DavidTheWonderer

2017.

For the Panama Canal transit, I recommend not staying in your cabin for most of it, regardless of where the cabin is. Sometimes you will want to be forward looking at where you're going, sometimes you will want to be aft looking at where you've been, and sometimes you will want to be looking over the side at the amazing lock structures and 'donkeys' helping pull your boat through. This was advice given to us by the great Terry Breen who was on board for our crossing, and it served us very well I think.

Regent's hotel for us was the Biltmore in Coral Gables. A fabulous experience. I kept thinking that Bogart and Lauren Bacall would walk in to the bar any minute. Beautiful hotel, Regent-class service by the hotel staff, an excellent breakfast buffet in the morning. Some details for those interested. We winter in Tampa Bay, so drove our own car over to Miami to the Biltmore. From there, the staff handled getting our luggage from the car into our cabin on Splendor. We just drove to the dock the next morning and parked the car in the lot across the street from the dock, and walked over and aboard. There was a bus from the hotel to the ship but we got to skip it.

In over 20 years of cruising, mostly but not exclusively with Regent, it seems that almost every cruise has at least one nasty entitled passenger. Of course, the staff and reasonable passengers soon know who these people are, and share experiences. Often nasty nicknames are coined. I particular remember "Bunny" and "Popeye". Perhaps the nasty individuals are actually shills, hired by the cruise line to give the passengers added entertainment?

Re: seating. All the stations are stand up only, except at least on Splendor the stations at the back let one sit on a convenient ledge between bouts of cooking.

We did two of these on Splendor. We're also experienced cooks, and I'm not sure I learned very much. But of course I did pick up a few things. More importantly, we had a huge amount of fun. I recommend that you should go for it.

Granted it has been 7 years since our Panama Canal transit, but we were fortunate to have the spectacular Terry Breen on board the cruise for various enrichment talks. For the canal she did extensive commentary before entering the canal, but during the transit the commentary was done by people from the Canal authority. Terry said the authority insisted on this. Perhaps this has changed? Incidentally, the same authority insisted that their pilots took over the bridge during the transit. They managed to slam the ship into the side of the canal hard enough that glassware all over fell off their tables onto the floor, where gravity did its thing and the glassware shattered. We heard the captain, Serana Melani, went thermonuclear on the bridge: captains tend to hate it when somebody bumps their boat.

We have sailed with Regent enough that a lot of our luggage has old-fashioned Regent tags more-or-less permanently attached to the handle. Usually they are some sort of plastic leather substitute with our identifying info inside the 'wallet'. Whether these "permanent" luggage tags are less eco-friendly than paper tags which are only used once and then thrown out or recycled is a question that I can't answer.

A couple of people have suggested that it is to increase the number of cabins. Although Regent certainly wants to have lots of passengers on their ships, I don't think this is the major reason. For example, Voyager has the largest size basic cabin (33.1 m2 = 356 ft2) in the fleet. Mariner, which has almost exactly the same number of passengers, has much smaller cabins (basic is 28 m2 = 301 ft2). The difference is that Mariner has much more space devoted to public areas than Voyager. Different people will prefer different trade offs of cabin size vs. public areas. Apparently Regent has decided to tilt in favor of public areas. Both Splendor and Grandeur basic cabins are 28.5 m2 = 307 ft2. But these two ships have even more space devoted to public areas than Mariner. Incidentally, Voyager is newer than Mariner (2003 vs. 2000). Personally I prefer Splendor, Mariner, and presumably Grandeur over Voyager and Navigator, but your mileage may vary.

Exactly. More space for public areas means less space for the suites. That's the tradeoff that must be made one way or the other. Some folks like to spend considerable time in their suite, while others prefer being in the public areas interacting with other passengers. There is no right or wrong here. I'm in the latter category, so prefer Mariner over her sister ship Voyager and the smaller Navigator. A rough analogy is people who like to live in the heart of a big-city downtown compared to people who opt for a larger home in the relatively isolated suburbs. Again there is no right or wrong here except for personal preference. Personally I live in the heart of downtown Toronto. The good news is that you have the choice: I would be happy as a clam to do a trans-Atlantic on Navigator.

When I was on Splendor, I got a single bottle of Bulleit bourbon. When I finished it, another one magically appeared in its place.

