snuggarelli

1 minute ago, Kwaj girl said:

 

Well, my "a-ha" moment WAS on Regent!  We had a great butler last year with our Penthouse and this year coincidentally we had him once again.  On this year's cruise he came to our suite shortly after embarkation and said, "Welcome back Mr & Mrs Kwaj.  Shall I bring your usual martinis at 5pm today?"  Now THAT was a 'wow' moment.

Well, I couldn’t afford a Penthouse (or at least wanted to use that money for other things), so we had no butler.  We still should’ve had a “wow” experience without a butler if it is indeed a luxury cruise, don’t you think?

1 hour ago, rols said:

The 'Little Sisters' were the original three Seabourn ships, Seabourn Pride, Legend and Spirit. They sold them to Windstar a few years ago after they had taken delivery of the Odyssey class ships (Seabourn Odyssey, Sojourn and Quest). I didn't see any reference to 'sisters' in the previous mail, I suppose you might call the Odyssey class ships the 'sisters' but most people just call them O-class. Since then Seabourn have taken delivery of two more ships, basically O-class with tweaks to the interior and another deck of suites on top and those are the Encore class. 

 

There's still quite a lot of fondness for the 'Little Sisters' from people who cruised Seabourn back in the days they were the ships for the line. We did one cruise on them where we fell in love with Seabourn service, the ships not so much, but they remain lkithe 'little sisters' in the hearts of many. 

Thank you so much for the explanation!

On 7/4/2019 at 2:07 PM, Cru Doll said:

On the second day of our first cruise on one of the Little Sisters, my DH was  personally presented (by his name) with a glass of champagne in the hot tub.  When  he looked surprised he was  told  “I remembered that you like champagne”.   

 

Another occurred on our second Little Sister Cruise.  We were welcomed aboard in Lisbon with a number of the crew lined up at the gangway to greet us as we walked aboard. Nice touch.  

 

Also on both of our Little Sister cruises, every evening I was escorted to our table by one of the dinning staff or Maitre D’ .  On the Encore in August, 2018, this occurred on formal nights in the MDR.  I attributed the difference to the larger ship. All of the other personal attention touches were still evident.  We’re looking forward to sailing on the Ovation in September/October this year.  

 

Thank you for sharing.  What are sisters and little sisters?

1 hour ago, SKP946 said:

Our first ever cruise with Seabourn, 10 days on the Pride in May 2010 from the port for Beijing to Hong Kong.

The Chinese authorities were being difficult and wouldn’t let anybody board until 5pm.

Once onboard and walking into the restaurant at 7pm, a waiter came towards us and said,

“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs P. may I show you to a table”

We were blown away, and intrigued how could he know our name when we had only been onboard for two hours !

(we eventually solved the puzzle, from our boarding ship’s ID card photo)

 

First cruise on the (then) larger ships, the Quest in 2012.

I casually mentioned to Guest Services that the crew were not as quick to learn our names as on the smaller ships. 

The next day (and for the rest of the 25 day cruise) every crew member that I went past (including deck crew) called me by name, so much so it became embarrassing.

I found out later that my embarkation photo had been blown up to poster size and put in a prominent position in the crew section with the words, “ make sure you call Mr. P by name” !

I never did that again.

That is a hilarious story!  But they did ensure that they knew who you were.  Thank you for sharing your “a-ha” moment!

1 hour ago, Isklaar said:

 

We had a similar experience in a shopping mall in Cape Town when Sojourn had arrived for an overnight the day before our embarkation day.

It had been at least two years since we'd been on a ship with the crew member but he recognised us before we did him. He remembered our favourite pre-dinner drinks and promised to have them ready for us in the Obs bar at 6pm on embarkation day. 

 

Seabourn crew are amazing and for me are what make SB so special. 

Thanks Isklaar!  I think that in a lot of cases it can make or break a trip if the crew has a good attitude or not.  To remember you from many years past sounds very special indeed.

2 hours ago, dalliowner said:

Years ago we were in Venice awaiting to board the Spirit for our second cruise , three years after our first. We were early so were strolling along the canal  when coming the other way were a couple of Seabourn Crew ,when one of them  (Stephanie) came up to us and said you are sailing  with us again ?? As we  had not checked in yet I could not believe she had remembered us from three year previous , we were sold .

Thanks Dalliowner!  I can’t even remember someone’s name a minute after they tell me, lol.  They must go through some sort of training for that.

