jollyjoyce

Review by jollyjoyce

Ship  Explorer

Cabin 714

F2

1/2019

Port Side

FWD

1 Bathroom

Tub/Shower Combo  & Separate Shower

No Noise issues

Recommend....YES

Close to forward elevators,  very quiet,  huge cabin , good sized balcony, not far from laundrette. Excellent cabin would choose again.

17 minutes ago, Eno-Bob said:

We also enjoyed the Cape Town to Rio cruise with DeepFreeze63 and jollyjoyce – it was a wonderful cruise, especially for those of us who really love the sea days.  This was our third TA crossing on the Explorer and it had the calmest seas and the nicest weather we have ever experienced on a TA – Like DeepFreeze63, we spent a lot of time on the veranda just enjoying the ocean. 

 

We love the Explorer, and it lived up to expectations in every regard – wonderful friendly staff, great food, beautiful cabins and public areas, and plenty of things to do, or not do, during the 8 sea days.  Do agree that the St Helena tour and the Walvis Bay Seals and Dolphin excursions were highlights of the cruise.

 

I can’t confirm DeepFreeze63’s claim about Explorer being a “ghost ship after 11PM”, we were never able to stay up that late…

 

One unique Cruise Critic aspect of this cruise is that we had two Mix and Mingle gatherings.  It seems that Regent did not get a complete list of those that had signed up for the M&M and when the golfgirls inquired about what had happened, GM Massimo offered to hold another M&M for those on-board.  Both were great and a big thank you to the golfgirls and Massimo for setting that up.

 

Now just counting the days until we’re back on the Explorer – 290!

 

Totally agree with every word.

The only night we stayed up later was the 1st Karaoke night....it was great fun!!

 We didn't make it to the 2nd  M & M but the 1st was great and nice to meet folks....and we did eventually  find out why there weren't many at the 1st !

Loved our 1st Regent cruise unreservedly.

Hey there Bill,  we were on this cruise so really interested to read the rest of your review.  

It was great to meet up with yourself and Mary.

Agree with all so far !!  although we did enjoy our 1 visit to Sette Mare.

Agree about entertainment, the best we have ever had on a cruise by far.

We too did the Seals & Dolphin tour in Walvis Bay but it didn't cost anything, it was a Regent included tour.

Highlight for us was St. Helena.

Lowlight for us was Rio. We have been before and love it but we thought the Regent organisation with tours, last day arrangement were total chaos.

I look forward to part 2.

Joyce

15 minutes ago, crusin7 said:

Kathy and Susan, you both did a fantastic job with the blog.  It was like an Advent Calendar...every day was a little gift.   I loved it!  Safe travels and Merry Christmas.

 

Totally agree. Merry Christmas to you all.

17 minutes ago, DeepFreeze63 said:

JOLLYJOYCE asked: "As this is our 1st Regent cruise I am really wanting to know about the hairdryer provided by Regent. Sorry but I really don’t want to have to bring my own but need a high powered dryer and don’t seem to be able to find info anywhere !!! Can any of you guys familiar with Explorer help ??"

DW , with a full head of thick hair,  says "Regent hair dryers are quite good" (she doesn't bring her own) "but there are no curling irons, I bring mine from home."

Are you interested in the daily Trivia? Mary and I are looking for Brits to team with. See you aboard.

Jim C

Thank you for the reply Re hairdryers. Unless I have lots of room in suitcase I will feel happy to leave mine at home now ! I don’t use curling tongs so no proble there.

Thank Mary please.

We would love to join you for Trivia, I am a big crossword and trivia fan...hope we don’t let you down !

Hopefully we will be at CC Meet & Mingle so will look forward to meeting you both.

Joyce

5 hours ago, DeepFreeze63 said:

My sincere thanks to the cruisers for very interesting and enjoyable info.

