SWFLAOK

4 hours ago, hersheyhughes said:

Looks like Viking is experimenting with several aspects of their excursions. On our Eastern Seaboard cruise in July and August we had 2 optional excursions ($169 each for 6 hours) which included lunch.  At the 1st restaurant we were advised we would be responsible for any beer and wine we drank. On the 2nd excursion we were advised on the bus if we had beer or wine we would be responsible.

It was very surprising considering all of the other cruises and excursions we have taken with Viking. On our cruise in Nov of '21 bottles of wine were on the tables for us to enjoy. During that cruise we had 7 long optional tours and we were never asked to pay.

I questioned the practice last month and was given the explanation it had to do with it being a foreign port and what their practices were.  A pretty flimsy excuse, at best. Seems Viking is cutting corners where they can. 

On our 2 week Viking River cruise, one red and one white were offered with lunch and dinner onboard. If you asked for something other than what was offered, you were almost always charged for the bottle, even if you only had 2 glasses from it, and an additional glass wasn't offered from it. We know this because we looked at our bill online on the first afternoon onboard, and found that we had been charged over 40 dollars for the bottle that our 2 glasses of wine were poured from. We had already paid for the Silver Beverage package when we boarded, but it wasn't entered in the computer. The Batr Tender at Happy Hour made that he entered it before we wasted any more money on wine. Most of the wine was not very good. The Happy Hour cocktails were better.

The exursions on Viking River clearly indicated whether or not a drink was included, whether lunch was included or not. We stopped at a brewery that said that 2 small glasses of beer where included, and that food was not. They did have pretzels, and those who wanted an extra glass of beer received it until we left a short time after the tasting. On a few other excursions that were an additional cost, one beer, wine or soft drink was included as described, and one that had fewer people than expected since quite a few people who had signed up didn't show up encouraged us to have as more of their local beer and wine before returning to the ship by foot.

19 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

This is a main reason we do not look at Regent or SS. We are almost always DIY travelers. So with all three of these lines, you are paying for the ‘free excursions’, because they are banked into the pricing. This is incredibly attractive to a whole lot of travelers. 

They definitely aren't "free excursions" on Regent although I think they recently called them that in one of their brochures. They're included excursions, because they're included in the cost of the cruise.

Since Oceania is owned by the same company as Regent, we have always received many brochures for their cruises. We are not interested in a ship with over 1200 passengers. Some of the ships are in our passenger range, but with O plus, we would have to pick one of the pluses we get on Regent. We could pay more and get all 4 pluses, and get a smaller cabin and still need to pay for more if we want the Regent experience. If you don't need everything that Regent includes, and don't mind a larger ship, then I think Oceania is worth looking at.

We don't mind going out on our own to explore a port that we're docked in. We have done this a number of times since a port that you dock in often is close to a town worth exploring, but not always. If we need to travel to get to a place we can explore on foot, then it needs to be a shuttle provided by the cruise line. We avoid independent tours unless we are in a very small port like Fakarava in French Polynesia, where locals can give you a nice car tour of the island where they were born, and will be sure to get you back to the tender dock on time to return to your ship. For large, crowded ports, we don't trust independent operators to get us back to the ship on time.

On 9/6/2023 at 9:35 AM, Harrietq said:

We leave October 9 for “Far East Horizons” Tokyo-Hong Kong.

 

Offered included tours with the 1-day stop in Taipei are “Highlights of Taipei”, a superior 5 hour tour and “Taipei in Brief” the usual 4 hour bus-drive death-march, take your pictures through the windows tour. The better tour wasn’t even available on PV booking day, as far as I can tell. Long gone for us in DV steerage. Most paid excursions were gone (with a few popping back up after assiduously checking MVJ daily. 🙄) for DV booking. I can’t imagine what slim pickings were left for V. And Japan does not have a great deal of third party (Viator, etc.) choices.
 

Yet more reasons I’m glad to be concluding my business with Viking after this trip (vouchers) and cruising with Azamara, Explora and Regent. 

