mj_holiday

3 hours ago, mrlevin said:

 If, in fact, this cruise was canceled more than a year in advance there are no "deviation fees" paid and, in fact, no paid or frequent flyer airline tickets purchased.

Deviation fees now would be 210 days prior, if I remember correctly.

I book cruises very far out and I would be pretty upset if one of those cruises got cancelled for chartering.

Yes, I call RSSC.  

We are not in named suites so if we want something special I will call or email guest Services at least 60 days prior, and it has been in our cabin when we arrive.

This link is US state department and list requirements to enter different countries and how many blank pages they request.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages.html

While long bus rides can be a pain, I also like to use the ride as a chance to look at the country side. 
Some of the long bus trips that I am glad we took are:

1. Very long ride to the pyramids,

2.Fairly long ride to Petra,

3.Long trip to Peggy’s Cove, 

4. South Africa had some fairly long trips several days. Worth it. 
As said above, reading the description and checking the distance will help keep you from being surprised.  
Checking the port locations will help before you book the cruise. 

Totally agree with the monkey warning.  On our visit, as we were getting on the cable car our tour guide saw a couple with a small child and stroller heading up.  She told them they needed to leave the stroller behind because of the monkeys.  It was an umbrella stroller.  They ignored her advise and as soon as monkeys caught sight of the stroller coming off the cable car, they were on it and the couple baring had a chance to get their child out of the stroller before it was destroyed.  The monkeys were not after the small child.  But the experience of the monkeys is that strollers are a good place to find food.

Double check your tickets when you get to your suite and the couple page description of the tours for your cruise.  Times may change, the activity level may change and the meeting location may change.  The correct time and meeting location will also be correct in Passages, the day before the tour.

13 hours ago, Coastaljewel said:

I price WITHOUT including airfare. If we had to bail, even on a non-refundable ticket, we could bank that cost as a credit to use on the same airline over the next year---which usually isn't a problem. So any claim filed, would only be on the cruise fare only.

That is if you book your own air. correct.

We are Regent fans. Cruises with them is really all inclusive, (laundry, drinks, specialty restaurants, room service, excursions to name a few) The items not included are some excursions, top, top shelf liquor, boutique and spa. 
Check out the cabin sizes, they are great. 
We have not been on Celebrity, so can’t co. 

The passport control is if you are in a schengen country.  When you first enter a schengen you go through border control (passport check) and won't need to for next stop or arrival at another schengen country.

We have gone through LHR twice since COVID and had 6 hours between flights, while a long time I also was relaxed about making the connecting flight and the fact that our luggage made it with us.

I recommend Apple Air Tags for your luggage if you have IPhones.  I was able to relax when I saw our suitcases move toward our connection just before I lost wifi.

I recommend using seatguru.com to look at the seats in business class.  Make sure they are lie flat if you want to sleep.

When we go with BA I have our TA get us seat assignments with the booking. I am not sure how she does this but we get them.  I do not like waiting for the seat assignments.

LHR and Madrid airports both have the practice where you do not get your departing gate until 30 minutes prior (LHR) and 50-60 minutes prior (Madrid)  I always worry about not getting to the gate fast enough when it is announced.

Keep you tour documentation handy when you board.  You should have a tour envelope in your suite when you first get there and then you can compare the tickets with your list.

In the past when the tour we wanted was full I would call RSSC and ask to be put on the waitlist.  And all that I waitlisted for (not that many) did clear.  For our upcoming cruise I see that the online reservation system now has a place to wait list (with out calling RSSC).   There was one tour that was full and no wait list available.  I called RSSC and was told it was full/closed and I did not understand the difference between this one and those that had waitlist opportunities.

I was also told to check the reservation on line every so often to see if it has opened up???

So, glad to hear that now when a waitlist tour clears, the system will cancel your reservation for the back up tour.  Not sure of what is the difference for a tour that does not take any waitlists.  (As I was rereading the description of this tour that we are not getting waitlisted for, I noticed at the end it has a note that for the soaking baths you need to be naked!!)  I am not going to check on this one anymore.

We have not checked our carry-ons before, may try it next time.

But when we get on and head to the Pool Grill we find an out of the way table and there is not a problem putting our carry-ons between us and usually an outside wall.  And it really isn't very long until our suite is ready.

I thoroughly agree with not putting carry-ons in suites before they are ready.  The staff working on the suites have enough to do to get everything ready and shouldn't have to worry about "who told me they put their cases in what suite?"

