mj_holiday

According to Rome 2 Rio -

Flight from Paris to Bordeaux, is 2 hours and cost $77-280

Train is about 4 hours and $200 to 360.

I would say that the differences in each has to do with time of day and passenger load.

I don't remember waiting for a lot of people for transfer.  It will depend on how many people on your flight are heading to your hotel

We stayed at the Southern Sun last year for a post cruise.  I have mixed comments mostly about food (subjective) and service (could be cultural).  Breakfast and Dinner are served on an upper level.  The rooms are clean, comfortable  and quiet.

One thing I found out reading something after we got home, there is a bar/grill down by the pool.  The food is pretty good.  If you pay for it there and not charge to your room, there will be 10% off.  At least last year.

If you are doing the winelands etc - that is a really interesting tour. We really enjoyed it.

I have read several places that the best place to get Yen from the ATM is at a 7-11 (the Japanese style) and not an airport in Tokyo.  With tours and stuff it may take a day or two to find the 7-11.

I would like to ask those of you who have been on a cruise going around Japan, did you get some local currency and where did you get it.  We plan to rely on credit cards, but from reading some of our excursions, looks like there will be some locally made items from stands that may not accept credit cards.

1 hour ago, rcandkc said:

Oh, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to do that.  To me they are even more special.  It took a lot of time for a carpenter to make those houses.  Now, they will be able to last a long time for the cruise. The decorating will take an immense amount of time and skill. 

When we were on a Regent cruise and the gingerbread houses went out, in a couple of days you could see that someone had taken a bite out of various decorations.  I am sure a wooden house will survive a lot longer.

Thanks for the report on the Vibrant Tokyo, we are headed to the cruise end of March, looking forward to all of it.

Due to a recent medical event DH and I needed to review all our excursions we had booked, to make sure we understand the activity levels with our current situation and get necessary changes made.

We initially decided on excursions based on the excursion descriptions I found through "My Account"  right where you can select and book the excursion.  For the review that we needed to do now, I also opened up the pdf version of the excursion descriptions that my TA had sent with receipt for final payment. (I have never bothered with this version since I do not like printing the pages out.  I can easily work off the "My Account" descriptions)  Here is what I found

The Activity Levels found in "My Account" descriptions did not always match the Activity Levels for the excursion in the pdf version. On some excursions that did not have any activity level on the "My Account" description I found in the pdf version that the activity levels were sometime "Moderate"  I had expected the two lists to match.

Based on a YouTube video of a previous Regent Japan cruise guest, I had a couple of my questions answered by viewing the actual excursions in their video.

I do understand that the activity levels are somewhat subjective but seeing an excursion rated as "Seated Tour" have buried in its description that there is moderate walking doesn't make sense.

So don't do as I did and rely only on the descriptions in "My Account" where you book the excursion.  You need to look at the pdf version for activity level.  Also, don't just see a seated tour and not read the additional info about the cruise, since you may need to do some moderate walking.

Our first couple of cruises with Regent I remember viewing in our room on TV an overview of the various excursions, I think day by day, but sometime my memory fades.  I quit watching them, since by the time I saw them I already had everything booked.  It sure would be helpful to be able to see these videos when you are getting ready to first book your excursions.

GOOD NEWS something good about the exercise I needed to do.  I got my list of cancelled excursions and called Regent.  I bet I wasn't on hold for 2 minutes.  As I was giving the agent the excursion to cancel, I was asked if I had one for that port to book, which was then done by the agent.  I bet I didn't spent 10 minutes with the call and got the excursions deleted and added that I needed to do.

Thanks 

37 minutes ago, carolina cruisin said:

I kept the receipt with pertinent info and stapled it to the white CDC card.

That makes sense, but what is entered in the Japanese system online for the info. 

For those who have recently boarded a cruise in Japan, could you please give some detail for the QR code and the entry requirements for Covid vaccinations.  I watched a very well done you tube of a cruise starting in Japan.  They explained the entry requirements and that a QR code is the best way.  One of the things to fill out is about Covid vaccinations and something about whether or not to quarantine.  Well, we just received the current Covid vaccine and the person who gave us the vaccines said they no longer fill out the CDC white cards.  Do we just need to prove we got the initial vaccine and booster or that we have the latest vaccine.

Any information will be helpful.

38 minutes ago, Mike Moore said:

But there is an actual reason why we do what we do. 🙂

Thank you for your explanation.  We would all like to avoid waiting in a line longer than necessary.

But this will work only if the shore services work with it.  Our last Regent cruise we arrived (11 of us) at the hotel rather late the night before we sail after a pre-cruise. We asked what time for the bus (s) to the ship, and we were told 7:30. Well we ignored that.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast and saw that there were a lot of people heading to the ship.  We checked out of our room around 10am and headed down to the lobby.  We ended up in the chaos moving toward the bus.  So a lot of people got to the ship at once no matter the boarding time.

