Kane

I personally think it would be insanity to disembark passengers prior to their luggage being completely unloaded.

I really can't imagine the chaos of having EXTREMELY ANGRY passengers milling around the luggage warehouse in an empty "pink 3" zone while the luggage handlers are trying to unload at the same time.

Amazing!  Ray Solaire!

It appears rumours of his (multiple) retirements have been greatly exaggerated!

Tnkbstr, I should probably clarify my statement:  I noticed the offer a few days ago, it could very well have been received on or before Nov 8.  Most of the offers are for junk I would never shop for, so I don't look too often.  I'll be looking more often now.

I lucked out. 

The offer just arrived and I have a final payment on a cruise due at the end of this month.

I emailed our travel agent to adjust the amount put on the Amex card.

My observations are that "It depends how your brain is wired".

Some folks' comments are that there is no better view than that of the ship's wake from an aft facing cabin.  We were once offered an "upgrade" to an aft-facing Penthouse on either the Voyager or Mariner which we took.  We absolutely hated it.

For us, part of cruising is the anticipation and enjoyment of viewing a new port on the sail-in.  The sail-away is often just as good, although the aft-facing cabins definitely get this view.

Side issue:  Some folks with rabbit ears grumble about Voyager and Navigator having some engine vibration issues at the aft end of the ship(s).

The green concept is good, the implementation is not so good,

The bottles are heavy and awkward to muscle around on a shore excursion.

What's worse is that we passengers have no easy way to clean the bottles other than rinse five times or use shampoo to wash them out.  I think it is impossible to prevent bacteria from growing over a cruise of a couple of weeks.  I do notice that the water goes stale and odoriferous over a couple of days.

I visited the GM to gripe about this.  His response was that we should have the cabin attendants take the bottles to the kitchen to have them cleaned.  Sounds like an additional task they would just love.

My solution was to request Perrier.  Not economically great but we got swamped with bottles of such thereafter 🙂

Beyond the bottles, the system manifests itself into the dining venues.  Not everyone likes ice in their water glass, but I happen to be one of them that does.  Ambient temp water from those refillable bottles are now the standard.

On our most recent GTY, we were not assigned a cabin until we arrived at the dock.

Would it have been nice to know earlier ... of course.  By the same token, we were not obligated to accept the GTY in the first place.  Were we happy to be onboard ... yes.

We have been on two Seabourn voyages and cannot say the the cuisine is fine dining.  There are sparks of greatness but you won't find it all at once for an entire meal unless by chance your favorites line-up on some lucky star evening.

You, however, can work it out based on the daily menus for the various venues that are given to you.  On certain nights, this may involve dining at two venues;  e.g. sushi (very good) starters in the Club followed by seconds and entree at Earth and Ocean.  Solis is the only "specialty" venue and you will enjoy it greatly or experience a meh meal.

You will not starve 🙂

I tried very hard to like Viking because of the reasons stated in my prior post.  However, bad first and last impressions resulting on the autocratic way it's run has given us second thoughts.

It was near the end of Covid, but the government at Bali was requiring vaccine registration via a app that would not work on my laptop or Android phone.  Viking would not provide any help or advice other than "just do it", which did not work.  We had to just take a chance and fly out and hope for the best.  Terrible first impression, no superior service.

Two days prior to arrival, with no apologies, we were told that we would not be debarking at the Sydney Circular Pier.  We were disembarked at some marginal facility in the boonies, miles from the city, having no organized transport facility.  Good thing Uber works in Sydney.  The next morning, we arose and saw our Viking Mars parked at the Circular Quay, awaiting new passengers to embark.  Bad last impression.

Plus, I read they raised the price of the beverage package 🙂

Our impression of sailing with Viking is that it will be a straightforward honest business relationship.  You will pay a fair value and receive goods and services commensurate with what you pay.  You will be treated cordially and fairly but in a fairly formal business relationship, which I have been told is the Scandinavian way.  This begins with:  You book now, you pay now in full, no final payment later.  You are treated as a good customer, not a lifelong buddy.  

The ships are very well designed, well laid-out and decorated, and all functionally identical.  If you sail on one Viking ship, you will know where everything is on all of them.  It makes total sense.

If you can somehow apply all of the above to food, you will get a good feeling of what the cuisine is like.  It's totally good, by formula, not superior, but totally acceptable (buy the beverage package upgrade).

It's as if the entire company was created and run by engineers.  Not a criticism as I know because I got my B.S. in engineering.

As mentioned previously, "Viking founder Torstein Hagen has always said Viking isn't a luxury brand."  Regent is targeted as a luxury brand and, although not perfect, comes much closer to that goal.  You, of course, will be required to pay for such difference.

17 minutes ago, chuckw said:

Because we liked the all-inclusive Regent.

I agree.  The all inclusive include transfers to/from the airport which you lose if you book your own air.  This often means finding then dragging your luggage to/from the taxi queue or private transfer companies.

Yes, it's your option but this becomes problematic when the all inclusive cost differential is orders of magnitude of "book your own" ... sometimes thousands of dollars.  It then becomes less of an option.

As part of the RSSC loyalty program, after you sail a bunch of nights you become entitled to one free $175 custom air fee, which we get ... the "waiver".

I admit I did not check whether there has been a change to the fee policy.  Last year, those without the waiver had to pay a non-refundable $75 fee just to request custom air.  If booking was made, the fee was rolled into the $175 total.

It  is possible that this has all gone away.  When making our first sailing on RSSC, we had to pay for WiFi.  This became free on our second voyage.  We had to sail many nights before getting one free laundry a week.  Now everyone gets daily free laundry.

