Wendy The Wanderer

We love sharing tables with fellow passengers who we've just met, but I personally like a table for six. Eight is too big and ten would be worse, to me. Impossible to have conversations across the table. And although I've participated in CC meet & greets and roll-call parties, most of the people I've met haven't been CC'ers.

Our TA used to give us a cash rebate, and now offers the alternative of a refundable onboard credit. The latter is perfect, so if you want to go crazy having massages in the spa, the money is there; otherwise you can cash it out on the last day of the cruise.

You can track the smoke on maps such as this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/smoke-maps-canada-fires.html It looks like the Gulf of St Lawrence is clear right now. Who knows how long the Eastern Seaboard will be affected.

Yes. In Miami in January, we had our luggage take the trip without us, while we drove to the ship. Rest assured, you'll get the transfer.

We're in the north in the summers. We took a nice Seabourn fall round-trip Montreal before the pandemic. We took the train between Toronto and Montreal.

We also don't like flying coach. In fact don't like flying at all, which is why we like itineraries out of Miami in the winter.

Me too, although I don't indulge except occasionally on a cruise ship or a diner.

Here's one we got in the form of a little printed card given after our mid-cruise review. Now granted, the Paul Gauguin was a very intimate ship, and my husband had gotten quite chummy with Martha and had joked about this with her: Dear Dr. & Mrs. Harrison, Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback regarding your cruise experience so far. we are always very keen to receive the opinion of our guests which enables us to maintain and improve our high standards. I sincerely apologise for the fact that corned beef hash was not available one morning. I hope that the remainder of your cruise will be memorable and if there is anything I can do to make it more enjoyable, please do not hesitate to contact me at Reception by dialing '0'. Sincerely, Martha Hanley Guest Relations Manager

Sure, I understand. Yes, the itinerary is very attractive, it's just getting back and forth from Barbados that is not. Are you booking your own air and hotel? We winter near Tampa so would have to fly thru Miami or Charlotte to get to Barbados, in Coach. Driving to the Port of Miami is much more convenient for us.

I looked seriously at those itineraries in and/or out of Barbados, and I have to wonder why they are doing this. Limited, horrifically expensive hotels, limited and annoying air routes from many parts of North America, and on top of that, they get to give you Economy Air because they consider the Caribbean to be "domestic" (I believe.) I hope that in terms of itineraries, this is a mistake that Regent won't repeat. (I guess it may be different for those from the U.K.--it may be dead easy to fly into and out of the Barbados, so maybe that's who Regent is targeting?)

Regent was all-inclusive long before they added excursions to the mix. And it was quite different from Oceania even then. No carding, no happy hour crowds in the bars, better food, better service. I like that Regent is all-inclusive, and that's despite that I don't drink alcohol any more. I also don't go to many of the big shows, preferring listening to musicians in a bar. The inclusive excursions was something Regent tried, probably to enhance the "all-inclusive" identity. It worked for a while, but right now it's failing, perhaps mostly because of Covid. On the other hand, we've had some wonderful private excursions organized with small groups of fellow travellers in the past; on Azamara, Oceania, Seabourn, and yes, even on Regent. So this is different, I believe, than the other included amenities because it materially affects your trip in many cases.

That's the one huge benefit of Oceania, in my view. I wish Regent would stop including tours, frankly, then that roll-call model would come into play.

I was with David, above, in 1022. Form me the only slight downside was occasional noise from the pool deck when they were setting up. You may want to look at where your cabin is, ours was right under the area near the ice cream parlor, and we did hear chairs being moved a couple of times. As I said, really minor.

As someone else has said, there's a secure check-in onboard for carry-on bags--they discourage you from trying to drop them off at your suite, although that worked sometimes in the past. What is a sea pass card? If you mean your ID card, you get it when you check in.

In my experience, they don't impact on dining times, but you might want to consider not doing a specialty restaurant that night, since depending on how much you eat at your class, you may not be that hungry.

Make sure to look at the fine print. It often ends after a certain age.

I've read on FB that they have Starlink internet up and running. Would be interested to hear any reports on this.

Nerves of steel indeed. Along about 2015 I thought that I would have been way ahead if I hadn't bought cancellation insurance for our cruises since 2000. By then, we were too old and decrepit to risk it. As they say, hindsight is 20-20. Made it out alive so far, only one cruise without insurance, no cancellations for cause, so no experience with the process, fortunately.

In our experience, tables for 6 are quite common. It's our favourite size, if we are in the mood to share. Small enough to have conversations around the table, large enough group not to feel trapped with another couple with whom you're incompatible.

Hmm, well I wonder what people are saying. I haven't been on Voyager for quite a awhile, but she was always a lovely ship. The only thing I would say is that there's a vibration aft, so some say to avoid aft cabins, especially on lower decks. But this is similar to Navigator.

If you have an H GTY, you might get an upgrade. No, I haven't seen those (smaller) cabins myself, but they are probably about the same size as a standard balcony cabin on Azamara. Outside of your (very nice) small cabin, Splendor is a simply glorious ship. Wonderful service, great food, bars everywhere, what's not to like? We did do one Azamara trip and really enjoyed it, mainly because of the friendly attitude onboard (andwe did it in a Club Continent Suite, but saw the standard balcony cabin and thought it was adequate. I think you'll be happy with Regent.

I agree that's a bummer. Doesn't sound like a good business decision. I realize they don't want people booking these big cruises on a whim, but still, making it transferrable once would still make it much more palatable.

Well, when you say "same cabin category", that doesn't tell the whole tale I think. Look at the square footage of the cabins, and the layouts. I just looked at a Concierge Veranda on Vista and it looks tiny by comparison with the standard cabin on, say, Splendor. No walk-in closet either.

Commiserations, everyone. Our sole Azamara cruise was in 2016 and we were just talking about how it might be nice to try another one, since Regent seems to be pricing itself out of our budget. Oh well, sure not going book any time soon.

I have been curious about this too. Flying from Tampa, we'd have to connect through either Charlotte or Miami. One hour from Tampa, four hours from Miami, and the aggravation of Miami airport. Six to nine hours overall if we're lucky.