NYC-London

Regarding carry on luggage - that was a big deal a number of years back when the size dimensions were reduced for all airlines. At the time there was a huge conspiracy theory that the luggage makers were working with the airlines to change the regulations since many of us had to purchase new carryons. About 50% of the time the old size luggage will fit in the overhead but not on the newer planes. I get really annoyed when someone has managed to bring an oversized bag onboard and in order to make it fit has to position it in such a way that no one else can use the bin. Sometimes the TA will notice and require the bag be gate checked so that those who did bring regulation sized luggage can use the bin and not have to gate check their luggage.

My suggestion - make sure the suitcase is not overweight because that will catch their attention before any oversized suitcase. Do not draw any extra attention to the bag when placing on the scale.

United is generally the most strict but I have not noticed any problems when in the “elite” line checking in luggage.

IF you have any concerns I would see if you can check your bag on line and just pick up the tags at the kiosk at the airport.

15 hours ago, OilPainter2020 said:

PapaFlamingo,  I agree with you!  I'm very disappointed in the cancelled cruise but understand why the ship is being rerouted.  I'm satisfied with the 100% refund.  As for the 30% discount on the three offered cruises, none of them interest us.  Even though we love Transoceanic cruises, lying to Lisbon to pick up the ship isn't something we want to do at this time.

We put ourselves on a waitlist for a much earlier cruise of the same itinerary; March 25th, on the glamorous  Grandeur.  

I am not sure what category of suite you are seeking, but there is availability of F1 and concierge suites on this sailing

United can sometimes be picky, Delta is generally more lenient. Another question - are you flying business class? Generally the luggage allowance restrictions are geared to passengers in coach with higher class service having a different (and more generous) set of rules. When you check in, if flying in biz make sure you use the priority lane because in my experience, the agents working in these lanes  are more accommodating and tend to look the other way for small infractions.

In my opinion, the Grandeur is the nicest and best ship in the fleet. It is as if the Explorer and the Splendor had a child and the perfect ship was born.

Prior to the Grandeur, the Voyager was our favorite ship but that has now taken a backseat and our first choice for any future sailing will be on the Grandeur.

what airline are you flying?

Well, I am booked for one of the deeply discounted cruises and my friends just booked another one and I can assure that the total price we paid is MUCH less than the same price as offered by Regent even with all the current promotions available, such as 2 suite upgrade, additional savings, etc.

I do know that the "codes" necessary to price out at the discounted rates are not readily available to all Regent agents (not sure why) - I know that my friend's TA could not match the prices being offered by the last minute TA agency, no matter how she tried, at one point questioning the validity of the fare. My friend had to do some research and digging and once they were able to provide the TA with the information, she was then able to price out and match the fares offered by the "last minute" TA. On one deeply discounted cruise that I booked, I was even able to get the additional SSS discount being offered for that specific sailing.

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

 

Just so you know...."Sample prices are in U.S. Dollars and are per person, double occupancy, and do not include U.S. government fees, taxes, port expenses or airfare unless otherwise noted".

I have priced out a few of the offerings - I know that the airfare is not included but the FINAL price for the "last minute" savings can be as much as 40% lower than the same offering on Regent, the "inclusive cruise fare" price. This is not a one off, there are a number of sailings available.

I think people are overthinking this.

I speak from experience:

First of all, when children sail "free", that is only for the ship portion of expenses. It does not include airfare, one night in a hotel and transfers, all of which cost extra. When Regent offers business class flights, they do so with availability of deeply discounted business fares and some flights only release two of these seats per flight. Usually the only time more seats are released is when flights are not selling well, and due to the pilot shortage and airline cutbacks in flights, the number of discounted business class seats is very limited. If you want Regent to arrange for the airfare for the children, they generally charge more than buying directly from the airlines. One cannot book the adult tickets through Regent and the children's ticket directly with the airline so generally we have to take the air credit and make our own air arrangements and more often than not, the fares are higher than the credit provided by Regent.

 If traveling with only one child, they can sleep in a regular suite outfitted with a sleeper sofa. If traveling with two children, one must book a named suite in order to have room for the sleeper sofa and the foldaway bed.  So while we are very happy in an F1 Superior suite, our cost immediately increases substantially because now we must book a much more expensive cabin. In order to take advantage of the special children's fares, there must be one full fare paying adult passenger for each child.

The children (they are now young adults) are gold members and have had some amazing experiences which they cherish and we are so glad we were able to take them on as many cruises as we did. However, it is not "free" or "cheap" to take children on Regent and the current offer is a marketing gimmick to sell cabins on slow selling sailings. Taking more than one child on a Regent cruise is an expensive proposition and I cannot imagine the current promotions attracting more than a handful of children in total. All of the savings are for sailing in the summer of 2024 and right now business class flights from the USA to Europe for the summer months are quite expensive.

I can see this promotion being attractive to families looking for a multi-generational holiday, especially to grandparents who have sailed with Regent previously and know what to expect and in those situations, the children generally hang out with their family, especially if traveling with either siblings and/or cousins. And for many people, cruises to Alaska are appealing to the entire family and the cost difference between Regent and the other mass market cruise lines is generally not that substantial. The same does not hold true for the "free" sailings being offered. I do not know if the children promotions are also available in the UK and Europe because without the need for international business class tickets, the cost would be much less but overall taking a child on a Regent European cruise is an expensive proposition and is much less expensive on the mass market cruise lines. 

