SWFLAOK

We always book a Commodor Suite so that we each have our own bathroom. They might be small, but that 's fine with me since we don't need to be in one at the same time. It's especially convenient when we have both need to shower and get ready for dinner. We've had large bathrooms on other ships (Viking Ocean, explorer suite, most recently), but when you're both in there at once, it's still not ideal.

When we boarded Navigator back on April 5th, our butler told us to leave the laundry bag on the bed when we were out of the room, and it would be back within 48 hours. Sometimes, it's back in 24 hours, but never less than that. We've left it in both the morning and the evening, and it's still not back in less than 24 hours. Last April, we were on Navigator for 2 weeks in a concierge suite, which has no butler. We left our laundry in the hall by our door when we went to breakfast. Sometimes it was gone by the time we returned from breakfast, and then it would usually be returned clean while we were at dinner. Sometimes it was still there after breakfast, and taken sometime during the day. It was not returned until the next night during dinner in that case. One of our traveling companions ob our last cruise waited more than 48 hours for her laundry. It was returned quite promptly when she asked her room attendant about it. I would never expect to turn in my laundry in the morning and get it back before dinner. I can't remember that happening on any of our 8 Regent cruises. I guess some people are luckier than us.

It really matters where your cruise is. I had no trouble getting Coke Zero on our Caribbean cruise out of Miami last April. It was in the fridge when we boarded, replaced when I drank it. On our current cruise, on the same ship, I have 3 types of sugar free Coca Cola. One was made in Austrailia and is called Coca Cola Diet, and indicates on the can that it contains caffeine. It's in a short fat can. The other 2 are in tall slim cans. One says Coca Cola light on the front and Coke light on the back. It was made in Malaysia and distributed in Singapore. It has 0 for "energy" which I assume are calories. There are ingredients listed in both Engligh and another language, and there's no caffeine added, but it doesn't say there's no caffeine. The third can has nothing but Thai writing except "Coca Cola" on the front with a short word in Thai letters under it, and on the back it has the trademarked Coke light. I assume it came from Thailand where we started this cruise. They all taste the same to me. I usually have one in the afternoon, and skip the late afternoon coffee or tea that I might have had otherwise, if the Coke was caffeine free.

We have an American Airlines Advantage membership number and have miles from several International flights on American but the lounge in Doha wanted to see an AA Advantage credit card which we don't have. But we were allowed into the Qatar Airways business class lounge with a supervisor's approval and 273 dollars. They said that they were having a problem with travel agency's booking business lite and not informing their clients. Our TA told is to keep the receipt and she will talk to Regent about The 273 only includes 6 hours of access, and Regent booked our flights with over 6 hours originally, and it grew to 9.5 hours over the months since we booked. We found out that there was a Bangkok flight at 8:10 that they could have booked us on but didn't. We would have been willing to pay for an extra night through Regent for that. At least the terminal here is beautiful compared to the one at MIA. We were told we had access to the lounge included on our return flights which has First class tickets from Abu Dhabi to Doha and business lite from Doha to Miami, but we only have 2 hours in between. We will be looking out for business lite and business restricted fares in the future since we now know it might cost a lot more.

We are at MIA for the "business class" flight that Regent booked for us on Qatar Airways. Even though we made the deviation fee to book early and had to pay Qatar Airways extra to reserve seats we found out we don't have real business class seats. They're "business lite" and have no access to a lounge. When we checked in we were told we could access the Turkish airlines lounge, but they showed us we had no lounge access. We just paid over a hundred dollars for sandwiches and drinks at a noisy counter. Even worse, we have a very long layover in Doha, and have no longer access there either. AT The gate here in Miami we were told to go to the transfer desk in Doha to see what we can buy. I could have paid 148 o line yesterday if I knew I needed to but it's too late for that offer. I guess I know why we were only offered the worst seats in business. I wonder what other amenities we don't get onboard.