You need to think twice if you think Regent will be better with their included tours. We have 100 days onboard Regent, and another cruise booked next April. We've had some very bad included excursions, and just pay for what looks like the best excursion for us. We pay extra for "small group" tours, but a few times we've been on the same tour boat with those who did not pay for "small group". 

And there is no comparison between the cost of a cruise on Regent and a cruise on Viking.

We have only done one Viking River cruise so far. We booked the 2 room Verandah suite. It was very nice, and we had wine in our suite's refrigerator (and red on the counter), and free laundry for the entire cruise. We bought the beverage package, and did a 2 night pre and a 3 night post, in the upgraded hotels, and paid for the business class upgrade on our flights, although we were bumped from one of our flights, and received only a minimal refund from Viking after contacting them several times. Almost all of our excursions were included, with a few that had a reasonable charge, and there were only 3 where we headed back to the ship without waiting for our guide to take us there at the end of the tour (but we did tell them) since we were in easy walking distance to the ship, and there were a few other places we wanted to stop on the way.

Compared to what we pay for Regent, we considered the Viking River cruise a bargain. And we have never stayed in anything higher than a Penthouse suite, and more often are in a Verandah, with none of them being 2 rooms (a bedroom in a separate room than he living area).

Based on that, we booked our first Viking Ocean cruise in an Explorer suite through the Panama Canal from Panama City to Fort Lauderdale. We could never afford a cabin that large on Regent. There were only 2 excursions that we paid extra for, and we paid for the beverage package. We were able to book first class air from Miami to Panama City for less than the air credit since we only needed it one way since we end our cruise in Florida. Viking Mars is the largest ship we've ever cruised on, so we hope it doesn't feel crowded. We found the narrow halls of the Viking Longship , and the large tables in the restaurant to be difficult to deal with, especially since our river cruise was just 2 months after they started cruising again after the Covid shutdown. We had booked that cruise and paid in full in November of 2017 and took the cruise many years later with no refund offered.

We are on a long upcoming Silversea cruise. When I try to logon to mysilversea (which I've done many times before), I'm often directed to a site that is not Silversea. It has something other than Silversea in the website name. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't depending on my device. I always double check the website name before I continue.

Our previous experience on Viking was a river cruise, and there were just the 2 of us on the cruise. But the bus was assigned based on when we got to the buses based on the time on our tickets (and on TV), and not a bus number preassigned on the ticket.

Most of our cruise experience is 100 nights on Regent on a number of cruises from 2017 through this  year. The bus assigned was based on when you checked in for the excursion in the lounge, in most cases, or at the bus if it was a "meet on the dock" excursion which was announced on the TV, and in the printed bulletin on the bed the night before on Regent. I suspect it's the same on Viking Ocean.

We traveled with 2 other people in 2 other cabins on Regent last April. We agreed on the excursions we wanted at the time we wanted, and all got online at the assigned time to book them. On Regent, we knew all of the times for excursions before we booked them, but on Viking Ocean, there were additional times shown when booked that were not shown before the actual booking time. It wasn't a problem for us since we're alone on the upcoming Viking Ocean cruise. On Regent, we were able to book restaurant reservations for all 3 cabins so we did that for all 4 of us. Our Viking Ocean dinner reservations can't be made until next Friday, so I don't know if they allow other cabins to be added.

We almost always make reservations ourselves rather than having our cruise TA do it since if something comes up, we can react faster. For example, I normally use my Jet Blue MasterCard for my travel expenses, and that's what my cruise TA has. With the Viking Ocean excursions last Friday, she would have needed to call us to get a Visa card number.

We just booked our excursions today at 3PM EDT  for our Viking Mars Panama Canal cruise in December. We booked the first 2 excursions that required an additional payment, and the rest of our excursions were included. If you booked your 4 bookings separately, then you will all need to get online at your earliest booking time, and book them. You will find that there are more than 1 booking time, especially for the included excursions. There was as many as 5 booking times. If you want to be booked together for all of your excursions, you will need to coordinate your bookings. It might to be easyest to give one person all of the user id and passwords to myviking and have them book all of the excursions as soon as they are available. If you have a cruise TA, it might be easier for them to bookj your excursions for 4 different reservations.

