1982CruzStart

Thanks Susan for the great pictures and commentary. Looks like a wonderful tour after an equally wonderful cruise.

Have a wonderful cruise and I am looking forward to reading about your trip.

Portolan, thank you for taking us a long with you. It brings back fond memories of our time in Japan.

Overall we have had very good luck with shore excursions including our cruise in Jan/Feb2023 and most if not all the time the buses were not full. We have definitely had some questionable buses in areas where the tourist infrastucture is very limited but you just roll with the punches if you are going to visit 3rd world countries. I still remember our shore excursion in Mozambique where our bus had holes in the floor, there was a board keeping my DH's seat in place so he had to sit carefully and the door didn't close. Didn't take away from a fascinating tour of an area we had never seen before and probably never see again.

As fudge said you can get a bottle any time but if you want a bottle or just a glass or 2 brought with dinner they will definitely do that. If you don't want a full bottle or you and your spouse would like different varietals you can just order by the glass. For example, you can each order a glass of white for the appetizer and a glass of red for the entree or a glass of pinot noir first and then a glass of cab sav with the entree. They will do whatever works for you.

When we found a cruise for 2024 last November we went ahead and booked it as we were worried that the price would go up and we wouldn't get the suite we wanted. 30 days before our cruise in January i contacted our TA and we were able to get some of the onboard booking savings on that cruise because of the current promotion of 2 suite upgrade. We didn't get the OBC or the reduced deposit as we had already paid the required deposit but we did get the onboard discount which saved us about $500 or $600. I would take your TA's advice and book now as prices will likely go up if it is a popular cruise and you may not get the suite location you want. I would also pay close attention to any promotions between the time you book and 30 days prior to your September cruise and see if there are any savings from taking advantage of the onboard booking. Because we booked our 2024 cruise before boarding and the 2025 cruises during the times we are interested weren't out yet we picked up 2 FCC which gives us the onboard savings for up to a year and is 100% refundable if we decide we don't want to book for 2025 after all.

Another great source for getting flight recommendations is the Cruise Air forum here on cruise critic. If you post the days you want to fly to and from and the departing and arriving cities, people will go out of their way to provide suggestions on which flights to take. I do caution you that though extremely knowledgeable some of them can be quite abrupt. If you provide them with as much detail as possible and any preferences on airlines they can be extremely helpful. They usually only get a little snarky when people give general information and then expect specific solutions, ie flying March, 2024 from the west coast instead of posting that you need to leave from Y city and arrive in X city on a specific day . Of course no point posting anything until at least 330 days prior to your flight as that is as early as most airlines post their schedules.

i agree with Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt. Pre-Covid i found amsterdam to be a good airport to transfer in but haven't been since and they have had many problems in the last couple of years. I agree that if you are changing terminals in Heathrow it is a pain but doable if you have enough time. If staying in Terminal 5 it isn't so bad and the lounges are pretty nice.

When you do your research on flights, err on the cautious side and look for flights with connections with extra time. As you are not experienced with any of the European airports, I recommend you give yourself extra time to change planes. You will be flying business class with Regent so take advantage of the business class lounge and not spend your time stressing about catching the next flight. We fly from the west coast of Canada and always fly directly to Europe and then make connections there. I assume you will have the same options flying from california. I prefer a long flight upfront that gives me time to relax, watch a movie or 2 and a shorter flight within Europe. The other thing to consider is that you are not guaranteed to be in First class within the continental US so if you fly from California to the East Coast then onto Europe there is a chance you will be in Economy to the East Coast. I don't think it happens that often but it can. If you fly directly to Europe you will be in business class on all flights. ITA matrix by google is a great search engine for researching flights. matrix.ITAsoftware.com Deviating your flights is well worth the fee. You don't pay the deviation fee until you have approved the flights. We always deviate even when we are doing the pre and/or post cruise tours. We want to make sure we are flying the airlines we prefer, have connection times we are comfortable with and avoiding airports we don't like to pass through. Have a great cruise and good luck with your flights.

Thank you for your detailed review. I enjoy reading everyone's perspective on their trips, the good, the bad and the ugly. It is all great information. i hope Explora Journey turns out to be all that you want.

great pictures. Thanks for posting. Brings backed memories of our stop there in the past.

Thanks Susan.

You will not be out of place dressing up whenever you want. There is always a range of attire (within the code) and no one is going to care either way. Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks Susan, great photos and looked like a wonderful afternoon. Have a super cruise.

We had some South African wines on our recent Voyager cruise. Don't know if it had anything to do with Voyager coming from South Africa so the supply would be easier to get.

Thankyou to all people who followed our adventure. Appreciate all the responses.

Have 2 great cruises.

