BNguy

Sitting at Narita after being on a Regent cruise Vancouver to Tokyo, I can attest that the pocket wi-fi worked as advertised.  The ship's (Explorer) wi-fi was horrible during the entire cruise, many people complained but nothing was fixed.  At our first port in Japan I arranged to have the pocket wi-fi sent to a post office there and picked it up.  When we were in port the pocket wi-fi worked just fine and was fast.  Could I have used an esim, sure but then I'd have to get one for my wife and one for me, plus I couldn't use my lap top, the pocket wi-fi solved all those issues and was less expensive.  Your mileage may vary, but that was my experience.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Fudge,

We are on the same cruise and I met Mr. Fudge on the first sea day.  He's as funny in person as he is with his posts.  My wife and I are having a great time and were VERY thankful for the change in weather this morning during our visit to Hubbard Glacier.  Keep up the great commentary, Mr. Fudge!

Thanks to Mike Moore for contacting me and fixing the issue I was having.  It had nothing to do with the browser I was using and Mr. Moore was kind enough to explain the issue to me, it was an apparent "glitch" in the system.  So the Cruise Critic board came through as did Regent and I am now a happy "camper".   Looking forward to our sailing on the 20th of September.

I know this has been discussed before but it bears repeating so hopefully people like Jennifer T.  and Mike M.  can research and "FIX" the problem.  My wife and I are on the Explorer leaving Vancouver, BC on the 20th of September and cruising to Tokyo(Yokohama).  Just today I tried to add an excursion in one of the ports.  We have nothing scheduled for the day and the excursion shows availability.  However when I go to checkout and confirm my excursions, guess what it doesn't go through.  Now, when excursions were first available I was able to get my picks with NO issues and I'm using the same computer and same browser as before.  I'm not sure why this is happening, but I'd like to know......has anyone else had these issues?  (for the record, I'm using a Macbook Pro and the Firefox browser).   I'm not looking for your experiences, we've all had fun with it, but I am looking to see if the folks at Regent will see this and respond.

Thanks for all for your replies.  I've also asked my TA, didn't really get anywhere there either.  But the replies here at least have given me some hope.  I'd rather get to near a subway or rail station so I can further explore the way I like to do, but we shall see.

GOARMY, good to see someone else on this journey, it will be our first time in Japan and we both are looking forward to it and also meeting up with you.

BNguy

Thank you travlr21, this information is very helpful. 

Hello all,

We will be doing the Vancouver-Tokyo cruise on RSSC's Explorer this September.  I've been able to figure out most of the ports in Japan but Sendai (which is the one before we reach Yokohama) is difficult.  Not many cruise lines go there and after doing some investigation it appears that the cruise terminal is not near the town are of Sendai.  Does anyone here know if Regent will provide a shuttle to get us into town?  I realize that not many people may know, but I needed to ask.  Yes, I've checked the Asia board, with no results, and I've done a fair amount of research, but nothing I read seems to indicate if there is a shuttle.

Many thanks for your attention.

BNguy

While it is true that when you take a photo with your iPhone the time and date are stamped in the "metadata" of the photo, there are a couple of issues to think about.  Your phone's time and date needs to be correct for the location in which you performed the test.  Thinking out loud....basically it means anyone can adjust those items to suit their needs.....which just adds more fuel to the fire regarding the issues spoken about already.  Good luck

Excellent read, as one who has one Regent cruise done and two more on tap, this was a great help in helping people decide.

We are on this cruise and honestly the bar service has been not good.  Ignored because there were others yelling at the bar person to serve them, we walked away from 3 different bars until we found one that would actually pay attention to us.  Fortunately we are in a Sky Suite and so have access to the Retreat Lounge, service there has been excellent.  Don't understand why the other bars are so bad.  Food and service in the restaurants are great.

Well, thank you to both Jim_Iain and wrk2cruise, but honestly this is getting more frustrating.  I did call last night after 7pm, I got some very difficult to understand person whose kids were yelling in the background (must still be working from home) and when I posed my question after giving my information, I was put on hold, then told they were still waiting for a response, (I got that 5 times) before it was suggested I call again the next day.  Nope, not doing that.  I want someone who can give me a response now.  This seems like a cut and dried situation, but apparently it's not from reading all the posts.  I sure wish companies would realize how frustrating this is to all of us.  I will continue to try and get some information, but honestly I'm not feeling all great about all of this.

