PaulMCO

The mattress topper does help. We have found that Oceania and Regent have the best beds.

Yes lots to chose from --- and as Bubba Gump says " shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it. In short after 10 days -- it was a non starter for either lunch or dinner. Med Yacht was better for both Lunch/Dinner and Sakura was good for lunch without a reservation.

Yes the bed was painfully firm. You can request the mattress topper, through the preferences on you booking (after you book), which includes pillow type, wine and the mattress.

We have done one tour with Gil. His tours can be very crowded, more than one van. He did jump from one group to the other, making his tour less than ideal. We had some issues with some of the Oceania tours, because of inaccuracies of the descriptions. Several of the desired sights, were closed. (closed during Covid and never reopened).

Don't blame Regent. Presume you were in northern UK???? No coverage or poor coverage. Starlink still has a ways to go to be fully built out. That is one reason why the Starship heavy booster is needed. Why do they charge for VPN?? Because you can stream with a VPN and override their extra charge for streaming. WiFi service is not provided by Regent it is subcontracted out. Regent throttles with equality. Same speed with or without the added VPN/Stream package. They just unblock access with the package. Further, if you have 4 logins per account, and you purchase the VPN/Steaming package, they limit you to one login per account.

Please check with Regent. There have been changes made since the beginning of the month. The Terminal at Fusina has opened meaning SOME cruises won't have to endure the trip to the Marittima terminal. The new terminal can handle two ships per day. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/silver-ray-becomes-the-first-to-homeport-at-new-fusina-cruise-terminal-venice

Seems like alot of lines are doing short notice repositioning cruises because of Middle East issues. Ships are running empty. We actually ended a Silversea expedition cruise in Tema and has a good few days post cruise at the Intercontinental Hotel in Accra. That Barcelona to Capetown is an attractive sea day cruise. Judging by the 2026 scheduling changes on some lines who released early, they are redoing/cancelling schedules -- keeping ships in regions rather than transits through the Suez. Crystal has not learned that lesson yet, as the 2026 cruise still has a Suez transit. Not going to happen. Shall we start the thread "why is Crystal late changing the WC ports in Middle East"

and that is our definition of a great suite attendant (or suite host in Explora speak). Being invisible is good. Come back from a coffee and suite is done, comeback from dinner and all done and lights turned down. We had one attendant that would always rearrange our hanged garments. That was just too much.

Thank you Ann for the great day by day account. Did you eventually get a a prorata refund for the shortened cruise.

They are doing the same on Oceania. So likely an NCL initiative to boost revenue.

Yes but many of the good tours like Osaka and Kyoto have longer bus rides -- because of their location from the Kobe port. You do not have to do a tour as many of the ports do have a shuttle to the city center where you can shop or do your own tour if you like planning these on your own.

Thank you for the review. I always try to leave a review on each cruise, good or bad. It takes alot of effort to write one, if one wants to be constructive. Likely you see more bad ones than good. Good to see you had a great cruise. Most of your favorites at the specialties are ours too.

We used it in March. They changed the process in January -- You get ONE barcode PER PERSON for immigration and customs, otherwise you use the paper forms. Is it worth it. YES it was the line for the paper was extremely long at Immigration. Probably in excess of 30 minutes. We were through immigration and customs in under 5 minutes (no luggage).

As she stated she was happy to be back with the RCCL family. Just speculating -- Remember she was with Azamara when it was sold by RCCL. With the sale you get the people and the contracts. Very likely her new contract had a non compete clause that stated that she could not go back to RCCL before X years. Not satisfied with the new Azamara when contract ended -- went to Explora when that contract ends -- well ... back to RCCL as the time limit likely expired. Best of luck a Silversea, they need all of the help they can get. Found the hotel director very lacking on our last SS cruise.

Yes got a LinkedIn notification this morning — she will be Hotel Director on Silversea. The service was definitely better when she was onboard. And issues were quickly addressed. I think Explora was always a temporary step until she could get back to RCCL (which jettisoned her past cruise line).

I saw that too as we are in 1060 in Nov. The virtual tour of the PH C shows the shower next to the door. https://www.rssc.com/discover-more/virtual-suite-tours/seven-seas-voyager/penthouse-suite-c

I see they nixed the Austrian Gruner too. The cheapest Chardonnay on the pay list is $80 I am sure all of the influencers on Explora II have a full wine list.

It was a "maiden voyage" christening in more ways than one.

It is segregated as one per guest. Login is with last name and DOB. Concierge and above get 4 logins per guest. CAUTION. No VPN or Streaming on standard accounts. Upgraded one of our accounts (needed the VPN). When you upgrade, those 4 logins becomes one login with streaming and VPN.

Interesting - you are correct hard to find... everything I search is a store or special area. There are so many rules at the port. I heard that some taxi drivers cannot enter the special cruise drop off area inside the terminal. Leave passengers at the D entrance where to have to walk to the checkin area. When we did hotel car, driver parked in the parking and we took with porters an elevator to the checkin area. So maybe that Welcome is not Welcomed at the port.

I second the Welcome pickups suggestion - used them before from Airport to hotel in Istanbul. There is no gate specifically at Galataport. One big port area and terminal. Luggage goes to either the North or South area of the terminal -- separated between the terminals is a large bus parking area. Generally just need to give the cruise line and ship and communicate to the driver via WhatsApp. They will likely park in the garage so you take the elevator with driver to the garage. Your Spanish guests are not unique to Explora, had a similar group on Regent and yes they had face-time chats from the coffee bar to the Compass Rose on Regent. The maitre'd finally intervened.

My TA reached out to Regent at the recent Montreal Travel bash.. Same answer -- No not selling Navigator.

why would you do this??? I stick to one that gives great benefits. I get loyalty from him and when things go wrong (and they do) he goes to bat for use calling the VP of Sales. Has happened several times with Oceania, Regent and Quark.

You get a discount approx 2.5% but can vary depending on stateroom You have a reduced deposit of $1000 - you cannot use OBC for this down payment. This is per segment so if you have a B2B the down payment is $2000. You get some OBC $100 either on the future cruise or current cruise By default it goes to the travel agent of record on your current cruise, You have 30 days to transfer it. You get a lower price guarantee that Regent will match any promotions up to final payment. There are lots of caveats to this -- like stateroom category still available which on many late close in sales will not be available. You can cancel the cruise and move it to another ONE time and still get the benefits YOU CAN GET ALL OF THESE WITHOUT BEING ONBOARD. You can book 30 days prior to embarking through your TA and get these benefits.

Look at the JW Marriott very close to the port (just stay away from the Atrium rooms). If you want Luxury -- stay at the Peninsula Istanbul. This is right at the port with access to all of the restaurants in the port area.