We booked for 90K each for the WC in a Veranda cabin on Silver Dawn back in August 22. We have cruised on Silver Whisper before, and enjoyed it for a 20 day cruise. We found they had better restaurants than Mariner, which we cruised to Alaska just before our Silversea cruise. Silver Dawn is still small for a cruise ship, but has a much larger choice of restaurants than Mariner. We were concerned about the size of the Veranda cabin on Silver Dawn, but it seemed like a better choice than a similar cabin on Mariner at a similar price. And, the itinerary on the Silversea WC took us to many places that we haven't been before, with very few places we have already been, and those were places we didn't mind going to again. The included airfare for the Silversea world cruise seemed more likely to not have any extra fees required, as we always end up needing to pay on Regent. But since we hadn't even been offered flights in March for January, we don't know the reality of that. On our previous Silversea cruise, we did our own air, and our own pre and post hotel. We have used Regent for air, and pre and post stays with no complaints. We did back to backs in September 2022 on Splendor, and enjoyed the ship more then the 3 older ships, because the cabins were larger, and there were more choices for restaurants. So that's why a WC on Splendor seemed to me to be much more desirable than previous Regent WCs, and I would have expected it to be more than the Silversea WC we had signed up for. Silversea did announce the updated itinerary this week, after we cancelled, and it's not what we wanted to pay 200k for (when their expensive excursions were included). I checked their website this morning, and they showed availability starting at just over 192k per person. Wow!!

Are you just going through Regent or did you have a TA assigned when you booked the cruise? It's always better to have a TA than to deal directly with Regent when you do a booking. They will followup and take care of things between you and Regent. The price will be most likely be the same, but with the TA you can get cruise credits, and they can make excursion and dinner reservations when they become available so you don't have to. We have stayed with our original TA from our first cruise, and she does all of our bookings on all cruises. We even met her in the UK since she happened to be there when we were there pre-cruise, and we had a great time when we met.

The 2025 and 2026 World Cruises were over 100K for a low level cabin on Mariner. I was definitely expecting at least 125K on Splendor, with a much nicer low level cabin, and a much nicer ship than Mariner. We just cancelled 2025 WC on Silver Dawn, since we were entering the penalty period with no idea what the second 2 thirds of our cruise would be since it's unlikely we would go through the Suez Canal. They returned the 25 percent deposit that they've had since 2022 very quickly, so we were happy with that and ready to book other cruises. We still no not feel comfortable booking any cruise that is scheduled to go through the Suez Canal. The alternatives diversions currently being taken might have been interesting if there weren't already too many cruises headed to the same tiny ports that aren't ready to handle one small cruise boat now and then. 2

Your cabin looks great. That's a great concierge cabin, and we have more than a hundred nights onboard Regent with 20 nights more coming up next week. We did 30 nights on Splendor in 2022 and really enjoyed it. We loved having 3 specialty restaurants to choose from. We previously enjoyed 32 nights on Voyager in a Penthouse B, which had a great layout for its square footage. But our last 14 night cruise in April 23, and our upcoming cruise next week are on Navigator. We booked them based on itinerary, its small passenger capacity, and our previous Regent experience. Navigator is OK for us since we like small ships, but we really liked Pacific Rim on Splendor, Based on your review, we will be taking a look at Grandeur cruises to book for a future cruise while onboard Navigator a week from now. Thanks for your review.

I'd like to hear more about the gastrointestinal distress on Regent. After tasting the caviar onboard Regent once, we didn't want to try it again since it was rather fishy, and I don't like fishy at breakfast. But if they aren't serving it due to gastrointestinal distress, that makes me worry about having a more widespread problem onboard. Is there a Regent ship other than Voyager who has had norovirus/covid protocol onboard this year?

At our first dinner at SM, the 2 of us were served the antipasti course that would easily have filled 4 for dinner. I am not a big eater and did not enjoy anything served to me after that. We tried it again on another cruise on a different Regent ship, and asked that they not bring us the antipasti. They ignored our request, and brought it anyway. I don't like to waste food, but I wanted to try an entree so I didn't eat any of the antipasti. Our waiter asked us what was wrong, and I reminded him that we asked not to have the antipasti course. I don't remember what I had for the entree, but it wasn't very good. We are not Italian, but I do make Italian food at home. My Osso Bucco is much better than we've ever had on a cruise ship, as well as the restaurants in SW Florida where they use pork instead of veal.