We needed to supply a Visa or American Express card, or a bank checking account for the excursions that required an extra fee. We used a Visa card, and Mastercard and Discover are not allowed. They said our reservations for the Visa paid excursions were not guaranteed until our credit card payment cleared, but the included excursions were booked immediately. We did not hear whether our Visa paid excursions were paid for today. We also paid today for our Silver Beverage package, and used our bank checking account for a 3 percent discount. We didn't hear anything about that being paid for today,

Our previous Viking experience was on a river cruise that we paid in full for more than 3 years before we took the cruise due to Covid cancellations on their part. We had paid for the 2 room Veranda Suite on deck 3, and the Viking Air Plus with a Business Class upgrade from MIA to Amsterdam and Prague to MIA after a 3 night post with a Premium hotel upgrade in Prague after our cruise ended in Budapest.

The only problem we had was with the Viking Air Plus. They booked us on Delta from Miami to Atlanta to Amsterdam in Business class. There was only 90 minutes between arriving in Atlanta, and leaving for Amsterdam. We complained at least 3 times that the connection would not work, and Viking said "no problem". Shortly before the trip, the connection was down to 75 minutes, and we asked Viking for a change. They said no, since Delta still said there would not be a problem. It was an early morning flight, and we stayed at the hotel in MIA, but the flight from ATL to MIA was late arriving, and there were many  people who brought their luggage to the gate and gate checked it. From our window near the front of the plane (which was not worthy or business class, but was called first class on this flight), I could see that there was 1 elderly man moving 1 bag at a time from the gate checked baggage pile to the escalator to the baggage hold. I knew we were doomed on our connection.

We arrived with just over 30 minutes to make our Amsterdam flight at the opposite end of the airport, and our flight attendant told us to run for it. There was 1 other passenger who was headed for the same flight, and the 3 of us were the first to exit onto the jetway. As we got to the door into the terminal, a  Delta employee closed the door in front of us. We knocked and called out, and she looked around, and after 3 or 4 minutes she opened the door with no explanation. The 3 of us ran, and made it just in time to see them lock the door 2 minutes early for our flight. They had given our business class seats away, and didn't want to face the consequences. Coincidentally, 3 seats in Premium economy (Delta One?) had opened up on the next flight. There was only 1 business class seat on the next flight, and we were OK with letting the business man taking it instead of 1 of us. He was already going to be late for his business meeting in Amsterdam. The Delta lounge didn't want to let us in since our "new" flight wasn't in business class. We showed them our previous boarding passes and they gave in. The lounge was the worst we've ever experience. Delta One was terrible with seats smaller than Jet Blue "even more space". The cruise was fine, and our flight home on BA and American was very good. But we had trouble getting our money back from Delta since we didn't get the business class that we paid for. Delta told us they had refunded the money to Viking, but it took a while and a number of calls before they gave us a few hundred dollars back.

We have our first Viking Ocean cruise coming up in December. We booked our own business class flights. On our other booked cruises, we still attempt to book business class through the cruise line, but we tell them that any flight on Delta, or through Atlanta is not acceptable.

This wasn't our first problem with Delta not allowing enough time between flights. We had complained about the flight from FLL to ATL to Vancouver with only 30 minutes in between. When we boarded,  I asked our flight attendant if we would make it. She said she was sure we would since the entire crew would be on the same connecting flight. And we did.

23 hours ago, cruiseej said:

Listen to a live version of Bruce Springsteen doing it. Even better than the original, IMO. 😀 (Or this one of Springsteen with Edwin Starr.)

 

 

But you won't get back the deviation fee if you do that, right?

Sometimes you have to give up a few hundred dollars to save many thousands of dollars for a cruise with bad flights at the beginning and end. After the trip, you don't want to remember the terrible fights rather than the cruise. The deviation fee on Regent flights just became non-refundable. I think it was higher, but refundable (or as a credt ona  future cruise?) in the past.

I really liked the Springsteen with Edwin Starr video. Their voices really seemed to complement each other.