And finally, on sailings with children promotions, they usually offer special programs and activities for them, especially on sea days and are generally well attended because the children enjoy them.

3 hours ago, Lonedaddy said:

With added ships, bookings better be at an all-time high or they would be in dire straits.   If that is their main concern, then they may not be addressing the issues in their own workings.  Time will tell.

They keep saying that bookings are at an all time high, but I checked the availability on the cruises specifically marketed as free to children 17 and under and on those sailings, there is widespread availability amongst all suite categories. This was a marketing decision to try and increase bookings on sailings that are not sailing very well.

While some cruises are either wait listed or have limited availability, there are a large number where it appears that the bookings are very slow. I received an email last week from my TA which some unadvertised incredible bargains for sailings later in the year. There is also a travel website that has "last minute cruises" and there are a number of Regent sailings available for significant savings.

3 hours ago, asnaleah said:

We highly recommend Steve at tripinsurancestore.com. I wouldn’t ever buy insurance from the cruise line or my travel agent.

I also recommend Steve at tripinsurancestore.com - we have been buying our insurance from him for a few years and have always been very happy and satisfied - he ALWAYS looks after what is best for the customer, which can not be said of cruise lines and some TAs.

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

You will find any children...if there are any...to be extremely well behsved....possibly better behaved than the adults. 😉

I have traveled on many cruises with special children fares and Pcardad is correct, the children are better behaved than the adults. What I have found many times, is that the adults will look for ANYTHING to complain about with regard to children, yet outrageous behavior by adults is ignored and accepted. I will never forget one summer we were sitting at the table for ten with our two boys, at the time aged 8 and 10. They were brought up with proper manners, meaning that if a woman either leaves or returns to the table, they are to stand in respect. Two days later I am on the bus listening to people complain about the two young boys who couldn't sit still and were constantly standing up like Mexican jumping beans for no reason. This was not an isolated incident, I could write a book about the same adults complaining about the children should look into the mirror with regard to their own behavior.  Another instance when one of boys was "monopolizing" the chess board - at the time he was a nationally ranked chess player, which he did not make known and these grown men acted like little babies when they constantly lost to him. Some even accused him of cheating. 

I remember on one cruise there was a 4 year old who was constantly running around and people started complaining - until they learned he was the child of an officer and all of a sudden everything this kid did was "cute".

Regent is not a "family" cruise line - the demographics that Regent is marketing to is "generational cruising", either grandparents taking their grandchildren or multi-generational travel, i.e. grandparents, parents, children.

The one time we had a problem with a teenager, as soon as the parents found out they ensured that their children not only apologize to all the neighbors, but also write apology notes. The serious crime - they were playing in the hallway.

Go on the cruise with an open mind and maybe get to know some of the children aboard - in my experience, children on Regent cruises are not only well behaved, they are generally well traveled, well educated and well read and quite interesting.

17 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

I suspect that the people on the cancelled cruises were offered cruises with availability and were about the same cost of the cruise that was cancelled.  Surely you don't expect Regent to offer someone a cruise that is sold out or much norm expensive than the cruise that was cancelled do you?  Oh, by the way, they also have a 100% refund option.  

No, I do not expect that - however, if the entire inventory of cruises available, I am sure there was more than three that would fit the bill. Right now there are quite a few cruises with plenty of availability, contrary to what others are saying. However, the RIGHT thing to do, would be to offer something without such restrictive limitations, such as a FCC good for 24 months with a substantial, not a token discount. I know and expect anything can happen with regard to travel, but for someone such as myself who is not retired and has to juggle a lot of balls in the air to arrange for vacation time, especially more than two weeks at one time, having a vacation cancelled so late in the game would not make me happy. Also, as I mentioned in another thread, NCL, the parent company of Regent, is not on the best financial footing and should be doing whatever possible (within reason), to ensure that passengers who had their cruises cancelled remain with Regent and do not go elsewhere - only providing the option of three cruises is very short sighted.

This article appeared in the NYT one week ago and the amount of coverage it has received is incredible. I have heard it mentioned on various radio and televisions outlets, as well on a number of travel websites/youtube channels that I frequent. There are almost 500 responses on the NYT website and the negative publicity for Norwegian cannot be good. I was listening to commentary about when businesses make poor decisions without thinking long term, i.e resulting bad publicity. Two different business analysts and a PR guy mentioned that if Norwegian had done the right thing in the first place, i.e., honor the insurance policy that they issued, at most if would have cost a few thousand dollars. Instead, they are dealing with serious negative publicity that is probably costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Apparently after reading the article/learning of the situation, a number of passengers have cancelled their reservations with NCL. NCL was provided the opportunity to respond or to explain their reasoning as to why it required such an immense amount of intervention to get a less than desirable result - NCL never responded.

For a company in such serious debt and a struggling stock price, one would think they would be extra careful not to alienate either current or future passengers.

