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Regent World Cruises


Floridiana
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We are looking at the 2021 world cruise. No onboard activities are online yet, but what are the usual activities on such a long Regent cruise with many sea days?

DH wants a cruise director to organize bridge games. I am interested in lectures on the culture of the countries we are visiting, water exercise classes, tai chi and some sort of arts and crafts. The website doesn't say anything about included excursions. In the past, we have booked ship's excursions or done our own thing.

 

We have never cruised on Regent before, but have cruise experience on about 15 lines, all relatively small ships except a 2400 passenger Princess ship. We were looking at an Oceania and a Viking world cruise. It's Wendy's fault that we are now talking to our travel agent about Regent. ;-)

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We are on the current Regent World Cruise - Cruise director does not organize bridge games.  They have two onboard bridge instructions who teach bridge in the morning and have, I think they call it, duplicate bridge in the afternoon.  We have two lecturers onboard.  We have lectures at 10 am and 11 am each sea day.  One lecturer is permanent.  The second one changes on each segment.  No water exercise classes.  The pool is too small and too deep.  And too rough on most sea days.  For the first two legs we had Julie making cards in the morning and June doing Polynesian crafts in the afternoon.  June is now gone so do not know if someone else will come on.  We have "silly" games at 11 am, noon, 2:30 pm, and 3:15 pm.  Trivia at 4:30 pm.  You can find excursions previously offered at each port.  Ask your travel agent to show you how to get to that on the Regent website.  Shore excursions are included and most are good.  Any more questions, just ask.

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We are booked on the 2021 WC. We have cruised  both Oceania and Regent along with a bunch of other lines.  We found Regent enough of step up not to consider Oceania. I did not consider Viking as my sister-in -law was very disappointed in the same things you read about under Viking on cruise critic. She felt a lot of bus tours and inexperience with destinations.

As for Regent, i have heard  WC’s have bridge classes for all  levels. From this forum I hear the craft classes with June are great. Example  Regent supplies some 1600 orchids to make lei’s. Apparently her classes are quite popular. I suspect our lecturers will be very good on our cruise. From other people blogs I hear there are exercise classes. I will be hitting the gym.

To find examples of excursions go to the actual Regent 2021 World cruise website. Then click on itinerary. When you click on actual place you will get list of excursions. Regent is still tweaking 2021,. You can do the same with the 2020 World cruise website and get an idea of the excursions closer to date.

You are correct, Wendy is an influencer. Although we were hooked on Regent prior to consistently reading her posts, she tends to asks the same questions I am thinking. She and I have similar feelings on Oceania and Viking, I am looking forward to meeting her.

i

 

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As to classes in the gym, today we have walk a mile, stretch and relax, yoga, and total body workout,  For bridge we have Advanced Beginners Bridge, Intermediate Bridge, Duplicate Bridge, and Social Bridge.  We have an unplanned sea day due to high waves at Mooloolala, Australia.  Lecturers are Terry Bishop speaking on St. Valentine's Day and Diana Preston speaking on the Sinking of the Lusitania.  As for ports, there is a very good description on our television of the next two ports.  .  .

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HotRoot, travelwell,

 

That sounds very good. Are there talks on the area you are visiting or are they all unrelated such as Lusitania and St. Valentine's Day? Does the ship organize on board activities on unexpected sea days? HAL did, but Hapag Lloyd didn't.

I saw videos with people walking on an upper deck. Is there a wrap-around lower deck? I didn't see one.

 

We were in Mooloolaba last fall. It's a lovely beach town. All long excursions into the hinterlands were canceled due to the weather forecast, but we were able to tender and stroll along the beach promenade. Are you going south or north? It will be our 4th time on this stretch of Australian coast.

 

Who are June und Julie?

 

We loved Oceania's food and 'casual but not sloppy' dress code. Their 2021 world cruise has an excellent itinerary but 180 days is too long for me.

