forevertravel

We were on this cruise and it was one of the best. We reconnected with crew members we had not seen in years. The food at all restaurants was very good and so were the choices of wine. A couple of times we didn't care for what they were serving but we had our favorites and they brought to us. Crew service was top notch. We enjoyed the ports in Alaska and Japan. The three days in Tokyo were nice. The Hilton was in a great location and service was excellent. All in all an excellent cruise.

We returned from our cruise last Wednesday. We took a taxi. There were plenty of taxis as we exited with luggage. The porter got the taxi for us. Taxis are cheap and you can pay with credit card. We were staying at hotel for two days and ride was $38 (Canadian) plus tip. Our ride from hotel to airport was $41 (fixed charge) plus tip. A lot easier than calling and waiting for Uber.

We will be joining you a week from Friday. We have the three day precruise in Tokyo next week. Are Alessandro and Vlado still on the ship? We'll love to see them. Two of our favorite people.

Is FDR on this cruise? Is he with family? His son is the president of Oceania so I'm sure they are being treated royally.

Hi everyone, Would anyone on Explorer right now let us know if Alessandro (GM) and Vlado (F&B manager) will be onboard in April? They are onboard right now. They are two of our favorite and will love to see them again in April on our Tokyo to Vancouver cruise. Thanks and continue enjoying your cruises.

We did the precruise in Singapore. It was very good. The hotel was excellent and in a great location. We had a very good guide and got to see a lot of Singapore. We stayed on our own in Sidney after the cruise. It depends which city you'd prefer to see more of. I recommend Singapore and a couple of days in Sidney after the cruise. Either tour is good.

We did this cruise several years ago and they put us up at the JW Marriott in Copacabana overlooking the beach. Then I heard they were going back to the Sheraton. The Sheraton is away from the city but has its own beach.

I don't see how you can find the Explorer "dated". The Explorer, in my opinion, is a beautiful, luxurious ship. The cabin is elegant in my opinion. As to the guides we don't book a cruise for the guides or their language skills. Try to find good guides in US who speak a good foreign language. We are booked on Tokyo to Vancouver cruise next year and looking forward to it. Regent is definitely not for you. Enjoy other cruise lines who meet your expectations.

On our Singapore to Sydney cruise last December Regent got us the Indonesia visa. They sent us email about visa and stated we could get it ourselves or through them. We opted to let them do it. They originally said the visa was $90/pp but they ended up only charging us $35. It was very easy. Maybe they don't get the visas themselves any longer.

We always use Regent air because we can't find business class fare for the amount you get as credit; plus, with all the issues with airlines, we know Regent will get us to the cruise or back home.Having said that "we always deviate". Paying the deviation fee is worth every penny. United cancelled our flight in June and didn't even notified us. Regent got us on a flight that evening. I couldn't even get through United on the phone. I will never let Regent pick the flights because they are going to get the cheapest they can get under their contract no matter how many stops. I give them a list of several flights 210 days ahead of cruise. Up to now we always got the flights we wanted. For our next cruise there was an upcharge for flights we wanted it. They did offer decent flights with no upcharge. Never fly on day cruise depart. We always go early. Nowadays even going a day early is iffy.

Perhaps the new leadership of Regent is more concerned with bottom line. FDR was in charge of NCL Limited and Jason Montague was president of Regent during Covid. Both are now gone. We all suspected lots of changes were to come. Maybe this is one of them. While I do believe offering FCC is a sign of good will, apparently top management thinks differently.

I would love your experiences since we are booking a similar cruise (Israel to Barcelona) for Oct 2025. We plan to go early to Israel. Thanks and have a wonderful cruise.

Do you have a TA? If yes, have your TA work with Regent. They should understand the short window between flights.

It used to be that if the airline made changes "before the reservation was ticketed", Regent would notify you. Regardless, you need to be proactive and check. This is what happened to us last month. My reservation appeared on Regent's website and my United's website. I checked every day until night before flight. No changes. Morning of flight (afternoon flight) I checked and my connecting flight to Dulles to catch flight to Lisbon had been cancelled. United never notified me which in the past they did. I contacted my TA and she contacted Regent. I called United and was put on hold for 90 minutes (I never got a hold of them). At 11am my TA called and said I was put on flight to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Lisbon that evening. Again, no contact from United and when I checked website my flights had disappeared including return. We made it to Lisbon, fortunately, and upon inputting reservation number on United website my flights appeared. No issues with return. Another example, morning of flight I was notified by United there was a change of equipment and seats couldn't be assigned until we got to airport. At check in we found out the new plane only had 12 first class seats (no business) and we didn't have seats. There were no other flights to London that day. So, they put us in economy plus which was the most horrible experience. Bottom line if check, check. and check the airline website.

In case you're interested. There is a Sheraton hotel across the street from where the Regent docks. It looks nice from the outside and you can see the ships from the hotel. All other hotels will be a taxi ride away.