rkaratsu

Yup, the only time the mashup of my first and middle names seemed to make a difference was when trying to log into the ANA website to check on a seat assignment. (I had to use the weird mashup of my first and middle names...) Otherwise, on other recent flights, when checking in no problems..

Thank you so much for this Flossie. We are going to Japan in October of this year (doing the "Vibrant Tokyo" pre-tour) and absolutely cannot wait (your travelogue only made the wait harder!) (And yes, that certain American chicken fast food chain has indeed somehow hijacked Christmas in Japan. As the article mentioned, the significance of Christmas in Japan is not like it is in many other countries but even then, my ancestors would be turning over in their graves! At least make it chicken karaage... 😀 )

When I was on the Explorer in January, when talking to the IT guy, he was making all kinds of excuses about why Starlink wouldn't necessarily work in certain areas that Regent cruises, yada, yada, yada (and Regent doesn't even have Starlink yet!) How about a friendly wager? If Regent has Starlink on *any* of its ships by the end of 2023, I'll buy you a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue. (If not, I'll take an equivalent Cabernet...)

In the Veranda buffet for lunch (I think it was the themed Italian lunch): Porchetta! Crispy pork skin, lovely (fatty) pork belly. Totally not good for you (fortunately, you can only eat a bites of it) but my goodness, I am salivating right now just thinking about it... 😀 Actually, the Indian meal we requested was also *really* good. (My wife is Indian and talked with butler about what would be good and it was pretty obvious that the kitchen put a lot of thought into what was served).

Yes, food (like music) is really a personal preference but I thought the Alaskan "crab" and avocado appetizer in the Compass Rose was baaad. (Whatever was in this, it wasn't crab! Will chalk this up to supply chain issues.) And not a fan of the hamburgers at the Pool Grill. (I think the burgers need a higher ratio of fat to meat (75/25%?...) rather than whatever they are now).

I was on the previous AKL - SYD leg of this Explorer jaunt and I found your review to be *SPOT ON*. Your comments regarding things like the ship, cabin, service, Pacific Rim, entertainment, TV (ha ha!) etc. really echo what my wife and I experienced and did a nice job of summing up what it is currently like to cruise on Regent. And although you did different shore excursion, our overall impression of Regent short excursions (and the shore ex staff) on our cruise was pretty similar. More than anything, I think this is the weak link in the Regent experience. (FREE, UNLIMITED! Yeah, cool but if they are not any good, you shouldn't trumpet this so loudly...) Thanks for your review!

If you do not go to the Sagrada Familia, I found the Picasso Museum to be well worth a visit. The market at the foot of Las Ramblas (La Boqueria) is amazing. And if you are a football (soccer) fan, there are tours of Camp Nou, the home of Barcelona FC. But bottom line is that I believe Barcelona is worth a 2-3 day visit in and of itself!

As someone who was on this cruise, I will throw in my two cents. First of all, I was really disappointed that we could not go through the Milford Sound. And like others have said, Regent never communicated why the stop in Tasmania was missed (bad on Regent). But something I have not seen are any comments on the actual shipboard experience on this cruise. Having cruised both pre and post-COVID on Regent, I thought the service on this voyage was excellent, what I would expect from Regent. Our cabin steward and his assistant (is this something new? I don't remember having two people assigned to a cabin before) and butler were simply flawless. I also thought the service in La Veranda and the specialty restaurants were very good, again on par with any previous Regent cruise I have taken. I will say that I found the service in Compass Rose to at times be a bit slow (and for one breakfast (the caviar one), rather chaotic but from what the head waiter said to me, they were still having some staffing shortages and it seemed to affect Compass Rose more than the other restaurants. The food was also what I remember from other Regent cruises (overall very good!) Pacific Rim remains my favorite restaurant. The absolute best thing I ate was porchetta served at lunch in La Veranda. (It is basically crispy pork skin rolled around pork fat but my goodness, it was addictive!) I still have real issues with the steak served on Regent (I seriously doubt that the "prime" steaks in Prime7 are actually prime; I'd pay a supplement for A5 wagyu) and *real* crab meat seemed to be in short supply). As far as missed ports, I personally agree with what @papaflamingo said in that getting on a bus for a two-three hour round trip only to see someplace for a couple of hours isn't really my idea of seeing somewhere. (Having said this, I believe the Milford Sound *was* meant to be seen from a ship, hence my disappointment at missing this). Much of the rest of the cruise experience I guess would be left to personal taste. I personally am not crazy about the entertainment on Regent (I am 68 years old but it seems like the target demographic is maybe ten years older (?...) I think the culinary kitchen is really fun and well worth the expense. The backstage theater tour was most interesting. And oh yeah, the wifi is for the most part still awful/unusable. Do I want a 100% refund for this cruise? No. (I saw in another post that 30% of people on board signed a petition asking for a refund. Does this mean that 70% of the people don't?...) IMO, the 25% refund + the $500 p/p OBC credits + 30% future cruise cruise = around a 60% discount on this cruise. Even with all of the missed ports, I still believe that was enough value here. (My math is saying that I paid around 40% of the original fare for what I got.) Bottom line is that I am going to say that this cruise was a bit of an anomaly as far as missing so many ports. (The people on the previous cruise definitely had reason to demand a 100% refund). The fact that I was on this one (as were many others on this thread) doesn't make things better but at the same time, I still have another Regent cruise booked in October for Tokyo (which I am looking forward to!) so we'll see how this goes...

