Tattycruiser

9 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Don't sweat it yet.  Call on Thursday.  Now that the sailing is open they should be able to fix it or at least tell you what's going on.  If they tell you someone else is now in that room you can tell them they removed you without any contact to they can just do it to the new occupant.   I wouldn't worry about it much but would address it as soon as possible.  From what I understand they had to address 56,000 so I'm sure they missed a couple.

Thanks for the advice, and best wishes for the festive season.

47 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Were you booked 2 to a cabin?

Yes we were, two passengers to each cabin. We're travelling to celebrate my parent's Golden Wedding, so decided to treat ourselves to three suites in a row. Suspect we'll now find ourselves scattered around the ship ☹️

The three Sky Suites I've booked on the 30 July 2020 sailing still aren't back to the booked cabin numbers; it's just saying Sky Suite Guarantee. On top of this, the website says suites are sold out for this trip. Catastrophist that I am, I've visions of being left with the worst accommodation on the ship because we got lost in the system!

I'll ask my TA to enquire what's happening straight after Christmas. This is our first time sailing with Celebrity and all of this has unnerved me regarding our likely experience with them.

We were in cabin 931 for seven nights on Voyager in October, we didn't hear any discernible noise from the crew staircase. Only having an adjacent balcony on one side made no difference to us either. Jo

Thanks fir this info Taxare. The plot thickens on how Regent determines lead passenger. My husband and I do have the same surname, maybe I should've kept my maiden name as my old H definitely comes before my current R.

I'm happy to report that we both received comment cards and glad that it's not the sexism I'd assumed.It looks like this could be as big a mystery as how cruise lines determine who get a cabin upgrade ;p.

I'll piggy-back on Taxare's review, to give our (me, my Husband, my Mum and Dad) impressions of the cruise. This was our first cruise with Regent; previously we've cruised with a variety of different British lines - we knew that there'd be some cultural differences for us. Please bear with any English terminology such as cabin for stateroom and lift for elevator.

PRE-CRUISE

Sending us pre-cruise information that spoke to us about being US/Canadian passengers didn't really endear Regent to us - especially when it said they'd need to keep our passports all week despite us currently being EU citizens and having right of access to all of the countries we were visiting - something I took up with Southampton.

I'd also note that I'm the lead passenger and pay for our trips, but Regent both on land and at sea keep addressing everything to my husband both in writing and in person. This is mightily annoying (to me and to him) and an example to my mind of 'everyday sexism' that I know some others have raised in the past (to the ire of others). If the British lines we use have no problem with recognising me as the lead why is it so hard for Regent?

AIR

We used Regent Air as we didn't really understand how deviation worked until it was too late. I suspect it wouldn't have made much of a difference to us even if we had, as the European direct market from our part of the UK is dominated by the lower cost airlines now and my TA was told that Regent wouldn't use budget lines even if it made our lives easier. Given the poor leg room and need to buy your own refreshments it's now difficult to view BA (with whom we returned) as any different from the budget lines - but there you go. It meant connecting flights both ways, with a particularly long journey home from Athens.

My parents missed the simplicity of the cruise company scheduling a flight and handling your luggage from start to finish, but understood why this approach isn't possible with a line that takes the core of its customer base from North America.

TRANSFER

We were thrilled at the thought of a trip by water taxi across the lagoon. Sadly, our taxi 'driver' took us around the top of the main island, through the maritime port and then past the garage plant to get us to the JW Marriott rather than on the more picturesque trip described by others on this board who have made the transfer previously.

PRE-CRUISE STAY

We booked D Concierge cabins so stayed at the JW Marriott the night before the cruise began. My husband and I scored an upgrade to a junior suite, which got the holiday off to a good start. We didn't mind the boat ride back and forward from the hotel to see the sights, and saw it as part of the adventure. Breakfast was good and the staff at the hotel were friendly and attentive.