Wow what a difference it makes to post pictures from my phone at home compared to on the ship. About 1 second per picture. Except for our spectacular 3 days in Antartica, this will probably go down as our least favorite cruise. Those 3 days made everything else worthwhile but if they hadn't been included we would have walked away from this cruise wondering if we would do another. The onbgoing hassles with Regent Air started the bad vibes of this cruise. The horrendous embarkation and ridiculous disembarkation process were not a great start to the trip nor a great ending. My DH said now he knows why they won't let us do the cruise review once we get off cuz they would get a blast for the way they handle disembarking. We know they have no control over what the port authorities do but they have total control of what happens onboard and how well or badly it is handled. We were about 1.5 hours late getting off which then put our arrival at the hotel delayed by an equal amount. We arrived to find our luggage baking in the sun outside. All had been marked with our assigned room but rather than getting them out of the sun and into our rooms, they left them there for us to claim and wondering how much heat damage might have been done to the contents. We found the food on the daily dinner specials to be unappealing to us for the most part and then struggled to eat from the always available as it became repetitive. Our bad experience in Sette Mari put us off it as we just didn't see enough other options worth trying to risk another visit. This is the exact opposite of our last cruise where we probably ate there more than anywhere else. Except Sette Mari my food was very good for the most part and can't really complain about the quality or temperature, it was really just not as good as we remembered. We special ordered the Lobster tempura one night and though it was very tasty, the batter was thicker and not as well cooked as i like. We didn't attempt any other special orders. Essentially sticking to the suite for a few days, we had room service and it was very slow during the day and for dinner. We ordered dinner from the Compass Rose menu and both times we did so we ordered early to get in line knowing that they don't start service until Compass Rose actually opens. One night we were close to an hour and a half from the 6:30 opening and the next night it was about 2 hours. Breakfast was right on time and exactly as ordered each day we did it. The staff were fantastic as usual. They dealt with extreme weather, rough seas and grumpy passengers, all with their usual cheerful dispositions. They truly are the highlight of Regent. Voyager is well perserved and looking in pretty good shape but i have to say i prefer the F1 or F2 on Explorer to the regular verandah on Voyager. The one exception is that it is nice to have a full-size sofa on Voyager but having only 1 sink in the bathroom is a definite negative. So very happy with the free laundry which we took full advantage and will impact my future packing. Overall not very impressed with the entertainment and hence didn't really attend during the 2nd half. Of course not feeling great and wanting to stay away from others impacted that decision as well. We have a transAtlantic on Grandeur next year, the first time we have booked a cruise for the ship and the itinerary, not just the itinerary. We purchased the FCC as we only do 1 cruise per year and the 2025 itineraries for the time of year we mostly travel aren't out. We knows if we will end up booking something or canceling.

Didn't take any pictures of our trip to Santa Rita winery. It was a very good day. Wine with lunch , a tour of the facility and then a wine tasting of 3 wines. The pours were closer to a glass of wine that was offered at lunch the next day. Some pictures from our trip up into the mountains. A small portion of the fun road we took. This is the premier ski resort in Chile. There was a large group of people paddleboarding on the lake. Can't even imagine risking a dip into that water. The salad then the salmon or beef options. we hiked down to water side and this is a look back up.

The presidential palace and a lovely church. Organ in the church. A small portion of the gorgeous ceiling.

The rumor that i fell overboard is greatly exaggerated. My apologies to everyone following our adventure that seemed to end abruptly. There was a nasty cold going around Voyager and after 3 years of great care and not catching a cold or anything else, the cold struck with a vengeance. Put me essentially in bed for 4 days and back to wearing a mask full-time any time I was out of the suite for a minimum amount of time. I have nothing to share with you for the 3 ports in the Chilean Fjords. I understand the one to San Raphael glacier was spectacular but i just couldn't face the rain and more importantly being around other passengers in case i would share my unwanted visitor. I wish who ever shared it with me, hadn't. After a disappointing and frustrating disembarkation process we were off on our post cruise 3 day tour in and around Santiago. it was an enjoyable 3 days and handled well by the contractor. We went from freezing our butts to being overwhelmed by the heat. I don't like heat at the best of times and when I go from cold to cool weather it is particularly hard on me so we did not venture out much outside the organized tour. We found a fantastic place to eat on our final night and for lunch the next day. We decided to just have a snack in the hotel on the 2nd night and it was a disaster, totally unexpected at a Ritz Carlton. I will post a couple of pictures from our time in and around Santiago separately. Also will give a short recap of this trip.

We mailed a couple of postcards from the Falkland Islands a week or so ago. The tour guide gave them to us stamped so decided to mail them and see how long they take.

I consider having been there though technically if you don't land maybe you can't say that. I am just happy to have gone and seen as much as we saw.

Found out tonight this was the first time Regent did 3 days in Antarctica and brought an expedition team on. They were fantastic and I hope for the future cruises like this they have a team as good as we had.

Love waterfalls so a couple of pictures as we cruise over night to the next fjord. 9pm and still pretty light out. Expecting some rocking and rolling from 3 am to 5. Hopefully will sleep through it.