pappy1022

Yes, we hope to get a negative test today. Thank you for asking.

I would say that you need to make reservations as soon as you can or eat late to get into the specialty restaurants. Don’t underestimate Compass Rose. We had several meals there that I thought were better than the specialty restaurant meals.

I hope that Regent takes note of the continuing issues with Destination “Services”. In preparing for our cruise I read every single topic on this board and issues with the Destination team popped up many times. IMHO, it is the weakest link in the Regent experience. Gilly framed it perfectly when saying that it seemed like they didn’t care.

Agree with the exceptions laundry service. I would bring some masks and maybe some Paxlovid just in case COVID is in play because the last 2 Splendor cruises had issues.

The pool bartender didn’t have Fever Tree and pretty much said he couldn’t get it (or wouldn’t) but I was able to get it elsewhere on the ship by asking.

P.S. September is the end of the cruising calendar for the British Isles. The weather was good, the crowds weren’t bad, and we only had 2 ports where there was another ship in town. I can imagine it gets pretty crowded in July & August. I would say that September is a great time to take a British Isle cruise. Over & out.

Lastly for the excursions. I must admit that going into this cruise, I was concerned about the quality and the big bus tours. Historically, I normally used private tours but this time I chose to use the Regent included tours because after all, we already paid for them in our cruise fare. We took 4 small group tours, 1 private tour and the rest were big bus tours. The good news is that we made every port, including 4 tender ports. The other good news is that the Regent included tours were for the most part very good. In Edinburgh, we did The City of Edinburgh & Castle. The trip was cut short because of the immigration process that got everything behind and the tender/bus snafu mentioned earlier. The castle was worth seeing and we would have wanted to spend more time on the Royal Mile but we didn’t have the time. The next stop was Invergordon. We did The Loch Ness & Urquhart Castle with a small group. It was actually a full sized bus with just 14 of us on board. The view were great and everyone was able to spread out. Seeing the Scotland landscape for the first time was beautiful and the castle was amazing. Who would have thought a castle in ruins would be so captivating. The tour bus guide filled in the driving time with lots of information. Sorry to say, we did not spot the Loch Ness monster. In Kirkwall, we did the small group Orkney’s Archaeological Wonders. This was a very good tour with lots of history, a couple of visits to standing stones and then the Skara Brae village ruins. An amazing display of the ruins with an equally amazing history. The guide was very good. Ullapool was up next. We did the Corrieshalloch Gorge & Loch Broom tour. This time is was a full bus but we didn’t have to go a long distance. We had a nice hike through the woods to the gorge highlighted by the crossing of a suspension bridge over the gorge. I was reluctant to take this tour because I have a fear of heights and the suspension bridge didn’t appeal to me. But I did it with shaky legs and made it across only to discover that I would have to come back over the same bridge. The gorge is nice but when you’ve seen the Grand Canyon it is not that impressive. I obviously made it back over the bridge and it was a little easier because I gained some confidence. The guide was entertaining. In Killybegs, I did the Fishing with a Local tour. 10 of us went on a fishing boat and we all bottom fished at the same time. It was windy and raining for the most part and the bay was choppy. A few small mackerel were caught with 1 cod. It was still fun and I am happy that we took this tour to say we went fishing in Ireland. In Belfast, the 6 of us took a private tour up the Antrim coast to The Giants Causeway with multiple stops along the way. This was a great tour with a great guide who told us all about the history of Belfast, the Troubles, and the wonderful scenery we were seeing. Although most of the Regent tours were good, this tour really illustrated the value of a private tour. We used Tours by Locals with Lorraine as the guide. In Glasgow, we did the Panoramic Scottish Lochs. Although the landscape was beautiful it felt monotonous at times as the lochs and the hills and mountains around us felt like we were seeing the same thing. I think we saw 7 lochs. We did take a ferry at the end of the tour to get us near Belfast. I would say that this was our least favorite tour. The guide was OK but couldn’t keep our attention. Ah, Liverpool. We did a small group tour on a small bus, In the Steps of the Beatles. This was a great tour with a very knowledgeable guide. I would highly recommend this tour especially if you have any interest in the Beatles. We stopped at multiple places to see where each of the Beatles grew up and places that inspired songs, such as Strawberry Fields. The Beatles exhibit was the highlight of the tour. It is done very well and shows the history of the famed band. 5 stars for this tour. Next on the cruise was Waterford. We did the countryside drive & Irish Pub tour. Again beautiful landscape and the guide was very good. We started out at an Irish Pub with a small group of Irish singers and had a pint. It was fun but it was too long and crowded (2 large buses). This tour was OK but near the bottom of our tours. Lastly, we did The Pepper Port Ramble in St Peter Port. This entailed a lovely hike through the woods and along the shore. Although this wasn’t a small group tour, we were in a small group. We learned about the history of Guernsey and the German occupation. A nice but fairly strenuous hike with some beautiful vitas along the shoreline. It was great to be able to take a long hike on a beautiful day. Well, that wraps up my review of our British Isle cruise. We had decent weather, enjoyable tours and a lovely experience on our Splendor ship. Yes there were a couple of bumps along the way but in the big picture they were minor. The positive experiences and the wonderful staff made this a trip to remember. I am open to any questions or comments about our cruise, so fire away. Thanks for reading what turned out to be a short novel. 😀