Oh my, I truly feel for you. No more complaining from me about whatever else might happen on this cruise! Take care! 😀

While whining to the IT guy here on the Explorer about the wifi, I asked about the future of Starlink. He said it was being tested on 6 NCL ships but also said that Starlink had limitations (and many places the Explorer goes wouldn't be in Starlink coverage). Personally, it seemed like he was already in CYA mode before Starlink even gets to Regent... 🤔 (This message was created hassle-free in the Port Chalmers cruise terminal that has *fast*, free wifi. No wonder there are tons of crew in here...)

Currently on the Explorer (NZ) and all four wildcard weekend games were shown live in our cabins, live in the Explorer Lounge and then each game was replayed once. I don't know if Regent did this because we missed a number of ports but bottom line is that the technology is definitely there if they choose to do so. (They do have to pay some kind of licensing right to broadcast).

Tru dat. Currently on the Explorer and wifi is as pokey and inconsistent as ever. Best use of the binoculars is to use them to wedge cabin door open. If you do this when in port (and people are getting off of the ship) then things like email and connecting to Wordle are possible...

No Wellington. Was told we will be docking instead in Gisborne 😪. (Apparently, this is closest port to where we currently are). TBH, I'm not holding my breath for Gisborne to happen but we'll see how things evolve. At this point, I'd say the entire remaining NZ itinerary is up in the air.

Opus One might now be in my future... But agreed, a bit bummed to miss Napier. Hoping that's it!

I am also on this cruise and like Lonedaddy said, the ship is looking great and the crew are doing their job to the Regent standard I remember. Had the miso black cod (perhaps my favorite meal that Regent does) last night in Pacific Rim and it was yummy! (And maybe a pro tip to those new to Regent: If you go to Compass Rose and there is a wait, the maitre'd will either ask you if you want to join a table or wait but I asked if any of the specialty restaurants had anything open. He called Pacific Rim and voila, table for two! Another time, got a table at Prime 7. Particularly on the first night, it seems like Compass Rose gets backed up around 8pm). And TBH, if someone asked me if I would take a $250 p/p OBC to skip the Bay of Islands, I'd jump at it. Particularly after looking at the fancy wine list, there are some *real* bargains to be had. (Not that my wife would let me but a 2016 Opus One is $495; Offhand, I think one would be hard pressed to find this retail for this). Off course, I will start getting grumpy if any more ports are missed. (Really looking forward to Rotorua). But in the meantime, I guess going to make lemons into limoncello... 😀

