Gilly

Next step! We are here in the BA T5 lounge ready to fly. We checked in last night and stayed over at the LHR Sofitel, which we usually do before a morning flight, not trusting the M4 peak morning traffic. The hotel was full and the BA staff member we chatted to said they had 51 000 departing px through T5 yesterday - surprisingly, that was not a record, either! Thankfully the lounge is quiet this morning. Hope to 'see' you in CPH later!

@LindsayC we are booked on that same cruise and have flights from LHR via Madrid to Rio, arriving on the day before the cruise (our choice not to do the pre-cruise). LHR to Madrid, will be on BA, where we've chosen our seats already (with BA frequent flyer status) but Madrid to Rio is Iberia and though we know we have a booking reference, so far we've not been able to reserve particular seats. We were told there was a glitch on their website (but don't know if that's the case or what) We're in business class the whole way, booked through Regent but I'm unsure if that was part of the deal or was an extra.

Life is a little chaotic here so having five minutes to spare, I thought I'd kick off a new thread for our upcoming cruise which starts in Copenhagen on Wednesday 26th. As always, I'll blog on my personal "Elegant Sufficiency" page for my own records, because there's nothing better on a cold Winter's evening than to revisit all those wonderful Regent cruises once again from the comfort of home (all our cruise pages are here btw) Here's hoping for reasonable internet connections then and a bucketload of patience delivered by room service from time to time 😉 We fly to Copenhagen early Tuesday morning and look forward to dinner at our favourite Høst restaurant in the evening. Of course, we'll raise a glass to friends who've been there with us previously - you'll be there in spirit I know! I'll drop in here from time to time to share bits and pieces of interest (as we do) and hope that others on board will add their two penn'orth here as well. But now, to go and sort things out so that we can leave our builders to get on with their work whilst we are away. Here's hoping we don't return to find even more chaos!

Davor and Vlado are a great management team. If we see their smiling faces when we board, we know we're going to have a wonderful cruise!

Most of our EU stamps show in and out, but there's one "out" that's missing - not cruise related. That single missing "out" stamp renders all the others useless, since there's no record of how many days we spent in the EU during that year (2022). Has anyone asked? Does anyone seem bothered? No. So neither am I!! (Until something happens that changes that mindset 😉 )

Seconding @flossie009's comment above. Though we agree we don't need another pleather wallet with every set of cruise docs we receive, we can't help feeling that the current arrangement feels pretty mean. Whilst the reintroduction of luggage tags is a plus (Yes, hard to believe that for a year or so, we were not even sent tags of any kind here) the old feeling of "woohoo! Our cruise is really happening 🍾!" when the package arrives has gone. The envelope with the tags just gets put on the pile with the bills... There is surely a cost-efficient, environmentally friendly but stylish solution here?

I will second the recommendation of Orkney's Archaeological Wonders tour having enjoyed that one last year on a busy summer's day, when we feared everywhere would be crammed with tourists. Yes, it was busy, but our tour escaped the queues and our guide managed all of that side of the day really well. I agree, the story of Scapa Flow is fascinating. My report of our day is here on my blog if you are interested. We've not done Regent tours of Waterford and Liverpool but know both well and agree with comments on both places which would be high on our list of must-sees.

I maintain that there are (better, IMHO) alternatives to tipping and agree 100% with @mj_holiday above.

We had three days in Edinburgh on board Navigator last year (in Leith, two scheduled plus one extra day because high winds prevented the safe transit out of the dock earlier) and used the shuttle into Edinburgh centre instead of a tour on one of those days. The drop off point is very central, we walked into Princes Street and visited the National Gallery, did a bit of shopping and returned to the ship on the shuttle. The witches' warning here is that central Edinburgh in August is very full with Festival goers and the fallout that all makes - not pretty. When we were there, the tram extension was in the finishing stages and as Flossie says above, would be an ideal choice now it's running. Bear in mind that Edinburgh is a very hilly city, that a walk "up" the Royal Mile and to the Castle might be a stretch for some and @pappy1022 I think your thought of taking the tour there and making your own way back is an excellent one if you can make it work. St Giles Cathedral (access from the Royal Mile) is also well worth a visit and there are plenty of places along there for refreshment too. On the other days we took the tour to St Andrews which was good and on the additional day we walked into Leith, because we'd been to the Royal Yacht Britannia previously (highly recommend that btw).

Oh sorry....wrong end of the stick here!!

I've been watching Splendor's progress in the Baltic with interest as our embarkation date draws nearer. I have seen the occasional post on FB from the ship but nothing here. Could this (just stumbled across the blog post) be the reason?

