Dolebludger

No, cool man, you can answer. You are me 40 years ago. But 40 years from then, we (and you) may want different cruise experiences. At 80 years old, I go to bed early, and drink much in the afternoon., we don’t stay up at night . And we don’t care much about late night activities on a cruise. Ship.

Well, yes. Regent advertises many things as “free” when it should be labeled as “included”. It is the usual cruise line marketing language, which is just wrong. The real answer to this crap is to see what is included in the cruise you are looking at to book. Whether it is called “free” or called “included” you will get it. If not, you will not. If not it will be at extra cost, which will be high, as you are in a floating monopolopy!

No, nobody should move anyone out. Basically, if you book and pay for a Regent cruise, you have paid your tips. You needn’t pay any more. That is what lux lines provide in their fare. If a cruise line doesn’t, it is not a lux line. But Regent is a lux line. Now, if there is an emergency, and a staff member renders service beyond job description, you might offer a tip. We were in that situation about delayed luggage, and our steward took care of getting our laundry quickly. I offered a tip, and it was declined. I am not sure that Regent service staff will always reject a tip, but they do not expect one — even for service beyond their job description.

Well, I don’t have one. I’m sorry. Perhaps it is walking up a 30 degree slope for 1/2 mile on gravel? I really don’t know. I live in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, so I sort of know what I can do, and what I can’t. I just can’t describe it. Sorry. But, whatever your physical abilities, I think you can find excursions on any cruise line to suit you. But I don’’t think shore excursions are the issue here. Rather, I think it is about late night activities. If that is important, I would not recommend Regent to you. There essentially aren’t any. And that is all I know. And yes, we didn’t find much in the way if late night activities on our two X Retreat cruises either.

Celebrity is no more active than Regent — unless you count walking over the halls in a large ship. At age 80, I define myself as “active” because I can walk, drive, swim, dress and feed myself, and am not dead! I no longer go to the gym, lift weights, or take excursion cruises. I don’t book excursions that require over “moderate” physical effort. But I’m a bit over the average age on Regent or Oceania (which is in the 60s), so I take it a bit easy. But not all guests do. In younger years, I’ve taken some vigorous excursions on Regent.

Yes, I doubt anybody chooses Regent and the like over Celebrity for the entertainment. Smaller ship entertainment is smaller in scale. But some of us don’t care much about the theater entertainment, regardless of the scale. I can’t comment on Celebrity’s entertainment because on our two X cruises we never went. But I read that it includes some larger scale production numbers and is great overall. I think entertainment is great on Regent, on a small scale. Of more importance to us, Regent includes use of the fridge for soda and beer, bottle of liquor and bottle of wine for the suite (all replenished as needed), easy embarkation and disembarkation and same at ports, unlimited laundry for all guests, shore excursions, no room service fees, and never a crowd or line. And on some itineraries, Regent is cheaper. (Never thought I’d use the word “cheaper” in the same sentence with “Regent”!). But to get all this, one does give up production shows.

In any event, it is good to know that Windstar is not out of the game in French Polynesia.

True that! And you don’t have to wait in line with a crowd to get into the theater on Regent.

They have small scale acts and performances. Anybody for whom “Vegas style” shows is a high priority needs to look for another cruise line. For us, the entertainment isn’t a priority. We are more than satisfied with low key. So we either cruise Regent or the Retreat, or something like it. Indeed, on the two cruises we’ve had in the Retreat, we never attended any of the ship’s shows. You just aren’t going to find “large scale” entertainment on a 750 guest ship. But the positive factor of this is that there are plenty of vacant seats in the theater, and no lines or crowds getting in.

Well, we were there —- about 30 years ago, on a RC cruise. What I was wondering is what is there? When we were there, it was just an undeveloped beach. So whatever is there now must have been added since then. And unless whatever is now there is fantastic, we’d treat it as a sea day. We are going on a cruise this month on another line that has a stop in Nassau, Bahamas. Travel warnings are out for that place also. Unless we take a ship’s excursion, we’ll treat that as a sea day.

No, it means that X is a large ship line that has a luxury area or areas. When we cruised in the Retreat around 2018 and 2019, it offered us a lux experience at a price much less than lines like Regent. Maybe not quite as good as lines like Regent, but a great value. Now, the retreat is priced at the lux line level, or more.

