swansong

TC..just a mention re your comments on Gibraltar. There won't be any 'unrest'. So many Spanish people work on the Rock, it's not them but their government. Having lived for 12 years in Marbella we regularly visited the Rock to shop in our favourite British supermarket ( well it's nice to have familiar food now and then! ). The problem is that the border guards used to search every car exiting Gibraltar but since the agreement regarding the new airport this hasn't happened but they regularly delay exit. It's all due to the fact that Gib is duty free, that's why the delays occur. As far as visiting is concerned there won't be any issues other than possible delays in and out.

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I, too, received the Oceania email and wondered why!

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Seems from the trailer to be the same film that was shown in the U.K some months ago on channel 4.

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Just in the hope that someone from Regent is reading this thread, I would add our wish to cruise over the Christmas / New Year ( holiday ) period but would never do it because we wouldn't risk having it ruined by Ill behaved children. It's a mutual loss.

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1. English

2. No, just location

3. Don't know. I have never seen this site before but I don't recognise most of the negative comments. All I would say is that most sailings have on board a large percentage of repeat customers so this must say something. I would advise reading the Regent cruise critic posts as far back as you care to get a better perspective remembering that Regent would not be the choice of anyone expecting a party cruise. Each to their own and It is important to research any cruise line to ensure it satisfies your own tastes and expectations.

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Flossie 009,

I must share with you an experience we had on a cruise some years ago. We were on a tour from a German port and visited an historic castle. Inevitably there was a gift shop. In front of us at the pay desk were two US citizens who tried to pay with dollars. The cashier politely explained the only Euros were accepted. The couple got very abusive and ended up saying that they were not changing dollars for ' Mickey Mouse money'. It wasn't then but who knows in the future..........

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Just a simple question, as a Brit when I visit the US can I tip in pounds sterling? I assume everyone accepts them. ( Tongue in cheek but I make a point)!

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Just a correction to my post regarding the NatWest cards. It is the bank account ( not the card )that offers the travel insurance.

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Some Natwest credit cards include 5star travel insurance. The Black card has no upper age limit.

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Just as a follow up, I believe that Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, both TV shows are available in the US both of which are filmed in and around Halifax and depict life more or less as it is today, still gritty!

To stay on topic, I did post on our recent Mariner trip that I was disappointed in Halifax Canada and made me reappraise Halifax Yorkshire in a different light, especially its history.

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Newlondon

Google ' Hell, Hull and Halifax' and all will be revealed!

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Gilly,

I am a Halifax ( Yorkshire ) lad and the poem Hell, Hull and Halifax comes to mind!

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Trunkabella, just so you know, the pre airport trip was a disaster everyone agreed. The guide just wanted it to finish. She didn't show us much and blamed it on the traffic. She abandoned us at mid day. Never even counted how many were on the coach until after the first stop and couldn't remember the number at the next. Initially she thought we were French and started off in French! Luckily there were only 15 of us so we checked ourselves at each stop. There were some elderly slow walking ladies and she didn't slow down for them, we had to keep an eye on them. When the driver picked us up at 3:00 she wasn't there and he didn't speak English. So we had a 6 1/2 hour wait at the airport. If a late flight happened again we would book a room at an airport hotel. We can't blame Regent as they organised the trip in good faith and I guess the guide knew we wouldn't be complaining. One of the party did give her a few words and we think that's why she left us.

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In Saguenay today after a very picturesque journey up the St Lawrence river similar in someways to a Norwegian fiord. ( the waterfalls were dry at this time of year though)

The weather is cold but glorious sunshine.

Last nights show with Lovena B Fox was outstanding and she had two unprepared for encores, the first time I have seen this on Regent.

We are in Signatures tonight and looking forward to that.

This will be my last post on this cruise as we have a heavy day in Quebec tomorrow, then packing. We have an extended tour in Montreal on our leaving day as our flight is not until 22:00.

Hope that some have enjoyed these ramblings and my summary is as follows:

Mariner is in excellent condition throughout with the minor exception of some rust on the balcony, I am sure it will be touched up soon.

The service has been as good as we have experienced in 150 nights over many years. We have not come across any one other than pleasant, welcoming and helpful.

One or two of the ports had little to offer but they did their best. One gripe I have has been with the tendering for tours, it could have been better organised and reduced hanging about.

My only other gripe has been with the Internet. It has been sporadic and unstable. The best times have been before 7:30 or after 23:00. Any other time was difficult or impossible.

The food and service has been consistently good in CR in spite of my initial thoughts. The wine service seems to have been stepped up with more sommeliers than we have experienced in the past...our glasses were never empty!

Overall a great cruise, it met and sometimes exceeded expectations and looking forward to the next on Voyager.

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Gaspe today, freezing cold but at least the sun came out later and warmed things up a little.

We went on a paid extra trip today to Forillon national park which was very scenic and also saw some of the wonderful countryside around Gaspe. However I don't know why there was an extra charge and we were told by someone who had been before that lunch used to be included for the same price and that had been dropped. There did not appear to be much to justify the extra expense.

