FloridaGirl1962

I sent the name "Splendor" as my choice. I am ready to receive my free trip! ;)

I am curious how many of us did send in the name "Splendor"?

I haven't heard from Regent yet, though...... I'll keep my phone ready. :)

Happy and safe travels to all!!

Mary

I sent the name "Splendor" as my choice. I am ready to receive my free trip! ;)

I am curious how many of us did send in the name "Splendor"?

I haven't heard from Regent yet, though...... I'll keep my phone ready. :)

Happy and safe travels to all!!

Mary

I would agree with everyone that has posted. The laundry rooms are very nice on the Explorer. Just set your timer on your phone so you know when to change your loads. If you are able to change your loads within a few minutes of the loads finishing, everyone will appreciate you very much!

All the men on our trip this June brought jackets and that was fancy enough for our 12 day trip on the explorer.

P.S. I didn't know you could order room service to the laundry rooms. I love that idea, if needed next time! Ha!

I believe that all the other posters on this thread gave you sound information. Once you are on board, you will know what Regent has set up for the day. Enjoy your trip! Hope the weather will improve after your embarkation.

Travelcat2 is correct. We sailed from Southampton this summer. We stayed at the Marriott Grosvenor House. Very nice hotel and easy to get around London. We were booked with a D-concierge level, so we had transportation from Heathrow to the hotel provided. Then the next day Regent provided the transportation from London to Southampton. It is a good 2-3 hour drive, depending on traffic. There was a bad accident, so we were slowed down getting to Southampton. We still arrived in plenty of time to enjoy lunch on the Explorer before getting into our suite. Happy Travels!!

In 2016, we had to cancel our Regent 11-day trip around the British Isles due to a family accident one week before we were to leave. Our Travel Agent was wonderful and helped us notify all companies involved with our trip. We were fortunate, we did have travel insurance (independent insurance, not Regent Care).

I am sure Regent did fill all 7 of our suites that we had booked for that trip. It bothered me a little that Regent did get paid twice for those rooms. We did the British Isles trip this year (2017) through Regent. It would have been nice to have earned a little recognition for having paid twice, or even receiving days towards the Seven Seas Society for having "paid" for that trip twice.

I truly feel bad when people do have tragedies and have to cancel a trip they have looked forward to for so long. It was hard on our family to have to cancel, but after an accident, that doesn't matter at the time. I like the post earlier that maybe Regent should offer the person a credit for a future trip within 18 months. That seems fair to me.

My family feels fortunate that the family member in the accident was able to get healthy and well enough to travel this summer. We feel blessed for that! It was a trip of a lifetime for all of us!

Looking forward to reading your post on the trip. We haven't sailed on Regent to NE Canada. Hope it is wonderful Enjoy the trip!

Hello my Regent Friends...We enjoy Regent, even though we've only sailed twice. Compared to other cruise lines....my reasons that I enjoy Regent is the following: I just hate the fact of feeling nickeled and dimed for anything and everything. I love the fact that we board the ship and never have to sign for a purchase unless it is at the store or spa. Yes, I do understand we paid upfront and maybe more than we should have... but that is what we signed up for to travel on Regent.

We are not a "gourmet food" family and only want the finest in meals. Sometimes a hotdog at the pool for lunch is what satisfies our need after a day of touring. We have enjoyed all our meals, but feel the Explorer was top-notch in June 2017. My son thinks room service is the best... he is a teenager. ;)

As I have always said in my posts, when we travel, we go expecting what we want in our vacation. I want to have a wonderful time, enjoy good food, nice wines, enjoy meeting interesting people and looking forward to new places to visit. Sometimes the unexpended happens... a port is cancelled, rough seas, etc. We expect these things, even when we travel on other cruise lines. (Just to point out when we travel on Disney this spring with my young niece and nephew. The seas were so bad on the first night everyone was having difficulty. Those things happen. After 15 trips from Cape Canaveral, we've never had bad seas to the Bahamas before!!).

