Live: Explorer, Vancouver/Alaska/Japan

[Jlhalldc]

Thanks for taking us along and for your honest feedback. If Regent is ever has a cancellation, you could volunteer your services as a standup comic. 

[Zqueeze1]

What a great thread and so sorry to hear it’s coming to an end.  You should write my material for my next cruise.  Get home safe. 
 

Z and TB

[fudge]

5 hours ago, kjbacon said:

I saw that too and my understanding is that an all female team in Pacific Rim was a must and not a try. 
 

@fudge safe travels to you and thanks again for taking us along with you.

Apologies, you are right, a lovely lady found us a table, its an age thing!!

[fudge]

The British airways experience got off to a bad start, over 1 hour late leaving Japan!  The on-board first-class experience was good, but in my opinion not much better than business class, glad we did it probably wouldn’t do it again unless we had an offer.

 

Unfortunately, the plane landed one hour 20 minutes late in the UK, consequently we missed our connecting flight, thankfully BA put us in a hotel overnight, the next day we managed to get a flight at our expense, not a good end to the holiday, we are not home yet! Thankfully we secured business class status, so we are now in the Singapore Airlines lounge which is very nice indeed, even though we are flying with Turkish airlines, hey, its only money.

 

Final summary of the cruise.

The issues at Vancouver could have been handled better by Regent in my opinion, they could have asked everyone to arrive a little later when the line had reduced.

Once on the ship we couldn’t help admire the overall condition of the ship, all round plenty of places to eat and drink, comfortable lounges, and spacious considering the number of guests on board.

 

Dining

The food in most of the venues for us was hit and miss, some Luke warm food, we had hardly any “wow” moments, at times the service was painfully slow except for one evening we had all three courses in 35 minutes, a world record even for us. We ate in the specialty restaurants for lunch most days, lovely service, it slowed Mr Fudges disgusting “eating fast” habit, well almost.

We managed to secure four more seating than we booked which was nice.

 

The suite

I can only comment on our suite which was a penthouse suite on deck 14. Very well appointed, always kept clean and tidy, a nice change from other suites we have sailed on. The butler was OK although we never used him much. As I have mentioned earlier, we are fairly low maintenance people but he was there when required. We ordered canapes in the afternoon for the whole cruise, some arrived some didn’t, after giving the butler a black eye, they all arrived, some twice, you can only each so much cheese, right?

 

Laundry

Very efficient indeed, we used the facility a lot, generally back the following day, most on hangers, “smalls” in a bag neatly folded. By the way, we did take advantage of the pressing service the first day, the poor laundry team must have thought we were on a world cruise!!!

 

Reception staff

Quite unhelpful at times, it was best we didn’t use them much, I rang down to them once about the internet, the lady said rudely “well mine is on, so it must be working!” That was me told then.

 

Internet

Shameful at best, totally unreliable, in fact the worst internet we have ever experienced on any cruise line, Regent should be ashamed of themselves. A guest told me he bought a package to use on the ship, that’s an idea for you folks who rely on it for work Etc. Even though you should not have to.

 

The crew

Most of the time very helpful, understanding, at times frustrating, either due to lack of staff or lack of experience but it did not detract from the cruise. They were always smiling and tried very hard

 

The weather

Absolutely nothing Regent could do about that obviously, we just had bad luck for the whole cruise, we have never been on a cruise where we haven’t sat on deck by the pool, in fact most days no one did, shame really, the sunshine always helps doesn’t it?

 

Excursions

Unfortunately, when they came on line we must have been at the back of the line! We were wait listed for most of them, the ones we did go on were OK to good, nothing spectacular. Alaska was a bit of a disappointment for us, again, down to excursions, please get in early and book them even if you have to pay!

 

Sea days!

Wow, people who love sea days are to be admired, on two occasions Mr Fudge almost threw himself overboard, we would never ever do that again!  Even though we scored 650 points for the games, after the first game the production team knew us by name, it was fun though. The time changes threw us good style, six go back one hour and a “ lost day” a really odd experience!

 

Lovely people

Mainly through the Vancouver experience or the silly games we met some wonderful folks, it was a real pleasure to see them throughout the cruise, my view of you “yanks” has changed a lot, my favourite saying now is “that sucks” According to cruise critic, the average guest is worth 2 million dollars, really? Us poor brits are no where near that seriously, no wonder they had that watch on board for 460,000 bucks.

Its funny because Mrs Fudge does not read the blog thankfully. One day a guest came over and teased her by showing her the dig in the rib’s thing, you know the morning coffee thing, she had no idea what that was about. When we walked away, she said “what was that all about?” Mr Fudge said, “I have no idea darling” I do get away with murder sometimes!

 

The production team

Very professional, all very chatty, smiley, great shows in the evening and managing the silly games.

So, that’s it folks, thanks for following us through our cruise. Would we sail with Regent again? Probably, if the right cruise came on line. Was it the best cruise we have been on? Not really, to be honest I think our expectations were far too high before we got on board, I kept saying to Mrs Fudge, “this will be the best cruise we have ever had” that’s my fault.

Cheerio everyone, happy sailing, keep smiling and laughing. This boring old fart will blog our next cruise with Silversea, Doha to Muscat departing 2^nd February 2024.

Bye for now.

