Gilly

But, if this is so (and I have no idea if it is or not) there's nothing we can do about it except hope for the best, is there? There are children on board - or perhaps more accurately, "youngsters" - with their families who are no bother whatsoever. I appreciate a group of children might be rather different. We'll see. We are in Lysekil today and joined a "seal safari" tour this morning. The weather was clear and dry, a bit "brisk" at times but the sun put in an appearance now and again. We sat on the top, open deck of the boat and enjoyed the scenery and yes, spotted one or two seals, appreciating the fresh, clean Scandinavian air. I think that those around us would agree that it was an enjoyable trip and had been fairly described in the tour information. But to illustrate the varied responses to these things, as we waited for the shuttle bus back to the ship, we overheard someone from that same tour tell a passing friend that it had been dreadful. "Don't do it" they said!! We'd recommend it wholeheartedly, depending on the weather of course.

I will see what I can find out.

We'll see you on board, since we're sailing B2B and will disembark in Reykjavik.

There wasn't any requirement.

It was at the new Cruise terminal, together with large Holland America and Princess ships.

@welshfamily Thankfully no Covid test needed...maybe that was on a different cruise ? (we have done several since CV and sometimes had to provide a clear result before boarding - but not this time) We were simply asked if we had symptoms or been in contact with someone who had. As the answer to both questions was "no" there was nothing further to do. We are currently sitting working our way through the champagne, enjoying the peace and quiet after the "fun" of embarkation day. It's never *that* smooth, but somehow today seemed particularly chaotic. Never mind! We are here and all is good. Better than that, it's great! Whilst sitting in La Veranda at lunchtime, Hannah came and asked if we'd like a restaurant reservation this evening - we gladly accepted Pacific Rim at 7.30, table for four with the couple who happened to be sitting at the table with us. I'm glad my blog provided a distraction from the chore that is packing. I packed really badly this time and have not done well. Never mind. Thanks for the laundry service!

@Techno123 we have flown non stop from LHR to join Regent cruises in both Tokyo and Bangkok but have probably paid the deviation fee because we're picky about our flights (and choose business class for such long journeys as well). Regent have always accommodated our wishes, frequently allowing us to tag on some independent travel plans at one or both ends of our cruises (meaning we've flown home long after the cruise ended, or out well in advance of it starting). We usually work directly with Regent in Southampton, finding Amanda to be more than helpful with such things.

Len, you'll find it (and others) here, on my Elegant Sufficiency blog.

@Lenbro1944 we just got back from our third evening at Høst which was as good as ever - except for the absent friends 😪. It's a popular spot, both with locals and those just passing through, so reservations are essential I'd say. Once more, we opted for the five course tasting menu with wine pairing and I'll write a blog with photos as soon as I can on my personal blog (because this is something I want to remember) Nothing disappointed, The flavours were as fresh and "different" as I remembered and each course was a delight. I feel sure you won't be disappointed - unless you are expecting something more than a fish focused Nordic menu with inventive herbal flavours!

@PurleyKing oh no! That's not a good start! We are now waiting for bags, remembering the last time here when there were walls of 'lost' bags everywhere. Today, there's a small heap of a dozen or so - not good if one of them is yours (or mine) but a darn sight better than it was. As we landed we saw a sleek white ship in port....ooooh! Was it Splendor?

Next step! We are here in the BA T5 lounge ready to fly. We checked in last night and stayed over at the LHR Sofitel, which we usually do before a morning flight, not trusting the M4 peak morning traffic. The hotel was full and the BA staff member we chatted to said they had 51 000 departing px through T5 yesterday - surprisingly, that was not a record, either! Thankfully the lounge is quiet this morning. Hope to 'see' you in CPH later!

@LindsayC we are booked on that same cruise and have flights from LHR via Madrid to Rio, arriving on the day before the cruise (our choice not to do the pre-cruise). LHR to Madrid, will be on BA, where we've chosen our seats already (with BA frequent flyer status) but Madrid to Rio is Iberia and though we know we have a booking reference, so far we've not been able to reserve particular seats. We were told there was a glitch on their website (but don't know if that's the case or what) We're in business class the whole way, booked through Regent but I'm unsure if that was part of the deal or was an extra.

