Live report—Miami to Miami Jan 6-13, 2022–splendor –back to cruising Regent

[1982CruzStart]

Thanks Rachel.  Can't wait to 'come' along with you on your cruise. 
 

[Ozzmund]

Thank you Rachel for sharing your time with us.

 

We were scheduled to be onboard with you, but cancelled and moved our cruise to December. Instead we are at home enjoying -17 degrees. 

 

Look forward to future posts from you.

[rallydave]

3 hours ago, RachelG said:

I am not an electronics expert, but I examined the tv’s (yes, there are 2) and could not fine one on either.

Even if there is an available HDMI port, almost a certainty there will be no access to change the TV input to anything but, what it is.

[macbest]

Instead of posting a new post, how many weeks/days prior to sailing, does Regent notify your travel agent on potential upgrades?

[rallydave]

20 minutes ago, macbest said:

Instead of posting a new post, how many weeks/days prior to sailing, does Regent notify your travel agent on potential upgrades?

No way to answer that question accurately.  It depends on a lot of factors known only to Regent and have seen from right after booking to day of boarding.  And, to be accurate they are almost always upsells not free upgrades.

 

And best if you are interested to let your TA know well in advance and Regent will contact you directly.  Also no dilly dallying in responding as they will book the first person(s) answering yes.  People have been known to say no and get more chances with upsell pricing going down so you pays your money and take your chances on waiting for a better offer.

 

You can also give your TA a maximum amount for your upsell so they can say yes as soon as they get the call.  Magic seems to describe this process at times.

 

To add normally the pre cruise benefits of an upgraded suite will not be included such as an upgrade to Concierge will not get you the included pre cruise nite at a hotel.

Edited January 7, 2022 by rallydave

[RachelG]

15 minutes ago, macbest said:

Instead of posting a new post, how many weeks/days prior to sailing, does Regent notify your travel agent on potential upgrades?

What Rallydave describes is accurate.  I was notified 1 week prior to sailing of the opportunity for the paid, but at a significantly reduced cost, upgrade this time.  My son and daughter-in-law were upgraded (not a paid upgrade) the day prior to embarkation.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thanks for these reports, Rachel, looking forward to more.  Glad to hear about the decor on Splendor since we hope to be on her next summer, and Explorer frankly sounded rather gaudy for my taste. Glad to hear any little tips you find out as you explore the ship.  Oh, and lucky you on the upgrades!

[RachelG]

January 7, 2022–cruising en route to Mexico

 

I slept like a log—not waking up a single time all night which is very rare for me and usually happens only on a ship.  The sea is very smooth, and the ship is quiet and stable.  When I awoke, the sun was peaking through a slit in the curtains.  It is a beautiful sunny day with temps in the upper 70s.

 

I had to figure out how to use the shower, an engineering marvel with all sorts of knobs and water coming at you from all sides.  If you are clever enough, it is possible to take a shower without getting your hair wet without using a shower cap.  Not a big deal for me, but some women would really like that.

 

The coffee connection is much larger on this ship, with indoor and outdoor seating.  There is a waiter who will prepare your coffee or tea, but the food is self service.  

 

An interesting observation—the entire 6th deck except for the gym is blocked off.  You have to go through the spa to get to the gym.  The fire doors are closed at the stairwells. I presume the blocked off area is where you would be incarcerated should you come down with covid.  But it also explains our upgrades as we had cabins on the 6th deck originally.

 

Breakfast in La Veranda was delicious with any breakfast food you could want.  The special was Swedish pancakes which looked very nice, but I stuck with a bowl of fresh berries and some bacon.

 

I walked around the track for an hour as the weather was so perfect. 7.3 laps equals a mile.  It is a nice wide track but could be slippery if wet.  There are lots of loungers available beside it and on the pool deck, plenty in both sun and shade, and so many that lounger hogging is not an issue.

 

I had a great massage in the spa.  Overpriced by standards on land, but we have a lot of shipboard credit to use.  They have you get undressed in the treatment room rather than in the locker room, presumably due to covid rules.

