Lady Meer

On 6/5/2024 at 10:55 AM, flossie009 said:

Having just booked excursions for a Regent cruise next year we were surprised at the predominance of paid excursions rather than included ("free") for all destinations.

 

Also for one port of call we found the following disclaimer for excursions in one port to be very odd: "Guests who go ashore do so with the understanding that they will be mixing with members of the general public”  😲

Don't remember seeing that sort of warning before, and cannot understand the thinking behind it 🤔

We had this warning on our ports in West Africa this year.

We did the Vibrant Tokyo pre-cruise in March this year. We stayed at the Tokyo Hilton which was OK. The hotel was extremely busy due the Tokyo marathon being held on the day we arrived. The hotel had a 3 night package for the marathon participants and supporters. Unlike GOARMY we didn’t have a separate dining room for breakfast. We wished we had arranged our own tours as we didn’t find some of them very interesting, for example a high-end shopping street and a stone bridge! Obviously others would have a different view!

Oops, just realised we had the pre-cruise tour not the one night stay in Tokyo!  That is why we had the airport transfer. Apologies 🤭.

Looking forward to your live report on this unusual itinerary. Thanks for taking us along.
 

Regarding the aurora - on our recent flight from Tokyo to London we had a great view of the aurora which lasted over an hour. Hopefully you’ll be lucky too.

Retiredonvacation - We recently booked our own flights to Tokyo but used the included pre-cruise hotel. We gave Regent our flight details and were met and transported to the hotel along with 6 others passengers. There was no charge for the transfer. Regent’s representatives were very visible after baggage claim.

On embarkation day we were taken on a short tour before boarding in time for lunch.

The one snag was that the driver couldn’t drive to the hotel due to the Tokyo marathon and we were off-loaded to walk to the hotel with our cases ☹️.

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

As for the presenters - I just dismay at the appalling diction that so many people use nowadays. They sound so illiterate when words like ‘bottle’ are pronounced ‘Bo-all’ 🙄

Agree with you entirely. My pet hate is when presenters don’t know the difference between sat and sitting, and stood and standing 😡.

For those who haven’t sailed from Liverpool before - on the starboard side at Crosby you can see Anthony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ sculptures. There are 100 life-size figures on the shore and in the sea.

6 hours ago, czardas said:

We did Tokyo to Tokyo early this March. Cold temperatures, rain etc but it didn’t appear to be rough sailing (which I enjoy 😂). Anything can happen next year. Just take precautions and be prepared. 

We were onboard with you and agree that it was cold - in fact on our tour in Kyoto it snowed 🤭! On the day we were docked in Tokyo (before disembarking the next day) the wind was strong - we had a tug nearly all day under our balcony pushing the ship to keep her on the dock! 

21 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

 

Kettles are not offered as a suite amenity and the ship will only have a very limited number available for loan.

Therefore best that the office agents state that they cannot supply.

In this case “under promise & over deliver” seems the logical policy.

 

Coffee is our requirement in the morning and a friendly room service attendant always fulfills our request soon after we ring.

Our kettle on Voyager was brand new - still in its box. The butler told us that a member of staff had been tasked with buying ‘x’ number of kettles in Cadiz (our first port)!

We had one on Explorer in Japan in March - just ask your room steward or butler, if you have one!

6 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

No tea or coffee making options in the cabin either? No idea if they normally offer that on Princess ?

Sailing from Southampton we’ve always had a tea and coffee tray. Sailing from other foreign ports we’ve requested a kettle and always had one provided. 

6 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

On 5/10/2024 at 5:15 PM, GSPG said:

On board Britannia just about to leave.

We made the decision to buy bottles on spirits on board. There’s not much in it with buying outside, and thought P&O would be happy us buying it from them.

 

Just rang reception at 5.05pm to order a bottle of Bacardi. Response, we haven’t got that. Asked when are you going to get some. Response, we are not.

 

Not very happy. Have they not got any because they want us to buy this drink from the bar?

 

Not a good start with this change in policy!

Only just discovered this thread. Was it just Bacardi that wasn’t available or did they have other bottles of white rum? 

13 hours ago, jeb_bud said:

If you run the coffee maker without a pod you will get hot water. I don’t know if that would be appropriate for tea but it would be hot. 

Tea needs to be made with boiling water - not just ‘hot’ 😳!

On 5/16/2024 at 10:43 PM, Pirateskigirl said:

 

 

 

 

 

A great service by our coastguard (and also our land air ambulance service) - both free. I hope the casualty makes a full recovery
 

I’m really enjoying your posts - we did this cruise 2 years ago and loved it!

8 minutes ago, memoak said:

We always travel as either a 2 or 3 person group and have never experienced a wait but we don’t insist on the exact same table and usually eat around 8:00. On one cruise the head manager tried to hurry our meal and we had to tell the assistant manager to keep him away from us. Guess who got the tip at the end of the cruise

We’re always happy to sit anywhere as we like to meet all the staff. We usually eat at 7.00. We’ve sometimes been ‘encouraged’ to hurry!!

On Voyager we shared a table one evening with a man who was coeliac, therefore gluten free. All was fine until his dessert arrived which wasn’t what he had pre-ordered. He asked the waiter to check if it was gf. He came back and said he had asked the chef and it was ‘nearly gluten-free’ 😳!

We’ve requested and received a kettle on our 2 Regent cruises. There was a coffee maker which we never used.

When we travel as a four, we often have to wait for a table at dinner - sometimes up to 20 minutes. We wait in the nearest bar so it’s not too inconvenient 😃.

We’ve been there once and had a great tour!

I think it’s the Victoria and Alfred Hotel! Albert was Victoria’s husband, Alfred was their son! Confusing, or what?

21 hours ago, MacMadame said:

I have the same issues. And one eye is much worse than the other. I've given up on binoculars and now have a monocular. It works great because I can adjust the focus for the eye I am using.

 

I have this one, $75.

 

https://www.rei.com/product/203791/nocs-provisions-zoom-tube-8-x-32-monocular-telescope

I agree, I have this too and find it works perfectly for me and DH uses the binoculars.

4 hours ago, Host Sharon said:

Yes, beer battered cod is gluten free.

Thanks for confirming that. My mother was gluten free for 50 years but I can’t tolerate gluten free flour - the irony 🙄!  I can’t go to our local fish n chip restaurant 🥲! 
 

I hope your friend enjoyed her onboard visit.

I hope your trip runs smoothly after a tricky start. I shall be following your every move!

I did hear that the batter on the fish is now gluten-free for everyone. I wonder if you would be kind enough to check if that’s true.

I am sure the OP was referring to a P & O cruise on Aurora in ? February this year. It was well documented by Selbourne on the P & O board at the time.

You can all dine together in the main dining room. Suite guests can have their meals in the Reserve dining room and you would need to up-grade to a Reserve mini-suite or a full suite to join them.