KeepCalmBearOn

I so would have eaten the cookie......

In Hawaii I've only rented from the airport, but in other areas I've used a Hertz or Avis desk in the hotel and if the counter is closed, you park in their area and drop the keys in a slot in the desk.

My last trip on RSS was at least 10 years ago and they asked for no shorts after 6PM so I complied. If that has been relaxed, I might look at Regent again, for the right itinerary, but I am mostly cruising for the ship now, not destinations.

Regent is all "dressy" after 6PM in all public areas..... which put me off Regent (and two other lines). I don't mind dressing for dinner, but I want back in my shorts ASAP. I dress every day for work in a suit. I want relaxed on vacation. I would not wear shorts to the YC dining room for dinner, but I will go change back into shorts to go to a lounge or show after.

We went through our small luxury ship phase mostly in the mid 90's to mid 2000's and then after going on mid sized ships (Princess, HAL & Celebrity) and going back to small, we found we missed the amenities of the bigger ships. That combined with the growing informality of the dress codes on the mid sized ships helped put us off the smaller ships. I rebelled at the idea of the mega ships. I mean who wants to ice skate in the Caribbean and ride a go kart in the fjords of Alaska.... me it turns out. The Retreat, Yacht Club and Haven are nice ways to make the megas more palatable.

90% of those close by are mediocre national chains or mediocre tourist traps. One notable exception is L'Opera Italian Restaurant; a truly outstanding place. And while I find Parker's Lighthouse a bit of a tourist trap, the Queensview Steakhouse on the 3rd floor of Parker's is very good.

I would not get a dining package because they do not match how I eat or what I like. I am also not sure they save lots of money. In the dining package you get 1 soup/salad/starter; 1 entree and 1 dessert. I generally don't eat dessert unless there is a something very special and unique or an outstanding cheese offering. I often get a started and soup or salad, or sometimes even two starters and a salad. In Butcher's Cut, I don't think the Rib Eye is an option.

I think the area is very safe and you are on a major road, but I'd still Uber or cab and tip well.

Nope, super easy. Ask the staff at the Maya how far in advance to call for the Uber.

Double check under the mattress, just in case there is a pea there..... 😁🤣

I went through a period where I liked smaller ships, Regent, Oceania, etc, but after I'd been on a couple of the mega-ships, when I tried to go back to small, I found myself missing the entertainment, the large variety of restaurants and I found myself really liking causal (shorts) almost any time.

El Agave in San Diego's Old Town has over 2,000 different kinds of tequila. It wasn't until my DW got her job in San Diego some 16 years ago and we bought our home in Coronado that I learned how to drink and appreciate tequila. https://elagave.com/tequila-museum/

Kind of how I feel about gin I couldn't tell the sparkling wine brand in the YC, I suspect it is a proseco, but I love the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label on Regent and the Patron Reposado. Wild Turkey, I could skip though. I like the Jack in the YC, but as I recall on both Regent and in the YC, you to choose your poison.

When Princess entered the Chinese market by basing ships there, they too adjusted their menus. And the same for the Australia market. It only makes sense.

I can't imagine it being an issue.

I get unlimited Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top Brut, and every other alcoholic drink, or coffee/espresso drink or non-alcoholic drink on Regent for the whole cruise. And since the RSS Granduer is only 746 passengers vs MSC World Europa at 6,762 passengers, you really aren't in the terminal that long. But even if I was, I'd trade off length of cruise Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top Brut for the MSC terminal plonk.

There was no way to quote you, but here is my two cents on Viator or any huge travel vendor. When I travel and book, I book directly with local vendors. I don't want the "head office" six time zones away and impossible to contact when something goes sideways. That same philosophy applies to vacation rentals. When possible, I use local real estate agents, not national sites like Airbnb.

The two experiences are just too different to compare (Regent vs YC). One is the Club Level at a Holiday Inn Express, the other an Aman Resort. We gave up on Regent because I enjoy being casually dressed, that means shorts whenever possible. I don't mind dressing for dinner in an MDR, but I like a buffet as a dinner option too (so I can wear shorts), and I really don't like having to wear long pants just to get a drink and listen to some lounge music in the evening. Some people like dressing up all the time, I am not one of them. I have not experienced "interlopers" in our two YC trips, or maybe I didn't notice, but our experiences were acceptable, and more than acceptable for the value.

I wear my sport coat (suit jacket) for boarding because I don't like packing it either. But you don't NEED a coat and certainly not a tie.

Two, MSC Seascape and MSC World Europa. Not yet booked, but we plan to try the MSC World America.

It is possible that the underlying cause for the bad reviews is that people had a bad experience. It is entirely possible that they had rude staff, couldn't get a drink (or pool lounger) and didn't like the food. Two of three of those are very subjective. It also depends, I think, on the length of the cruise. People only doing 3 or 4 night itineraries are going to have a very different experience from someone doing a 7 night cruise and very, very different from someone doing a 16 night cruise. And lastly, it depends on the point of view of the reviewer. A YouTube cruiser I follow had a very bad experience on MSC. He is an African American and never complains about feeling discriminated against, but in his review on his MSC experience, he says he felt it very blatantly as did his long time girlfriend, a white, Northern European. Yes MSC probably oversells the experience, but I think most cruise lines do. The people you see in advertisements are never the people you actually see onboard. Almost every ad for almost every cruise line I've seen makes it look serene, luxurious and romantic and very few deliver on that.

...Viator. Who does that?

January is in whale season. That would be my rec for a first time visitor. The weather is nicer in October, but it won't effect the sail over or back.

For me, staying at the Torrance DoubleTree is about the variety of dining options in the area.

I love The Kauai Mountain Tubing, but the entire island of Kauai only has 70 Ubers to cover the whole place. Do not count on being able to use it. You would want to pre-arrange transportation.