hamasgirl

Lonedaddy...we did this cruise pre-Covid...in 2018. The seas were pretty rough for most of the cruise. In one port, we had started to sail in and as we did that they closed the port so we turned around and headed back out to sea. The day was spent sailing around in the roiling seas before leaving for our next port. And we never got to Maputo, Mozambique...again because of rough seas. This cruise was over Christmas/ New Years so I don't know if this is typical weather for this time of the year or we were just unlucky. Hope that helps (or maybe not!)

We tried a Penthouse C suite on Splendor in 2023 and loved it. We started in Suite 700 the first time we booked and found it very comfortable and LOVED watching sail-in and sail-outs from our balcony at the front of the ship. We have since sailed in suite 800 and will only be sailing in Penthouse suites 700, 800 or 900 going forward. My husband has a tendency toward getting seasick but found no increased motion in these suites on the Splendor. We loved the spaciousness of the entry to the suite. There is a small table and chairs where we can do our work from or have in-suite dining with plenty of space away from the seating area and TV portion of the room. And we like the size of the walk-in closet with its range of drawers and cubbies where we easily stored all of our clothes for the cruises we have been on. We haven't had to use drawers outside of the closet. The balcony is great ...large with plenty of room for a large table and two chairs plus a full size lounge chair. We had a wonderful time cruising along the Amalfi coast while eating our dinner on the balcony on one of our cruises. Overall, having always cruised in Concierge-level balcony suites prior to 2023, we won't go back. We really enjoy Penthouse suites on Splendor and are looking forward to sailing in one next week on Grandeur.

We did the Capetown to Capetown cruise with Regent pre-Covid. I can't answer your question about vineyards but I would agree that doing a vineyard tour either pre- or post-cruise is preferable and Regent did offer that back when we cruised. One thing tho...basically S Africa closes down for the month of December to celebrate. When we took tours in various ports, any public place (like a museum) would only be open for the tour folks for the duration of the tour. We also found that the locals were doing caravan vacations (what we call camping) in many of the seaside venues limiting where we could walk/visit on our own. We had taken advantage of the pre-cruise game reserve stay that was offered by Regent which was magical and many of the ports offered day visits to various reserves which people enjoyed. So I would say that game reserve visits are some of the best tours to think about for this cruise.

It really depends on the port where the back-to-back is connecting the two. Different customs rules apply depending on the port which will impact what Regent has to do in that port. Our latest back-to-back took place in Miami...there were a couple of tours offered for us b2bs and when our tour came back we met by a ship's officer who led us through the crowd of passengers waiting to board for the second half of our b2b and to the ship. Even though we had cruised in the Caribbean and stopped in some Mexican ports during the first part of the b2b I don't remember anything required from customs for us in Miami. YMMV

Dave A....Just a thought (and nothing more than that). Regent may be encountering some sort of event going on in Reykjavik the day before embarkation that may be causing the difficulty with room reservations. We were in Reykjavik in August one year where they were having some sort of celebration...Reykjavik was mobbed all day and the parties and noise went on well into the early morning hours. We were happy for the revelers but really not appreciative of our lack of sleep. We had done our own pre-cruise hotel arrangements so we don't know if Regent did this same thing then. Just a couple of quick notes. If you have never stayed in hotels in Reykjavik, there is no such thing as air conditioning. We have stayed in multiple 4 star hotels and all of them had small windows that you could open to cool down the room. The airport is a significant distance from downtown Reykjavik, so a transfer from there will cost. The transfer from the hotel (if staying in Reykjavik) to the port will be relatively cheap since the ship will dock basically downtown. We have stayed in Hilton Nordica and The Grand (both are the hotels that Regent uses) and were not thrilled with either one. The food was much better in Nordica. Both hotels are within walking distance of each other but well outside of Reykjavik. We did stay in a hotel in downtown Reykjavik years ago (can't remember the name at this point) which gave us access to some wonderful restaurants in the surrounding streets. Reykjavik is small and walkable so I recommend that you try to get a hotel in Reykjavik.