EMBARKATION & MUSTER

Embarkation at the smaller San Basilio terminal was straight forward. My husband, who works in the wonderful world of health and safety was particularly impressed by the way that the crew, led by Margaret as cruise director, handled muster. We're all desperate to get on with our holiday and see muster as an imposition but the importance of taking this seriously was well communicated. Seeing one of the two Costa ships in port over the same weekend departing during muster gave many of us sobering thoughts about just how badly things can go wrong when they do go wrong at sea.

EXCURSIONS

Destination Services generally ran things well in the Constellation Theatre, although they did get behind on the day we were tendering in Santorini. We were surprised that we weren't asked to provide more detailed feedback on our experiences of the tours taken so that they could assess what had gone well and what had not in making future bookings and arrangements.

Zadar - my husband and I went on the Krka National Park trip and river cruise. The park was spectacular, but we had too much free time between finishing the tour of the waterfalls and hydro-electric exhibition and going on the cruise. Many in our group would've preferred free time in the town where we cruised to for lunch. Our guide on this trip was satisfactory.

My parents went on the Zadar and Nin trip, which they found a little overlong on the walking, but remarked that their guide was very engaging.

Bari - we all went on the Sassi of Matera trip, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The guide was a very good local who was able to recount his families own history in being moved from the cave dwellings to modern blocks of flats in the 'new town' in the late 1950's and early 1960's.

Corfu - we all went on the Acheillion Palace and Old Town trip. The Palace was packed as one of TUI's Mein Schiffs was in port and the German and Austrian connections with the palace meant that many from this ship had made this visit. We've been to Corfu twice in recent years, so went to the Liston for refreshments when we got to the Old Town. Our guide was friendly and informative on this tour.

Katakolon - we all went to Olympia and enjoyed it a great deal. The lectures (see below) had helped us with an understanding of the key features of the site. There were a number of guests in our tour group who were disrespectful of the guide in terms of timekeeping and what I'll have to call general ignorance. Despite this, the guide was fantastic and really enhanced the trip for us.

Santorini - my husband and I went on the Volcano, Hot Springs and Winery tour. Our guide was great and really helped to bond the group together as we headed up the volcano. My parents went to Akrotiri and enjoyed this visit.

Mykonos - my husband and I went to Delos. Unfortunately our guide was not very good - a number of us actually speculated as to whether she was a qualified tour guide at all. We know that some of the other groups from Voyager got excellent guides on this tour, so we seem to have been unlucky. My parents went on the Mykonos Town and Monastery tour - there was far more walking than indicated in the tour description and the tour overran by more than an hour.

FOOD

Weirdly, this is where we encountered what we perceive to be the biggest cultural differences for us and what will ultimately stop us from choosing a Regent cruise again.

La Veranda - for me and my parents the food was fine in La Veranda. My husband is wheat intolerant and found the lack of clear food labelling so far as allergens go disconcerting (we're used to EU food labelling rules, that allow people with food allergies and intolerances make informed decisions for themselves). He didn't want to spend every meal interrogating staff about what was in each buffet dish on what was, after all, his holiday and found he was living on a bland diet as a result. The waiting staff and management in La Veranda were very good.

Prime 7 - we enjoyed the food but the room is very dark and oppressive, with too little room between tables for the furniture selected. As a result staff struggled to serve diners.

Compass Rose - On paper this looked great and we know that many posters on these boards really like the new menus. For us it was a massive disappointment. Hot food and side dishes were served lukewarm on cold plates, which diminished our enjoyment of the food greatly and meant that we wasted more than we would have liked. After three nights of this, I raised it with one of the managers asking if it was a cultural thing and we were expecting something that isn't done elsewhere in the world. He assured us not and the next night they pulled out the stops trying to make things right, sadly even then my Dad got a bowl of fries that had been standing long enough to go cold before it reached the table. On subsequent nights, while we got warmed plates, the side orders continued to be lukewarm or cold when they arrived with us. The meals were all variations of meat/fish and two veg - I wouldn't want to be a vegetarian on this trip.

Service was patchy, and very slow. They forgot to serve elements of the meal some evenings, like when my Mum got the poppadum but not the pickles to go with it!

Others in the dining room seemed happy, we have to accept that its us not them. While not being gourmands, we do like our food properly hot and some variety in our meals, in this respect Regent doesn't seem to be the line for us.

