I seriously doubt that there were any "shaddow factors" involved here. The obvious solution would be to have non- smoking and smoking suites. Fires and safety? How many fires have been caused by smoking in all the years ships have been doing cruises and crossings? Name one! Government regulations? Cruise ship lines claim that they are free from any governmental regulation on the high seas -- and perhaps they are. What it boils down to (donning my flame proof suit) is that to have non-smoking and smoking suites would mean that Regent might have to hire one more minimum wage employee to keep track of suite assignments, and it would be just too much for them to do so with our $700 per deim fares!

Think I'm not the Regent "cheerleader" I once was? Right! Too many vibrating (no, shaking) suites. Too many times being booked with Regent air and not being met at the airport. And too many rate increases for it to be the "best bargain" it once was. I'm just happpy that we took so many Radisson/Regent cruises earlier in this decade when it still was the "great deal" it used to be. We took all those cruises because we knew it couldn't last. And, it didn't.

Regent's managment has just gone dumb. Carnival (on one ship) and Ren. went the "no smoking" route, and both efforts failed miserably. Regent has two ships with vibration problems that are far worse than "normal" for a cruise ship (the stern of the Voyager being the worst)They have another ship with a bad pod (the Mariner). And they can't get the matter fixed, and can't muster the guts to warn booking guests about it, and are getting a worse reputation for it as time goes by. And what do they do? They restrict lawful activities by the guests such as smoking, and raise rates. (BTW, I am a non-smoker.)

This is typical corporate behavior. Get a good reputation, then reduce quality and raise prices. The exact philosophy that got General Motors where it is today! And the same managment team dreamed up this smoking policy. What did we expect?

I really wish for the return of the RSSC I knew and loved in '02 to '04. But it is not going to happen.

"It's five o'clock somewhere."