On 8/4/2023 at 12:58 PM, Big Vin said:

For what it's worth (like war, what is it good for - absolutely nothing), we took one half the air credit and only had Regent fly us, first class, to Anchorage on Delta. There were no direct flights anyway, so we didn't bother with the air deviation. The long leg of the trip was MSP to ANC.

 

The cost per person for the first class upgrade was $823.50. (Effectively $648.50 since we didn't do air deviation.)

 

With the half air credit, plus some Canadian dollars, I booked a direct flight on Air Canada - whatever their first cabin is called, and it was not much more than the $350 air credit - about $500 each, I think.

War, what is it good for, by Edwin Starr. That song just popped into my head for no apparent reason a  couple of days ago, and it's been hard to get rid of. I had that single on a 45, and listened to it many times on my turntable back in my high school days.

We paid for a deviation on our Regent cruise next April several months ago. Our TA told us the deviation fee was applied right away, and was not refundable. A few days later, she told us that Regent wouldn't even be looking at flights for us until September at the earliest. If we don't have flights agreed on by the time our final payment is due a few  months later, we'll cancel and ask for all of our money back. We did that with Ponant last year since they could not ticket us before final payment was due. We recieved a full refund, but still wouldn't book Ponant again.

On 8/4/2023 at 6:52 AM, papaflamingo said:

I'm a retired Delta pilot.  Gates are never guaranteed, especially in Atlanta.  There are many reasons for gate changes that can affect your flight.  Often the F/A's don't know the gate assignment until they ask the pilots.  But if you want to know the expected gate, you can always go on the web and check the status of the flight. Usually it will include the gate you leave from and gate you'll arrive at. Then check the status of your next flight and it will give the departure gate.  Also, for planning, the gate a flight goes into today is not the gate it'll go into in a week, so don't count on planes being next to each other next week just because they are today.  

Obviously,  the first thing I do is go on "the web" and check what gates the flights are departing from and landing at. Unfortunately, they aren't always available to us as passengers before we arrive for our flights.  If they're not available to Flight Attendants, then why would they be available to passengers? I would think that once onboard a flight that's continuing on to our next destination with the same flight attendants that they would know where they are heading for the rest of the day.

Since what I described was the only GOOD experience we've ever had in Atlanta flying with Delta, we will never fly on Delta again. And we will also avoid Atlanta if possible on any airline. Thanks for your input.

Our first Regent Cruise was back in late August 2017, with air included. They gave us a flight from FLL to ATL to Vancouver. There was a less than an hour transfer in ATL. Our itinerary showed us having less than an hour to make our flight, with a terminal transfer. We asked our TA twice whether we coul make that flight. She asked Regent and Delta, and they both said "yes".  On the day of our flight, I asked our Flight Attendant if she thought we would make our connection. She told us we would since they were the same flight crew, and our gate was next to ours after arrival from FLL. Why couldn't tell us that before we boarded?  On our flight back from Anchorage, we were on our way to the airport when a flight attendant felt ill, and couldn't board. Luckily we were able to stay with relatives in Anchorage overnight, and didn't have to pay for a hotel overnight as others did. They were able to find a flight attendant who was willing to take the flight the next morning from Anchorage to Dallas, and Dallas to FLL. But we were charged for the upgraded seats on both flights that were originally included in our Regent airfare.

But that was our first Regent cruise, and we've done many others since then, with better results. None of them have been to Alaska, and we really didn't enjoy the Regent Alaska cruise at all. We did, however  enjoy visiting relatives in Anchorage, and definitely enjoyed using their small RV to visit Denali, Fairbanks, and Valdez.

50 minutes ago, difranco said:

The Kray’s wore sharp suits and would have met the strict SS formal dress code. Times have moved on and formal needs to evolve into upmarket, stylish and on trend. With the extra capacity to fill, formal will become optional on all cruise’s, irrespective of length. After all, behaviour and manners are more important than a tie.

