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The change will be noted in your ticket that you get when on board. That could change again so be sure an check Passages the day of the tour for meeting time.

Seems to me jeans (classed above as casual wear) are still not acceptable after 6pm.

Refunds are few, only time for us was when almost everybody complained and they refunded what we paid extra. No refunds on free tours. BUT in over 100 tours provided by Regent all over the world before and after Covid, I have never seen anyone have to sit on the floor!!! Almost all tours we have taken with Regent have been good and ma y were excellent, but I researched the tours provided very carefully. We don’t do high activity tours nor just sit on the bus kind. Read about places visited on the tour and most importantly read between the lines….time travel on bus to sites, about the site, amount of walking, steps, standing, free time, food offered and shopping location. Regent almost always states the size of the bus or van if you won’t be in a full size bus….. usually no problem in Europe, Asia some of South America and Africa. The small uncomfortable coastal buses and school type buses are used in the Caribbean, Pacific islands and sone poorer countries…that is all they have so be forewarned. Usually they hold about 20-25 people and mostly are almost full on popular tours. We like to sit near the back and in tours that use buses we have been able to haves a double seat for each of us with empty seats leftover most of the time. Before we started sailing with Regent we did many private tours with a car and driver, but we also did ships tours. Regent draws from the same pool as all over cruise lines. We still do a car and driver some but most of the time we find something with Regent that is doing what we want.

Ray is the best….a Regent cruise with him as CD is special, and especially so on the Navigator. The ship’s size really makes Ray’s CD style shine!

This tax was in effect on the WC as long as we were along Brazil. I don’t think this is new.

Seems that on all cruises they have the needle work gathering about 4 in main lounge on sea days. Also most cruises have a craft class on sea days also. We had free needlepoint kits on three cruises this past Dec.

This was our experience in Dec when we went from the Splendor to the Navigator. You can’t walk right into Seti Mare at the peak dinner times and be seated. It is too popular on most ships. So plan ahead a little and go get on the list about 7:30 and then enjoy you bar time. They will call you when the table is ready

Hope you have a wonderful cruise! Regent does do a good job!

Agreed Regardless of whether you can find an official government statement about a negative test to board in Japan, this is required. These are the first cruises in Japan….most of the rest of the world opened to cruising months ago and has gotten through these baby steps.( fear of having to deal with a ship full of sick people) . This is a health issue not an itinerary change and there is still a lot of fear in this post Covid world, real or not. If you got very sick or injured within three days pre-cruise and after you had traveled overseas, Regent would not give you a refund. You would have to look to your own resources or you trip insurance. Really no different than testing positive for any illness, Covid in this case. Just many people don’t want to chance testing positive preboarding regardless of when the rules went into effect. Rules and regulations about health can and do change very fast. Especially true in this post Covid world. If you are not comfortable with the risk, don’t travel or insure yourself. Probably you are “beating a dead horse”🙂.

For this very reason if you are concerned about these possible kinds of changes in this Post Covid world, you should not book cruises or get cancel for any reason insurance.

The Navigator has a coffee machine in the coffee area as well as all the food selections during the day that you find on the Splendor. We spent 17 days on the Splendor and 14 days on the Navigator in Dec. Granted the area on the Navigator is much small but the ship is smaller also. The bar tender can make coffees at the Bar across the walkway form the coffee connection

I understand it is problem as we also stayed on the ship at several ports in Dec because the buses were not the kind that could take a rolling walker or wheelchair and there was no transportation on the dock.…. Regent has always told me if there were long pier walks with no assistance or if the tour companies were using coastal buses with no storage. As far as I can tell, Regent has to do with what each port provides…. Buses, golf carts, pedicabs. I am not sure but those things are under the port or the tour companies control not Regents, just like the port security. Regent can’t provide something that is not available. In Cozumel we made it to the little shopping area and had to use an elevator in the terminal, fine and dandy going ashore. But coming back after lunch and a little shopping we went to the elevator only to find it was then out of order! Fortunately two shop keepers came my aid and almost carried me down the steps. Should I blame Regent, not really, I chose to trust an old elevator in Mexico.m! Much of the world is not as handicap accessible as the US is now. But we still enjoy cruising, even we don’t get off the ship.

