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UUNetBill

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About Me

  • Location
    Greenville, SC
  • Interests
    Single Malt scotch, bicycling, motorcycling, computers, etc.
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Gotta be Regent so far
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Whichever one I get to tomorrow.

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3,000+ Club (3/15)

  1. Just came off of 19 nights on Voyager. Chair hogs weren't an issue at all. Of course, we were cruising in the Antarctic, so that may have had some bearing on it. ๐Ÿ™‚ But if you're counting on people to act respectful to their fellow passengers, all I can say is "good luck". Civility is dying. I'd like to see each cabin equipped with some sort of timer device similar to the European parking placards, something with your cabin number and a 30-minute pop-up flag. Clip it to your lounger and set it for 30 minutes, if the flag pops your stuff gets removed. Probably unworkable, I'm sure - but until you deal with people's inherent @$$holiness, well, what else can you do? In 123 nights on board, I've encountered this on several occasions and it's definitely an annoyance - but I wouldn't let it be my deciding factor on which cruise line to book because, well, I'm pretty sure it's an issue on ANY cruise line that has more passengers than shady loungers...
  2. 2rogues - sorry, but I'm not able to open the attached template, I tried numerous different ways and all programs flag it as corrupt...can you please resend it or paste the data into a reply post? Thanks!
  3. Yep. A quick search of our TA's site and a few other travel sites tell me there are a lot of luggage restrictions that seem to get tighter the deeper into the country you travel. I'm thinking if you're doing the safari pre-cruise you'd almost need to ship a bag or two via Luggage Free or something that would kind of offset any cost savings. We're already booked for Europe next summer so a trip to Africa would probably be a '26 trip - unless we really get the safari jones and move things around a little. ๐Ÿ™‚ We just came back from a South America/Antarctica cruise last week, and we did the five-day extension to Iguazu Falls on both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides, and it definitely was nice just leaving our bags in our hotel rooms in Buenos Aires while we took our smaller bags on the flight to Iguazu. There's a lot to be said for that convenience - and the accommodations in Brazil were top-notch, too. I think there are compelling reasons to book either way (via Regent or independently) so we'll need to start looking into the options. Again, thanks for all the input!
  4. Wow, appreciate the thorough and quick replies! I know the Regent options are pricier, but my wife likes booking through Regent just in case anything goes south with transportation or transfers or luggage or what have you. Iโ€™ll have to check with our TA to see if they regularly do Africa. Might be worth a little extra to have it all under one umbrella. But if itโ€™s a *lot* more thatโ€™s a different story. Sounds like Kruger is the better option? What about Botswana? Too far for too little return? Weโ€™re still about 2 years out but never too early to get educated. Thanks to all for the input!
  5. As stated in the title, I'm trying to gather information on people's experiences with pre- or post-cruise safaris in South Africa. We're in the early stages of planning a cruise somewhere down there and I'm looking at some of the posted options for safari packages, and I'm seeing a LOT of different choices. I've seen a few shorter one-stop safaris at the $3,000/pp range and weeklong multiple-reserve choices that knock close to $8,000 or so per person. For those who have done any of these, what are the main things to look for in a safari program? Specifically wondering about ease of access, accommodations, availability of animal viewing, service, etc. Some of the options I've seen are listed below - has anyone been on any of these who might care to enlighten me? Pros, cons, things to look for, any 'must-dos', etc? Thanks in advance!! Bill =============================================================== PRE - KRUGER AND SABI SABI BUSH LODGE - 5-day and 2 nights at lodge, $4-4,600/pp PRE - KRUGER COMBO SAFARI - 7-day, 2 locations, $7,700/pp PRE - EASTERN CAPE SAFARI - SHAMWARI BAYETHE - 5-day, ~$4,000/pp PRE - BOTSWANA AND MASHATU LODGE - 6-day, lots of travel, ~$8,000/pp PRE - EASTERN CAPE DOUBLE SAFARI: GORAH & LONG LEE - 6-day, 2 locations, $5-6,000/pp
  6. Remember Regent's ill-fated (and short-lived) campaign about their 'fiber optic speeds in your cabin - just like your home internet!' Not hardly, guys.
  7. If I could get 50 MB/s on a Regent ship anywhere, I'd do a happy dance and pop some champagne. Starlink can't get here soon enough for me. (Yeah, I know it's a vacation...but we're also still both in the workforce and need to stay in touch.)
  8. Lonedaddy, the service is self-explanatory, but could you expound a bit on the attitude and decisions? Was the attitude more crew or corporate or what? We've only been back on one short cruise since the pandemic shutdown so not sure what to expect next week...
