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About wishIweretravelling

  • Rank
    Cool Cruiser

About Me

  • Location
    Triangle area, NC
  • Interests
    travel, reading
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Regent Seven Seas
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call

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  1. I have visions of Franklin Roosevelt's ghost hanging Picassos.
  2. Post # 2 on this thread has a photo of the Mariner bathtub. As you can see, the problem with the tub is that, if you have knee flexibility issues, you can't just sit on the side and swing over, due to the proximity of the wall and the sink. Plus, last time I was on, there were no grab bars at the standing position. It's been a while so they may have added them since then.
  3. My first time in Stockholm, an American asked the hotel desk clerk (whose English was excellent) how many blocks to a certain place. The desk clerk had no idea what he meant. When the question was changed to how far, he answered in meters. We then explained to him the concept of a "block." He thought that that was an odd way to measure distance--after all, two cross streets can be just steps apart or many meters.
  4. I haven't been on a Regent WC, but have been on a couple of their grand voyages, which also have the plaques. It seemed that the full cruisers were bunched together, at least in my corridors. Since they try to assign stewards to the same cruisers for the whole thing, I suspect they do this deliberately to make it easier on the stewards.
  5. Traffic patterns in a certain small town in the U.S. We will not explore why I know this.
  6. Belize is a British Commonwealth country. UK citizens do not need a visa to enter. Mexico (Cozumel) and Honduras (Roatan) also do not require a visa of UK citizens. None of this will change if Brexit occurs in the interim, as the visa waivers are specific to UK citizenship and not EU membership.
  7. It also helps those of us with aging brains to remember peoples' names and cabins.
  8. My source (other than observation) was the maitre d’. Perhaps it was just the one, but he’s who ruled the dining roost during the 2016 world cruise. It’s good to know that that was not the case across the board.
  9. The only luxury line on which I've experienced people being matched at various stages was Crystal, back when it had set seating. My friend and I were matched with two other women who always came in 30 minutes later than the "assigned" hour, and we were usually on our second course by then. They were perfectly lovely people, but they didn't like the early time of the first seating so made their own time. I have seen what Observer describes on Regent. I was rather hoping Crystal did something similar. Last time I was on Crystal was 2016 when it was still set seating. Since the maitre d' refused to mix couples and single people, solos and singles were always assigned together. I found that pretty weird. I never saw any pre-dinner gatherings for solos. I guess they found it unnecessary because of the way they handled table assignments.
  10. Thanks for the invitation! Alas, I will be on the November 17 sailing out of Miami.
  11. I understand that. My next cruise on Crystal after this one will be with the friend you know. And we'll be faced together with Crystal's approach. For the specialty restaurants, when you make the reservation online you are asked if you want to dine alone, with others you've identified (you need their room numbers in that case), or at a shared table. So it's all covered up front. The same questions are asked if you are booking once on board. In the main dining room, you just ask at the maitre d' desk for a share, to dine with specific people, or for your own table. If you want "people pot luck" they will either seat you with others who have not ordered yet (or perhaps only just ordered), or if there is no such group, you are the first seated at a group table with the understanding that you'll wait to order until more people are seated. It is usually a short wait. They also intersperse speakers and entertainers throughout the dining room so that there's someone to combine into a table. Plus, the staff seems to have a knack for sensing compatibility. If they try to steer you toward particular people, it's because they sense a good fit. If they try to steer you away from particular table mates, ignore them at your own peril. It's a bit of an art, and requires some flexibility on both staff and passenger sides. More than once, we've wound up sharing tables with people with whom we got to chatting at the maitre d' station and just said, "hey, want to eat together?"
  12. Thank you both. It sounds like Crystal has a ways to go to truly master the art of open seating. I'm sure I can make it work, but it sounds like the maitre d' won't be a useful resource in that regard.
  13. I could have sworn I saw a thread on this subject recently, but now I can't find it. So forgive me if this is a duplication. I just booked onto the Symphony next month as a solo--my usual travel buddy couldn't do this one. I've cruised solo in the past, but not recently and not on Crystal. And I've been on Crystal before, but not since it went to open seating. I like to dine with others, and consider a six-top the ideal size for group conversation. I assume that, for the main dining room, I'll just need to do what I've done on other open seating lines, and simply ask the host to put me at a table with others. But how is Crystal handling the specialty restaurants? I just made my reservations at Umi Uma, Prego, and Silk, and all it asked was number in the party. It did not ask whether I wanted to share or not. Should I assume that I'll be put at a shared table, and make the request on arrival? Or should I go to maitre d' after boarding and make the request during "office hours"? My Umi Uma reservation is for the evening of embarkation, so the issue will come up right away. And is the Churrascaria handled the same way as the main dining room? In other words, just ask at the host desk to be put with others?
  14. Even if the tour you want is full at the time you go online to book, have your TA ask to put you on the wait list for the excursion. Or call Regent yourself to do so. The only time I've not gotten an excursion that I was wait-listed for was the one for Allhambra, which has very strict numerical limitations on the number of visitors per day/time slot. And even then, I got to go because a friend I'd made onboard decided not to use his ticket and gave it to me.
  15. I googled the name, and all I could find was a spa in Hanoi. I think that the name is Regents' branding. It's not clear who the underlying provider is.
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