After our first Regent cruise to Alaska in 2014, we did a 3 day cruise out of Cape Canaveral, just for fun, on RC. OMG! We were shocked at all the people that bought drink vouchers trying to get all the alcohol they could drink in those 3 days. It was shameful and embarrassing. My children even said that they were embarrassed by the adults and only wanted to go on Regent (who wouldn't!).

So, I guess I am saying to this thread.... yes, there are problems with Regent, and maybe those that have many days sailed on Regent have noticed a decline on the services that are offered. We have enjoyed our cruises, made many friends that we have loved getting to know even off the cruise, enjoyed meeting the officers, performers and staff. We met many cruisers on our British Isles trip that were so fun to meet. Even our children made wonderful friends (young and old). Many were long time cruisers on Regent and some were new. Once on board, everyone in my opinion felt equal and just enjoyed the trip. I'm looking forward to making another cruise on Regent in my future. We have to save up, we still have children in high school and college so we have to save our pennies (and more) to be able to experience our next trip.

Sorry for the long post... I just needed to say how I felt about the whole subject. :)

Safe sailing to everyone that has trips soon. I sure wish we were sailing sometime soon!

~Mary

I agree with the statements before. Yes, if you have sailed the many days it takes to get "free" laundry - you deserve it!! But for the rest of us trying to earn those days to make it to the level to finally get the free laundry - I'd like a discount, especially if I have sailed on Regent before, to make my vacation a little less stressful. Depending on the length of the trip, I might think the laundry costs would be worth it or maybe not. That would be my decision to participate in the offer of paying for a service, like $10 per day. Honestly, knowing me - I would take it.... just so I wouldn't have to worry about laundry while I am on vacation. I've done laundry for my family of 4 on trips over 7 days, twice. Sometimes it would be nice not to have to worry about that while on vacation (even if I have to pay extra). I know they have laundry priced per item (like a shirt for $7-$9). I won't pay per item, I like how other cruise lines do a bag a day for $10.

On the Navigator we asked our butler to open them, since it was our first Regent cruise.

When we got to our suites on the Explorer this summer, it was very easy to do it ourselves. Required no tools. The room stewardess didn't say anything when she saw us opening them. We did close them before we left the ship.

We were able to open the dividers on our veranda to our family's suite next door on the Navigator and also the Explorer. On the Explorer, we were able to connected three verandas together.

We have sailed other lines that offer a cruise specials for under $100 for laundry services from your cabin for the trip (10 days) and it was worth it to me to pay a little knowing that my laundry was taken care of, rather than me dealing with it during my vacation. We've only sailed 19 nights on Regent - so I knew that we had no free laundry services for us. That was fine, I knew the rules and didn't expect anything from Regent. I knew others got free services, but that is o.k., I haven't put in my time with Regent, yet. If they were to offer a service at a "reasonable price" I might take them up on the offer. Otherwise, I was fine dealing with laundry on my own.

I must admit that I had no issues about using the laundry facilities on the Explorer (June 2017) and only a slight wait on the Navigator (2014). I understood with the class of our room, and our status with Regent, we didn't get laundry services. I did worry about laundry a little since we had a few days before the cruise that we were vacationing and we were staying longer in London after our cruise. I worried that I might not have enough clean clothes. It all worked out and honestly, as long as I put the timer on my phone for when the clothes were to be finished, I was able to transfer them quickly in and out of the washer and dryer. I am a courteous person that doesn't like others to wait on my clothes to get out of the washer/dryer, so I made sure it all worked out. We had a family of 4, so I appreciated having 3 washer/dryers to work with on the Explorer!