No rumors from me — just a theory. It may be that, since those months are summer in FP, Windstar decided to have the Star Breeze cruise elsewhere in those months. Those months are reported to be very rainy there.

I checked Windstar’s Tahiti cruise on the Breeze for scheduled sailings. There were some in 2024 but none Jan. Feb, and March 2025.But a good sign; there are scheduled cruises in April 2025 and beyond. -So apparently this 3 month period of no cruises is not the start of a pull out. Still hope somebody is able to post a fuller explanation.

In the USA, collecting an overcharge is muck more difficult. No board regulates them. As ot court action. Their T&Cs provide tha sole jusisdiction is in Florida for such suits making bringing a legal action cumbersome for the complainant, if you don’t live in Florida.

Jim_iain, I can only answer concerning the market placement of Oceania. It is a sister line of Regent. It is a slightly stripped down (as to perks) version of Regent. it is considered a low level lux line or a high level premium. It misses on full lux due to absence of some perks, but it is rated higher than premium due to its smaller size and high space to guest ratio.,

Actually, somebody who ranks onboard entertainment high on their list of “must haves” on a cruise would be disappointed in lines like O, Regent, Silversea, and such. Actually, the best entertainment I’ve experienced on a cruise was on NCL! But I found every other factor about that line not to my liking.

Well, all I am saying is that if you want a certain cruise itinerary, shop around and do price comparisons for lines you like. And things change over rather small amounts of time, so the results several months ago might not be accurate today.

Cruise line comparison can vary with itinerary. And comparing a Penthouse on Regent to an unspecified suite on X is a bit of a miss. First, on Regent, you don’t need a butler, because room stewards have fewer suites and are tasked with all things that butlers do on X. So the comparison should be with a concierge suite or lower on Regent. And it needs consideration that the MDR on Regent (Compass Rose) is more like a specialty restaurant than a MDR. And on Regent, one is free of crowds on all parts of the ship. I priced a 7 night E. Caribbean on Regent in a concierge suite vs X in a SS, and found Regent less expensive, given the itinerary. And all things considered.

Thanks, Ski Mom! When your TA answers the matter, please post the results right here. What I can read so far doesn’t sound good.

Did Windstar pull the Star Breeze out of French Polynesia?

We are very interested in the outcome of this matter as we are booked Regent Splendor concierge later this month Caribbean and the same for Europe in August. We have the hotel, transfer, and flights set up, at least as of now. But travel has been a mess since the pandemic, and we never know what might happen. We have trusted Regent for decades to do the tight thing. Now, we wonder.

I know some did that. We didn’t. We tipped the “recommended amount” or a little more. No fan of the “American tipping culture” here, but I can’t change it by stiffing those who give me real service. But recent attempts to spread it into basically self service transactions with a tip prompt at checkout are met with “0”.

Actually, I think Virgin’s target market is about 1/4 my age! But I can’t find where Virgin has free drinks or much of anything else “free”. I’m probably missing something. But I would feel like I was on a cruise with my grand kids!

Please keep us posted. According to Picardad’s figures (which are going to be pretty spot on) it’s up to probably $375 USD to get from the airport and book in the hotel. And I’ll bet it will take more than $5 to get from hotel to pier. And Regent’s hotel and transfers includes breakfast, and that will cost extra. And there is the inconvenience to the guest in having to arrange things that Regent was paid to do. From what I can see, Regent is having these problems in small embarkation port cities, like Anchorage, Bridgetown, and Rekyjavik. On our Explorer Alaska cruise last summer, we booked concierge, but learned that Regent’s hotel in Anchorage (Hilton) had some bad reviews. So we took the credit and booked our own. In reading reviews of our cruise on CC after our return, we learned that the hotel was indeed poor, as were the transfers. We found a small boutique hotel and did our own transfers (not in a crowded bus) and all was good. I note that there have been some more minor complaints about Regent’s hotel choices in some larger port areas, but nothing as serious as the problem here.

I must confess that I prefer cruise lines wherein tips (WiFi, drinks, etc.) are included in the fare. It saves me from needing to “do the math”. But I’m capable of doing that, so no problem.