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LIve - Bali - Hong Kong (3/24 - 4/8/2018)

Travelcat2

By Travelcat2,
in Regent Seven Seas Cruises

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Travelcat2

Travelcat2

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Quick update from the ship. Due to winds and high seas, we are arriving in Hong Kong late (we should dock at 5:15 p.m. instead of 2:00 p.m.). This cancels all afternoon excursions and also cancels our plans to do a quick run to the shops (we have been here before and can do some quickie shopping at the airport before our flight tonight).

 

They are still figuring out how the face to face immigration will be handled. Our driver will be here at 8:30 p.m. so it should not be a problem. Time for dinner and immigration. Now, I just need to get off of this computer and finish packing!

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Travelcat2

Travelcat2

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Will do Gerry! Arrived home about an hour ago - so good to see our kitties. Kind of interesting for those that are allergic to cats ....... when I get home after time away, I get an instant headache and have this "allergic" reaction for 2-3 days. After that, I can stick my face in their fur with no reaction. Something to consider when you have allergies to some things.

 

We had such a strong tailwind that we flew non-stop from Hong Kong to Vancouver in 10 1/2 hours (instead of 13 1/2 hours). Great flight but I was overly tired. Since I have to drive 1 hour when we get to Vancouver, I need sleep and no alcohol after the first couple of hours. So, it is now midnight here and I'm wide awake - having some tuna and a glass of wine.

 

I forgot to mention that the security in one place that we visited (hope that someone will help me to remember were it was). Regent's shuttle took us to the "Mall of Asia" - the biggest mall in Asia. While it wasn't the type of place that I wanted to pend much time in, I noticed that when we entered a department store, there were two security people. Everyone had to open their handbags, backpacks, etc. so that a wooden stick could move things around inside and insure that there were no weapons. I loved the idea and wish that we would adopt it in the states (at least temporarily).

 

I will do a review of the cruise once I have my thoughts sorted out. The biggest surprise to me was how small the Voyager looked and also how wonderful the theater is. More later.

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Hambagahle

Hambagahle

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Mall of Asia - Manila I think?

 

Glad you are home and I am sure the cats are too!!

 

Can you send me an email at Thompson "at" Verbier.ch ??

 

Again thanks for all the photos, commentaries etc. It was great "bumming along" with you and Dennis!!

Gerry

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Boatmans Lady

Boatmans Lady

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This is true in the U.S. but only for people that have received a drunk driving ticket. The breathalyzer is attached to the engine.

Actually, I was referring to coaches and other forms of public transport and not to private vehicles. Anyone with a drink driving conviction in the UK receives an automatic ban from driving and would never be employed as a coach driver.

 

 

You are so right, Gilly.

Have spent over 24 years in coaching and a lot of our training is taken with all forms of transport.

It is becoming the norm that lorries and coaches are fitted with breathalysers that detect alcohol and certain drug levels and the engines will not start if over certain levels.

Firms are also expected to carry out random tests at different times of the day and the police like to do breathalysers at silly o clock in the mornings on us.

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RachelG "Live from...." Rare

RachelG

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Welcome home!!! When is your next cruise?

Z and TB

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, same question!?

 

And Zqueeze, George and I have signed up for the Buenos Aires to Santiago cruise on Explorer next Feb. can’t wait to cruise with you and TB again.

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Travelcat2

Travelcat2

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Our next kinda cruise is on the new Norwegian Bliss. It is a 3 day introduction to the Bliss out of Seattle at the end of next month (should be interesting). We are not doing Regent again until November and that will be a transatlantic sailing on the Voyager (very reasonably priced and not selling well). Three months later we'll be on Explorer - the cruise after the ones with "Z" and Rachel. It will be a very special birthday cruise for my DH.

 

After the Voyager cruise we made a decision to only book Explorer or Splendor in the future. It is simply what we enjoy the most and we don't care a whole lot of about itinerary. We especially do not care about excursions and would much rather do a "tapas crawl" as I did with "Z" and "TB" in Malaga.

 

In between sleeping, I'm doing the review of our last cruise in a Word document. Hope to post soon so that I'll be done with it.

