SWFLAOK

Our experience wasn't entirely negative on Viking River. The service was very good, the food was very good, as were the excursions. We didn't like the narrow river boat. Masks were still required last May, as were daily Covid testing for our first 5 days, and the corridors on the Viking Longship was too narrow for comfort at the time. We're hoping that the bigger ocean ship, and the larger cabin, along with more dining options will work for us. We also don't need to rely on Viking airfare, which we had problems with on our Viking River cruise. We've been wanting to do a Panama Canal cruise, and we hope this works for us. Compared to cruising on Regent or Silversea, the price of the larger cabin on Viking Ocean for a Panama Canal cruise seemed quite reasonable.

We will be taking our first Viking Ocean Cruise in December through the Panama Canal. We previously did a Viking River cruise, Amasterdam to Budapest in May of last year which was our third attempt at a cruise we had booked and paid in full for back in November of 2018, which was cancelled by Viking many times without an offer of a refund. We paid for the beverage package, and they didn't include it on our first day onboard when we booked it. A bottle of cheap wine was provided to us on the first afternoon, and we paid 60 dollars for it, despite paying for the beverage package that day. We were in a Veranda Suite and had the same bottle of wine in our refrig everyday that was included. There was no drink menu provided at the bar, and there was no bar tender that could recreate any simpl;e cocktail from one day to the next .The bar service was extremely dissappointing, We have no reason to expect any more from our next cruise, BUT, we will be in a really big Explorer suite up front so at least we won't have to squeeze through those narrow hallways on a Viking River Longboat where only 1 average size guest can fit through, even if they turn sideways.

On our April cruise, we had booked 3 cabins; Concierge D for us, and for our single female friend in the cabin next to us, and my brother who took a chance on the gty which could have been a window cabin. We were embarking on Friday, and he was informed of his cabin number on Monday. He was assigned a very nice Veranda cabin on the Port side near the front of the ship, which he really enjoyed. He was under the tables in the restaurant, and heard no noise. He was very happy with his choice of gty,

I've found what I love every morning for my pre-breakfast. That's when we head to the Coffee Connection, and I have the cro-nut of the day and 1 or 2 cappuccinos.If we have no early excursion, we then head to Compass Rose at 8 for a leisurely breakfast. We are sometimes offered an additional cro-nut, but I limit myself to the first one. The cro-nut is made of pastry, but looks like a fried doughnut. It has frosting/glaze on top, and an injected filling of flavored cream, or sometimes jelly. They are absolutely delicious. While I like a cinnamon roll or sticky bun, the cro-nut is smaller and more decadent, so I love it even more.

I thought the point was that the "Ship Capacity Reductions" that were the subject of this original post are a thing of the past a year later. On our cruise in April, we had more passengers than the stated capacity of the ship, which was more than the listed double occupancy of the number of cabins. Since our cruise companions were each solo in their cabins, there must have been more than 2 in some cabins. It was more crowded in Compass Rose on most nights than we've experienced before on Regent in our nearly 100 nights onboard. It was our least enjoyable cruise, and while we haven't cancelled our next Regent cruise, we won't be booking another until we see how our next one goes. We're already having trouble booking our business class flights for that cruise even though we paid a non-refundable deviation fee. They blame the airlines.

We are gold members, and were booking Prime 7 on Navigator for the 2 of us in our Concierge cabin, along with our 2 single traveling companions, one in a Concierge cabin and the other in a guaranteed cabin (which was a veranda cabin 4 days before boarding). We were allowed to book the reservation for ourselves and our concierge friend when first available, but had to add our other dinner companion later. Since there really are no tables for 3 in Prime 7, this worked for us.

We were just on a 2 week cruise to the Caribbean from Miami to Miami on Navigator. It was chilly in Compass Rose in the evenings, even though it was quite warm on deck. I don't know if they turn on the heat when in Canada, The cabins have a thermostat so you can set it to whatever you feel is comfortable.

