Cef123

We, too, like to make our own cups of tea in our suite. On our recent January/February cruise on Explorer, we contacted Regent ahead of time and asked for an electric kettle to be placed in our suite (F2). Sure enough, it was there when we boarded. Yet another reason to love Regent and their willingness to say “Yes”. (IMHO, making a cup of tea with lukewarm water is heresy!).

@lesliew… I celebrated a big birthday on Explorer in January 2024. Yes, our wonderful stewards decorated our suite while we were on an excursion. My DH asked that a special bottle of champagne be placed in our mini bar the evening before so that it was chilled ready for us on my birthday. Last, but not least, I’m not a chocolate cake fan, so again, my fabby hubby made a special request for a passion fruit birthday cake which was our dessert that night at a lovely table in P7. The remainder was taken away and miraculously showed up in our mini bar to be enjoyed for several days thereafter. Great attention to detail, great memories, and why Regent is really the best. Just give everyone as much notice as possible for special requests…particularly because it’s a switchover day for the crew.

We were so looking forward to our 40th anniversary Mediterranean cruise on Explorer. Postponed due to Covid and now it was really happening, sailing from Barcelona to Istanbul in May 2022. 
We had planned 10 days with family in the Loire Valley, then extra days in Barcelona before boarding. 
On the TGV from CDG to Nantes, my husband’s passport was stolen… lots of lessons here, but we will never place anything on the overhead rack ever again!! No passport=no travel. 
After train security, police reports, US embassy phone calls, TA phone calls, travel insurance phone calls etc, we turned around and took the next train back up to Paris. 
As instructed, at 0800 the next morning, we were in line at the US embassy. Turns out that a ‘temporary’ passport is a piece of paper that will get you back into the USA and that’s about all. We opted for an expedited full replacement passport, which takes 10-14 days. Our wonderful cruise was literally sailing away and disappearing before our eyes….there was no amount of Champagne that could cheer me up!

To cut a very long story short…. the replacement passport arrived at 4pm on the day that Explorer was sailing from Barcelona, but we knew that Marseille was the port of call the following day. We were still in the Loire. The next few hours are a blur. Multiple phone calls, a hurriedly scheduled Covid test at a local pharmacy, TGV tickets to Marseille on the first train, hotel booking next to the train station that night, taxi to the hotel, Regent arranging with Marseille port services to give us access to the Port. Hoping beyond hope that the French Railways wouldn’t decide to strike! 
well…… we made it! Boarded the beautiful Explorer at 3pm in Marseille. Best of all, while Bruno was checking us in at reception, out of the corner of my eye I saw the wondrous sight of a waiter approaching with 2 glasses of champagne held aloft on a silver tray. 
champagne has never tasted SO delicious. 
I can’t begin to say how helpful Regent was throughout this whole ordeal. 
We are back on Explorer again this coming January (Sydney to Singapore) and we’ll be holding onto our passports VERY tightly!

The Hammam was https://www.hurremsultanhamami.com 

It was recommended by our guide from one of our Regent excursions when we arrived in Istanbul.
if you go to their website, it is in Turkish, click on the heading ‘Dil’ on the extreme right and it will give you the option to bring up the English Website.
you can make a reservation on the website, or call them.

Just an FYI: males and females are separated, I really enjoyed my ‘alone’ bath time, but it would have been more fun to go with a girlfriend. 
I also wish I’d allowed more time at the end of the spa time, just to sip my tea and people watch.  Sometime during your time there, be sure to visit the restroom….. I’ll say no more 😄.

Enjoy…

We spent several days in Istanbul at the end of our May 2022 Barcelona to Istanbul cruise (on Explorer). We signed up for the ‘Taste of Two Continents’ Food Tour. It was truly amazing… learned so much and ate too much. I would do this tour again in a heartbeat. 
Loved just wandering about this incredibly vibrant city. 
We also both experienced a traditional Hamman… thoroughly enjoyed that too. 😄.

