lprp

Our tour, GND-006 Mountain Rainforest, Grand Etang and Annandale was a bit sub-par. The visit to Laura Spice Garden was very interesting, the guide was very knowledgeable. The rest of the trip was “meh”, underwhelming. It wasn’t helped by the torrential downpours, we didn’t see the rainforest, just the rain….. When we returned to the ship we found that P&O Britannia was berthed next to us. I took a photo of the ships side by side. We discovered that the ship had left Barbados yesterday and was not scheduled to call at Grenada, unfortunately there was a medical emergency so they made an unscheduled stop😔. The photo is to show the difference in size of the ships, with no disrespect meant to the unfortunate evacuee.

Today we were treated to Nature’s decoration in the form of a “Sun Dog”, a phenomenon I’d never heard of or seen before, I’m advised there is a Moon version too:

The decorations are great aren’t they @flossie009, which is more than can be said for the sea conditions at the moment 🌊🌊. @Travel-or the garlands on the stairs are sadly not real, the scents would be fabulous if they were.

It’s a well known fact that broken biscuits or cookies have hardly any calories……. 😋😉

We’ll be on board and see them decorated. Will post a picture LP

On our Splendor cruise at the end of August we were in the Grand. It’s close to the port, but 3km to the centre of town. We weren’t really enamoured with the hotel, especially as our room faced directly onto the road which was very noisy. If we were going to go there again we’d definitely stay in town, Reykjavik Edition looks lovely, it’s just opposite the concert venue.

@GeorgiaPeach51 so glad you decided to blog your O cruise. We’ve only cruised once on O. It was on Riviera, Christmas 2012. We decided to try it as we had been on our very first Regent cruise the previous Christmas on Mariner. The fact that we are 5 weeks away from what will be our 12th cruise on R probably helps understand our preference! We quite enjoyed the speciality restaurants on O; particularly Red Ginger, but were completely underwhelmed with the MDR. My only other highlight memory was the rather good Wagyu burgers at the pool grill. I agree completely about the joy of not having to sign for drinks on R. Looking forward to reading your updates. LP

Thanks for the blog @flossie009. See you on Mariner. LP

I believe that @Mike Moore has confirmed that this is the intention.

I’ve previously tried checking US prices vs. UK, it was almost impossible due to the way the prices were quoted on the US Website. I think this might have changed with the advent of the new. Price policy. I did attempt it when we booked onboard last month. It seemed that there was little difference for the cruise only fare (on a like for like basis). We did however have a free (included) pre-cruise offer for Angkor Wat that was not available on the US site. The cruise consultant was surprised to see it. The main differences seem to be that: 1) Included Transatlantic air is in Business Class for US, but only Economy for UK 2) UK deposit is higher - 20%, this is non-refundable. (Exception is the lower deposit for booking on board).

Just make sure you’re not wearing white linen…….…it becomes almost transparent 😳🫣 Happened to me in a deluge in Sydney, the memory of it as well as trailing water through the lobby of The Westin (now the Fullerton Hotel) still makes me blush 🤭

WOW! 😮 I was considering buying nets for going over our hats…… …I’ve just ordered them 🤞

Completely agree that making this many port changes this far out is very different to changing course during the cruise due to weather conditions, etc. I hope that O do the right thing and allow you the option of FCC. Please keep us posted on this board. LP

Only if you come from “sarfeast” London 😉

You can choose, as we did to have the OBC added to the cruise you are booking, rather than the one you are currently on. It would have been almost worthless as the selection of products for sale in the boutique on Splendor was risible.