Back near the end of 2018, we did a cruise on the Silversea ship Silver Whisper, from Barbados to Barbados, up the Amazon to Manaus and back. We really enjoyed our firs Silversea cruise, even though we had to dress up more then we usually do. We were able to afford a Silver Suite, which was very nice. In January of 2019, we were notified of the 2021 World Cruise on Silver Whisper. While we couldn't afford the whole cruise, we booked 2 segments, Fort Lauderdale to New Zealand. We are a 2 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale, and had friends in New Zealand at the time that we wanted to visit. The first segment was wait listed right away, but it cleared in a few months. We were really looking forward to it, especially Easter Island. Since we were boarding in the first port, we weren't worried about joining those already onboard. We did understand that those doing the whole cruise would have advantages over us for reservations, and included perks. Then I started following the 2020 Silversea World Cruise here on Cruise Critic. As it turned out, they didn't stop at Easter Island, after 4 days at sea. There were passengers who had taken an excursion to Machu Pichu, and they flew to Easter Island. A boat took them to the ship anchored offshore, but no one on the ship was allowed to go ashore. A crazy guy had recently crashed a stolen truck into the only statues you could previously see from the ship. Some passengers onboard had tried 4 or 5 times to go to Easter Island from a cruise. Hmmmm.... I thought to myself. That was the biggest destination on my bucket list for that cruise. How would I feel if we couldn't go ashore? Shortly thereafter, Covid shut down cruising (including my dream cruise which was booked 2 years earlier, Fiji to Bali on the Paul Gauguin, for a celebration of my Birthday on our 4th PG cruise). We then checked if we could get our money back on our future cruises, and we still could on the 2021 Silversea cruise the following January. There were other cruises later in 2021 that we could not get any money back for 2021, so they were all postponed, and mostly were taken in 2023. Ponant had bought our Paul Gauguin, and they only offered us future cruise credit for the cruise they cancelled less than 2 weeks before it sailed. But after many reschedules to other cruises, with each costing more than the one before, and a health related problem with insurance coverage, we didn't lose much, and while we loved the Paul Gauguin, we wouldn't book with Ponant again. But the chance to do a World Cruise to ports we mostly haven't visited before (or loved the first time), rather than any specific port that was on a bucket list occurred last August. We booked the 2025 Silversea World Cruise, from Tokyo to New York on Silver Dawn. We couldn't afford the Silver Suite, but Silver Dawn has a lot more restaurants, bars, and public spaces than Silver Whisper. We're down to just 603 days until we sail from Tokyo and are still hoping to live long enough to take this cruise.

Last month I made excursion reservations for next April. Living in Florida, it was so nice not to have to set the alarm for midnight as I've to do for my previous cruises. Only Regent would know what would be the most convenient time for the majority of their customers since I'm sure there are almost no customers in some time zones. Did they look at that? Probably not.

We were on Splendor last September and did Southampton to Southampton followed by Southampton to Barcelona. After we were onboard, they offered an included excursion to Winchester. We took it and enjoyed it. We had no delays in reboarding the ship. I think there was also an all day excursion for an added cost, but Winchester was easier and free. Pre-covid, we were on Voyager, Singapore to Singapore, followed by Singapore to Sydney. They offered a free excursion to the China Town area, which we had not done on our precruise Singapore stay. The excursion was fine, but we arrived back at the ship at the same time as the majority of those boarding for their first cruise. And they made us wait in the same line with them even though we had key cards. After waiting in line for nearly an hour, some returning crew noticed us (and others from our excursion) as returning guests, and were able to open a new security line for those with key cards. It made us very happy Regent customers.

We are make our

On Regent, which we've cruised on more than any other cruise line, we have found that dress codes have been less and less enforced. Sneakers and jeans were prevalent in Compass Rose at dinner, and at Prime 7, we saw several families that dressed completely casual on the Navigator cruise we just completed this month. Bathing suits with coverups, and shorts and tanks were still worn after 6. On our Regent cruises last September on Splendor, there were numerous people who went to the Coffee Connection in the morning in their pajamas, and a few that wore nothing but their bathrobes. And it wasn't a pleasant sight. And baseball caps and T-shirts were allowed at dinner. So ... if you want to take a cruise, then book one that has a dress code that you are willing to follow. If you don't agree with the cruise line's dress code, then please find a different cruise line. There are those of us that expect the cruise line's dress code to be respected by those who are onboard. And we will complain if you are onboard and don't respect that. I hope that you'll book a cruise that has a dress code that you agree with. We haven't cruised on Oceania, but it's owned by the same company as Regent, and I'm sure it is better than most other cruise lines if your looking for a smaller ship with an upscale experience. SS still has a formal dress code on some nights. Those of us who will be on SS expect that dress code to be enforce. If you don't agree to follow their dress code then book a different cruise line, or plan to eat in your cabin or a casual venue during formal nights if you still want to book SS. I don't think SS has been having any problems booking their future cruises, despite their dress code. We've been booked for 2025 since last August, with a substantial down payment already paid.