We join the Explore in Cape Town on 1/06/19 for the cruise to Rio. I'll try to post BUT as my Christmas gift to DW will be: 1) stay up with her as late as she likes (probably until the Observation Lounge closes the bar and music) and 2) participate with her in all her pursuits for "Regent Points" (she's addicted to that; everyone on our gift list gets something Regent), I probably won't have a lot of spare time on-board.  In any event, I'll post a detailed review when I return home. So let me know any specific questions that you may have. This will be our 4th Explorer cruise so I know the ship very well and already have a page of things to do this time that I haven't done before (e.x. photo in Infinity Pool; view all the hall photographs; stargaze when in the middle of the Southern Ocean; try the sauna/special shower at the workout room) - any other ideas welcome!

We too are on this cruise 6/1/2019 Cape Town to Rio.

As this is our 1st Regent cruise I am really wanting to know about the hairdryer provided by Regent. Sorry but I really don’t want to have to bring my own but need a high powered dryer and don’t seem to be able to find info anywhere !!! Can any of you guys familiar with Explorer help ??

Very excited and so looking forward to our cruise.

Really enjoyed the posts on this thread, especially Walvis Bay seals cruise which we are doing....sounds fantastic.

Thanks to all who have posted and hope we will be able to post during our TA.

1 hour ago, 1982CruzStart said:

They started to serve the Germain in lounges etc but they seem to have switched to the Monopole everywhere on explorer right now. 

Delighted to hear that as we board on 6th January. Thank you Regent.

On a trip to NZ we hired a car drove down to Dunedin and we stayed in Dunedin overnight and drove to Queenstown. As others have said Queenstown is beautiful but it is a long way by road from Dunedin...I know, I drove !!

The journey from Queenstown to Milford Sound is also a long drive. We went by coach and back by small aeroplane. We were lucky as we could only return by plane if the weather was perfect and they did say that the weather can close in quickly. We did the Red Boat cruise on Milford Sound which was good.

I know I am telling this from the perspective of a road trip in a hire car but the distances are quite long to drive even on a coach. New Zealand looks small on a map but driving always takes considerably longer than you imagine.

Dunedin is nice and others have said, quite a few interesting things to see there. It is very Scottish in flavour !!!

Hope this helps.

Travelcat2   Thank you for the drinks list.  

Peggy,

Thank you for clarifying that the listed officers are on Navigator.

Now I need someone who knows who is on Explorer !

Yes, it was a hard copy mailed to me.

Joyce

Hi. This morning we got a copy of Seven Seas Society Pages.  

Page 13 gives a list of Officers Rotation.

We are booked on Explorer 6th January 2019.

The Master, GM & CD are listed as Ubaldo Armellino,    Nickie Sheils   & James Logan respectively.

As I read to the bottom where Officers for Navigator are listed ...they are identical to Explorer Officers!!

I know that is physically impossible so can anyone help me and tell me who our Officers will be ?

Thank you ....I know someone will know !

8 hours ago, Zoey1 said:

 

What is in a Alerol spritzes, I keep seeing post about it, now I’m curious. Getting excited to join up in Honolulu 

Aperol is an Italian Aperitif.

You mix it with Prosecco, Soda, ice and a slice of orange ...lovely drink....you must try it !!

Thank you all. Very useful & interesting info. I like the idea of Aperol Spritzers 

 delivered for the balcony..... I wouldn’t have thought to order drinks through room service in case it isn’t allowed !! 

4 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

I prefer Schweppes diet tonic water and in the past have been able to get this.

Fingers crossed then. That would be perfect.

1 minute ago, Kwaj girl said:

I have seen Schweppes as well as sugar-free Canada Dry.  You can request Fever Tree - I think special requests are needed 90 days prior to departure and can be fulfilled if available.

Thank you for that.

I know I’m a sad person !!!!! But please can someone tell me what brand of Tonic Water Regent use. I am hoping that you are going to tell me fever tree but Schweppes or Britvic would do...just as long as it’s not the awful stuff that Azamara serve.

thanks in advance.

mj-holiday.....Thank you. That is very useful to know.

3 minutes ago, DaveFr said:

Joyce,

Your suite steward should be able to get you anything on the list.  That has been our experience when we were in an F2 suite.

