loriva

Sorry, for some reason I thought you had said October, without a year. My mistake. I have no experience with corporate cruises with Regent but with cruises offered to the public, a variety of shore excursions are part of the cruise fare--"free," if you will. So, no need to spend any money on shorex if you find included shorex to your liking--well, except for anything you want to buy on the excursion, any food or drink if not mentioned as part of the shorex, and tips for driver and guides. If your corporate cruise does not include no-additional-charge shorex, then, yes, Livorno would be the port to spring for a tour. Look at the destination boards--there is one for Italy--for lots of recommendations of tour companies to use.

Ah, a different water bus company! ACTVs routes do not stop at the dock by our hotel, however. So, we will need to figure out which walk is easier--from Tronchetto to Marittima with Alilaguna Linea Blu or Sacca Fisola or La Palanca on ACTV Line 4.2. Thanks again,

@steamboats Thank you for the very detailed response. Exactly the kind of information needed to be ready. Yes, I saw Linea Blu used to have seasonal service directly to the cruise port, but it is not on their timetables for this year. Unfortunately, none of the vaporetto lines appear to service the Piazzalle Roma that I can see from the Alilaguna website. Maybe the concierge at our hotel will have other information. The walk from the Tronchetto stop for the Linea Blu to Terminal 117 appears to be 1.3km. That should be doable with our luggage. It is difficult to justify a price of €145 for a water taxi for such a short distance from our hotel, the Hilton Molino Stucky.

Looks like your cruise is 19-24 October 2024, when the Splendor shows a gap in its public offerings, going from Barcelona to Rome (Civitavecchia). Monte Carlo, Portofino, and Sorrento are all easy ports to walk around and explore on your own. Regent will likely offer a number of tours that include walking around these cities. Livorno is for Florence, so you'll likely be on a bus there (maybe including Pisa). Will be a combination of walking and riding around Florence for some vistas. For tips on the ship, make your way over to the "Reviews" section or read any of the "Live from" threads. It is a beautiful ship. All of the food--including specialty restaurants--are built into the fare, so you won't have to spend money there.

We're planning on taking a water taxi from the airport to the hotel for our stay in Venice prior to our cruise. According to the map, it is one stop (9 minutes) from our hotel to the cruise port area on the vaporetto -- and €16 versus €145. We took the vaporetto from our hotel to the airport on our previous visit to Venice (with luggage) and it worked out fine. What we're trying to find out is the exact terminal Regent is using at Marittima as there are multiple ones. If you have had experience boarding there this year, please let us know which terminal was used. Many thanks,

@steamboats -- There are multiple terminals at the Stazione Marittima according to this map on the port operator's website: https://www.vtp.it/en/info-operatori/crociere/. Do you recall which terminal (103, 107, 117, etc.?) you used? It's still six weeks until our cruise so hope we'll receive more information from our cruise line (Regent) in the final documents. On our preliminary docs, they give the check-in location as Fabbricato 248, which seems to correspond to Terminal 103. We're thinking of arriving by vaporetto from our hotel, so trying to nail down the building we need go to after disembarking the water bus at the Tronchetto stop. We're not certain if Regent will have local staff at the Tronchetto stop, so want to be prepared to go it alone. (We know this is in the hands of the local operator, so have little hope that Regent sales agents in the United States would have accurate information. So, no point in calling to ask--better answers here from those who have experienced boarding in Venice.) Many thanks,

Thanks. Do you remember where exactly the water taxi dropped you and the building to which the Seabourn reps walked you?

@Vineyard View Could you elaborate a bit on your experience of getting to Marittima, please? When you look at the map of the port area in Venice, there are a number of terminals listed around the two channels making up the port. The information from our cruise line (Regent) lists the Cruise Terminal at Fabbricato 248. On Google Maps, this brings up a building on the west side of the eastern channel. Does that accord with where you remember going to check in? Making things more confusing, the ferry terminal called "Marittima" is on the eastern side of that channel. I understand that once we check in at the cruise terminal Regent will bus us to Fusina to board the ship, but we do not have transfers from the cruise line from our hotel to Marittima. So, we're trying to figure out the easiest way to get there but need to pinpoint where "there" is first. Also, I can figure out where the vaporettos dock from the map--at the Tronchetto stop on the western channel--but not where a water taxi would (or should) let us off. If you arrived privately at the cruise terminal, what means did you use and where did it drop you? Many thanks,

Somewhat answering my own question above, I had my TA contact Regent about adding their transfer from the hotel to the Venice Cruise Terminal (aka Marittima). By way of background, we booked our flights through Regent, arriving early, and are staying at the cruise hotel but we did not book the hotel through Regent. So, we're on our own for transfers from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the cruise terminal. Regent did, however, offer to allow us to buy it from them (some on CC.com have said you could not if you didn't buy the hotel through Regent). The charge would be $349 for two. In comparison, a private water taxi would be less than half that price. The official site of Venice's water taxi consortium, https://www.motoscafivenezia.com/en, quotes a price of €145 for up to 10 pax and 10 bags; each additional bag is €5. It also appears we could take the water bus (vaporetto). Linea Blu stops at the Hilton Molino Stucky and then it is one-stop, 9 minutes to the Tronchetto stop and then the moving walkway to the cruise terminal. That fare would be €8 each plus €3 additional if we have more than one suitcase and one carry-on each. This is, of course, showing what the map and the internet says, not yet an experienced reality. (We did take a vaporetto from our hotel to the airport on our last visit to Venice and it was fine, but neither of us have any mobility challenges so that could make a difference to one's planning.)