SS still has one of the most "formal" dress codes of any cruise line at this point. You will want a jacket, and if you have a jacket that matches a pair of pants, and a tie, you will be able to eat in any of the restaurants since it can pass as a suit in the dim light of dinner. On an Amazon River cruise from Barbados to Barbados, we had 2 formal nights, which meant suites and cocktail dresses as a minimum. Tux and gown were also worn, but we got by with the almost matching jacket and pants with tie, and a dressy dress. We also felt more comfortable dressing up at La Dame, the French restaurant that has an additional charge. If you want to dress casual, your choices will be limited, and you may end up eating in your cabin if the weather prevents the use of the pool grill area since the more casual options will be in high demand.

We've done 3 SD cruises. Collared shirts and long pants are fine at dinner. We were invited to a dinner with the captain on our first cruise, and the sports jacket brought along just in case was used once. We didn't bring one on the next 2 cruises (back to back) and ate twice with the second in command without worrying about it (and he was more fun to dine with than the captain). We were on deck 4 the first time, midship, and chose deck 3 midship on the more recent cruises. I get seasick, and our first cruise was the end of January, and we had several cold fronts come through with large seas and a number of ports rescheduled due to that. The last 2 cruises were late March, and the water was much calmer. For the most part, the ports are via tender rather than docking in port. Tendering always takes extra time, and if there are waves, it's not fun. Depending on how passengers are onboard, excursions may or may not be cancelled, especially if there's a large extra cost. While I'm not really a social person normally, we enjoyed the intimate atmosphere where everyone (crew and passengers) meet each other within the first few days. The Top of the Yacht bar, and the Piano Bar are both small venues to hang out after dinner. The pool area is small, but the service around the pool is very good, and we have only seen a few people hanging around the pool all day. We don't regret our cruises on SD and would do it again. Normally I like a balcony, but I didn't really miss it since there were places to sit outside.

Based on the Regent Cruise in the Caribbean that we just finished, it's not a matter of your income bracket. It's a matter of how old you are, and what you can accomplish without a phone that works outside of the US. Once the phone doesn't work, many have no idea how to get it to work, and don't trust how much it will cost or if it will work, and are reluctant to tell their phone service to just give it to them. Verizon will prompt you almost everyday to check your voicemail, which will be from them, and trigger their international plan for the day.

You recently took your Regent packaging to a local mission thrift store? Why would they need or want that? You already told Regent that you didn't want it, so why do they.Give the local mission a monetary donation instead. If you can afford to cruise on Regent, you don't need to donate things that are worthless to charity. There are many new Regent cruisers at this point, and they should have the same welcome that we received in the past. And there are certainly some older Regent cruisers that may not feel comfortable without their expected hard copy documentation rather than needing to do things online.

If these items were useless, then why do you have a collection of them? Seems like they might have some value as a souvenir of your cruise. I would like them to stop printing and sending us advertising. We receive way too many of them, often multiples per week, and some in variations of our names, so not based on the cruises we've taken. We receive Oceania advertisements when we have no interest in taking Oceania rather than Regent. We have found no way to stop these. They are way more a waste of paper than cruise documents.

No, it would not be safe to assume that. We're already booked on a cruise next April, on the same ship we just sailed on. It will be our 8th cruise on Regent since we first started taking cruises in 2017. And we always take the longer cruises since 7 to 10 days is never enough. We've sailed on other cruise lines as well (9 other cruises total, on 5 other cruise lines), and Regent has met out expectations better than than the others. I don't believe that any cruise line will be perfect in every way, every time. Some things are more important to me than others. My comments are often in reply to people who have asked about something specific, as in this case. Since the OP asked, they might find it important. I've given my experience with it. Taking a cruise on a special occasion is celebration enough for me.

I think that it will be ignored if you don't mention it. If you do point it out, it still won't be much unless you're in a high level cabin. We had 2 Birthdays on our recent cruise, that were 3 days apart. We both had balloons in our cabin after dinner. One of mine exploded at 3:45 AM, which was extremely disturbing since I had been sound asleep. Another exploded at 6:15 AM, just as I got out of bed. Its remnants landed on me. During dinner on my Birthday, I ordered a dessert I was looking forward to, but it was extremely delayed. I was complaining to our cruise companions (4 of us in 3 cabins), when a cake was brought by staff, with much singing, and attention. The cake wasn't one I liked, and I don't like the attention of everyone in Compass Rose looking at me. Our friend had the balloons and cake in her cabin, and preferred that to having the CR celebration. The cake still wasn't very good, and it was after 10 by the time we got to it. Neither of us recieved an extra bottle of champagne in our cabins, but we probably could have asked for it. We had a difficult time arranging a Prime 7 dinner on the few days between our Birthdays since we already had booked one early on the cruise. After pointing out that we were 4 people and had booked 3 cabins, we were able to get a later reservation than we wanted, and had less than expected for both service and food preparation. In the future, I will not mention it again. Certainly you can request something special for a special celebration, but I would expect to pay extra for it.

