Voyager / MIA Qs

Hello, everyone! We haven't sailed on Regent in more than a decade, and never on Voyager, so I'm asking for the benefit of your experience.

Voyager is scheduled to dock in Miami at 7am on a Monday, and Cruisecal.com shows no other ships in port that day. What is the earliest reasonable (i.e. a nice breakfast and no crazy rushing) time to be checking in at MIA? Is self-disembarkation an option? Taxis generally available? How long do ship's transfers generally take in Miami?

Is Voyager close cousin to Mariner? About how deep is the pool? What kinds of fitness classes are likely be offered on a 10 day Caribbean itinerary?

Thanks, all.

Welome back to Regent and to the Regent board!

Yes - the Voyager and Mariner are sister ships but are quite different. The Mariner was built first and two years later came the Voyager. Some of us that love the Voyager believe that they built the Mariner ...... and decided what to do better and built the Voyager. The Voyager has larger regular suites than the Mariner and the Mariner has more public spaces than the Voyager.

As you likely know, the Voyager has an aft vibration which bothers some people so we do not recommend booking an aft suite unless you are fairly sure that the vibration (which is not continuous) would not bother you.

In terms of embarkation, unless you are in a top suite, you an board the ship at noon (assuming that there are no inspections going on in Miami that could delay embarkation. It can get quite crowded between 11:00 a.m. and noon as people begin waiting to embark. Some passengers wait a while and embark later in the afternoon when there are less people.

If you are in a concierge or above suite you will may decide to stay in the included Regent hotel and they will provide bus transportation to the ship but you will be involved with some crowds.

Self debarkation is not available in Miami due to their rules. Every piece of luggage has to be removed from the ship before any passengers can debark. Miami has a labor union that dock workers belong to and sometimes it can take a while for all of the luggage to get off of the ship (sometimes until after 9:00 a.m.).

The bottom line is that Miami is not one of the easiest ports to deal with -- not for the cruise lines and not for passengers. However, once you get onto the lovely Voyager you will have a great time.

Hello, everyone! We haven't sailed on Regent in more than a decade, and never on Voyager, so I'm asking for the benefit of your experience.

 

Voyager is scheduled to dock in Miami at 7am on a Monday, and Cruisecal.com shows no other ships in port that day. What is the earliest reasonable (i.e. a nice breakfast and no crazy rushing) time to be checking in at MIA? Is self-disembarkation an option? Taxis generally available? How long do ship's transfers generally take in Miami?

 

Is Voyager close cousin to Mariner? About how deep is the pool? What kinds of fitness classes are likely be offered on a 10 day Caribbean itinerary?

 

Thanks, all.

To answer your disembarkation question, yes, Miami union rules are extremely restrictive and generally delay disembarkation. Strongly recommend not taking the ships transfer. The price could be 4 to 5 times higher than a taxi. Should be plenty of taxis and believe the fixed price to MIA is about $27. Only about 15 to 20 minutes to the airport without any traffic.

That said, there are so possible delays that would not book a flight before noon at the earliest. If things go perfectly you might be at the airport by 9 to 9:30 but, it is a business day and the end of rush hour. Taking an early flight can be stressful. Enjoy your last day of vacation. An example, we arrived at Miami at 6 AM. Had a 1:30 flight and began to get worried when colors to disembark were delayed, no reason provided. Our color was finally called at 10:30, no joking. We missed rush hour and taxis were easy to find. Got to the airport by 11:30 and long lines for security but, we made our flight.

No way to provide a definitive answer as anything can and sometimes does occur to delay you.

If you are in a concierge or above suite, your Regent transportation is included - both to the hotel from the airport and the hotel to the ship and then back to the airport.

Taxi's are plentiful but there could be a wait - depending upon when you disembark. In terms of when they call your color to disembark - it is based on your flight time. If you are doing your own transportation, you can ask to disembark as soon as the ship is cleared (which we have done -- have to wait at the front of the line for a while but you do get off before hundreds of other passengers). Last time we were off of the ship at 9:10 a.m. and arrived at the airport at 9:30 a.m. but I would not book a flight before noon.

Second the motion as to anticipating "issues" when debarking at Miami. I went into excruciating detail on this aspect on another Thread, many pages ago, based on our May-June, 2017 Navigator Miami-Amazon River-Miami cruise.

Do NOT schedule any departing flight home from, for sure, the Miami, and probably nearby Ft. Lauderdale Airports prior to 1300H. No matter what your "Color Code" might be for early departure from the ship; more likely that you wait, and wait, for Port Clearance announcement. That can be very-unnerving. Reasons have been detailed on earlier Thread messages. NOTHING of a human kind gets off that vessel until all baggage has been offloaded, and the ship "cleared" by Port authorities.

Briefly: We had arranged, through our TA, a scheduled, private car transfer from ship to Miami Airport. This was based on being advised our Code time would allow exit from ship by 0915H. That should have allowed time for a visit to the United Lounge before boarding a 1245H N/S back to Seattle. That time came, and went, and went. We did not get off Navigator until nearly 1100H. You can imagine the back-up. Color Codes went out the window; every person for him/herself scrambling off the ship; recovering baggage; obtaining assistance; and moving to the departure area. By that time, we had canceled to private car transfer. Fortunately, plenty of taxis were available. Our driver, advised of the tight timeline, for-sure, exceeded the speed limit getting us to the Airport. He also flagged down a local "expediter" to assist in baggage transfer, movement through the Terminal, getting our luggage checked in; and to Security.

No time for Lounge. Straight to the Gate for immediate boarding. Not a relaxing way to end a pleasant trip. Based on our prior cruising experiences, "stuff" can happen at any point, from leaving one's home; to return. We use the past as prologue and a lesson-learned. That is why our next already-scheduled Regent cruise which will end in Miami will take the prior experience into account. We are staying an extra day at a local hotel. This will allow a leisurely transfer to airport the next morning for a N/S back to home base.

GOARMY!

If you are in a concierge or above suite, your Regent transportation is included - both to the hotel from the airport and the hotel to the ship and then back to the airport.

 

Didn't know that transportation back to the airport is included with concierge booking. Are you sure? Didn't find it on Regent website but may have missed it.

free transportation to airport only if using regent air

no different for concierge unless recent change

free transportation to airport only if using regent air

no different for concierge unless recent change

There has been no change but unless you are concierge or above transportation is provided if you arrive on the day of embarkation. Concierge and above includes the pre-cruise hotel and transportation. As you noted, in both cases you need to use Regent air.

Another huge benefit of having Regent air is in case of a problem. Hopefully there will not be a problem with the ship or itinerary - it has not occurred in a long time but if there is, Regent takes care of rebooking flights for passengers that have Regent air first. While we do not use Regent air domestically, we try to book Regent Air as much as we can (even though we no longer require transportation since we are Titanium) and always deviate.

Thanks for all your good info! Going to see what magic I can work with Delta.