vlinbin

We had a PH suite near the bridge on our first Regent cruise (on the Mariner). It was a pleasant and quiet location.

In my review of the American Duchess I wrote the information that follows. I would assume the same would apply to the America Queen.

Excursions: One of the reasons we chose the AQSC cruise was the opportunity to view the ports via a HOHO bus. Our ages preclude long walks and standing for a long time listening to a tour guide. Instead the HOHO busses that followed the ship allowed one to see each community and get off according to one’s interests. The cruise line had prepaid admission to the key attractions in each community and one could hop off to see anything that appealed and get back on when a later bus arrived. (The busses circulated on a 15 or 20 minute schedule.) There was a guide on each bus who described special features of the port. The evening prior to the port stop, one was provided with the route of the bus with stops indicated. In addition, the map included information about the main attractions like museums, shopping stops, restaurants, restrooms, and almost anything else one might want to know. I should add that there are also premium (extra-cost) excursions which many people selected. Getting to and from the boat was easy as a golf cart would shuttle you up and down the often steep banks of the river.

If you admire something in the boutique, do not wait until the last day or two to purchase it. The boutique is very crowded at the end with everyone spending their OBC's and items are snapped up quickly.

Three years ago, I sent the following request to Mike Moore:

Mr. Moore,

We receive almost daily mailings from Regent and are continually distressed at the amount of postage and number of trees wasted on these mailings. We do like Regent but find all the information that we need online.

Please remove the following name from your list.

_____________________

I received a very nice response from Mike, and after just a few weeks, the brochures stopped.

I don't know if Mike Moore is still the person to contact, but he was very helpful at that time.

Do any of the Viking suites have more than one bathroom? Since that is our preference in selecting suites, that seemed to be a drawback of the Viking ships. Perhaps I overlooked them when reviewing the brochures.

Though we haven't been able to travel on Regent for the past two years, when we did cruise, the menus for Compass Rose and Setti-Mari were posted on the TV earlier in the day. Thus, you could make your decision about which restaurant to choose based on the menus. If you wanted the veal chop you could choose to eat in Setti-Mari on the day it was offered since no reservations are needed.

We earned Silver status on our first Regent voyage in 2011 (25 days from Lima to Buenos Aires) and since then have always been able to receive more than one log-in even when the benefit was upped to Gold. In essence we were "grandfathered" in. Each cruise since the change, we have just checked with the computer manager in the computer room, and received authorization.

Before our first Regent cruise on the Mariner in 2011, I asked for recommendations for passengers' favorite foods. I compiled a list and took it along on the cruise. I have just now reviewed that list thinking I might post it here. But, based on my reading of these boards and the menu changes to Compass Rose, things have changed quite a bit in the subsequent seven years.

Therefore, I will just say that the item that tops my memory is the salt sticks offered with dinner. I hope those are still available as I heartily recommend them. And, as it has been suggested that one find a waiter and stick to that section, the waiters quickly learned how much I loved those salt sticks and always put a few extras in the bread basket.

Concur with Barbarian Paul's statement "Is anyone else wondering how long this thread can possibly continue? I’m starting to feel like we’re on some kind of endless loop."

Fortunatelysome humor was introduced in posts 105 and 123.

Dulcie -- thank you for letting us know that the information was helpful. I hope you enjoy your trip as much as we did ours.

Dulcie -- sorry for the delay in responding to your question. I haven't checked this thread for awhile. Since the American Duchess is small there are not great distances between the suites and the venues like the theatre and the restaurants. And there are elevators at one end and also in the middle.

For the excursions, there was a golf cart available to escort you from the boat to the HOHO bus. I was concerned that there would be long Ines for the golf cart but we never had to wait.

We used the HOHO bus frequently -- often going on an early round to see what the sites were like. We then visited those sites that were of interest and relatively close to the bus stop. The only difficulty we encountered was the need to stand and wait for the HOHO bus after visiting the site since many locations did not have any benches. Had we thought about that in advance, we could have checked on our original round. The buses do run every 15 to 20 minutes, so even when we had to stand, the wait was not too long.