I recently had a "why Regent?" cruise conversation with my sister (who thought compared to most other cruise lines, Regent was pricey. And for once, I might have to admit my sister was right! 😀) But I basically broke things down for her from an economic point of view. I figured that a typical Regent is about $1K a day p/p. (The three times we have cruised on Regent, it has been in a P3 suite). I'd say that the cabin has a value of $250 p/p a day (I really do think that it is comparable to a nice 5 star suite on land), $200 p/p a day for food/drink (emphasis on the latter...), $50 a day for the "free" tours and some kind of value for the wifi and the laundry service. (We probably should take better advantage of this!) The above doesn't come close to $1K p/p day but I have personally found that by taking advantage of the Regent air credit (we are fortunate in that we fly out of LAX and flying west (i.e. Asia, NZ/AUS), we can save quite a bit. (By combining the air credit with credit card points, we pretty got a 2-for1 deal on our recent flights. And we have talked to some who have used the air credit to fly Premium Economy (maybe 20 years I might have considered this) and their savings were even more substantial). Plus with things like the occasional "free" three day pre-cruise package (we got this for our upcoming cruise to Japan) and the one-night hotel for concierge and up, things start to look even more economical! Well maybe not. But my wife and I are not the type who want Broadway production shows or 21 different restaurant choices or a rock wall when we cruise. At least for use, until proven otherwise, we believe that the Regent product delivers the value that we pay for. (And as an extra bonus, like another previous poster mentioned, we have met some pretty great people on Regent!) Of course, YMMV...

We recently booked our air to Japan for our cruise in October 2023. We fly out of LAX so with the (IMO) generous air credit from Regent, it made (economic) sense to take the credit and book our own flights. There are any number of direct JAL, ANA and/or United business class options (all around $4.3K return) into Haneda. (Seems much more convenient to get into Tokyo from there rather than Narita. I did consider Singapore Airlines (this flight was also under $5K return but it flew into Narita, not Haneda.) It might be worthwhile for you to look into booking your own flight, first flying into LAX from your home base. With the $7K credit, you should be able to save quite a bit (particularly if you also use some points). Only thing I am not sure of is how much it might cost getting from VA (would you fly out of DC?) to LAX. Hope this helps!

I personally found Casablanca to be rather meh. Everything was relatively new (including the Hassan II mosque) and just not that interesting compared to Marrakech. (And Rick's Cafe was a creation on a Warner Brothers sound studio! The one is Casablanca is a facsimile.) But like others, I never felt hassled in Casablanca (unlike in Marrakech!) and unlike the maze that are the souks in Marrakech, getting hopelessly lost in Casablanca shouldn't be an issue either.

I like the way you think! 😀 (I will definitely try this on our upcoming cruise!) And for those of you who have requested something "off the menu", what would you recommend? I have requested a couple of different Indian meals (both outstanding) and a Filipino one (good) but anything else I should consider?... TIA!

Thank you but until we can put a few balls into the net, it is a bit difficult to actually win (which is what we need). According to my calculations, if you beat your neighbors to the east and we draw (once again) with Iran, you and Engerland (hope this term isn't anything too profane!) probably move on to the knockout round (due to goal difference which is something I really don't understand). I guess everything becomes more clear on Tuesday... 😀

Unfortunately, I suspect that your team will make it to the knockout round (at the expense of my team! 😂) But may the best team prevail! (We'll probably know better after tomorrow's match!)

Something else that you could possibly try is go to the roll call for this cruise and ask there about the shore excursion availability. I'm pretty sure that some kind soul there would be willing to see what was available. (Maybe pick your top two or three things you want to do and start with those. If I were on a roll call and a request like this came in, I would help!)

And seriously, I wouldn't undersell Compass Rose or Sette Mari (which are always available without reservation). You definitely should try all of the specialty restaurants but at least for me, for one, once per voyage is enough... 😀

One thing I might suggest is not trying to "beat the crowds" but rather just roll into the port around 2pm or so. Yes, you will not be able to have lunch on board but there shouldn't be any lines to check in (and I suspect you will still be able to find something to eat in the Coffee Connection. Otherwise, just have a big breakfast/lunch at your hotel! 😀)

We stayed here before our cruise in February. Our flight arrived in the evening (around 8pm IIRC) so we just ate at the bar (which has a full menu (see previous post) and was more than adequate). But if you get in earlier, within a five minute walk there are a bunch of outdoor cafes. Most looked pretty touristy but there was a good variety of different kinds of cuisines to choose from. For a pre-cruise hotel, it was fine (although others on our cruise were put up at the Intercontinental and/or the Mandarin Oriental which would probably have been preferable). The one thing I would do again if I stayed here would have been to just take a Lyft or Uber to the cruise terminal; the Regent shuttle was pretty crowded and not terribly well-organized. Enjoy your cruise!