My last comment on the Edinburgh debacle is that sometimes stuff happens and the measuring stick of a good employee or company is that they take responsibility, don’t blame others for the mistake and apologize and promise to do better the next time. None of that happened and that is the most disappointing aspect of the incident.

I wish I could say the same. Maybe I was unlucky.

Now for the excursions. All but 1 were booked via the Regent included tours. We booked a private excursion for Belfast. Our first port was Edinburgh, a tender port. The evening before we arrived, we were told that that Immigration would pay us a visit in the morning to check our passports. This seemed like a surprise to Regent but it shouldn’t have because previous cruises coming from a “foreign” port did get the same visit. The process was orderly but it seemed useless because the immigration officers just glanced at our passport. It felt that as long as you had some passport and you were a human, you were good to go. After the immigration check, they called people in order of their tour time to come down to the theater to pick up a numbered bus ticket. We got our ticket when called and waited to be called for our tender. This is where the chaos started. There were 2 Regent people handing out tickets and there were 2 tours who were called to get their tickets, 10 & 11. Unbeknownst to anyone, they handed out both #10 & #11 tickets for our tour and also #10 and #11 tickets for another tour. So, we had a mix of people from 2 different tours assigned to 2 different buses. The Destination Services team finally realized their mistake and the team just froze and didn’t know what to do. Eventually they called everyone with a #10 and a #11 bus ticket to come back to the table to receive a new ticket. Meanwhile, the tenders were stacked up at the ship and they were begging to send people to board the tender. We heard this over the radios. These delays cost us almost 2 hours of time touring Edinburgh. But it didn’t end there. Our intention was to take the tour bus to the castle and then go on our own for the remainder of the day and catch the shuttle bus back to the ship. One person on the bus showed us where the Regent shuttle would pick people up. It was an official picture of a document from Regent. We did tell the tour guide that we wouldn’t be rejoining the tour after the castle visit. We got to the designated pickup location and waited for over an hour and decided to Uber it back to the ship. The next day, I went to the Destination Services desk to make sure I understood what happened in Edinburgh so that we would know what to do and where to go if we decided to use the shuttle in another port. The first thing she told me was that the shuttle bus would be at the same location where you were dropped off. That wasn’t true. The person told me to read the daily information letter for that port. It would have all the details. I showed her that there wasn’t anything in the letter about a shuttle bus in Edinburgh, but she insisted that I was wrong, so I asked her to look at the letter I had. She couldn’t find anything in it about a shuttle. She then said it was online but that turned out to be false. Finally she said, “we had a sign at the destination desk that told you where to go”. She just kept repeating the same old line and implied it was my fault. I told her another passenger showed me a picture of the document she stumbled on at the destination desk. I told her we went to the pickup point but it was a large park and that it would be helpful to be more specific. I was just trying to make sure that we would know exactly where to be and what time(s) to be there to take the shuttle. She just kept repeating the same standard line. I finally gave up and concluded that this person didn’t care or didn’t understand what happened. She was one of the 2 Regent people that was handing out tickets for our tour. Fortunately, this was a one off incident for me but I heard many people talking about the Destination Services lack of concern and customer service. When standing in line to get bus tickets, I heard several people expressing issues with the same standard response. To me, this team is the Achilles heel to the Regent experience. They don’t know how to handle issues whether real or perceived by the customer. I am going to end this session and start a new one for the remaining tours because this was the most frustrating and the only observation of poor customer service I experienced on the entire trip. I didn’t want to mix this bad experience with all the other tour experiences we had because all the other tours ran smoothly and on time. I will report our experiences on those in another posting.

We were very careful the entire time including in the airport, the plane and the ship. One of the attributes of COVID is that it is airborne and very, very contagious. Thankfully, it has mutated to the point where it is not as severe but people are dying every day from COVID. So yes, we have to take precautions, isolate if we get sick and realize that it is here to stay.