In case one has trouble getting hold of 'The Wide Wide Sea', which is brand new, I also enjoyed and learned from Christina Thompson, 'Sea People' (2019).

I've used some of my time in FP to learn a bit about the Polynesian culture, especially pre-contact and the early days of contact with Europeans. If you are similarly inclined, I highly recommend a new book by Hampton Sides, "The Wide Wide Sea" (2024). The primary focus of the book is Captain Cook.

If you drop by one of the speciality restos at, say, 6 PM, sometimes reservations have been cancelled and you get the slot. If not, then you will have to settle for the gruel in Compass Rose.

There is a vibration issue aft on Navigator. It bothers some more than others. I think Steve mis-typed. Voyager and Mariner are almost identical in size and number of passengers. Navigator is significantly smaller than either of these two. The main differences between Voyager and Mariner are that Voyager's cabins are a bit larger and Mariner's public spaces are a bit larger. The newer ships, Splendor etc., are a bit larger still both in size and number of passengers.

This thread is about a "price comparsion" and many people have posted their excellent calculations. But, as flossie009 points out, there is more to it than just dollar amounts. The size of the cabin is relevant, and has been discussed here. But also relevant is the overall space per passenger on the ship. You can find a rough estimate of this by dividing the gross tonnage by the number of passengers. The higher the number, the less crowded you will be when out and about on the ship. Also relevant is the number of passengers per crew. The lower the number the better. All these numbers can be easily found with the assistance of Captain Google. And Regent fares very well using these criteria. Note that both space and crew are costs that the cruise line must bear.

The submarine in Aruba is on my short-list of best excursions ever.

We also don't use butlers when we have them. Different strokes for different folks. Once, our not-used butler pleaded with us at the end of the cruise to give him a good review. That was fairly disgusting.

Different people have different sensibilities about vibration, so I can't definitively advise you. For me, vibration on Voyager is trivial, but I know of some folks for whom it is a problem. Now, if you were considering a cruise on Navigator, she has a much more serious vibration issue aft. It didn't significantly bother me, but I would advise you to me even more cautious about that ship.

And the incessant quacking in the middle of the night!

Totally agree! For me the interior of Sagrada Familia is easily one of my top experiences ever. When I first walked in I had a quasi-religious experience, despite the fact that I am not religious.

Barcelona is fabulous, and getting around on your own is easy. I've not been to Madrid, so can't compare the two cities. But 3 - 4 days in Barcelona is sort of a minimum for me. I can imagine 3 - 4 months, but "your mileage may vary." One tip: get your tickets to Sagrada Familia in advance: the lines for those without tickets are sometimes horrific.

Not quite related to your questions, but we are in Dunedin and found that driving to Miami and staying overnight in the Regent hotel (the Biltmore) and then in the morning driving to the port and parking in the long-term lot just across from the dock was really seamless. Sarasota is even closer, and you will probably be able to avoid the packed-bus crowd on embarkation. Regarding the issues that you did mention in your post, as you will see from my signature below, I have a lot of experience with Regent and some with Seabourn. I think you will find that your anxieties about pre-dinner cocktails, seating in the main dining room, etc. will not be an issue. If anything, Regent handles these things somewhat better than Seabourn, but both do really well. Just don't try to go to the main dining room (Compass Rose) just after the end of the night of the captain's reception.

I am obviously not a connoisseur, since on land my go-to bourbon is Jim Beam. When we were on Splendor in January, our stewardess asked about our in-suite setup, and I asked for Jim. She came back an hour later all apologetic: they didn't have Jim Beam but she did have in her arms a big bottle of Bulleit. I assured her that I would make do. Sniffity sniff! In fact, if Bulleit were the same price as Beam, I would switch loyalties. But on Splendor all is included so on board my loyalties does switch. Back on land my inner Scrooge has me back to Jim. When I finished the bottle of Bulleit, she brought me another one.

I hesitate to post something not serious, but will anyway. As you know, there is usually a jigsaw puzzle or two in the common areas of the ship, and people work on them. Completion usually takes a few days. A 7-something girl saw a partially completed puzzle and thought it was obviously messy, so put all the pieces back in the box. I thought that was sort of cute. The children-haters were outraged.