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UUNetBill

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About Me

  • Location
    Greenville, SC
  • Interests
    Single Malt scotch, bicycling, motorcycling, computers, etc.
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Gotta be Regent so far
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Whichever one I get to tomorrow.

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3,000+ Club (3/15)

  1. Remember Regent's ill-fated (and short-lived) campaign about their 'fiber optic speeds in your cabin - just like your home internet!' Not hardly, guys.
  2. If I could get 50 MB/s on a Regent ship anywhere, I'd do a happy dance and pop some champagne. Starlink can't get here soon enough for me. (Yeah, I know it's a vacation...but we're also still both in the workforce and need to stay in touch.)
  3. Lonedaddy, the service is self-explanatory, but could you expound a bit on the attitude and decisions? Was the attitude more crew or corporate or what? We've only been back on one short cruise since the pandemic shutdown so not sure what to expect next week...
  4. It's been a while since we cruised on Voyager, but we've never had a 'bad' experience on her. A few little misses here and there, but that's cruising, I guess. As to the missed ports, there are so many factors in those decisions I can't say whether it's the captain, corporate policy, or something else, but I can say that we've had a few missed ports in our travels and it's always disappointing. But less disappointing than running aground or damaging the ship or getting stuck in a port. I know one time we had multiple tugs trying to get us to the dock and the winds were just too powerful - these ships are heavy, yes, but the slab sides are like giant sails. If your azipods or thrusters can't handle it, you have no choice but to skip the port. Food can be hit or miss, usually pretty darn good but on occasion it can come out cold or otherwise unacceptable. In that case we always let someone in management know and it's usually corrected quickly. I got no defense for the internet - Regent is lagging (no pun intended) way behind in this regard. I've heard that they're rolling out Starlink across the fleet but they're having some growing pains with it. We used to cruise once or twice a year pre-pandemic but we've only been able to get out once since then so I don't know if it's an industry-wide issue, or Regent fleet-wide, or just Voyager. I hope it's not just Voyager as we're heading out to sail on her soon. ๐Ÿ™‚ Sorry you had a less than stellar voyage - our experiences with Regent over the past 15 years have been way more positive than negative (obviously - we keep coming back) but we'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any issues on our upcoming cruise...
  5. That was going to be my post. I've had some fabulous meals on Regent...and some that didn't make the grade. And I can't even blame the crew, as even on the same voyage you can have an amazing meal one night and 'meh' the next. Not common, of course, but it happens. Having never sailed Oceania, I can't make a direct comparison between O and R, but from reading CC for years I'd say they're pretty close overall.
  6. Wouldn't it be nice if you bought a bag that was advertised as 'carry-on sized' and it was too big for the airlines you could send an invoice for the oversized bag fee to the manufacturer and have them pay it? ๐Ÿ˜†
  7. My wife is having the same concerns - we've never had issues packing before but we need to take extra bags on our upcoming cruise and we're on Latam for the first time - and they've sent several emails with their luggage restrictions. And like you, we have a bag or two that are 'slightly' over the limit. I've never really had any issues in the past with size restrictions so I'm not too concerned, but the better half is stressed over this. I'm hoping these are close enough that no one looks too closely...
  8. Pcardad - exactly. There's always a certain percentage of people in ANY age group who are, for lack of a better term, @$$holes. My secret to a happy life is to smile and avoid these people like the plague. Our last cruise, we had just boarded and were having some champagne in the main atrium when we heard a commotion off to the side...it was a woman, maybe mid to late 80s unleashing her fury on the poor girl at the desk because "HER CABIN WASN'T READY AND WHERE ARE MY BAGS AND WHY CAN'T I GO TO MY CABIN" ad nauseum - and this was at a crazy high volume. It was maybe 12:30 or 1:00 PM. I was literally standing up to walk over to her and tell her to shut the %$&@ up when my wife steered me away (rightly so, I guess). But after the crone left, I went over and apologized to the poor crewmember (who was near tears) and told her to let me know if the old bat gave her any more lip on the cruise. ๐Ÿ˜ I just don't understand how someone can be on board a lovely ship with champagne flowing and a wonderfully attentive crew...and be cranky over nothing. Just blows my mind.
  9. My two cents (or pence or pesetas or whatever) is in over 100 nights on Regent I can count on one hand the number of issues I've had with kids on board. We initially selected Regent to avoid kids on the cruise (nothing against kids, we have two who were with their birth father in the summer so we cruised without them and didn't see the need to be surrounded by other kids) and I can honestly say that the worst thing I've seen was a group of maybe 5-6 teens hanging out on a staircase somewhat blocking passage, and 3-4 younger kids playing too loudly in Compass Rose. Both issues were dealt with quickly and quietly. We did have one other issue with kids running up and down the hallway at like 10-11 PM where we had to stick our heads out and yell at them to quiet down...we actually had more of a problem with their parents than the kids. In all of our cruises it's usually the adults who cause the most issues. Rare as it is, we've encountered rudeness, entitlement, drunkenness, elitism, etc. in a handful of passengers. But it's such a small percentage - much smaller than you encounter in the general population these days, I'd wager - that we don't let it deter us. We also had an early cruise that was hosting a company group that was probably over 100-150 people, and THEY were worse than any kids we've had on board. As others have said, certain itineraries and dates tend to be more kid-heavy than others and we tend to avoid those. I also agree that the 'Kids Sail Free' is more of a marketing line than any kind of problem. I wouldn't let it bother me at all.
  10. Nope. I heard they were rolling it out on one of their ships (Mariner?) and I thought I read that it was actually pretty good...but that's been a few months since I read that, so maybe they're bickering now? Who knows? I just always plan on cussing the internet whenever I have to do any work, and I thank heaven that there's always a nice bottle of amber adult beverage somewhere in my cabin...
  11. My guess on this would be that the specifically mention 'special onboard savings of up to $4,000 USD per suite' and then continue that with the 'Plus' and 'And' lines, so they're going to say that the per suite is implied on the other items as well. Personally, I'd be a little miffed if that's the case since it does seem slightly deceptive, but honestly, $100 one way or the other, especially in OBC, isn't enough to get worked up about in my opinion. My wife would tell you that I'm notoriously, uh, 'frugal' in most things and would definitely ask about the $100 discrepancy, but if they were being snitty about it I'd just let it go - and then go out and eat and drink another $100 worth of stuff on board to even it out.
  12. @Mudhen We totally agree. When we started cruising, we did our due diligence (web searches, TA discussions, spreadsheets, etc.) and came to the same conclusion - at the end of the day, Regent isn't that much more than the other 'premium' lines (if you avail yourself of all the included offerings, that is) so we've been sailing Regent ever since. But let's not let that secret out, shall we? ๐Ÿ˜›
  13. I'd say you can legitimately say you've been 'to' Antarctica, but you haven't been 'on' Antarctica. I'd asked the same question myself, and came to the conclusion that as much as I'd like to walk through the penguin poop personally, I'd prefer to be right offshore on a Regent vessel than crammed on an expedition ship. Yeah, I know that some of them are pretty nice, but dollar for dollar I'm happier being on a somewhat larger ship. But maybe that's just me...
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