14 hours ago, Pcardad said:

In $5,000,000 worth of bookings, I have never had Regent admit what position a person is on the WL. Only 1 person runs the list and they will not discuss it. This news is very interesting - perhaps policy has changed.

Maybe it is offered to passengers who were on cruises that were cancelled in the hope that they will take another cruise on Regent and not ask for a refund and take a cruise on another line.

2 hours ago, Pcardad said:

You might be surprised. Regent is aggressively making offers to booked guests on cruises that have deep waitlists in order to sell more cabins on other cruises.

That is true and makes good business sense but lately the offers to booked guests have not been as generous as in the past - just look at the options offered to the passengers on the cancelled Mariner cruise - they were offered cruises that are likely not to sell out and will be offered at deep discounts so the discount offered is not that attractive at all.

On 2/8/2024 at 9:37 PM, RachelG said:

School was out in Tahiti yesterday and today—due to “the cyclone”.  It is not even a windy day here.  Light showers intermittently but no significant wind at all and some sunshine.  The water was really stirred up though.  And people who took the ferry from Papeete to Moorea said it was rough.

 

if they let out school for weather like this in Oklahoma, the kids would never go to school.

This comes under the category to better be safe than sorry. Anyone who studies weather can tell you that even the best predictions can be wrong and in the far east and pacific islands they take cyclones and typhoons very seriously, just as Floridians do for hurricanes - you prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The structural integrity of some of the buildings cannot withstand the winds of a cyclone. A number of years ago I was in Hong Kong and we were made aware of a potential typhoon - in the lobby of the hotel was the HUGE sign with warnings and what to do in the event of a typhoon. At about 2:30am all the guests were awaken and sheltered in the basement, yet when it was all over, yes, there was significant rain and winds, but nothing dangerous, or so we thought. It was not until we started to explore outside to see than less than 2km from the hotel, there was significant damage and the windows were blown out of the hotel were our colleagues were staying.

The same holds true in Florida - how many times have residents prepare for a severe hurricane, only to be relieved to learn that either it did not materialize or changed direction.

4 hours ago, silkismom said:

My TA didn't give me a choice. SS uses Allianz, guess I assumed Regent did too.

Then you consider changing TA because they are obviously more interested in earning a commission, which on some insurance policies can be quite generous. Most seasoned travels know to get their insurance independent of the tour operator. There is an excellent thread in this board regarding insurance and the news story in question involves Norwegian cruise lines which is the parent company of Regent. The TA commissions from Regent are quite substantial so your TA should not be insisting that you purchase a specific policy from one specific source. 
 

A good TA does what is best for the customer, not their pocketbook.

There is an individual on YouTube with a channel dedicated to cruising - he was also on this cruise and got sick with the "stomach bug" the second day and spent almost the entire week isolated in his cabin. It seemed like he had the cruise from h???, with the icing on the cake that Regent sent him to the wrong airport for the trip home. So far he has only provided snippets of information, anxiously awaiting for his full review.

7 minutes ago, silkismom said:

We have Regents insurance.

Read the thread about insurance - in the future you may want to consider and investigate obtaining your insurance from an entity separate and not related to Regent - CC has some great information regarding travel insurance - it is very informative and worth reading

29 minutes ago, Zqueeze1 said:

I am already applying for a loan to buy new swag at the Cadet Store.  We will go to the campus on our own and walk around reminiscing about those long ago days.  The cadet chapel is beautiful and not to be missed.

 

Z and TB

You don’t need a loan - just use the money you just saved by snatching a great deal

4 minutes ago, Zqueeze1 said:

As TNR will tell you, I am fond of the pool bar in the afternoons.  Look for the handsome guy with either a Yankees or Citadel Alumni baseball cap.  If no cap, just look for the narcissistic loudmouth at the bar.

 

Z and TB

You can go visit your Alma mater while in Charleston!

58 minutes ago, Zqueeze1 said:

We were fortunate.  That is exactly what we did.  As soon as we booked, the well known travel outfit raised the price by four grand since we got their last F1 suite in their inventory.  We were fortunate and we were also the squeaky wheel with our TA to expedite before the reservation and price point would disappear.  
 

Z and TB

Exhibit A as to why it is important to have a great TA with the proper Regent connections 

49 minutes ago, Zqueeze1 said:

We were fortunate.  That is exactly what we did.  As soon as we booked, the well known travel outfit raised the price by four grand since we got their last F1 suite in their inventory.  We were fortunate and we were also the squeaky wheel with our TA to expedite before the reservation and price point would disappear.  
 

Z and TB

See you onboard - glad you can join us!

I have been watching the March 25th MIA-NYC cruise very closely. For the past month, there has been plenty of availability and many TAs were able to offer it at a significant discount. On Wednesday night there were at least 60 cabins available. This morning it appears that inventory has disappeared and the prices are back to normal. I wonder if Regent removed cabins from inventory and removed all discounts to be able to offer to passengers affected by the Mariner cancellation. I find it hard to believe that the inventory has been available for weeks and overnight 60 cabins were sold, at the exact same time the Mariner cruise was cancelled, esp since that was not one of the “replacement” cruises offered.