Pool Grill - We wouldn't normally be pool grill users, this was our saviour at lunch times as it served hot food that was actually hot!

Afternoon tea - we went once and enjoyed it, especially the scones which were extremely light. My husband and Dad remarked that they got the best coffee of the week when we went there.

ENTERTAINMENT

We're not big 'users' of the entertainments on cruises, but here's what we did attend/use.

Lectures - Michael di Spezio delivered three lectures on the ports we were visiting, giving us a mixture of history, technology and mapping that my Mum and I enjoyed. The lectures definitely helped us put what we learned from individual guides on our excursions. I took a course on 5th Century BC Athens at university and the lectures and excursions have encouraged me to refresh my knowledge.

Trivia - we love a general knowledge quiz, but were reluctant to participate initially as we thought feared the focus would be North American. We were wrong and thoroughly enjoyed playing (although I haven't yet forgiven my Mum for overriding my suggestion of Sweet n Low with Sweetex!).

TV Films - the choice of films on the TV system was good and my parents watched several recent releases in the afternoons when they got back from excursions. Wonder Woman was made doubly interesting as some of the scenes set in Atlantis were shot in Matera and they had fun spotting places they'd visited a few days earlier.

Internet - the internet gave the same frustrations that many others have described in the past on these boards. I won't go over them again - my husbands description was 'like dial-up but far, far worse'. I relied on my smartphone for email, internet etc. as the new EU rules mean that it came out of my standard contract allowance (not much use for passengers from elsewhere in the world, I appreciate).

HOUSEKEEPING

While we couldn't fault the cleanliness of our cabin, the personal touch just wasn't there. We weren't asked about our fridge set-up, the cushions on one of my parents' balcony chairs were visibly, badly damaged but still being used, the hairdryer was pretty useless. The beds and pillows were not comfortable and none of us slept well for the whole week.

We also missed having a kettle in our rooms. I know they say it's a safety issue, but all of the British lines provide them and now the American lines that are placing a boat ex-Southampton for the summer season have found that they have to do the same if they want to attract British customers. Another of those cultural things really.

ALL IN ALL

We enjoyed ourselves, but it wasn't the unalloyed pleasure the brochures had promised ( I know, I know - don't believe the hype). For us the cold hot food and the feeling that the value for money for what we paid wasn't quite there are enough for us to be looking at British lines again for next summer. Clearly, I'm more of a little Englander than I'd ever expected to be!

I know there'll be readers who'll think that we're letting minor things override everything they hold to be great about Regent, but the joy of these boards when they work well is getting to hear others views and understand that we all have different showstoppers and things that we'll happily let ride in life.

Viv - according to the Manchester Airport Website ( http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/getting-to-and-from/coach/ )

coaches arrive and depart from the Station. They say: "a large number of coach services operate daily from 'The Station' at Manchester Airport, the integrated transport hub, linking Manchester Airport with our region and other major UK cities." I assume that this will include your coaches - someone who has done this cruise or similar will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong.

The station map also on the website ( http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/getting-to-and-from/train/ ) shows that the coaches and buses are accessed on the ground level part of the station.

Hope this helps, and have a great trip.

Jo

I should know better, but I'm feeling really aggrieved by P&O's changes. Have just spent a chunk of the afternoon with my TA, who received a whole load (possibly a boatload) of differing responses about this from one P&O representative on a single call. It ranged from no changes can be made to we can cancel in full as long as we tell P&O by Monday! TA will check again on Monday, but I expect I'm stuck with a holiday I wouldn't chose, paying significantly more than I think the itinerary's worth.

This is the second of three cruises I've taken with P&O where two ports in seven days have been abandoned/changed for the worse and in no way meet expectations. I realise things happen on cruises - they've happened to us with other lines - usually due to the weather. But, whenever P&O make changes to itineraries it reeks of commercialism and a way to make a fast buck. Time to try another line and see if that suits us better I think.

Thank you for letting me vent - I'd hoped that my first post after a lurking for a while would have been in more propitious circumstances.