 

Not sure if I'm going back to sleep now or will work on the review. Fifteen time zones is a killer for us!

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Zqueeze1 "Live from...." Rare

Zqueeze1

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Yes, same question!?

 

 

 

And Zqueeze, George and I have signed up for the Buenos Aires to Santiago cruise on Explorer next Feb. can’t wait to cruise with you and TB again.

 

 

 

Oh no!! We just cancelled that cruise! Instead, we booked a British Isles Cruise onboard the Navigator for June 2019. Real sorry to not see you again and for missing out on meeting George. You need to do a live thread so we can read about what we’re missing. Enjoy the cruise!

Z and TB

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Travelcat2

Travelcat2

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This is going to be a rather difficult review to write as my stated focus was to be on excursions and, although I already did not like included excursions, this cruise lowered my feeling about them even more

I believe that I wrote about our fights to Bali on Cathay Pacific. While CP isn’t as great as it was 15 years ago, it is still a very good airline with excellent service and mediocre to good food. Our non-stop flight home from Hong Kong to Vancouver went smoothly and we made it home in almost record time (10 ½ hours due to tailwind).

The ship: Our first impression is that the Voyager shrunk. The theater looked tiny (but well laid out) and the Observation Lounge appeared 1/3 smaller than on Mariner. We remember the Coffee Connection as being small and it still is. Although in the past, we liked the Voyager much more than the Mariner, the differences are now less. We do like the fact that the Voyager is cozier than the Mariner. Our favorite part of the Voyager is the theater (for many reasons).

The ship looks good even though I’m not a fan of the carpeting in the hallways. Many suites received new countertops in the bathrooms (marble) but ours did not (suite 929 – Seven Seas forward suite). There were plenty of drawers and we liked the closet. The smallish living room area was fine once we got used to it (it isn’t really fair to compare our suite to the Grand Suite that we had on Mariner in November). The lighting in the suite is inadequate – especially the lighting next to the bed. Also, there is nowhere in the suite (on Voyager or Mariner) where the lighting is correct for putting on make-up (no lighted mirror like on Explorer). Closet lighting is so poor that I always had to take things out and put them by the window to determine if the color was blue or black. I understand saving money on electricity but we have LED lighting at home and it can be quite bright. This is what I feel is needed in the bathroom and closet. The bedside lights should be the directional type. The large lamp next to the bed did not work for us at all.

La Veranda’s set-up is much better than previously. If only there were another -10 inches in between the two serving areas….. it would make such a difference as people sometimes people were blocking the pathway.

Speaking of people, apparently Regent is advertising more in Europe and South America which is a good thing. There are a couple of things that I don’t understand and other things that concern me a bit. I am guessing that the people from North America only made up 50% of the passengers on the very full ship. The rest were from (in order of what I believe had the most people on board) Germany, South America, Costa Rica, New Zealand/Australia and the U.K.

What puzzles me is how people that do not speak English (a minority but still there were quite a few) can understand what is going on when they take excursions, etc. I am not the only person questioning this as this was the topic of conversation with several people. Also, we all have different cultures that some people are simply not accustomed to. We found one group that tended to push themselves in front of everyone else. It was the same group that took the disabled seats on buses – consistently. On one bus, there was a permanent handicapped sign (that I believe is universally understood) but it made no difference. They had to be first onto the bus and first off of the bus.

Side note: Someone working on the ship shared a story about a cruise where there were a lot of French people onboard. They requested that announcements be made in French as well as in English. They were told that this was not possible. However, on one excursion we saw a bus that was for German speaking passengers which was unusual. It seemed that most of the German speaking passengers were on our bus. We really like Germany and their people but feel that it is important for people going on a ship from another country to make themselves aware of the customs and manners of that country. This is something that we do when we visit ports. We do not want our U.S. “ways” to come across as rude to our host countries.

Food: This is an easy one – great food – great service! Could not be happier. Daniella and her F&B team did an excellent job. Loved the bartenders in the Observation Bar – willing to try new drinks – always had a smile and great attitude (Explorer and Mariner bartenders could take a lesson from these bartenders). Yes – I know – bartenders change ships but we have had a run of consistently mediocre bartenders for the last year or so (exceptions: Olga and Alex) that either do not know what they are doing and are certainly not willing to experiment with drinks.