I have to comment on the tendering again, we have cancelled our trip tomorrow, I don't think we will miss the goat farm and glass blowing, or the long wait in the theatre. We may independently go ashore.

Today we had a supposed 8:00 am start along with six other tours at the same time. We got up at six to ensure breakfast and were in the theatre by 8:00. We left the theatre at 8:45 and the bus eventually left the dock at 9:30 for a supposed 5 hour tour. The ship was due to leave at 2:00 so the tour was now 4 hours.

It is surely obvious that 400 pax as it turned out could not be tendered all at once so why was everyone asked to be ready for the same time? The tenders had a 25 minute turnaround time. This organisation, or lack of it, is not luxury as far as we are concerned.

Returning, as everyone was late back, the tenders couldn't cope and Norwegian Dawn who were also in port lent us a tender to help get the 400 back. We eventually set sail half an hour late. Thanks to the captain for organising the extra tender.

La Veranda fortunately extended the lunchtime session for us all to have lunch.

It's crew capers and the captains farewell tonight although we have a further two nights on board but tomorrow we have a late departure so I guess that's why it is when it is. The show was superb as usual and a credit to all the amateurs who made it special.

(Just had a letter refunding part of the excursion so that's fair enough.)

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Yes, we have been offered a tour in Montreal with free time later and a 4:00 pm departure to the airport. Our flight is at 22:00. If your flight was after 2:30 but before 19:00 there was a shortened tour. No cost if you had Regent air and transfers. All dependent on numbers though and we haven't heard yet.

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Charlottetown today. Another 10 deg day with wind and latterly rain.

The tour we did was ok and we saw something of the very pleasant Prince Edward Island.

I have to register the first disappointment of the trip. Our tour was due to start at 12:15 but as we were tendering it was 40 minutes later when we boarded the tender. As the ship had been in port since 8:00 am I wondered why they hadn't got the tenders ready for what were 4 bus loads on the same tour. Those on the last bus must have waited an hour and we all missed lunch because of the timing. ( La Veranda didn't open until 12:00).

There were two other ships in port, Norwegian Dawn and Veendam. The former was docked and we and Veendam were tendering. On our return there was one line for the tenders with certainly about 200 people and we were all mixed up and no one from either ship was on hand to sort things out. It was 4:30 and our last tender was supposed to leave then so there was some concern. All ended well but should have been better managed. I did see some Regent passengers heading for the Veendam tender...I hope they didn't manage to get on!

Had a really nice meal in CR tonight with good company followed by the show. Cirque du Rock and Roll with the new cast. It was good.

Have cancelled the next tendering port trip, so an extra days 'sea day'.

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Another cold day, about 10 deg C today.

We had a nice sea day ( inside ). Used the time to book a future cruise with a welcome on board discount and OBC. It really is worth it currently to book on board.

Lunch in CR as a treat, we forget what a good choice there is at lunchtime but rarely get the time to enjoy it with tours.

Dinner was with the HR manager. Very good company and we learnt a lot about the recruiting, training and welfare for staff on board. We have to say that the crew seem very happy and we have not experienced any case of bad service. Everyone speaks when we pass in the corridors and elsewhere. The service is as good as we have experienced in the past.

Very busy in CR early tonight and a sparse attendance at the show...Trump and Clinton were an attraction.

Tomorrow is Charlottetown Prince Edward Island, we will wrap up well!

The Internet has been sporadic and its pot luck if we can connect.

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Very cold in Halifax. Take note those who follow......

We took the wrong tour, which was a double deck bus tour of Halifax. We did see the historic citadel which was relatively interesting but when the guide starts to point out Starbucks and the local supermarket you just know there isn't much else to see! Halifax Yorkshire has gone up in my estimation........

However we did learn that many souls from the Titanic are buried here and only as recently as 2008 were the remains of a 2 year old identified due to the wonder of DNA.

We had a great meal at Sette Mari this evening which I love. No queues either.

We then went to the Jean Ryan show which we had seen before but this was a new team and they did well.

Looking forward to a sea day tomorrow followed by dinner with the HR manager. We must be back in favour as a few years have passed by since we were last invited to dine with the crew!

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A cool day in Bar Harbour. Last nights predicted rough seas didn't materialise.

There was a tender problem today with one out of action that delayed the tours.

We went on The grand tour of Bar Harbour which whilst good could have been 2 hours shorter, it was 6 hours and a pay extra tour. The scenery was superb but much the same everywhere we went. It included a lobster lunch which was well done. Another excellent guide. It would have been better to have allowed time to walk around the town which seemed lovely as viewed from a coach window.

I must comment on the age profile. It is significantly older than usual with many people with walking difficulties, due I guess to the fact no intercontinental flights are involved for US citizens. I worried about several during the tendering process but the crew, as usual, went the extra mile to help them.

Our meal in CR tonight was much better, the service can only be described as express! We were regularly called by name which is something I am not bothered about but it is nice if not a bit OTT. The staff obviously go to a lot of effort to do that. Some other posters had raised it as an issue both pro and con.