 

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Regents dress code is similar to Oceania. I think of as Resort Casual. Our Oceania cruise was our first non mainstream cruise. Room small, pools crowded but food excellent in speciality restaurants. It did seem to us  a step up from mainstream. We have since been on Crystal, Seabourn and Regent and will not go back to Oceania or Crystal. We found the rooms, food and service on  Regent really nice. We really found the passengers to be congenial and the cruise to be elegant but laid back. We have been  on a 9 day Regent cruise with only one sea day. Regent was able to fill our time. On a World cruise I hear their speakers are great. I would hate to spend money on a WC without checking  the line out for a shorter cruise. 

It has been hard to find Regent WC blogs, I think one last year, but several people blogging or have blogged on long Regent cruises, June is apparently a gifted teacher and teaches the craft classes  on many Hawaiian and Polynesian itineraries. People sing her praises.

You might not be aware that Regent has around 8 overload tours. They are not cheap and some already wait listed. You can see descriptions on Regents website  on the same page under itineraries at the top. ( some are under heading of pre and post cruise stays). We are taking the 3 day overland to Ayers Rock where you are in a small boutique resort. This  might interest you if you have spent a long time on Australian coast. If I remember someone posted rhe prices on the 2021 roll call or call your TA.

i am more active then my husband but both of us dislike bus tour excursions. This is number one reason we did not look at Viking. Excursions on Regent sound great.  I hope to be in shape to do the most active excursions. I think husband will do mostly next step down. Although we love each other dearly we are not joined at the hip and often choose different excursions. We also plan to arrange a few independent tours, particularly in Lima and India.

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So glad you booked this cruise, Floridiana! Here I am being an "influencer" when I had severe doubts about this trip for so long--it's a big leap for us, but we're pretty well "all-in" now, fingers crossed!

 

I can attest that Tai Chi is very difficult to do at sea, having been practitioners for about 20 years (although don't do it much now, I admit.)  I intend to do a lot of walking onboard, and will probably buy the latest Fitbit to try to keep me motivated.  Don't mind a bus trip if it takes us somewhere interesting!

 

Lecturers can be a crap shoot, frankly.  A great one, that does talks related to the destinations, like Terry Breen can be a huge bonus to a cruise, but sometimes the lecturers aren't all that great--here's hoping they pull out the stops for a world cruise in this regard.

 

I myself would like to see arts and crafts of some kind.  Last one there was a needlepoint group, but I don't do that, nor want to.  I do crochet, however.  I suspect for some things we'll just have to form informal groups. Not sure I'm really into making flower leis. Watercolor painting would be a great one for me, since I have been ham-handedly attempting this fine art for a while.

 

I also have learned how to play Mah Jongg this winter for the precise purpose of playing it onboard.  It's a very different game from Bridge, but equal in intensity and concentration.  So I'm hoping there will be some informal play.

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3 hours ago, travelwell said:

... Although we love each other dearly we are not joined at the hip and often choose different excursions. We also plan to arrange a few independent tours, particularly in Lima and India.

 

Sounds like us a bit!  I may not be up for the most active excursions, but we most certainly won't always take the same ones.

 

Any idea what you'll do in Lima?  We had excellent private guides there a couple of years ago.  And India?  Just curious, the logistical difficulties of getting around India I find a bit daunting, frankly.

 

As I said on the roll-call, I'm toying with the idea of leaving the ship for a few days in Bali then re-joining in Singapore, but nothing's certain right now.

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So glad this topic is being discussed here.  I've been nattering away on the roll call thread, but this is nice.  Maybe we can drum up some new cruisers!

 

We are in a lowly G, but got a well-positioned walk-in shower cabin.  The only other time we were on Mariner we were in a wheel-chair accessible cabin, which is actually more spacious than the standard cabin (because it does not have a walk-in closet.)  We did well in this cabin, but hope we'll do okay with the space--we've managed the 200' window cabins on the PG a number of cabins, so I think we'll be fine, although I'm lusting after one of the PH's!

 

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4 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

So glad this topic is being discussed here.  I've been nattering away on the roll call thread, but this is nice.  Maybe we can drum up some new cruisers!

