Summary of our cruise - Grand North Sea Crossing, Amsterdam to New York

[xrvlcruiser]

mj_holiday,

 

Thanks for the wonderful review including the detailed descriptions of the tours - very much appreciated.

I'm glad your trip went well!

Peggy

[kjbacon]

Enjoyed your thorough and helpful report, thank you! Did you dine at Prime 7 once because of choice or because it was difficult to get a second reservation?

[gb58]

Great report. Bit cool for us though... We're off next month for W. Australia followed by the Voyager SIN-SIN-SYD in December. Would be great to bump into yourself & Brad some day. Take care, Nigel & Marion.

[HotRoot]

13 hours ago, gnomie1 said:

Event though I live in Manhattan, I always find myself up on deck as we go by the Statue of Liberty - never get tired of it. I especially enjoy watching the expressions of the crew and the other passengers as we sail by.

 

For anyone reading this, at least for the next couple of years, LaGuardia airport should be avoided AT ALL COST! The airport is currently undergoing a major renovation project and dealing with the airport is a nightmare. On the local news we have continuous stories of people who are running down the highway trying to catch their flight and waiting for an uber/lyft can take in excess of one hour. Flights have had to be cancelled because the crew is stuck in traffic. The problem is that the area of the airport has very limited space so any type of deviation from normal operations will cause massive disruption. Normally I fly out of a LGA all the time, and now will travel either to JFK, EWR or PHL in order to avoid LGA.

 

gnomie

We flew out of LGA on Thursday.  No traffic getting there.  Flight actually left the gate 5 minutes early and we landed 22 minutes early.  Maybe everybody is avoiding LGA which made everything go smoothly for us.

[Mudhen]

What a nice blog! Thank you for taking us all along!

[RachelG]

Thank you for posting such a detailed and helpful review.   We have been to most of these ports before (with the exception of Newfoundland), and I enjoyed r views and pictures.

 

[mj_holiday]

6 hours ago, kjbacon said:

Enjoyed your thorough and helpful report, thank you! Did you dine at Prime 7 once because of choice or because it was difficult to get a second reservation?

I made a reservation for Prime 7 on line and didn't try for a second reservation.  Compass Rose has such a great menu and service, we were happy there.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Thanks for your journal. We visited most of the ports and it brought back fond memories. Several years ago we visited the areas in US and Canada on a self driving trip. Loved it. 

Look forward to your next cruise and your postings. 

Sheila

[poss]

Thank you for a splendid review.   Much of that itinerary would be new for us, and you give a fine sense of what it would be like.

[DeepFreeze63]

Thanks for posting. We will be in Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland on the Explorer in 2020.

[coljack]

MJ,  Thanks for taking the time to write, photograph, and post such an interesting story.  Very enjoyable.  I did want to add that I have encountered the changes in "activity level" ratings for the excursions on every Regent cruise I have taken.  It can arouse concern.  We have taken to considering the ratings, but not taking them as gospel.  We rely on the descriptions to make our decisions on whether it is appropriate for us.

[aungrl]

On 9/15/2019 at 6:54 AM, HotRoot said:

We flew out of LGA on Thursday.  No traffic getting there.  Flight actually left the gate 5 minutes early and we landed 22 minutes early.  Maybe everybody is avoiding LGA which made everything go smoothly for us.

HotRoot, where are you from?  I grew up in Southern Illinois, and haven’t seen any others on this board or other CC boards.  Go, Salukis!

[Joanandjoe]

We are in process of writing our review of this cruise, which will appear in the ship reviews section of the CC boards, rather than as a thread on the Regent board.  Our rating will be five stars out of 5.  There were glitches, but they were minor and, with one exception (relating to the end of cruise questionnaire), the glitches were corrected promptly.  All in all, a terrific cruise.  BTW, in all cases other than Vestmanna Sea Cliffs in the Faroes, we had different excursions, or were in different tour groups, than mj_holiday, the OP.

 

We met the lady from Montana, Pat, who gave the cruise a so-so review totally messed up her connections on both ends, leaving her adrift at the airport at embarkation day.  She barely made it to the ship, after paying for a transfer (even though it was supposed to be included).  The fact that she gave the cruise 3 stars, despite an awful start and finish, shows how open minded she is, since almost missing the ship due to Regent mistakes would have ruined the cruise for many people.  Luckily, we had independent taxi transfers at both ends, so we had no such problems.

 

]We never filled out our end of cruise evaluations.  They can now be done only online, and only on the ship.  I think that's foolish on the part of Regent, since not everyone is computer savvy.  We wanted to complete the forms at home; but found that the survey was on the intranet (Regent internal), rather than the internet.  If anyone from Regent is reading this, you really need to offer a handwritten form, a form that can be completed on one's computer after the cruise, or better information on how to find the survey while on the ship.  Passages kept reminding us to fill out the form, but we didn't get the proper URL until the next to last day, at a time when the internet was down for maintenance.  Too bad, we would have given mostly high grades.

