papaflamingo

Just so I'm sure I understand, did Regent say your cost HAS gone up or WOULD HAVE TO GO up to get the higher air fare credit? I imagine the cost of the cruise has risen at least $210 per person to cover the increase in airfare. So if you are booked at a lower airfare credit, you are also likely booked at a lower cruise cost. This would be fair. You would be credited with the amount you are being charged for the flight.

I'm sure you know this, but the free laundry does NOT include Dry Cleaning. There is still a charge for Dry Cleaning.

Personally I wouldn't spend the extra to get Concierge unless it was strictly for location on the ship. We don't do the night before in a hotel because we generally arrive 2 or more days ahead of the cruise so we can see the sights in the boarding city. We are Gold so the other perks are unnecessary. It seems, reading posts on here and FB, that most people book Concierge specifically to get early picks on excursions. Since you'll have those when you become Silver,, you won't need Concierge level.

I haven't been to La Havre, but I believe it's about 1.5 hours to the D-Day Beaches at Normandy. If the ship doesn't offer a tour, and you've never been, you can look at a third party tour, but Normandy is one place everyone needs to visit at least once.

I always deviate even though I live in a major hub (Atlanta), so I can pick my own flights. Since we try to always fly Delta, it's no problem reserving our seat at time of the reservation. Additionally, as I understand it, if you are booked on a single airline you should get First Class for the U,.S. domestic leg,. As for Europe, many airlines "first/business class" inter-Europe" is really coach seating in the front rows with the middle seat blocked out.

There was on Navigator in June. It was amazing!

We are going in March. We have a 5 hour time at Ocean World including the Dolphin Encounter. We also feel that this will be too long for us. Are there Taxi's at Ocean World to get back to the port?

One step to add... when you go into "my account" you must select "Manage This Cruise,." Then you'll be able to select "customize" under "Shore Excursions." If "Customize" isn't available it means your shore excursions are not yet ready for selection. They open at midnight the day of selection, but sometimes takes a few minutes to open up (I've seen 15-20 minutes after midnight before they opened). The website r can get "wiggy." I usually go directly to the port of the most important excursion and select it first to lock it in, then I'll go to the other ports. Sometimes I get "brave" and try to do all the excursions in one session. I've had it freeze or drop before I saved them and lost them all. So now I get the one's I care about most and "save" them, then start a new session to finish up. You'll get a confirmation email immediately after saving so make sure you review it to ensure you did them correctly.

Gratuity is included. Many don't tip extra. What you tip (or don't tip) is no one's business but yours. Don't feel any obligation to tip extra and don't feel any pressure if you wish to tip extra. There will be no difference in service whether you do or don't. BUT DO be sure to mention in surveys who you think deserves extra recognition. As mentioned, positive comments help the crew member in the future.

We also just returned from Navigator (left ship on July 7) after 40 nights from Montreal-Southampton. We had 2 or 3 dinners where the service seemed a bit slow, but other than that everything was easily up to Regent standards in my opinion. I agree the entertainment is nothing special, but they all tried very hard. The production crew was good, some of the guests were just not that good. But entertainment for me is unimportant. I'd rather enjoy a quiet drink at a relatively empty lounge while everyone else is at the show. But we loved our cruise! I, too, have 4 more booked including the Grand Cruise in 2025. As for the "Covid excuse," it's still out there. We also had dinner one night with the F & B Manager, Cedric. He explained, as mentioned above, that they were having great difficulty getting many supplies. But they still were able to offer great menu variety. We usually chose off the Chef's daily dishes, but a few times chose from the "always available" side. My wife had one of the best Pork Chops ever from the "always available" and I had an excellent Rib Eye. I had Escargot a few times and it was always excellent. He explained that they had hired a number of former Crystal crew members and it was taking time breaking them in on the Regent "style" of service. And many crew members simply found better jobs after Covid created so many openings. And don't disregard the fact that Covid is still out there and crew members do catch it and require quarantining which adds additional burden on the crew and can affect the efficiency of service. I know there was a crew change after we left, so that could be part of the issue. But for us, Navigator was wonderful and I will never hesitate to sail on her. In fact we're looking at a 2 week Navigator cruise next April.

If you make your excursions and want to add a second in a port, the website will let you know if there is adequate time between or not. It won't let you make a second excursion too close to the end of the first. The closest we have ever done is 90 minutes, so the 75 minutes break is likely still correct.