Hi lascott. When you are seated at the table on the balcony for dinner you do see the steel rails. But anything in the line of sight above those rails is fully visible. As an example, we were anchored off of the Amalfi coast until late in the evening on our Splendor cruise. While having dinner we watched the lights on the hillside twinkle on as the sun went down. An absolutely beautiful memory that we still talk about and we did not get up from the table to see it. So anything down at water level...maybe the dock or something happening on the water next to the ship require that you stand by the railing to see it. But many, many sights are at eye level (or above) when sitting at the table and the railing does not get in the way at all. Hope that you get the suite that you want but if you can't I don't think PH 800 will not be a disappointment.

We have cruised on suites 700 and 800 on Splendor. Will be in Suite 700 on Grandeur at the end of the month. We really enjoy these suites for a few reasons. 1) these suits have only 1 large suite on each side and their balconies go around the corner of the ship so being out on the balcony of our suite is as close to private as can be. Agree that the front and sides of the balcony are metal but that made the balcony totally sheltered from wind when we took advantage of the table and chairs out there for dinners and snacks while underway. 2) there is no foot traffic along the short corridor that our suite door is on. While there is a storage closet for the cabin steward across the corridor we found our location extremely quiet. 3) we absolutely love watching sail in and sail away from the balcony...it is so nice doing that privately with butler-delivered drinks and munchies! My husband is very prone to seasickness and we took a trans-Atlantic cruise that was very rough and he did fine. And while there may be noise when the ship maneuvers into and out of port the only real loud sounds that we noticed were when the ship dropped anchor. Then the clanking is loud but only lasts a few minutes. We enjoy these suites and will continue to book them whenever we can.

We have done this a number of times...our own airline arrangements but staying at the Regent hotel pre-cruise. And you are correct...you need to make your own way from the airport to the hotel as per our experience. Once at the hotel you will check in at the Hotel's Reception Desk just like any other guest. Regent has a slate of rooms reserved for its cruisers but they have nothing to do with hotel processes. And you will need to adhere to whatever the hotel's check-in time (and check-out time) is. Whenever we fly overseas to the embarkation port, we always reserve another day prior to Regent's arrival day (at our own expense) so that we can go right to our room to freshen up from the flight no matter when we arrive. You just need to let the hotel know that you will be arriving later than the normally expected check-in time. Somewhere in the lobby area (ask at reception) there will be a Regent check-in desk. They will check your name off of their list, ask you what time (ie bus) you would like to use to go to the ship (unless that has already been pre-arranged) and provide you with a letter about all of the details for embarkation. Usually they provide instructions about when and where to have your non-hand luggage ready for pickup on embarkation day, what time and where breakfast will be available and other information about the embarkation city. They may even offer embarkation day tours available that would drop you off at the ship at the end. I hope that answers your questions

We have sailed in both 700 and 800 Penthouse C suites (the ones at the point of the bow). Both balconies had a table (about 4 ft diameter) with 2 chairs, a full lounger and then a long box (size and shape of the lounger) that was used to store the cushions. All of that left plenty of room to walk up along the front of the balcony to watch what the ship was either sailing into or what was happening at the dock/ship in front of you. We love these particular suites and go out of our way to book them. We have booked suite 700 on our upcoming cruise on Grandeur and expect the same experience. We did learn on Splendor that the bow camera captures picture of your head if you stand at the balcony rail in suite 700 and then a lesser amount of your head in 800. It is the way the camera is angled. It never bothered us but YMMV.