I hope this information helps.

The ships do not always have Code Red on the Lima to Buenos Aires segment. We went on the Mariner in 2011 and there was no Code Red.

Lois -- as you know I cannot compare the two steamboat lines having been only on the AQSC boat. But, I have done a European River cruise (on Tauck) from Paris (Lyon) to Monte Carlo. I far prefer the AQSC cruise due to the flexibility involved. The Tauck cruise seemed regimented -- everyone ate together in just one restaurant, all went on the same tours (though in small groups of about 30), and the choice of cabin styles was limited. Of course the ports in Europe were more interesting but that has nothing to do with the cruise company. When we went on bus tours of any length, all of the tour buses stopped at the rest stops at the same time-- making lines for the restrooms quite lengthy especially for those on the last bus to pull up.

DaveinCharlotte -- found your review very interesting. Having no experience with other cruises on US Rivers, the comparison with another line was very helpful.

What surprised me was that you were cold in many locations. I don't remember experiencing that anywhere, but I tend to dislike heat so maybe just didn't notice. The one time we tried to sit outside at the River Grill, Greenville was being infested with ladybugs. They were everywhere. Thus we quickly went back inside, but not due to the cold.

Thanks for the compliments about the review DaveinCharlotte. Look forward to reading your review.

My review has been posted at last. This is the link to the review that I was sent.

http://click.email.cruisecritic.com/?qs=d4e8d609fa5f897175d0e686a6df204976672fbd6cefd6e1acad2519c4a0f3ee43eb67f7aea089a0e596e0df949a7e6bef0e86271f7e89940c0485a786d0c658

And .. my interpretation of the five reviews per month mentioned in the response e-mail was not that only five are published per month, but that five are selected as special featured reviews.

I did receive a reply from Cruise Critic regarding the review I submitted about ten days ago. Apparently there is a large volume of submissions and many staff on vacation at the present time. Thus the reviews are taking longer than usual to post.

We were in a Seven Seas Suite Aft last year on the Mariner on a trip from Vancouver to Anchorage. We loved the suite but did have a problem with the deck when it rained. The water did not drain and to access the deck you had to walk through huge puddles. It was necessary for the housekeeper to mop it up each time it rained.

Glad to hear that you too enjoyed your cruise. I sent a message to Cruise Critic asking about my review and why it has not appeared. No answer yet.

If the review does not appear within a few more days, I believe I will just post it here. It bothers me that people will think there are problems with the American Duchess when, in fact, it is a lovely boat.

I submitted a review to Cruise Critic two or three days ago, but have not received any word that it has been posted. But since then, I keep getting e-mails about "deals" despite the fact I have unsubscribed from the e-mails.

We have now returned from our very pleasant cruise on the Duchess. I am in the process of writing a review and will post it on the reviews section of Cruise Critic. So far there are two lackluster reviews there, but mine will be far more positive.

Will probably not get a chance to finish the review for a day or two, and will post a note here when the review appears.

Thank you, sparty1, for following up. I am sorry to hear about your father's heart attack. I hope he is recovering nicely.

Our cruise is less than a week away and we are getting very excited. I hope to add another review about the American Duchess after we return from the trip.

Thank you sailingmickey for chiming in with answers to the questions.

If there is anybody else reading these boards who has recent experience on the Duchess, your comments and suggestions would be welcomed.

Sparty1 -- your very helpful replies are much appreciated. And, as I expected, I now have a few additional questions, generated by the arrival of our Cruise Documents.

1) The clothing section made it sound as if most men will be wearing jackets to dinner and to the entertainment venues. I am sure my husband would prefer a sweater to a jacket. Would he feel out of place?

2) We learned there are no laundry facilities onboard the boat. For the most part, they would not be necessary for a week-long cruise. But, are there any facilities in the suites for doing hand laundry, i.e. a line for hanging clothes should the need arise?

Also, just looked at the description of the Duchess accommodations and don't see a hair dryer listed with the amenities provided. It has been quite a while since I have packed a hair dryer, so I am wondering if a hair dryer is provided?

Thank you again for taking your time to answer these questions.