SusieQft

On 2/6/2023 at 12:17 PM, melbox4 said:

Do you have to book through AMEX travel for this benefit?

No, but then you have to book with a TA who is participating in the Amex program.  Both my current and previous TAs could provide this benefit, although I did not actually use it with my previous TA.  I don't think you get it if you book directly with the cruise line.  So ask your TA if they can get you the benefit without you booking through Amex travel.

On 1/31/2023 at 7:12 PM, claudiaYVR said:

I'm sad no bathtubs below Jr. CP 😞

I would have thought at least Aquamarine and Sapphire suites would have them.

The suite information is clearly not accurate.  For both ships the Sapphire floor plan is the old original Penthouse Suite, minus the bathtub, so you are probably right that there is no bathtub in the Sapphire Suites.  However, the Aquamarine floor plan shown for both ships is the old Seabreeze Penthouse Suite floor plan, clearly larger than the Sapphire Suite.  The Aquamarine photos look more accurate for the size of the room, and seem to be a mix of the classic and Seabreeze Penthouse from old Crystal.  The Serenity Aquamarine photos include one of the old Crystal Penthouse bathroom with the jetted tub.

I am thinking it is likely that there will still be two different room styles for the PH/Aquamarine and PHS/Sapphire cabins, the original and the Seabreeze styles.  They may not all have had their bathrooms remodeled, especially the original style Crystal PH on Serenity (per its photos), so some of them might still have bathtubs.  New Crystal really should clarify the room differences within their new categories.

On 1/23/2023 at 10:25 PM, Keith1010 said:

Less rooms means less crew.

Not necessarily, if you believe their website.  Now Crystal says "NEARLY ONE STAFF MEMBER PER GUEST". If I recall correctly, they previously had a crew to passenger ratio between 0.6 and 0.7.  With the reduced number of passengers, that sounds to me like approximately the same number of crew.  Unless they think that 0.7 is "nearly one," LOL.

I have both Platinum and Green Amex cards, and I charge the cruise on the Amex Green for the 3 points per dollar.  I still get the Platinum OBC because I have the Platinum card and paid with an Amex card.  I don't know if this will work for other varieties of Amex cards besides the Green.  By not charging on the Platinum, though, I do miss out on any trip insurance benefit that it might provide, so I am constantly rethinking this strategy.

I am looking forward to my first Silversea cruise in April-May this year.  I booked door to door, and deviated my flights to arrive on the appointed day for a SS pre-cruise tour, and return home 10 days after I disembark.  All my transfers are supposed to be included, but my TA informed me that the transfer to the airport in Rome on disembarkation day is not included, since I am not flying home on the SS arranged flight that day.  However, I am flying to Milan that day with a ticket I purchased separately, so I still need to get to the airport.

My questions are:  (1) Is my TA correct that SS will not include that last airport transfer and I cannot purchase it in advance?  (2)  If so, will I be able to purchase that transfer from SS while on board? and (3) If so, would that be a good idea, or should I instead book an independent private transfer in advance?

I have not been to Rome, Civitavecchia, or FCO before, so I have no personal experience with them.  But it is my impression that it is a long way from the port to the airport, and probably better to make some sort of advance transfer arrangements, rather than planning to use a taxi or Uber.  Is that true, or can I rely on either taxi or Uber as a backup plan, without booking in advance?

On 1/22/2023 at 5:32 PM, irishwitchy said:

I did discover yesterday that I could deal with excursion changes for the second leg prior to the first leg ending, which was great to hear.  

They did not let us do this recently on Navigator.  Admittedly, I asked about it more than one day before turnover, but they should have told me to do it then if it was possible.  They said I had to wait until the next segment.

1 hour ago, Tnkbstr55 said:

We priced out the flights we have arranged to learn the cost if we booked the same on our own.  The price came out to $6,500+ pp.  In the end we go to and from in Business class non stop flights for approx. $1500 pp.

Plus the amount of the rebate you would have gotten for declining Regent Air.  We are doing the same route with Silversea out of Las Vegas, and Silversea also gave us Swiss Air through Zurich to Athens, and the return flight on American with a stop in Philadelphia. There are no nonstop options out of LAS.  Delta would have had a 4-figure additional upcharge.

On 1/19/2023 at 7:39 AM, rallydave said:

{Portland PDX is NOT a gateway city for regent.  You can pay a fee thin $149 PP and they will start your travels in Portland or you can use Seattle or any of the other Gateway cities which are listed on their website.  Please be aware that you are not guaranteed Business class if your fights involve domestic flights to get to your international flight which will be Business.