Now THAT would be popular! 🤣

As mentioned it's two different locations. The buses take you up to the town of Oia, which is an absolutely beautiful place. But the Funicular brings you down the cliff at Fira, a separate town and where most the ships tender their passengers. When we did it, we were on Royal Caribbean. The tender dock was below Fira. We took a water taxi to Oia and bussed up the hill then after touring Oia our water taxi ticket included a bus ride to Fira. When we saw the long line (over an hour) we decided to ride the donkeys down. Will never do that again. Unfortunately there is no water taxi that I am aware of that will take you from Oia to Fira. So you will have to ride the Funicular. But the walk down is not advisable. It isn't "donkey droppings," it was pretty much spread all the way down. Even riding the donkeys we were unable to avoid the "donkey droppings" after we dismounted. But you can take a look at it when you get there and decide. I'd ride the Funicular. Here is a couple of pics I took in 2015. One is the start of the trail and the second is part of the way down.

From RCCL website: "Telehealth tests are also accepted, but must be completed with a supervised video visit."

" Has Regent fixed/improved their website to accommodate the selection process?" Define "fixed/improved." 😜 "Has anyone successfully used an iPad to make their selections?" Yes. But it was frustrating. I had to do it from a hotel room and it dropped a couple of times and lost all my selections, so I had to start over. My best advice is to select the excursions that you want the most then save them. Then go back in and pick whatever ports are left. I did a complete selection for the 61 night Grand Cruise the Jan. (ended up cancelling, sadly). I had very few glitches, but I did save periodically so I was locked in.

I"m definitely not a wine expert, I simply like a wine or not (ok...I'll bring about anything 😜). However my wife is a bit more particular. The wines offered in Compass Rose are, supposedly, selected to specifically compliment the dinner offering. But whenever my wife wants something different, she simply asks for a specific type of wine i.e. Pino gris, or a specific wine. instead or the hassle of a wine list that may or may not be available, simply ask the Sommelier if he or she has a wine you'd like, or what wines of a specific type do they have. Loving your review. We are doing some of the similar ports next year so I'm very interested in your take on them. 😎

Thanks, they are not in concierge or above. That's what I figured. So we'll book our excursions and let them try to book them later.

My Daughter in Law is from Scottsboro Alabama. I've been to the Unclaimed Luggage store a few times. Yes... you CAN get some amazing deals. If you're ever in the area, worth wandering and see what's there..

There's always a chance to book on board, but depending on the excursion it's not all that likely. If it's a bus tour it's possible with enough interest and an available bus another bus could be added. If it's a boat excursion, well, the boat capacity is the boat capacity. As far as I know, they don't save open spaces for anyone. That would be too expensive if no one books. Just keep watching the tour and see if it comes open, then upon boarding go to the Shore Excursion desk and see if you can book it or get on a waitlist. But I'd have "plan B" in mind for the port stop.

Don't "re-think," UN-THINK it!! Our "adventure" above should serve as a warning. In addition, during our ride down, my donkey stumbled 2 or 3 times and almost went down. It's worth waiting for the Funicular. Just give yourself enough time to stand in line, especially if there are multiple ships in.

I don't generally make phone calls on a cruise, but the few times I have, the WiFi calling has worked just fine. Depends where your ship is. When we were in the Arctic Circle in June the wifi would drop off or get very weak, but other than those occasions the Wifi calling worked.

We will be cruising with friends who have never been on Regent. We are Gold so we get early Shore Excursion selection, they do not. Is there anyway we can link with them and select for them or do we simply select our excursions and hope there'll be availability when they select?

You got THAT right! We made the mistake of riding the donkeys down a number of years ago. The donkeys are tied together and led by a guy on foot. My wife was on the donkey ahead of mine so mine was tied to hers. She had a "killer donkey." It didn't try to rub her leg on the wall, but instead would go from one side of the path to the other pushing people walking down into the walls! All my wife said the whole way down was "I'm sorry....I'm sorry... I'm sorry!" And THEN my donkey walked up and had it's head next to my wife's donkey and suddenly her donkey raised it's tail and I KNEW what was coming! I quickly lifted my leg as much as I could while her donkey "unloaded" right where my leg had been!!! 😱. Yeah.... NEVER...EVER...EVER ride the donkeys, especially down. And by the way, don't even consider walking down. All that "stuff" on the trail was "dumped" by the donkeys! 😜

I'm no expert by any means. And I'm not saying that what info they gave you was false. But the whole point of an insurance policy is to cover you for cancellation if you get sick. So when I purchase a policy I am covered from that day on. If I purchase it 100 days before I travel, get Covid 6 days before I travel and have to cancel it, are you suggesting that they'll treat that as a "pre-existing condition?" If so, as I said above, I'd look at a different company.

As I said earlier, if you're cruising from a country that doesn't require a test and you think you need a one to protect coverage then by all means, get one. If Allianz indeed requires a negative test to prove you weren't sick before you got sick then I would look at another plan.