Tsunami74

We are booked on an up coming Vista cruise, but are concerned about complaints of noise and lack of sound proofing in cabins.

Being in such a cabin would ruin the cruise for us. Considering cancelling.

The problem seems to be different in different areas.  Has anyone been in or near cabin # 9034 on the Vista and can comment on noise level?

Thank you all.  Good to see there are choices

2 minutes ago, nancygp said:

Have your ta contact seabourn

Is there a name for this ? (like Regent has a pre-cruise package)

2 minutes ago, nancygp said:

yes

How does one find about this?

2 hours ago, Capri73 said:

We are doing the same cruise.SB has a 2 night in London with transfers Dover.We decided it was easier to do that.

 

Is this an add on?

We are considering a London to London cruise on the Sojourn.

The port is actually Dover.

For those who have been on this type of cruise, is it difficult to go from London to Dover (with luggage at hand) ?

How did you do it?

48 minutes ago, Colorado Coasty said:

You just pay the additional amount when you book.

Do you know it you can use on board credit for this?

We have $300 each in Simply More excursion credits.

A possible 3 excursions we picked would add up to $320.75

Can we just pay the $20.75 that is over?  Or use OBC?

Or do we have to somehow only choose excursions that add up to less than $300 each?

49 minutes ago, jeb_bud said:

Was your Pittsburgh to Houston flight in coach or first class?  Same airline all the way or different airlines?  

First to Houston.

Same airline to Australia (United Polaris business)

And yes, it is $125 for not being in a gateway city - would always have that surcharge deviating or not.

I have read on this forum that if your domestic flight connects with an international, it is first class for domestic leg, and it has been for us. However, I have not seen that in writing officially.

10 minutes ago, MELSMOM47 said:

Did they fly you from your city or did you need to get to a hub on your own?

From our city 

For example in January we flew Pittsburgh/Houston/Sydney.

One stop from Pittsburgh to Australia is pretty good.

We have used Regent airfare several times from a non gateway city without any deviation and have had pleasing results. Could not have picked better route ourselves. Maybe we are just lucky.

2 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Hi @flossie009 - I’m afraid that I can no longer provide you all with any assistance, as last month my time with Regent came to an end. It was my pleasure to help the CC community over these past 15 years, and I wish you all fair winds and following seas! 

Oh no!

Thank you for all the assistance that you have provided us.

Good luck in the future!

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

 

I will highly recommend Uniworld River Cruises for a trip on the Nile and Cairo. They take security seriously, conduct great tours, and the food is overall better than on Oceania. They also have a pre/post cruise extension to Petra.

We agree with this!

Excellent cruise and pre/post hotel and tour.

On 2/16/2024 at 7:06 PM, Sthrngary said:

@ak1004 We are on the same page.  That is the reason I have passed on Regent Seven Seas, Ritz Carlton, and Crystal.  When the value does not meet the price, I pass.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

At this point in our (relatively long) lives, when we fly long distances, we really appreciate (or I might say "need") business or first class flights. Otherwise, it would take 2 days to recover from a 10 hour + fight.

So value wise, Regent always comes out on top for distant cruises  

From our non gateway city, adding business air to Asia on even a Princess cruise makes it more expensive!

Otherwise, for a Caribbean cruise in/out Miami - both Oceania and Regent are great choices.

4 hours ago, WanderingBrit said:

“Safe” is the perfect way to describe Viking food; it’s generally competent but not very creative. 

I couldn't agree more!

We do much enjoy the more "creative" (for lack of a better description) on Oceania. For example, the pea vicchyssoise, sea bass in puff pastry, lobster gnocchi.

We do not get to enjoy this kind of fare on any other ship. We love it (and remember fondly), but admit it is not for everyone who might better enjoy a steak and potato.

We will be in a pent house suite on the Grandeur in April.  This will be the first time that we will have a butler.

Having been pleased with the room steward service on previous cruises, we are not sure what a butler would add.

Would anyone like to enlighten me as to what to expect?

13 hours ago, Sachasmom said:

If I can ask, what is the average group size on the pre/post cruise tours?

This can vary so much!

We were on a post tour out of Hong Kong to Xian China and there were less than 20 people.

We just got back from a post tour in Singapore with about 350 people!

The small group was excellent.

The Singapore group was handled about as well as could be done. However, we almost always went in the same order and our group was almost always last 😟 (but still a good experience)

Oceania and Regent are the two lines we use - just got off the Explorer.

The whole dining experience on both lines is excellent. Service comparable.

However, we feel Oceania ranks higher food wise. Both have very good food with very few misses,  but Oceania has some truly memorable meals.

Examples: Red Ginger vs. Pacific Rim, the miso sea bass at Red Ginger over the miso cod at Pacific Rim; the duck water mellon salad offered at both, it is much better on Oceania. Several dishes at Oceania's Jacques: the pea vichyssoise (so much depth of flavor), the scallop gnocchi, the sea bass wellington for two. On no other ship have we had such dishes.

We also appreciate that the buffet at breakfast and lunch on Oceania is all served by attendants (no touch by passengers).  This was true even before covid. Just seems to be more sanitary (although I haven't really seen anything egregious on Regent)

We just write out request and give to room attendant when he/she comes in to introduce.

This seems to work, but ours are very simple requests

10 minutes ago, cAPS lOCK oN said:

There is only one shower, along with the tub. The mirrors must have fooled the software that produced the VR tour.

There is a shower head which you can detach and hold in the tub

We have used both at the same time.

I love a bathtub, and this one is nice and roomy.

You can take a leisurely bath, then stand up and rinse your hair with he shower attachment.

16 hours ago, EagleScout66 said:

Dennis is one of the premier waiters anywhere on the Regent line😀👍

What ship/restaurant is he on?

7 hours ago, Vallesan said:

 

 

I find it odd that Oceania won’t move ‘personal possessions’ from beds  that have not been occupied for ‘hours’. Surely they must realise that this means some people can ‘commandeer’ a bed but never use it all day whilst other, ‘fare paying’ passengers, are left to fume because they can’t get a bed, when there are obviously beds that could be used.

 

 

We were on an admitted pre covid cruise in February 2020 on Riviera (maybe Marina?). The staff did monitor the loungers.  If only a book or something was on it, he put a card that said something like "this bed was unoccupied at 11:00 if no one is here at  11:30, items will be removed to the table".  They had a table set up on the edge.

This worked!

Despite being in the Carribean, it was not difficult to find a lounger in the shade.

I think if people knew that there was a good chance to get what they wanted, they would not need to "hog"

Sadly, this practice of monitoring/cards removing items and freeing loungers is no longer practiced

On 10/26/2023 at 10:02 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

When I was a kid my family was relocating from Germany back to the states per Army transfer. A stewardess gave me a set of Pan Am wings to wear on my shirt. When I showed up on the next flight (non Pan Am) the new flight attendant saw my wings and offered me a different pair to represent the new airline (can’t remember which). Perhaps I will bring my Celebrity tote bag since our category isn’t eligible for the Regent tote…worked when I was a kid!  🙂

We are in the Polaris Lounge in Houston awaiting our flight to Sydney.  We have Regent, Uniworld and Viking luggage tags, Oceania bag.  I think I have an Oceania tote packed.  If we like the product we use it!

13 minutes ago, Bongomauka said:

That’s a good question and may put this all in perspective. The bill for the evacuation is well over $100,000.

Yes that puts all this discussion in perspective!