DaveFr

The following Canadian government website might be of help to the OP’s friend. (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/inadmissibility/overcome-criminal-convictions.html)

Dave

I just checked and, in addition to the three day gap noted by Marc, there is now a 13 day gap in early 2025 from January 29 through February 10. This makes sense to me as Regent has a grand voyage in March 2025. Regent may also use the three days at the end of November to spruce up the ship for another grand voyage in early 2026. Regent may be dropping the major renovation for Voyager or it’s possible that Regent is still doing the major renovation on Voyager but needs less time to do so than it needs for Mariner.

Dave

38 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Tour tickets???  I was on venture almost a year ago and no tickets. Had to use the app and the expedition team who managed all excursions simply checked us off lists on clip boards 

The Venture is not a Regent ship. Totally irrelevant. 
 

Dave

2 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

We're the previous and current cruises in a butler level suite?

 

Both butler levels suites and non-butler level suites. The current cruise is in a Concierge suite. We also get a bottle of Grand Mariner each cruise without requesting it regardless of suite category.

Dave

We just got on the Grandeur today. There was diet caffeine free Coke in our suite. We did not order it pre-cruise but have ordered it in the past. 
 

Dave

10 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

To my knowledge Regent doesn't pay for the flights more than 60 days out.  When I deviated on our Feb. cruise from Hong Kong I made the deviation 210 days out.  About a month later United changed the schedule giving me an uncomfortably short layover in SFO to change planes.  Long story short, I contacted United and they said there was nothing they could do to change the schedule since the tickets hadn't been paid for.  So I called Regent and all they could do was rebook a different day but it would be an up charge and a new deviation fee.  However the agent did give me the date that the ticket would be paid for (60 days or so before the cruise).  So after that date I was able to call United and make an acceptable change directly with them.  So, you can BOOK 210 days out, but the flight won't be paid for until 60 days out. 

Your conclusion that you can book 210 days out but the flight won’t be paid for until 60 days out is what normally happens. However, the OP already had flights to Reykjavík from Regent and wanted to know if there was any downside to having the flights ticketed earlier than 60 days out. That question was what I originally responded to. Regent flights are ticketed by the airlines when Regent pays for them. As I stated above, I was told that when Regent pays for flights and they are ticketed, the flights become nonrefundable. This information was the basis for my original post.

Dave

15 hours ago, DaveFr said:

Last year, I was informed that I could have my Regent flights ticketed early but that there was a potential downside to doing so. Normally Regent flights may be canceled until they are ticketed 60 days before the cruise. Within 60 days of the cruise, there is a 100% penalty for canceling flights. So, if you have a flight ticketed earlier than the 60 day mark, the 100% penalty begins on the date the flight was ticketed. The option to ticket early is there but it has risks.
 

Dave

8 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

I don't believe that is correct.  I believe you can cancel Regent Air prior to the 60 days as that is when they pay for the tickets.  What you lose if you book Custom Air then cancel it is the $175 per person Deviation Fee. And the 60 days is mostly when 100% penalty for cancelling begins for cruise cancellation. 

The only risk you run booking 210 days out is the non-refundable $175 pp.  But you have secured seats on flights you want so it is, IMHO, well worth it. 

papaflamingo, I don’t understand your post. I agree that you can cancel Regent flights prior to the 60 day mark when Regent normally tickets and pays for them. Until ticketing and payment at the 60 day mark, the flights are cancelable and refundable to Regent. However, the OP’s question was about ticketing flights early. In that case, Regent would have to pay early to have the flights ticketed. I was told that when Regent pays for the tickets earlier than 60 days before the cruise the flights become nonrefundable. Also, the 60 day mark is significant for more than cruise cancellations. As Regent invoices state in the “Cancellation of Ancillary Items“ section, airfare canceled within 60 days prior to the cruise incurs a 100% fee (penalty).

Dave

Last year, I was informed that I could have my Regent flights ticketed early but that there was a potential downside to doing so. Normally Regent flights may be canceled until they are ticketed 60 days before the cruise. Within 60 days of the cruise, there is a 100% penalty for canceling flights. So, if you have a flight ticketed earlier than the 60 day mark, the 100% penalty begins on the date the flight was ticketed. The option to ticket early is there but it has risks.
 

Dave

Please don’t attempt to get any visas before you or your TA speak with Regent. In a number of ports, Regent has a blanket visa covering everyone on the ship or any visa requirement is waived due to the short duration of the visit.
 

Dave

We took a similar cruise from Lisbon to Cape Town in November 2022. Double check everything with your travel agent or Regent but it looks like the only visa you will need is for Ghana. Some people will need to get a visa for Gambia but Commonwealth countries are exempt from the visa requirement. On our cruise, Regent took care of getting any visa we needed and added the cost to our onboard account. Most likely the same procedure will apply in your case but be sure to double check.

Dave

Alaskans on this board have joked that if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes for it to change. 😃

Dave

Not on any of the regular Regent Alaska cruises I’ve taken.

Dave

Last November in Athens we stayed at the XENODOCHEIO MILOS hotel. We enjoyed it and would book it again. The hotel also has an excellent fresh seafood restaurant.
 

Dave

1 hour ago, TheShag said:

I reviewed that thanks. It seems to imply these are for true “out of pocket” charges and perhaps not the OBC value. Given the lack of distinction, then I guess one can assume that 36 hrs before ship departure, not excursion, is the rule.

