1982CruzStart

Thank you curmudgeon 98 for your review of your trip so far. I like reading the good, the bad and the ugly from each person's perspective and then i can figure out what is important to me and what isn't. Seasickphil, our last trip on Voyager in Jan/Feb 2023 was disappointing as far as the Regent experience went however the trip to Antartica made all that less important to us. We started to look at other cruise lines. Cruising is my favortie way to travel. So far we haven't found another option that appeals to us so we are hopeful that our 2024 cruise on Grandeur will be better. We are looking at the 2025/2026 voyages and staying with the newer ships. If our 2024 experience doesn't live up to our expectations we will cancel whatever we book for 2025 and revisit cruising with Regent or anyone else. It is an expensive vacation and we pay 35-40% more because of the foreign exchange so we need to look closely at getting value for our 1 vacation a year.

Our very first cruise on Regent was partially chartered to a group of doctors that was 2 weeks. I guess we lucked out as they certainly didn't disrupt our cruise in any way. I would hate to be on a much anticipated cruise to then have to put up with closed venues and drunken passengers. We don't generally take anything less than 15 days anymore as it isn't worth the air travel. We also don't go to the Caribbean any longer as we travel for the ports in places i haven't been.

That sucks but it hasn't been my experience. Over the many years being an Aeroplan member i have rarely had to submit a request for missed miles. The one time i remember having to do it, i discovered that my frequent flyer account was missing from the ticket. Whether it was my oversight or their's, it was fairly quickly remedy. Now i haven't been flying much in the last 3 years but my multi flight to and from South America earlier this year had all my flights credited. Hope your luck changes soon.

When i flew through YYZ last May, i had the same experience. I was using the proper size bag just not the one from the government and the security guy insisted on moving everything from my bag to the 'official' bag. What a waste of time and it is no wonder that the lines were backed up so badly when you have agents wasting their time on someone conforming to the rules. NOwhere on the gov website requires you to use the 'official bag' just that the bag be a certain size.

I have not done Princess at par but have done others and the booking was at par but the onboard spending was at regular prices.

I believe they said that the 1 companion was in a Concierge suite which gives them the same booking time as gold.

It is the time you are to be in the theatre unless otherwise stated on the ticket. Some afternoon tours meet on the dock and the ticket will say that. So it is the theatre unless it specifically says another meeting spot. As well the passages for that day will also confirm the time and meeting place. I don't take beach excursions but i am sure that Regent doesn't expect you to bring a towel with from home. They will provide them.

When we booked cruises in the past we sometimes did it in USD, sometimes in CAD, and would put aside USD when the exchange was favorable. At 1 point in time our US TA that we used for a specific cruise line could not book in CAD so we were forced to book in USD. That is no longer the case so now we always book in CAD. We book far in advance and just don't care to play the foreign exchange game. We have a US visa card and use it for any onboard charges.

I actually don't travel to the US very often. I want the nexus card for access to the Nexus security lines at Canadian airports regardless if I am flying to the states or somewhere else. The lines are usually shorter with less requirements.

We have done both Celebrity suites and Regent cruises. By far Regent is the better choice and when i ran the numbers when comparing the 2, Regent actually came out the better deal. We enjoyed our Celebrity cruises. We picked them because they had the itineraries we wanted and Regent didn't. I don't think we would go back to Celebrity as i don't see them having an itinerary that was so much better than Regent that it could outweigh the superior experience on Regent. We had a butler on 1 Celebrity cruise and it was a waste. We don't book that level of suite on Regent as we are happy in the suites without one.

I can't speak to whether it is worthwhile to be on the ship to Montreal but having visited both Montreal and Quebec City many times I would pick a cruise that stopped in Quebec City. If you can't make time to do both i would pick QC over Montreal. Both are great cities to visit but QC is more historic and would be my pick.

If memory serves it is 210 before the actual cruise date not the pre-cruise. I am fairly sure that is how it worked when we deviated in the past with a pre-cruise tour.

I got a welcome surprise this week. I have been trying to get my renewal interview for 2 - 3 years. Finally decided to book an appointment at Bellingham, WA (giving up on getting an interview in Canada) as it is an easy cross border trip even though we don't live in the lower mainland. Entails an overnight stay though. Received an email a couple of days ago informing me that my renewal application has been approved and i no longer have to do the interview. Hoping to receive my card in the mail in the near future. A couple of months ago my DH received his renewal card in the mail without getting the email notification. It was his automatic renewal after the same 2 -3 year interview wait that prompted me to book in the US so that we both had the Nexus card.