 

We are in a lowly G, but got a well-positioned walk-in shower cabin.  The only other time we were on Mariner we were in a wheel-chair accessible cabin, which is actually more spacious than the standard cabin (because it does not have a walk-in closet.)  We did well in this cabin, but hope we'll do okay with the space--we've managed the 200' window cabins on the PG a number of cabins, so I think we'll be fine, although I'm lusting after one of the PH's!

 

 

Wendy, we decided to go for it and booked PH-C and you are more than welcome to join us for cocktails in our suite especially if we have a great but let to handle the details 

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29 minutes ago, Kwaj girl said:

 

Wendy, we decided to go for it and booked PH-C and you are more than welcome to join us for cocktails in our suite especially if we have a great but let to handle the details 

 

Hey, we will definitely take you up on that offer!  I'm so looking forward to making friends on this cruise!

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Wendy, I am very interested to hear about what you would do with private guide in Lima. I have no clue. What are you thinking about? My husband has spent a lot of time in Cochin and absolutely loved it. It is his favorite part of India. He wants to do a backwater tour. Might arrange private excursion to be able to see more. We are not in Cochin long.  Neither of us want to deal with the logistics of staying longer and meeting up with the ship further north.

We are short changing Bali to go to Cambodia. I hope we won’t regret. Love history and have wanted to go for years. It will be hot and a week after going to Ayers Rock with heat and black flies. My husband may be trading me in for a 40th anniversary present.

As for the ship, I am a big deck walker I have osteopenia borderline osteoporosis so falling would be bad. On a moving ship free weights, walking and modified stretching and flexing best. We both like to hike. I am really looking forward to hiking Terevaka Mount on Easter Island. Regent called it a 3man hike but changed to 2 man and that is consistent with what I have read in guidebooks. I also like history and discovering the local culture. This is where I love a good lecturer. I have not been to most of our itinerary.

I like arts/ crafts. Would love to learn bridge. If there was a knitting instructor I would love to learn to knit, I would be too needy with no instructor. We love trivia,. I am pretty good but my husband is fantastic.

Do not worry about your room size. We stayed in lowest level on Navigator with no  balcony and the dreaded vibration and the room was great. You will probably have more invites then you want. One reason we  got our suite was to share our balcony with old and new friends. I had no clue what to do with a butler. I guess afternoon drinks on balcony might fit the bill.

i do hope this thread gets other people to consider Regent. A year ago I would never guess we would be booked.

 

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travelwell - I, too, have osteopenia so you will consistently find me walking the deck as well as working free-weights in the gym.  No drugs for me - I keep up my intake of lowfat/fat-free dairy and a Vit D supplement. Regent keeps a good stock of fat-free plain Greek yogurt on hand for me (requested as a special order at least 90 days prior to departure) but they will have flavored yogurts generally available in CR as well as La Verandah & the pool grill breakfast times.  

For walking - be sure you get some good shoes that are non-slip as sometimes the decks can be a bit slick when damp from overnight.  DH can never seem to find shoes that don't slip on damp/wet surfaces, though I don;t seem to have that problem with my cheap-o $15-a-pair from Walmart used for this purpose.   

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16 minutes ago, travelwell said:

Wendy, I am very interested to hear about what you would do with private guide in Lima. I have no clue. What are you thinking about? My husband has spent a lot of time in Cochin and absolutely loved it. It is his favorite part of India. He wants to do a backwater tour. Might arrange private excursion to be able to see more. We are not in Cochin long.  Neither of us want to deal with the logistics of staying longer and meeting up with the ship further north.

We are short changing Bali to go to Cambodia. I hope we won’t regret. Love history and have wanted to go for years. It will be hot and a week after going to Ayers Rock with heat and black flies. My husband may be trading me in for a 40th anniversary present.

As for the ship, I am a big deck walker I have osteopenia borderline osteoporosis so falling would be bad. On a moving ship free weights, walking and modified stretching and flexing best. We both like to hike. I am really looking forward to hiking Terevaka Mount on Easter Island. Regent called it a 3man hike but changed to 2 man and that is consistent with what I have read in guidebooks. I also like history and discovering the local culture. This is where I love a good lecturer. I have not been to most of our itinerary.