Yes, it must have been stressful not knowing from one day to the next what the trip will look like.

Thanks for taking the time to do some comparison between Oceania and Regent.  I always look at Oceania but still end up with Regent since that is a known entity.

I would not worry about grabbing a bite before getting luggage and heading to the ship.  Board the ship and head to pool grill or La Veranda for lunch.

Trivia is great fun.  Do not be shy about walking up to a couple of people the first Trivia and ask if they need two more to make a team.  They will either say the rest of their team is not there yet, or yes they could use 2 more people.  The team size is limited to 6.

We were on the Voyager this last year.  While not shiny and new like Explorer and Splendor, it is a very comfortable ship.  We have a 2025 cruise booked on the Voyager.  We were in a concierge which except for location and perks like excursion booking really isn't very different than Veranda Suites.  When Navigator went through dry dock several years ago, an additional set of drawers were added in the closest.  On the Voyager that extra set is much larger and we had plenty of drawer space.  Viewing in the theater is much better than Explorer.

I would never hesitate about booking the Voyager if the itinerary is what I want.

We will be on the Explorer in about five months, and that was selected because of the itinerary. We really like the Navigator, the suites are indeed, bigger than comparable suites on the Explorer.  On the Explorer you feel like you’re in a large, very nice hotel not the water. On the navigator, you know you’re on the sea and that’s what I like. 

Which pre-cruise were you on, Vibrant Tokyo?

many cruises

I hope you included your tour comments on the end of cruise survey. 
 

The first included post tour we took had no extra charge that I heard of. What I was told by the cruise consultant was something like the tour was limited in number. It was very nice and we enjoyed it. 
As I look at cruises now, some pre and post tours have a cost associated with them and some do not. 
We have enjoyed the added tours we have taken. 

Beside being able to book from the Compass Rose menu (when open) there is also a small, but nice selection on the room service menu.

We really enjoy the Compass Rose, there is good variety for us.  So, we will get one reservation with each specialty restaurant but not overly anxious to get more since the Compass Rose is so nice.

Who really pays???  

We had an issue last December when our flight home was cancelled.  For a while the only flight I could get was Economy which I would not take.  Our TA helped and found a BC flight.  We ended up having to pay for the flight as our TA said, let the insurance and Regent work on this later.

Our insurance claim was for extra night and meals, taxis, and the flight.  Our insurance paid for all claimed except unreceipted tips.  After we settled I informed Regent what the insurance paid.  I believe Regent then worked with the insurance and repaid what they had gotten reimbursed for the cancelled flight.

Regent then contacted me to say they will provide OBC to satisfy the unreceipted tips that we did not get reimbursed for.

As stated above, don't worry about who is paying whom, the companies have processes that work the issues.  If I would have demanded that Regent pay me for the flight or whatever; I would then need to file with insurance for the things that I did not get reimbursed for.

Keep it simple, work with insurance that you purchased, they have a process for making it all paid by the appropriate company.

Gilly, thank you so much for your helpful information. 

The dates for excursions, dining reservations and final payment will be found on your booking.  There has been alot of info on this forum about booking your flights with Regent or on your own.  The date for that is 210 days out.  Your travel Agent can help with that.  If you are in suites below the butler levels, you can email or call Regent a couple months before embarkation and let them know your desires for the bar in your cabin.  We usually ask for an after dinner sherry, a bottle of red wine, some beer (only cans fit in the frig) and club soda.  They will replenish as your cruise goes along.  If you have a butler, there should be a form someplace in your online account.

If you want breakfast in your suite before excursions, I would use the door hanger, and that arrives on time.  If just want coffee while getting ready, call room service and the coffee come very quickly.

Thank you Rkaratsu For the information on the Pre-cruise tour.  I have been hearing this and came up with the following plan.

We would maybe take one or two half day tours, but we want to get to the bullet train for a ride.  After hearing comments about difficulty with subways, I may need to rethink that and get a private tour for one of the days, and see if we can include learning how to take the bullet train.  We are again in Tokyo for two days before heading to Alaska and that might be the time to do the bullet train.

Jessandarnie - which cruise is this?

19 hours ago, rcandkc said:

I definitely don’t think room service should be delivered to a bar or observation lounge.  However, to a table outside on pool deck, I see no problem as long as the passengers ensure the dirty dishes are taken care of. 

People seem to be really worried about dirty dishes.  I would bet money, that the staff has a way of knowing where the room service deliveries have been made and a crew member is on the hook to pick them up in a timely fashion.