In this context, departure means the time the excursion begins. I have many nights on Regent and have canceled extra charge excursions after the cruise began. As long as you cancel more than 36 hours before the excursion begins, the shipboard credit you used to pay for the excursion will be re-deposited in your account.

Dave

36 hours or more before the excursion.

Dave

Probably more than 10 years ago I remember a guarantee passenger being Bumped from a Caribbean cruise. I don’t remember if it was a Regent or Oceania cruise. The bumped passenger posted about the incident on Cruise Critic. A couple of days later Frank Del Rio, who was the CEO of both lines at the time, posted that the passenger should not have been bumped and that it was a mistake. In addition to a full refund, the bumped passenger was given a free cruise.

As others have said, Regent will make offers to booked passengers to get them to move to another cruise so Regent does not have to bump any guarantee passengers. To give you an idea of the length Regent will go to to avoid bumping any passengers, here’s what we experienced in 2015. In September 2015, we were booked on Mariner in a category G or F suite for a 21 night cruise from San Francisco to New York. We had taken an air credit for the cruise. Regent offered to switch us to one of three cruises. We chose a 28 night cruise from Cape Town to Singapore on the Voyager. We were upgraded to a Penthouse B and given business class air from Los Angeles round-trip with no air deviation fee. Regent provided all visas at no cost (worth about $1000) and credited us with $1500 because we declined the included pre-cruise land program. Finally, Regent gave us a refund of around $3200 which might have included the $1500 credit. I don’t remember the exact figures but the new cruise ended up costing us less than our original Mariner cruise.
 

So the OP should feel highly confident that they will not be bumped from their cruise.

Dave

I don’t know about Radisson but Regent gives passengers who are platinum and above a daily newspaper upon request as an included perk. Otherwise, you may request a newspaper for a charge. I think it’s about six or seven dollars per day.

Dave

As Pcardad said, the boarding time slot is basically irrelevant on Regent cruises now. In the past, it made some sense when Regent was doing Covid testing at the pier prior to boarding.

Dave

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

I think the "failure" originated on the hotel side (something caused lack of anticipated capacity) and there were no other options available to book the volume Regent needed at the prices they had negotiated. I have a disclosure that I share with people that basically explains we are in a new world and things can happen. To be fair, it is a lot easier for a small guy to fix this issue than it is for a company looking for 300+ hotel rooms last minute in Iceland...plus I charge more than Regent does.

I agree. Pure speculation on my part but the Paris Olympics begin on July 26. It’s possible that there is increased tourism in Iceland during July because of people visiting Iceland prior to the Olympics. If so, such an increase could result in hotels reducing the number of rooms they would offer to Regent at contract rates.

Dave

19 minutes ago, highlandshores said:

Has anyone heard anything from Regent regarding the nonsense $200.00 that they offered. I still have not heard back from them. Maybe because I don’t have a TA fighting for me. Thanks for any update 

The $200pp or £150pp amount is the hotel credit you would’ve received if you had declined the hotel and transfer when you booked the cruise. The ham-fisted attempt to call a required refund a goodwill gesture was a PR disaster. The $200 OBC was the Goodwill gesture.

Dave

Jennefer Teegen (jteegen@rssc.com), the Director of Guest Experience and Loyalty, is the person to contact with your question. As sorely missed as he will be, I don’t think Mike Moore would have been helpful as this is not an IT question.

Dave

1 hour ago, CJANDH said:

Turkish Airlines is still being used by Regent. I have flights on Turkish from Atlanta to Istanbul confirmed for June this year. Seats allocated and ready to go. I did deviate.

Good to know. Has Regent made full payment for your flights or are they waiting until the 60 day mark?
 

Dave

Last September, Regent booked us on Turkish Airlines flights from Barcelona to Istanbul to Los Angeles at the end of April. A couple of days later I called Turkish Airlines to confirm that the seats reserved by Regent were in the airline’s system. I was informed that my reservation had been canceled for nonpayment.

since payment was not supposed to take place until 60 days before the first flight, I contacted my TA who, in turn, contacted Regent. The Regent air concierge contacted Turkish Airlines informed her that the airline no longer would wait until the 60 day mark for payment but wanted immediate payment. Apparently, the contract was still in effect with the exception of the new payment requirement.

Dave

1 hour ago, redraider1966 said:

My spouse and I have taken over 35 cruises spanning 40 years on a number of different lines.  Our only personal experience with noro or any G-I related problem was on a cruise  with a self-service buffet in which the number of cases prompted an immediate and prolonged code red for which the crew was not prepared. We are currently on our 18th cruise on Oceania, which does not take such chances and its first-class buffet provides pax with ample choices and opportunities to select what and how much of what dish or dishes they want and to be served by capable and pleasant personnel.  We have two more cruises on the books with Oceania.  We just fail to see why people insist in having to serve themselves, thereby increasing the risk of spreading infection among fellow pax and crew.  Yes, the day will come when we will be more comfortable staying home, just not yet, but we're just more cautious than we were 40-50 years ago.

The problem with your analysis is that, notwithstanding no self-service buffets, Oceana has had outbreaks of norovirus in the past. (See, e.g. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2236267-gastroenteritis-now-on-regatta/#comment-47963938.)

Dave

I don’t know about the Norton VPN but I use a Proton Plus VPN on all Regent ships without any problem. I don’t see why the Norton VPN wouldn’t work as well

Dave