labonnevie

Mike, please take this suggestion under consideration. It is orders of magnitude better than 7am ET.

That happened to me this Saturday. No big deal, I just came back three hours later. I hope Regent realizes that 7 am is 4 am in the west! That is frankly unacceptable! Regent has a lot of customers in our time zone. A far better solution, and a better customer oriented one, would be to have the Regent IT people do their thing starting at midnight eastern time.

I think we all should be able to admit that we are wrong sometimes. Even I have to admit that I was recently wrong. It was when I thought I was wrong, but I wasn’t.

We had transport to Narita scheduled with Regent before we boarded, so if they had not offered the transport + excursion option we would just spent more time in the ANA lounge marveling at the beer dispenser! 354. Video the perfect pour.MP4

It works better than the older Regent pens as well!

I only wear a jacket on “formal optional “ nights. The tie depends on how I’m feeling and what my better half is wearing.

We disembarked Explorer in Tokyo this April and our flight left Narita at 5 pm. We tried to find an excursion/transport to the airport through Regent before we boarded. None were offered. Once on board, they did offer the transport/excursion option, I believe it was $79. The only stop on the way to Narita was at the Tokyo Tower, so the “excursion “ part was pretty minimal. But it filled the time and was enough for us.

One of the most memorable excursions in 25 years of cruising has to be the helicopter ride onto Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, just beautiful. But the hike once on the glacier was even better. We had crampons and and poles and could go up and down very steep terrain. It was on Regent, but I am sure it was extra cost, I have no idea how much. Whatever it was, it was worth twice that.

You’ll know the next night’s entertainment when you read the Passages before you go to bed. That should be enough time to decide whether you want to go to Sette Mari on any given night.

This is what we did recently on Explorer. Just plan it for a night when you don’t care about going to the show. Works well and the staff is less harried and can focus on you as eventually the restaurant is only about one third full.

As an experienced Regent cruiser, I know you know this, but for others in a similar situation, don’t assume you can’t get on a sold out excursion. Check with Destinations staff on board, there are often cancellations, even up to the last minute at the meeting place for the excursion, usually the theater.

In response to the OP, depending on the time of your excursion, you might find it more convenient and relaxing to have room service breakfast. Sitting on your veranda in the Caribbean is pretty nice.

Don’t know about AA, but we have flown to Maui on United every year for probably 15 years on miles. For September, award flights open in November. Unbelievably high miles. But by looking at flights in say June or July you can see the more reasonable award tickets. Then I just check every few days to see how the reasonable tickets are getting closer to our September trip, focusing on the day of the week we plan to go (Saturday). Day of the week makes a big difference. So it is really just a waiting game, and we have always gotten good flights at low award miles, this year from less than the old “saver” award miles. Patience and persistence wins. Best of luck.

When we arrived in Tokyo (Narita) in April, a Regent rep with sign met us outside baggage claim and escorted 5 of us who were all on the same flight to our bus. A bit of a walk in the rain and she moved pretty quickly. We were the last on a rather full bus for the hour drive to the Hilton. Check in was slow as you can imagine with a full bus. But it worked smoothly and we were glad we had the transfer.

OTOH we saved $1200 pp making our own business class reservations in April LAX to Tokyo.

SLSD, I second Sunprince. I have wondered for sometime why you don’t look at Regent. We have done 5 Seabourn and 10 Regent cruises, 4 Seabourn and 8 Regent before Covid. We have done other lines as well, but not SS. Prior to Covid we really had no preference between Seabourn and Regent. Since Covid, our experience with Seabourn has not been as good as with Regent. Our two post Covid Regent cruises were both on Explorer, which is slightly more glitzy than we like. However, the specialty restaurants are fabulous (of course no upcharge). And the dining room (Compass Rose) is exceptional featuring daily specials as well as everyday entrees that are very good. Additionally, you can request any meal in the CR, 24 hours in advance and they’ll do it! Business class air over the oceans is habit forming. And you’d love the free laundry which would make your carry on only strategy more doable. The clientele is very similar in our estimation, great people on both. Entertainment is equivalent in our estimation but we are not connoisseurs of entertainment. Lots of fun activities on board daily. I’ll stop selling, sorry! We also use the TA in Dallas for both Seabourn and Regent.

On one of our cruises, Rotterdam was the port for Amsterdam.

This clearly is a trend. I don’t know where it stands now, but last year Bar Harbor, Maine was proposing a limit of 1,000 cruise ship passengers a day. This in contrast to 270,000+ the previous season. They also require ships to tender from a location out of view of the main area of town.

Jealous, just jealous!

We have 10 cruises on Regent and have never been bothered by kids, can’t say the same for older passengers!

We saw the Voyager on the TDF tv coverage and thought it strange that no one on CC mentioned it. It would have been very exciting for me to have seen. When did you know you would be in Bordeaux the same day as the TDF?

Elegant! For sure!

Do you think I could get the PR mushroom soup and lobster tempura on the Navigator this November? Yum…

I think it is a good idea to research tipping customs in the countries we visit. Not everywhere has the same tipping mentality as in the US, where imho it has gone way overboard. Our recent trip around Japan is a great example. Only for something truly exceptional did I feel tipping was even acceptable. In some countries meal prices are considered to include “service “ or the tip. I don’t think we should feel the need to impose our cultural norms on other countries. That is not to say that I have any difficulty tipping generously when and where appropriate.

Best to check the Roll Call section.