exlandlubber

Hello everyone! I’m hoping someone can provide a bit of information on the free land programs that Regent offers. We are sailing on the Splendor from Rome to Barcelona in November and we have a four night land program after disembarking. (Authentic Madrid and Beyond). Our first night is in Zaragoza at the Hotel Alfonso and then we spend 3 nights at the Eurostar Madrid Tower. This is our first land trip with Regent and I’m curious about the pace of the trip, typical amount of free time, size of the average group, etc. I know that some of these factors won’t be known until we actually disembark in Barcelona but I was hoping if there were people on this forum who’ve done these types of land trips before and could offer some general impressions. Thank you in advance; I always find this website to be extremely helpful.

One of the reasons we like to bring our own wine onboard is that there are certain wines that are moderately priced (25$ a bottle) that we really like. We’ve found on our 5-6 cruises on Oceania that for us, it’s absolutely worth the corkage fee since the wines we know we’ll like are much more than that on the menu. That’s not to say we might not enjoy a pool drink or nightcap but I can’t see spending $45-50 on a mediocre wine when we can have one we know we’ll enjoy for the same price. It’s just what works for us😊

I’d like to know if anything can be done about the poor WiFi service on Oceania or Regent cruises? I can’t comment on Norwegian but the other two divisions are pretty inadequate. Thank you.

Thanks!

Good morning! We are also in Miami and can’t wait to board. This will be our second Regent cruise and first time on the Splendor. I was wondering if any of the specialty restaurants are open for lunch today. Thanks to all!

Thank you to all who have responded. You have given us much to consider. Safe travels and Happy Holidays, everyone! We are so blessed to be able to travel.

Hello everyone! We have put a small ($1000) deposit down on the “Search for the Northern Lights” cruise from Bergen to London on Feb 17, 2024 and I am beginning to have second thoughts about the trip. We are new to Viking, having sailed previously on Regent and Oceania but I was hoping to see the Northern Lights as it’s one of the things on my bucket list. Recently, between the horrible rogue wave incident on the Polaris in the Antarctic and the subsequent link to what happened on the Viking Sky in March of 2019, I am wondering if the potential for seriously bad weather (and, good Lord, an airlift?) outweighs the potential for seeing the lights. Or am I just being a wimp? I get that all trips have some inherent risk, but I try to be relatively cautious in most matters. I would greatly appreciate opinions, especially from anyone who has been in the north seas in winter or in bad weather. Thanks so much, Kim

Pappy, your point about “free” is well taken. And you’re absolutely correct - the word should be “included.” Having said that, I was still pleased by the fact that our cruise credit from a Covid cancelled trip was just about enough to pay for next year’s cruise as well as the pre-cruise hotel and post-cruise land program. I wish I could answer your questions but I’m afraid I’m ignorant about that process.

Hello everyone! Thank you to Makai 7 whose tip got us a great deal. We were able to book a great cruise and a land trip with very little extra above our previous cruise credit. Between the bonus for booking within the 30 day window of our cruise ($550) and the four free nights in Spain, I think we did very well. We will be on Splendor next month. Do you think the folks who are staying in our Penthouse Suite for next year’s trip would mind us checking out their room? 😉

Hello everyone! We are looking at the option of a Rome-Barcelona cruise in November, 2023 and there are two free land programs being offered as part of Regent’s Black Friday promotion. There is one called “Umbria in Depth” which is 3-night pre-cruise and “Authentic Madrid and Beyond” a 4 night post-cruise beginning from Barcelona. I would be enormously grateful to anyone who might be able to shed some light on these offers. We are going to be on the Splendor on December 13 and I know that there are benefits to booking onboard, but this offer expires November 30 and I can’t imagine an offer better than this. As mentioned, all opinions would be welcome.

MJ_holiday, The train sounds like a lovely idea, but will Regent allow that as part of the included transfer? Thanks, Kim

To 2012 Alaska bound, Wouldn’t you rather have that bus ride at the end along with a nicer hotel in Vancouver? Please let me know because I would think the opposite would be preferable and I’d love to hear your reasoning. Thanks!