[Pinksunset]

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your wonderful cruise with us!  Sounds like it was very interesting and lovely!

[RachelG]

17 hours ago, Joanandjoe said:

 

We never filled out our end of cruise evaluations.  They can now be done only online, and only on the ship.  I think that's foolish on the part of Regent, since not everyone is computer savvy.  We wanted to complete the forms at home; but found that the survey was on the intranet (Regent internal), rather than the internet.  If anyone from Regent is reading this, you really need to offer a handwritten form, a form that can be completed on one's computer after the cruise, or better information on how to find the survey while on the ship.  Passages kept reminding us to fill out the form, but we didn't get the proper URL until the next to last day, at a time when the internet was down for maintenance.  Too bad, we would have given mostly high grades.

Very poor decision on part of Regent to make the end of cruise questionnaire only online and only on the ship.  That is only going to ensure that most people don't fill out the questionnaire.

[Hambagahle]

Totally agree - this makes no sense at all.  We have friends (whom we have sailed with) who are illiterate when it comes to computers.  How would they complete the evaluations??

[boblerm]

 

On 9/17/2019 at 4:27 PM, Joanandjoe said:

We never filled out our end of cruise evaluations.  They can now be done only online, and only on the ship. 

Is this something brand new fleet wide?  When we were on the Explorer last month we had the usual hand filled form.

 

mj_holiday, thank you for your very interesting report.  So glad that you enjoyed the cruise.

Bob

[xrvlcruiser]

We know that Regent Management reads the Forums so we can assume that our thoughts relating to the new comment situation is seen and hopefully given consideration.

Peggy

[mj_holiday]

I cannot say when the electronic questionnaire started or if it has been rolled out to all the ships.  I am of the opinion that it is fairly new.  They had a PowerPoint that showed on one of the ships channels and played it in the coffee area, but the charts had a typo that was copied on several pages.  Except for the typo(s) it was relatively easy to get started.  When I completed the last question (I did not know it was the last question) I could not go to the "next" screen.  I went to the registration desk for help.  He then showed my that the "next" button was not high lighted so I should select "save".  I was impressed that registration could answer my questions.

[jimbri]

Wonderful photos!

[orvil]

Just off Explorer.  The review situation is untenable.  I'm reasonably computer proficient.  I found myself struggling in the computer center to find the correct url to get to the survey.  The survey itself wasn't difficult.  It was the getting to it.

 

I found myself helping fellow passengers do the same thing.  After an hour of playing computer assistant, I left.  It was such a PIA, that we only filled out DH's survey and didn't bother with mine.  

 

It would have been helpful to post in the computer center step by step directions to find the appropriate site.  There was nothing in Passages of with any detail to help.  And, the gentleman that holds help sessions was nowhere to be seen when I was trying to fill mine out.  I don't expect him to be there 24/7.  But, how-to directions would have helped a lot of people.

 

While I'm at it, there should be a sanitizer station in the computer room, too. 

 

The rest of the cruise was pretty fabulous.  The review experience, not so much.

 

[carolina cruisin]

If you don't mind - what stateroom number were you in?

[orvil]

We were in 831.  It's and F1 or F2.  I never remember which.  Very nice suite with a good location.

[UUNetBill]

On 2/7/2020 at 9:39 AM, orvil said:

Just off Explorer.  The review situation is untenable.  I'm reasonably computer proficient.  I found myself struggling in the computer center to find the correct url to get to the survey.  The survey itself wasn't difficult.  It was the getting to it.

 

I found myself helping fellow passengers do the same thing.  After an hour of playing computer assistant, I left.  It was such a PIA, that we only filled out DH's survey and didn't bother with mine.  

 

It would have been helpful to post in the computer center step by step directions to find the appropriate site.  There was nothing in Passages of with any detail to help.  And, the gentleman that holds help sessions was nowhere to be seen when I was trying to fill mine out.  I don't expect him to be there 24/7.  But, how-to directions would have helped a lot of people.

 

While I'm at it, there should be a sanitizer station in the computer room, too. 

 

The rest of the cruise was pretty fabulous.  The review experience, not so much.

 

I did the survey on my iPad in my room and actually found it to be less of a hassle than I'd expected.  As to the Business Center - I don't know why they can't bookmark the survey URL and have a button for it in the menu bar...a big "ONLINE SURVEY" button should be pretty easy for most anyone to find.  Or even a SURVEY icon on the desktop...something...

[orvil]

Bill,

 

That's exactly what I was commenting about.  Why not leave a bookmark on the desktops in the Computer Center?  It would have been so easy and thoughtful. I can't get on our iPad.  DH is always hogging it.  Hence, my use of the computer center.

 

Which trip did you and AnneMarie book for next year?  We didn't book anything while onboard.  But, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't need another January weather break.  We loved the Western Caribbean.  So different from the Eastern.  When we got home, we had to rest because we were so busy.

 

We'll be on Voyager in June for the Seth Broadway tour.  It didn't start out that way.  I'm afraid we will have competition for karaoke.  Two trips in one year.  We are officially hooked.