Ladys Mom

33 minutes ago, CruiserFromMaine said:

Here’s a question unrelated to Covid and testing…

 

My wife enjoys berries with her breakfast in the morning. What is available at the breakfast buffet or elsewhere for fresh berries? Blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc.  

 

Thanks in advance! 

On our Splendor cruise earlier this month, all berries mentioned were always available.

Have there been any other changes on the ship since 2020?  Looks like you guys are having a great time.  Looking forward to boarding on the 5th, assuming our three Covid tests come back negative.  Merry Christmas  to everyone on the Mariner now, and those who are living vicariously through them.

When we were on the Splendor Nov.-Dec. they had a number of NA cocktails available.  Tried a couple.  They were delicious, but far from low calorie.  Does removing the alcohol substantially reduce the calorie count of beer or wine?  Inquiring minds want to know.

It would be wonderful if these researchers are right.  However, it is still way too early to make any conclusions.

Thanks to both of you for your timely answers.  I tried to post pictures on our Splendor cruise an got so frustrated that I never blogged and posted pictures on Facebook instead.

3 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

CDC has reported Mariner as yellow.

They must have just reported it, because when I looked at the chart an hour ago Mariner was green.  Does anyone have any more information?

38 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

Connecting to ship’s Wi-Fi and to the internet has been challenging thus far on Mariner. The internet manager has been kept very busy.

 

Now that we have connected we can only access the internet in the public areas; intermittent, unreliable or usually no service in our suite.

 

Speed test this morning from Coffee Connection:

 

Are they expecting to get any better, or is this a function of a ship full of guests with nothing to do?  We get on in SF for the WC and I hope we can use the internet in our suite.

Have a wonderful cruise in spite of the obstacles

Thank you for your fabulous food pictures!!  We too found that Chartreuse has become our favorite restaurant as well.  They seemed to have greatly upped their game since our last Regent cruise two years ago when Prime 7 was our favorite.

We received our cruise documents in their folders today for our Jan. 5 World Cruise.  Glad they finally arrived.  Only took calls to Regent and my TA.

1 hour ago, RJB said:

All depends.   Our wait from the time we got dropped off at the pier until we got on the ship was about 45 min.  No problem.  Do not see how it could have been any faster with the testing required. We felt safer with the way they are doing it. 

That is more or less the same procedure Regent used when we got on the Splendor in Athens about a month ago.  It took awhile, but the system worked.  Everyone was masked except while eating or drinking until we reached international waters.  Most folks still kept their masks on.  Result was no reported Covid cases for the entire cruise through Miami.

3 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Onboard today; easy embarkation.  Initial impressions are that some of the serious flaws with Explorer have been addressed whilst others remain.  Lots of new crew; only welcome back were from Boogie and Kasia (so far); a few kids onboard; and I still miss Horizon Lounge.  BTW, there are now inside cabins on Regent; 883 is across the hall from us.  

 

More later,

 

Marc

Have a wonderful cruise.  Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all of you on the wonderful Splendor.  Say a prayer for those of us planning to board the Mariner on January 5th.  We are in the realm of hope now.

2 hours ago, Pcardad said:

I doubt you can Zoom but you probably can using an communication app that uses a lot less bandwidth than Zoom does. There are a few that Regent isn't blocking that I can facetime with people at home. Remember to always use a VPN as your connection is NOT as secure as you think it is.

We got off Splendor on Tuesday.  At the beginning, the Wifi was terrible.  Over the course of the cruise it did get better.  I was able to FaceTime my children four different times successfully, but other times, not so much.  My Apple newsfeed was unusable , but it was a small price to pay to have internet that basically allowed for communications home.

Sorry

Having just disembarked the Splendor here is what we experienced.  Valet laundry and pressing is free to everyone.  Depending on how much you send it takes 0-1 days.  It comes back pristine in a box with laundry wrapped in tissue paper.  You can ask for items to be on hangers, if desired.  Everything as been pressed, including socks and undies.  None of ours were damaged or shrunk.

Guests at gold level and above get the $100/pp no matter what suite you are in.  Hope this helps.

I just did three classes on the Splendor.  In all cases I signed up in advance with my TA.  Initially it was going to be very difficult because of covid, e.g. they wanted half the number of guests and each at their own station.  Now they allow one person at each of the 18 stations.

We still are sitting at OHare waiting for our flight to Zurich then Athens.  While traveling we received the same letter from Regent as mountaindoc358.  Hope this doesn’t portend more missed ports.  Back to OHare.  We thought (dumb us) that there would be a nice lounge in the international terminal.  No such luck.  The terminal is undergoing major renovations so all there is, is a Swissport lounge.  Think soda, some alcohol, and Costco packaged snacks. Not bad for an hour, painful for five hours.  Anyway, we board in an hour so things should improve.

After many canceled cruises, and one foray on a Crystal cruise, we finally are on our way to Athens.  After packing two plus a carryon pieces of luggage each, we were ready to go.  But first, we needed to get the results of our PCR tests.  They were supposed to come last night.  Nothing.  DH emailed our friend/neighbor who did the tests.  Nothing.  Four am nothing.  Seven am nothing.  Now we are getting nervous because our daughter is picking us up at 7:50 am.  Finally at 7:10 they made it into our email — NEGATIVE.  We can go on the cruise.  Hurray!  Next issue how to get all the luggage to the airline counter.  Easy Peasy.  A porter came along with a cart and brought everything to the United counter.  One good thing about Birmingham, the airport is not crowded.  So we strolled right through TSA PRE.  Now just wait for our flight to ORD and our adventure begins.

Follow us as we travel through Europe and across the Atlantic.

Norma and Mitch

We will be excited to follow your trip. We will physically follow you onto the Splendor next week.

You should be getting your hard copy cruise docs soon.  We are on from Athens on 11/11 and we received them last Friday.  Welcome to the Regent family from two of your AL neighbors.

Norma and Mitch

As one of our cruise documents for our 11/11 Splendor cruise we’re detailed instructions to set up the app and what to carry with you.  Can’t wait to use it!

Not that I remember.

My experience with the cruise we will be boarding in the next week is that waitlist is available for some excursions and sold out with no chance of waitlisting is the only choice on others.  For example for months I was waitlisted on an excursion in Istanbul.  One day I checked, and I had been confirmed.  On the other hand, both of the Puerto Rico shore excursions to El Yunke were sold out, even before I as Concierge Class could book.  When I called Regent they said some excursions sell out really early and there is no chance of adding to the list.  I hope this helps.

Can't wait to hear all your reports about the Explorer and your transatlantic journey.  We will be following right behind you on the Splendor. Has it been cool or warm since you have been in Barcelona?  From your one picture of the beautiful TB it looks like Fall has arrived in Europe as well.

You certainly are taking advantage of everything Barcelona has to offer.  Stay safe.  Rest well.  Can't wait to read your postings from the Explorer.