I like arts/ crafts. Would love to learn bridge. If there was a knitting instructor I would love to learn to knit, I would be too needy with no instructor. We love trivia,. I am pretty good but my husband is fantastic.

Do not worry about your room size. We stayed in lowest level on Navigator with no  balcony and the dreaded vibration and the room was great. You will probably have more invites then you want. One reason we  got our suite was to share our balcony with old and new friends. I had no clue what to do with a butler. I guess afternoon drinks on balcony might fit the bill.

i do hope this thread gets other people to consider Regent. A year ago I would never guess we would be booked.

 

 

I too was thinking about a backwater tour.  We have friends who did one (as part of a land trip, not a cruise.)  But I was thinking that the logistics of getting from Cochin up to Bombay or perhaps Goa to re-board the ship might be fairly fraught.  I have only been to India once, and it was brief (on business in Bombay.)   But I will eventually ask our friends--they did private guides everywhere, and perhaps it wouldn't be so bad.  There is a backwaters day-trip in Cochin if all else fails.

 

Cambodia:  we missed going to Siem Reap on our SE Asian tour when I got a case of "Rama's Revenge" and we had to skip that experience and spend an extra couple of days in Bangkok, with me stuck in bed.  Then we flew directly to Laos instead.  I will say that it is very, very hot, and it was reported that Angkor Wat was even more so, at that time of year, be prepared.  I would go back to Laos in a heartbeat but not sure I would even attempt Angkor now.  But I'm sure it will certainly be worth it.

 

Lima.  We have nothing special planned there at this point.  But we spent three days there at the end of our Mariner cruise two years back, and used a company called "Peruvian Local Friend".  Mostly Rodrigo (and another guy whose name I've lost).  I was able to work closely with them to get what suited us perfectly, and it was very reasonable.  Saw several wonderful museums of pre-Columbian artifacts (this kind of thing we love), took us out to Pachacamac temple, to a ffood market, to different picturesque districts, the city centre, lots of stuff.  Lima is also known for its cuisine--some of the best restos in the world, although getting to and from the ship will be a major hassle--Callao is far from the interesting parts of Lima, and the city is a nightmare to get around in.  We will probably just stick with ship's tours this time, and go back to our fave museums, not sure yet. IT will also be very humid and hot.

 

The tour company also arranged a tourist boat trip out to the Palomino Islands, which was a great experience.  A boat with perhaps 20 people, most of whom spoke no English but were tourists from other parts of Peru and S.A.  The Palomino Islands are offshore near Callao.  They have a large sea lion colony and you're allowed to swim with them, if you wish.  They have wetsuits for you to wear.  We just watched that part, but all the kids were in the water having a great time.  Definitely needs seasick meds for that trip!

 

I like the Navigator standard cabin best of all the three ships (not been on Explorer.)  But Mariner's is significantly smaller.  But we will cope.

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I saw the overland tours and luckily, we have been to most of the iconic places on our land tours. Ayers Rock/Uluru is definitely worth it. We went there on our own a few years ago.

 

About the resort casual, I thought I knew, then I read about tuxes and ball gowns and was shocked. Hopefully that website got it all wrong.

 

About Callao, it's not safe but we had a wonderful market tour there. A very large and clean market not far from the port. That was the day when we didn't have to battle traffic.

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, Floridiana said:

HotRoot, travelwell,

 

That sounds very good. Are there talks on the area you are visiting or are they all unrelated such as Lusitania and St. Valentine's Day? Does the ship organize on board activities on unexpected sea days? HAL did, but Hapag Lloyd didn't.

I saw videos with people walking on an upper deck. Is there a wrap-around lower deck? I didn't see one.

 

We were in Mooloolaba last fall. It's a lovely beach town. All long excursions into the hinterlands were canceled due to the weather forecast, but we were able to tender and stroll along the beach promenade. Are you going south or north? It will be our 4th time on this stretch of Australian coast.

