Are we alone on Oct.4 navigator?

[crslover]

Oct.4 Beijing to Bangkok is a 22 night cruise. The longest previous cruise we have been on is 15 nights. Most posts talk about Alaska. Is there anyone that has been on this route previously? How are things different for 22 nights? We will be staying in Beijing at the Peninsula because the regent hotels are too far from the city center. Where are those on previous cruise ending in Beijing staying?

We would appreciate any input we can get.

[rallydave]

Oct.4 Beijing to Bangkok is a 22 night cruise. The longest previous cruise we have been on is 15 nights. Most posts talk about Alaska. Is there anyone that has been on this route previously? How are things different for 22 nights? We will be staying in Beijing at the Peninsula because the regent hotels are too far from the city center. Where are those on previous cruise ending in Beijing staying?

We would appreciate any input we can get.

 

My DW and I are on the Seward to Beijing leg and as best we can tell, the ship is at best 75% full. We have a roll call with only a few participants.

 

At the end of our cruise we havean all ship overnight in Beijing at the Regent Hotel on Oct 3 so most people will be there.

 

Believe the post cruise Regent Hotels are the Shangri La and the Marriott. We are flying out of Beijing to Xi an on the evening of the 4th. That is all I know. We would be interested in any information from people who have done the Seward to Beijing or the reverse in the past.

 

I do know that our cruise is fairly sparsly booked and your cruise must be even more sparsly booked as Regent recently broke your cruise into two more shorter cruises and are trying to sell them in order to fill the cruise with shorter segments.

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[Travelcat2]

Oct.4 Beijing to Bangkok is a 22 night cruise. The longest previous cruise we have been on is 15 nights. Most posts talk about Alaska. Is there anyone that has been on this route previously? How are things different for 22 nights? We will be staying in Beijing at the Peninsula because the regent hotels are too far from the city center. Where are those on previous cruise ending in Beijing staying?

We would appreciate any input we can get.

 

Just looked at the two segments of your cruise and they are quite full. In fact, the first leg (11 nights) only shows availability in one category. A very small percentage of Regent cruisers actually participate in Roll Call on CruiseCritic. The itinerary is extremely interesting (particularly the first portion). Had Regent initially offered them as 11 night cruises, we definitely would have considered it.

 

In terms of the hotels, according to the map I brought up, as you mentioned, the Peninsula Hotel is in a much better position than Regent's hotels -- much closer to the city center. Have a wonderful cruise. Hope you will do a review when you get back

[rallydave]

Just looked at the two segments of your cruise and they are quite full. In fact, the first leg (11 nights) only shows availability in one category. A very small percentage of Regent cruisers actually participate in Roll Call on CruiseCritic. The itinerary is extremely interesting (particularly the first portion). Had Regent initially offered them as 11 night cruises, we definitely would have considered it.

 

While the 11 day segments may show very little availability, looking at the full 22 day cruise which is the only thing showing until about 60 days ago, every category is available except one which is showing guarantee.

 

Have seen this in other parts of this Discovery Cruise around the Pacific such as Vancouver to Beijing compared to Seward to Beijing. Seems you can't really tell how many suites are available just looking at one piece of a multi-part series of cruises such as this series, round South America, World Cruise, etc.

 

Regent's group responsible for allocating suites must be very active in trying to fill these cruises. While it has been stated by some that most Regent Cruises are leaving full, that may be true for areas such as Alaska and the Baltic but, for sure not on this Navigator Cruise around the Pacific.

[crslover]

Our last RSSC experience was in 2004 on the Diamond. We spent a month in China with Abercrombie and Kent in 2005. We are looking forward to the China return, but our real interest is Vietnam.

Had we paid more attention we may have added the Seward-Beijing link since we were traveling for a long time anyway and our cabin would be closed in Minnesota.

CC is a great travel link for cruisers.

I do not understand why Regent chose hotels so far from City Center. Unless we chose their 4 day pre-tour we would be on our own. We are on our own getting to the cruise port, about 2 hours away.

We are looking forward to the cruise. It will be amazing.

Are you familiar with C category rooms on the 9th floor? We generally like high rooms.

We will certainly try to post during the cruise.

[Travelcat2]

Our last RSSC experience was in 2004 on the Diamond. We spent a month in China with Abercrombie and Kent in 2005. We are looking forward to the China return, but our real interest is Vietnam.

Had we paid more attention we may have added the Seward-Beijing link since we were traveling for a long time anyway and our cabin would be closed in Minnesota.

CC is a great travel link for cruisers.

I do not understand why Regent chose hotels so far from City Center. Unless we chose their 4 day pre-tour we would be on our own. We are on our own getting to the cruise port, about 2 hours away.

We are looking forward to the cruise. It will be amazing.

Are you familiar with C category rooms on the 9th floor? We generally like high rooms.

We will certainly try to post during the cruise.

 

I will say that mid-ship, on the lower decks on the Navigator feel less motion that the upper decks (we were on the Navigator two months ago on deck 10). I wouldn't be too concerned as long as the sea is fairly mild (the cruise prior to yours is notorious for rough seas -- I would not recommend anyone prone to seasickness do a rough crossing in a suite on a upper deck on that ship. Still, you will no doubt have a great time.

 

Apparently the other poster must be a TA or have spoken to Regent personally since they seem to know how many people are on the ship. I have found that the Regent's website does a good job (even on segments) of reporting accurate information.

 

Look forward to your review:)

[mariners]

The Navigator is a wonderful ship to spend 22 nights. You will get to know staff, crew and other passengers and have the opportunity to develop a routine (or not) that fits the way you like to travel/cruise. I am sure you will have a fabulous time. I look forward to your posts!

[rallydave]

Apparently the other poster must be a TA or have spoken to Regent personally since they seem to know how many people are on the ship. I have found that the Regent's website does a good job (even on segments) of reporting accurate information.

 

 

No, not a TA nor did I talk to Regent. What I found is available to anyone. To see the suite availability is to simply look at the cruise fares tab as I am sure you do when you mention bookings.

 

As far as finding out the number of open suites, Regent recently added the book on line option and all you need to do is pretend to book a specific cruise and then click on each suite category and count the number of available suites. This will give you an idea but, you can take this further because Regent will only list up to 7 suites as available for any category. When you see 7 available, there could be more so simply enter other suite numbers in that category and see if they come up with a box to click on. Can get tedius in categories with a lot of suites but, for at least one cruise, there were 7 Navigator Suites shown as available. There are 11 on the ship so simply putting in the remaining 4 suite numbers showed that all were available.