We wish we were!

We had a similar issue this week. I found a change on our outbound United flights. When I called the Air Concierge, the agent informed me that our inbound Alaska flight had been cancelled. I had researched the replacement United flight I wanted (and we eventually received) but had missed the return change. (And, yes, I should have checked on that leg as well.) It took multiple calls to Regent and research to find a new connection we liked (and then it came with an upcharge.) The airlines are still constantly changing things as they continue to staff up since the pandemic and I'm sure Regent is facing the same issue. But there has to be a technical fix for this--a computer program that sends out changes as soon as they are received by Regent. Maybe our friend Mike Moore can comment?

Can anyone explain this mystery, please? Actually, two. When the Custom Air booking window opened in June for our cruise in January 2024 from Sydney to Singapore, Regent booked us on an itinerary using United on the outbound and EVA Air and Alaska on the return. Our domestic flights on United changed and when I called the Air Concierge to rebook those, the agent also informed me that Alaska had cancelled our final leg. The agent changed our port of entry in the United States from Seattle to LAX. There were three flights (all red-eyes) available to MCO--one each on United, American, and jetBlue. EVA Air is a United partner, but for some reason Regent could only book us on jetBlue--on an aircraft that only has economy seats. The agent said the EVA Air and United flight "did not fare together"--direct quote. Any idea what that means? Why would flights on partner airlines not be bookable together? So, back to the drawing board and I found a fare in "P" class on ANA and United. The ANA flights are codeshared with United. The flights are also less expensive--at least the prices I can see--than the EVA/jetBlue connection. Yet, Regent wants to change us an $800/pp surcharge. Regent's explanation was it was the change from economy to first on the domestic leg. I thought the upgrade to first was usually included when staying with the same airline/alliance. Could it be because the flights were booked as ANA rather than United codeshare? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

There is lots of information in the sticky on Regent flights--you might find someone who has had your routing there. To see if the United non-stop is an option--when flights open up (and you'll need both outbound and return dates)--do a search on the United website. Use the "advanced search" option and look for a "P" fare. That is the deepest discount fare and the one Regent books. It will show up in the second column of prices--look for the header "fare searched." Even if the fare is available, however, you might have to pay a surcharge over the air allowance from Regent. We just faced that with a return flight from Singapore after an airline cancelled its flight that was part of our original itinerary. I found a "P" fare on United and partner ANA, but still had to pay an upcharge as we were changing from the originally booked EVA Air.

The information you need is here: https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/planning/transportation-cruise-terminals. The Splendor will be at Ocean Quay, C332. This should be on your cruise documents. Your documents should also list an all-aboard time. It is usually two hours prior to sailaway.

When I booked air with Regent in June, the agent told me they contracted with ALL major airlines. They might, of course, have a preferred contractor for certain routes or have sold out of the restricted fare seats for which they contract. Regarding the latter, as others have posted, if you cannot find a discounted/restricted business class fare on the airline's website, Regent will have no seats on that itinerary to offer.

Has anyone used the Regent transfer from the included hotel (believe it is the Hilton Molino Stucky) to reach the Marine Terminal? How has that been?

Any idea if Voyager is scheduled for a dry dock and renovation in the next year or so? Regent's little sister Oceania did a major renovation on a number of its ships last year and the bathrooms on those are now excellent. And thank you very much for your excellent live report! We'll be on a different itinerary but sailing Voyager for the first time in February 2025 so eagerly following your comments on the ship and life onboard.

We used https://www.justairports.com for years when we lived in London. And used them last year for transfer from LHR to Southampton for our British Isles cruise.

Two hours for transfer in Frankfurt is fine--PRESUMING your incoming flight is on time. Check on FlightAware to see the records (on-time or average delay) on the flights you are considering through there. For us, flights out of Orlando to FRA average 40-60 minutes late (afternoon storms in Florida are daily events) so that would drop that connection time to 60-80 minutes. Given the huge size of FRA and the likelihood you will be changing terminals from the international to Schengen flight, that time gets tight quickly. If you plan on traveling to Europe more frequently in the future and using FRA, you can register for their trusted traveler program. You do need a long layover (4 hours) for that as you need to leave airside to go to the German border police office in the airport to register and then reclear security and travel back to your gate area. It allows you to use the e-gates for passport control, potentially much quicker. (We registered back in December and will test it in October.)

