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. 

3 hours ago, eric4395 said:

My TA hasn't even mentioned the word deviate or told me to look for flights that  maybe suit us. Our reservation is from Scotland to Miami with business class flights in each direction arranged by Regent , we didn't have to upgrade to a suite for this and we are in a deluxe balcony. We leave on Nov23rd and have a night in a pre cruise hotel in Miami before the cruise on the 24th.

To get there at a reasonable time from Edinburgh/ London / Miami we would have to leave London anytime between 10am and 14 :30. So I assume it has to be one of these flights and deviating and looking for something specific doesn't really matter in our case I presume? So are you saying we will get all these details about 75 days before the cruise. Our TA is under the impression (and she has reserved this type of intinery before) that we should here about our flights prob within the next month but is going to email  Regent for an update tomorrow. She said she is unaware of any problem before when arranging similar ( although the business class flight is not a normal perk) and nobody deviated to her knowledge as there are limited choices in getting from Edinburgh to Miami in a reasonable time which includes an overnight stay in Miami.

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.

22 minutes ago, mj_holiday said:

Our TA always gets us seat assignments at time of booking.

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

1 hour ago, eric4395 said:

Thanks swansong. So if we don't reserve seats and leave it and BA says there overbooked at last minute and can't accommodate us in business class then that's going against Regents policy of guaranteed business class seats on this cruise and then what would happen ?

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.

18 hours ago, eric4395 said:

On this cruise we have booked it's  return business class flights from UK to Miami. They were doing them on selected cruises which is the reason we jumped at it.

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.

We have had several cruises with Regent that finish in Miami and a tour has been offered on every occasion. Free if you have included air or a charge if not. Some have had the hop on hop off tour of Miami finishing at Bayside, some have been a tour of Miami. All have included a visit to the Everglades with an air boat ride. We go again in February and expect the same. All tours end up at Miami International airport in plenty of time for the flight home to the UK.

9 hours ago, eric4395 said:

Hi ,,my wife and i have booked our 1st cruise with Regent grandeur next nov 2024 from Miami. 

Dont know the flight arrangements yet but will prob be BA my travel agent has advised.

Looking at flights back London post cruise this Nov it seems as if it leaves at approx 17 :00 an  overnight flight back to London.. Can anyone advise if the ship organisies any paid tours for a few hours visiting Miami then taking you onto airport with your luggage..

Was on a Silverseas cruise last year and on embarkation day they had a morning tour of Athens arranged for anyone who wanted it before taking them to the airport for a later flight.

Has anyone had experience of this or advice,, and if anyone can update this thread  over the next 12 months  as to any advice as to what they done in the same situation.

Thanks for any replies

.

Thanks that’s worth knowing. I will do the reservations for both of us.

31 minutes ago, DaveFr said:

You can do both. Including your friends in your reservation will count as their one permitted online reservation in the restaurant you are reserving.

 

Dave

Thank you.

We are well travelled on Regent and have always booked a table for two in the speciality restaurants. On our next cruise we are with two of our friends. I do know that we can include them in our reservation with their booking number but do they also have to make the same booking with our number or can we just do both?

On 9/26/2023 at 1:11 PM, casperthecat said:

I was quoted a price by the onboard cruise seller which included $400 OBC if I book within the next 3 days. However, a quick google showed the same cruise at a lower price (around £1000GBP) with my usual travel agent. This was with a 2 category upgrade from the onboard price. Apart from the OBC is there any reason to book onboard? I’m very confused as he insisted that was the best price available.

Beware, some travel agents quote cruise only prices in the UK. Booking on board also has a best price guarantee which we have frequently used to reduce the original invoiced price. We have always booked on board and after reducing the price on the invoice with all the reductions, (early booking discounts etc ) we have been quoted the brochure final price.

That’s good to know about the Intercontinental as we have booked that hotel independently for next year. At least we can have a civilized breakfast and transfer!

Twice this year, Miami in February and Monaco this week we have stayed in the included pre cruise overnight hotel. The hotel in Miami, AKA Brickell was anything but world class as described and we complained. This week the Columbus Monaco was equally not world class or anything approaching luxury by our standards. The room for breakfast was woefully inadequate with people having to carry food out to find a seat somewhere else in the hotel to eat it. We gave it up as a bad job. There was no bottled water provided in the room and whilst there were tea and coffee facilities there was only one portion of each!

The hotel normally doesn’t offer dinner but had put on a menu ( poor) for our benefit. Again it was packed with a queue waiting for a table. Fortunately we had reserved a table at a local restaurant (Gratziellas ) which we can highly recommend.

The room itself was pretty basic with a very small bathroom with nowhere to place items. The shower was in the bath and difficult to access if you were not as nimble as you might be. We have had better in a (UK) budget hotel.

Reception during checkout and the wait for coaches to the ship was chaotic as the arrival of disembarking passengers ( at least 100 by my estimation ) mixed with an equal number waiting to embark. People were queuing out to the pavement.

We gave this up and got a taxi to the ship. Fortunately the luggage went by truck.

This will be our last time using Regent transfers or hotels and we are amending all our future bookings. Being herded like cattle is not a luxury experience in our book and contrasts unfavorably with the excellent on board experience. 
 

3 hours ago, lprp said:

We’ve checked our bags in at a very quiet LHR T5 - it was 5:10am, but given yesterday’s fiasco I thought it would be busier.

Sadly BA have gone self service, even in Club Class, so you now have to print your own boarding passes and luggage tags, which you then attach yourself. There were a couple of BA staff around to help if you needed it.

Even at the Lounge there is a self service kiosk, there was someone on the desk too.

Our flight is about to begin boarding🤞

Is that a recent change? I know you have to serve yourself at bag drops but at the far end of T5 there has always been ( at least up to last June) a club class dedicated check in section next to first class. 

Twelve transfers.  Excellent company never let us down with multiple transfers over the years.