Am in the UK so this is probably a relevant “Apples to Apples” comparison, as @mrlevinsays the US TA system is different. We booked a cruise for Christmas 2024 while we were on board Splendor earlier this month. The price quoted by the cruise consultant was exactly the same as the UK website prices, to this they applied onboard and SSS savings, as this cruise was one that qualifies as per the comments by @flossie009. We paid a much lower deposit and have all the options to do a 1 x move at no additional cost (obviously the cruise price will vary) with all the benefits listed above included. We also have 30 days from booking to get a full refund. We also received $150 OBC PP. When we got home I spoke with our TA who applied a further discount. I would usually have spoken to our TA while we were onboard but we booked it on the last day of the cruise. We were happy with the additional discount offered. I can’t speak to the cruise consultant who didn’t listen to you about what suite you wanted, our experience was much different, she looked at the suites we had previously had on Voyager and suggested similar. Personally, I wouldn’t hesitate to do another booking while onboard. There seems to be quite a bit of upside to no downside.

Or even worse……white pudding 🤢

@fudge - your reports are hilarious, I’m still laughing at the mental image of Mr Fudge carrying Mrs Fudge into the restaurant and howling with laughter as I imagine what she will do/has done to you when she reads your update 🤣😂. @Zqueeze1 photos of these events would probably not be as fun as the imagined ones!!

I’ve tried to look at the shows on our upcoming Mariner Christmas cruise. but I get the following, but nothing specific about the shows - I tried on both iPad and Laptop:

Thanks for this blog @AussieBoyTX. We’re doing the Kimberley’s by land and sea next June withe APT. The sea part is on Le Jacques Cartier, chartered by APT. You have really whetted my appetite.

Did the fabulous Terry Bishop do one of his “Troubadour” performances? Was hoping he might be on our Mariner cruise at Christmas, but just checked and he’s going to be entertaining the lucky travellers on Grandeur😏

The Captain and CD both said it was an acute Gastrointestinal bug and we were repeatedly asked to report any such symptoms to the medical team for a complimentary assessment. There was no request or requirement to distance or wear masks. The only people wearing masks were the security team at the entry/exit and the members of the entertainment team who ran the individual RR games. I didn’t ask but assumed it was probably because they could be handling items that passengers have touched 🤔 We certainly hugged a few of the crew the day before disembarking.

I really loved your reporting. See you on the Mariner for a wonderful trip to the Amazon! Thank you. We’re really looking forward to it. See you onboard.

This morning we were in a drizzly Copenhagen. Fast forward 6 hours and we are on a rainy M25!🤔 We had a quick breakfast in Compass Rose. Disembarkation was quick and easy, we were on the coach and enroute to Copenhagen Airport by 9:15am. A few final thoughts about our cruise. The crew are amazing, always smiling and friendly, especially remarkable given the extra hygiene issues they are having to deal with. It’s been a little bit different walking into a restaurant that only has a table cloth on it and waiting for the waiter to bring your cutlery wrapped in a napkin and for the sommelier to bring the correctly sized glass for the wine you have ordered. It’s certainly not the same wow factor as seeing the wonderful Versace chargers, a selection of glassware and cutlery all laid out. I hope the situation is resolved quickly, I feel bad for the new passengers, especially those who are new to Regent. But the staff and crew have managed it admirably. I completely understand all the precautions they are taking with one exception: The various Ladies and Gents “facilities/bathrooms/toilets” have had all the individual hand towels removed and replaced with paper. Initially they were small paper hand towels, but they obviously ran out of them (you needed about 6 of them to dry your hands properly) and replaced them with….. …..boxes of facial tissues, which in themselves required a handful to dry hands and run out very. I mentioned it to reception - I genuinely don’t understand how a soggy pile of tissues, potentially harbouring the gastrointestinal bug, that goes into a plastic line bin and waits for disposal, is any more hygienic than a single use hand towel that goes into a plastic lined bin and doesn’t need to be physically handled by anyone until it has been laundered. They said they would note my observation 🧐 Nearly home and onto the dreaded unpacking. Only 91 days until we board Mariner, but who’s counting? Oh, that would be me😁 Thanks for riding along with me. LP

Completely agree, I guess if you don’t have the stock….. Maybe there should be a (high end) charity shop too 🧐