, oh, the Crystal crowd. Or at least on par with any of the other lines cheerleaders. I'd venture a guess that apples-to-apples, Regent is on the same price point as Seabourn, Silversea, and Crystal (both dead and resurrected) - and if the others offer more for less, well, there's your option. We vote with our wallets, and I know that every few years I'll do a comparison with the other options and every time I land on Regent. As always, your mileage may vary - but if you can find a line that suits you better for a better price, have at it. Flossie - we seem to run into one or two of 'those people' every few cruises. I swear, I want to walk up and slap some sense into their entitled heads. But fortunately my mama raised me better than that. 🙂 Our last cruise, on day one, some loud obnoxious crone was unloading on this poor girl at the desk about how she 'had to get into her cabin immediately. This delay is unacceptable!!' and many other, less polite statements and phrases, all at about a 127db screech. After they escorted her away (presumably to her cabin, but in my mind it was a quick trip overboard) I actually went up to the girl at the desk and apologized - she was near tears, for something she had absolutely zero control over. What the hell is wrong with people?!? And yeah, I'm both grumpy and old. And proud of both. @Linda VH I agree that the single sups are too damn high, especially on the newer ships in the G and H cabins, which as I recall were originally designed to accommodate single cruisers. But I guess if they can fill them with two guests paying full fare, why not, right? Seems a shame to turn the single cruisers away, though. Bam! Mic drop. 🎤

As I read post after post here, I have to ask a question - am I just a grumpy old man or what? We're coming off of a global pandemic where for all intents and purposes the ENTIRE DAMN WORLD WAS SHUT DOWN FOR A FEW YEARS...and we have people endlessly griping about a) Regent Air sucks, b) Regent's wine sucks, c) Regent's service used to be good...now it sucks, d) Regent's shore excursions suck, e) fill in the blank sucks... For the love of Pete, people, NCLH somehow managed to survive a complete shutdown of their core business for close to two years...and then had to ramp a global operation back up amid a looming global recession, worldwide supply chain issues, a vastly changed workforce, and numerous challenges that we probably don't even know exist - and we STILL have people on here whining about having to wait on hold longer than before, not getting the flights they want (an airline problem across the globe but somehow now Regent's fault), can't get the specific bottled water they just HAVE to have or they'll just die, I had to wear a mask on a bus in Bulgaria... I, for one, am very happy that Regent didn't go the way of Crystal and all things considered is almost miraculously back to very close to their pre-pandemic levels of service. My advice to people who aren't happy with the current state of affairs: Either take a chill pill until things smooth out, choose another cruise line, or find another way to spend your vacation time and money. All of this carping is really starting to get old... Okay, sorry for the rant. It's just so frustrating seeing everyone think global businesses like this can just flip a switch and make everything normal...now, where did I put MY chill pills?!?

I've always been of the opinion that distilled beverages of say, oh, 80 proof or so seem to kill off any microbes just fine. 🥃

I read the exuberance in there, but I didn't see 'one long run-on sentence' - in fact, there were a lot of individual sentences. Some paragraph breaks would have made it a more friendly read, but I liked the happiness and positivity for a change, something that's sorely lacking in the world these days...

Dark wood and gleaming chandelier, I'm gonna guess Explorer.

We used to use any OBC we had for laundry and maybe an excursion upgrade or two...but now that laundry is included, OBC goes for wine tastings or wine upgrades. We can usually find some 'pleasant' wines in the included selections, but I feel that the overall quality of included wines has slipped a bit since we started sailing with Regent (2009). I agree that I'd rather see the cruise fare climb a few hundred dollars and have better included wines, and that's saying a lot as I'm usually more of a scotch/bourbon drinker. Maybe after things equalize a bit more post-pandemic? PS - I'm not a fan of offering a 'wine package' - one of the things we love about Regent is not having to scan keycards or sign for things on board - the thought of having to somehow identify myself every time I wanted a better glass of wine kind of makes me cringe. Just bump the fare and give us better wines...

Of course - we'll probably be out of the country in early September. Stay tuned.... 🙂

Pleasure, yes - it'll be a pleasure to see our daughter (Navy nurse) for the first time in a year and a half. 🙂 A week or so there, then a week or so in Honolulu on the way back - seemed a shame to fly that far and just go to Guam. We'd originally planned on doing about 10 days in Japan but there's still too much uncertainty with their Covid protocols, so Hawaii it is...or Hawai'i, I guess it is now.

Nice. You guys are ambitious! Under normal circumstances we might have three booked out but being abnormal now we only have two - one in '23 and one in '24. Our trip to Guam is really knocking out our time and budget for another cruise anytime soon. 😄

Well, if you make it and have time for a cocktail, let me know. If I'm in town we can share Regent stories. 🙂

Sounds great! I think we're at 12 Regent cruises right now, the last few years really took a toll on our travel. Hope you enjoy Ireland, it's been a long time since we've been there...but a lovely country and fantastic people. Pretty decent whiskey as well. Enjoy your cruise!!

I guess y'all both qualify for the Atlanta 'honorary South Carolinian' program, sure. 🙂 I think we had 4 or 5 cancelled as well - so many I lost count. Managed one earlier this year and have 2 more booked through early '24. I hope things continue to normalize...travelling is still a chore.

I can see that, yeah. HHI is beautiful. But then again...there are a gajillion cool places to go in the world, why not try and see 'em all?