Have a wonderful cruise and enjoy Istanbul.

To ARDXXX: thank you, thank you for the reassurance. 😀

Enjoy and Cheers to you too.

Hesitant to open this 'Champagne' bottle/can of worms again......but....here goes:

I just received the bar list from Regent for our upcoming (May 2nd) Explorer cruise. Missing from the list of Champagne and Sparkling wines is the Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top Champagne which was the  'house' pour, even as recently as Jan this year, per recent postings.

Could someone currently on the TA Explorer Cruise please reassure me that the Heidsieck is still available and will continue to be available? 

Much appreciated 🙂 

GeorgiaPeach51: what fun it has been to get up every morning and ‘be’ on Explorer with you. Thank you for taking the time to post your witty comments and observations. We are counting down until we board the beautiful Explorer for our Barcelona to Istanbul cruise in early May. 
Happy travels home…hope to meet on Regent in the future. Claire

SO Happy for you both.  😄😄👍👍.

I’ve been following your posts and keeping fingers crossed.

Enjoy the Explorer with your new found freedom. We are planning to be sailing on her in the Mediterranean in May. So looking forward to it and (again) keeping our fingers crossed that all things Covid will have calmed down by then.

Thank You for keeping us updated and wishing you all the best for future Regent sailings. Hope to meet you in person someday. 😄

In reply to Cruisealert re. timing of refunds.

We made the difficult and sad decision to cancel our December Splendor Cruise and opted for the full refund. We had paid significantly more than just the deposit. That was on March 13th via our TA who told us 7-10 days for the refund to be deposited back on our credit card. Nothing appeared from anyone (TA or Regent). Not complaining... understand how overwhelmed everyone is. We called our TA again on 3/25 to check on status, they checked with Regent who assured them that the refund had 'been processed'. Finally, today 3/28, the refund has shown up on our card, interestingly with a posting date of 3/25!. So, I guess this is truly what was promised if we use 7-10 business days as the timeline. I'm really quite impressed with Regent's response time and service, given the extreme circumstances. 

Hoping beyond hope that we'll be able to cruise on wonderful Regent soon again. We have a big anniversary coming up in May 2021..... maybe, just maybe....... Sigh!

Stay well everyone.

I have so appreciated being ‘with’ you on this superb journey. It has become my morning routine over the past 14 days or so, to get up and immediately check the entries and photos that have posted overnight. We’re already so excited about our upcoming cruise on Splendor....and it’s not until December! Not sure how we can wait that long....so thanks again for inviting us into your lives on board Splendor. Happy onward travels, Claire.

I think it would be great to see the stats....so...guess that makes me a geek too! 🙂

Geek count thus far = 2.

Happy sailing everyone.

Having recently returned from a wonderful 10 day Miami to Miami (Western Caribbean) cruise on the Voyager, I can comment on a couple of your questions. We have previously cruised on the Navigator taking a similar route to yours. We have not been on the Explorer... yet!

1. I am VERY reluctant to fly on the day of departure as it would mean a very early flight, plus it is January in Denver so weather is always a possibility.  We also STRONGLY prefer flying in a more comfortable class than economy.  Am I correct in thinking that with these preferences we would be better off taking the air credit (300 per person?) and arranging our own upgraded flight and pre-cruise hotel?

Yes, take the air credit. We, too, flew from Colorado, arranging our own flights and hotel. I highly recommend flying out the day before, primarily because of the weather. Your peace of mind will set you up well for the cruise. The other advantage is that it gives you one more day to get used to the Eastern Time Zone, the extra two hours makes a dfference. Once on board, we hit the ground running and sleeping in was not an option.....especially because we booked early excursions.