  9. It's been a while since we cruised on Voyager, but we've never had a 'bad' experience on her. A few little misses here and there, but that's cruising, I guess. As to the missed ports, there are so many factors in those decisions I can't say whether it's the captain, corporate policy, or something else, but I can say that we've had a few missed ports in our travels and it's always disappointing. But less disappointing than running aground or damaging the ship or getting stuck in a port. I know one time we had multiple tugs trying to get us to the dock and the winds were just too powerful - these ships are heavy, yes, but the slab sides are like giant sails. If your azipods or thrusters can't handle it, you have no choice but to skip the port. Food can be hit or miss, usually pretty darn good but on occasion it can come out cold or otherwise unacceptable. In that case we always let someone in management know and it's usually corrected quickly. I got no defense for the internet - Regent is lagging (no pun intended) way behind in this regard. I've heard that they're rolling out Starlink across the fleet but they're having some growing pains with it. We used to cruise once or twice a year pre-pandemic but we've only been able to get out once since then so I don't know if it's an industry-wide issue, or Regent fleet-wide, or just Voyager. I hope it's not just Voyager as we're heading out to sail on her soon. ๐Ÿ™‚ Sorry you had a less than stellar voyage - our experiences with Regent over the past 15 years have been way more positive than negative (obviously - we keep coming back) but we'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any issues on our upcoming cruise...
  10. That was going to be my post. I've had some fabulous meals on Regent...and some that didn't make the grade. And I can't even blame the crew, as even on the same voyage you can have an amazing meal one night and 'meh' the next. Not common, of course, but it happens. Having never sailed Oceania, I can't make a direct comparison between O and R, but from reading CC for years I'd say they're pretty close overall.
  11. Wouldn't it be nice if you bought a bag that was advertised as 'carry-on sized' and it was too big for the airlines you could send an invoice for the oversized bag fee to the manufacturer and have them pay it? ๐Ÿ˜†
  12. My wife is having the same concerns - we've never had issues packing before but we need to take extra bags on our upcoming cruise and we're on Latam for the first time - and they've sent several emails with their luggage restrictions. And like you, we have a bag or two that are 'slightly' over the limit. I've never really had any issues in the past with size restrictions so I'm not too concerned, but the better half is stressed over this. I'm hoping these are close enough that no one looks too closely...
  13. Pcardad - exactly. There's always a certain percentage of people in ANY age group who are, for lack of a better term, @$$holes. My secret to a happy life is to smile and avoid these people like the plague. Our last cruise, we had just boarded and were having some champagne in the main atrium when we heard a commotion off to the side...it was a woman, maybe mid to late 80s unleashing her fury on the poor girl at the desk because "HER CABIN WASN'T READY AND WHERE ARE MY BAGS AND WHY CAN'T I GO TO MY CABIN" ad nauseum - and this was at a crazy high volume. It was maybe 12:30 or 1:00 PM. I was literally standing up to walk over to her and tell her to shut the %$&@ up when my wife steered me away (rightly so, I guess). But after the crone left, I went over and apologized to the poor crewmember (who was near tears) and told her to let me know if the old bat gave her any more lip on the cruise. ๐Ÿ˜ I just don't understand how someone can be on board a lovely ship with champagne flowing and a wonderfully attentive crew...and be cranky over nothing. Just blows my mind.
  14. My two cents (or pence or pesetas or whatever) is in over 100 nights on Regent I can count on one hand the number of issues I've had with kids on board. We initially selected Regent to avoid kids on the cruise (nothing against kids, we have two who were with their birth father in the summer so we cruised without them and didn't see the need to be surrounded by other kids) and I can honestly say that the worst thing I've seen was a group of maybe 5-6 teens hanging out on a staircase somewhat blocking passage, and 3-4 younger kids playing too loudly in Compass Rose. Both issues were dealt with quickly and quietly. We did have one other issue with kids running up and down the hallway at like 10-11 PM where we had to stick our heads out and yell at them to quiet down...we actually had more of a problem with their parents than the kids. In all of our cruises it's usually the adults who cause the most issues. Rare as it is, we've encountered rudeness, entitlement, drunkenness, elitism, etc. in a handful of passengers. But it's such a small percentage - much smaller than you encounter in the general population these days, I'd wager - that we don't let it deter us. We also had an early cruise that was hosting a company group that was probably over 100-150 people, and THEY were worse than any kids we've had on board. As others have said, certain itineraries and dates tend to be more kid-heavy than others and we tend to avoid those. I also agree that the 'Kids Sail Free' is more of a marketing line than any kind of problem. I wouldn't let it bother me at all.
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