Return to Regent on "Journey to the Arctic"

[Pamela1]

Well, another cruise comes to a close. After a night of rough weather, we are making our way into Reykjavik late, around 6pm. Looking forward to exploring this city as everyone has spoken so highly of it. The shore ex team is scrambling to reschedule everyone's tours for this evening. This will be the first time in 50 cruises that I have done a tour the night be disembarkation. Feels weird to be packing, yet also touring on the last night. We are scheduled to do a tour to the Blue Lagoon this evening, and then tomorrow we disembark and fly home. Although we are taking the loooong route back to San Francisco - through Abu Dhabi so that we can fly on Etihad on the A380 in the First Apartment (yes, I'm an airline geek!).

 

This was a great itinerary! I highly recommend it to anyone who's thinking about it. All the ports offered something of interest to me, although I could've lived without the stop at Greenock, Scotland. We loved the Faroe Islands, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Greenland. It's not about the level of activity in the towns there, but the natural beauty of these areas. Also, since I'm a runner, I love any port where I can just step off the ship and go for a long run. The coastal sailing off Greenland was beautiful.

 

After 15 days onboard this ship, I fail to see the price vs product value. For a cruise in which we paid $40k, I was surprised to find things broken in the room. The crew on here have been incredibly friendly, but the service has been so disjointed, with drinks ordered that never came or wrong drinks being delivered. Either the crew is inexperienced or overworked, but they manage through it with smiles and great conversation. The shore ex office giving us tickets for tour times that didn't exist was odd, too, although they reimbursed all our tour costs for the whole cruise which I appreciated. Regent is not the same as it was when I did the bulk of my cruising with them back in 2004-2009. We might book again if there is an amazing itinerary, but will generally stick with other lines like Crystal and Azamara where we feel as if we get the product that we pay for.

 

Going to enjoy my last day onboard here (even though I've already lost Bingo today lol). Thanks to everyone who paid attention to my little posts on here. If anyone has questions about these ports we visited, feel free to ask.

 

 

Michael

 

 

Hi Michael, thank you so much for sharing your holiday with us. There are ports that we haven't seen before and they sound fabulous.

I'm very disappointed to hear that you didn't like your Greenock / Glasgow port. Glasgow is my home town and there is so much to see in and around there. Glasgow has great museums and the Rennie Mackintosh art school are worth a visit. Ayrshire is beautiful with lots of golf courses and historical sites with the focus on Rabbie Burns. Edinburgh and Stirling castle are also worth a visit.

I really hope you don't write it off in the future.

Have a great excursion tonight and hope you have a great evening with food and drink.

Safe travels tomorrow and thank you again for your thoughts.

Pam.

[WesW]

Thanks Michael for sharing your voyage with us, especially admire your persistence to keep us updated when you experienced problematic wifi. Thanks also for your very balanced Voyager reports and for your candid service comments on the hardware (ship) and software (service)

 

You price to value analysis is concerning to us as we have a Voyager cruise upcoming in January.

[TxnAquarian]

Tell me what you think of the Blue Lagoon. We have been to Iceland 3 times, but have never gone there, preferring to spend time hiking.

 

Also the etihad first class--want to hear all about that!

 

We loved the Blue Lagoon! We experienced rough seas from Greenland to Reykjavik and we arrived in port late (around 6:30pm). Therefore, the Blue Lagoon tour through the ship was cancelled. But it worked out better for us because we went online to book tickets, saw they had a premium package that included a VIP lounge and dinner. We took a cab from the pier to the lagoon and the experience was fabulous. We paid the cab $250 round trip and he even waited 3 hours for us there. The private lounge was amazing, and the lagoon was a really cool experience. Wouldn't want to do it any other way.

 

Michael

[TxnAquarian]

Hi Michael, thank you so much for sharing your holiday with us. There are ports that we haven't seen before and they sound fabulous.

I'm very disappointed to hear that you didn't like your Greenock / Glasgow port. Glasgow is my home town and there is so much to see in and around there. Glasgow has great museums and the Rennie Mackintosh art school are worth a visit. Ayrshire is beautiful with lots of golf courses and historical sites with the focus on Rabbie Burns. Edinburgh and Stirling castle are also worth a visit.

I really hope you don't write it off in the future.

Have a great excursion tonight and hope you have a great evening with food and drink.

Safe travels tomorrow and thank you again for your thoughts.

Pam.

 

 

Hi Pam, thanks for your well wishes. Yes, we were underwhelmed by Glasgow. We needed you there to give us the insiders tour! We would've been underwhelmed by Belfast, too, but had friends there to show us around and it was a lovely day! We'll take your suggestions when we are in Glasgow again.

 

Michael

[Pamela1]

Hi Pam, thanks for your well wishes. Yes, we were underwhelmed by Glasgow. We needed you there to give us the insiders tour! We would've been underwhelmed by Belfast, too, but had friends there to show us around and it was a lovely day! We'll take your suggestions when we are in Glasgow again.

 

Michael

 

 

Michael, if you are ever in my neck of the woods again then it would be a pleasure to show you and your husband a little taste of Scotland.

Pam.

[TxnAquarian]

Michael, if you are ever in my neck of the woods again then it would be a pleasure to show you and your husband a little taste of Scotland.

Pam.

 

 

So very sweet of you! We would love to. We're always on the go, so I'll let you know if we swing by again!

 

Michael