Thanks to GP and ON for taking us along. Wonderful pictures and commentary. GP, I hope you will post your Oceania experience on here. It would be great to get your impressions and comparisons. Safe travel home to all.

Such a shame you are missing Cornerbrook. The scenery is beautiful. It is iceberg season and from the pictures i have seen, they are numerous and large this year around Newfoundland. One year we made a visit there in part to see the icebergs. It was a great trip.

I have them as i don't just like to dump things in the garbage but hope that i can somehow use them for something or give them to someone that might find them useful. I don't consider them a souvenir. My pictures i take and the art that i buy on my cruise are my souvenirs. I agree with this, i would love to not receive the almost daily brouchures. They automatically go into recycling with only my name and address removed. I haven't cancelled all the mailings because there are a few mailings that i do enjoy getting. It seems it is all or nothing. Maybe those who aren't comfortable could make arrangements with their TA to print and send them their documents. The harsh reality is that more and more is done online and probably the simpliest thing of all the new online procedures is printing your documents.

I am glad they are going more digital and not sending me the various folders, bags etc that we received in the past. I have a collection of these useless items and are happy to be part of cost savings that don't impact my actual trip. I would rather they do this then cost save on my cruise. Maybe Regent would consider sending these items to first time cruisers as a welcome to the line and then go more digital on any return cruises.

Definitely, very special. Good luck in your decision making. Our longest cruise was 30 days and at about 15 days i hit a wall and wasn't sure i could handle another 15. Well that lasted 24 hours and then i was so glad to be on for the last half of the cruise. On the other hand my DH said that he didn't want to take another one that long. Now, most of ours seem to be around 19 days.

I consider myself computer illerate or barely literate so i feel your pain. If you open the app, at the top left hand corner is an image of what looks like 2 pictures on top of each other, click on it and it takes you to where you store your photos or you might have to browse to find where they are (it has been years since i first used it and it goes right to my photos). click on the photo you wish to post and it should appear in the app. From there you can manipulate it to the size you want and the amount of the photo you want to post. I sometimes just want a small portion of the photo so you can crop the photo to suit you. save it and it is then available to download onto cruise crtiic or wherever esle you want it. Not a detailed set of instructions but hope it helps to get you started. Once you get the hang of it, you will find it easy to use, i think.

Thanks GeorgiaPeach51. love your reports. If you don't already do so use an app to re-size your photos to a smaller size and then they load much faster. Flossie009 kindly gave me this tip on the one cruise we were on at the same time and it has been a blessing. Even when posting in Antartica the pictures posted fairly quickly. The app is called Image size and i downloaded it when i was onboard Explorer so it must have been pretty small. It is easy to use cuz even i can use it even after long periods ot time between cruises. Continue having a wonderful cruise.

In the past, pre-Covid, we were traveling with someone new to Regent and i was able to book all our dining reservations together when it opened for me. However i am not sure if that is the case anymore or not. You can call Regent and ask them or maybe someone with more recent experience will post. have a great cruise.

We were on Voyager in Jan/Feb 2023 and the ship is in good shape. We had a few issues with the food but not with the ship itself. The staff was great. We have 124 nights with Regent and all but about 20 of them have been on Voyager. We did miss the amenities associated with the newer ships, such as lunch at the speciality restaurants, the extra speciality restaurant and the layout of the F2 suites but overall the ship was very good. For the first time we booked a cruise because of the ship first and then the itinerary for 2024. In the past we always booked because of the itinerary and it turned out to all be on Voyager except once. If Voyager was going where we wanted to go I would not hesitate to book her again.

Love your reports. Have a great cruise.

Well, in Canada you can't get a 2nd passport. When you renew your passport, the old one is marked so it can not be used. You can keep it as a momento but it can't be used so if any of the people with the problem now or in the future are not US citizens they might not have the luxury of carrying 2 useable passports. We were told we could carry our old passport with our new one if we had foregin visas that were still good. The passport wasn't any good but the visas were still valid.

My comment about EVA was whether Regent uses it or not. I was agreeing with you that your flight suggestion was good.