ennegram

Thanks for the suggestions fellow travelers. We found a plan that works. Two nights in Dubai and then a mid afternoon flight to Heathrow on BA. Overnight in Heathrow (no stopover charge) and then an AA morning flight the next day to the West Coast. Already had the air deviation as arriving Barcelona 2 days before ship departure. We are grateful Regent had a variety of air choices and we found what we were looking for!

This thread is extremely interesting as in November we will be on same Voyager itinerary but in reverse. I had no idea there was snorkeling in Oman and also no knowledge of the Artful Traveler reception. Hope these options will be on our cruise - we're fans of PBS and love snorkeling! Thanks for your ongoing information and positive comments.

The new brochure shows the suites nicely. Anyone notice that the Penthouse Suite which is exactly the same size as the Deluxe Veranda has 2 chairs plus the desk chair? Hope we can request one chair for our Deluxe suite while on longer cruises. I like the new colors and the rest of the refurbishment looks very nice.

Is the brochure you're referring to the Regent website or a hard copy?

Internet seems to be a bit better this evening. Here is the closet, mostly unchanged, and the nightstand. Will try for the living area tomorrow.

Closet looks wonderful - lots of drawers, two shelves and plenty of hanging space. ...And 4 more drawers - 2 in each night stand. It will work for me. Thanks for the photos, vitacura!

https://rsscblog.com/2016/01/20/just-announced-125-million-renovations-aboard-the-most-luxurious-ships-at-sea/

Here's an information website from RSS on their fleet wide refurbishments. I see two chairs in the suite and the rest looks pretty good too!

(Look for the link that says, "click here to learn more".

Believe most flights from Dubai leave in that time frame, that said, there are probably better connections and perhaps flights leaving at more reasonable times.

 

Have you thought of having your TA contact Regent and ask what type of better flights you can get by paying the $175 pp deviation fee. There might or might not be extra costs as well but, you don't pay anything until you agree on flights and you can keep going back until you are happy or give up and keep your provided flights. This will allow you to deviate on the way to Barcelona as you are probably arriving on the morning of your departure from Barcelona.

 

Believe there is no question that there is unanimous belief that you don't want to arrive the morning of a departure in any non US port as delays do occur that could mean missing the ship. Good luck.

No problem with Regent for the outgoing flight. Will arrive in Barcelona 2 days ahead of ship departure. Would love to fly Qatar back but my understanding is Regent only uses BA,AF,KLM for this return itinerary. BA does have a flight leaving Dubai at 3:10pm and will try hard for this with a stopover in LHR but not having a good feeling about how flexible Regent will be. Deviation fee would be worth it.

Thanks for your response!

We have a deposit on Regent Voyager's November 9th ’16 Barcelona to Dubai cruise. Our TA gave us the news that Regent's return flight choices from Dubai to the US include only flights that leave Dubai at 1 to 3 am in the morning and have 4 to 6 hour layovers in Europe. The average trip time is 23 to 26 hours and that doesn't include the 13 to 15 hours of wait time between Dubai hotel check out at noon and boarding time at 1 or 2 am! Has anyone else encountered this?

(On this cruise, business class flights are available for $499/person which seem quite reasonable but oh Regent's flight routing schedule!)

Thank you.

Thank you!

Which gives a wider choice of time and date - reserving specialty restaurants individually or reserving them in a 3 or 5 night package? Is it necessary to board as early as possible on embarkation day to secure specialty restaurant reservations? (We are on a sold out Aus/NZ cruise this coming March.)

Hi supernaturalblonde,

 

We were also thinking about doing the Vatican on our own but after reading so many posts here on cruise critic, it appears that you can waste your entire day waiting in the long lines to get in and then you really don't know what you are looking at once you get into the sites. I found a really good tour company on the internet that offers walking tours for 2-3 hours of the Vatican and also different sites in Rome. They buy the admission tickets in advance and they get you into places through doors only meant for tour guides. No lines. Look on the internet for them at: romeinsight.com. Click on the walking tours and read them. If you get another couple to join you, the price per person gets cheaper.

 

Ciao, Leslie

Would love to know the tour company you used. We'll be in Rome precruise this June. Avoiding standing in line would be wonderful.

Thank you,

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