3 hours ago, margbem said:

Walking into the Restaurant on our first time on the Odyssey after numerous cruises on the Legend, to be welcomed by Eddie - seasoned Seabourn sailors will all remember Eddie- with the words "Welcome home Mrs Berry!"  and a big hug. Lovely!

Thank you Marybem!  I’m glad they keep on their crew.

4 hours ago, 3418ahl said:

In Myanmar...after returning to Yangon after an overnight to Bagan, we all wanted to fit the Schwedagon Pagoda into our day, so the ship had a bus pick us up at the airport at about 5 pm to take us to the Pagoda.  We found drinks and sandwiches on the bus, which I thought was thoughtful.  We returned to the ship at about 10 pm to find all the crew standing there applauding us and low and behold they led us to the dining room (about 25-30 of us), where they seated us and served a beautiful three course dinner.  That was definitely my "ah-hah" moment!

Thank you 3418ahl!  Wow!  That sounds wonderful.  Is that the norm?

5 hours ago, SLSD said:

This is just a funny story.  Last year, we took a SB Baltic cruise.  We seldom if ever dine in the Colonnade, but one morning my husband decided to go to the lower deck of the Colonnade (Ovation) to get a smoothie.  I followed several minutes later and as I was walking through the Colonnade to go down to the lower deck, a crew member that I had never seen before (not a waiter, but perhaps a kitchen helper/cook ) passed by  me and said, "Good Morning Mrs. Daniel."  He saw the somewhat shocked look on my face and laughed.  I think perhaps the crew had been having a contest using our photos to recognize us and this crew member was particularly good at the game.  

Thank you SLSD!  That’s pretty incredible, especially since I thought the ships carried quite a large passenger capacity (I’m not sure here as I’ve never looked it up)?

33 minutes ago, mraven said:

In Mykonos. Came back from town to a half-full ship. Put my camera down on a lounger in 5-aft, which was completely empty. Went to our cabin to change and when we returned, there were 2 glasses of wine by the lounge. I was sure someone else had claimed the lounge, so we moved over. A few minutes later, server Anthony came by and indicated the wine was for us. We asked how he knew we were sitting there and he said he recognized my camera. Totally blew me away.

 

Saw him again 3 years later after he'd been promoted to Sommelier (he remembered us!) and we again asked about the camera (which we no longer had) and he told us his parents had the same unit.

Thank you mraven.  That sounds like spectacular service!

Just got off of Regent, and we never got our “a-ha” moment where we said- yes this is why this cruise is a luxury cruise, nor a moment where we felt “wow’ed.”

On your first Seaborne Cruise, what prompted your “a-ha” moment and when were you “wow’ed”?

I’m trying to figure out what cruise line to do next.

From US News and World Report 2019 best luxury cruise lines

Regent (#5)

”Older, well-traveled couples frequent Regent Seven Seas Cruises, especially on longer voyages. However, don't be surprised if you see avid adult cruisers of all ages, ranging from their mid-30s to late 80s. You likely won't encounter children on board with the exception of certain family-friendly spotlight itineraries during the summer and around holiday breaks.”

https://travel.usnews.com/cruises/regent-seven-seas-cruises-299/

Now I know there is “AT&T at sea” which uses the Regent antenna to talk to the satellites transmit data while underway.  I do not know what the speed guarantees are using this program.  (Does anyone know this?). 

I would assume you’d have to use your phone as a hotspot.  I’m going to investigate using our portable router instead, if it’s possible.  When you get close to land, if you have “AT&T international” turned on, you’ll have the international package take effect.  I think this is by far the easiest way for my DH and myself to do it.  We did look at Skyroam, but it only works near land (so it solves only half the issue).

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

Editing is limited to 20 minutes after you post and why you could not edit last nite.

Thanks Rallydave.  Good to know.

I cannot seem to edit my comment.  The flights I mention were not ticketed by Regent.  I shared this in case Regent goes the same route (as my understanding was that it was cheaper), if you don’t like what Regent presents and end up taking the air credit instead and you find that this is actually a good route, or if you present it as an option to Regent because this route works for you as part of the air deviation request.

On 1/27/2019 at 4:52 PM, MalbecWine said:

We just lost a $200.00 booking and paid in full for our Explorer trip in November which was refunded less the booking fee in a master suite.  That being said, we can use it within one year on another Regent cruise.  We shall see and not the end of the world.

Our similar booking is on another luxury line we frequent in the largest suite.  It’s ashame that some comments have steered us away from Regent.