I think $149 PP (round trip) would be a terrific bargain.  For us to fly out of LAS (Las Vegas), it is $124.50 per person each way, $249 PP round trip.  (Plus the $175 PP deviation fee, of course.)

Or did they increase the price to $149 per person each way, $298 PP round trip?

The HDMI port on Navigator was along the back of the desk going into the wall, completely separate from the TV.

18 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

I checked on my Android phone (on a Canadian network albeit I'm physically in the States right now), and there is no Wifi Calling option in settings.  Guess it's a network-provider option that my provider just doesn't offer.

 

Funny since WhatsApp uses the internet, right?

 

All this being said, if I have to text my husband onboard, I can just send him a text message.  So what if it costs $1.50 per end?  Not a big deal. (Ah, just checked, we have free text messaging in the Caribbean per our travel package to the States, so no prob.!)

Wendy, the "free text messaging" might be (IMO probably is) just for the Caribbean islands, not on a cruise ship.  You might want to check that out before counting on that price, since the cost on board the ship is probably much higher.  I know that is the case for my US based T-Mobile account.

Also, do you have fairly new phones?  You could well be right about no wifi calling because your provider does not offer it, but if your phones are older maybe they don't support that functionality.  That is another thing you could check out with your provider.

On 1/17/2023 at 11:58 PM, ChucktownSteve said:

Don't forget to watch the back page of Passages.  You'll be able to eat lunch whenever you wish in Prime 7 or Chartreuse as offered without reservations.  Some days its offered in one, the other or both restaurants.

Do Prime 7 and Chartreuse each have a fixed menu at lunch like they do for dinner?  Is the lunch menu the same in Prime 7 and Chartreuse on the days when both are open?  I presume they will be different from the dinner menus -- is that the case?  If they are fixed menu(s), are there also daily specials that are different each day?

I found the mostly fixed menu in Compass Rose on Mariner and Navigator a bit disappointing for 24 nights on board, with mostly the same offerings except for very few daily specials.  The same daily specials were also available at La Veranda, as well as other dishes that changed daily.  I prefer table service, but sometimes there was just not enough variety in Compass Rose IMO.  The food was terrific, though, and this is certainly not a big complaint.

In our "Deluxe Verandah" cabin on Navigator last month, there was an HDMI port along the back of the desk.  We assumed that it would connect to the TV, but we did not have anything to plug into it, so I can't confirm that.  I can't think of what else it might have been used for, unless it was just for maintenance???

On 12/1/2022 at 3:46 AM, papaflamingo said:

It's one wifi connection per suite unless Concierge or higher or you have Gold status.  Here is the quote from Regent's website: 

" FREE Unlimited WiFi includes one log-in, one device, per suite"

That is their written policy.  However, on our recent Navigator cruise (Silver, below Concierge level), the IT guy explained (?) to me that although we got one log-in, it could be used on 4 devices at the same time.  So we both logged in as DH, but we each had 2 devices and we were able to keep all of them online.  I don't think that is the official policy, but I certainly was not about to argue with him about it!  😁

He said that once we are Gold, we can both have 4 devices, although 2 each is plenty for us.

I have Amex Platinum and an Amex Green card.  I can charge the trip on my Amex Green card and still get the Platinum $300 OBC, along with the Green 3 points per dollar (same as Chase Sapphire Reserve).  Amex T&Cs say that I have to pay the entire trip on Amex (either card) to get the Platinum OBC benefit.  My TA says that may not be the case, and I can charge part of the cost with another company's card.  I am currently testing this advice to see if it works.

The Platinum OBC on Regent is nowhere near as good a deal as it was with Crystal, where I got $500 OBC, per segment.  We usually do B2Bs, so this is a big difference.  Then again, look what happened to Crystal....  I was very glad I had all my Crystal bookings on Amex, though, because Amex came through with reimbursement even though it would have been too late for successful Chase disputes.

On Regent, I get $300 Amex Platinum OBC per booking.  Often my TA's consortium will do the same, but I cannot have both.  I have to choose either $300 from Amex or $300 from the consortium, which makes that particular Amex benefit essentially worthless much of the time.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve trip cancellation/interruption coverage is up to a maximum of $10K per person, $20K per trip, and $40K per year.  If you have to cancel multiple trips for a covered cause in the same year, you may not get the full $20K for all of them.  Amex Platinum also provides some trip cancellation coverage, but not if I charge the trip on my Green card.