 

Lunch at the pool grill was Tex Mex or you could order off the menu.  There was also the normal salad bar and pizza station.  Super good guacamole, but the rest of the Tex Amex stuff didn’t look appealing, so I had salad and one slice of pizza.  Would not waste my calories on pizza on the ship again—not nearly as good as on Silversea.  George had an ahi tuna burger which he said was great and some nice the e stufflooking sweet potato fries.it was 

 

Spent the afternoon doing a bunch of nothing till trivia time.  Trivia was a loss.  No science or medical questions, no geography or history.  We got 11 out of 15 which was a 4th place finish.  No team got all of them.

 

Afterward we played mini tennis, challenging in a dress and sandals, and shuffleboard. 

 

We had dinner at Sette Mare.  And it was probably one of the best meals ever.  He Anna, my daughter-in-law, had the brilliant idea of ordering two small portions of different pasts.  Outstanding!  I had gnocchi with pesto and asparagus risotto.  Both were great.

 

The show was Divos and Divas.  It was great.  Dancing and singing were perfect!  I much prefer this to the weirdly constructed story line.  Just give me songs and dances!

 

[sailing oldie]

1 hour ago, RachelG said:

An interesting observation—the entire 6th deck except for the gym is blocked off.  You have to go through the spa to get to the gym.  The fire doors are closed at the stairwells. I presume the blocked off area is where you would be incarcerated should you come down with covid.  But it also explains our upgrades as we had cabins on the 6th deck originally.

Thanks Rachel for your informative post. We are on Splendor in Feb and are currently mid/aft on Deck 6, it will be interesting to see if we get moved. Our pre cruise hotel was changed yesterday, possibly also reflecting changes in passenger numbers. Enjoy your trip!!

[LATTELOVE]

Wow,

Thank you for your report.

I have followed plenty of other reviews,

but your is outstanding, so much details into it.

Thank you for taking your time to do so.

Really enjoying it, please keep it coming.

 

[Pcardad]

17 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

Thanks for these reports, Rachel, looking forward to more.  Glad to hear about the decor on Splendor since we hope to be on her next summer, and Explorer frankly sounded rather gaudy for my taste. Glad to hear any little tips you find out as you explore the ship.  Oh, and lucky you on the upgrades!

I was notified yesterday the 7th about a free upgrade for someone sailing on the 13th....

[tripperva]

You probably will not be on deck 6 aft since those are the quarantine rooms.

[sailing oldie]

18 minutes ago, tripperva said:

You probably will not be on deck 6 aft since those are the quarantine rooms.

Yes, I'm hoping to keep well away from those!! I assume we will be notified if our cabin changes, maybe they are waiting to see how many passengers rebook before they shuffle everybody around.

[sailing oldie]

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

I was notified yesterday the 7th about a free upgrade for someone sailing on the 13th....

Let's hope one comes my way too!!

[UUNetBill]

@RachelG we’re on this sailing, too, and I agree that the boarding was a bit spotty but otherwise has been a great cruise so far.  Missed Costa Maya today due to high swells & wind but I’m fine with that…another sea day is okay by me.

 

We were told that over 200 people either canceled or rescheduled and we’re sailing with just 403 passengers.  Sure feels that way, not crowded at all.  Service isn’t lacking, that’s for sure.

 

I’d say we need to set up a place to meet but I’m traveling with family & don’t get to make plans, I just go where I’m told…but I’ll keep an eye out for you!

[UUNetBill]

Also, the TVs are Samsung Smart TVs but they boot right into the Regent TV menu, I don’t see any way to switch to any other inputs.  It feels like there’s a spare HDMI port but it’s not easy to get to.  I’ve heard people say you can bring a standard Samsung remote and use that to switch the input but I can’t verify as I didn’t bring a Samsung remote nor an HDMI cable.

 

I really do like the new user interface, though.  It’s faster and easier to navigate.  Thumbs up.

[Robroy]

Glad to hear you were able to make this trip Bill and hope all goes well. Will be interesting to hear comparisons with the Explorer as I recall we were both on Explorer in early January 2020 before the pandemic got into gear. We missed a few ports due to bad weather then but I'm like you - sea days are just fine. Frankly I'd be happy to simply sail around the Caribbean in a circle for ten days...

Have a great trip and Rachel - enjoying your commentary!

 

Rob

[wcsdkqh]

If anyone thinks they are going to use the ship’s wifi and satellite link for streaming live sporting events, think again. Bandwidth and extreme latency make it all but impossible, even if you pay for the so-called upgrade.