I know this sounds like I'm giving up, which I am not but another cruise line (which I've started using) doesn't seem to have these issues.

Have a nice day

Jim_Iain,

I'm posting this here in the hopes you might be able to answer a question.  My wife and I are on the Millennium in mid-April, it's just a short 4 day cruise.   We are in a sky suite.  This cruise was first booked through Celebrity to go in April of 2021 and when it became apparent that it would not happen, we did the lift and shift to the new cruise in April of 2022.  When I booked the original cruise in 2020 (for 2021), suites did not have all the stuff included but I booked it under a promotion that had gratuities, streaming internet, the premium beverage package and some on board ship credit.  All those items showed on the original invoice in where they showed the charge and then the promotion which reversed the charge.  Ok, when I did the lift and shift, Celebrity had stated the suites now came with all those items, my cruise fare stayed the same and my on board ship credit transferred but now there is no indication that gratuities, streaming internet and premium beverage package are included.  I'm assuming since I'm in a sky suite that should be no problem and when I called in the final payment I specifically asked the live agent if those were all included.  He had to check as he didn't know (?) but then said yes they did.  Ok...now comes a post on here that states someone did not get the beverage package (I'm not sure if that was ever resolved), but everyone on that posting kept stating it was on their invoice as included.  I tried to call Celebrity today but they apparently were way too busy to talk and I finally hung up.  I also tried what you have stated to get my confirmation emailed to me, I was able to do that but again, nothing is indicated anywhere that those items are included.  Am I worrying too much, or should I keep trying Celebrity for a better answer.

Thanks for any and all help, but be reasonable in your replies, thanks.

Thanks all for your help in this matter.

Good morning, and before I begin I apologize if this has been covered before but I don't remember reading it.  This morning I got two emails from Celebrity (supposedly) asking for me to complete my vaccination status by clicking on a link.  I normally don't do that from an email, even if it looks legitimate.  I did go to the Celebrity website and found nothing in my upcoming cruise asking me that, and I then tried the app on my iPhone, still nothing there.  I'd like to know if this is something others on here have received before I click on a link that I am not sure about.  For information, we are leaving on a short 4 day cruise in mid-April.

Thanks for any and all help.

Splendor, Suite 948, 12/2021, Port, Mid, 448/176, 1 bathroom, Shower with jets, no noise issues, yes we would recommend, comments:  Big balcony not fully covered, so partial sun, 2 loungers, 2 chairs and table, bed very comfortable, loved the jetted shower, fully recommend.

Hope this helps, and many thanks for setting this up

Unfortunately the cruise is coming to an end tomorrow and we are starting to feel the withdrawal.  Honestly it's been a lot of fun, we've enjoyed the people, the service and the food.  And I will state right now, we will be back!

Yesterday afternoon was the crew show and I first thought it would be like most crew shows, but I was wrong, there was some good talent among the crew and it really was a good show.  Plus the captain had a fine presentation and we saw all the officers.

Dinner last night was in the compass rose and I have some more food porn to look at, my wife started with Roasted Mushroom soup

I had the caesar salad

We then both had lobster ravioli

Entree was a huge pork chop for my wife

and Beef Wellington for me

We both had Baked Alaska for dessert but silly me forgot to take a picture

The show last night was the 2nd performance for the female singer Jenene (I'm sorry I'm not where I can access her last name) but she was fantastic, she can sing everything from opera to rock and do it quite well. 

This will be my last report until I get home and I will do a review....here's a hint, things were very good.

Thanks for reading along and for the comments.

I do apologize for the delay in reports on this cruise, between events, a nap or two and time on shore, time escaped me.  I last left you when we had departed St. Kitts, our next port would be St. John's, Antiqua.  We arrived in St. Johns pretty much on time and were soon joined by the Silver Spirit.  What I found amusing was the people staring back at us, it was as if they wanted to know what we had, and people on our ship wanted to know what the other ship had.

