Dallasgal

SS told us it was Lisbon to Barcelona. With stops at Funchal, 2 stops Canary Islands, Casablanca, Cadiz, Malorca

We  flew  both ways non stop DFW-NRT this year on American Airlines, the key is we were the 1st call to Regent Air, on the very 1st day that air deviation opened. The seats were very limited in Business Class.

We love the F1 & F2 Cabins on the Explorer, but miss the illy machines that are in the Concierges Suite and above. Has any one ever requested one from their room steward?

John,

I changed from the pre tour to post tour last month because we wanted the 10:40 am direct return from Tokyo vs the 6:30 pm. But we are using the 1 day pre hotel.

You must have been right before us on the air booking as we got the last available one out of Dallas to Tokyo for the pretour timing. We agree that the Regent air deviation dept was very helpful on this one. We also use a TA but we sometimes like talking direct on the air arrangements.

Best,

John

I also want to thank the Regent Air Dept for being so gracious when I call prior to the deviation date to ask questions. I just deviated this morning for our Japan trip next spring and got my "wish" flights. FYI, I do use an agent, but she lets Regent know that I can make modifications and flights, which I so appreciate. You need to be flexible,

FYI....the New Culinary classes were uploaded today for the fall Explorer trips....at least for our Oct 7 cruise.

Dallasgal,

 

Thank you for your interest in our culinary classes aboard Seven Seas Explorer.

 

Culinary Arts Kitchen classes have been developed for voyages through mid-September 2017 only at this time or basically through the end of the 2018 Baltic season right now.

 

Chef Kelly is currently working on developing the curriculum for the Fall Mediterranean season as well as for the Winter 2019/20 season. I suspect there will be some new options to enjoy, so please stay tuned. Look for more details to be released later in May.

Thank you Jason!

We're booked on the Feb. 1, 2019 BA to Santiago cruise. After attending and enjoying 2 classes on a previous cruise, I searched the website for a clue as to when I might book classes on the future voyage. Didn't find anything, so called Regent. The rep said the culinary bookings would open on the same date as shore excursions. In our case this would be 240 days prior to sailing.

Update: we booked our Oct 7 excursions last night, but the culinary classes were not loaded. I called Regent this morning and the rep said the classes haven't been decided yet and to keep checking weekly! I wish I had Chef Kelly's email.

Hi Dallasgal,

Noticed you are sailing on the Explorer on October 7. It must be the Rome to Venice itinerary.

My DH and I are also on that cruise. This will be our first time sailing on Regent. I need to book our

excursions on Feb. 9 and I am a bit worried because it sounds like a difficult thing to do and that you need to start this process at midnight, is this correct?? Any advice would be much appreciated.

We are on Oct 7. My advise is to look at the excursions prior to Feb 9th and write down the one's you want to book, I usually have 1 or 2 choices. The ship is pretty open still so I know we will be fine getting our choices unless there are alot of people staying on for the previous cruise. We live in Texas so I usually stay up and book them when it opens at 11pm central time, but I'm sure the morning will be fine. My suggestion is to look at the times each tour is and the length of time the tour is. We aren't fond of a long bus ride so we avoid those trip.

Cheryl

Thanks for your post. This is our 3rd sailing on the Explorer. We enjoyed the Gone Fishin & French classes. We we're lucky to have worked with both Chef Kelly and Chef Brenda. The onshore market tours and cooking demo's with the Chefs were also a treat.

Cheryl

I noticed that the Culinary Classes were not uploaded to book, for our Explorer Oct 7 sailing like they had been the last couple of sailings. I called Regent reservations and a nice young man said he would check into it and get back to me(I'm booked through an agent).

I got a call back within a few hours and he told me that the Explorer classes will not be uploaded online until 4-5 months prior to sailing. To me this is an issue since we get to book our other excursions Feb 9th. Maybe Chef Kelly is changing the classes and that is why its delayed.

We just got off Explorer in Rome, good week. Lots of first timers were onboard. We had trouble with the balcony door not locking and whistling the 1st day, but found that if you lift the handle up first, then push it down it will lock in place.

We have done 10 trips with Tauck, they are top notch, almost everything is included just like Regent. We did Danube Reflections in May on the Savor river boat and it was excellent.

Has anyone taken the Chef Market/Master chef tours in Valencia, Portofino, Provence or Livorno.

Scott, thanks for the added points. Like you, we having enjoyed some of the special AMEX shore excursions on Regent. The Galley tour on the Explorer was more of a "walk through" with the Chef. The tour we had on the Voyager was more in depth, the chef had us sample food in different sections.

Since we are foodie's we loved the Cooking Classes on the Explorer!

I was just curious to see if there were any advantages I was missing. The galley tours are fun to see once. We have been on all the ships except for the Navigator which we are doing the LISBON-NYC crossing in Oct.

Does anyone have an opinion of which benefit is better option, (wish we could have both.) Both are either $300 shipboard credit, or Virtuoso gives option to have a shore excursion instead of $300 OBC. I know AMEX sometimes includes a Galley tour.