Our check-in post Covid was very chaotic because the buses picked people up very early (10am) at the hotel.

Our check-in and boarding prior to Covid went like this.  We checked out of the hotel we were staying in (not a Regent hotel) and took a cab to the port.  We realized that we may have to wait for awhile but really enjoy people while waiting.

At the port we handed our luggage over to porters and followed the directions. Sometimes we had to wait, but usually got on and had a great lunch at the pool grill until our rooms were ready.

For us it is not a big thing to have to wait to board; that is preferred to going someplace between hotel and boarding and then feel rushed to get to the ship.

I want to second the train ride.  We did it getting to the ship in Seward and it was a great afternoon.

I think star gazing would be a great thing to participate.  How do you get one started, who did you ask?  I have been in the southern hemisphere several times and have yet to see the southern cross, seemed to always be cloudy.

Our longest cruise to date has been about 18-19 days, and we are booked on a 30 day cruise next year.  We have no concern about getting bored etc.  On sea days we usually go our own way after breakfast, DH will go to the library to read some newspapers, I will find something like Bingo or reading.  We have no concerns about such a long cruise and this is probably the best way to see this part of the world.

GP51 thank you for taking us along.  I am a Navigator fan.  From your picture of the closest it looks like they have upgraded the drawers (again).  We were on just after a drydock where they removed some drawers in the sitting area and added a narrow set of drawers in the closet.  Looks like it is now 3 long drawers which looks alot better.

On the Voyager Dec 2022.  Had a great time, saw no issues with the ship.  IMO hope the tender crew has gotten more training, the handling of the transfer to the ship at one port was very chaotic (and there was an officer on board).  Our tender to the ship was made the last tender (yes our tour was very late) and all the shore side equipment was put on the tender with us.  The sea was rough, several people tripped over the equipment while trying to get off.  I kept waiting for the officer to direct some organization to this, but did not happen.

Yes, the ship and service on the ship were great.  There were some issues with tours and that has been addressed throughout on cc, but that seems to be result of COVID and getting tours etc started back up.  I expect that to not be a problem in the future.

Your booking info on your account on RSSC.com will have the date you can make your restaurant reservations.

In the threads at the top of this board is one that has reviews of various cabins in the different ships.  There is not one there yet for Cat H.

It will depend on what size cabin you are use to with Azamara.

I can't find the size of a Azamara Veranda cabin but the H category is 218 Sq ft, and there is not a walk in closet.

We stayed in a category G on the Explorer and notice the difference in size, but mainly because the table in the sitting area was low and had a "cage" around it instead of  one center leg.  While a small thing, it really affected how we sat and used the table.  But we still had a great time on the cruise.

We have stayed in an Azamara Veranda and did notice the smallness of it, we still had a good time.  Our next Azamara cruise was a Club Continent which was just right for us.

I do not remember seeing any reviews on Cat H from either Explorer or Splendor.

Get the name of your server and if that server did well be sure to complement the server in end of cruise survey. 

We have cruised Azamara post Covid and felt the service was impeccable, the food was very good, and enjoyed the ports. I have never had a faster check in on a cruise ship than I did with Azamara, luggage, turned up quickly, and we always found something great to eat and enjoyed the cruise.
 

Yes, the website is horrible. But I felt it was horrible before the transition.  I’ve encountered this format a couple different places, and everybody had problems working their way through it. As someone who managed the transition of a large system, I understand the trials and tribulations of working with a system that is, how many years old,  maintained by somebody that might have done undocumented short cuts, and things not tested. I am sure there were surprises around every corner and they just have to be worked off one by one 

Last year before our trip starting in Cape Town, I was counting passport pages. We needed 3 sets of 2 pages facing each other. Someone shared an experience during a land vacation where they had gone in and out of South Africa enough to fill their passport and they were stopped at the border , so I quickly got an expedited passport for DH.   In the end, South Africa didn’t stamp as often as we were told and we have plenty of pages for our future trips.  
But I wouldn’t want to risk it. 
When getting new passport, you can choose from two different number of pages. 
The pages at the back of the passport that do not have “visa “ on the top do not count. 

We usually do veranda suites.  About 65 days or so before our cruise, I will call or email guest services and let them know our desires for our in suite bar, both spirits and beer, soda.  Our suite is usually stocked when we get there, if not we will ask our steward and will get the items shortly.