gcorgain

Thanks for the great advice. I think we will stay in the V&A for a couple of nights pre 6 safari nights. Then we will board the Voyager for a similar TA to Rio.

Greg

Any idea which hotels Regent typically uses in Capetown for the pre cruise hotel night?

ROTFL.

I like this idea!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have checked with my TA and this is the non-refundable OBC. I have another $500 refundable OBC that I hope to get refunded. 🙂

One further question: how do you find out about the special wine lunches, whiskey tastings, etc?

Hi,

We are on the Capetown to Rio cruise in January 2023. I somehow manage to have $1,800 in non refundable OBC. There are few extra cost shore excursions on this voyage. So how would you spend the credit? We aren't real spa guys, although we might do one in this situation. Anything else we should splurge on?

When we tested positive in January we were allowed to stay in our suite, but it did require some discussion. This was on Explorer.

Thanks everyone, and we are fine. Crossing our fingers that our Rams can beat the GOAT tomorrow. I hope to finish the rest of my review tomorrow.

FOOD

Regent Advantages

1.     Luminae (Celebrity’s suite restaurant) has exceptional service and food quality but a very small (although rotating) menu. Compass Rose delivered similar service and food quality but with massive choice. Also, some Compass Rose dishes were much smaller than others. This allowed for choosing a smaller entrée if you weren’t as hungry.
 

2.     La Veranda was a much more relaxing experience with superior service over Celebrity’s buffet. We ate breakfast most days in La Veranda (outside of quarantine) and enjoyed it, but would rarely choose the buffet on Celebrity.
 

3.     The Pool Grill was night and day better than Celebrity’s substandard offering In this space, and the Specialty Restaurants were wonderful at lunch. Clear advantage for Regent.
 

4.     Specialty Restaurants. We love Murano (French Restaurant) on Celebrity, but without exception we preferred Regent’s specialty restaurants. Pacific Rim was our favorite, and it rivaled good land-based options in both service, décor, and food. Both Chartreuse and Prime 7 were solid as well. And this doesn’t even consider the fact that these restaurants are all included on Regent and extra cost on Celebrity.
 

5.     Coffee Connection/El Baccio. Both of these deliver similar products and service, but it was easier to get a table at Regent’s offering, and there was also the option of outdoor seating. Edge to Regent.
 

6.     Room Service. As everyone here knows we had more room service on this cruise than all our previous cruises combined. Room Service is normally a snack or breakfast option for us, and only occasionally a full lunch or dinner. In this category of suite all courses are served at once, meaning later courses are lukewarm. This isn’t the best meal, and isn’t really the fault of the cruise line. I’d say the breakfast and lunch menus are equivalent for both lines, but Regent gives you Compass Rose at dinner, which really makes the choices wide open. They will also deliver bottles of wine and/or cocktails at no charge.

Celebrity Advantages

None

Conclusion: While I enjoy most Celebrity cuisine (particularly the suite restaurant), the Regent experience is a significant step up in the food department.

Well we are back in Los Angeles and I thought I should wrap things up with my collective thoughts based on our experience, along with my final comparison to Celebrity’s Suite Class. This might get a bit lengthy, so I am going to break into sections. Obviously these are my opinions, and other may vary. I’m very interested in other perspectives.

For purposes of comparison, I’ll be comparing to a Sky Suite on Celebrity. These are listed as 300 sq ft + a 79 sq ft Balcony. The Explorer Concierge Cabin is listed at 332 sq ft plus a balcony ranging from 83 sq ft to 132 sq ft. We had one of the larger balconies.

CABIN

Due to our quarantine, I felt I got to know our cabin a bit too well on the Explorer. I think both Regent and Celebrity offer good products at this level, with some distinct advantages for each:

Regent Advantages:

1.     The bathroom with double sinks and separate shower was a major improvement over Celebrity.
 

2.     The walk-in closet, and much more additional storage throughout the suite.
 

3.     Great balcony with superior furniture and a lounger.
 

4.     Both an indoor and outdoor table appropriate for eating. Given our quarantine, this was particularly useful on this trip, but probably not so important normally.
 

5.     Fairly large range of on demand programming. Again, given the quarantine this was more useful than normal. Celebrity typically has only a few free offerings and a larger pay per view set of programming, even in suites.
 

6.     Complete mini bar inclusion, including full bar delivery with room service. While this was a major plus given our quarantine, we often like to finish the evening with a nightcap on the balcony, and so we consider this offering significant.
 

7.     Free laundry and laundry rooms with irons. I’m not sure that this belongs in cabins, but I’m listing it here. I love this benefit. Celebrity has some limited free laundry in higher suites, and at higher levels of their travel program, but no place to just iron a wrinkled shirt, and they have limits. I love being able to send things out every few days.

Celebrity advantages:

1.     The Celebrity beds are much more comfortable. The Regent beds, despite having great linens, are just too soft. I probably only got two good night’s sleep out of 16, and that is a complaint I’ve never had on a Celebrity ship. I realize that bed comfort is something that is very individual, so there are probably people out there that would feel exactly the opposite.
 