We paid for the same on Navigator on the last cruise that we just ended yesterday. And there were times that even the upgraded service on that 1 device had no internet access. We were flexible as to when we needed it, and it was available often enough that we could do what we needed to get done. Service might be better in the US and Canada than it was in the Caribbean, but it seemed to be more about how many people onboard were using it.

Just finished Regent Navigator, Miami to Miami, which wasn't full a few months ago, but was extremely full when it sailed.I think there were a lot of guaranteed bookings that all were resolved the week before we sailed (without additional cost for some). Restaurant and bars were very full onboard, and we saw numerous cots being removed from cabins yesterday morning as we disembarked. I wouldn't expect many cruises to be less than full by sailing time on Regent. Possibly Trans Atlantic crossings since that attracts a different set of passengers that don't mind not having ports to explore, and don't get seasick.

We had booked a luxury river cruise to Myanmar on Scenic River Cruises a while back. We had booked a great cabin, with a wonderful itinerary. There was some unrest, but none in the area where our cruise would take us, and the president seemed to me doing what was expected of her by the military. But shortly thereafter, the local problem became a national problem, and shortly thereafter e postponed it, hoping for a peaceful resolution. Then their president was arrested, and we rebooked to France. Eventually, we cancelled that Scenic River Cruise as well since it was too much like a Regent cruise we had already booked, and too hard to fly to Scenic embarkations/disembarkations on our own with little help on booking flights to and from the US to Europe. Since then, I've looked for another opportunity to explore the rivers into Myanmar, and have found it o be much worse than political unrest. China has moved much of its mining operations to Chinese contractors who are heavily mining in Myanmar, taking all of the minerals they can find, and sending them back to China. They are heavily polluting the rivers of Myanmar. I would not avoid an itinerary that includes Yangon (formerly Rangoon), but I would not do any excursions to the interior at this point.

We had booked reservations for Prime 7 as soon as they were available to us as Gold members in a Concierge Suite for the cruise on Navigator that we just finished. We were able to add our 2 traveling companions to our reservation, one in another Concierge Suite, and the other in a Veranda Suite. Because they were on our reservation, they were not able to make a reservation for themselves. Our TA told us we would have no problem getting at least 1 more reservation for the 4 of us after we boarded. However, on our first day onboard, they did have a problem giving us another reservation, and only did so after we pointed out that we had paid for 3 cabins, and there were only 4 of us, with most of the tables being for 4 or more.They reluctantly gave us 1 additional reservation during the second week, but not at 6:30 as we wanted. Unfortunately, both of our cruise companions received terrible food on our first visit (they both ordered the same thing), and were reluctant to return. We did, and there was another disaster served. We actually much prefer Compass Rose to Prime 7, and on Navigator, Prime 7 is very small. We had previously booked another cruise on Navigator next year, and I doubt we'll bother with a reservation. Our 2 traveling companions in the other 2 cabins are unlikely to do another Regent cruise they had bad experiences at Prime 7, and Compass Rose was too packed and noisy for them. Neither was interested in the Italian dinner at Sette Mari, and we only tried it once in the past, and found that the best of their dishes were available in Compass Rose.

Silversea allows one included excursion in each port. The second one isn't free, and is chosen from the same list, making some seem very overpriced. There are also excursions that always cost extra, so choosing between an overpriced second excursion in a port, and one that always is extra makes it more complicated to choose excursions. On our 6 Regent cruises, the excursions on our 4 pre Covid cruises were very reliable with the bookings being available. The 2 post Covid were not reliable for our first cruise due to the Queen's funeral, and high seas around the UK in September. We're off for a 2 week Regent cruise of the Caribbean next week, and I just booked our excursions for Bangkok to Abu Dhabi next April, both on Navigator. I'm still a Regent fan. But we're booked on Silver Dawn for the 2025 World Cruise which is a lifetime dream for us, so I'm willing to spend time looking for the excursions that we really want to do. We enjoyed our 1 previous cruise on Silversea, and didn't do another because Business class airfare isn't normally included, But we chose their World Cruise based on the itinerary which included many ports we have not visited before, even in areas that we have already cruised through (or will next year). And Business class airfare is included for those taking the full World Cruise. And at the end of the cruise, flying back to Florida from NYC is easy.