This past August we experienced the same. Being in a Penthouse suite we were eligible for a 1 night free pre-cruise hotel stay. Regent put us in the Hilton Nordica Reykjavik. On the post-cruise overnight in Reykjavik they put us in the Grand Hotel Reykjavik. Both hotels are within walking distance from each other. Both hotels are well outside of downtown Reykjavik and not within walking distance of the town. But the Hop-on-hop-off bus stops right at the Hilton Nordica and you can easily buy tickets at the hotel for it. And this hotel is directly across from the US embassy which I thought was neat. I thought the food at the Nordica hotel was delicious, not so much at the Grand. An item to be aware. On flight to Reykjavik from the east coast (we flew in from Newark), arrival time in Reykjavik is very early morning. I think we arrived at about 5:45 am with favorable winds. Small airport, relatively quick customs and baggage pickup. Drive to the hotel from the airport is about 35 - 45 minutes. So we were at the hotel well before 8 am. Rooms are not available until 3 PM checkin and there is no wiggle room on that (we have tried on our first trip there with Regent). So, this time we paid for the night before and notified the hotel that we wouldn't be arriving until early morning. Our room was ready so we could clean up from the flight, park our luggage and then have breakfast and proceed with our day. One last thing. Sometimes when you arrive in Reykjavik, the plane lets the passengers out onto the tarmac where you walk to a bus that takes you to the terminal. And it is COLD in the early morning so make sure that you have some sort of sweater/ jacket for the walk to the bus. Of the three times that we have flown into Reykjavik, this has happened to us twice. Hope this helps!

Just an add-on to what has already been said. Since we have the majority of our dinners in the Compass Rose we try and find a waiter/tress that we like and then ask for a table in their area going forward. They quickly learn that we are requesting them and go the extra mile after that to make our dining experience even more special, remembering our like/dislikes and making sure that we eat at the pace that we prefer. Makes all the difference in the world for us enjoying our dining experience.

Last year prior to a transatlantic cruise leaving out of Miami, Regent put us up at the Mandarin Oriental on Brickel Key. It was lovely...perfect location overlooking the water, lovely bar and grounds. We could see the ship (the Splendor) at dock from our hotel balcony. Next March we are taking another cruise leaving out of Miami and I expected the same pre-cruise hotel. This time they assigned us the Biltmore Hotel which did not impress me based on the reviews that I read online. So we took the hotel credit a booked ourselves into the Mandarin Oriental again.

Just be aware that the Newark to Iceland flight arrives in Reykjavik airport around 6:15 am their time (and often a bit earlier if the jet stream is flowing fast). The airport is about 45 minutes outside of Reykjavik. So all-in-all you will be at your hotel pretty early in the morning. We always pay for the hotel room the night before so the room is available when we arrive. We have not yet slept overnight in the 4 times we have taken the Newark to Reyjkavik flight and very little is open that early in the morning in Reykjavik. We usually take a quick nap, freshen up and then greet the day to explore the sights.

We have been to Reykjavik a number of times and have stayed in "Regent included" hotels three times. They are outside of Reykjavik. One, the Hilton Reykjavik, is pretty much away from most things but the food is very good. The other, the Grand, is basically around the corner and its food is not nearly as good. I would recommend taking the credit and trying to stay in town since Reykjavik is lovely, has lots of things to see and experience within town and some lovely little spots to grab a bite. Just a couple of words of caution. Stuff, in general, is pretty expensive. And the hotel rooms that we have experienced across all of our stays have been different from any other European hotels that we have enjoyed. The main thing that is consistent everywhere is that hotel rooms are hot and hard to cool (never experienced air conditioning in our room). Iceland takes advantage of their geothermal heat and use it everywhere. Hotel rooms get really warm which will be great in the winter but we have always been there in the summer (cruise season). And the hotels that we stayed at all had windows in their rooms that opened...but they were small and never did much to help. But Icelandic folks are lovely and Reykjavik is fun to spend some time in. Enjoy!

Oops. Correction. We left Splendor on 8/31

My husband and I left Splendor on 7/31 and we both tested positive for COVID the next day when we arrived home. In addition my husband experienced additional symptoms which surely indicated norovirus. On our cruise, the crew often wore face masks which they quickly removed when they started interacting with the passengers. And one of the shows had to be postponed until the entertainers had recovered. So I would suggest that both COVID and norovirus have circulated on Splendor for several weeks. Yes we frequently washed our hands and always used the hand sanitizers before entering any public space. But we didn’t wear our masks which we probably should have.

