macbest

Seems odd. Air Tahiti Nui has regular scheduled service. And United is starting a flight late October to SF. Granted these aren’t every day of the week. But that gives you another excuse to spend an extra few days in the islands.

 

Time to get ready for dinner, tonight it’s Prime 7 and invited to dine with Captain Serena Melani. She really is pleasant person to talk with, she interesting and knowable. No one talked about the Regent, The Ship or anything that may have gone wrong during the cruise. Just a very pleasant evening getting to know each other, one of the most enjoyable dinners during the cruise.

 

Food and service was good as always (but why wouldn’t it be this time with the Captain seated at the table).

I’ve always wondered, when dining with the ship officers (especially the captain) do they serve better/different wine vs others in the restaurant that night?

We were offered to bump from Voyager several years ago on the Ireland / Scotland cruise. THey don’t sail that itinerary. Rey often so wasn’t surprised. We ended up with a bigger cabin and a longer cruise (from 12 to 16 days) to China/Korea/Japan - places on our list. We took it and now are doing the Ireland Scotland cruise two years later and on the Explorer. We feel we made out all around!

What a freaking nightmare flight(s). So sorry to hear you went through all of that. And the luggage issue is beyond excusable. That is a terrible way to start any vacation. Hope the rest of your trip is magical.

Super excited they will be on our Ireland and Scotland cruise early June. Boogies is super talented at the piano especially when he is solo. Not that they aren’t great as a team. I just loved hearing him in the atrium when he would do some impromptu piano!

 

I put them all in a spreadsheet, with columns for add-on extras, like gratuities, excursions, air costs, things like that. So I can see the overall per diem for the bare-bones trip itself, and see what all the add-on costs are going to be (business air is important to us, so Regent gets a thumbs-up there.)

I do this also for every cruise we take. I have consistently calculated that the difference between a non-luxury cruise line vs Regent when you include everything (this makes the assumption that you drink, take excursions, use wifi, eat well) is nearly always so close in price (with Regent being slightly higher) that when you consider the Regent experience, better crew to staff ratio, generally better food (subjective, but i have sailed all of the downscale lines) there really is no comparison. If you don’t value excursions, wifi, booze, etc. then the other lines can be cheaper.

I have also looked at “similar” lines on-a-par with Regent. Regent is usually cheaper. In fairness, I haven’t sailed Seabourn or Silversea so I don’t know what that experience is like. But i do like the Regent “product” consistently so we keep going back.

Anxious to try the Explorer in June as we have not sailed her yet.

How far in advance of sail date should we check with either Regent or our travel agent find out if discounted upsets are available?

Yes, as long as there is enough time between the two excursions. I think that 90 minutes is the rule of thumb, but I might be mis-remembering. If they're too close, the site won't let you do the second one.

Can anyone provide some clarity on this? We were locked out of booking a second excursion for our Scotland/Ireland cruise this June likely due to the 90 min rule. In each case it was more than an hour but maybe less than 90. If we can’t book those online, will they let us book a second excursion while on board? We are only doing this a few times (not every day) but those second in a day excursions really seem fun.

We flew over in business on TN1 in a newer one in Jan but the seat is still less than conducive to sleeping. 156 degree pitch doesn’t cut it in this modern world. Then on flight back TN2 we were stuck on the old one. There were no less than 3 seats in business that were broken! We lost a preferred seat. They attempted to put us in the bulkhead and at 6’4” I said no way. For some reason the flight had two additional seats open so we went to the middle row 5. They were ok but be sure to bring good earplugs as the galley noise can be a bit much especially on an overnight flight. BTW the coach compartment had maybe 30 people in it. It appeared everyone could have an entire row!

I think the airline has gone downhill significantly. Service is not what it used to be at all. Planes are not up to par and many items were either broken or silly in terms f functionality (good luck trying to adjust your seat on the old jet in business).

I’m so waiting for United to start flying from SFO. At least I know what I can expect and having 787s will be nice also (let alone cutting off 4-5 hours off our trip from SF vs LAX).

Major withdrawals. And why we are anxious to get on board tomorrow and visit three new islands we haven’t been to.

I have looked at it daily every day for months in anticipation of my cruise on PG on Saturday! Thanks so much for all you have contributed. Your info is invaluable!

Attached PDF

Ugh. Can’t believe I missed it. Thanks. Will check it out this time! Assume currents there are not unwieldy?

Can you show a map of the area and where the best snorkeling is? I have been there 5 times and only find good snorkeling straight off the beach but the currents there can be very strong. Will be there in a week!

With that view you must have been in a Diamond villa

Thanks Wayne ..... Bora Bora coming up next ;)

If you have done the Marina platform private dinner on the PG, I’d love to hear about that and all the details. I signed up for that on next months cruise while in Bora Bora and am going to surprise my wife.

Really helpful post. Been following along since the beginning. Your experience with the islands are super helpful. We are heading back for our 6th trip in January. Everyone always asks us why we keep going back. Your pictures explain it better than I can say. Thanks again for the ride!

Great news on United, my preferred airline and I live in SF. I went online and can’t seem to pull any of the flights up nonstop. Maybe they haven’t loaded them yet.

I’m not positive but a couple of years ago we did a Hong Kong to China Regent cruise that had a Boogie and Kasia in the lounge. I’m not sure they are the same but that pair of names seems impossible to have two of. Not sure if Boogie has played the piano concert by himself or in the main area. But when he did on our cruise it was fantastic. Super talented as we remember. He normally is “hidden” in that he is a master pianist.

Thanks for the Muir beach photos. Nice to see that there is shade there while sitting on the beach and that they have Loungechairs to get you off the sand. Looking forward to details on Aitutaki also! We are on this itinerary in early January.

Can you share more about the new compass rose menu concept. I haven't heard about that.

Love the new look at the pool. The colors are great. Not so sure about the wicker chairs however. Would think those would be uncomfortable for your arms resting on them.

Thanks for the thorough and complete review. Hard to make breakfast exciting for 10 days and this has always been an issue on any ship. Glad they still do a few made to order items. In the past we also went to La Palette for good coffee and vegetable and fruit smoothies. They often carried these down to our room!

Glad to also hear that the wines are still varied and good.

 

This year, I decided to pay the $10/day ATT fee for unlimited phone/text/internet, to have "just in case." It worked well when we were in the locks/the gorge. It was a reasonably priced investment, and cost me less than other packages in the past, which I bought in order to be able to call the kids.

 

Robin

Thanks for this info. I have used AT&Ts Passport in the past but it was very expensive especially if you sent pictures and used a fair amount of data. I wasn't aware of this new program! Amazing what you find on these boards.

Hands down, best cruise director ever. Been on 3 PG cruises with him. So amazing. Phenomenal singer. Love his "This is the moment" song from his one man show. So wish he would come back to the PG! We are heading out for our 6 PG cruise in Jan. His return would make it over the top.

The smoke is terrible in the casino and the "center stack" - floors 6-8. It permeates down the hallways on 6 and 8 (casino on 7) into the stores and where the art gallery is in addition to the outside of the French restaurant.

Our latest meal their also had whiffs inside the restaurant. This is a serious problem and I Didn't see anything done to work to eliminate the problem. It is just a bad design of this part of the ship.