Thank you all for your contributions. One of the best parts of sailing on the Explorer is that regardless of the weather, we have a wonderful ship for a cruise. One more question if I may: we have the option of sailing Vancouver to Seward on 9/3 or in reverse on 9/11, which of course would end on the 18th. Any pros/cons to one direction or the other? Also, the hotel that’s used for the pre-cruise in Vancouver is the Fairmont which is great. Any idea as to what’s used in Seward? That might be a factor in determining our direction if everything else is equal. As always, thank you so much for your very helpful comments!

Hello everyone! We are considering a September 2024 cruise from Vancouver to Seward (or vice-versa) in the hopes of seeing the Northern Lights, either from the ship or on an excursion. Has anyone ever had this experience? I’ve read that the weather can be very wet in Sept. which would certainly impact visibility. Any observations or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

And Flossie, thanks very much for the recommendation, but at $140 for 16 oz I’m hoping to find something a little cheaper. I know it’s authentic though - it has to be at that price😬

No, Wendy, afraid not. Roatan, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Harvest Caye in Belize are the ports. Seaknots, I appreciate the humor, but I don’t even buy Starbucks here! Never cared for it.

Hello everyone! I always get such great tips on this site and I’m hoping I’ll get lucky again. We’re doing a 7 day Western Caribbean on the Splendor from 12/13-20 and I was hoping to buy some really great coffee if possible. My favorite of all time was the Jamaica Blue Mountain about 30 years ago but I doubt I can find that anymore in the form we were able to get it. (Picked and ground that morning!) Other suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you as always for the board’s wonderful members’ contributions.

Thank you, Wendy!

I have a similar question regarding alcohol. My husband enjoys White Russians made with Kahlua. I was wondering if we should bring that with us on our cruise out of Miami. This will be a sort of "mini-cruise" for us as we had to cancel our Northern Europe cruise in August because I came down with Covid. On that cruise we took advantage of the upgrade and we were booked in.a Penthouse with a butler. But, since we live in FL, we decided to just grab a 7 day and only book a Superior Suite. Do all the suites get stocked with liquor if one asks for it? Thank you, all, for your help.

Hello everyone! The last time I posted on this forum was to announce our cancellation of our August Splendor cruise from London to Copenhagen due to my contracting Covid. What a disappointment! With the proper documentation, Regent was great about the future cruise credit so we are about to try again to finally board the Splendor on 12/13. I was wondering if anyone could offer some wisdom regarding the four main ports we’ll visit: Roatan, Harvest Caye, Cozumel and Costa Maya. I’ve tentatively booked some of the excursions and I know everyone’s preferences are different but I’m really flying blind here and would love to hear about some really good (or awful) experiences. I’m also leaning toward taking the cooking class, New World Mediterranean. Has anyone taken this class? Thank you all in advance for your advice.

Hello everyone! In the past several weeks (months?) I’ve been obsessing about everything from specialty restaurant lunches, to upgrades to cruise credits. Well, yesterday at about 3:30AM prompted by a sore throat and a sneaking suspicion, I took a Covid test and it was positive! Damn. We had needed to travel to Long Island to see my husband’s very ill sister and I’m almost sure I got it there, but the cruise, the theater, the hotel and all the other fun aspects are off. The purpose of this posting is the following: we did NOT have trip insurance. But by providing Regent with a monitored test, and screen shots of both the prescriptions I’m on now and the three other positive tests (overkill, I know) they FCC’d us for the full amount. My point is this: document everything and make sure you can provide even more evidence if necessary. My doctor said he’d certainly send Regent a statement if they needed one. I hope you all have a wonderful cruise and your flights are on time and your bags are all on the carousel! Kim

Hi Billybob! We are at the Intercontinental Park Lane (via Regent) and we bought theater tickets for that night. We were in London years ago and absolutely loved the theater there.

Thank you, both irishwitchy and jmalux. We board one week from today! 😁

Hi Everyone! Our sail date is getting close (Aug 7th) so of course I’m watching every possible video about the Splendor. It was mentioned that on certain days Prime 7 and Chartreuse are open for lunch. Since our experiences in those two restaurants on the Explorer were both wonderful, I was hoping to be able to check out their lunch menus as well. Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks as always to the Cruise Critic board members! Kim

Hello CruiseNebraska! I think you are correct. We leave at 8 on Monday morning. Looks like a long sea day up to Oslo 🙂