Does Silversea really have extra capacity that they need to fill? We had to book long ago for the 2025 World Cruise, and at the price we paid, we expect everyone to dress well on formal nights. Tuxedos and gowns should not be required on formal nights, but dresses and jackets with a tie should be.

After six on non formal nights,  jeans, sneakers, t-shirts, tank tops, ball caps, shorts, and skorts (as well as pajamas, bath robes, swim suits, and swim suit coverups) should be things that you only wear in your cabin, and not to any dining venue or bar, not even breakfast. If you want to dress casually, there's room service i your cabin, and a bottle of liquor or wine in your cabin can also be arranged.

What we have found is that behavior and manners are also ignored by those who dress inappropriately. Rule breakers ignore all rules, and not just the dress code. This isn't limited to one cruise line, or only cruise lines, but to other aspects of life.

16 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

That is not why they "don't want you to bring your own", because you could just as easily plug the ship supplied hair dryer into this outlet and blow the fuse.  Hair care appliances have always been the exceptions to the ban on "heat producing" items, and nearly every line allows them, certainly curling irons and straighteners, even if they provide a dryer.

Which cruise lines have you seen that documents that "heat producing" hair care appliances are exceptions to bringing "heat producing" devices onboard?  That's not what our experience has been on the cruise lines we've cruised on. Curling irons were never an exception on the cruises we've taken, and I never missed taking it. They provide a dryer that they know will work safely with their outlets.

But when someone asks what does it mean if there's one wide prong an appliance rather than 2 narrow prongs, then they should not be bringing their own "heat producing" appliances.

As for all of those who think their jokes about their "heat producing" appliances, and wearing jeans or ballcaps, I'm sure you would not find an electrical fire onboard your ship at sea to be a funny situation. People still try to bring candles onboard to freshen the smell in their cabin even though they're not allowed. Accidentally leaving a curling iron on in your cabin is even more likely than accidentally leaving a candle lit, and just as dangerous. Hopefully Viking Ocean checks the contents of all bags coming onboard to ensure unsafe items are not being brought onboard. All of the cruises we've taken this year and last have done that.

On 7/20/2023 at 6:59 PM, FlyerTalker said:

 

The outlet in the bathroom is low power.  Any kind of "hair" device there would overload the circuit.

 

All outlets are not created the same.  Be it A/C power or USB power.

 

 

And that's why they don't want passengers to bring their own heat producing electrical devices onboard.

12 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The outlet in the bathroom is limited to 0.02-0.04 watts.  It is designed solely for things like razors and electric toothbrushes.  Your curling iron draws in the neighborhood of 200 watts, or about 5000 times what the fuse inside the outlet is rated for.

And that's exactly why the cruise ships don't want you to bring your own curling iron, hair dryer, iron, or other electric appliances. Since they scan all of your luggage before you board, I hope they're taking away these things, and returning them to passengers at the end of the cruise (if they can still find them 😊).

We are rules followers, and always obey them. We have only done one Viking Cruise previously, and it was a river cruise.

Our third time was the charm for a cruise Viking River that we fully paid for in October 2018 (for a small discount). During Covid cancellations by Viking River in 2020 and 2021, they kept our full payment until May 2022. We enjoyed our Amsterdam to Budapest cruise with a pre in Amsterdam and a post in Prague, except for the small corridors on the Longship (not good when avoiding others and wearing a mask), and having to sit at tables of 6 to 10, or more, while needing to test for Covid every morning.

We did, however, like the Viking cruising style, and are trying the Viking Ocean cruise on Mars this December.

We have seen pajama clad cruisers at breakfast on Regent and Paul Gauguin. Even more disturbing are those with only their bathrobe with obviously nothing underneath, on the same cruise lines. I also don't like anyone with nothing but a cover up top, and a swimsuit bottom sitting on chairs at the pool grill. I don't want to sit on those chairs.

We hope to enjoy our upcoming first cruise on Viking Ocean. We will be following al lof the rules, and will not be bringing anything that's not allowed (like appliances that produce heat) and will be wearing what we're expected to wear. Viking is so much easier to wear what's expected than some of the other cruise lines that we travel on.