Life is a little chaotic here so having five minutes to spare, I thought I'd kick off a new thread for our upcoming cruise which starts in Copenhagen on Wednesday 26th. As always, I'll blog on my personal "Elegant Sufficiency" page for my own records, because there's nothing better on a cold Winter's evening than to revisit all those wonderful Regent cruises once again from the comfort of home (all our cruise pages are here btw) Here's hoping for reasonable internet connections then and a bucketload of patience delivered by room service from time to time 😉 We fly to Copenhagen early Tuesday morning and look forward to dinner at our favourite Høst restaurant in the evening. Of course, we'll raise a glass to friends who've been there with us previously - you'll be there in spirit I know! I'll drop in here from time to time to share bits and pieces of interest (as we do) and hope that others on board will add their two penn'orth here as well. But now, to go and sort things out so that we can leave our builders to get on with their work whilst we are away. Here's hoping we don't return to find even more chaos!

Davor and Vlado are a great management team. If we see their smiling faces when we board, we know we're going to have a wonderful cruise!

Most of our EU stamps show in and out, but there's one "out" that's missing - not cruise related. That single missing "out" stamp renders all the others useless, since there's no record of how many days we spent in the EU during that year (2022). Has anyone asked? Does anyone seem bothered? No. So neither am I!! (Until something happens that changes that mindset 😉 )

Seconding @flossie009's comment above. Though we agree we don't need another pleather wallet with every set of cruise docs we receive, we can't help feeling that the current arrangement feels pretty mean. Whilst the reintroduction of luggage tags is a plus (Yes, hard to believe that for a year or so, we were not even sent tags of any kind here) the old feeling of "woohoo! Our cruise is really happening 🍾!" when the package arrives has gone. The envelope with the tags just gets put on the pile with the bills... There is surely a cost-efficient, environmentally friendly but stylish solution here?

I will second the recommendation of Orkney's Archaeological Wonders tour having enjoyed that one last year on a busy summer's day, when we feared everywhere would be crammed with tourists. Yes, it was busy, but our tour escaped the queues and our guide managed all of that side of the day really well. I agree, the story of Scapa Flow is fascinating. My report of our day is here on my blog if you are interested. We've not done Regent tours of Waterford and Liverpool but know both well and agree with comments on both places which would be high on our list of must-sees.

I maintain that there are (better, IMHO) alternatives to tipping and agree 100% with @mj_holiday above.

We had three days in Edinburgh on board Navigator last year (in Leith, two scheduled plus one extra day because high winds prevented the safe transit out of the dock earlier) and used the shuttle into Edinburgh centre instead of a tour on one of those days. The drop off point is very central, we walked into Princes Street and visited the National Gallery, did a bit of shopping and returned to the ship on the shuttle. The witches' warning here is that central Edinburgh in August is very full with Festival goers and the fallout that all makes - not pretty. When we were there, the tram extension was in the finishing stages and as Flossie says above, would be an ideal choice now it's running. Bear in mind that Edinburgh is a very hilly city, that a walk "up" the Royal Mile and to the Castle might be a stretch for some and @pappy1022 I think your thought of taking the tour there and making your own way back is an excellent one if you can make it work. St Giles Cathedral (access from the Royal Mile) is also well worth a visit and there are plenty of places along there for refreshment too. On the other days we took the tour to St Andrews which was good and on the additional day we walked into Leith, because we'd been to the Royal Yacht Britannia previously (highly recommend that btw).

Oh sorry....wrong end of the stick here!!

I've been watching Splendor's progress in the Baltic with interest as our embarkation date draws nearer. I have seen the occasional post on FB from the ship but nothing here. Could this (just stumbled across the blog post) be the reason?

That's especially annoying when BA fly direct LHR - Austin. When we flew that route they were using a nice new A350 with the Club Suites too. But that was pre-CV and a lot has changed since then. *sigh*

Just once, immediately post CV we had an email with a really great last minute offer to board Splendor for a short, 7 night round trip cruise from Athens to Istanbul and return. When the email arrived, we looked at one another and said "Why not?" and jumped at it. We had a great cruise, Splendor was pretty new and there were a lot of (we think) travel agents on board, plus some regular clients like us. But it's only happened that once and I'm not sure of the circumstances that led to it. That was a very strange time as far as travel was concerned and things were just getting back together again. It would be fun to do such things again though!

The one thing about Japanese Immigration officials is that they squeeze their entry/exit stamps tightly into the corner/space available, unlike others (grr!) who stamp bang slap in the middle of an empty page!!

I watch the weather maps each morning and think of you in all that "stuff" that's happening in the Baltic right now. Fingers crossed it will all blow through soon!!