Malbecwine- for some reason I cannot PM you.  At any rate, we’re going on Regent in June, and would like to know what is steering you away from further sailings on Regent.  We are trying to decide whether to try Crystal for our 25th anniversary or continue with Regent.  Since you’ve done both, we thought it might be handy to get your input at least.  Tks.

1 hour ago, 1985rz1 said:

Does anyone know which airline(s) Regent currently uses for Tokyo?  We'll be departing from PHX connecting in either LAX or SFO.

Sea-Tac also has direct flights to Japan.  I believe ANA flies that way, as well as JAL.  JAL is going to be cheaper than ANA typically.  My sister and her family as well as my mom live in NorCal (by Monterey and Sac).  It was cheaper for them to fly up to Seattle via Southwest or Alaska, and then re-check in and take JAL to Narita.  They normally would've taken SFO primarily (flights from SJC are usually more expensive than SFO, and I don't know if OAK goes direct or not).  So, it must've been worth the extra time to go through baggage claim and re-checking in.  The information I'm presenting is very recent - they are currently in Japan as we speak.  You'll have to report back on the boards what route and airline they ended up giving you, as I'm interested in hearing what they end up doing, unless you choose to deviate and request your own specific flights.

In regards to your first item in the letter, about the internet access and targeting millennials... 

Regent has specifically said that Millennials are not a target group and that they are "cute." (Honestly, I still don't understand why he said the latter part.  Seems a bit condescending.)  They stated that their target group is the Baby Boomers.  Someone posted an article on here stating this information.

My issue is that this is NOT a mobile-friendly website and is instead rather cludgy on mobile.  It’s like me building my WordPress website and simplifying it/making it narrow so that it appears like it might look decent in an mobile device browser.  I don’t know how it is on desktop because I hardly pull out the laptop.

There’s a reason why Bank of America has an app, Facebook has an app, Gmail has an app, etc thus the phrase, “There’s an app for that.” 

Ugh- just making this post is not mobile-friendly, and I work with business requirements, use cases, and UI design.  

So are there any apps that work with this website?

Secondly, before releasing this, did anyone test load/usage times between the new version, old version, and app version.  This is especially a good test underway IMO, as people will want to post pics while on their trip.  I have a feeling this was not completed.

It feels like this site was built not with mobile in mind, but with a simple UI aimed for desktop users. For example, this text box is ginormous on Safari on an iPhone 7s.  The privacy icon keeps floating directly wherever you might be.  The new drag and drop of photos doesn’t work in an iPhone environment.

Did anyone gather the right requirements, use cases, and produce an appropriate UI for all the various interfaces instead of trying to use one UI to solve everything?  Even Facebook doesn’t do that.

When we went on DCL long time ago, they used to pull away from the dock with "When I wish upon a star..." on the horn.  Do they still do that?  I think they had other musical sounds before too.  If so, does that make "Disney Wish" a more unlikelier or likelier candidate for a name of one of the ships?

I was thinking that hopefully whatever name they pick would be something that Walt Disney himself has said as part of a focus, mission, or strength of the  Disney Company.  It would make sense using - Magic, Wonder, Dream, and Fantasy.  Interestingly enough, hasn't some of these been used in celebration year and/or parades/firework shows (Fantasmic might be stretching it, Disney Fantasy song for the holidays would be more applicable).

So my best guess:
1)  Believe
"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable." - Walt Disney
2)  Wish
"When you wish Upon a Star" - Jiminy Cricket
3)  Imagination
"Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world." - Walt Disney
4)  Hope
Remember the theme of Rogue Squadron - "Hope"?  And it's not outwardly Star Wars either.
5)  Pearl
"Bring me that horizon" - Jack Sparrow

2 minutes ago, RJ2002 said:

Yes.  Lots of comments about this already on various forums.

Hopefully they will change the default.

Can you change your font size/type in your preferences somewhere?

the Méridien is nowhere near the port of Monaco where the tenders will dock. For that look on Google maps for "quai Ranier III" which is roughly where they will be. Probably walking with luggage will take you can hour.

Thanks for letting me know. Taxi it is!

The actual address is on your cruise document. At least it is for our upcoming cruise.

Thanks RCandKC. I didn’t see it on the Guest Statement which is all we have so far. Sounds like it’ll come with the cruise docs that’ll be sent closer to the cruise date.

It is very close. But I don’t think walkable because of luggage. Without luggage, it would easily be walkable.

Thanks RachelG.