Regent Air: Nonstop?

[blue whale]

We like non-stops when flying. When Regent books air, in general if non-stop flights are available, does Regent book the nonstop?

 

We are taking the Circle South America in 2012, and will have to fly from Newark, New Jersey, to Lauderdale to get the ship. There are lots of non-stops, and we could book our own. But if Regent were to give us a non-stop flight, we would go the easy way and let them do it for us.

 

What have your experiences been with Regent booking the air?

[mrlevin]

If they don't put you on a non-stop, just have your TA put in for a deviation and pay the $100 and get on flight you want.

 

If you are taking the whole trip, doesn't Regent give you first class? I, personally, would take the $1000 per person credit (if it still exists) and book my own air for a few hundred bucks. But then again, I am cheap. ;)

[Responder]

We like non-stops when flying. When Regent books air, in general if non-stop flights are available, does Regent book the nonstop?

 

We are taking the Circle South America in 2012, and will have to fly from Newark, New Jersey, to Lauderdale to get the ship. There are lots of non-stops, and we could book our own. But if Regent were to give us a non-stop flight, we would go the easy way and let them do it for us.

 

What have your experiences been with Regent booking the air?

 

Newark to FLL is easy....that's where you want to be to board in Port Everglades. 5 minutes from the airport.

 

I think it would be silly for them to route you any other way.

[blue whale]

Yes, Regent includes first class air, but to buy first class would cost more than 1000 per person.

 

We could buy economy ourselves and use frequent flyer miles to upgrade. Probably that is what we should do. As you say Mrlevin, we could save 1000 dollars and use it to buy the better tours.That isn't being cheap; it is being practical

 

Thank you, BW

[cwn]

Yes, Regent includes first class air, but to buy first class would cost more than 1000 per person.

 

We could buy economy ourselves and use frequent flyer miles to upgrade. Probably that is what we should do. As you say Mrlevin, we could save 1000 dollars and use it to buy the better tours.That isn't being cheap; it is being practical

 

Thank you, BW

 

This year the credit for not taking the air on the SA cruise was $800pp. It was for 1st class air. I don't know how it will be in 2012, but this year if we didn't take the air we couldn't get the free luggage shipping. That was important to us so we took the whole deal. Also the transfers were part of the air also.

[blue whale]

The included luggage is an important perk. We will check this out before making a decision. Also 800 credit (rather than 1000) is a factor.

 

Thank you for the input, cwn. On your SA cruise did you do any of the Regent tours? If so, were there some that were great? some we should avoid? My husband cannot do tours that require very long treks, which will restrict us to some extent.

 

Blue Whale

 

PS Our agent tells us that Regent is giving us no shipboard credit. That seems strange. Did you get such credit?

[cwn]

The included luggage is an important perk. We will check this out before making a decision. Also 800 credit (rather than 1000) is a factor.

 

Thank you for the input, cwn. On your SA cruise did you do any of the Regent tours? If so, were there some that were great? some we should avoid? My husband cannot do tours that require very long treks, which will restrict us to some extent.

 

Blue Whale

 

PS Our agent tells us that Regent is giving us no shipboard credit. That seems strange. Did you get such credit?

 

Hi,

 

By the time we figured up what it would cost us to ship the luggage ourselves and pay for the air fare and transfers, it wasn't worth the hassle for the small amount we would save. We wound up with 8 pieces of luggage, so I was glad for the the Regent package!

 

We got a small amount of OBC from Regent, but the bulk of ours came from our TA. That was good since, any left was able to be refunded directly to us at the end of the cruise. It paid for the extra tours and the laundry

 

We took full advantage of the Regent tours. We spent about a $1000 on the extra cost ones. They were better than the free ones...mainly because they didn't pack the buses at the last minute.

 

I can walk short distances with out a cane, but use walking sticks on the tours...less tiring than a cane and more stability on uneven surfaces for me. I can't handle stairs. The description of the tours is good as far as walking distances and steps are concerned. I did do two shorter walking tours. I was very slow, but there was always one or two others taking advantage of my slow pace to get their pictures and the host usually stayed back with us. DH did tell them just to leave us and we would take a taxi back to the dock...he doesn't like to be herded, but we were never left

 

I wouldn't mess with tours in Pisco..long hot and boring! Enjoy the ship!

 

One of our favorites, for just the fun of it, was the dune buggy ride in Fortaleza. Very easy and lots of fun, plus it ends with a very good craft market if you are in to laces and tatting. We bought some beautiful work there.

 

Do book as early as you can because there were a few ports that only had one or two tours and they booked up and people didn't get on the tour peroid. FYI another tour problem we had was canceled tours just before and during the cruise. A couple of times we lost a tour and the others that appealed as replacements were booked up.

 

Read back through our blog for descriptions of the tours we did....walking and stairs were always a consideration for me. Most of the tours were good...some were overly long and a couple of times they didn't do what the tour said. We wrote those up and hopefully that will be fixed. We got really tired of the buses, the constant talking and canceled a few just because we couldn't face another bus.

