All th "i"s are dotted, all the "t"s are crossed ...

... and I think I'm ready to go.

I'll be taking my first-ever Regent Seven Seas cruise in September-October this year. The final fare payment was made 2 months ago, specialty restaurant reservations made, and the air transport from Miami to Seattle was finalized two days ago. I live in northern WA state, so I'll be taking the train to Vancouver for embarkaton. I'm much more interested in the onboard experience than I am in excursions -- I have some mobility limitations that make some ports extremely difficut (steep inclines, stairs, long distances between ship and excursion pick-up points, etc.), so I prefer to wait until I'm onboard and can talk to someone experienced with the particular port in question before I commit.

This will be only my third cruise ever. My first two will have been Holland America: a 14-day Alaska roundtrip out of Seattle last fall, and a 38-day North Atlantic roundtrip out of Boston, MA departing in 2.5 weeks.

I get home from that trip on August 26, and depart for Vancouver on September 11. That gives me 17 days to go through mail, check for anything that needs my attention and repack for "Serene Sunsets" -- September 12 - October 10 on RSSC Mariner. 28 nights. Further complicating matters: I'm using Luggage Forward for both trips, and failed to consider the time required to return bags from trip 1 and repack for trip 2. The bags from trip 1 arrive on August 30. The bags for trip 2 will be picked up on August 31, less than 24 hours later. And of course I need a bag from trip 1 for trip 2. Yikes! I'll be doing some "pre-packing" onboard HAL's ms Rotterdam before disembarkation on August 25 so that all I have to do is swap out packing cubes. I'll be more careful next time. Lesson learned.

Anyway, this board has been extremely helpful in planning. I have a clearer idea of what to pack. "Serene Sunsets" visits Alaska for a week, then heads south along the Pacific Coast to San Francisco, then through the Panama Canal, and finally lands in Miami -- I need cooler-weather clothes in addition to Caribbean warm-weather clothes.

A big surprise: I didn't realize when I booked this trip that it's actually two separate cruises sold as one: Vancouver to San Francisco; then San Francisco to Miami, so I was granted 2 special restaurant reservations per "leg" for a total of 4. I'm a bit of a foodie and I'm always looking for new culinary experiences, so this was a wonderful surprise!

I travel solo, so that's always a consideration when booking. RSSC has the best "deal" for singles of any cruise line I've researched. It may be a temporary "deal," but the supplement came to about 40% as opposed to 100% for HAL. I'm paying about the same amount per day for this cruise as I paid for the Holland America North Atlantic cruise. The differences: for the HAL cruise I'm booked into a Neptune suite (~500 sq ft); for RSSC, I'm in a Concierge Suite (~300 sq ft). However, RSSC is all-inclusive (wine! specialty restaurants! excursions!), so that absolutely increases the value especially for someone like me who may or may not be able to take advantage of excursion opportunities. This might be enough to entice me to choose RSSC more frequently for future cruises. It really all depends on the itinerary.

So ... apologies for the length of this, but I wanted to share my thoughts at this point. I'm anticipating this new experience with optimism and enthusiasm. The itinerary hits several "bucket list" locations (Panama Canal being near the top of my list) and even if I can't explore in depth, just visiting the port will be enough.

So thanks everyone -- you've helped this novice RSSC cruiser feel much more comfortable.

Lana in Bellingham, WA

Have two fantastic cruises and like you, I'm looking forward to our first cruise on Regent, but still have another 6 months to wait.

Lana,

Regent has a Social Travelers group which meets pre-dinner every night in one of the Lounges and then continues on to dinner. It is hosted by the Social Hostess and is a very nice way to meet other solo travelers. You will get an invitation in your cabin earlier in the day and do not have to RSVP - just show up.

I found that it is a very nice way to spend dinner time if you do not have other plans . . . .

I'm impressed with how organized you sound!

Enjoy your time on the Mariner!

Peggy

Lana,

Safe travels and hope your lovely long period of upcoming cruises is thoroughly enjoyable :D

It will be interesting to hear your comparisons between Holland America and Regent.

Make sure the Mariner is in good shape for when we join you in San Francisco :cool:

Lana, looks like you have 2 (3 to be precise:D) fabulous cruises ahead of you. Have a wonderful time!

Bob

Enjoy all your cruises. Welcome to Regent. I am sure you will become a “groupie” after your sailing. Good health and fair skies.

Sheila

Lana,

Regent has a Social Travelers group which meets pre-dinner every night in one of the Lounges and then continues on to dinner. It is hosted by the Social Hostess and is a very nice way to meet other solo travelers. You will get an invitation in your cabin earlier in the day and do not have to RSVP - just show up.

I found that it is a very nice way to spend dinner time if you do not have other plans . . . .

I'm impressed with how organized you sound!

Enjoy your time on the Mariner!

Peggy

Thanks, that's good to know! I'll watch for the invitation. I specified in the specialty restaurant reservations that I'm willing to share a table, too, so I'm always up to meeting more people (even though I'm an introvert by nature).

Lana in Bellingham, WA