Techno123

Maybe he was a reincarnation of Charles Aznavour 😜

I think my opinion lines up more with yours than @njhorseman. Too much money has been lost by all of the cruise lines and having sailed both Regent and Seabourn last year, having an Oceania and Ss in the offing and reading all the boards on here corporate appears to be dictating and the quality of offering is definitely not on an upward trend! Doesn't stop me sailing but I have learnt to temper my expectations.

The problem is it's only Oceania in name, same as Regent is only Regent in name the people pulling the strings and dictating what happens onboard are the bean counters at NCLH 😢 - the same for SS and SB - the parent companies dictate the offerings and they have A LOT of money to make back.

@Bentley2018 that was pre Covid but it is very volatile over there at the moment 😢

We have an August Med cruise with 3 stops in Türkiye one of which is Antalya- I'm not holding my breath for that one unless things in that area change significantly over the next 3 months. With regards to Istanbul, things can flare up quite quickly in the big cities. We had a Seabourn cruise that was supposed to finish in Istanbul - there were riots and with less than a week to go before departure we were ending our cruise in Athens - that was fun rebooking flights in the middle of summer but better to know before we left.

It's possible as about 1 hour 30 mins each way on the train so you would need to leave Paris by 2:30 to be back for 4 - you would need to be very disciplined and either go for a brief overview of a few things or visit one or 2 things in more depth BUT the French can be very militant - the olympics will have finished the previous month and they are threatening to strike for that so I would check out an alternative return and the cost just in case.

@Cliff-FLL it happens on all the boards and the other site beginning with F that also has groups for each of the cruise lines is even worse 😱 I like to hear the good and the bad - if you go into a situation expecting amazing, anything less is going to be a disappointment 😁. The problem is, sometimes it starts to get a bit argumentative and unpleasant - everyone is entitled to their opinion even if it doesn't agree with your own.

If it doesn't impact on me, I don't care BUT 2 things that do impact on me are the people who don't wash their hands when leaving the restroom and then going to meals as they put me and others at risk of GI infections and sadly, @Kay S deck chair hogs. It is not acceptable to save chairs for hours (or have one in the sun and one in the shade) when others can't find anywhere to sit.

@Harters that is a perfect explanation - thank you 😁 I do remember the day when a grateful patient brought in a bag of 20 deniers American tan tights for us girls and black socks for the boys - they were very gratefully received 😁

At least no-one on here is advocating pre-tipping 😜 I do wonder why it is service staff who get tips and not other equally hard working and poorly paid staff? Having recently retired from teaching and having originally trained as a nurse I have been doing some shifts in my local hospital as a bank, health care assistant (nursing aid possible in the US) as our NHS is desperate for staff and I enjoy it - gets me out from under my husbands feet 😂. My salary is the princely sum of £11.62 ($14.49) per hour which is just slightly better than the National living wage. For me that's some pocket money but for my colleagues they are having to run homes and look after families and the tasks they perform are far less savoury than serving meals and wiping down tables 😜 Should my colleagues be standing by the door as the patient is discharged 'well you've been with us for 10 days at a gratuity rate of $18 dollars per day so that's $180 and I'm sure you would like to give me a bit extra as I have looked after you so well' 😂😂

Use the suite guru sticky at the very top of the Regent board - lots of info on specific suites from people who have sailed in them 😁

@Vallesan I am really sorry - I think this is my fault as I asked you to describe your bad experience. And to those that live in the States, most other countries do find your tipping culture discombobulating, particularly as many are not aware quite how poorly serving staff are paid in some states, however, the majority of us respect the culture, even though, as I said in a previous post I still think it is the responsibility of the employer to pay the staff a living wage. @Vineyard View hit the nail on the head when they described the increased expectations of staff in other countries that people from the US will be very generous tippers, that's fine, it's your money but unfortunately it has a negative impact for people who live there or are visiting from other countries as there is now a huge expectation on us to give the same level of gratuity - just ask an Aussie how annoying they find it 😜😜

I've never yet risked Ryanair 😂😂

@Vallesan maybe we just need to take some Vietnamese dong as it's acceptable to tip in other currencies 😂 Personally I would probably have taken the $5 back off him. I do understand that in some states the servers are paid a pittance (but not all) but my view is it's the company's job to pay its staff. If they do a great job then they get a bit extra - if they don't, they don't.

Last year there was one for Seabourn and one for Regent on my card - was too late for the Seabourn but both Mr T and I used our cards for the Regent one 😜

Oooh now that I have to hear 😁

Where is everyone getting the idea the UK is a no tip country? We do tip for good/excellent service but not just because the person providing the service turned up for work 😂 and in fairness, in the UK, US dollars aren't much use unless the person being tipped is planning to visit the US at some point. We can change them to pounds but it's a rubbish exchange rate. I will tip (for great service) in the currency of the country I am visiting UNLESS there are economic reasons not to when I tip in US dollars 😜

And don't leave it too late. We missed out the first time as we thought we would wait for the queue to die down then when we went back no spaces available so after that we queued 😂

@Harters. We find that living 'up north' definitely restricts our access to the cruise included flights. On the August cruise, flying into Nice and out of Athens from Manchester we would need to fly via Amsterdam or Paris with all the possibilities of our luggage not joining us. As it's Europe we've done our own thing with Sleazy and booked private transfers but, as you mentioned, we lose the abta bonding.

@Harters can you actually take your own bags to the ship in Miami? We have only sailed once from there and our bags were taken in a van from the hotel but in every other port we have sailed from we have got out of our taxi and dropped our cases off with the crew then taken carry on luggage onboard with us. To be honest I would rather lug my own luggage than be forced to tip in case my bags are held to ransom 😜😜. and re the tipping in the UK, I do actually still tip in restaurants if the service has been good and I still round up the taxi fare, but leaving from Heathrow, the card machine gave me the option to tip up to 20% 😱

@Harters - thank you. Yes we spotted that - have booked a Med 10 nighter on Vista in August under the new Simply More scheme - comes with a free bottle of factor 50 sun cream 😂😂

All of the staff work very hard and the ones at the greatest disadvantage in the 'let's throw money at the people who serve us' culture are those behind the scenes - if it wasn't for them, the people we see would not be able to do such a good job. I'm with @jonthomas as a Brit I find the whole, out of control tipping culture imported from the US very uncomfortable. I would much rather pay a higher price for my cruise (tips included) and know that ALL of the hard working staff are receiving a higher salary.😁

Not the duxelles I eat 😁

I used to hate beef wellington made with liver pate as the fillet just ended up tasting of liver (which I really don't like) and I wouldn't use foie gras for ethical reasons so I, for one, am very happy with the mushroom duxelle 😁

@cloVery similar to what I am planning to wear - I have a fairly large collection of Rocket Dogs in the wardrobe awaiting their first outing 😂😂