KathyPet

When I asked the caller from one of the agencies how they got a hold of my information when I had registered directly on the PG website the caller said "we word closely with PG and are one of their preferred travel partners" so PG definitely provided them with my data and I am highly annoyed. I thought that they were required to disclose to you that they were going to share your data and I went back and looked and there is no disclosure to that effect.

About three weeks ago I went onto the PG website to request a brochure. About two weeks ago I started receiving phone calls (multiple) on my home phone and E Mail (multiple) from TWO different travel agencies wanting to assist me in booking my PG cruise. I am highly annoyed about this. Obviously they passed my personal information along to these agencies who are now trying to sell me their services. I double checked the website and it says absolutely nothing about allowing PG to provide my personal info to another outside entity. Oh and to top it all off I STILL have not even received the brochure I asked for. This certainly is not starting off on a good foot and makes me wonder why I would want to book with them.

So my take away here is that some prefer Regent and some Oceania but just about everyone's top choice is the Paul Gauguin.

The PG does include air fare, gratuities and wine, beer and spirits so addl. costs would be for shore excursions and transfers running about $2000.00 depending upon excursions chosen???

Our timing for the cruise is pretty open and they appear to have some cheaper prices in March then in the Jan/Feb time frame so I will go and look more carefully at them.

Balloon man, Thanks for tip on PG. They have a 10 day in 2/15 but a balcony D level cabin runs $14090.00 for 2 which includes only air fare. by the time we add excursions, drinks, gratuities and transfers we are way over even Regent's cost.

Hawaiian. thanks for the info. That is the kind of information I need.

I am going to post this on both the Regent and Oceania boards in the hopes that I can get some input that will push me to one or the other line for a 10 day Tahiti cruise next winter. Normally the itinerary is the deciding factor but both cruises are the same ports and virtually the same amount of time spent in each one so I must look at other factors. Price difference is very substantial. we are booked in a F Veranda suite on Mariner for the 2/4 departure. Cost is $13998.00. Oceania Marina for a depart date of 1/14 is $9198.00 for a B4 Veranda. That is a whole lot of $$ difference. Regent includes air fare, transfers between airport/ship, gratuities, all beverages and shore excursions. Oceania includes air fare but not transfers, beverages, shore excursions or gratuities.

We have done a Barcelona to Rome cruise on Regent Mariner and were very pleased with the experience. Have not done Oceania. DH and I are not big drinkers. Never more than 1 drink before dinner, one after dinner and sometimes a glass of wine with dinner so I don't think a beverage package would be a good value for us however I did like not having to sign for things on Regent

I have no idea what the cost of shore excursions for these ports run on average so this is a large expense that I cannot factor in. Also don't know what the average is for daily gratuities or what Oceania charges for transfers.

Another question involves interior cabin size. Marina states Veranda is 282 sq ft but does not state if this includes balcony sq footage. Mariner is 252 sq ft inside plus 49 sq ft balcony. Does Marina stated sq ft include balcony??

Final question is Oceania states virtually smoke free ships? Where is smoking allowed on Oceania?

I think that we would enjoy the Mariner cruise but I am having a difficult time justifying the large price difference. if anyone has done the Tahiti trip on Oceania any information is appreciated.

We're on the same cruise and are also planning to overnight - actually spend two nights - in LAX to break up the trip. We're also using Regent's flight only from LAX to PPT and return. Our travel agent seems to think it will be on Air Tahiti Nui. At one time, this airline had some flights out of Dulles...but not everyday. Are they still doing that?

Well how nice to meet up with someone on the same cruise so far in advance. Where are you flying from? We are also considering flying into LAX on the 2nd using United FF miles and arriving about 7 PM EST. We have lots of Marriott points so were thinking about using them for the night of the 2nd and then making a reservation for the 3rd just so we can have the room and taking a nap that afternoon. If we then have a late evening flight on Air Niuhi we will just tell,the hotel we are leaving and check out and get to the terminal. We flew to Hawaii a few years ago just stopping to change planes and those flights were really tough on DH's and my older bodies. It took us two full days in Hawaii just to recover.

Haven't decided if we want to stay over on the return trip but that would be just for one night.

Air Tahiti has a code share flight with American from IAD but then if we didn't want to go straight through Regent would probably charge us the deviation fee and we don't have any FF's with American.

We are booked on the 2/4/15 10 day R/T trip. The Mariner is scheduled to arrive in port at 6 AM that day on the last day of a 30 day cruise from Auckland. All the flights I can find feed through LAX and appear to depart late in the evening and arrive very early the day of departure. Can anyone tell me what airline Regent uses and what the process is for getting on board as I am sure that passengers arrive quite exhausted since a lot of folks must have to fly into LAX from other locations and then change planes for the last leg of the flights? We are coming in from Dulles and are considering using FF miles for the IAD/LAX trip and staying over at a airport hotel one night prior to departure from LAX. Has anyone done this? I am assuming that using FF miles for the IAD/LAX does not cause any deviation fee since Regent Air is not going to be handling that and thus doesn't care how or when we get to LAX?