I really didn’t find that on our recent cruises. It may have been that we were doing cruises in Caribbean in Dec, but in most ports there was at least one tour open to people using a wheelchair as long as they had their own assistant to help. The only problem in the islands was they use many “coastal” buses(small with no under bus storage area) due to road conditions. That has always been the case in many island/less developed ports all over the world. I walk slowly with the aid of canes and my husband has to help me with steps in buses and vans. We avoid tours with much walking and stairs but there were a choice of tours that worked for me. The only real problem, we’ were in several ports that had very long docks with no assistance ( golf carts / pedicabs to get to the buses. However that isn’t Regents fault really.

In -250 days sailing since tours were included and usually booking after tours have opened, only one tour, a Caribbean sailing with lunch, has not cleared for us. This was post Covid. That may have something to do with the problems with tours these days.

You can see the first video in post #8 in this thread. We are in the video . They were filming for about a week after we boarded on Dec 3. The film crew had boarded in SJ, I think, at the end of the cruise before ours. These were Round trip Miami runs. There are a lot lot of staged scenes to make it look like they are filming all through Christmas.

A simple 15 min self test in private in my hotel room at a time of my choice beats lining up in the hotel ballroom with 50-70 other people for a mass testing experience at a set time. Take a couple of tests with you. That is what we did. Test again at different time if you get a positive. That what we did, Dr suggestion to allow for for a false positive.

Is this the only Japanese port you will be in and when you board the ship you will not go to any other Japanese port. It is a little surprising that two lines would have the same protocol. Just curious.

You explained it very well. In the 40 + years we have cruised with other lines and in the past 15 with Regent, the final payment date has always been a a fixed date dependent on the length of the cruise, it was 6 months for our WC, no matter when we booked. The price of the cruise might go up or down, but the pay by dates does not change. The one exception to this was when Covid hit and the lines finally were more flexible and made final payments maybe 60 days out, but those days are long gone. Back to business as usual…. Take it or leave it. The lines are filling the ships again.

I figured that. Thanks for posting the supporting info. Son works for a Japanese company and talks about the various regulations all the time.

This past Dec we had gotten some self test in case we got to feeling bad while traveling. If you are 65 or older (I think that is the age) you can get free test from the government until May. They come 4 to the order. It took about a week to get the on line order.

Are you sure this is not something Japan is asking of the cruise line. They have had a bad track record with Covid rules and kept the country closed longer than most. Testing positive means you are possibly contagious and could spread Covid to others even if you feel fine. Think this is something we will have to live with and keep in the back of our mind. Each country is different and rules can change. I think we will have to deal with the constantly changing Covid rules for some time to come. Just like the risk of being quarantined once on board even though for most, Covid isn’t much of an illness now. At least they are accepting the home test now.

This past Dec I saw several tables in the speciality restaurants with singles. We eat around 7. Just book the table for one online. There are plenty of small tables for 1-2. I understand your desire. We don’t like sharing with people we have not met behand on the ship.

It is always fun the get home and be reminded of the places we went! Post cards do take awhile to find their way home.

First off Compass Rose is not the French Laundry. If that is the service you are looking for you will not find it in a restaurant that serves several 100s of people in a 4 hour time frame. As has been suggested make you desires known so they are in your record … like a food allergy. Or as we do asked to be seated with the same server each night. We do and our request is honored.

The ceilings are lower than Splendor yes, but in Dec 2022 the only non round tables were at the windows and were for only 2. All others were out in one of the three sections of the room, set up for 2-4, 4-6, and a few 8-10. We have sailed many days on the Navigator and have not found the Compass Rose any more noisy than in the other ships.