Question as it relates to CPT.  Is the regent port by the VA waterfront area?  We are doing the pre-cruise regent tour and also a couple of days on our own pre-pre-cruise.  I noticed their is a bus ride to the port on embarkation day, but not sure I want to take the scenic route to the port if it is close to the regent hotel.   Since we will probably already seen most of the sites on the bus ride thought it would be more relaxing to sleep in and lounge until checkout time.    Will regent transport your baggage to the port on the bus even if we just want to skip the tour and uber or do we have to bring our bags with us?

We booked on viator with "T & T Southampton."  Was great ride.   Had them to SH and back to LHR.

5 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

And now I'll add my own - check, check ,double check and triple check before you send that confirmation back!

And do check your flight on the airline page(s) in case there is a schedule,  equipment change and/or they changed your seats.

Glad it worked out for you.  

2 hours ago, Oregonangelwings said:

Need help from experienced Regent cruisers.

We are booked on our first Regent Cruise departing Sept 22. for around the UK.We naively thought with the business class air that all would be taken care of, with no worries to us. After reading these boards, I see we need to be more proactive.

What I would like to do is deviate the air, and fly leaving PDX on the 20th. My Husband has always wanted to see the Victory in Portsmouth. My thought is to fly into London,take the next day to take the train to Portsmouth to see the historical ships.Take the train back to London, spend the night, and then the next morning,probably use a car service to take us to Southampton to board the ship.I don't want to mess with the baggage by going on the train.

I have been looking at flight schedules and either the connections are way too short, or we would have to fly clear across the US in economy. I am beginning to wonder if all this is worth all the added stress and work. It is too late to bring a travel agent onboard.

I have traveled all over the world, and almost all were planned by myself, and all have turned out great. But this trip is very expensive,and my Husband and myself have not gone together for 10 years, and we aren't getting any younger.

Anyone have any suggestions who have done this before? thank you so much for all your knowledge and help!

BA (266)  has a PDX LHR Non stop or as rallydave suggests drive to sea-tac (2 1/2hrs) and fly form there.  Do you have a room included the night before on regent and transfers?  I'm not sure if it's worth the trips back and forth since Portsmouth is so close to Southampton, you may want to just spend the night in Portsmouth or SH.      If Portsmouth you can easily get a cab or uber to South Hampton about 30-40 minutes on the morning of the 22nd.   

 Also have you looked at post cruise going to portsmouth ?  

Also good to have a converter especially for pre/post cruise hotels. Can be used in multiple countries.  We found that there aren't that many US outlets on the ship so the device will convert the euro 220 type to US 110.

an example Amazon.com: Key Power 230-Watt Step Down 220V to 110V Voltage Converter & International Travel Adapter/Power Converter with USB-C Port 18W - [Use for USA Appliance Overseas in Europe, AU, UK, Ireland, etc.] : Electronics

I haven't really had many issues on regent - would be nice for a casual venue if you don't want room service but overall onboard has been great.   My biggest issues have been with the corporate customer service and regent air service or lack of most times.   

2 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Just my two yen; YMMV.

Thats not even worth two cents.

"Pope puts Rome in panic mode by declaring 2025 Holy Year"   will make an already very crowded city even more crowded.  Plan accordingly.

"Pope puts Rome in panic mode by declaring 2025 Holy Year"   will make an already very crowded city even more crowded.  Plan accordingly.

4 hours ago, chamima said:

If we do same day air deviation do we lose the "free" transportation from the airport and the one night's hotel? (Haven't been to Europe in about 50 years so I really appreciate not having to arrange this)

 

****

No but if you go a day earlier and do not get an extra night at the regent hotel you would lose it.  Depends on what city it is in some transports are inexpensive and easy to book.  

As far as new resteraunt concept it would be nice if regent had a resturaunt like salt with regional dishes based on the region the ship is in.  One of my big beefs about cruising your are in all these diverse places but unless you eat on shore you are missing out.  Imhop.

1 hour ago, GOARMY said:

Well:  To put a lighter note on the last few Posts:  

 

As Mark Twain opined:  A difference of opinion is what makes for a horse race--and missionaries.  

 

GOARMY!

 

And unfortunately wars 

2 hours ago, chamima said:

 

@papaflamingo - Thank you for the detailed explanation of how I should approach air deviations.

We are at 120 days out right now - will they know what flights that would be included for us at this point? (We're in a Horizon Suite so business class and a night in a hotel precruise are included)

If you deviate the can give you options but you should be prepared with requests as many as would work for you in order.  While nobody wants to throw money away it is worth the deviation fee to get it sorted out and get seats now.  

