NCCruzQueen

On 4/29/2024 at 1:20 PM, papaflamingo said:

I may have missed a post, so apologies up front.  Was this a Regent shore tour?  We are on the Grand Cruise next year that has been re-routed to now end in Cape Town. 

@papaflamingo we were booked on a Regent sponsored Overland Trip. It truly was a grand adventure!
 

You may find some post-cruise land trips offered for your cruise.  Look under the Hotel tab on your Regent Itinerary or ask your travel agent about more information for land trips.

8 hours ago, crusin7 said:

Thank you Beth!  Great photos.  What was the best thing you saw??  Were there lots of mosquitos or worse??  I hope we see you on another cruise!  Xoxo Crisy

Hi Crisy,

We took so many photos on safari, I haven’t taken the chance to go through them all and edit them. At the moment, the best thing about our four animal drives was observing animal behaviors.  
 

On our first drive, watching a pride of 13 lions follow their female pack leader to a water whole. Then seeing each separately move up towards the water, with the pack leader behind. There were three elephants on the other side of the water, spied the lions.  A male elephant walking through the area observed the female elephants and wanted to cross over to meet them but then saw the lions and stood his ground.  Slowly the female pack leader started to walk away from the large male elephant and the younger lions followed her.  Seeing those lions getting into attack mode was so interesting to see.  After their plan went bust, we could see a look of defeat in them.  The lions were thin and hadn’t eaten in awhile.  
 

On the other side, on our last morning ride, we saw large groups of herbivores all living peacefully together in a huge field.  Warthogs, wildebeest, giraffes, elephants and impalas all together enjoying their morning meal and playtime/exercise time before they take to the shade until the late afternoon’s meal.

We have so many stories to tell.  
 

PS.  We had DEET in different forms so we didn’t see any mosquitoes.  I took the offered gin and tonic to keep the malaria away.  😝

For @Cruisin7

We spent 2 nights in Victoria Falls followed by 2 nights at the Qorokwe Lodge on the Okavanga Delta in Botswana.

On 4/12/2024 at 1:34 AM, smg4412 said:

The itinerary for 2027 does not mention any overnight land extensions. Does anyone know if these are usually offered on world cruises? For example, would anyone know if, when in India, Regent would offer a side trip to the Taj Majal? Thanks… 

@smg4412

I am currently on the Mariner 24 World Cruise.  There are have been many Overland Excursions offered along the way.  Places I know they have been offered have been New Zealand, Australia, India and now Africa.

In India, many passengers disembarked in Kochi for The Taj Mahal (about 128 passengers), The Pink City and Tigers (8-10 passengers) and Kathmandu (24 passengers).

With our change of itinerary, many African safaris have been added with 6 or 4 nights off the ship and most ending in Capetown.

You can usually find the offered Overland Trip posted on the itinerary under Pre and Posts Hotels.  Also, ask your TA.

3 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

We are booked on the Grand Cruise from Auckland to Athens (maybe) Mar. 2025. We just booked the cruise before from Papeete to Auckland.  The ship gets in the night before the Grand cruisers board, so we spend a night in Auckland on board.  Does anyone know if it's possible for us to attend the Grand Cruise dinner the night before?  Also I seem to have heard that they will generally do a Grand Cruise event (like brunch or something) on board early in the cruise. Any one have any info? 

 

Thanks

That would definitely be a TA question.

I did ask the CD on Regent (since we are on "cousin" ships) but haven't heard anything yet.  Will post here if I find out anything.  I would think that NCLH will post on all three lines.  

@nu#1 I kept refreshing my CBS Sports app to "watch" the games.

17 hours ago, Pcardad said:

K&B should be back on by June.

When Kasia and Boogie left they told us that they’d return on May 17th.  The Vivace Duo have a totally different sound but ok.

As far as the toilets go,  if ours doesn’t flush, we call reception and it’s repaired within an hour.  We have had a hissing sound in the toilet and no water in the bowl.  I’ve found if you pour in a glass of water, the hissing stops.

On 3/10/2024 at 5:00 PM, crusin7 said:

Upon our arrival into Darwin the dock was not ready for us.  They were having a problem with a Cushioning device.  So we actually waited about 45 minutes to dock.  We were about 1 hour late for our tour. It was very Hot!  There are a lot of flies/ mosquitoes on the boat. I would not recommend this tour.  We were on the boat about 45 minutes.  We had to pick 2 plastic bags out of the water.  So we only saw 3 crocodiles.  Not worth the heat, insects and long drive for me. 

We went on the Jumping Crocodile Boat excursion. 

Our Guide holding a Crocodile Tooth

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crisy, we were on the first excursion and really enjoyed our time on the river.  Sorry you didn’t have a good experience.  The heat definitely makes a difference.  We had the same boat captain and stopped to retrieve one plastic bag.

@pappy1022, the assistant held the stick out and up so the crocodiles weren’t overfeed and the crocs don’t get used to feeding from the boats.  They know all the crocodiles by name and want to protect them. 
 

7 hours ago, crusin7 said:

WHOO HOO  We just received some compensation!

 

Gorgeous, weren’t they!

I book early to get the suite I prefer and at a lower price.  Regent seems to increase prices every three months.

Some cruisers will put down a $1000 deposit for a particular level of suite.  Often it will become available after final payments are due.

On 1/23/2024 at 10:43 AM, crusin7 said:

Toilets are not flushing in our room.  We are on 9th floor.  Off and on since this AM. Now OFF. 

We had one day off and on toilets and another day just one time in the first segment.

11 hours ago, mnocket said:

 

 

BTW  I just got off this morning.  We did our best to leave the ship in tip top condition for you.  I'll be following your journey with great interest .

Everything looks in tip-top condition. Mariner is sparkly and shiny.