Tomorrow is Halifax, Nova Scotia. I was brought up and educated in Halifax , (Old )Yorkshire , so it will be good to compare. ( Actually there will be no comparison Halifax Nova Scotia will win hands down). ( and before someone tells me I know it wasn't named after that town but the Earl of Halifax.)

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It's Michael Coghlan who is GM

The internet is working fine today so I think yesterday's repairs must have fixed it although the telephone is not working.

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We went to the show last night and were entertained by a great singer Lovena B Fox. A Whitney Houston type singer and she certainly got the crowd going.

A fine warm day in Boston. We chose the historic Boston and Harvard tour. 47 pax on the bus but it worked. The guide was excellent and well informed. We don't normally take tours as we usually cruise in the med and know the ports well. We have found that since they were included in the price ( not free!) generally the quality is not as good as it was. However the two we have taken so far here in the US have been excellent.

I have not been able to access the internet today with the first try at 6:45am. If I can post this it will be after 10:30pm. I live in hope!

It Prime 7 tonight. Not my wife's favourite nor mine but we have found the food in CR ok but lacking something. Food is subjective so I won't go into detail.

Posting at 01:10.....good night in the bar!!

Notwithstanding the above we had the best meal in Prime 7 we can remember.

The captain told us about 7:00pm that our departure from Boston was delayed as they were fitting a new satellite dome which might explain the internet issues .

The show, which was Broadway songs with the Jean Ryan group, was good, not brilliant . There was a new cast so they did well considering.

Tomorrow (or today as it happens) it's Bar Harbour. However the captain has asked ship wide that anyone prone to seasickness should take the tablets immediately. As I post everything is calm!

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An excellent day today on a Vanderbilt mansions tour. The bus was only half full. The tour of the mansions was with an audio headphone set up that was excellent especially as we never seem to be near to a guide on tours to hear properly. Very impressive houses and worth the visit if that's your thing.

The weather is scorching.( for a Brit). Leaving Newport now accompanied by a coast guard cutter with the gun manned! (3:00pm).

As far as Mariner is concerned, she looks pretty good both in the public areas and the suite although the balcony has some rust and peeling paint. Strangely, excessive vibration woke us up during the night, not something we have experienced before on this ship. We are midship as usual. There has been nothing like it since fortunately.

The Internet is terrible during the day, early morning or late at night is the only usable stable time. It's never been this bad before. I guess it's the free for all internet availability that's the cause. We are supposed to have two log ons but have not achieved that yet. I am writing these ramblings on Notes as we go along so apologies if they are a bit dysfunctional but that's the only way I will get them onto CC.

The service in the bars has been good so far. Minor point, but lack of attention to detail ...the tv channel showing the dinner menus is showing yesterday's at 5:30pm.

The hull seems to have taken some knocks and scrapes though and has not been repainted yet.

Returned from tour to find suite trimmed up for my birthday, I deliberately didn't tell anyone as I don't like fuss but I guess that they check! I will thank the stewardess. The cake and champagne duly arrived just as we were ready for dinner. Nice thought though.

We had the mid cruise questionnaire delivered tonight......24 hours after boarding!!?

Flossie, I Spoke to Lorraine tonight and she and the captain , Teo Srdelic will be on board on October21st.

Boston tomorrow.

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We left the hotel on time and had about 45 minutes waiting to check in at the port. Otherwise our suite is fine, the gin is ordered and the unpacking done. Lorraine is our CD who we have sailed with many times before. We sail at 19:00 and will pass the Statue of Liberty at about 19:30. The ship is full as would be expected out of New York.

Sailing out of New York in the dark with all the lights was an emotional experience even for a Brit, especially as the US national anthem was played as we passed the Statue of Liberty.

Service was a bit slow in CR but the staff were great. We were remembered by a couple of crew especially one who comes from our home in Nottingham.

Jean thank you for your good wishes, it was on your suggestion some months ago when I posted about this cruise that we booked it.

Newport tomorrow, looking forward to a new experience.

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Hope to post regularly as not much has been heard from Mariner recently.

Stayed at Sofitel T5 Heathrow Monday night, excellent hotel. Tuesday, walked into terminal from hotel...a dream, no queues at BA checking, no queues at security, flight on time.

Arrived in New York, very humid and warm. Received by agent showing Oceania board! We were the only passengers so had a private SUV to Le Parker Meridien....eventually. NY was gridlocked mainly due to Heads of State at UN. Roads were regularly being closed off for the convoys of security etc accompanying the 'important ones'. Our driver was extremely frustrated with it all. We saw several of these and wondered who they could be...

The hotel was ok, the room needed refreshing but for one night in a city centre we could manage.

Checked In with Regent, there are 300 pax staying here. Luggage ready for 8:00am and our bus leaves at 12:30. More shopping time for the wife!

Just a note..on a previous post I asked for a good Italian restaurant near the hotel and was told about one across from the57th street entrance ..Antonios pizza ..very good so thanks to the replier sorry I have lost your name.

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