2.     Celebrity has Butlers at the entry level suite class, while Regent reserves these for higher level suites. While not a huge deal for us, we do like the butler service, and as a whole I would say cabin service is therefore slightly better on Celebrity. Regent service is still more than fine.
 

3.     Available aft facing corner Sky Suites with very large balconies. We love an aft view, and while this is easy enough to get in entry level Celebrity Suites you need to go up several levels to get that view on Regent.

Conclusion: TIE. If it weren’t for the bed comfort issues I would give this category to Regent, but sleep is important.

The service and food at Pacific Rim was amazing. Best specialty restaurant we have been to at sea. We started with the Crab Roll, Duck Spring Rolls, and Beef Tataki Rolls. For mains we had the Miso Cod and Fragrant Duck. We were looking over the desert menu when the manager came over and asked if she could bring us something. The “something” was a sampler which again was excellent.

After dinner we went to the show, a guest performer who was good, not great. Then finished the evening at the Explorer lounge. What a great night!

Good morning. I’m writing this from the Observation lounge as we sail in to Ensenada.

Yesterday was fantastic. When we got out of quarantine we went up to the Tex Mex buffet at the Pool Grill for lunch. We had just grabbed a plate when our Compass Rose waiter came over very excited to see us. Soon it seemed the entire staff was greeting us like long lost family. After some walking around and a drink at the Pool Bar we went back to the room for a bit before dinner. We walked in and the GM called to welcome us back. We also got a call from restaurant reservations asking if we wanted any specialty reservations. A prime time last night at Pacific Rim and tonight at Chartreuse!

We started the evening at the Explorer lounge with the wonderful duo. Someone soon came over and asked if we were Greg and Aaron from Cruise Critic and we soon had 10 new friends. Next was dinner. Pacific Rim was wonderful. I even have food photos…

I am happy to report I am writing this note from the Pool Grill. We are free! We’ve never been so excited for a buffet…

Greg

I want to thank you all for your encouragement over the last couple of weeks. We were told last night that someone will come by at 1pm to do some sort of release. To say that we are eager is an understatement. I'll try to send some brief update in the early afternoon to let everyone know that we are out. Then I may not post much in the next two days as we want to enjoy the ship. We have decided not to get off in Ensenada. This trip it just seems like we would be tempting fate. 🙂

I will come back at some point this week and give a more detailed ending to this saga, as well as my review/comparisons to the Celebrity suite class experience for those that are interested. And I will also update the SuiteGuru spreadsheet as Cabin 855 doesn't yet have an entry. This board has been a huge help to me as we planned our first Regent experience, and if I have paid even a little bit of it back, it was my pleasure to do so.

We have booked the February 2023 Hong Kong to Tokyo cruise (also on Explorer), so there will be a next time. I hope to be able to meet you all in the future!

We used a CVS managed community health site in LA. They had rapid PCR tests for free, but it was about a 20 minute farther drive. We had our results back in about an hour.

By the way, I am certainly happy I am not on SilverSea. Both Regent and even HAL sound much better from a quarantine perspective.

Today I've been trying to understand how we get out of quarantine on Monday. I have had several different stories. At the end of the day, we are stuck here until 1pm on Monday. I still don't know if we get anything in writing, or just walk out at that time. I asked for their written policy. They brought us up so that we could look at it (4 sparse bullets on a page that also covers Noro and other illness.). They would not give me a copy or allow a photo from my phone.

Some of this is my fault as I did some of the math wrong, and also misremembered a few parts of the timing. I had to reconstruct timelines from my phone's text messages and cruise critic posts. I'm not sure why they can't/won't give us anything in writing as they obviously have it.

On a happier note, Regent was able to get the NFL Wildcards on the TV's this weekend.

7 minutes ago, 2012_Alaska_bound said:

 

Did you take a picture?!

Now I wish I had. The nurses that come twice a day also wear sorta hazmat suits. I’ll try to grab a picture. We are now trying to figure out what happens on Monday. We have been told by the Concierge that we will need to wait in our room on Monday until someone comes to let us out. Our nurse told us we can just leave Monday and no one will come by. I asked if we would get any kind of letter or documentation and no one seems to know. 
 

One suggestion I would have to Regent would be a letter up front laying out the process. They could also make suggestions for things that could be requested to make the time pass. This would help the people in quarantine and make it less stressful. 
 

Another idea would be to put some of the entertainment on a TV channel. I would love to watch the duo, the theater show, or the pianist. Really anything!  Princess did that a bunch of years ago, and they do it for the lectures, so I would think it would be feasible. 
 

These aren’t major complaints. For the most part Regent has been good to us. 
 

Greg
 

Thank you RachelG and OceanPatter. I will check both of these threads out!

Our room has been cleaned once upon request. It took a few hours to arrange. We went onto our balcony with our masks on. Two people in hazmat suits came in and cleaned and we reentered adter they left. It was not our regular team. We had actually just asked for bed linens to change ourselves, but they pushed to do it. We get towels and dishes changed out more frequently. 

