mj_holiday

You will love Copacabana. Thanks for starting this and taking us along with you.

We have gotten USA today in the past. For those who do not get paper newspapers, there was always a selection of newspapers in the library (at least pre-covid)

During Covid, Barbados advertised about their great web access and a great place to work from a distance. Then when cruising was just beginning to open up, it seemed like several cruise lines started or ended cruises at Barbados. Barbados is getting way more tourist than they can handle.

When you are eligible for a night in a hotel before the cruise, and you take a 3 day pre-cruise, you cannot combine the two as mentioned, but you will get the credit for not taking the included room.

thanks

If you "pre-tip" at the beginning of a cruise, it will not be secret. People will be able to tell by the service, or 'smarming' over you. I have seen it. I first saw pre-tipping in 1971 (yes I can remember that) in Italy at a service station with a "cafe" inside. You identified what you wanted and went and paid for it. You then took the receipt you got and held it up with a Tip and waited for someone on the other side of the counter to wait on you. Needless to say, the bigger the tip the faster you got served. Friends of our recently went on their first Regent cruise and asked us about tipping. I explained about writing comments about good service and who provided it. and that was a very good thing to do for the crew. When they got home, they admitted that tipping was easier, so they tipped. If writing good comments about service didn't take time and energy to accomplish, it would be done by everyone. It's not done by everyone and so your comments will be sure to stand out.

Reviewing the excursions for our upcoming Japan cruise, I decided I need to look into the Shuttles that Regent has for each port. Has anyone who has been on a cruise around Japan used any of these shuttles? Is there something that will tell you what the frequency is, where it leaves you in town. We have only used a provided shuttle once, many years ago in Israel and the frequency wasn't very often.

After selecting excursions prior to the cruise using the descriptions found on line, be sure to look at the errata sheet that will be in your cabin with updates. At times these updates included a change in the activity level of the tour.

I completely agree with Pcardad on providing a positive comment regarding specific staff members in your end of cruise survey. Also remember the mid cruise survey. I complemented a crew member for some excellent help given in LaVeranda in the mid cruise survey. Two days later the supervisor of that crew member found us at lunch and thanked us for the comment and saying it will help him to get a raise or promotion for the crew member.

I would double check on that credit with TA or Regent. Our current booking is Dallas to Tokyo and then Vancouver to Dallas. We took a credit for Vancouver to Dallas and it was much smaller than half the total allowance.

Pappy1022 said "Not every cost cutting initiative equates to a poorer customer experience" I was glad to see this mentioned, also think that some of the changes are considered a "process improvement" We have been on one Regent cruise post Covid and agree it wasn't like before. The biggest difference being on shore support was extremely lacking (except for Victoria Falls which was beyond expectations) One of the onboard changes was definitely an improvement (IMHO) The change was that the ice bucket in every cabin (at least our Concierge) would not automatically be filled with ice every day. If the guest wanted/requested ice, the steward would make sure they got it. We very seldom would use the ice in our cabin. Since our other cabin service - room service and morning coffee, breakfast - was always good, I expect guests would get ice as requested. That did not make it to be a subject of complaints here. Because of my past career, I would find it very interesting to see the metrics on labor, ice and energy saved by this one change. And the metrics could have also shown that more guests than expected asked for ice in their room and it didn't save anything. Will be on Explorer in a month so will see what other changes have been made and what I perceive as the impact.

For us Misty Fords out of Ketchikan and the White Pass Railroad out of Skagway. When going into Ketchikan try to watch out the "left" side of the ship. As we were heading in I looked out an saw airplanes land right along side of us. I also highly recommend that you read "Alaska" by James Michener before you go.

That is great. Hope they have this on all ships.

The cruise to Iceland and Greenland can have weather issues. Our cruise to Iceland/Greenland in 2019, we missed one port in Iceland and delayed leaving the Faroe Island port. As we were getting ready to get off the boat in Greenland, a lady next to me said that this was their 3rd attempt to get to Greenland.

I agree with Tsunami74 on it varies. In Cairo we had a small bus with about half seats used. In Victoria Falls there were 12 For Cape Town Wine tour there were 2 busses, our was not full. We never seemed to be bothered about the fact that there were two busses. Handled very well.

Papaflamingo - Please report back. I ended up with one of those extra large suitcases which I haven't used yet.

Regent is our cruise line of choice - when the itinerary is right.. I find the evening menus to be very interesting and a nice variety. Lunch in the pool grill is always nice, whether it is the salmon burgers or a special buffet. Many times they will bring in local sourced food, sea food, for the menu. Have not been on Oceania, so can't comment.

Do you have a TA? TA could tell you. Since you have booked your own air, you will not have a transfer from airport to hotel - you probably already know this. If you would have declined the pre-cruise hotel, you would have gotten a modest credit for that one night. This would show up on the detail pricing. I would bet if you do not have this credit for the hotel, they will have a room for you. But to be on the safe side, just call Regent to double check. Have your booking number handy.

I emailed Regent about 2 months ago for our upcoming cruise. Items usually are there when we get to our suite. If not will ask our room attendant. One new thing (since before covid) is that they do not automatically give you ice every day. (we never really used it) You call when you need ice or you can let your room attendant know that you do want ice every day.

We have a scheduled stop in Ketchikan this April 28.

We have done a couple of the pre-post land tours. They were good. They follow the detailed description online.. Our cruise that started in Turkey and ended in Egypt, had a 3 day extension in Cairo and was very interesting as we visited several places around the city. We had a small bus that took us everywhere and even an evening trip to a jewelry store for a cartouche. We had both Pre and Post trips on our Cape Town to Cape Town cruise last year. The Pre cruise started in Johannesburg with a flight to Victoria Falls. A stay in the Victoria Falls Inn which was great!! and two days touring. The post had some good day trips out of Cape Town. I will always look for any connected with the cruises I book.

I just got an email from Regent (forwarded to me by TA) asking to verify my address for eco-friendly paper luggage tags. Will see what I get.

We are on Voyager Mar 8 to Mar 25, 2025 Papeete to Auckland

Looking forward to your postings. We are headed to French Polynesia in 2025. Have a great trip!

We were at Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. We thought we were heading to a beach to wade out and snorkel. The description had the words "beach break". Instead we were on a pontoon like boat, had to take our shoes off and snorkeled from the boat. We are seniors. We were looking forward to sitting in the sand taking in the sun and walking into the water every so often. Having to remove our orthopedic sandals to walk on the boat, and get in and out of the water from the edge of the boat was no day at the beach.