Edited January 8, 2022 by wcsdkqh
Spelling correction.

[Aubie59]

Yes I have given up on the idea of live streaming.  Really appreciate the information!

[boblerm]

Rachel, is John Barron back on board?

Thank you for your reporting, have a great cruise!

Bob

[Cajuntennisgal]

On 1/7/2022 at 1:46 PM, RachelG said:

What Rallydave describes is accurate.  I was notified 1 week prior to sailing of the opportunity for the paid, but at a significantly reduced cost, upgrade this time.  My son and daughter-in-law were upgraded (not a paid upgrade) the day prior to embarkation.

Good luck to you all! We were  sad to give up our Splendor Suite on the 13th, but looking forward to better cruises ahead. Maybe one of you can snatch it up!! Safe sailings!!

[RachelG]

1 hour ago, boblerm said:

Rachel, is John Barron back on board?

Thank you for your reporting, have a great cruise!

Bob

John is onboard as i understand but in the mandatory quarantine when a new crew member boards.

[Pcardad]

34 minutes ago, RachelG said:

John is onboard as i understand but in the mandatory quarantine when a new crew member boards.

He should be out on the 13th.

[RachelG]

January 8, 2022–Costa Maya, Mexico—NOT—cancelled so another sea day

 

Our tour was supposed to leave at 8:45, so I set the alarm for 7.  We were up bright and early.  It was a little overcast outside but not bad.  I had just finished slathering myself with sunscreen and getting the back pack loaded with everything for our excursion to the Mayan ruins when the captain came on the speakers in the room with announcement.  That is never a good thing.

 

“Due to high swell, we will not be able to dock at the pier.  It would be too unsafe; therefore, we will have another sea day.”  George immediately declared this b—-s—-.  He is not a happy camper, particularly since we could see another ship at the pier in the distance.  His theory is they want to keep us isolated from the virus ashore, and there may be something to that.  He has begun referring to himself in he third person as “the prisoner”.

 

So we went up to La Veranda for breakfast.  They had the Bloody Mary station set up.  Still lots of fresh berries.  

 

I walked for an hour out on the deck.  It had become quite overcast and, to be honest, pretty windy with spits of rain.  That made the deck very slippery in spots, so I had to moderate my normal fast pace, but still got in all my steps.  One lady was running.  It gave me anxiety just seeing her—still a little PTSD from my bad fall 5 years ago.

 

George and I went to play bingo.  We did not win.  So met up with GE and Anna for a leisurely sea day lunch In Chartreuse.  I really like their lunch menu, much more than the dinner one.  We had a pretzel encrusted goat cheese with raspberry starter—SO good. Then carrot and potato soup while GE had the French onion.  George didn’t love his fois Gras as he thought it would be seared and it was not.  I had veggies as my main trying to be healthy.  We lunched till 2 pm having no pressing appointments. I had jumbo prawns, salad and scallops .  UUNetBill and Ann Marie came and introduced themselves, so it was nice to put a masked face to a name, and hopefully we will see them around some more.

 

The swell did increase in the afternoon, not bad but enough to make Anna feel unwell.  She had a lie down which the remainder of our trivia team managed a 3rd place.  If she had been there, I suspect we would have won as she definitely knew 2 of the questions we missed

 

GE and George had a father son tennis match with George Sr. Winning.  I was the line judge as cheating has been known to occur.  Then we had a 3 person mini golf match.  Of course, George won as he actually plays golf.

 

Anna was feeling well enough for dinner in Compass Rose.  And it was spectacular.

I had jumbo prawns, Caesar salad, a corn and poblano soup, and scallops with asparagus.  All perfectly prepared.  

 

The boys decided to make some casino donations.  Anna and I went to dance.  The comedian was very funny. But I was ready for sleep 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[grumpyathome]

Rachel,  it sounds like a relaxing day, which is what I am looking forward to when we board the Splendor on Thursday.  Are you hearing about any Covid on the ship? Are things fairly normal, (with the exception of canceled ports) only fewer people than normal?  Are people masking when appropriate? 
I’m just looking forward to getting out of my house, not cooking or doing the dishes.  It may not be a “normal” cruise, but as long as Covid stays away, I would be happy.  
Stay safe, relax and count your blessings you are not in the snow or a place going nuts - like FL…

Grumpyathome