Thank you very much .

7 minutes ago, DaveFr said:

You cannot see the in-room list unless you have a suite with a butler.  Here is the list from my upcoming Mariner cruise:

Many thanks for that info Dave Fr  next Q....As we are only in a Superior Cabin F2 with no butler, is this option still open to us when we get onboard via our room steward ??? or is it only for suites with butlers ?

Joyce

On 10/17/2018 at 6:33 AM, Silver Sweethearts said:

Yes.  You will find a list in the "My Account" section where you customize your reservation.

I have tried to find where I can do this after reading your comment and no can do. Help !!!!

Thanks, I’ve been reading that thread.

 

I’m still a little concerned that we won’t have a chance to go to Glacier Bay, available pretty much only on Princess and HAL. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Ah well, that’s a different question and I can’t answer it....but someone on this forum will be able to.

Thinking of doing Alaska next summer. We have sailed on Windstar and a Disney (long ago) but we like the itinerary and (smaller than Princess/HAL etc.) on Quest, Don’t know anything about the line other than generic “it’s great” comments from our TA’s colleague.

 

So what’s so great about Azamara? We liked Windstar very much but it never felt to me like it met the expectations all my research led me to believe. Like staff knowing everyone’s name or not so great food, or whatever. We had a butler and never even met him.

 

Anyhow, I really want to like this. Convince me please!😉

I would strongly suggest that you read the thread Live - Pursuit, Norway 1-13 August (Maiden Voyage) by Alsun, from beginning to end. She and her husband are 1st time Azamara cruisers, even 1st time cruises of any cruises !! so she gives a very unbiased review throughout and at the end of the journey.

We love Azamara and hope you will get a real feeling for the Azamara experience by taking this little bit of advise .

European Bank ATMs, as in UK only require 4 digit pins not 6 digit as stated earlier on this thread.

We disembarked in Rio at the end of our cruise on Mariner from Buenos Aires in February this year. Regent offered the choice of transfer to a hotel on Copacabana Beach for the day or a coach trip out to Niteroi and around Rio. We chose the trip and were pleased we did, even though we had seen some of the sights before and it included a few hours in a shopping centre for lunch and to kill time. The people who went to the hotel were happy enough with the choice they made, I think they went as a group for lunch. It still left plenty of time to kill at the airport! Regent always makes it clear that these things are dependent on numbers and are only finalised at the end of the cruise. We have been in this position with late returning flights in Vancouver, San Francisco, Barcelona and probably other places and whereas you are definitely killing time and the tours are geared to the pace of the slowest we have always felt that Regent does its best.

Just to say that Rio was fine, we were there just after Carnival when there had been issues but we took reasonable precautions, never felt threatened in any way and did not hear of any Regent pax having any problems.

Thank you very much for the info as recently as Feb 2018.

Can you tell me what time your flight was please and if after the tour they took you to the hotel or just straight to the airport ?

Our flight home is 11pm out of Rio so not just a few hours to kill.

So,glad to hear that you had a choice though and even better that Regent did look after you.

Hi again all...some very interesting experiences.....I knew I could count on CC folks to be helpful.

We are travelling Manchester....LHR....Cape Town and on return Rio....LHR...Manchester. There are very few direct flights to CT from U.K. and the same back from Rio. We came back with Air France last time and I wouldn’t go down that road again.

All flights arranged through Regent are with BA and we are travelling Premium Economy both ways.

I booked through a very reputable TA, a six star one!!!! that I have used before and she did say about the late flight home......but on questioning she assured me that Regent would look after us very well..

Had I known various bits of info that I have gleaned from this thread I would have gone down GOARMY’s route of the night before !!

With regards to the Favellas, our private guide took us around one of them on our last visit and I have to say that because we were with her we felt safe....but Rio is the only place in the world so far that I had serious safety concerns about before we went!

It all went well and we loved it so off we go again....

The info I got about departure day was from TA whonrang Regent but I think maybe my next course of action will be to contact Regent directly and push a bit harder!!

Joyce