Wendy The Wanderer

The Superior Suite, midship would be my sweet spot, although we're in Concierge right now. Lovely cabin, great layout. Large shower enclosure and a huge tub.

Nice meal in CR last night, shared with a couple from London. So far we've enjoyed all the passengers we've met on board. Spent time with the CD, David Neven, and he's a very nice man, and doing a good job. Saw the 'spicy' show, Crossroads, which we thought was very well done. Bought my spices in Grenada today. We've been here before, so no tour. A physically beautiful island, kind of gritty, with lovely people. I like it.

I've never done concierge on the older ships, and no, I do not think it's worth it unless perhaps you're new to Regent. The concierge suite on Splendor is physically the same as the Superior Suite. Higher up, which can be nice, coffee maker, binoculars, and of course the hotel night. Not worth it for us, but it is pleasant to have coffee in the morning on demand. The layout of the cabin is wonderful, btw. Great to be back on RSSC and Splendor is awesome.

No jackets required, but a word of warning. Restaurants and lounges can be quite chilly. My husband hates suits of any kind, yet happily wears his blue blazer in the evenings (were onboard Splendor right now.)

So glad to hear you're enjoying yourself. We are loving Splendor too, our 13th and perhaps last Regent cruise. I've heard others who seem to want to be very critical but we are blown away.

Went to a ladies' wellness event today put on by the spa. It was a mini-facial. It was quite fun and very relaxing. Surprisingly not a huge sales pitch, although the products were there to buy.

Btw, as to the vibe in our mid-aft concierge on deck 10. It's hardly detectable unless you're lying in bed with your ear to the pillow, and then it's a mere flutter really. Seas are quite calm as we chug south around Haiti heading for Curacao.

That was a Covid thing, back to normal now.

Dinner in Sette Mare tonight to avoid the CR crush after Captain's Welcome. The staff seemed rushed and made missteps. Took forever to get wine. But our waiters were eager to please. Food very nice, including the antipasti, but the buffet was sparse. The salad offerings were meager in the extreme. The desserts listed tiramisu but there wasn't any--waiter offered to go to another restaurant and get me some. I declined and settled for a divine panna cotta. Internet decent most of the time, but spotty at peak hours, which seem to include 4 a.m.

We drove to the port and thus got aboard fairly early. There were logistical problems land-side so didn't get to our suites until 2:30, so we enjoyed the Pool Grill. I must admit this is a very, very nice cabin, Concierge. Very lovely dinner in Prime 7. Huge compared to the older ships, and beautiful, plus great service. Haven't explored much yet since we're kind of slow. Got separated at muster drill and we both thought the other was missing. Turned out we'd been sent to different rooms. Their scanning system didn't seem to be able to be able to tell me that David had already checked in. All was well in the end. Had a wonderful sleep in our huge bed. Looking forward to enjoying our large balcony which must be almost twice the size of ones we've had on Voyager, Mariner or Nav. So far everything is perfection!

On Splendor now. No testing on boarding. They did ask our vaccination status, but didn't check.

No. Although I will confirm that in a couple of hours. We did a proctored test prior to leaving home as insurance, and we board Splendor this morning. Tests are mandatory if you've been to China recently.

I checked on my Android phone (on a Canadian network albeit I'm physically in the States right now), and there is no Wifi Calling option in settings. Guess it's a network-provider option that my provider just doesn't offer. Funny since WhatsApp uses the internet, right? All this being said, if I have to text my husband onboard, I can just send him a text message. So what if it costs $1.50 per end? Not a big deal. (Ah, just checked, we have free text messaging in the Caribbean per our travel package to the States, so no prob.!)

If you're going to stop at Aruba, I would suggest the submarine. My husband used to enjoy snorkelling but doesn't any more, and he loved this excursion. (I found it a bit claustrophic, but only a little.)

I'll contribute once in a while, I hope. That depends on bandwidth and the fact that I won't have a keyboard, just a phone. We're on the 21st - 1st trip. We also have not been on a ship for a long time, since 2018. We put off cruising in 2019 to save up for our big adventure to be, the WC of 2021. Obviously that didn't happen. Then we cancelled a Baltic trip this last summer, 2022, because of the risks and hassles of air travel, and the limits of our own stamina, frankly. This may well be our last cruise. First time on one of the newer ships. Never thought I'd be excited about another Caribbean cruise, but I am, very. Just being at sea again will be thrilling. Seen some of the islands before, hope to see a few more sights this time. Driving down to Miami from Dunedin, FL on Friday, staying at the Biltmore Hotel. On the agenda for sure: buying fresh spices in Grenada. We've run out of nutmeg!

Thanks. Coming from the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, do you recommend taking US-1 and I-95 to I-395, or getting up onto 836 sooner and going that way? Don't mind about tolls, we have Sunpass.

I'm looking at Google Maps and having trouble figuring this out. Google wants to take me via I-395 but off at Biscayne and across the bridge on Port Blvd. Our terminal J is quite near there, northwest corner of Dodge Island. Sounds like you're telling me to proceed over the MacArthur Causeway and then exit at 887. That would take us on a circuitous route all around the port to get us back to J. Is the construction really that bad that we should do that? (Edited to add, ah, I see, 887 IS the tunnel.) Thanks.

Thanks for the tip!

The answer is complex. Depends on where they're going, how they get there, what kind of restaurants they like, the size of their homes. Things like that.

Holiday Inn Port of Miami. An easy cab ride to the ship.

My opinion is that age shouldn't be a problem if it's not a problem for you and your brother. That is, if you're open to being around people who are for the most part considerably older than you. Most of those people (me, for instance), enjoy engaging with younger people, and some may even take you under their wing. If you're down with that, then it's all good.

I feel for you! Our last cruise was 2018, on Mariner, and we've been on Voyager a few times. We'll be boarding Splendor in a little over two weeks and really looking forward to cruising again, and it was nice to be able to try one of the new ships, I admit. But for me, I'd probably choose Voyager because it's cheaper, but it might depend on what cabins were available. It would also be a toss-up to end in Barcelona or Lisbon, love both cities.

I was just going to ask that question! I see some posts on the "other" place, but would like to see people posting here, if they have time with all the fun they're having.

I would talk to an agent at Regent, if not a TA. Regent will get in touch with you to do this, if you don't want to find a TA right away, and then after booking, you can still transfer to a TA if you choose.

That sounds pretty reasonable to me, actually. One might want or expect more of course, but... I would rather say, "I don't fly half-way across the world for a cruise to stay on the ship". That's the tough part I think.