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Wow! So much for the claim that it's safer to have Regent book your flights because they will stand behind you if anything goes wrong. It seems people really need to think twice before trusting Regent with their flights.

Oh., I thought OP missed the entire cruise due to missed flight.

Thanks, I'll definitely be checking out your Roll Call posts. However, there has been a significant change since your 2017 cruise - a severe drought. Here's a repost of my comment in the Roll Call for the upcoming cruise... I'm starting to become concerned about how the drought, which has caused the Amazon rivers to fall to the lowest levels in 121 years, will affect our cruise. It seems to be far more serious than I had thought. "Shipping and logistics group A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) warned customers on Wednesday that navigation in the area of Manaus, the largest Amazonian city, was not possible." I just returned from an Iceland cruise where we missed 3 of 5 ports due to weather. I'm afraid this cruise will likely see some major alterations as well.

Are you saying that Regent didn't compensate you at all for your missed cruise? Didn't refund your cruise fare?

Thanks. That sounds like an approach that will work for us🙂

We're on this cruise as well. I'm kind of dreading the thought of having to wear a waterproof poncho in that humidity😬 I'm wondering if some people just opt to forego the poncho and get wet? That's been our approach in places like Hawaii, but there it's just intermittent rain. @Genoabay fyi There's a roll call for this cruise that you might find useful

My point is, I doubt "The "Executive and The Retreat teams" actually have any close ties to the actual executives. I suspect they are a branch of the customer service organization and, in truth, sit rather far down the organization chart. I could be wrong. I'm simply basing this on my experience with a large multinational corporation and how customer correspondence to the executives (CEO, etc.) were handled there. I suppose cruise lines could be different in this regard, but I doubt it.

I may just be a cynic, but my guess is the people who respond are part of a customer care organization - which may even be outsourced and are not closely attached to the executive offices. Their job it to make unhappy customers happy by telling them they appreciate their comments and will pass them on for further consideration. I suspect the most that executives ever actually hear is something like a monthly summary of the nature of the calls/emails from customers. That's something, and it probably makes it worthwhile to continue to call & email Celebrity, but I think anyone who thinks they are getting personal attention from the executive offices is kidding themselves. Again, I'm a cynic so I may be totally off base.

I have AARP Medicare Advantage SecureHorizons Plan 2 (HMO-POS) plan. I'd always heard that Medicare doesn't cover you when out of country, so I've always bought travel insurance (medical & evacuation). Now I've learned that many Advantage plans, including mine, do offer some coverage when out of country. It seems I still need to purchase medical evacuation coverage, but does anyone know if the medical coverage of this plan is adequate, or should I still buy medical insurance (e.g. Geoblue) when I travel out of country?

3mbps is actually a pretty good speed for a cruise ship and is nothing like dialup. Either your speed measurement is wrong or you have exceptionally high expectations.

And therein lies the conundrum. Sure all the recent changes have driven some loyal customers away, but; . There seems to be an ample supply of new customers to take their place. Ships are traveling at near capacity and cruise line revenues are setting records. Some may have stopped cruising, but others just moved up to more premium/luxury lines - most of which are owned by the same corporations as the cruise lines they left behind. All in all is seems this is working out quite well for the cruise industry, if not for the loyal customer base. We have quickly moved from a buyer's market to a seller's market.

Perhaps, although I suspect the embassy will have no problem locating your passport information with, or without, a paper copy. There's certainly no harm in carrying a copy though.

My thinking was to book the specialty restaurants for sea days to make them special. It seems sea days were a popular choice - at least on this cruise. Now we're just in a regular balcony, so we get last call for making dinner reservations and yet when I went to reserve online for Prime 7, every sea day for the first 2-weeks was not available at any time (except for boarding day). For the remaining sea days, the only times available were 8:30 and 9:00pm. Maybe earlier times are reserved for passengers in higher level cabins? At any rate as you suggested, on a 25-day cruise I suspect we will have no problem securing additional reservations once on board. Reservations for almost all port days were freely available.

YES that helps tremendously! Thanks.

I can top that.... Sent my shareholder request in yesterday at 12:28pm and got the approval email at 4:10pm the same day😁

Ah, so that explains my recent restaurant experience. I ordered a G&T and it was flat. Asked for it to be remade with canned/bottled tonic instead of fountain dispenser. The replacement drink arrived and was also flat. This despite being told that they only use canned tonic and a fresh can was used. Mystery solved! Unfortunately, it seems to be common practice at restaurant bars to keep the mixers sitting out. However, this was the first time I really noticed the issue of the tonic going flat. Live and learn.

First time on Regent. I made my dinner reservations 2-hours after it became available for a 25-night Amazon cruise in December. I was disappointed that almost every sea day was fully booked by the time I got a chance to reserve. With a cruise of this length and with so many sea days I thought availability would be better. That aside.... you mentioned you got reservations for two-tops. I didn't see anywhere during the reservation process where I could specify whether I wanted a shared or two-top table. Did I miss something? Do they even have shared tables in the specialty restaurants, and if so how do I request a two-top when reserving online? Thanks.

I've always wondered about this as I've read many posts advising people to carry copies of their passports with them instead of the real thing. I didn't think a copy of a passport would be of much use and it seems it isn't.

"The Brazilian Government has postponed the coming into force of the visa requirement for citizens from Australia, Canada, and the United States of America." It seems the visa requirement has been postponed until January 10th, 2024. https://www.gov.br/mre/pt-br/embaixada-camberra/English/consular-section/visas/visit-visa Doesn't help you since you are going at the end of January, but it seems to be an acknowledgement that they don't have the Evisa program ready yet.

Another downside for the OP to consider is that Celebrity really lacks activities for teenagers and there won't be very many other teens for them to interact with.

Your IP location will change depending on where you are. Starlink uses their new satellites to serve mid-ocean users. These satellites user laser inter-satellite communication to jump satellite-to-satellite until a ground station is within range. That ground station establishes the IP location and will vary.

True. Obviously I don't believe they should have.

True, but if the alternative is to be banned from more and more ports it might be something to consider along with developing new ports.

If local communities want to restrict cruise ships, that's entirely a matter for them to decide. In the not too distant future, there may be quite a few places that you simply can't travel to by cruise ship. It seems to me that the obvious option is for the industry to spread out. By that I mean they need to develop more ports of call and size ships to accommodate smaller ports. More ports lessens the density and impact of tourists in each port. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that the cruise industry has embraced this approach. To the contrary, it seems cruise lines are intent to exacerbate the problem by building increasingly larger and larger ships. I don't see this ending well.

We're all packed and ready to head to the airport in 5 hours! I still can't figure out why The Weather Channel shows forecasted temperatures 10 degrees colder than other forecasts, but I've concluded that they are odd man out and we can expect mid 50's temperatures for the next week or so. It does look like the sunny days are gone☹️ We are so ready to start our first post-Covid cruise!