On 7/19/2023 at 12:51 PM, CannyScotTor said:

Here is a link to a list of items that are prohibited on board.

 

https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/20190826-Prohibited-Item-List.pdf?_gl=1*i07fv5*_ga*NDU3MzU1MTgzLjE2ODg4MjYwOTk.*_ga_24KNYDH1S6*MTY4OTc4NTE3Mi4xLjAuMTY4OTc4NTE3Mi42MC4wLjA.

 

It does not explicitly list hairdryers, but does list electrical appliances that produce heat.

 

HTH

That's because a hair dryer is included in your cabin so it doesn't need to be brought onboard. Apparently there are some that might think that they should bring their own hairdryer even though it's an electrical appliance that produces heat, and doesn't need to be brought with you since that 3will be one in your cabin.

2 hours ago, 17pandd said:

I doubt I'll book too far ahead on Viking again.  Our cruise is not full and has gone down by a third and added upgrades.  I don't enjoy reading about how much more I'm paying for a smaller room, but I know it was my choice to book when I did.  I agree -- Viking has its policies because they can.  We booked for the itinerary we wanted and I guess we're paying the price.

Our first Viking cruise was a river cruise. Several of our neighbors recommended Viking River Cruises, but they often had problems with water levels, and didn't totally enjoy their cruise.

But, we decided to book a cruise for May, from Amsterdam to Budapest with a 3 night post in Prague. We paid in full when we booked in the fall of 2018. I think a 3 percent discount was offered and we went for it.

Unfortunately, our cruise was scheduled for May 2020. No cruise was offered that year due to Covid. No refund was offered by Viking. We were "allowed" to delay our trip to May 2021. Unfortunately, the cruise was also cancelled in May of 2021, and we were "allowed" to delay our trip until May 2022. Viking had our full payment from fall of 2018 until May of 2022. But we did have the same cabin the we  had originally booked. Our included airfare wasn't what wanted since it was through Atlanta from Miami, and we didn't consider an hour to be sufficient for our transfer. Delta once again let us down, and we missed our business class flight that we had paid for, and waited 4 hours for a flight in a 5 in the middle seat that was totally uncomfortable, and considered Delta premium. Delta did refund money to Viking, but it took many months to get it back. I will never accept a Delta flight again from a cruise line.

We did have the same pre hotel and post hotel that we wanted. We enjoyed our river cruise, and half way through our daily Covid testing ended, and no one onboard our 2 week cruise until a "life of the party" guest tested positive at the airport in Budapest going directly there from the ship.

Despite our Viking River experience, we booked a Viking Ocean cruise through the Panama Canal in December of this year. Once again, we were asked to book the full payment when we booked about a year ago. Since we wanted an Explorer Suite, we paid in full. Now we would only need to pay 25 dollars down for a reservation. But we would not be able to book an Explorer suite since they've all been sold out for a long time. There are sone tiny Veranda suites still available, but that's not what we're looking for on this cruise.

We've sailed Regent more than any other cruise line, and there are almost never any small children onboard. We most recently sailed on Navigator for the first time, and there were 2 kids onboard for our 2 week Caribbean cruise. One was about 4, and was with the wife of a high level crew member. She was well behaved. The other was about 7, with her parents. She was also well behaved. Neither appeared to be having a good time, other than spending time with their parents.

Regent does have entertainment for children during the summer, especially on their Alaska cruises. But other than that, not so much.

22 minutes ago, Flgreg said:

SWFLAOK---thank you. I'm hopeful we are actually leaving from Barcelona particularly since the cruise immediately preceding ours is scheduled to disembark in Barcelona the same day we embark.

That sounds like a good omen if the previous cruise is disembarking in Barcelona. I hope it stays that way.

We have a Regent cruise booked for next April from Bangkok to Abu Dhabi. We don't know if Navigator will be docked in Bangkok, or in Laem Chabang which is 2 hours south of Bangkok. Navigator will fit at the Bangkok dock. We were expecting to board in Laem Chabang, after our 3 nights pre in Bangkok. But while we were once told we were boarding in Laem Chabang, we have an overnight onboard, and the next day's excursions are from Bangkok, which makes them a really long day, after a long day to get to the ship from Bangkok.