2. I understand that the dining reservations and excursion signups are made available with those booking higher category rooms and/or those who have loyalty status, sooner than others, and that is fine.  But I will be booking the lowest class cabin with no loyalty status.  In your experience will we still have reasonable choices on both dining and excursions?  We are pretty flexible on what time we eat.  But I'd like to eat in each specialty restaurant at least once.  And as far as excursions go, we would be looking at the less physically active, shorter ones.  Do these tend to fill up sooner or are the more vigorous excursions the more popular ones?

As mentioned in other posts, dining reservations are not a problem, especially if you don't mind sharing a table (a great way to meet new friends). We were in a 'low category' suite, and don't yet have the nicer loyalty benefits, so similar circumstances to you. We booked online as soon as we could and even then, our preferred dining times were at a shared table.  A small hint: On our initial exploration of the ship just after we boarded,  we passed the dining reservations desk and the wonderful Roxanne offered to check/confirm our specialty dining reservations for the cruise. We asked about the potential for additional reservations and snagged a shared table that night in Chartreuse. Marvellous 🙂

Don't discount the '3 stick people' excursions. We have done many of them, and honestly, I couldn't call any of them 'vigorous' . I think it is more informative to read the descriptions of the excursions AND especially the descriptions that you will receive on board from Destination Services. We probably booked too many excursions and thus only had time for leisurely breakfasts on sea days. However, our Western Caribbean route had fewer pleasantly walkable ports of call, so getting out of town by  excursion provided transport was by far the best. 

3. Entertainment.  We are not really big fans of the 'Broadway-style' stage shows.  Maybe it's because I grew up in NYC and went to lots of Broadway shows, but I haven't found the 'big' shows on the other cruises we've done very good.  But what we HAVE enjoyed very much is the smaller 'lounge' type entertainment, like a piano bar, or a decent rock cover band, or a jazz trio or quartet.  A little classical piano or chamber music is something else we enjoy.  How is the quality of this type of entertainment on  Explorer?

Can't comment re Explorer, but there are lots of options for 'light, middle of the road' entertainment in the lounges/bars. Sadly, little to no classical, or chamber music that we have found. Don't miss the Krew Kapers, though!

4. Gambling. I'm not much of a gambler but I do enjoy the occasional poker tournament.  Do they have these?  Anyone know what kind of buy-in/entry fee they would have?  And can OBC be used for this?

Sorry, don't know.

5. Smoke.  Our first cruise was on the smoke free Celebrity Equinox and that spoiled us a little.  I know there will be smoking onboard so my question is how well is it contained to specific areas so the smell doesn't deep out to the nearby areas?  I'm not fanatical about it, but i do enjoy not smelling smoke.

Can't comment re. Explorer. I, too, loathe the smell of smoke. Only place we smelled it on Voyager, was on the Pool Deck, heading up the steps to the walking track. It was easily avoidable. 

Enjoy!

Have a fabulous cruise, Bill. We watched Voyager sail away from Miami tonight (on the Miami Port webcam). All being well, we'll be on her when she next sails from Miami 🙂. January 17th.... I'm so excited already, I can barely stand it!

Happy, Happy birthday trip to you both.

Hello UUNetBill,

We are on the January 17th sailing from Miami.

It would be great to meet you if you are on this cruise .

I did sign us up for the Meet and Mingle on this sailing, but last I looked there were only four people signed up. :( 

We have been on two previous cruises... our first was 5 years ago (Regent: Navigator). The second was 3 years ago (Celebrity: Eclipse).

We tried hard to make the Celebrity cruise as close to our fabulous Regent Experience (Celebrity drinks package, upgraded suite with its private DR/Club perks, etc ).

Sorry to say, the Celebrity Cruise was just OK, for all the reasons listed in above posts...I loathe being ‘marketed’ to! It frankly felt ‘cheap’, except that it cost just the same as Regent!

Regent strikes that perfect balance of quiet calm AND lots of activities... we made many friends and thoroughly enjoyed the cruise.

Happy to report that we are on back on Regent (Voyager) in January.....:)