We soon were cleared and we headed off to a "Photographic tour of Antiqua".  We were joined by 5 others on this tour meaning on the tour bus we could spread out a bit.  Our first stop was a 17th century fortress, Fort James. 

Some of the buildings are barely standing but we manged to get some good stuff there.

We then headed to Betty's Hope a former Sugar Cane farm and following that stop we headed to Devil's Bridge.  Devil's bridge basically has been formed by crashing waves against the shore line and now it sometimes creates some rather interesting water explosions

When then went back to the ship and had a very late lunch, again the memory failed me regarding pictures but it was from La Veranda and it was very good.

We were so full from lunch that we opted not to go to dinner, so first we visited the Meridian lounge for a beverage and then went to the show which was John Barron (our cruise director) doing his show.  Songs from the Big Bands, Musical Theatre and several others.  As expected he was excellent and very funny as well.

Today we got some sad news, no port day at St. Barts due high winds and rough seas.  So we instead had lunch at Prime 7, our first time there.  I had the chicken breast but my wife had the ribs and I got a picture of it AFTER she had started to devour it

After we had our fill, they brought on a dessert sampler

The two NOT there were the blueberry-peach cobbler and the caramel corn-chocolate sundae as we had already devoured them !

So now we have 3 seas days to get back to Miami.

We just got work that St. Barts call was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas.  So now we have 3 sea days to get back to Miami.  I'll be updating events since my last post later today.

Going to try and catch up with things.  We were due to arrive in San Juan at noon but due to strong winds and current we got a bit behind.  We were finally cleared to get off the ship about 1:10.  No problem as our tour was scheduled for 1:35.  My wife and I had decided to take the small city tour and then a rum distillery tour.  That particular tour had been scheduled to go to the Barcardi factory but it then got changed.  Our tour started off visiting the Castillo San Cristóbal, the fort in Old San Juan.

View of the shoreline from the top of the fort.

Our distillery tour had been changed to tour this facility

This place specializes in attention to detail and less to quantity.  Every part of the process is touched by people, not so much by machines.

Our course at the end they offer a cocktail to "sample" their product.

The biggest issue on the return to the ship was that Puerto Rico was celebrating some 500th anniversary and EVERYONE near San Juan was coming into town.  Our tour bus got stuck in the traffic and at one point we only traveled about 1 block in 45 minutes.  Several couples including us, got up and demanded he open the door so we could walk.  It was only 3 blocks and we made it back just fine.

Our experience when in San Juan, no vaccination card checking, no passport or government photo document, only the ship card was checked several times.  Since we didn't wander around we don't know how private business was dealing with that in town.

Dinner that night was in the compass rose, sorry I forgot to take pictures but it was a pretty simple meal, shrimp cocktail, caesar salad, thin prime rib and dessert of Key Lime Pie.

Although here is a picture of the Key Lime Pie that was served.

Entertainment this night was a blockbuster, at least in my opinion, the title of the show was Broadway in Concert and honestly we sat there enthralled for the entire 50 minutes of the show.  The production staff is great and got two standing ovations.

That night was a bit rougher on our way to Basseterre, St. Kitts but again we both slept fine and we pretty much arrived on time though instead of using a new pier, we had to tender and the rougher waters made tendering "interesting".

Our excursion for the day was to ride the St. Kitts Scenic Railway.  During the 30 minute trip to the boarding site we learned about St. Kitts by a very energetic driver.  Soon our train arrived.

Each car is a double decked, with the top being open and the bottom enclosed and air-conditioned.

The trip is 17 miles one-way and covers about 2/3rds of the island, you are bused the other part.

All the crossing of roads are with manual gates

They do serve drinks along the way, many rum based drinks and soft drinks

Native dancers come through the cars showing off their skills

The ride lasts about 2 hours

Then there was a quick ride back to the ship, in order to get ready for the Christmas sing-a-long

Yes this would be the first Christmas celebrated on the Splendor since last year never happened.

It started off with the arrival of Santa Claus

Boogie then came and greeted my wife!

Boogie and Kasia played some songs and the singers from the production staff also sang, but to me the highlight of the night was John Barron's singing of Silent Night.  I recorded the entire sequence but it won't attach here.  Perhaps when I get home next Friday evening, I can post a link to the song on my youtube account, we shall see.

