mj_holiday

We have sailed Regent post COVID and saw no degradation in the on board experience. Their shore service was sketchy at some ports, very good at others, but we were told by tour guides several times that our cruise was their first cruise since covid, so hopefully this is getting better. But must agree that flights and hotels are still impacted by COVID and then the Pope decided to visit Lisbon which I am sure adds another layer

Are the Hennesey and Macallan tastings on all ships?

For the wine tasting there were no South African Wines. The Sommelier said the tasting was for wines that are common on all the ships and basically would always be available. The South African wines may not be consistently available on all the ships. Yes, there were South African wines onboard that were included, just not at the tasting.

We did the wine tasting on the first sea day of Cape Town-Cape Town You could easily walk by and not see it if you weren't looking for it. It was very nice and informative. Someone commented that there were no South African wines. It was explained that the wines in the tasting are a standard set that are always available on all the Regent ships as part of included wines. We found some nice wines and later on in the cruise, I ordered one I liked and no problem at all, it showed up.

From our first POST COVID cruise experience recently and from discussion on various forums, Regent has not yet come back to their PRE COVID level of excursions or on shore support companies. I don't think I saw any Regent employee on any of our excursions - PRE COVID it seems that at least half of the excursions we went on also had someone from destination services. I am not sure I would continue to sail with Regent if they dropped the included excursions. Selecting the excursions is very easy to do. I am on a non Regent cruise in a month and not enjoying the research etc to select and pay for cruises.

There is one day, when the ship will be close to a glacier and make sure to turn around so both sides of the ship can see it. As others have stated, the excursions are great. But before you leave I recommend reading "Alaska" by James Michener, yes it is large, but it will give you a great outlook for some of the things you see. The white train (I believe is the name) is a great day and the trek it takes is also described in the book. The train from Anchorage to the cruise ship is also a great day.

While I will use my phone for time etc, I do not rely on it. My phone at times will disagree with the ship's time which you can find on the TV and which your bedside alarm clock should also state. The ship could pass through a time zone in the middle of the day, and decide not to change the time until that night.

I am sure part of their attentiveness is from experience. My DH and I am sure other men over 70 will quickly say no if asked for help with his chair, then you have a man over 70 trying to walk his chair into place, give up and drop food on the floor because he is too far away from the table. The first couple of times on each cruise, when we are seated, I pause the helpfulness by saying let both of us get where we need to be for help with the chair. I am sure the menu is offered opened, because opening that big menu on the table will break glassware. There are times when we ask not to get the menu until we have a chance to have a glass of wine while settling down and chatting a bit. Now - let me start something. Why do people bring purses to the dining room anyway?

Our last Navigator cruise was Amsterdam to New York City going up to Iceland and Greenland on the way. Great trip, Navigator is so easy to get around in and you do get to know many passengers and crew. I would not think twice about booking a cruise on the Navigator.

We are in our early 70s and I think a cruise (a Regent cruise) is a great idea for first trip. If you take advantage of everything they have to offer you will have a great trip. I recommend use an experienced Travel Agent to book the cruise. We have done several land based vacations, and repacking every couple of days for your next stop does get exhausting. We have enjoyed a river cruise, which was very nice, but probably won't get close to the Mediterranean. On a Mediterranean cruise, the one thing you will need to watch out far is getting tired from doing an excursion every day, instead of a sea day every so often or at least a short 2-3 hour excursion..

Not a Marriott - But, the Holiday Inn on Biscayne Blvd is reasonably priced and within walking distance of many restaurants and the water. You will be able to see the ships from the area.

If the new policy is working, there would probably be available loungers when you get back from lunch. I have quit trying to find a chair/lounger around the pool. In the past, never found one. Glad to hear of the policy being put in place, yes, after two days or so, the word will get around and problem should go away. But as soon a crew let up on managing this policy, word will get out and the problem will start up again.

We take the included tours with some Regent Choice tours and they have been good to great. However our one (so far) Post COVID cruise had several hiccups that hopefully are due to our tour being one of the first tours they had done since the COVID shutdown. After getting to your cabin, you will find your excursion tickets and a "booking form" and this time there was an added 7 page flyer with more detailed descriptions and notations of any excursion changes and adjustments called out. Most of the adjustments were for the activity level, getting more active. Many of our bookings had an adjustment to the activity, getting more active. But this is very subjective. All that aside, we will continue to do included and Regent Choice tours, beside part of the cost, booking a tour booked privately, there is always the possibility of: Ship cancelling port due to many reasons, and The tour returning after all aboard time and you missing the boat. I do make sure I provide feedback (good or bad) to Destination Services either in person and always through end of cruise survey.