Here is the second installment of my review. This time I will focus on the ship, our cabin, food, service, the SPA and entertainment. Splendor is beautiful, easy to navigate (no pun intended), handles rough waters well, and she is in great shape. Our cabin, a concierge cabin # 777 was beautiful, spacious and comfortable. The only issue, if you could call it that, was that a took a bit of effort to get the veranda door open. My only regret was that having cabin 777, I should have gone to the casino and parlayed those lucky numbers into some casino winnings. 😀 I would give the ship and our cabin a 5 star rating. The service from the Regent team was great with one big exception. We will talk about this in another installment when I discuss shore excursions. We built a special relationship with a few crew members but unfortunately most of them went missing late in the cruise when the respiratory issues were brought to our attention by the captain. Afterwards, all crew were wearing masks and I must admit it took away from the atmosphere and we missed the smiles from the wonderful crew. I give the crew a 5 star rating with the exception of the one team to be mentioned later. Our cabin attendants were excellent. They were efficient and courteous and seemed like they worked 24 hours a day. They were always available. Did I mention the included laundry services? Wow, I heard good things about this service but they exceeded our expectations. They followed every special handling notations we made on our ordering slip. One night we forgot to put the paperwork in the laundry bag and when we discovered that the next day we called our cabin attendant and she worked with the laundry team to find our bag and get the laundry done to our expectations. The SPA was good but very expensive. We knew that going in. My massage was OK but not great. My wife very much enjoyed her massage and her facial. She would probably give the SPA a 4 rating but I will give it a 3. The facility is beautiful and the people are very nice and helpful. We also used the exercise facility a couple of times. It is well equipped with cardio equipment and weight machines with a beautiful view. Food was very good but we had a few duds along the way. We ate dinner at Chartreuse (1), Prime 7 (2), Pacific Rim (2), Sette Mari at LaVeranda (2) and Compass Rose (5). The first day on the ship we were approached if we wanted to eat an additional time at Prime 7 and we did, giving us 2 reservations at that restaurant. I also made an additional reservation at Pacific Rim once on board. I would say that Chartreuse was my least favorite restaurant because I didn’t find the menu offerings to be the most appealing. Prime 7 steaks are good but nowhere near high end steak house restaurants. We ate there twice and one time the lobster was rubbery and the second time it was better but the Lobster in Compass Rose was superior to what we had at Prime 7. La Veranda was fun and the food was good but get there right at 6:30 if you want to get a seat. It is first come first served. Pacific Rim was excellent and the Miso Cod was superb. Pacific Rim was my favorite restaurant. I chose 2 completely different options during my 2 reservations and everything was great. Compass Rose is underrated. There are so many choices. It was as good as most of our visits to the specialty restaurants. We settled in on an included Bordeaux blend as our go to red wine and was able to get it in every venue. All you have to do is ask. We did get room service breakfast a couple of times and it came on time and it was hot. The Pool Grill is great for lunch with many options. I would give the food 4 stars with many dinners being 5 stars. There was some inconsistency in steaks being cooked to specifications and multiple times the lobster was not what it should be. But those were the exceptions and not the norm. We went to all the evening shows and I even tried my hand at karaoke one night. I think I had too much to drink that night because I have never done that before. I did get 2 of the Regent staff and a couple of people from the audience for backup singers and dancers for my 2 set show. I hope no one recorded that performance. I would rate it a minus 5. The Regent shows were good with my favorites being the Irish dancers, the comedian, Diamond Run and the cruise ship crew spectacular. The entertainment was good enough to conclude an evening on a positive note but it isn’t Regent’s best attribute. I would give 3 stars as an average with a couple of 4 stars for specific offerings. Regent did bring in local Irish dancers and musicians and that was fun. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t bring in a Beatles tribute band in Liverpool as they have done so on many other cruises. The most fun was when the crew members put on a talent show. They had one female singer who should be hired as an entertainer. She was that good. That performance got a standing ovation from the crowd. Nothing but smiles that night. My next review will be about our shore excursions, tendering, and our experiences with Destination Services. Stay tuned.

And now ……. My wife has tested positive for COVID with the symptoms starting a day after we left the Splendor. No GI issues. She has a headache, low grade fever, cough and nasal drainage. Very much like a bad cold but she was tested and it’s COVID. Fortunately, COVID is a lot different disease for most than it was at the beginning of this pandemic. So cruisers beware. It is out there and it is spreading.

Our transfer was not from Virgin but through Regent. I just think we were lucky. Our friends that we met up with, came and went on a big bus.