That's especially annoying when BA fly direct LHR - Austin. When we flew that route they were using a nice new A350 with the Club Suites too. But that was pre-CV and a lot has changed since then. *sigh*

Just once, immediately post CV we had an email with a really great last minute offer to board Splendor for a short, 7 night round trip cruise from Athens to Istanbul and return. When the email arrived, we looked at one another and said "Why not?" and jumped at it. We had a great cruise, Splendor was pretty new and there were a lot of (we think) travel agents on board, plus some regular clients like us. But it's only happened that once and I'm not sure of the circumstances that led to it. That was a very strange time as far as travel was concerned and things were just getting back together again. It would be fun to do such things again though!

The one thing about Japanese Immigration officials is that they squeeze their entry/exit stamps tightly into the corner/space available, unlike others (grr!) who stamp bang slap in the middle of an empty page!!

I watch the weather maps each morning and think of you in all that "stuff" that's happening in the Baltic right now. Fingers crossed it will all blow through soon!!

@DeepFreeze63 thanks for the Splendor report which is of special interest since three weeks today - ?tomorrow? - we'll be boarding her in Copenhagen, hooray! I was especially happy to see Andy and Tammy on board, for they're amongst our all time favourite CD/SH. Sorry about the bad weather. I watched our (UK) weather forecast this morning and saw the stuff over Scandinavia, thinking that cruising up there right now was possibly not the most fun, but that was before I read the reality in your post just now. Here's hoping that all blows through pretty swiftly and that normal Regent blue skies will appear. After all that really hot and sunny weather we've had of late, this chill and rainy stuff is a bit of a shock to the system, I can tell you (and most certainly not Hampton Court Flower Show or Wimbledon weather, is it?) Look after the lovely Splendor for us and have a wonderful cruise!

OK, so you are more than twice as likely to have encountered a disappointing situation on board a Regent ship than I am.

That's true, I haven't. But I am also entitled to my opinion based on my own experience gathered over 300 days on board Regent ships (including the occasional disappointment).

Remember that for every one of the people who write here or elsewhere about their disappointment with this or that, there are another few hundred happy clients who count their blessings and can't wait to step back on board a Regent ship - whichever one it happens to be - who appreciate all those thoughtful touches from incredible staff who make our experience so special.

But if you can't get to Berlin - or if you know the city already - then the Regent tour to Schwerin was excellent and fascinating too. Few people get to see Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Angela Merkel's home state) and the castle, lakes and cathedral are all well worth a visit and were part of the tour we took (and very much enjoyed).

Aaaagh, @lprp, I have so many friends I've never met... @flossie009 and @forgap included and others who got on and we got off or vice versa ( hi @liptastic !) It was fabulous to finally meet @briar14 last year and @2012_Alaska_bound too - perhaps one of these days we'll all find ourselves on the same ship and heaven knows what mayhem might break out! We managed Shetland and the Orkneys last year and have aimed for the Faroes once before (and the Falklands) and missed...but hey, this may be our lucky year!

@lprp we're sailing a B2B on Splendor, having enjoyed our Norwegian trip with @briar14 and @2012_Alaska_bound so much last year. We'll leave Copenhagen on July 26th and return home from Reykjavik on August 23rd, overnighting in Southampton which will be strange as it's not much more than an hour from home. Our previous Greenland itinerary was cancelled due to CV, so we're making up for lost time, I hope - we were eager to see the Faroes too. We already heard that our Stavanger stop has been cancelled, which doesn't bother us terribly, but I know how disappointing such things can be. I have my fingers crossed for all the others as I know that Greenland was a no go for quite a few people last year, because of bad weather (I think?) How about you @lprp ? Will our paths cross?

@flossie009 I love it!! 🤣 I hope you are able to enjoy the city as planned, though I'm wondering if it's a fuel/environmental issue that's taking effect as Norway is particularly concerned about the impact of cruise ships. I think many are rescheduling as a result of not going to St Petersburg, perhaps? It's a little ironic when Stavanger gained so much as a result of oil and gas exports though, isn't it? 🤔

I agree, Quebec City is delightful and I really enjoyed being taken back there - thank you @GeorgiaPeach51 ! For "next time" I highly recommend the Auberge St Antoine, a family owned Relais & Chateaux property with a fabulous restaurant too. Too late now, but in my experience you'll want to return 🙂

I agree @Techno123 because whilst it's a far from impartial film, nevertheless it gives a little insight to the effects of these huge ships. I'm not sure how frequently Iona is in Stavanger but think that last year, she was on a regular Norwegian Fjords itinerary aimed at families. When we were in port, my dh went into town to seek a cash machine and reported that it "felt like being in Basildon" (not that either of us has any first hand experience of that!) Watching the crowds returning to the shi in the late afternoon, I understood what he meant. I just looked at P&O itineraries and it appears that at least one of their ships visits weekly, with Iona doing the Norwegian Fjord cruise throughout the summer. Iona is fuelled by LNG which I assume makes it more acceptable to the Norwegian environmental authorities.