Joanandjoe

Our biggest pet peave is the nickle and diming that makes you feel that someone's hand is always in your pocket. A charge for soda, a charge for fancy coffees, a charge for waater, a charge for tips, a charge to go to the nicest restaurants onboard, etc. We love Regent because of the lack of nickle and diming, but it's really too expensive for us. I wish the mainstream lines would raise their fees a bit and include more items.

ABC - anywhere but (the) Caribbean. Where we'd most like to sail is either British Isles or Norwegian fjords. Unfortunately, those itineraries are few and far between, and are right now--perhaps my busiest time of the year.

You've described Regent which is why I love it. Of course, the food is much better than edible--it's great!

Everything on Regent makes you feel pampered: from the bartenders who will serve you any drink, at no charge and with a smile: to the large staterooms; to the bathtubs (my biggest complaint aginst Celebrity is the lack of them); to the servers at the buffet who cook your food to order and bring it to your table; to the fellow passengers. It is a pleasure to have no nickle and diming. On two Regent cruises, our shipboard account included shore excursions, internet use, and one purchase at a shop: nothing else. Tipping and drinks are incuded. Even though our room on Regent was nuch smaller than our suite on a mainstream line (HAL), the Regent experience is much better than on any mainstream line on which we have travelled.

We've had three cruises when we've missed a port due to bad weather: Minorca and Corsica on Mediterranean cruises on Windstar, and St. George's on a Bermuda cruise on Celebrity. We didn't receive any compensation for any of the missed ports. Corsica was replaced by Villefranche, which turned out to be the highlight of the trip when we took an excursion to St. Paul de Vence. Instead of Minorca, we had a miserable, rocky day at sea in Mistral winds. When we couldn't sail from Hamilton to St. George, Bermuda, the ship lost its berth, and had to tender. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad that they couldn't use the tenders most of the time, so we were stuck on the ship, 200 yards from Paradise (Hamilton) and not able to get there. We've decided that any future trips to Bermuda will be land trips.

We haven't siled on the Valor or any other Carnival ship. However, six people who have sailed on her have posted reviews on the reviews section of the board. Why not read the reviews?

Considering how much we love Regent, there's a good chance we'll sail on the new ship, if it isn't priced out of our price range.

CSA, http://www.csatravelprotection.com/welcome...B2167FDBCBE0C36 , is a travel insurance company. I used to get it independently, but now my TA carries it. I believe that it is available in Canada as well as in the US. Also look at www.insuremytrip.com. Again, I'm not sure whether various types of insurance are available in Canada.

Which is why we've been using CSA, which (for some of its policies) waives pre existing conditions if the insurance is purchased within 24 hours after FINAL payment. I understand that there are other insurance policies that will refund your insurance cost if you have a claim. We haven't found or tried such insurance. Needless to say, you pay more for this type of flexibility than for insurance that waives PECs only if you buy when you make your initial payment; but the extra cost isn't all that much.

We keep travel related stuff, such as travel size toiletries, in a drawer in the room once occupied by our (now grown) older son.

Joey had an entire thread on this question a short while ago. My answer is the same as then: I've never had a choice of receiving electronic documents, and wouldn't choose them over paper if I did have a choice. That's despite the fact that our TA is now a 30 minute drive from our house (instead of 10 minutes, as it was for our last trip).

So far as we know, the dress codes haven't changed on the lines we use: Regent, Windstar, and HAL.

Much as we've loved our two eight day cruises on Regent, we'd have to do a lot more sailing before these enhanced benefits kick in.

Don't forget to look at our review of our Alaska cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner, for suggestions as to what to do at the various ports.

good to know .. Thanks John I guess that's why I never have seen e-docs.

I'm curious as to what lines offer electronic cruise documents, since I don't think we've ever been given a choice. Plane tickets are e-documents only. So far, cruise documents have been paper only, maybe because we tend to sail on upscale cruise lines. If we were offered the option of having e-documents for the cruise, we'd still want paper, and the nice folders that the paper documents always come in. The folders are usually so good that we reuse them.

The only times we've ever booked a "guarantee" was when specific rooms were not available at the time of booking. We were upgraded once, from a room that was too close to the engines to a nicer outside room. The problem with upgrades is that they're not always an improvement. For example, I'd rather have a carefully chosen room than a room in a higher category that's under or over a noisy locale such as the showroom.

Windstar doesn't have balconies, but who needs them on a ship with sails? The ships are small (Wind Surf has 312 PAX, Wind Star and Wind Spirit 148 each), service is wonderful, food is much better than on the big ship lines, and the ships can get into much smaller ports than the big ships. We had wonderful B2B cruises on the Wind Surf in 2004 from Nice to Barcelona and Barcelona to Lisbon. Our review is posted in the reviews section of this board.

Yes, we know that few of you will sail on Regent. That's a pity, because it is wonderful. However, even if you aren't interested in the ship, you may want to see our review of our fantastic 5/27/08 cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner for our comments on the ports and on our trip to the interior. Alaska is supposed to be a once in a lifetime trip; but it's so lovely that we've done it twice, on the old Noordam in 1998 and on the Mariner a few weeks ago. As great as HAL is, Regent is much better. It may even be worth the extra cost.

Click here to view the cruise review

Joey, as I read the announcement, they're not phasing out specialty dining; they're eliminating "informal" dressing. They'll still have the specialty restuarants. Indeed, the new monster size Solstice X ships (for me, 2,800 PAX is much too big) will have about 10 specialty restaurants.

Joey, I don't like the idea of jeans at dinner, but I think you're over reacting. Once fellow diners are sitting down, you don't see their pants anyway. If you otherwise enjoy X, why let a few slobs ruin your experience? (The people in elegant, sequin studded jeans probably won't bother you.) Ignore the people who don't dress well, if you can. The dress code on our two Regent and three Windstar cruises was a bit odd. On both lines, it was elegant casual on most nights, with a few informal nights and one formal night out of 16 nights on Regent. Although no one wore a tux on Windstar, and there were only a few tuxes on the formal night on Regent, we never saw a sloppily dressed person at dinner on either line. Most people dressed better than the dress codes at work: elegant shirts, fancy pants for women, neat pants for men. On Windstar, jackets are never required; but a lot of men wear them anyway. On Regent, men wear jackets for formal and informal nights, and they are required in the alternative restaurants (other than Portofino on the Navigator).

My answer may surprise you, given my stated dislike of wearing a tuxedo. However, I'd rather buy and wear a tuxedo than see my fellow diners wearing jeans to dinner. YUCK! The definition of formal is OK, but the definition of smart casual is casual but not smart. I don't like it one bit; but X is simply following the lead of other mainstream cruise lines in "relaxing" the dress codes. Sad as it may seem to us not-quite old codgers, young people generally don't like to dress up. That's why most of us no longer wear suits to work--the dress codes were changed to attract younger workers. The cruise lines are trying to attract a younger audience, and dumbing down the dress codes is part of that effort. A bad effort as far as I'm concerned. That shouldn't stop you from wearing your tux if you want to do so.

I hope your health problems clear up; and that, in any event, you have insurance. We've had to cancel one cruise in 2001 due to a kidney stone, and had another last December that we probably should have cancelled (4 days after my appendectomy). When a cruise is cancelled, the TA gets nothing. A few agencies, mostly online, indicate that they have a cancellation fee. Most TAs do not. Our TAs (a husband-wife team) did not accept cash or a gift. Instead, we made sure that we booked our next cruise with them. We probably would still be using them; but they're semi-retired, and only do group cruises now.