Also, they all seem to take credit cards.

So sorry to hear that. As you know, many folks here report getting different answers from different agents. But why should we have to do that? Really looking forward to hearing your experience with the Scenic Unforgettable Douro cruise next month. We are booked on AmaWaterways for the Douro at the end of a TA cruise in 2025 as they (and Viking) are the only ones offering 2025 dates yet. Also hope that Scenic's IT and customer service have improved--we loved the Scenic experience onboard last year but it was painful getting there.

Not my experience--but that seems to be the norm, i.e., there is no norm! I did not receive an email once flights were assigned (nor did my TA). They just showed up in MVJ--and much earlier than 150 days out. Good to hear you can cancel air even after final payment. Viking removed all of our air-related charges--maybe because we just cancelled the flights and did not attempt to change them?

Since Viking has such an early payment policy (until you've cruised with them and/or have another cruise on the books--which you can book currently for a $25 deposit--and then ask for a later payment date on the previously booked cruise), I'm not sure if they have a policy where a client can ADD air after the payment date. We had to pay at the end of 2020 for our first cruise with Viking River in December 2022 (almost two years out). As in your case, no flights were available to book at that time--airlines do not release flights until at most 360 days out. So, there would seem like there would have to be some accommodation for this--but I don't know. Again, what I related in my post is my first and only experience with Viking Air. I hope some of the more-experienced Viking cruisers will weigh in on your question. And, probably worth a call to Viking Air or an email to TellUs@Viking.com to ask and receive (I hope--answers can vary among agents) an official answer. The good news in this is you are able to fly out of MSP. As a major hub for Delta (which gobbled up Northwest Airlines many years ago), MSP seems to have good nonstop and one-stop availability to Europe (and Asia). We travel frequently with my sister who flies out of MSP and she frequently has much-better connections--nonstop or one-stop flights that leave later and arrive earlier than ours while still having decent connection times on the latter.

We just had our first experience with Viking Air, so hope this information helps you. To answer your first question, you can cancel Viking Air at any point up to the final payment date. We just did. We had added Viking Air Plus to be able to travel early and to select our flights to Budapest and return from Bucharest at the 300-day mark (at the END of your cruise or tour). I called Viking Air on that day and discussed the routes I wanted, starting with the only one-stop route available. (Orlando has very limited non-stops to Europe and some are seasonal only.) Viking wanted a $2K/pp supplement for the one-stop route. All of the other--all two-stop--routes also carried upcharges of about $400/pp each. The agent said it was "too early--flights were expensive." I found this a strange answer as my experience tracking airfares over the past two years has seen prices only go up, but we decided to wait. By chance, I checked My Viking Journey over the past weekend and found an air itinerary--there was no notification from Viking. (Not sure if that is normal or not--again our first experience with Viking Air.) The itinerary included two stops on both the outbound and inbound and did not include any of the routes I'd asked the agent about. The inbound had a flight from Bucharest to AMS (with a 4 1/2-hour layover) then to London Heathrow with only a 95-minute layover--much too tight for my taste at that airport. I had been tracking air options (Google Flights and Skyscanner are good ones to try), so I knew I could buy air on my own for about 2/3rds the price Viking was offering. I really had been holding out only to see if they could offer the non-stop MCO to FRA to make a one-stop route for the quoted price. Since they could not, I purchased air on my own and then had my TA call Viking to cancel the air. A new invoice showing it removed showed up later in the day. Viking only provides transfers from the airport when you fly in the same day as their program starts or ends. So that part of the Viking Air would only apply to half of our travel in any case (we are flying out on the end day). My experience (again, only once) with using air from a cruise line (Regent) is that they provide limited help in the case of flight issues. We faced this last year when Hurricane Ian closed MCO the day we were to return from a British Isles cruise. The cruise line could not fly us out until three days after the airport reopened as that was the first day they had contracted seats with the airline--although there were seats available on flights from the airline earlier. The hotel nights, meals, and transportation to the airport while we waited for the flight were all at our expense. I'm sure others have positive stories about help provided by using air booked through the cruise line, but this may or may not be your experience. In the end, it is a personal decision based on how much you are willing to be responsible for travel and any potential problems and whether the savings (which could disappear if you do face problems) are worth it to you.

Thanks for this information @rallydave. To follow-up, we live in Florida and our invoice from Regent includes a line for "Gov't fees and taxes." I would think--but do not know--that this would include port fees and/or taxes. It is a lump-sum figure for the full cruise, not broken out by individual port--but that is the way I also remember it being on mainstream cruise lines. That said, I do not recall a refund from Regent for missed ports on our most-recent cruise with them, a British Isles in September 2022. MAYBE they were refunded to our onboard account and we spent the money? I don't remember. Will try to remember to watch on our upcoming trips.