We stayed on the Hotel Sofia post cruise last year through Regent. Hotel was fine. While it is outside of the tourist areas, the Hop on Hop Off bus stop is right across the corner from the Hotel. And once on that line (I think it was the Red line) you had the option of shifting to another color line (maybe green?) at one of the stops to see a different part of the city...including the Cathedral. We were only in town for a single full day before we boarded the next day so we spent a good part of the day hopping on and hopping off that bus and saw lots of different areas of Barcelona.

Yes...this happened to me too...about a week before our recently completed cruise. Check with the airline and you will see that your flight is still there. The flight details disappear from the Regent page for your cruise as soon as you can no longer 'customize' anything about it. I got caught with the same worry until my husband patiently informed me of that fact!

Agree with the comments on the Grand Hotel Reykjavik. We too spent one night post-cruise there (we were on the same cruise as Boblerm). It took us a while to figure out that there was a switch on the wall near the light switch that opened a window at the top of the window wall of the room. It helped cool down the room. But for us the most annoying thing about the room was the shower in the bathroom. A full height glass curved 'wall' that could be moved. But since it was only about 18-20 inches wide, no matter how you tried to move it you couldn't contain the splashes when taking a shower. And since the shower was right in front of the toilet we managed to have a totally wet floor and toilet that took a great deal of work with the wafer thin bath towels to try to dry up. Since we too are of a certain age, making a night time trip to the bathroom was an exercise in soggy feet. Yuck!

In general Alaskan tours are very expensive compared to other cruising areas. Their season is short (mainly May through October) and the distances that various sites are from the ports can be long. So tours as a result are pricey. That being said, how often are you going to experience some of these activities? Glaciers, dog-sledding etc. As recommended, sign up as soon as you are eligible to do so for the ship-offered tours. The scenery and nature that abounds in the area will be wonderful to experience on almost any tour you take. We have taken 3 Alaska cruises and would definitely do another one if we didn't have so many other parts of the world to see first. Also consider staying for a couple of days at either your embarkation or disembarkation port if you have the time. Vancouver and Seattle (where many cruises either start or end) are magnificent cities to explore.

We did a back-to-back through Miami in Mar/April this year. They offered 2 tours for the B-t-B passengers...the hop-off-hop-on bus tour and an Everglades Airboat tour. We did the Airboat tour and it was fabulous. Highly recommend and we were back to the ship by around noon. When we left on the tour they gave us color-coded wristbands which allowed us to go around all of the check-ins and go directly back to the ship. Hope that helps

We just did a back-to-back cruise on Splendor in Mar/April. Our turnover port was Miami. Quite a few people did stay on like we did for the 2nd cruise (a transatlantic). When we were selecting our tours for both cruises there were 2 tours offered for Miami on turnover day along with all of the other ports on the two cruises. We signed up for one just like we did for the other ports. No need to wait until we were on board. On turnover day, when we arrived in the theater to get our bus number for the tour, they also put colored wristbands on each of us. When we arrived back from the tour...and in the midst of the horde of people checking in, a shoreside Regent person met us at the bus and escorted us through a series of different walkways that avoided the on-coming folks and took us directly to the swipe-in on board. We then had free run of the ship just like we did when returning from any other tour in any other port. Easy peasy and nothing special required of us.

Hi Buckgood. The CD is a woman named Jude who seems to be new to the Regent fleet from what I could tell. Also the asst CD is also a young lady whose name never stuck with me. They have a ton of energy. Enjoy your cruise!

Just a quick update on this current Splendor cruise. We finally docked in Madeira after 6 days at sea yesterday, The seas are fine today on our last day sailing to Lisbon. The boardings on the windows were all finally removed by yesterday morning so seeing the sun on Deck 4 was wonderful! As our first experience doing a cross-Atlantic cruise I can say it was an experience!

We often book back-to-back cruises that are offered that way by Regent and have 1 booking number. In all cases for us, the turnover city for the back-to-back cruise is listed like any other port to chose tours. The only difference that I have found is that number of tours offered for that port is usually smaller than for the other ports.