labonnevie

Correct. You wonder what else she doesn’t know. So far not impressed.

Just received this letter in our cabins… The saga continues. It should never have taken this long for this to be communicated, it should have happened before the cruise and before others cancelled their cruise. Even with this, it will take a looong time for the ill will to dissipate.

We spent 17 days in April, 3 precruise, 14 cruise. We never got any yen. However, we are not big shoppers, especially typical souvenirs.

We missed our connection in Brisbane in 2018 on a LA to Perth trip. We went to Qantas and they got us ticketed on the next flight. When we arrived in Perth, Qantas already knew our luggage had not made it to Perth with us and provided an overnight kit, complete with pj’s. I do not think Regent would have been of any help to us. BTW, the connection Regent booked for us was possibly legal, but was unlikely to work unless everything worked perfectly.

Today’s (Monday) port is Mykonos, a very picturesque Greek island. But for this particular cruise, it is, once again, not to be. Thunderstorms predicted all day with high winds. The tenders drivers union refuses to work, so we will be skipping another port. This reduces our scheduled ports to 8 in 21 nights. The good news for us is that the ship is not sinking. 😕

Left Istanbul Friday.

I will add one more to the list of tours on My Account and the tour descriptions on the pdf with all the tours. In your cabin once you board you will find still another list of tour descriptions. We have found this one to be the most accurate of all. We have changed our tours based on the descriptions found in this listing.

No tote bag on Navigator.

We also have used Le Meridian in Nice (and the one in Monte Carlo) and found both hotels very nice and had everything we needed. Not top end luxury but very good. As I recall, the beach closest to the hotel was stones, not sand. Rented a Sixt rental car right in the hotel for a drive into Provence.

Well, today’s “hit” for us was going to Ephesus. The good news, only 13 in our Ephesus with less walking tour. The first stop at the museum was really great, small but impressive collection of sculptures dating to 600 bc. Then on to Ephesus and an absolute monsoon broke out. The walk to the Celsius library was of course uncovered. We couldn’t have been wetter if we had jumped in the ocean! Two hours later, sunshine! The good news for us is we have been here before. But for those that hadn’t, it had to be one more severe disappointment.

OTOH, if you are 78, have some mobility issues and want to see Israel, Egypt, Petra, Cyprus, Oman and Dubai it might be hard to find a land tour that gets you there.

What is your take on this “offer” versus the 25% FCC given the Voyager passengers? I’m certainly not mad at you or anyone on these boards.

The hits keep coming… Our revised itinerary had 10 ports in 21 days. Port one, Dikili, Turkey scheduled for today, has been scrubbed. High winds is the designated reason, although they don’t seem that bad now. At any rate, we are now down to 9 ports in 21 days. 😕

Night one on board, received a letter under signature of ADM. To paraphrase: Understanding there might be some disappointment with the itinerary changes (no 3 days in Israel, no Petra, no Cairo, no Cypress or Crete, no 3 stops in Oman)…how could anyone be disappointed(?) we will provide $500 per cabin OBC and double your Regent nights for this cruise, 21 to 42. Whoppee! What a fabulous gesture of customer empathy! Net, net Regent does not value our business enough to try to make a bad situation somewhat better with a reasonable offer of FCC, 25%, 50%… Regent has shown my its true colors. Now it’s up to me to decide if I ever want to consider cruising with them again. Tonight I would say no.

