1982CruzStart

When we visited Namibia on a cruise with Regent a few years ago, i believe YF vaccination was required but we both got a medical waiver and there was no problem. Namibia is a fascinating country and we enjoyed our visit there.

Thanks Susan for taking us along. Loved your pictures and commentary. Have a safe trip home.

For lunch it is just La Veranda and the pool grill but i believe you can make dinner reservations for any of the speciality restaurants on embarkation day.

Thanks. That is good to know. Final payment has been made on the cruise so no going back now. In this case the cost to go to Concierge wasn't too much so we felt it was worth it for the peace of mind. We have been to Santiago once before but didn't spend any time there. This time we have the post cruise tour that will give us the chance to see it and a winery or two.

We usually do our own thing unless we are embarking somewhere we are unsure of. We booked concierge for our Buenos Aires to Santiago cruise in 2023 as i have read so much about how unsafe BA is and in those situations I like being able to rely on Regent. We paid the deviation fee regardless as i like to pick my airline and route.

At the time of booking and paying the deposit our TA confirms the rebate. Don't really know what the % is but am happy with whatever we get back. Sure beats the small OBC that our old TA gave us. The rebate check arrives with our cruise documents. As a bonus whether we book in CAD or USD the rebate check is always in USD which gives us some USD for our trip.

please post. I love to follow along with cruisers on their trip. Have a wonderful cruise.

Have a great time in San Fran, one of my favorite cities in the world. thanks again for bringing us along.

It has been too long since your last posts from a cruise. Always enjoy reading about your adventures. Thanks Susan and have a great cruise.

i am surprised they took it away. We were silver when the new rule came into effect that moved multiple internet logins from silver to gold. We were grandfathered and allowed to keep our multiple logins. We are now gold so it is a mute point for us but we never lost the benefit when we were sliver. That's too bad.

Just love following your posts. Have a great trip. It has been 3 years since our last cruise and am so happy when someone takes the time to bring us along on their vacation.

I was only referring to the documents and luggage tags when i was talking about all being treated equally. Nowhere in my post did i talk about anything else than the final documents and luggage tags, you made an incorrect inference on what i posted. I know they have much different protection laws than the US or Canada and wasn't suggesting everything should be that same.

I would be fine if they stopped sending the full document packet to me. The case is a waste and i am happy to even DIY my own luggage tags if they sent me an email with the appropriate template. My TA could even etransfer my rebate cheque to me as it is now included with final documents. It works for me to have less useless paper and packaging sent to me. Having said the above i don't think it is appropriate to treat people on one side of the Atlantic different from the other. Theoretically all passengers should be treated with the same consideration.

If you are working with a TA they will be notified by Regent Air and then the TA is to send the info to you for your approval or disapproval. If you are working directly with Regent then they will notify you by email (or at least that was done in the past) to get your approval or disapproval. Good luck, hope you get notified soon.

Yes i know you did, my comment was just about your final statement that it was no big deal.

Both of our cruises that ended in SA just before Christmas had great weather including the safaris we were on. Weather can be hit and miss no matter when you go. We were told on the first safari that we were just hitting the end of the dry season and the wet season would be beginning soon. I guess sometimes it starts sooner than expected.

That is not exactly true for some people. It is a live vaccine so can in fact give you YF which has no cure. Only your doctor can tell you if it is no big deal for you. I agree. It may not be what you have learned but Regent determines who they will accept onboard and who they won't based on the information you have been provided by them.

When we went we hired a private guide that took us to almost all of the 'must sees' noted above. It was a great way to see the highlights of the city. Unfortunately we were there on a holiday so didn't get to see the bazaars as they were closed.

We travelled to Namibia with Regent and my DH can not have the yellow fever vaccine so we had official waivers and there was no problem. Now our cruise was different as we travelled to other countries before arriving in Namibia. We have always used the waiver for any country that required the vaccine and have never been refused entry.

If you look at your cruise in My Account it will show how much OBC is available right now to spend against your excursions.

you are very welcome. Good luck with the research and have a wonderful cruise when it finally rolls around.

Here is the link to one site i found. It isn't one of the ones i used in the past but seems very thorough. Hope it helps. One of the other sites i used hasn't been updated since 2019 so not useful for you now. https://www.explorationjunkie.com/tipping-etiquette-around-the-world/ For whatever reason the link doesn't seem to work directly but if you copy and paste into your browser it seems to work.

We are lucky we have a currency exchange company in our gateway city that carries all the necessary currencies so when we fly into YVR the day before i just make a quick trip to the retail currency store and pick up everything we need. There are couple of really good websites that set out the tipping suggestions for virtually every country in the world and tells whether USD or EUROS are accepted instead of the local currency. The trouble with giving USD or Euros in some countries is the money is useless as their banks won't accept them so unless they have someone esle who will buy it off them, the tip is just a nice gesture and not financially rewarding. I will try and post the links for you.

The one time we had to cancel and didn't move the deposit to another cruise immediately, i had to remind Regent a couple of times that we had the admin fee to carry over from the cancelled cruise when we booked the next cruise. Finally they did apply it to the new cruise but to be safe make sure you keep all the correspondence from the cancelled cruise showing the deduction of the admin fee. It is important that you have proof of the date of the cancellation to prove it was within the year. That might have been an isolated incident but better safe than sorry. We have had to cancel other cruises but moved the monies to another cruise immediately and the admin fee was applied immediately. The times we lost it was when we ended up cancelling and moving to another cruise multiply times. As someone has said you can only apply the FCC created by the admin fee once.

Flossie and I jointly did the blog that she posted the above link for and as with her, i recommend you at least skim it as i think it gives a pretty good indication of what to expect. As far as money for tips, i always research what is recommended for each country and take the currency that is preferred for tips. Because the USD is not my home currency it is just as easy for me to get the currency for each country and only use USD when that is the preference. It is an interesting cruise though not my favorite African cruise, I preferred the cruise down the other coast, however having said that i wouldn't have missed it for anything. Anytime on a ship is a great time.