Yes, thank goodness for our balcony. Two more positive cases yesterday in the crew. No new guests.
 

Today I thought I would focus on Room Service. I feel like we are now the experts in Regent Room Service. Room service as a whole has been good, prompt, and accommodating of requests that don't exactly follow the menu. So if the menu has a ham omelette and a cheese omelette, you can get a Ham and cheese omelette. This applies for all meals.

The one main rule I would suggest is make sure you specify everything you want. So when ordering dinner from the compass rose menu, you must specify if you want bread and butter. Make sure you specify the butter or you will probably just get the bread with no butter. There have been several similar examples (e.g. we have ordered a bottle of Merlot and no wine glasses came, a New York steak had no steak knife). They are happy to send stuff up, but your food might get cold. So we make a list and check it before ordering.

Breakfast: We usually remember to put the door hanger out. As most of you know it has most of the normal items on it. You can also add most normal breakfast items with no issue (e.g. Eggs Benedict). If you forget to put the hanger out you can still order via the phone and our service has been fairly quick.

Lunch: Lunch is the normal room service menu. It should be plenty in most cases, but we asked and received some extras (e.g.milkshakes) one day. Standouts have been the Regent Club, Hamburger, and the Cobb Salad.

Dinner: Dinner you get the entire Compass Rose menu in addition to the regular Room Service menu. This has been great for variety. Last night I had amazing Tandoori Chicken (which was tasty-tasty!). The Lamb Chops are also among the best I have had. Fish has been a little more hit and miss, with some of it great, and other pieces dry and overcooked. One other nice thing is they are happy to bring you a bottle of wine or any other beverage with dinner.

And speaking of beverages, we have ordered bottles of booze, wine, and water outside of the meals. This morning we decided to have Bellini's on the balcony before it got really hot. They delivered just the Bellini's, which Aaron promptly spilt, and they brought us two more!

We are very stir crazy and would love to get out of this room. That being said, when I compare the food and treatment we have had, to the media accounts from other lines (yes, that is you Celebrity), the experience just cannot compare. 

5 hours ago, Crosspost said:

Hi Greg,

 

The current requirement to board the ship and the routine tests carried out when required to go ashore are antigen, lateral flow tests. If your lateral flow test shows as positive then they will also do a PCR test as this is much more accurate and sometimes lateral flow tests can return a false positive.

 

So sorry about you catching covid and your quarantine, we were really enjoying reading your posts of daily life on board. The irony is that my husband caught it from his 98 year old mother's care home. She is fine - we both got a very mild version like a cold. However, we are really forward to he Splendor on 3 February.

 

Best wishes

 

Bev

Thanks Bev.  Agreed the tests to get on board are the antigen tests and it worked as you describe. Also most ports are antigen tests, but some require PCR there as well. Also if you self report (as we did) they use PCR. Not sure what they use for the contract tracing tests and the weekly crew testing. 

2 hours ago, Crosspost said:

Only a PCR will test positive for that long (up to 90 days) - and an alternative to a PCR test will be accepted if you can show proof of infection. A lateral flow (antigen) test will stop being positive after around 10 days from infection (from personal experience!) and Regent only require lateral flow tests. We too have plenty of antibodies and are looking forward to boarding the Splendor on 3 February.

The test that has landed me in quarantine on Regent was described as a PCR test. We weren’t given a choice as to what to take. So Regent definitely does use PCR tests in some circumstances. 
 

Greg

Ok then. There is it is. Assuming that is the same language in the conditional sailing order, I guess they are right. 

Let me see if i can answer this batch of questions:

1. Testing protocol: we have not been tested since the first day, and I don’t believe we will be tested again. I believe the reasoning for this is that you can test positive for a few weeks after you are no longer contagious due to the antibodies in your blood. This is why the CDC didn’t require a negative test at the end of the isolation period.

2. Standard for release: This is just the number of days plus being asymptomatic.

3. Public Health Officer training: I’m not sure the level of training to be the ship’s public health officer. He is definitely a different person from the medical team.  Honestly, I believe he is following policy from Miami, but I am not sure the degree of latitude that he is given.

4. CDC orders: This part took me a bit to understand, and I certainly don’t agree with it, but let me try to explain Regent’s position. The only CDC rules and regulations that apply to cruising are the Conditional Sailing Order. None of the revisions matter (including the shortened quarantine rule) because the CDC didn’t revise the Sailing rules. Now they expire on the 15th and become voluntary. Will Regent and other cruise lines eventually modify them? Who knows. I’m betting not in the immediate future though. 
 

This last piece is what is most frustrating. It is no longer about protecting anyone, and just about s9me outdated rules that were updated in some places but not others. We’ve all seen the discrepancies between Regent’s own health rules published in different places. Imagine that multiplied by thousands for the government.

But I still have seen nowhere in writing why a 10 day quarantine requires 11 days. Except Flossie’s UK example.