[C_Worthy]

My wife and I are booked on a RSS cruise in the Med this summer, and our travel agent told us that 1st class is only available for the higher priced suites and penthouses. He also said the bagge service was not included. Based on the posts here, it seems that our TA is misguided. Am I wrong?

[ededmd]

My wife and I are booked on a RSS cruise in the Med this summer, and our travel agent told us that 1st class is only available for the higher priced suites and penthouses. He also said the bagge service was not included. Based on the posts here, it seems that our TA is misguided. Am I wrong?

 

Two different cruise types.

 

The 2012 Circle South America cruise is 72 nights long and includes for the full voyage among other perks:

• FREE Roundtrip First Class Air

• FREE Roundtrip luggage delivery service for four bags up to 200 pounds per person*

 

 

Your cruise would not include luggage service and would include BUSINESS class air if in a penthouse or higher or the opportunity for the first two guests in a suite to upgrade at a likely reduced cost:

Regent Seven Seas Cruises provides guests with the opportunity to upgrade to Business Class from as little as $999 each way on the following voyages, while guests in a Penthouse Suite and higher on the Europe cruises below receive a FREE Business Class upgrade*.

[blue whale]

Hi, CWN,

 

Thank you for your lengthy response. We will follow your advice and book tours early and take the dune buggy in Fortaleza.

 

My husband also uses a walking stick, but when he is highly motivated to see the sights, he really moves it along.

 

We figure we will take some of the extra-cost tours, and have factored in about 1000 dollars for them. Given what you have said, we may up that some.

 

Since we have done SA twice, once with HAL and once with Regent, we have been to many of the prime sites, and will use the tours to fill in the gaps.

 

We will follow your advice about the air, and stick to Regent's.

 

Thanks, again!

 

PS Did you get a nonstop flight from Regent?

[cwn]

Sounds like your husband and I operate the same way!

 

Yes we did have a none stop flight, but we had to do the deviation. There are only 4 flights a day from our area to FtL and they would not assure us a non stop since the planes had very small 1st class sections. Jan can be iffy flying through Atlanta. We took the deviation early on and then went a day early just to be sure there were no problems.

 

Actually were glad we did. The TA made arrangements for the first night at the Ritz at a great B&B rate then we just stayed in the same room for Regents "free" night. Worked like a charm (the weather that week in Atlanta was terrible) and we started the cruise in a very relaxed mode!

 

Have a good cruise!

[blue whale]

With my husband's walking problems, we avoid flight changes. And Atlanta is a large airport to navigate if one is required to change flights there.

 

There are lots of non-stops from our home airport to Lauderdale; hopefully we will get one. If not, we will spring for the deviation. We will move to the platinum level on this cruise, but Regent credits that level only when one has boarded the ship. So we get the included laundry for the entire cruise, but not the deviation.

 

Somehow, I lost the "address" of your blog for SA. Could you post it here for me?

 

Although the social interactions afforded by CC are important once we arrive on the ship, the knowledge we get beforehand from CCers is so helpful

Thank you.

[cwn]

Hi Blue Whale,

 

No problem, hope it helps with the tours....

[cwn]

Sorry I had a little problem!

 

The address is

 

www.circlesouthamerica2011.blogspot.com

[blue whale]

Thank you for the information. I have begun to review the info on your blog.

[schub229]

cwn, I've just read through your SA 2011 blog and thought it was one of the best I've read-both in content and the photos-fantastic!! We've signed up for Regent 2012 Lima to Buenos Aires. We just came back from an Auckland, NZ to Singapore 31 day cruise on Crystal Serenity, but have taken 7 earlier trips on Regent-the last being 3 years ago. We really want to go on the SA cruise, but have some reservations about the "new" Regent, which perhaps you could answer for us-or anyone else can chime in to answer: We weren't happy to read that a number of the buses weren't air conditioned-were those mostly the free tours and did the $$ tours step up the comfort factor- and sounds like the free tours need more guidance? We've never been to SA so we'll be interested in doing something in almost every port.

The food-we've always raved about the food, especially to people on this Crystal cruise we just took-as the food there was outstanding! Have read that the "old" Regent food was better, tours better, staff took time to learn and use your names, etc. Now there's the controversy of the "concierge" level, which people seem to be upset about. We're still silver level, but will be on PH level of Mariner-don't know whether that makes any difference.

Bottom line is: lots of grumbling on Cruise Critic about Regent, which we hate to read about, as it's been our favorite line in the past, but if things are true about Regent, we may want to go back to Crystal, even though the itinerary isn't just what we want.

 

Should you wish to contact us via email: schub229@sbcglobal.net

 

Again, thanks for letting us all travel vicariously via your blog-outstanding!!

[cwn]

quote=schub229;28940162]cwn, I've just read through your SA 2011 blog and thought it was one of the best I've read-both in content and the photos-fantastic!! We've signed up for Regent 2012 Lima to Buenos Aires. We just came back from an Auckland, NZ to Singapore 31 day cruise on Crystal Serenity, but have taken 7 earlier trips on Regent-the last being 3 years ago. We really want to go on the SA cruise, but have some reservations about the "new" Regent, which perhaps you could answer for us-or anyone else can chime in to answer: We weren't happy to read that a number of the buses weren't air conditioned-were those mostly the free tours and did the $$ tours step up the comfort factor- and sounds like the free tours need more guidance?

