labonnevie

We love ours, and so do the grandkids! 🙂

Will John Barrow continue on the Quest? We board August 29.

If my tally is correct, this leaves Canada, Bermuda, and Greece are the only countries still requiring pre-boarding Covid tests. Can anyone verify?

In our household my wife is in charge of operations, I am in charge of finance. 😊

I was referencing the CC Roll Call, not Facebook. Thanks

Excellent, so there will be at least 20 passengers on board!😊 Could you join the roll call?

You already know we’ll be doing Montreal to NYC, as you joined the roll call. I’ve been surprised that so few have joined the roll call for this cruise. Hope we get some more or it’ll be a really empty ship. We are definitely looking forward to it and are looking at shore excursions now.

Jackets, meaning sport coats or suit jackets, not dinner jackets or formal wear, are required to eat in the MDR on formal nights. Not simply recommended. Other nights more casual look is fine. Many of us enjoy getting slightly more dressed up on occasion and hopefully reflecting favorably on our wives lovely looks! Try it it, you might like it.

kjbacon, KJBACON SLSD covered a lot above, I’ll try not to repeat. After trying Windstar, HAL, Oceania, Seabourn and Regent, we have settled on Regent (9 cruises with one booked) and Seabourn (4 cruises with one booked). I believe you have done numerous Regent cruises. To us the lines are similar in far more ways than they are different. We find the clientele to be very similar; interesting, intelligent, well off but not snooty and full of themselves. We have always made good friends, some that we are still in contact with, on these cruises. Regent is a bit more all-inclusive, particularly the shore excursions, which could be a plus or minus depending on your view or the itinerary. The service and food/beverage quality are pretty equal in our minds. Regent may have more specialty restaurants on some of their ships, but Seabourn ships are smaller, except for the Navigator, and we really like that. Many like the Navigator, it is not our favorite. The standard veranda cabins are, in our minds, similar. We really like the decor and decorations on the Seabourn ships, very classy and understated. We were not thrilled by the Explorer decor, too dark and a bit over the top. We enjoy the Seabourn Square. I could go on, but you get the idea. Personal likes and dislikes are just that, personal. Will you like Seabourn, only time will tell. I’d be interested in your thoughts during and after your cruise. One last ask of you and all the other “early risers”. Please open and close your cabin doors quietly and please keep your voices down in the hallways. Those of us that sleep until 7 or, horrors, 8 will really appreciate it. Happy cruising!

You were fortunate, today this is not always true. Travel insurance currently provided by the Chase Sapphire card, while otherwise exceptional, specifically excludes “financial insolvency of the cardholder’s travel agency, tour operator or travel supplier”. Perhaps AMEX has a different policy, I don’t know.

Regent has made laundry an included item (note I didn’t say free). We have found this to be something we really like and value. Hope Seabourn will do so soon as well.

A red Louis Latour Chardonnay. That’s a new one for me.

I saw the Stones in concert in, wait for it: 1966! Just saying that Rolling Stones music doesn’t necessarily meet @irishwitchyrequest for post 1980 music 😊

We have gone on two Alaskan cruises and I never had a problem including at least a sport coat (worn on the plane). If you want to bring one, it’s really not hard to make it work. If you don’t want to bring one, it becomes impossible to fit it in.

Sorry for the misinformation. They must have been working off their inventory on Explorer in February.

You generally can find bottled water (plastic bottles) in the fitness center along with Gatorade and other drinks. Just pick up a couple extra for your excursions. The refillable water stations do not seem to me to use “tap” water. I did find the refillable water bottles disturbingly heavy for carrying on shore excursions.

One of the first things we do after we board any cruise (Regent or Seabourn) is request a list of the included wines for that cruise be sent to our cabin. We usually receive it quickly and then just select what we think we will enjoy. We generally do not go for the wines offered each night, just stay with our choices. Often after a couple of nights, the staff knows what we like and just brings it to us without asking.

It has been interesting the past few weeks to view the posts on the Regent board where Mike Moore, an IT person from Regent, has had an ongoing dialogue with numerous posters resulting in several not insignificant improvements to Regent’s customer interface webpages, e.g. excursion bookings. It shows how something truly positive can come from using CC as a customer interface tool. Seabourn could learn something from this example, if they wanted.

Generally to be put on Regent’s priority waitlist, you are required to put a $1000 per cabin deposit down. Then you jump ahead of those that have not put $1000 down.

It also matters what level of air they will be including. We will no longer fly coach/economy for intercontinental flights. We have completed nine Regent cruises and they include business class airfare on intercontinental flights. On the cruises we have not used miles, I have found it is very difficult to match the opt out credit. They also do a very good job of letting us propose airlines, routings and schedule and trying to get them for us. Additionally they allow deviation from their proposed flights for the nominal fee of $175 per person. All in all we are very satisfied with the Regent approach and would welcome it on Seabourn.

My luggage weight/lugging the suitcase around solution is pretty simple. I wear my sport coat on the plane. Upon boarding, I take it off, give it to the flight attendant to hang up. Most sport coats go amazingly well with jeans so I fly in comfort. I’m sure there are many reasons this wouldn’t work for those that don’t want to dress up, but it works well for me.

While I have a tux, I have not worn it on Seabourn. I do, however, enjoy getting a little more dressed up for “formal nights” and always wear a jacket and tie. I love it when my wife dresses up a little, never over the top, and I like to compliment her by trying to look my best. We never dress “up” at home anymore and it just adds to the specialness of the cruise for me.

We put ours out before dinner and it was always back when we returned from breakfast the next morning. Great service.

So if the rebate is say $1600, you get a $1500 OBC and a $100 check sent to your house? Seems unnecessarily complicated compared to the old process. Also wonder if this TA has gone to the same approach with Seabourn? Interested as I believe we use this TA. Can anyone answer? Thanks.