When and if we are able to make it to the level to earn "free" laundry services, I look forward to that day.:)

We had a class D on deck 9 near the aft elevators. I actually enjoyed the location of the cabin. Very easy to get around the ship. Even though the elevators don't go down to Compass Rose - the short walk to the forward elevators takes two minutes. Enjoy the walk on deck 5 or up along the pool, if it is a nice day. For me, we didn't find anything that was bad about the location of the aft. Granted we did travel around the British Isles, and the day we were at the north end of Scotland, where we traveled from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean - everyone felt the motion of the ship. But that was only for a few hours. My husband slept through it all.;)

We traveled in June with a big group, five teenagers and a few adults that love pizza (a total of 13). I know that the pool grill during lunch time offered the best options with pizza. They were very good and offered many varieties. We had a few vegetarian travelers, and they felt like the pizza fit the bill while other meat lovers enjoyed the pizza that was offered. My teens did order pizza for room service, in fact my daughter was part of the teen program and they offered pizza for them many times. I don't think your husband will feel that he is missing anything if going on a Regent cruise. We did enjoy a few meals at Sette Mari and everything was so good, I don't even remember if they offered pizza.:) Enjoy!

I found our flight information on my account with Regent for our trip. My TA didn't notify me until a day or two later. Granted, she did have a "heads up" on what our flights might be, but not officially until about 70-75 days out. Keep checking your account and see if it shows up.

We just got off the Explorer, and the laundry rooms were very convenient. I realize the OP is going to Alaska and will be on another ship. When we did the Alaska trip on the Navigator, we were able to do laundry. It was busy, but we were able to get some done.

Here is what I thought about the Explorer. It seemed that 80% of the time I went in to see if the washers were empty, they were. We were on an 11 day trip, but with days before the trip and extending our stay afterwards, my family of four definitely needed to get some laundry done (we were gone for over 16 days).

I always set my phone (only for the timer) to let me know when to come back to check on the wash. I would always set the timer to allow myself time to get back to the laundry rooms. No one moved anything and the timers on the washers were true to the actual time needed to complete the cycle. I found that most people were very considerate of not leaving clothes in the washer or dryer longer that the expected time. I'm sure if that were the case, there were laundry baskets provided to put someone's dry clothes into if you needed the dryer.

Detergent is provided. If you want dryer sheets, you will need to supply those on your own. The Explorer has 3 washers/dryers in each laundry room and also has two laundry rooms on most floors with cabins. I was worried about trying to get clean clothes before we disembarked, but I had many opportunities to get my laundry done during our trip.

:)

Hi Rarin2go-

Although we were the "other couple" that met with you during the "cruise critic meet & mingle", I am happy we did show up to say hello. You and Elizabeth were always so nice and happy every time we ran into you on the cruise. It was nice to make the connection and enjoy the trip with you. It was unfortunate that the mingle was set up for the first day we got on the ship at 6:00 pm. Either people didn't notice their invitations, or they were busy with unpacking since we had just finished the muster drill.

We enjoyed meeting the officers at the mingle. I think Regent expected there to be more people at the mingle, they had made a nice spread of food. Thankfully, they had the staff go around to the rest of the passengers that were in the Explorer Lounge, not in the mingle, to enjoy the nice appetizers. The staff were so nice, and also said to tell Travelcat2 and Mr. Rumor "hello". Although I don't know you both personally, I thought I'd give you a Shout Out to know that they do listen and follow you, and other passengers, on Cruise Critic.

After being home from an extended stay in London, I finally was able read your report on the trip. Aside from all the communication about the cruise director's upcoming hiatus, I think you gave a wonderful review of the trip. We loved the Explorer. Felt like the ship handled all the rough seas that we encountered. We loved the ports that we visited. Wished we could had better weather.... but that wasn't anyone's fault. It is what it is. We learned to carry rain coats and umbrellas. Not a big deal.

We were a big group (13). We always went to Compass Rose by 7:00 pm. They had a table of 8 and 6 for us. Ivan (CR Manager) was very nice to make sure he saved a few tables for us. Sometimes we were in the "main area" or even in the back of the restaurant. The last night, we sat in the left side of the restaurant and had the best service. We told the staff that we wished we had requested that area the entire trip! :) Not to say, the other staff at CR wasn't good. They were and they were very nice and sweet to my father-in-law. He suffered a broken hip a few months ago, so they were very accommodating to him with him limited mobility. Ivan also helped me arrange a special 80th birthday cake at Chartreuse one night, which was very nice.