We just got back from our British Isle cruise on Splendor and I wanted to provide a detailed review of the entire trip. I will break up my review into multiple submissions as I find the time to provide all the details. Overall the trip was wonderful but not without some hiccups. Let’s start with the Regent supplied air travel to Copenhagen from Texas (via Heathrow) and then the return to Texas direct from Heathrow. We flew British Airlines (BA) from Austin to London and then to Copenhagen. We arrived about 1 hour late into Heathrow but fortunately we had a 3 hour layover. Arrived and departed from terminal 5 so that made the transfer quicker and we were able to use fast rack security. Halfway to Copenhagen, the captain said we were going back to London because of a medical emergency onboard. I’m not sure what happened but the man walked off on his own power with the medical team. After refueling and submitting a new flight plan, we arrived in Copenhagen about 3 hours late. Pretty good given the circumstances. BA service was OK and the flight to London from Austin was great for privacy and sleeping. The flight home was on Virgin Atlantic (VA) and it was 2 1/2 hours late departing. Fortunately the VA club at Heathrow is fantastic and the service in the club matched anything we experienced on Regent. The VA 787-9 plane has some funky upper class seats (hate the term upper class) that is an old layout and isn’t as private or as comfortable as the newest business class seats in the industry. But, the service onboard is phenomenal and the food is very good. We were happy with the flights that Regent supplied and wouldn’t hesitate to use the deviation process again. Let me complete this first review submission with the hotels and transfers that Regent provided. When we arrived in Copenhagen in the luggage area, there was a person with a Regent sign waiting. After collecting our luggage, we were whisked away in a private Mercedes van to our hotel at the Marriott Copenhagen. I was expecting a big bus with multiple people so I was pleasantly surprised. When we arrived at the hotel, there was no wait to check in but the Regent desk with information was closed for the night. Fortunately our friends had arrived earlier and gave us the details for breakfast and for the transfer to the ship. I would rate the hotel in Copenhagen as a 3 star hotel. It was fine but nothing special. The transfer from the hotel to the ship was on a big bus but it went smoothly. Post cruise, we stayed at the Landmark London Hotel in London. It is a beautiful hotel with a classic charm. I would rate this hotel 4-5 stars. The trip from the Landmark Hotel to Heathrow brought another pleasant surprise. We had a private transfer again vs a big bus experience. Not sure why that happened but I am not going to complain. We arrived at the private entry for Virgin Airlines and our bags were taken inside to their upper class (there’s that term again) check in counter. We then went through a dedicated security line and then into the amazing Virgin Atlantic club. Overall, I would rate the entire travel, transfer and hotel experiences as 4 stars with some 5 stars mixed in. I promise to provide detailed reports on the ship, our cabin, the food, the service and excursions both private and Regent arraigned in future submissions, so stay tuned.

Here is what we saw and heard as we were walking down the hall toward our cabin. The Regent person was standing outside the cabin door talking to a person who was inside the cabin. He was explaining to the unidentified cruiser how much and when to take Paxlovid. We heard him say Paxlovid and we all know this is a drug to help minimize the impacts and length of illness from COVID. The previous evening, the captain announced that several people had reported respiratory illness. The next day, every ship employee was wearing a mask. We noticed that a few of the employees that we interacted with every day weren’t’ t seen anywhere on the ship. Mask usage by cruisers increased but it was still a minority of the passengers. From that day forward, they announced that everyone should be washing their hands thoroughly and using hand sanitizer often. You can believe what you want to believe but there was no doubt in our minds that multiple people with COVID were on the ship. Again, the only reason I reported this was for the people coming on board after our cruise was done, so that they could be prepared to whatever extent they deemed necessary. Our cruise enjoyment was not impacted. We wore masks on the tenders, buses and anywhere lots of people were congregated in close proximity.

The name of the person was never identified and I have no clue who it was. I was just letting people on future cruises to come prepared because it is out there and spreading quickly.

This is definitely COVID. Walked by a stateroom near ours and they were delivering meds specific to COVID and telling the person to stay isolated for the remainder of the trip. We are taking all precautions and wearing a mask whenever we are on a tender, bus etc. we’ve been washing hands and using sanitizer the entire trip. All ship personnel are wearing masks.

I will send a detailed review of my time on Splendor as soon as I get home next week from our British Isle cruise. Overall the trip has been very good. The captain just informed us of several people having respiratory illness on board. We all know what that is.

Besides putting hand sanitizers in the cabins what else is Regent doing to get this ship cleaned up and sanitized? Is there any sense of how many people have gotten sick? When do cruise lines have to publicly notify officials of onboard illnesses? I have to admit that I am getting concerned about this trip net week given that COVID is rapidly on the rise and I know people and read about a lot people who come home from a cruise with COVID.

Get them to clean that ship top to bottom, we are next onboard. 😀

The air credits for our trip were so little, I couldn’t purchase main cabin tickets on my own with the credits being offered. Made it an easy decision to stay with Regent’s business class offering.

That doesn’t seem right. You should be able to see the entire itinerary with the details somewhere.

If you are paying extra for a small group excursion you will have fewer people but also likely a much smaller vehicle. There are other excursions that you can pay for but they are large group tours. Look at the excursion information by port to read about what’s included, what the additional cost, if any, and a description of what you will see and how strenuous the excursion is going to be.

Thanks Mike. I’ve been told by people on here that it disappears after changes aren’t allowed any longer because we are days away from our cruise. Same holds true for the included hotels. They aren’t showing on the account any more either.