We could not get reception to recognize that we became gold members on the day we boarded. We have stayed in a Penthouse suite a few times and no paper was offered. We have a cruise next month as gold in penthouse and I doubt that a newspaper will be offered. I would rather have good internet to read the nrws rather than waste paper. But Regent supposedly is putting off Starlink until their current contracts for poor internet service run out.

If a dinner with senior staff is listed as an amenity then something should be offered. Personally, we dread that, and would turn it down if offered. We have had dinner with the Captain on a small ship cruise line and we're happy when he left before dessert. The other 5 of us, 2 couples and a single, who had met on the ship had a great time after the Captain left. We have had dinner with lower level crew at a small table a few times and enjoyed it.

I totally agree. We have rarely eaten there because of the line and we got in line at least 15 minutes early. We no longer bother to try. A reservation would make me try it again.

My mistake. I found the invoice we received when our final payment was due and we each had $140 subtracted as a hotel credit.

You didn't miss anything in Cooktown. We stopped there on a Regent Voyager in late December a few years ago. Our tender ride was long and bumpy, and the excursion was pretty dull. We did a lot of sitting around waiting for the bus to leave, having seen everything there was to see in 10 or 15 minutes. The only good thing was that there were restrooms available at several of the stops, including the last one, before our long tender ride back to the ship.

We have had posts in the past but no pre's until our upcoming cruise. We're in a Penthouse and would have had one night included. We did not have a credit for the unused hotel night on our invoice. On our cruise last year, we could drive to the port and back, and didn't need flights. We did receive air credits on our invoice. For international flights, we have always asked what the credit would be, and only once was it enough to book a flight on our own. But that wasn't on Regent. Taking the credit works if you are near the port, or if you have a lot of miles for a particular airline that can get you there and/or back.

That's always a hard decision to make. On our first Regent cruise from Vancouver to Seward on Mariner, we were encouraged by our cruise TA book a Veranda suite instead of a Concierge Suite because they were the same size, and cost less. We were told it wasn't worth the transfers from the airport to the port, and the overnight hotel, and arriving the day before, and that we could do that on our own for less. Then we found out that if we wanted to arrive the day before the cruise boarded, we had to pay the deviation fee. And when we booked a hotel room near the port in Vancouver, we had to pay 450 US dollars for a room overnight, an included breakfast, and having out bags taken downstairs to meet us at the port for cruise check in. When we arrived in Vancouver, we had to pay 40 US dollars plus tip to get to the hotel from the airport. At that point, we had spent more than if we booked Concierge, and I would not have a coffeemaker in our cabin. On the morning of our embarkation, we were contacted by our TA as we were headed to check in, which was connected to the ground floor of our hotel. She told us we were being offered a free upgrade to a penthouse suite. Since we had already lost most of the benefits of a higher cabin level, and our luggage was already on it's way to the cabin we had booked, we declined. Everything went well from there. Since then, we have always booked Concierge or Penthouse so that Regent will fly us in the day before, and have transfers and hotel included. The hotels have always been acceptable. We always pay the deviation fee for our flights, because we want them booked as soon as flights are available Getting a flight assigned a few months ahead of time makes me nervous. We have never again been offered an upgrade after booking, neither free nor for an additional charge, and we've spent more than 100 nights onboard since our first cruise.

We were told we had seats already, and told the seat numbers by Regent. However, when we checked our reservations on the Qatar Airways website a few days later we had no tickets. Our TA checked with Regent, and they said to wait a week after we were booked, and to check again. When we checked again, we had tickets on the Qatar Airways website, but we had no seats assigned. We contacted our TA who spoke to Regent and they said that we should just wait. She spoke to Qatar Airways, and they said they were now charging for seat assignments. We then contacted Qatar Airways ourselves, and they said that seat assignments in Business class required an additional payment on 3 of the 4 flights we were booked on. We passed this on to our TA and she talked to Regent and they said that we just had to wait for seat assignments, and they couldn't tell us when they would be available. We decided we didn't want to wait and our TA contacted Qatar Airways. That's when we found out that only the least desirable seats were for Regent. We booked the best of what was left, and are happy with that. Hope you get the seats you're expecting, but we don't like surprises.

