mj_holiday

Thanks for taking the time to bring us along. We are doing this trip in 2024 in the reverse order. Looking forward to your description of sights etc.

We were on the Voyager this last December. It was a great ship and we enjoyed her.

I finished our flights last week for our Tokyo-Vancouver next year. I had been looking on line at various flights including one that had a transfer in Korea where you also changed airports!! Our TA worked with Regent for us and pretty much understands what we would like. We did take a nonstop DFW to Tokyo BC with an upcharge, on a 787. Our seats are in the center and the heads of our little rooms for 14 hours are close enough we can talk to each other without getting up. Using miles to get from Vancouver to DFW, so got a $300 credit for that. We are happy with these flights, would have been nicer without the upcharge, but realize the realities of the times.

When we are putting laundry out, I let our steward know.

I read the forum on cruise critic before our cruises, especially our first one. When I see reviews that complain I usually try to figure out is this real or an attitude (no facts provided). I can usually find other reviews, comments by the one who is not pleased and that tells me alot about the person. I form my own opinions and have learned alot from the day by day blogs and the trips summaries that are posted. I will not attempt a day by day post myself because I know I won't keep it up. I do take notes each day so I can have a fairly comprehensive summary when we are home.

Thanks for all the recommendations, lots to look at to decide. As far as dinner at Joe Fortes, while it sounds great, we will just be getting off of the Explorer, but will check it out.

We will be spending one night in Vancouver at the end of our cruise. Does anyone have a recommendation for a hotel that is within walking distance of restaurants etc. I know this has been discussed on this forum but cannot find it with my search capabilities.

This seems to be pretty normal, most of the times we don't notice it. Visitors to the USA from abroad need to show that they have a way (and the money) to get home. This is usually done by a round trip ticket.

I see the two tier system for our cruise on line, but we booked this cruise awhile ago and at a less price that what is shown. So I guess I am looking for where that history price would be.

I have seen it many times, but can't find it when I want to. Can someone give me a path to find the air credit for a cruise? Thanks

On the Canary Islands (cannot remember which one) that is volcanic and mostly covered with lava a tour that includes both the volcano and the wineries was very interesting.

My favorite NA spirit is Monday NA Gin. It makes a very nice G & T and a good martini. Haven't found this in stores, order from Amazon.

When comparing two cruise lines cruises, I would build a spreadsheet listing what is included in each. First is the suite size and compare it to a similar size on the other cruise. After listing everything I give a dollar value to what it would be to get that on the cruise that doesn't have it. Pricing seems to come in very close. Remember that many itineraries also have an included pre or post land trip.

Thanks for taking the time to post your experiences. We also found the beverage packages, experience etc not to be much of anything. For liquors, the package description always ended with something like and others. So going to a bar, it was hit or miss to find out if a liquor you desired was in the package you purchased. Wine service at dinner was rushed and confusing. I was always offered wine well before I had decided what I wanted to eat.

For myself, I do not care for the "virgin" drinks, seems to be too much of sugar, or lime, or sour. Several NA "liquors" are showing up that to me make some nice mixed drinks. These are what I would like to see in the various bars. Last trip I did get a NA Gin in our cabin and that was nice. It made a good G & T to refresh while getting ready for dinner.

When we were on Voyager in December I had requested NA Gin and a bottle was in our suite. I didn’t see it behind any bars. They had 0.0 Heineken. Our next cruise I will ask that the NA Gin be in a bar for me.

The very first discussion on the Regent Cruise Critic forum (which you are on) discusses flights with and without deviation. There is a thumb tack by it. That will give you alot of information about booking flights.

I also recommend this museum. Try to get some detail directions. We took a trolley from our hotel and were dropped off within a block, the guy pointed the way, and it still took us several passes before we saw it. (I realized there wasn't a parking lot or huge sign like we are use to in the states.)

Don't remember having binoculars in our concierge.

Laundry service is available for all categories of cabins. We have not been of Splendor, but would consider it to be the same as the other ships which is very good.

We have done both included land tours and those that costs extra. Our first included land tour was in Cairo and was very nice. (this was pre covid) Great hotel and great excursions, and I don't remember it being more than a relaxed pace. Maybe 25 people. We did a wine country after our Cape Town cruise and there were 2 bus loads but was very nice, would have liked a little more time in a town but the meals and site seeing was very good. The older we get, the more I am inclined to sign up for both included and extra costs land trips. So much easier when everything is handled.

I don't believe there is a standard set up in the cabins. I could just see the stewards spending all afternoon rearranging soda/beer cans. Our last cruise started out with 5 or 6 Coronas. So if no special requests, just have a list ready of what you want when you see your steward, they will probably move the cans you don't want to the cabinet next to the minifridge. We usually start out with beer and club soda and a bottle of wine and some type of after dinner liquor.

Oh, you are giving the shore people alot of credit. First - remember - most of this forum has said once you are on board things will be fantastic. Our embarkation was in Cape Town with a pre-night. Several of us arrived at the pre-night hotel around 10:30 pm ending our pre-cruise land trip. We asked about pick up times the next day and was told 7:30am. None of us believed that and agreed we could sleep late. We had a really nice breakfast and after we got repacked etc, went downstairs to see what the process was. (I do not remember what we did with our large suitcases) Oh, what chaos. We checked out and headed outside and we were put on a bus and our carry-ons were stored below. The port was pretty chaotic. We got off the bus and realized the shore people had taken our carry-ons and put them with all the luggage. Several of us complained and needed to get our carry-ons back, mainly because of security and meds. So we were taken into the luggage area and allowed to pick up any suitcase we wanted, but we all picked our own carry-ons. Some kind of line was forming (not much area to sit) so we got in line. There was and interesting display of beaded objects which we had plenty of time to look at as the line slowly moved. (At several ports during the cruise we would find this type of beaded pieces many places.) Our assigned time was noon. Don't know what time we got onboard, but the line moved fairly quickly as we got closer. We made it onto the ship . . . .YEAH. . . . and up to the pool grill for lunch and a beer.

On more thing - I sent DH to get us drink packages after a couple of days and he didn't know, I hadn't seen the advertisement, that we would get a small discount because we were repeat cruisers with Azamara. No one asked him if this applied.

After we got off Onward I did do a review with some comparison with Regent and here in a nutshell are the things I didn't care far on Azamara The fact that there were three levels of drink packages, in the included package of course there is one beer I wanted that was in the next level and DH also found that a couple different alcohols were not on the first included level. If you pay for these instead of purchase the drink package, the ticket has a space for tipping even though tips are included in the price. I would just rather not think about is this included or that included. The MDR had nice sized tables for two but they were very close to your neighbors. I just couldn't tell what/how much wi-fi was included. Since excursions are not included with Azamara, we will be doing cruises that make it very convenient to walk off and look for a taxi etc. We really missed the in suite bar set up (beer, mixers, etc) Yes we could have called for room service, but then we are waiting for that instead of getting ready etc. And there is a lot of disagreement on this forum as to what you can order room service. There were some talks ( self healing, IPhone phototaking and about excursions) but also felt they were comeons to something that would come at a cost. The photo guy had brochures talking about his other lessons for a price and the self-healing person always reminded us that she had open appointments. I found no enrichment lectures. These are not show stoppers, we found ways to work around/with them when the itinerary is right for us. Stuff would be listed in the daily newsletter and annotated that there is a price, but not give the price.