They will give you a couple at a time. I am a real believer in the generic Motion Sickness meds from WalMart. They contain Dimenhydrinate Tablets, 50 mg. They come in bottle of 100 tabs. I get motion sick quite easily, I even need to be careful in a movie theater with a fast drive scene etc. The WalMart tabs do not make me dizzy. I will take one a couple times the first couple of days, and unless the water gets rough I am OK for the rest of the cruise. But after many sea days I have gotten motion sick for a short period after we stepped on solid ground, so take a tab for that now.

It all depends on the country. I recommend looking at entry requirements for each country you will be going to and see what their recommendations for blank pages (if any) are. We got caught up with this for DH passport for South Africa. Were able to get a new passport and the total cruise only used 4 pages in new passport but two of them were full page visas. We have also been told a story where a traveler on individual land trip got denied entry to South Africa because he did not have enough blank pages. Western Europe has the Schengen Agreement where you only show passport once for their countries. So really depends on the countries.

We had a pre cruise trip and post cruise trip. Some of the transfer service was very good, some not so good, but we got where we needed to go.

You can check the entry requirements for each country you are scheduled to visit. This can give you an idea of what you need regarding passport expiration and blank pages. If you need more pages, a second passport may be the answer. We were in a similar situation with 8 weeks before travel and had time to renew, and along the way we were advised to call if trip was certain number of days away.

Our next cruise will be in Club Continent. It is my understanding that if you also have an upgraded drink package you can have drinks/bottle of wine delivered with room service. Will report back how this works.

I have our meds/vitamins in daily pockets in carryon. The one liquid med I have I keep with other liquids, it may not count toward the amount you can have but still a liquid so I pull it out. Have never had a problem. I have copy of scripts for all the meds.

Ponchos were the best thing we packed for our Amazon river adventure. If you read the excursion descriptions they will tell you any special clothing etc you may need. Regent has umbrellas but they are too long for me to carry without poking someone, so we had small collapsible ones. We did not go jungle trekking so did not need anything, but those excursions recommend some kind of rubber boot and long sleeve tops etc.

We also like the Holiday Inn on Biscayne Blvd. After spending several hours on a plane I like to try to do some walking, even if just a block. The area has several places to eat along the waterfront. Hotel is nice and quick taxi to the port.

IMO you can run yourself ragged trying to avoid fees on money exchange. The first time I decided to get local currency at the airport on arrival, I was still somewhat drowsy or what ever happens after overnight flight, and hit an extra zero and got way more local cash than I wanted. It sounds easy "Oh, just look for a bank ATM at the airport when you land" Well, airports can be very hectic place and you (or at least I) keep going from one step to the next and suddenly I am outside the airport. While fees will be involved, I get $200 worth of local currency at the airport exchange. Now I am set for that taxi ride outside the airport. Plus Yes, especially with Euros, keep some when the trip is over so you will have them the next time you go and won't have to fret about getting some. Try to keep spending your change. Euros coins have higher value than what we are use to in the US and it is very hard to exchange these back to dollars. As stated above, call your bank so your credit card/ATM card will be accepted. Our credit union ATM card charged no fees when we used it in South Africa. Yes, get credit card that does not charge international fees, and there are many out there.

I have said this before on this topic. Each of the three safety videos were different, getting expanded and more detailed as you progress through them. I felt we retained more information about necessary steps to take in an emergency than from preCOVID safety drills. During preCOVID safety drills people got antsy waiting for late ones, and then people were anxious to get the drill done. And yes the last video is there for you to watch again if you want to.

For me - I would compare prices in suites of similar size and compare any ports along the way and would probably choose the longer cruise - Voyager.

We don't need much internet, but check email once a day for concerns at home. How hard is it (usually) to use a computer at In Touch? It seems that speed/access would be better here. Onboard Internet access is available 24 hours a day at In Touch (Deck 10), from the day of departure until 6:00 AM on debarkation day. WiFi (Wireless Internet access) is also available throughout the ship. To take advantage of WiFi service, bring your own laptop, which must be equipped with a wireless network card. If using an Apple® computer, the Safari® browser must be Version 3.0 or higher to ensure compatibility with the onboard wireless network.