7 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

Love your attitude, that I took the liberty of bolding.  SWMBO and I have discussed that, while on fixed incomes, we are the richest people in any room because, well into our 70s, we do whatever we want to do, when we want to do it, and most importantly we have our health.

 

 

My philosophy these days is, if you have good health and “a little cruise money,” you’re doing ok!  
When do you board your ship for your adventure?

2 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

Once I get on board, I'm good.  No use fretting over things I cannot control.  The bucket list item was a complete circumnavigation.  I've already been to about half of the ports, so that wasn't the big draw.  I'm confident the right choices will be made by those in control and that the ship will get back to Fort L on time.

 

If not, we'll have interesting stories to share during cocktail hours.

 

One port I really wanted to visit was Myanmar with a side overland trip to Bagan has been cancelled along with Israel are not happening on our Miami to Miami World Cruise.  As of today, the overland trip to Nepal is still on.  Really looking forward to that trip!

There may not be time to ever go to those missed ports plus the Black Sea but those I have cruised to in the past 30 years have been phenomenal.  How lucky am I!

35 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

If they can't transit the Red Sea, the decision will need to be made well in advance. If they wait until April, if using Cape of Good Hope, it is an additional 5,000 miles, which is 11 - 12 days continuous steaming.

 

Even if they stopped at ports for bunkers, the ships victuals would not be available, as they would be sitting in containers, at other ports.

 

The decision can also be forced on shipping lines by the Underwriters, who can significantly increase insurance rates in a War Zone and even cancel the policy.

All true.  I’m sure the cruise line will handle it.

We’ve already had three ports changed due to war and unsafe travel.  Go with the flow.

Our ship gets to the Red Sea in April.  We’ll see as we get closer.  The Captain and corporate will make the right decision when the time comes.

1 hour ago, zak477 said:

 In the lounge every night at 6:00 p.m. while the lounge is crowded and everyone is enjoying chatting and meeting people, these two start in and she is just plain screeching into the mike.  We even asked the GM to have the sound techs lower the volume on the speakers but they never did. 

We tried to find a lounge before dinner on Splendor last fall and started out in the Meridian Lounge.  It was great with a soloist (guitar or piano).  Then things changed and a five piece band came in and we weren't able to have conversations anymore.  We moved to the Coffee Connection or the chairs right outside the Meridian with our drinks or would go to the Observation Lounge.   We talked with someone in management, but no help.

I am watching now with a bubbly cocktail!

6 hours ago, mrlevin said:

No Christmas decorations on Grandeur until 14 December; Miami doesn’t want any Christmas decorations in any of the “Christening” photos. 

It's probably a good idea to wait until Grandeur gets to Miami.  Last fall on Splendor, the decorations were shipped and didn't make it to Barcelona before the Atlantic crossing, so no decorations were put up until after we got off in Miami on Dec. 2.  A production crew came onboard in San Juan and were disappointed they weren't able to get video of the directions being put up.   

My three tips:

1 Use a quality luxury travel agent. One who has cruised on the Regent ships and gives nice perks.  

2 Know which suite you want to book.  Quality travel agents know the deck below the pool will have scrapping noises in the morning and evening.  Moving the deck chairs.  The Navigator aft suites get a severe vibration.  Suites above the theatre and lounges can get music at nights.

3 Do you want to use Regent air, book a Concierge suite, or book a hotel room the night before boarding the ship?

21 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

We had it on Navigator last year (2022).  

Great you enjoyed the Gala Sunday Brunch.  They are not frequently offered on Navigator, Mariner or Voyager.

Just to let you know, the Sunday sea day brunch is on the 3 newest ships: Grandeur, Splendor, and Explorer.

Rarely on the other 3 ships.

1 hour ago, GeorgiaPeach51 said:

Ray!  So happy to see your post!  We did get your mail, which arrived shortly before we left on this trip, on the 27th, so I apologize for not replying, but will do so shortly.  Now, there you go…Crystal responded appropriately, while O just put their hands over their ears.  Shows that it is possible. 
 

two follow up notes…my sister and her husband, who had been told they would get their $11,000 in airfare applied to their next cruise, are still fighting with O over that issue.

 

Regarding the El Avenida Palace hotel…we were there three nights post-cruise.  The weather was unseasonably hot, up to 78-80.  We had specifically checked that they had ac, having had a few miserably hot experiences before we learned that lesson.  Turns out that they hav ac…until they don’t.  They refused to turn it on, and there were no fans.  However, there WAS ac in the breakfast room.  Hmmm.  We had a corner room with no hope of a breeze and boy, it was really uncomfortable.  Every day we would leave the room with the windows open and come back to it locked up tight and sweltering even after leaving requests to the contrary at the front desk.

 

So, we had to sleep with the windows open at night.  The first night I ended up with FOUR mosquito bites on my face!  After that I tried to sleep with the sheet over my head.  So, be warned!  We will not stay there again.  

 

 

Hi Joanie,

We had a similar experience in our 2018 Barcelona post cruise.  Apparently when the city turns off the air conditioning, it’s good for the season.  I remember the heat at night and we left the window open.  Not sure if it is still happening but Barcelona was working on their metro which they worked on at night.  
 

Between the heat and metro noise, it was a very unpleasant night.  I guess we were fortunate to only spend one night.

Beth

17 hours ago, leafsfancanada said:

Hi! Does anyone know which terminal Regent uses in San Juan? 

It’s right in town, easy walk to shops and restaurants.

5 minutes ago, jhenry1 said:

If our ship arrives in port at 6:00 am 2hat time will everyone be required to be off ship. Need to notify driver time to pick us up.

Most of the time, suites need to be vacated by 8:00am and many luggage color tags begin to be called.  Usually everyone is off the ship by 9:00am but some straggling passengers are on until 10:00am.