Dinner for us was again in the Compass Rose with waiter Billy (a newly upgraded "runner") and he is extremely great to be around and Antonio our wine steward is keeping my wife and me happy with the wine selections. (but sorry no pictures, I'll try better tonight!)

Last night was a very smooth night for us, both of us slept well again.

I'll continue all this in another post a bit later.

I know I'm a bit behind on reporting, and hopefully will have some later today.  But when I got up this morning, this is what greeted me.

This is St. Johns, Antiqua, hope everyone is doing well

OK people, let's chill out a moment on speed of the internet.  Yes it's not going to be blazing fast like at home, yes it's not going to be as fast as at a hotel.  It's satellite and it won't be fast.  I worked in television for a long time, on the back side of things in other words the engineering side.  When we switched to network distribution via satellite many things needed to be taken into consideration.  Mainly the bandwidth necessary for what you consider "normal" speeds is quite high.  Sending an HD signal through the air via satellite required all sorts of gizmos to make it work correctly.  The fact the company who provides internet to the ships is slow is because they are attempting to send MANY transmissions through the air at the same time.  It does work, I have used it every day, no it's not fast, but it does work.  Instead of asking if zoom or facetime will work understand it probably won't, if it does, fine but the technology is not there yet.  So remember you are on vacation, you are supposed to be "off line".

Sorry I couldn't help myself, but remember on Regent you aren't paying for the delay like on my cruise lines.

Last night my wife and I had a great dinner in Chartreuse and I thought i give you some pictures to give you some idea.

Our appetizers were:

Alaskan crab meat wrapped in Daikon Radish, all which sat in Melon juice, my wife declared it wonderful

Meanwhile I had the Emmenthal-Blue Cheese Soufflé which came with a onion sauce

What looks like something dark on top is really a hole opened up to pour the onion sauce inside the soufflé.  It also was quite good

Next we both enjoyed some Lobster Bisque

Our Main courses were

Baked Lobster Tail which sat on top of Scallop Mousse and Asparagus

and Chicken Supreme, there was a lot of description of this menu item, I just knew it tasted quite good.

Finally for dessert we each had the Lemon Bavarian Cream with berries

Everyone is this restaurant made us feel special and didn't look down upon as if we didn't understand what some of the menu items meant.

Seas last night was what I'd call medium along with some gusty winds, just now they announced we are running about 1 hour late getting in San Juan.  Because we knew it was going to be a lazy morning we tried Compass Rose for breakfast.  The options are basically limitless, there are so many ways you can have breakfast.

We chose Blueberry Pancakes, a Fruit Plate and Waffles which the next 3 pictures show

That's all the food "porn" for now.  We just booked another cruise this morning after breakfast so now it's time to get prepared to visit San Juan.

Ok enough text, I bet you want a few pictures, so here goes.

Entrance to our room on Deck 9

As you might gather this is a Penthouse suite which has a separate living area from the sleeping area.  In the dark area to the left is counter that has all the glassware, liquor set up and coffee machine.  Underneath is a mini-fridge.

This is the bathroom sink area, it's quite a large area, behind the camera is the toilet and also an entrance to the roomy closet.

The shower is amazing, there is a hand held wand, an overhead "rain forest" shower and there are 6 side jets, 3 on each side.  Let me tell you, when you have all those things throwing water at you, it's quite refreshing!

The sleeping area is great, nice King size bed and a dressing table

I apologize if the pictures are a bit dark, I was in a hurry and didn't take into account the outside light, but I think you can get the idea.

The veranda is huge

A couple from Great Stirrup Cay

Our cabana

A look at the main beach and if you look closely you might see a tip of the Splendor showing

On the way back to the ship, we see our "home"

We enjoyed the show last night, the first production show and then did some bar hopping.  We did have a lot of fun.  Now I'm going to enjoy the rest of our sea day.

Thank you to all who have said they enjoyed my posts, I will have the stateroom pictures later today, but wanted to give you our experience from yesterday.  We did arrive at Great Stirrup Cay on time.  The day before I had received a call from Destination Services that we should make an effort to get on one of the first tenders.  I had reserved a cabana for us on the island, as we just wanted to chill out but also because it promised us some fruit, snacks and someone to fetch us drinks if we wanted. 