I guess the trick is to just wait until it becomes a free Bennie.😁

Apologies for my rant.  I actually receive a waiver on the custom air fee and, therefore, have no real basis for griping.

The person, however, that has to bite the non-refundable $75 fee for making a custom air request should be able to gripe a little if they don't successfully get their request fulfilled.

I'm not a Mensa and am having a difficult time trying to understand the "New" Regent Ultimate Upgrade Air.  Our cruise price quoted Air Arrangements at an outbound cost of $3,820 for the April voyage.  This would change up/down when the custom air request was made at 210 days. The Regent website says: "*Airfares listed with Ultimate Upgrade Air are based on available flights from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)" so $3,820 seems to be what an NYC resident must pay.

Now, the business air for the flight from our home (not NYC) on Delta is available via Google Flights and other booking sites at $2,140.  At 210 days, I submitted this to Regent Air as our custom air request.  Their response was "... can’t offer the Delta nonstop flight you requested. They don’t have a contract in economy, premium, or business class for that route with Delta."  Their proposal was an air differential of $800 on another airline, making it $4,620.  This is more than twice the "retail" cost of the Delta flight.  Did they think I would really fly to JFK to "save" $800?

Again, I'm not a Mensa and just can't figure out the advanced math and business rationale Regent Air is utilizing.

24 minutes ago, Mahogany said:

Does this go for bottled water, too? Like San Pellegrino? Can you request in advance?

Here's an indirect answer to your question:  I griped in the mid-cruise eval about the Regent "green" water policy with those refillable bottles both in the cabins and at the restaurants.  I may be in the minority, but I just don't like it.  As an unintended consequence, the "trickle down" ended up as blame of our cabin attendant, who was innocent and provided superior service.

I went to see the General Manager to clear this up.  He did provide a personal apology to our cabin attendant.

The result:  They started providing us with MANY bottles of Perrier.  This was a by-product of my gripe, but there is no question in my mind that you can get Pellegrino/Perrier if you so desire.  On one voyage, I got a bottle of Campari and got Perrier (screw bottle) instead of wasting cans of club soda.

Sounds like a bunch of fertilizer.  IP addresses should have no effect on the phone OS.

We disembarked Grandeur 8 days ago in NYC.  I used the app for the 16 days of the voyage on my Android phone.

The app still needs a great deal of work, but it did function to provide a few basic informational needs each day.

1. By mid-morning, it was able to provide a copy of the daily "Passages".  Hard to view a .pdf on a phone, but the information was there.

2. The menus at the various  dining venues were very basic an not up to date, but you could see the "basics".

3. The "Account" section needs a lot of work.  You could NOT see your account balance.  What was available was the excursions that you had signed-up for.  The "pain" was that you had to input your credentials every time you wanted to see the info (it did not remember who you were).

4. There is a catalog describing details of ALL excursions being provided.

5. There is a directory of telephones of ship departments and Staff.

6. The "Art Experience" - description of art around the ship.

The app needs a lot of work, but it's improved from the prior voyage we were on.

There is hope.😁

Thankfully, the days of having to pack (and wear) a Tux has passed.

My opinion: "Formal Optional" designation is made these days to permit folks to dress formally on such nights without being thought of as odd.

Speaking from experience:

Panama Canal - The first time we made passage, we were in the cabin furthest forward.  It was nice but not necessary.  We have been thru the canal 2 additional times.  The transit takes most of the day and you will most likely move around the ship to view the action from various perspectives.  Repeat: not necessary to be in cabin with forward view.

Amazon - cabin position irrelevant.  The river is so wide, most of the time, while sailing, you will have only a distant view of the banks of the river.  When you are sailing closer to shore, there is really very little of interest to see.

I sure hope this doesn't surpress the excitement you may be looking forward to.

Wine lunch for Grandeur BCN-NYC starting today.

Looks good.

On our very first Regent cruise on the Mariner, they featured a group that called themselves "Prtivate Reserve".  They were a group of winemakers from Napa that gave high end wine tastings a few days at Sea, but played music in the Horizon Lounge each evening to a packed house.

The group leader was Michael Martini of the Louis Martini Winery.  These guys were the epitome of living the high life.  It convinced us that Regent was "our" cruise line.  Unfortunately, we were never again able to find Private Reserve featured on another voyage.🙁

23 hours ago, ryndam said:

Or the ridiculous removal of the sofas for “the chair” and the dumb “salad bowl” sinks years ago on Symphony. 

Damn! That sure brings back memories ... it's also around the time those spherical soap balls vanished😁

This topic sort of went down a rabbit hole.  The leader of the culinary arts class is probably a secret because they don't even know whom it might be.  He/she is there as an entertainer, not to give any top Michelin chef competition.  His/her duty is to get the wine flowing so that everyone will have a good time.

Will you learn how to learn to cook something really great?  Unlikely, as all ingredients are in pre-measured glass dishes ... you just throw them on the heat and have another glass of wine.  Will it come out? ... almost certainly.

Will you have a good time?  Most likely, I did and made it back to my cabin o.k. since I wasn't driving. 😁

Response very heavy on the fertilizer. 

I don't think you should be overly concerned about your boarding.  Vancouver is the primary port for Alaska cruises and they know what they are doing.

Of the 3 ships you mention, the Zaandam is the largest, and the only one with > 1,000 passengers (1,400).  This is really baby stuff compared to when multiple 3,000+ ships are in at once.

Read your documentation carefully and show up when and where they tell you.

The Venetians are trying to limit tourist visits, so it makes total sense to bring them all the way in on the causeway, perhaps charge them the day visit tariff, then send them back out the causeway.

Truly bizarre, something that Caravaggio might have dreamed up.