swansong

The phone didn’t ‘work’ for us last year on Voyager. Reception told us, on several occasions, that the ‘satellite’ was down. We thought that they were in the process of removing that perk. Fortunately we were able to use our cellphone but have used the ships phone in the past everyday to contact an elderly parent, sadly no longer with us now. I guess others may be in that position.

We flew with Finnair which replaced our BA flights last year and the only difference we noticed was that the staff were much more friendly and obliging than our recent experiences have been on BA. Everything else was BA branded. Business was exactly the same as on a BA branded plane.

We are also on the Capetown to Capetown in December and elected to fly with Virgin direct. The upgrade cost to Business ( Upper Class on Virgin ) was £5298 pp. return. The air allowance (economy in the UK) was £1400pp so the true cost is £6698pp. Currently on the Virgin website the same flights are listed at ( around) £11000pp so there is a saving with Regent. BA has a similar price if you average between business and First which is what Upper Class is on Virgin.

We were recently on Grandeur and able to download our(UK) newspaper every day in about 2 minutes maximum compared to about 30 minutes, or not at all, on previous cruises.

Have you asked Regent if a direct flight from Heathrow is available as an option. Whilst I appreciate that the flight is ‘free’ in your case I have usually been given a choice when my TA has asked.

Ask your TA to chase it up. I ask mine to diary the enquiry when I book albeit that I don’t always take the Regent flights if they are overpriced.

It’s my experience that in the UK flights are notified with a booking reference within a week or two of them becoming available. E.g. about 10 months prior to departure. They are not ticketed until about 70 days before departure. We don’t have the same procedures with flights as in the US. Your TA can usually ask for a choice of times or airlines ( limited in the UK) but as your BC flights are part of the deal you may not get a choice.

Unfortunately in the UK BA treats us differently. Don’t know why.

On the two occasions it happened to us we were bumped to economy after a couple of passengers accepted a ‘bribe’ to change flights as per then EU regulations. Regent refunded the upcharge. We were allowed our extra baggage with no extra charge. If I remember correctly Regent do not take responsibility for third party contractors in their contract with us. We were offered later flights but there was no guarantee of being in business although they would do their best. It was the stress of waiting at the gate not knowing if we were able to get on the flight until the very last minute that made me to never leave it to the last minute to choose seats. If you have Avios points these can be used to offset the cost Flossie is correct in saying that seat choice charging varies by BA status. Unfortunately we are only bronze and to me seven days is not long enough to be certain.

Again from past experience, if you are booked on BA you wont be able to choose seats until the e-ticket is issued usually around 70 days pre cruise. If you wish to sit together ( well as near together as business in BA allows!) you should keep checking around the 70 day mark to choose your seats which of course our wonderful BA charges extra for. You can risk it and leave it until 24 hours before the flight but I wouldn’t as we have been bumped twice in the past due to overselling. ( both with Regent ). If you are booked on Virgin you can choose seats at no extra cost when the booking is first made. Apologies if you knew all of that!

There has always been a tour available on disembarkation, free if included air and a ( hefty) charge if independent. It has varied over the years but always included a visit to the Everglades with a ride on an air boat and an alligator talk ( live alligators). The bit that has varied is that sometimes it ended at Bayside centre or a tour of Miami with a stop in Little Havana. Once we were given tickets for the hop on hop off Miami tour ending at Bayside meeting the coach and our luggage. I hadn’t seen this option for a few years. We were usually dropped off at the airport just before 16:00. Luggage stays in the hold of the coach. The option for the tour will be delivered to your suite a few days before disembarkation. You can if you wish still go straight to the airport as an option.

Yes this is a great offer unfortunately it didn’t cover our next cruise, it did cover a similar one we booked for 2025. However, the price for the offer has increased significantly above that we achieved when we booked it some time ago which made it borderline to take advantage compared with what we hope to do independently with air and hotel credit.

We have been several times on this route, Regent mostly have used BA but last year it was Virgin. Arrival in Miami about 15:00 to 16:00. Immigration is a nightmare, last year it took well over an hour as we followed A 380 into the terminal. Then there is the wait for all passengers to emerge which again last year was about another hour as they may be on different flights. Depending on which hotel you are allocated it could be another half hour and again depending on numbers it could be a 15/20 minute wait at reception. Normally it’s about midnight our time before we look for food at or around the hotel. Next February we are flying independently as Regent’s up charge for business class was ridiculous and choosing our own hotel and transfers…still many £s less than Regent. We also avoid the scrum to get on the coaches to the pier. This is the first time Regent’s up charge for business was excessive so it pushed us to go independently. We’ll see how it goes.

The Sofitel St. James is a lovely hotel. The service is second to none and is ideally placed to see the sights being only a few minutes from the Mall. Piccadilly is also a few minutes walk. Be warned it’s not inexpensive but worth it.

If I remember correctly, last year it cost around 170 dollars pp. You can use OBC to pay. Perhaps someone on board a Miami bound ship could give a more accurate costing.