 

[fudge]

He cant help himself!!  From the ship in Yokohama

[fudge]

Mrs Fudges favourite photos. She is well impressed with the bathrooms over there, all kinds of buttons, one plays music to drowned out any unwarranted "noise" A cleaning system which surpasses any active volcano, and a "dry clean" thing which gives your rear end third degree burns.

[Techno123]

@fudge - we are off to Japan on the Explorer (4 weeks on Saturday). We too are doing BA (back with Etihad) but sadly not first but in cattle class (well with emergency exit seats for the leg room and to avoid the person in front knocking my teeth out when they recline 😂😂)

 

Your comments about expectations are spot on. We did a Norwegian cruise with Seabourn in July - like you, the bad weather seemed to chase us from the North Cape southwards. Mr Techno had envisaged sailing through fjords every day but we only did 3 in the 14 days so something he had really been looking forward to did not materialise ( in fairness to Seabourn they cancelled one fjord pre cruise but otherwise provided what was advertised it's not their fault he never listens 😂😂). So he has decided not to look forward to our upcoming Japan and far east cruise so he can't be disappointed 🤔🤔

 

Thank you for your most entertaining thread - I have really enjoyed reading about your's and the lovely Mrs Fudge's adventures - hope the ribs heal soon 😜😜

Edited October 10, 2023 by Techno123

[Stefken]

21 hours ago, TheShag said:

I will second the 'champagne' request as I plan to help Stefken with that onerous task. As well, the single malt, etc.etc!

Sounds like a plan, like a Vesper Martini too. 🛳🛳🛳🍷🍷🍷🥂🥂🍾🍾

[TheShag]

22 minutes ago, Stefken said:

Sounds like a plan, like a Vesper Martini too. 🛳🛳🛳🍷🍷🍷🥂🥂🍾🍾

Never tried one but am game for the experience!

[fudge]

Just now, Techno123 said:

@fudge - we are off to Japan on the Explorer (4 weeks on Saturday). We too are doing BA (back with Etihad) but sadly not first but in cattle class (well with emergency exit seats for the leg room and to avoid the person in front knocking my teeth out when they recline 😂😂)

 

Your comments about expectations are spot on. We did a Norwegian cruise with Seabourn in July - like you, the bad weather seemed to chase us from the North Cape southwards. Mr Techno had envisaged sailing through fjords every day but we only did 3 in the 14 days so something he had really been looking forward to did not materialise ( in fairness to Seabourn they cancelled one fjord pre cruise but otherwise provided what was advertised it's not their fault he never listens 😂😂). So he has decided not to look forward to our upcoming Japan and far east cruise so he can't be disappointed 🤔🤔

 

Thank you for your most entertaining thread - I have really enjoyed reading about your's and the lovely Mrs Fudge's adventures - hope the ribs heal soon 😜😜

Hi, someone from the UK, we originate from Stockport, not too far away, I worked in Chester, lovely city.

[Techno123]

12 minutes ago, fudge said:

Hi, someone from the UK, we originate from Stockport, not too far away, I worked in Chester, lovely city.

We live near to Llandudno so about 45 miles to Chester - our nearest city 😁

 

I will look forward to your Silversea report - we do Singapore to HongKong on the Nova but not til early 2025.

[irishwitchy]

Thank you, it was a joy to read and follow along.   May the weather gods bless your next cruise!  

[Eve]

Mr Fudge, thank you for an informative and hilarious review. I’ll be embarking the Explorer on 20 Oct and will strive to do a “Live”. Although it certainly won’t live up to your offering I will do my best to make you proud. Safe travels onward. What a pleasure to have read along. 

[welshfamily]

Thank you Fudge,

I have read your posts every morning to my husband, (after digging him in the ribs to get the coffee 😱). We have really enjoyed ‘sailing along with you. 
After many poor experiences we refuse BA flights were possible.

 

Techno 

We live between Llandudno and Chester ….we must be neighbours 😁 Hope you enjoy your Japanese cruise.

[Redking]

Now then 🤣 Mr (and Mrs) Fudge thank you so much for sharing your adventures with us. Most informative and highly entertaining. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to share your experiences and will miss your daily updates.

 

Look forward to reading about your next adventure on Sevensea.

 

 

 

 

[Techno123]

8 hours ago, welshfamily said:

After many poor experiences we refuse BA flights were possible.

 

We live between Llandudno and Chester ….we must be neighbours 😁 Hope you enjoy your Japanese cruise.

Thank you, welshfamily - it looks like we are 😁.
 

BA are not my favourite airline but the other options offered by Regent included a change in the Middle East so between the chance of losing luggage and the current situation in that general area I hope BA direct are the least worst option 😜

[Stefken]

19 hours ago, TheShag said:

Never tried one but am game for the experience!

Hi, your on!

 

James Bonds tipple of choice, 🍸🍸🛳🛳 

[1982CruzStart]

21 hours ago, Eve said:

I’ll be embarking the Explorer on 20 Oct and will strive to do a “Live”.

Looking forward to reading your adventures. thanks in advance. 

[Jim Avery]

8 hours ago, Stefken said:

Hi, your on!

 

James Bonds tipple of choice, 🍸🍸🛳🛳 

Haha, depends on which movie.  He' s rather versatile as to Martini or wine or whiskey with M.  It's a wonder he can shoot so straight.  My hero...  Btw., did you know that in the Ian Fleming books the martinis were "stirred not shaken.  Avoids bruising the vodka".  Guess we have all had lots of "bruised" vodka over the years....🍸🍸🍸