We already paid a non-refundable payment to get our flights from Miami to Bangkok, but while we paid this 2 months ago, they told us they wont' attempt to book our airfare until September. Last year we cancelled a Paul Gauguin cruise on Ponant because they wouldn't ticket us on our included airfare before we had to pay in full for our cruise. And they were going to ticket us on Cathay Air through Hong Kong, which wasn't the flight we wanted. Ponant had already screwed us in April of 2020. We were paid in full, and had had paid our own airfare from Florida to LAX, with a hotel. Ponant notified us the day after our last chance to cancel our cruise. They cancelled our cruise due to Covid, and only offered us a future cruise credit. We lost our hotel in LA on the way to the cruise and the way back. We eventually lost our airfare on Jet Blue since we were never able to rebook on another flight that we could take before we lost our travel bank credit.

I really don't trust any cruise lines or airlines at this point. You really need to check them often, and make a complaint as soon as you see something that isn't what you expect. Stopping at a port other than downtown Barcelona, is something I'd keep a close eye on.

1 hour ago, Flgreg said:

 

@phillipahain. Can I ask why you mention Tarragona? Our cruise in November is clearly marketed as embarking in Barcelona.

All of the Regent cruises that I've seen in the future from the brochures that they send us every week or 2 have shown Tarragona as their port. We were dropped off in Barcelona last October, and have sailed from there in the past. When I saw Tarragona, and how far it is from Barcelona, I was relieved that we weren't planning to sail on Regent from or to Barcelona in the future. It's not convenient at all.

3 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

No,at least they are trying and can get garments altered to fit.

Those that don't try have given up.

And the light isn't very bright in the dining rooms for dinner. No one will see the quality of your suit or tuxedo, or of your "dressy" dress. You just need to try to meet the dress code, and you will have no problem.

As far as drinks being "free" or "included", they're included in your fare. If you don't drink wine or cocktails, then you are subsidizing the rest of us. The same is often true for excursions which are sometimes "included" and sometimes not and charged extra for. If excursions aren't included, they're often quite expensive and can really add up.

23 hours ago, RonWL said:

Exactly....  That's why I put "free" in quotation marks....  

Just a quick query.  You mentioned Regent.  How about Seabourn?  Anyone cruise with them?  How does that line compare with Silversea?

We looked at Seabourn but we didn't find an itinerary that we liked at a time of year we wanted. My brother found the Silversea cruise from Barbados to Barbados through the Southern Caribbean, up the Amazon and back, and it's easy to fly from Florida to Barbados. All 3 of us enjoyed this cruise, and having a Silver Suite allowed the 3 of us to dine in our cabin on one of the formal required nights. My brother had his own veranda suite cabin, and enjoyed it when he wasn't enjoying our much larger cabin with us.

21 minutes ago, RonWL said:

They have dancing on Silversea?

Of course they do. If there's music, there's dancing. Even on the Viking River cruises and Sea Dream Yacht Club, there's DJ music after dinner concludes, and there's dancing.

For those who really don't want to follow the Silversea dress code, which does exist and we have seen enforced, I would recommend Regent. We have cruised Regent more than any other cruise line (and we never cruise on very large ships). Regent only has "formal optional", so jackets and ties are never required. "Formal optional" nights are only on longer cruises, which I believe is 15 nights or longer. And you still don't need to wear a gown or a suit in the restaurants and bars. We sailed a few months ago on a 14 night in the Caribbean on Navigator, and while a few people wore jeans and sneakers to dinner, nearly everyone dressed nicely, but not in formal wear. Last fall, we did back to backs from Southampton to Southampton, and Southampton to Barcelona, and since each cruise was 12 nights, there was no "formal optional" night. We have always found the service, food, and housekeeping to be very good to excellent.

We are taking a world cruise on Silversea rather than Regent because the itinerary is what we were looking for. It stops at a lot of ports that we have not visited in the past, and the few that we do revisit are those we don't mind stopping at again.