schub229

Since I'll have my iphone along anyway, guess that's a good answer to my question. So it was Crystal last January that had the alarm clock.

Thanks for the quick response, Rachel.

We sail from Venice on Friday and have been looking forward to this for over a year. My silly question is that I can't remember if there is a good alarm clock in PH-C so I don't have to pack mine!!

I've been reading all the reviews and critiques, both negative and positive, but we decided we'll go with the flow and celebrate our 45th in style.:)

Safe travels home for everyone leaving the ship in Venice!!

Our cruise isn't even shown in the brochures anymore, so haven't a clue as to whether fares are going down at all. Wonder why it's not listed-especially if there have been cancellations-and whether there's a huge company booked on at that time.

Business class is included in Penthouse C, but unless you use their air provisions that you get about 75 days before departure, you have to pay the deviation fee, and because we wanted a non stop flight to Venice, they charge us over $1000 extra. We decided it was worth it not to have change planes going over as we're notoriously bad sleepers on flights. Hoping you're right about the flat beds and sleeping, Mr. Stanley.

Marcie, you are so lucky you didn't have to pay the deviation!! Perhaps it was special for the Explorer Maiden Voyage?? Just got our flights from Regent-Delta JFK to Venice non-stop and then BA Nice-LHX to JFK (bet the plane will be full of Regent passengers). But not only do we have to pay deviation fee, we also have to pay over $1000 extra. Glad to have a non-stop to Venice, but we rarely can sleep on those flights. Anyway, glad the excursions are booked, flight is booked , dining to be booked in June, and oh yes, we do have to pay in April!! Can't wait to hear how your Maiden Voyage goes!!! Sounds wonderful!!

pat

Thanks, Dave. That's what I was thinking, but my other half didn't want to select flights earlier!! Guess I will get right to it!! I wasn't happy with the extra $1000 + deviation fee for the KLM flight, but it's not easy to get flights back from Nice after 12:30 PM.First time we've had a problem like this in all our travels.

Petlover-

did you find out anymore about your Regent Explorer flights? We don't leave until 9/24 -Venice to Monte Carlo/Nice airport and have been looking up air possibilities. There's a wonderful Delta non-stop, but it leaves Nice airport at 11:30---and Regent doesn't allow flights before 12:30PM. Amazing how many airlines have flights leaving before then! Lufthansa is out because they only have 45 minutes between flights from Frankfurt and on to JFK. British Air has 9:44 PM flight, but arrives in Venice at 9:45 Pm the night before the trip and by the time you get to the Marriott, it gets quite late. Am really looking forward to our cruise, but am fearful that waiting 75 days before the date, the "good" flights will be pretty well booked. Might go with KLM as we've used them twice before and had good experiences, plus we can add those cute blue and white Delft houses to our collections.

If anyone else can jump in and add clarity to our travels, we'd appreciate it!! Will the airlines be adding more flights between now and then?

I meant to say PH-C and my TA does luxury cruises. It was totally my mistake when she quoted $16K+ as it apparently included the insurance which we always take. I misunderstood it and apologize for getting on this Board and making the mistake. Underlying it all though is the premise that the "free" business class air is NOT free, as the price of $2800 pp is written into the $14+K fare. So be it! We want to celebrate our anniversary at Chateau Kirwan and my 75th BD and need a "Regent fix".

Thanks for your explanations.

We don't think you can go wrong with either Crystal or Regent. We happen to prefer Regent for ourselves with everything included, but Crystal has been following suit in some areas. As far as we're concerned, it's the itinerary that's the deciding factor. Why don't you try each one and see for yourself? We're very excited about the new Regent Explorer coming next summer!

Just booked 9/30/15 trip from Amsterdam to Barcelona on Voyager and in all the thousands of brochures we get from Regent, it says FREE AIR for Penthouse or above for this voyage, yet my TA (who's excellent) says they add another $2800 pp to the stated cost shown on the page-so PH-D comes to over $16,000 pp with the "FREE" air. Hmmmm, then this is NOT free-coming from the US. I can't seem to find out anything about this, but certainly this is not what we bargained for and our TA said that's what Regent quotes. Can anyone explain this to us? :confused:

What a wonderful creative eye you have with the camera!! Even those with a super expensive DSL camera couldn't compete with many of these shots, cruisin skier!!! Many people never see the great shots of the war fields, Leiden, Ypre, etc etc etc that you have included on this post. Thank you so much for your generous postings!! We're doing the Rhine in mid October on AMA, but are enjoying your travelogue so much. I feel lucky to have found this Forum.

I noticed that no one has mentioned anything about tipping bus drivers on excursions for river cruises. We did that on mostly day long ocean cruise excursions. We know it's all paid for by the cruise lines, but just wondering if a little extra for the guide and driver, if they go above and beyond what's expected, might be given.

Such a wonderful writeup about your Tauck experiences! Thank you. We happen to be going on AMAwaterways in October, but read your article to see what Tauck was about and because we'll be going to some of the same places. Well done! Kudos!!:)

You can get wonderful help in the computer labs in setting up the ipad. It would be nice if they had a mini-class on the ipads during the SA cruise. On our 6 week cruise last winter, I brought along my own ipad so I could download my photos each night, and then I could make notes as to what the photos were while my mind was fresh. I put the info in a notebook for labeling my photos on iphoto once I got home, but couldn't transfer from ipad to Mac-had to use the SD cards which I locked.

It was fun to look back over our day's excursions each night and to show our table mates at dinner what we'd done that day. :)