 

Who are June und Julie?

 

We loved Oceania's food and 'casual but not sloppy' dress code. Their 2021 world cruise has an excellent itinerary but 180 days is too long for me.

 

Some talks are about the destinations, some are not  Yes, when we were told we were missing the port we were also told a new daily plan would be in our cabin by 10 am.  Thus the reason for the lecture titles, they had to put something together quickly.  All of the bridge lessons, etc., were added in on the new schedule.  The Navigator has an upper deck which people walk on.  I think you will be on the Mariner and I have no knowledge of that ship.  

 

We are heading North.  Julie is the wife of one of the lecturers.  This is their third World Cruise.  She teaches you how to make cards.  June is correctly described above.  Her specialty is Polynesian jewelry.  There are no costs for any classes.  All material is provided free of charge to us.  Needlepoint kits are also provided.  

 

Regents dress code is correctly defined on their website.  The bottom category is Elegant Casual.  The top category is Formal Optional.  We do not necessarily follow the suggested category.  Last night was Valentine's Day so we went with Formal even though the night was Elegant Casual.  Tonight is Formal but we will go Elegant.  As long as you follow the no jeans, no shorts, no bathrobes rule, you are fine.  Still do not understand why you need to tell someone traveling on a luxury cruise ship they cannot wear their bathrobe to dinner.  One man does wear his robe to Reception almost every day.  Last night two people did wear jeans (with holes) into the Lounge.  They were politely asked to leave.  They said they did not speak English, only French.  The call went out for a crew member who spoke French.  Once she arrived, they left.

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A designer bathrobe and designer jeans? lol

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

 

I enjoyed seeing the low islands of the Great Barrier Reef with the ship winding its way through them. There will be a reef pilot on board. They either give a narration or a separate presentation.

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16 hours ago, Floridiana said:

A designer bathrobe and designer jeans? lol

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

 

I enjoyed seeing the low islands of the Great Barrier Reef with the ship winding its way through them. There will be a reef pilot on board. They either give a narration or a separate presentation.

 

This sounds amazing, looking forward to it!

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There was a question that no one answered - whether there is a walking track on a lower deck.   There isn't.  Like on Oceania's Riviera it is on the deck above the pool deck.

 

I assume that "June and Julie" are Social Hostesses.  These "crafts classes"  are the kind of things they do...

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5 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

There was a question that no one answered - whether there is a walking track on a lower deck.   There isn't.  Like on Oceania's Riviera it is on the deck above the pool deck.

 

I assume that "June and Julie" are Social Hostesses.  These "crafts classes"  are the kind of things they do...

Not Social Hostesses.  Sara from England is the Social Hostess.  They are more like the Bridge Instructors.  Their only responsibilities are related to the crafts.  Sara does needlepoint, mensa, solo and social travelers host, directions to gangway, etc.

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Kwaj girl, Thank you for the yogurt tip. I like to add fruit to plain low fat Greek yogurt. I am surprised that takes a special order to get unflavored. I guess I’m odd that way.

 

Floridiana, I am glad you enjoyed Ayers Rock/Uluru. We love stars and the idea of glamping. Most of our friends think we are nuts due to the heat and flies.

 

Not much to add to the jeans and bathrobes. You just have to shake your head....

 

Wendi, you made us excited about Lima. Not sure what we will do. May go private or stick to ship tours. I’ll have to do research.

 

 

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We were at Uluru in March, not a single fly. It wasn't unusually hot either. Maybe we were lucky.

 

However, Siam Reap was very hot and humid. We had to change clothes each time we returned to the hotel because we were soaked. That was in February.

 

Peru has a dance festival in January. The dance is called la Marinera, but I haven't researched whether we are able to see any of the competitions. Salaverry/Trujillo is the center. When we were there in April, we did a long tour to visit 3 pre-Columbian ruins and never saw the city center. The tour company gave us a  lunch box. You can't take food ashore in Peru and Chile except manufacturer wrapped candy/snack bars.

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