Apparently, Lorraine has replaced Ray as CD. 😕

Just received the following: Dear Valued Guest and Travel Partner, We would like to inform you of a change to your scheduled itinerary. As the safety and security of our guests and crew are our top priorities, in an abundance of caution we are amending our 2023 voyages that were scheduled to sail to Jordan and Oman. To accommodate these changes on your upcoming sailing, Seven Seas Navigator’s scheduled calls to Santorini, Greece; Iraklion, Greece; Rhodes, Greece; Limassol, Cyprus; Aqaba, Jordan; Salalah, Oman; Muscat, Oman; and Khasab, Oman have been canceled. The ship will now sail to Athens (Piraeus), Greece; Gythion, Greece; Corfu, Greece; Kotor, Montenegro; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Argostoli, Greece; Luxor (Safaga), Egypt; and Dubai, UAE on November 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23 and 30 respectively. Please note that as part of the changes, the visit to Luxor (Safaga), Egypt is no longer an overnight call. Any guest with a “Renowned Relics: Luxor & Pyramids” or “The Jewels of Luxor” overland tour reservation will be automatically refunded within 30 days. The modified itinerary is below: Date Port Arrive Depart 10-Nov Istanbul, Turkey Embark 6:00PM 11-Nov Pergamum (Dikili), Turkey 10:00AM 7:00PM 12-Nov Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey 8:00AM 6:00PM 13-Nov Mykonos, Greece 8:00AM 6:00PM 14-Nov Piraeus (Athens), Greece 7:00AM 8:00PM 15-Nov Gythion, Greece 7:00AM 4:00PM 16-Nov Corfu, Greece 11:00AM 6:00PM 17-Nov Kotor, Montenegro 8:00AM 5:00PM 18-Nov Dubrovnik, Croatia 7:00AM 3:00PM 19-Nov Argostoli, Greece 11:30AM 5:30PM 20-Nov At Sea --- --- 21-Nov Port Said, Egypt (TECHNICAL CALL) --- --- 22-Nov Suez Canal --- --- 23-Nov Luxor (Safaga), Egypt 6:00AM 10:00PM 24-Nov At Sea --- --- 25-Nov At Sea --- --- 26-Nov At Sea --- --- 27-Nov At Sea --- --- 28-Nov At Sea --- --- 29-Nov At Sea --- --- 30-Nov Dubai, UAE 6:00PM --- 1-Dec Dubai, UAE --- Debark RSSC.com will be updated shortly to reflect the updated itinerary. Shore excursions in the new ports will be available to reserve through our Destination Desk onboard. We appreciate your understanding during this fluid situation. We will continue to closely monitor the situation being reported in Israel and specific areas in the wider region and have the flexibility to alter our itineraries to avoid areas of concern should the need occur. If you have any questions, please contact your Travel Advisor or Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Reservation Department at the phone numbers below. We look forward to welcoming you aboard Seven Seas Navigator. Sincerely OUCH!!! No Petra, no Pyramids, no Oman... We will see how Regent handles this. While I knew some of this could happen, I am in a state of shock right now.

Flossie, one last question. Have there been officer/staff hosted tables on your cruise? Thanks again and safe travels.

Flossie, always enjoy your posts. Any chance you could ask Luke/Ray what their assessment is of the likelihood of Navigator stopping at the scheduled ports in the Red Sea: Aqaba and Safaga in mid-November? Asking for a friend...

You’re not forced to go on the tours. You could easily stop in for breakfast and go your own way afterwards, or even skip the breakfast entirely. You would get transport from the airport to the hotel and transport to the ship which would include some touring.

In retrospect, I think we should have chosen the Tokyo and Hakone tour versus the Vibrant Tokyo tour that we took in April.

In April, both the Japanese and Chinese restaurants in the Hilton were very good. Not inexpensive,but very good. There are numerous smaller restaurants in the area, many beneath the tall office buildings. However, they can sometimes be difficult to find as we did not have Japanese cell service and couldn’t use Google maps underground.

We haven’t brought one home from the past several cruises. Our favorite one that we use every cruise is from AMA Waterways, with a nice zipper and an inside zip pocket. Not too large and it can even convert into a backpack.

Pleeease, no more tote bags!!! We’ll need a bigger house!

Update to my previous post, I am happy to report I was wrong. The cruise ship schedule for Santorini does NOT show another ship in port on November 14th! How nice would that be!