We have a reservation on Mariner for a Feb 2015 cruise. Does anyone know what airline will be used from LAX-Pappete?

Also, it looks like the majority of flights are overnights landing very early in the AM. Does anyone know how Regent handles boarding with a passengers arriving so early??

Did a 8 night Bermuda cruise on Enchantment in June and just returned from a 12 night Med cruise on Silhoutte. I will not even talk about the demographic differences because obviously a cruise to Bermuda in June and a Med cruise in October will have a total different demographic make up regardless of the cruise line.

Food was better on Celebrity in my opinion. NOt just the actually cooking of the food but what was offered. Celebrity had Chateubriand, Beef Wellington and Steak Tartre (appetizer) on the menu. I did not see any of those offered on RCCL. I thought the prime rib on RCCl was very bland and totally tasteless. Prime RIb on Celebrity was much better. We had breakfast in the MDR twice on Celebrity and I appreciated not having to listen to the waiter shill for the fresh squeezed orange juice the way they do on RCCL. The cafe was a draw IMHO. We ate in Murano's twice on Celebrity and while I found the food to be very good I thought the service was rather pretentious. THey were very concerned with impressing you with how very very elegant they are.

Service was far better on RCCL IMHO. There was nothing wrong with the service on Celebrity but it was much warmer and friendlier on RCCL. Service on Celebrity was professional but not warm.

Good thing you knew the rules about the dress code for St. Peter's. I saw the guards turning away a lot of people who did not follow the dress code. A little research goes a long way.

I know that shoulders must be covered to enter St. Peter's. What did your daughter bring to ensure that she was "covered up"?

And the score is Bridge 1, Ship 0. Reminds me of that old song "Something's gotta give"

I had the same experience on a HAL ship. I was upgraded to a suite at check in and was so excited. The suite was great but it was right underneath the pool deck. Every morning at 5 AM for 10 days I was awakened by the sound of deck chairs being pushed and pulled around and the sound of the hoses as they washed the deck down. It was the first time that I learned to be very careful about knowing what is above you and below you when you book a cabin.

Before I booked on the Enchantment I talked to a neighbor of mine who is north of 65. She sailed on this ship last year and I wanted her opinion. She felt that while the ship was well maintained the decor and furnishings were shop worn and very dated. From looking at these pictures that would appear to be true. I haven't seen a color scheme like that since the 80's. Blue carpet and mauve furniture! On My!

I thin the ship is going into dry dock in December. Does anyone know what will be done during that time?

Thanks for posting especially the pictures of your JS. We have a aft JS for our cruise to Bermuda in June on this ship and I was anxious to see what they looked like. THe decor and color scheme in the cabins seem a bit dated to me. Did you feel like the ship needed some refurbishment???

We also have js aft cabin 7668 booked on deck 7 for a July cruise. I have heard different opinions about the aft cabins on this deck. I would be curious to hear what you have to say about the cabins back there.

We are booked in 7668 on the 6/14 Bermuda sailing so I will post about it when we return.

WHy was your deviation charge so much? I know you said you upgraded to business class which would certainly run $999.00 pp each way but then on top of that you paid another $1000.00? My charge was $100.00 per person. We are going home in economy.

Yes we are flying Paris/Dulles on United. We paid the $100.00 pp (I think that was the amount of the deviation fee) and we are booked on the flight I wanted. I was not aware that there was even such a policy about not allowing you to fly from a city that is not a emabarkation or disembarkation port.

I did one just a couple of months ago for our Sept Barcelona to Rome cruise. We are flying one of the cheap inter-european airlines to Paris for a few days and flying home from there.

I went to the ITA website (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/) to get information on all the flights that were available on the Paris/Dulles route so I had some specific flights in mind. I used a internet travel agent so I called her and she put me on a conference call with the Regent Air dept. We had a 3 way conversation concerning which flights were available through Regent and we quickly were able to come to a selection which Regent then booked for me. It all went quite smoothly.

I am certainly very glad to hear that I CAN book my shore excursions directly on line myself. It takes me a long time to sort through all the various options for shore excursions and I find myself returning to the listings over and over again while trying to decide. I try to focus on one or two ports at a time and make my final selections and then continue on to another port so I am glad that I can pursue and book my choices on line.

Wow, first I discover that you only get a hot breakfast via room service if you are in one of the highest level cabins. The "lower classes" just get some fruit and rolls tossed their way. Now I find out that you cannot book your shore excursions on line and if you booked with a TA they have to book these for you? I have cruised with both Seabourn and HAL and was able to book my shore excursions directly on line myself with no intervention from my travel agent. This is getting really annoying.