My current strategy is to make the deposit on my Amex Green card to get the Platinum OBC benefit (if there is one), 3 points per dollar, and to have the oldest payment(s) on Amex, just in case a credit card dispute is needed in the future.  When it comes time for final payment, I will put up to $20,000 on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card.  I will still get trip insurance, with a company that covers pre-existing conditions even if I don't insure the full cost of the trip with them, but for less than the full cost of the trip, by at least the amount paid with my Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

At some point, I will probably rethink whether or not it is worth it to have both Chase and Amex, but for now there is enough benefit to us to justify both cards.

3 hours ago, HotRoot said:

I could have googled it but was looking for an easy answer.  So it is heat as well as hot water.  We still would not call an engineer.  Maybe a plumber or HVAC person?  

Maybe that is what she meant by "engineer."

We were just on Navigator in a Deluxe Veranda cabin.  There was an HDMI socket amongst the various plugs along the back of the desk.  We did not try to use it for anything, but our guess is that it would be an input for the TV, very conveniently located at the desk instead of on the back of the TV.  Can anyone confirm that is what it was?

19 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

Since we wanted cabins close together, and didn't want to lose ours to save a few hundred dollars, we didn't rebook.

Our TA has been able to "cancel and rebook" us in the same cabin whenever this situation has arisen (several times, including at least once or twice on Regent).  If the promotion is still active, it might be worth asking your TA if they can do that.

3 hours ago, SusieQft said:

@cwn, thank you for the details about the cooking class. i am signed up for some on my upcoming first Splendor cruise, and looking 

forward to them.  I apologize for the split post.  I am on Navigator right now, and the internet is very sketchy.

I have heard that someone not participating in the class can help consume the food produced.  DH has no interest in the "class" part but would be interested in helping me eat the class projects.  Is that possible?  Your description sounds like the eating occurred at random intervals during the class, as the items were completed and ready.  Would he be able to hang out on one of the stools in the back, and jump in when there was something to taste?  Or would he need to enroll in the class in order to do that?

@cwn, thank you for the details about the cooking class. i am signed up for some on my upcoming first Splendor cruise, and looking 

Can't it make hot water?

They open up all the balcony dividers on turn around day to clean the balconies and the outside of the doors/windows.  So it is certainly possible.  There might be a few (at bulkheads??) that can't open, but I doubt it and if so I suspect that it would not be more than one per deck per side, so that they can gain access to all the balconies from the outside.

I am currently booking some culinary classes for a Splendor cruise next year.  DH is not interested in the culinary classes, and I noticed that Regent will only allow me to use "my half" of our OBCs as payments for my classes.  My question is:  if I make a payment now with my credit card (for the amount over my half of the OBCs) and he does not use "his half" of the OBCs, will my credit card payment eventually be refunded from his OBCs?  Will be be able to use his OBCs on board to book something for both of us, such as a wine luncheon, or can he only use them for himself?  The OBCs are non-refundable in that we cannot cash them out at the end of the cruise if we don't use them.

Alternatively, can I book some of the culinary classes in his name and attend in his place?  I think the shore excursion tickets are pretty interchangeable.  Is it the same with the culinary classes?

I wish it were Silver, but I am pretty sure that you have to be Gold to get 4 connections.  We have one more cruise in Silver, and DH is already complaining about sharing one connection.  We took advantage of the "free 2 level upgrade" to get Concierge on our first cruise so we had 4 for that.

Georgia Peach, THANK YOU for taking the time on your trip to share with all of us.  I have been very much enjoying vicariously cruising with you.  I have a question about the wine lunch.  It looks like something I would really enjoy, especially if there is some educational presentation about the wines served -- something about them and why they are a good pairing with each course.  Did they do that, or were they just served as listed with each course, but without commentary?

On 11/29/2022 at 3:25 PM, Portolan said:

No password.  You register your device using your suite number and some personal info.  You can register multiple devices, but only the number of free links you've been provided can be used simultaneously (or, I believe you can purchase extra links).  E.g., if you have 2 links (and they are assigned by passenger, so 1 each) you could have 2 devices registered for each passenger (4 total), but you'd have to disconnect any other device assigned to a specific passenger before you could log on with the other.

I thought the base level of internet is one link per suite, unless you are at least Gold or in a Concierge suite or higher?  Then if you are Gold, Concierge, or higher, then you get 4 links per suite.  Am I mistaken?