 

Poorer quality buses are a common problem in the more remote ports in Peru, Chile and southern Argentina. They use the same type of bus for the "Free" and extra cost tours. it depends on the port whether nicer buses with A/C are used.

 

We did most of our extra cost tours on that segment...they were worth the up charge.

 

After we and others complained, they put ship hosts on most of the tours as least the longer ones or ones that when to remote areas.

 

 

We've never been to SA so we'll be interested in doing something in almost every port.

 

We had not been to many of the ports on our cruise either. The "Free" tours encouraged us to try Regent since we knew we would do tours in many of the ports. All inclussive Regent with all the extra perks for this itinerary was a much better value than HAL, who was doing almost the same itinerary.

 

 

The food-we've always raved about the food, especially to people on this Crystal cruise we just took-as the food there was outstanding! Have read that the "old" Regent food was better, tours better, staff took time to learn and use your names, etc.

 

The food was good to very good and I think changing the menu will only improve it. We should have ordered more special meals...things we really liked...it was just hard to know what we wanted 24 hours in advance.

 

The Signature, Prime 7 and the MDR waiters, at those table we sat most every night, were outstanding. They and our stewardess called us by name all the time, but no one else did that I remember.

 

The staff was friendly and we didn't have any problems that weren't addressed in a timely fashion.

 

 

Now there's the controversy of the "concierge" level, which people seem to be upset about. We're still silver level, but will be on PH level of Mariner-don't know whether that makes any difference.

 

In a PH level, you will benifit from the early booking perk, dinning and tour reservations of the new Concierge Level. Do book your tours as early as possible as some ports have limited numbers of buses and some tours are limited in the number of guests. Speciality dinning wasn't too much of a problem though I did book two nights before boarding, we were able to get several last minute nights. Do reserve a night at Dinner and a Show when you board...it was one of our favorite things....they had it on the two longer segments.

 

Bottom line is: lots of grumbling on Cruise Critic about Regent, which we hate to read about, as it's been our favorite line in the past, but if things are true about Regent, we may want to go back to Crystal, even though the itinerary isn't just what we want.

 

There are some changes coming that people aren't happy about...100% single suppl. and the early booking perk for upper level suites (on the Mariner "D" and above, so you will have this perk). At this point, right or wrong, Regent sees these as ways to increase profits which is the name of the game for a business. There are other changes in the food department coming...new menus etc, that can only improve Regent as far as I am concerned.

 

Again, thanks for letting us all travel vicariously via your blog-outstanding!!

 

Don't let the controversy chase you away from Regent and an cruise you want to do. The Mariner is a great ship and it is a great itinerary, different than the other lines. This year with the included tours it was also the best value. In SA we were more than willing to let the ship arrange things.

 

Carolyn

[schub229]

Carolyn, we really appreciated your answering our questions and now feel like we can move ahead with more confidence. We loved Regent for years, but changed this year because the itinerary for their World Cruise went to China and we needed to go to Singapore where our oldest son and family were living. We're looking forward to next January in South America and will follow your advice!

 

Did you go to Macchu Pichu? Was wondering how you found the travel. I have had 1 knee replacement and 1 to go---but not ready quite yet-and although it looks daunting, our TA said with the train and the hotel right up there, I can handle it.

 

Good luck wherever your travels take you!

pat

[cwn]

Pat,

 

Glad you are going ahead with the cruise planning...from what I heard things haven't changed all that much in the last several years.

 

We did Macchu Pichu in 2007 before we cruised back to St Thomas from Lima. Your TA is right, it is not a hard trip, and very worth it. Stay at the Lodge right at Macchu Pichu...it is a little more expensive but is a much better experience beacuse you can visit after the bus crowds leave in the adfternoon and in the morning before the buses bring the crowds up the mountain.

 

Do worry about weak knees. Mine are very bad, I used walking sticks to get around when we were at Macchu Pichu and was fine...in fact that is what I used on this trip for the walking tours we did. Go for it. You can easily arrange your own tour..we did..with Orient Express...they have an office in SC. They made all arrangements, guided us every step of the way and got us to the ship with no hassale.

 

This year we did the Regent overland tour to Quito as you read. I was very impressed with they handling of the 150 of us on that tour also.

 

If you haven't been to the Falls...think about doing that from Buenos Aires when you get off the ship. It is fabulous also. We did that as a side trip from Buenos Aires on our way to Ushuaia to meet our Antarctica cruise in 2008.

 

Regent has trips to both places, but we found that it was much cheaper to arrange our own tour since it they were pre or post cruise.

[blue whale]

To Schubb229:

 

We are doing the full SA cruise with Regent in 2012. We have a roll call. I don't remember your signing for the roll call. Please do. We look forward to meeting you.

 

Have a good evening.