9 minutes ago, Water Nymph said:

This will be our first stop in Belize with SCUBA certification. Who has had good experiences diving in Belize? What dive shop is best?  

Thanks so much!

Advanced open water or just open water. Which port ?  The are many good dive sites in Belize.  Kinda know for diving just depends on where you leave from and how much time you have.  

1 minute ago, BBWC said:

The trick is to find availability first and then transfer the points. Chase points transfers to most airline partners are instant.

Look at the airlines you can transfer to on the route you are looking at.  Then sign up for their frequent flyer program (costs nothing) and do an award search.  you can look up some airlines award availability on expert flyer as well.  Sometimes you need to be creative and look at multi city routings that span multiple continents (e.g. DFW-LHR, LHR- CPT. 

21 hours ago, DaveFr said:

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

Based on reading this I would think 20 years is considered enough time to be "rehabilitated."  perhaps OP should have the person get a copy of his police report over the past 20 years to hopefully show there weren't any other issues/events.

30 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

The two new ships will have a fourth reservation only restaurant; it will be an Italian restaurant.  La Veranda will be open each evening as a casual buffet restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating.  

Curious if they will expand that to explorer class ships and have the current la veranda be an Italian venue with the same menus as the new ships and then open the other side for casual buffet.

17 minutes ago, SWFLAOK said:

We have always paid to deviate on all of our Regent cruises because we don't like to wait until the last minute for our flights. And when booked, there was always a comfortable amount of time between flights. But after a few flight changes made by the airlines (which we questioned through Regent) the time became too short to make the connection. On our last trip, the connection time became too long. In fact, we were moved to a later flight, when there was still room on our original flight. We don't know why.  And then we found out we were in Business Lite instead of regular Business as we had been on our original flight, and had to pay for 6 hours of lounge access. We passed on paying for a second lounge access and wandered around the Doha Airport for 3 more hours. It is a very nice Airport for wandering.

Definitely better than jfk or phl 

1 hour ago, TheShag said:

generally speaking, when connecting within the US to an international flight, what is your minimum connection time?

I prefer 2-3 hours depending on airport LAX 3-4

17 minutes ago, SWFLAOK said:

The only problems we've had transiting on flights assigned by cruise lines are those within the US. That's because our flights were had too little time between them, and then were delayed, We didn't make the second flight in the US, and at that point, we lost our business class seats on the international flight.

If you're flying to another country from the US, you will have to go through security. If you arrive in one EU country from the US, and are flying to another country in the EU, you won't have to go through security again.

We now always go for an international flight as our first flight, to ensure our long flight is in business class seats.

The delay issue is why you deviate.  I always leave extra time between connections to an international flight just more lounge time which is easy.    If you fly to a Schengen country (which is different from the EU) from a non-Schengen, you go through passport control on arrival and then through the security again at least a every Schengen country and LHR I've been to.  It is a preference for me to connect in the US and upon arrival after the longer leg, I'm finished and can go to the hotel.  

If you have a sea day before or after you might be able to tolerate the drive.  We did Florence post cruise as it was a wonderful city to stay in and see.  The evenings were great.  If you are over in Italy it is certainly worth a couple of nights pre or post cruise.  

5 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

 

One more thing to consider.  If you use a foreign carrier and connect in Europe, the second flight will likely be in a single class airplane with the middle seats blocked out. That's their version of "first class" or "business class" when intra-Europe. Also if ever connecting in Asia be sure the second leg includes first or business. I looked at a flight via Delta to Hong Kong connecting in Inchon, but the 4 hour leg from Inchon to Hong Kong would have been in coach!  So I always do my best to try and connect at a U.S. hub rather than a foreign hub. 

Connecting in the US is also easier as you don't have to go through security again as you do at most international airports when transiting.  A big PITA in places like LHR.

1 hour ago, BobAnne said:

That said, I can honestly say without hesitation I will never let Regent arrange my air again. I’d rather have full control over my flights myself. Knowing I paid in full plus a hefty deviation fee prior to the 60 day cutoff and that they hadn’t bothered paying the airline at day 45 is crazy. Meh, live and learn! ✈️

You aren't the only one! It's best to book it only as a worst-case scenario and start to look if you can do better 360 days out on intl carriers 330 on US based.  If so you can drop one or both of the regent air legs.

2 hours ago, rcandkc said:

I try to tip in local currency.  I wouldn’t want to be given foreign currency that I can’t readily spend.  If I go to MacDonalds in Texas and try to pay with Euros it would not work.  Granted some destinations readily accept dollars so no need to exchange so I try to research beforehand. 

true but most places in Europe post covid take credit cards and many tour guides a used to getting USD in tips and accumulate them and exchange at one time for a better rate.