Until you are ticketed, you're basically ignored by the airline. From our experience, you're just put on the list for seats that Regent has access to for the flight. Once you're ticketed, you have an assigned seat, and if you see the seat and your ff numbers on the airline's website, you're good to go.

Back in the 60's, we lived in upstate NY, and had access to a TV station in NYC using our giant TV antenna, that broadcasted BBC shows. Mom was a huge fan, and we were introduced to Doctor Who at an early age. We all became fans of Monty Python, and I still remember how much I enjoyed "Doctor in the House" which was cancelled way too soon, I only recently stopped watching Doctor Who, because I always cried when the Doctor regenerated (especially David Tennant). But I couldn't handle Peter Capaldi regenerating into a women who required too many companions. Now that she's gone, I might try again. But back to your post, my brother is a big fan of "The Goes Wrong Show", and whenever we get together for dinner at his house, he shows us a few episodes. I have found it very funny, but my husband usually falls asleep, which he normally does after a big meal unless there's a Formula 1 or MotoGP race to watch.

We tried booking Scenic a few times in the past, but our first booking was what we thought would be a trip was a Myanmar River cruise, and we were able to book a wonderful cabin at the front of the ship. After making a substantial down payment, the president of Myanmar was arrested. I then read that China was sending mining companies to Myanmar to mine minerals and that they were polluting the rivers that we would be traveling on. We rebooked our Scenic cruise to Europe, starting with 3 nights in Paris, and an included fast train ride to Bordeaux to board a river cruise boat north and south from there, followed by a train back to Paris for our return home. As we came closer to our travel date, Scenic notified us that our cruise would only include the River cruise, and not 3 nights in Paris, and transportation there and back. And there was almost no decrease in cost. We cancelled and actually got our deposit back. We would not trust them again. I've never looked at Emerald, and Ritz Carlton is too new to trust. While everyone is charging more, that doesn't mean that everyone accepts that. We used to eat at our local restaurants once or twice a week, with most being upscale with good food and great service. We stopped doing that during Covid, and we don't miss it. We enjoy cooking, and it's much cheaper. We won't return to restaurants we used to frequent because of poor service, and food that is no longer up to what we expect. For us, cruising in the future might end if we have to pay more for poor service and food. We really haven't missed eating at local restaurants at all. There are alternatives in travel, just as we have found alternatives to local restaurants.

We were really looking forward to that excursion. We love to see and learn about history. If we were younger, we might have gone for the excursion from the new port, but after a long flight, and our pre excursions, our long ride to the new part, and boarding, unpacking etc, we didn't feel up to the long trip to Ayutthaya.

Why are is there so much demand from people booking cruises that are almost certainly to have significantly changed itineraries before their cruise embarks? We have 2 cruises that we booked long ago, and would not be surprised to have changes to the one in April. For the cruise early next year, we expect that it will not be the cruise we wanted because of the problems in the middle east, and we don't expect to learn that until its too late to get our large deposit back, and definitely not long before we actually embark. This cruise was fully booked a very long time ago, but there have been many cabins available lately. But there are people booking it as fast as people canceling it. We only like small ships, and have been willing to pay for good food and service for an itinerary that we like. But at this point, we're reluctant to book any future cruises.

We have always paid to deviate, and we have always pushed for as early as possible. We know which airlines and connections are not acceptable, and don't let them push us toward them by saying they won't be a problem. On our upcoming fights in April, Regent told us we had seats assigned. When we looked at the airline's website, we didn't have seats. We complained through our TA, and Regent said we had to pay extra for seat assignments. We agreed to that, and it was several hundred dollars for each seat on each flight, so 8 seats altogether for the 2 of us. This was late November for our April flights. We had a choice of the few remaining available seats in business class. There were only a few that were together, and all the least desirable seats. We felt that they had mislead us when they told us they had assigned seats which were all good seats in business class, and found out later that they hadn't. We were told it would be a while before our seat assignments would show up on the airline website, but ended up not being true.