Officers: Captain Felice is open, warm and simply delightful. G.M. Massimo is always wonderful – he always makes us smile and feel great about being on a Regent ship. Daniella is simply the best. She makes our cruises special and we always know that things will run smoothly if she is onboard. Our Executive Chef is amazing!

Excursions: Where do I begin?

The best excursion was the one that I missed due to illness. It started with a bus – then a van – then a horse. My husband enjoyed it immensely.

The worst excursion was a Regent Choice excursion to a place where homes are built on the water. The place was packed with people (Regent and non-Regent groups). We had to wait in line constantly (wish I had taken photos of how we were moved like cattle from one house to the other.) Cannot believe that we paid for this. Also, it was rated “2 people” and should have been ”3 people”. Some of the stairs to the homes were little more than logs with small cut-outs for small feet. The floor of the homes felt like you were going to fall through them at any moment and were uneven.

The issues:

1. Passengers really cannot understand the 2-3 people rating. We took another 2 person rated excursion to an amazingly beautiful spot. The excursion could almost be rated quite highly…….. except…….. some passengers started yelling (not overstating this) that the paved walkways were too steep – we were all walking too fast, etc. This was the best tour guide that we encountered on this cruise and she was being verbally mistreated because a couple of people (that sat in the handicapped rows) could not keep up. If we slowed down, 95% of the passengers on the excursion became upset (but not belligerent). I spoke with the wife of one of the men having difficulty walking and she said that they always do “2 people” excursions and they were typically fine. Note: Finally, the obnoxious man sat down and shut up which was a good thing.

2. Too many buses.

3. Destination Services are not consistent and handle excursions differently on every cruise.

4. Must mention the disabled seating yet again. Obviously, if an excursion says that the excursion is not for people with walking issues or wheelchairs they should not even have handicapped seating on the bus (but we respected it anyway).

5. Passengers do not read important information such as information related to buses and tour guides in some developing countries. If they had read the information, there would should not have been complaints about some strong accents that tour guides had. And, if Regent is going to advertise heavily in non-English speaking countries, perhaps some of the important excursion information should be written in more than just one language.

Kids: Okay – there were only two. One was 18 months old and the other around 10 from Germany that spoke perfect English. We encountered the 10 year old girl on excursions a few times. She was okay at first but then one tour guide let her be like an assistant tour guide and that turned her into a monster for the rest of the excursions. She would stand up and tell the passengers what to do. She took the microphone and tried to speak into it (also took an extra microphone and tried to make it work). She and her mother ran to the buses to sit in front but lagged behind everywhere else. She yelled at the tour guide not to leave a temple because she hadn’t put her shoes on even though the rest of us were waiting to leave (note: during this part of the tour it was not necessary to be with the tour guide – you could easily walk around on your own). And, before I forget, she sat in a handicapped seat for a while.

The 18 month old wasn’t really visible most of the time except when she screamed in La Veranda. She was adorable but I wonder why her father had to stand her on a bar stool in the Observation Lounge and spend 10 minutes trying to figure out a drink that would have a lot of ice so the bartender would shake it and it would sound like a rattle. The bartender was so confused because it sounded as if the father wanted the drink for his daughter (I thought the same thing at one point).

Aside from excursions and the kid incidents, it was a good cruise. As I stated in one of my last posts, after our Voyager transatlantic cruise we will stick with Explorer and/or Splendor. We will continue sailing when school is in session and will avoid excursions (to the extent that we can ……. there are still a few that we may want to take.)

Hopefully my negative comments did not outweigh the positive ones. The officers and crew onboard the Voyager were wonderful and we are happy that we took the cruise.

Two more photos and then I’m done and can go back to sleep!

 

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Travelcat2

Travelcat2

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Finally, I was going through my mail this morning and my male cat, Whiskey, decided that I had done enough so he took matters into his own hands (I swear that I didn't put him in there).

 

6d458493f069b8c72a35fffbb64451b7.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

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