Gilly

Good Evening from Rio de Janeiro where our flight landed slightly ahead of schedule. The Regent rep Celeste was there to meet four of us and we were soon on our way to the JW Marriott hotel in Copacabana. @Zqueeze1 we flew LHR to MAD on a British Airways Airbus A321Neo which was not quite full up front, left slightly late but arrived on schedule. A short walk in the same terminal took us to the S gates in Madrid, requiring a further carry on scan on the way. Fortunately the lounge was en route to the gate, so we stopped for coffee as we went 😉 Our Iberia flight to Rio was on an Airbus A330-200 with a similar business class offering to the most recent British Airways arrangement. The best bit was that onboard wifi is included in business class, so I had a quick update from Arthur, our grandson 🥰 when we were somewhere over the Atlantic. In flight service on both flights was excellent. Arriving in Rio was fine except for an incredibly long walk from plane to passport control! I'm happy to answer any further questions you may have! Edited to add that Celeste said there are upwards of 200 Regent guests in the Marriott tomorrow night and three cruise ships in port during the next couple of days. Busy!

Thank you all for the warm response!! We spent last night at the Sofitel at T5 LHR, checked our bags (labelled MAD GIG 🤣) and were up at 4am for our 0620 flight to Madrid. We transited a terminal that was just waking up (as were we) and have just boarded a full flight to Madrid. Hopefully my next report will be from GIG ! @cwn the travelling companions thank you for your good wishes and are looking forward to the trip 😉

Wow, Sue, that's a wonderful way to begin your trip! I hope you will have photos to share? (Don't we all love a wedding? 🥰) Congratulations to the happy couple and we will look forward to seeing you on board!

As a means of putting off the task of packing my bags, I thought I'd kick off the conversation here. Later this afternoon we'll head off to LHR where we're staying overnight before an early morning flight to Rio tomorrow, via Madrid. There follows a couple of nights in the JW Marriott in Copacabana, Rio before boarding Voyager on Tuesday morning. As usual, I'll aim to update my Elegant Sufficiency blog daily, internet and time permitting, and will drop in here now and again. I hope others will chip in their thoughts here, especially those doing the pre-cruise to Iguazu or in Rio itself. We've had a lively roll call, so I'm looking forward to meeting everyone on board (and finding a Trivia team 😉)

We did the jumping crocs tour years ago and agree, @crusin7 we could have made a better choice, too. Not only was our boat really full, it was all a bit of a circus show - when they had names for the crocs which were lured to jump with dangling pork chops over the side, it gave the game away, for these were hardly "wild animals" at all. Never mind, we live and learn, don't we?!

Certainly doesn't. I'm with your wife on this one and feel similarly horrified. Smacks of buying favours.

@Pcardad's highlight of the crew fund is excellent, as is the reminder of other ways of acknowledging excellent, personal service such as mentions on feedback forms and in conversations wtih senior officers. The impact of heartfelt acknowledgement and appreciation in the form of a sincere "thank you" should not be underestimated, particularly to those members of staff quietly going about their work in far flung corners of the ship (cleaners, deck crew, security staff et al) whose hard work is easily overlooked. Every member of staff wears an id badge, which makes it relatively easy to address them by name too.

An excellent choice which we would have taken up, had it not been for the fact that we'd been fairly recently and spent a lovely day with dear friends...

Last Summer we were given the information during the first leg of our B2B. Since our changeover day was in Southampton, we decided to enjoy a day having the ship to ourselves and had a wonderfully peaceful couple of hours (though not as long as we thought!) The tour offered was to Winchester.

Excellent response @GOARMY summing up one of the most delightful aspects of being on board a Regent ship and one we have enjoyed and appreciated with friends on several occasions. "Of course" 🥰

@SWFLAOK we loved the Jim Thompson House- hope you do too. But yes, Ayutthaya would have been a stretch though it's odd that Regent are still offering it having cancelled your booking. All sounds a bit of a mess - maybe the responsibility of the Thai tour contractors?

Indeed. We did a really interesting tour of hidden gems in the city, including Jim Thompson's beautiful home, from Laem Chabang some years ago (just checked - 2011!!) and thought it well worth the drive. But worth the extra charge as well? Open to discussion!!

No, @flossie009 we've always docked at Laem Chabang and had the interminable bus ride into the city. I hope you'll be lucky this time!! <<Of course if I was a conspiracy theorist>> But you're not, are you? 😉

I do! Cheers m'dears!!

Info from here suggests it's 23 minutes on the Shinkansen train from Kobe to Kyoto...though of course, you'd need to get to the Shin-Kobe station first.

Oh yes...and we were on Mariner when Splendor arrived and can tell a similar story. I realise that however much training is done on shore before joining the ship, like learning to drive, it's when one is independent and out on the road that most learning takes place. However, if we brought all the learner drivers onto the same road at the same time, imagine the chaos!

Thank you for sharing that confirmation @lprp I think many of us have experienced similar service shortfalls during "fleet expansion" and have felt similarly sorry!

Yes, we have done this but you'll need to contact Regent in plenty of time ans supply all their details.

@PhD-iva we've sailed under Code Red just once...coincidentally (or?) in the same part of the world. I don't think we were the first to find that - and clearly, not the last. My lack of medical knowledge means I can't speculate reasons, but I'm sorry to read it's happened again. Selfishly in this case, because we're due to board Voyager in Rio in five or six week's time. I hope it's been sorted by then. Our understanding was that it's fairly easy (wrong word, but I can't think of a better one right now) to get into Code Red, which kicks in when a certain percentage of the ship's population has whatever lurgy it is. However, it's more difficult to get out of it because the required (lower) percentage has to be held for several days running. In our case, we'd achieve the target number on one day, but then on the next day there would be more reported cases and we'd begin again. The Captain was quite open about it, shared the numbers in his daily address and we could hear the frustration in his voice. Wishing you well, together with everyone else on board. (I wrote my blog on one of those days if you're interested)

Oh no! I'm so sorry to read you weren't well. None of the usual remedies took effect, I guess? Here's hoping for smooth sailing from now on 🤞

The treat will be ours - how lovely to sail together again!

Martha, segments of the WC?! I hope so! (see my reply in Rachel's thread 😉 ) And did I already know this?! (duh)

Yes Yes Yes!! one of the worst we experienced was in the hotel opened by one of our well known chefs, where the bathroom had no hooks (for towels or clothes), there was no shelf or place to put anything in the shower (shampoo, shower gel etc) and the towels themselves were placed in the bedroom under the window. When we questioned this strange layout, we were advised that the man himself said where things should be placed and that he had an aversion to anything at all being placed in the bathroom, which should be kept completely clear. Stick to cooking, we said!! (and never stayed there again!)

@pappy1022 we're booked on two segments of next year's Regent world cruise (Santiago to Sydney), trying to reinstate a Lima to Auckland itinerary which was cancelled during the Pandemic. We have always wanted to see Easter Island and this might be as close as we get!

I frequently question whether hotel designers ever stay in the rooms they design! We have come across similar features and whilst it's theoretically a solution to a windowless bathroom, it's utterly hopeless in practice for exactly the reasons you describe! We're so looking forward to following your travels in the next couple of weeks, Rachel - heading to that part of the world ourselves next year and just feeling ready for a little temptation 😅