I also wanted to add that I loved the fact that the laundry facilities were so convenient. Not that I wanted to do laundry during my vacation, but I am a mom with a family of 4. We were gone for 16 days.... we needed to do laundry. 90% of the time I checked the laundry, I could put 3 loads of laundry in the wash. That saved so much time for me to have 3 washers going at one time. I was holding off using my onboard money, incase I needed to send out laundry, but I was able to get everyone's laundry in our family done before our last stop that I actually enjoyed our last day at port and didn't worry about the dirty clothes. :)

Thank you, Alan, for making a wonderful summary of the trip with your updates on this thread. It was fun to read what you wrote to re-live the trip again!!!

We used Alla Tours in St. Petersburg (2011). It was wonderful. We were there for two days. We had a group of 12, and our "private van" met 2 more people from a Regent Ship (we were on Holland American at the time). They were the nicest people from London. They talked up the Regent cruise line, so we did look into it for a later trip in 2013 to Alaska and loved it.

The private tour was a great experience. Between the 14 of us we ranged in age from 8 - 80. Everyone was treated well and we saw ALL the sights. Since Regent offers "free" tours, I realize that it is tempting to go with what is included. But, if you really want to see ALL the wonderful sights there are to see in St. Petersburg, I would go with a private tour. It will be worth the cost. They will detail the tour and get you early tickets into most sights. Even with Regent, you are part of a tour. With a smaller tour group, you will be able to see more sights and not have to wait. We loved the two days we were in St. Petersburg. My children think the tour was a big highlight in their lives. :)

:)We traveled on Holland America to St. Petersburg and used Alla-Tours.com for a private tour. We had a party of 12 and it worked out perfectly. Alla Tours picked us up right from where the ship docked. All the visas were taken care of. No worries. You just print out what they tell you to do and we were through customs.

We actually were joined by a nice couple from a Regent Ship (they were picked up after we were). They were from the UK, and we are from US. The small tour van was very nice and comfortable. It was very enjoyable and the tour was wonderful. We saw all the sights!

We actually did a two day tour with the company. Worth every penny! We didn't wait in any lines, we were in the Hermitage early and there were no crowds. This was in July, so we were sure it would be busy. I also think RedOctober is a company out of St. Petersburg that does private tours.

Good luck with your decision. I think if you are only there for one day... go with a private tour! You'll see a lot more and the guide will be wonderful.

I would give Alla-Tours 5 Stars! They were wonderful and we saw so much for the short time we were there. (The couple on Regent were so nice, that made us look into using Regent. We are about to take our second cruise in June!!).:)

Our first Regent Cruise was to Alaska two years ago. It was wonderful. We were on the Navigator. I can't really answer any questions to your question about your particular ship, though.

Depending on your activity level, try to enjoy all excursions that take you out to see the wild life of Alaska. Many of our family members loved the whale sighting excursions. I loved the kayak and hiking trips. It all depends on what you want to do.

Since we are from Florida, Alaska is so different in ways, what we loved the diversity of the landscape and being able to do new things off the boat.

On the boat, we loved every aspect of our trip. We were a large group of 12, so our experiences maybe different than a group of only two traveling. What stands out in my mind is that the Regent crew and staff were so willing to make everyone in our group (ages from 12 - 82) feel wonderful and happy for the entire trip. We didn't expect a lot from anyone, but coming off the boat we were all Regent costumers for life!

I hope you have a wonderful experience on your trip. You'll enjoy it! This last cruise was my 3rd trip to Alaska (all on different cruise lines), but Regent was my favorite.

:-)

We've been to Alaska three times. Every excursion we've been on has been wonderful. Not sure of your age, but taking a hike on an excursion, or kayaking, has been a highlight. For my son though, although we went on great excursions, didn't see any whales, while others in our group did. They signed up for every whale watching trip that was available. It all really depends on what you want to do. For him, looking back now, I wish we had signed up for more whale watching tours. Although my daughter and I enjoyed every walk we took through every National and State park that was available. Sitka is our favorite city. We spent the 4th of July there. What a wonderful parade!!! Loved it!