So we dutifully got up early (ugg, I thought I was on vacation!) and had breakfast in the room and then headed down to Level 3 which is where the tender station is.  Opps, they weren't ready but it was a short wait of about 10 minutes.  The ride to the island was fine and when we got off it seem deserted.  Now you must understand, Great Stirrup Cay is designed to have as many as two or three of the big NCL ships at a time.  The Splendor was the only one in port today.  But none of the booths were manned.  Finally someone came over from Regent and asked why we were standing at the booth that said Cabanas and Villas.  (We weren't alone, there were several other people in the line).  After much consultation via radio it was determined we had to walk up a sandy path to some waiting trams.  Then more conversation on the radio and finally we took off for our cabana. 

As information the cabanas are at the next beach over (I believe it's called Fiesta beach), so it indeed was a quiet area.  When our tram got to them we were told where to go.  When we arrived at our spacious cabana, no fruit, no snacks, but at least there was a mini-fridge with water.  We arrived at our cabana about 8 and no one arrived to even acknowledge our presence until 10.  Again, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, I'm just explaining what happened.  The person what showed up at 10 with snacks and fruit and a drink or two was from our ship, we had met him the previous night in the theatre.  So it turns out the ships staff man the booths at the island and take care of the guests. 

Meanwhile we are sitting in our cabana watching the zipliners do their thing and looking over at the main beach and seeing a few paddle boards and a few canoes, but not many people from the ship.

After we enjoyed our fruit and snacks we did some wandering and finally about noon decided to head back to the ship.  A lot of the times the stay at Great Stirrup Cay included a big BBQ lunch, however we were leaving at 2 so that was not done.

No pictures in the post because it's time for a bit of breakfast on our sea day.  I'll be back later with some pictures.

I decided to start this thread but it will be no means be a LIVE report, but rather a report on the cruise as time permits me to post the report.

I've already posted our pre-cruise experience at the pier in the thread "Sailing Wednesday on the Splendor", I'll not repeat that here.

So let's get down to the good stuff.  After we went through all the pre-boarding fun we headed to our stateroom.  The ship had been in town since Monday so when we boarded we were allowed to go right to our room, we have a Penthouse "A" on deck 9.  I had looked at numerous pictures and video but walking into our room for the first time took my breath away, it was so great.  Our stateroom attendants, Ni and Ali, were there within minutes, in fact Ni was waving at us down the hall as we approached our room.  After they explained all the details, our Butler, Christopher, called and asked if he could come by.  Again, within moments he was there and he explained his duties and told us if we wanted something to just call. 

I guess a bit of background, I'm 70 and my great wife is 69, we have cruised 9 times prior to this cruise and already have another cruise on the Splendor next November.  This is our first cruise with Regent and the experience so far has been wonderful.  Everywhere through the ship people will make sure to talk to us and let us know how happy they are to have people back.

Ok, enough of that.  First we took care of the muster drill experience which has changed dramatically from when we last cruised.  Now, you watch a video, go to your muster station and check in...and your done.  No more waiting out on the deck for EVERYONE to check in, when all you want to do is start having a good time. 

When then went for a bit of lunch at the pool grill, which was very good and then started to tour the ship.  We had our first cocktails in the Observation lounge, nicely decorated for Christmas and very quiet (relaxing) after the boarding process.

My wife had the strawberry daiquiri and I had one of the signature drinks, the "Splendor", both were quite good

Then came the dreaded unpacking which went rather fast and then we toured the other lounges which were open but not serving at the time.

Sailaway celebrations started about 4:30 with Boogie and Kasia belting out the hits.

For information, our captain is Captain Serena and the Cruise Director is John Barron.

Dinner our first night was in the Compass Rose, not much food "porn" but here goes:

My wife had veal picatta

and I had the scallops, which I might add were wonderful.

Our desserts were a raspberry tartlet, no picture however.

The show that night was "The comedy and magic of Levent", it was ok but we both were so tired from all the "fun" of the first day that we didn't stay for the whole show.

That's it for now.  I will have stateroom pictures sometime during the cruise to post along with other commentary.  Hope you enjoy