Lots of photos on my Blog but can't get it updated on internet.

We have decided to go home and cancel the river cruise that was to take place the day after disembarking Venice. What a disappointment.

Have kind of felt like a "prisoner stuck in luxury" Believe it was Jerel that referred to us now being the "UnTUTables" Oh well, spirits are high considering the circumstances. We're going to take a Regent sponsored tour this afternoon.

See ya.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

I guess were going home tomorrow too throughCDG .

Internet seems to be working better today.

Quite a few of us recently found out that we are booked on the early flight to Paris tomorrow - 4 AM transfer, ugh. We are routed from Paris to Salt Lake City and then backtracked a bit to Albuquerque, but that will get us home in a day.

JoAnn and Frank were out the door this morning for their flights and got a rousing send-off from "pooch central" in the card room.

Safe travels to all. Bert and I were originally supposed to be there with you. Keep your chin(s) up-

We're still sitting here in limbo. Since we were already booked on the next cruise, they aren't dealing with us until they decide if that cruise will also be cancelled. Not sure what will happen if they decide not to cancel it--maybe we'll be spending a few days in Venice on Regent's dime. The captain just came on the overhead and said the ship will be staying in Athens until Thursday. He also told us that they aren't going to make any changes to the flights they've scheduled for people. So if you're booked back to the states via Beijing in a middle seat--too bad--you WILL like it!!! (My words ;) ) But,hey, it's fun, regardless :rolleyes:

Here are a few pix from Olivia:

I have been on several times a day to see how everyone is doing. I am so sorry you have to go through all this, but it seems you are coping as well as you can. What a horrible thing that has happened.
Ray and Penny, I am sorry that you decided to cancel your other cruise. We MUST get together when you get home.
Safe travels, everyone
Lynn

Love the photos! Thanks to Olivia and to Karen for posting them here.

You all look great!

OMG, I am the "suffering" fool who "has" to be here until Friday for my flight! ;) Really rough, you know. Eat and drink, go up and find buddies at the pool bar during the day for chatter. Ahh, massage today, best I have EVER had in my 10 years of cruising with Regent (but the biggest dent ever to an OBC). Tomorrow going to be another spa day with another massage, and a facial.

Captain announced today that the earliest the ship will be leaving is on Thursday at noon, so we won't have to transfer to hotels until then.

I shudder to think what the Regent people are going through not only taking care of re-routing 700 passengers, but the uncertainty of what is coming up for the next cruise and the ones soon after until they really get at the problem.

I for one am not wringing my hands, Regent is doing all that for me. So while I would prefer to be off by Thursday, will just roll with it.

LOL Olivia, I feel so sorry for you. You are really "roughing it" aren't you? ;)
Good attitude, Girl!

Great attitude Olivia..seems like you're making the best of the situation and having as good a time as possible.

Nancy

PS.love the picts that Karen posted!

bummer. total bummer.

Because I'm curious, who is the General Manager?

Good for you Olivia.....just roll with the punches, wherever they hit.
Lynn

I love people who realize that the are just one small piece of the puzzle. I know this isn't fun but LCT's are great travelers and know to make the best of a situation. Now you just have to plan the reunion trip on Regent's dime. You should have an even better time with the bonding that's already begun. Maybe the Mariner next time.

I know how long you all have been looking forward to this cruise! And no news on when the ship will return to service. If any group can make this into lemonade you can - but oh I feel so sorry for you all!

so sorry that you all are having to deal with this. I just learned of it today as we are currently on Mariner (which I am happy to say is functioning perfectly). Hope everyone makes it home or wherever else they are going safely.

Well we are home, tired, sad, disappointed and depressed. We did our own air, but last night at 12:30 we found our reservations on our door, and it said we needed to have our luggage out by 1:00am. Yeah, right! We did go pack,and finally got the bags out around 2am, fell into bed, didn't sleep much. Had to leave at 11:00 for the airport, all flights went well and on time though. Sounds like a bunch of the group got an extra day.
We had great fun while we were there and miss everyone.

JoAnn, glad to hear that you arrived home safely, if not with stress and tension. Ihope that Regent will give you and everyone else some good options for another cruise.
I can imagine you could use stronger words than you did, but since it was out of your hands, I hope you will quickly put this disaster behind you.
Lynn

I hope Regent takes good care of you all - including scheduling that meets your needs.

oh my goodness. i have been traveling and just got back and read this hoping for great sea mail. I am beyond sorry..this just makes me sick for all of you. The best group anywhere to cruise with will always make the best of it, but even so this is tough news.

I was so missing you all from our cancellation, and I still am missing you. Safe travels.

Hope none of my UnTUTable friends mind that I changed our thread title!

We are at the Athens airport awaiting our flight to Santorini. The shuttle they assigned us departed at 6:00 am & our flight isn't until 11:00. Good thing though as we would have never made it if we'd taken the 9:00.

Took a shuttle from the ship to the terminal where we had to locate our bags. Someone had taken Jerel's bag with them to the airport on the 4:00 am shuttle by mistake. The rep told us not to worry as there was someone with the bag at the airport.

Once we had all our luggage we proceeded to the bus. The Regent rep asked us all what flights we were on so she could let us know our check-in area. Some people were headed to Istanbul & Tel Aviv, but it seemed like most were headed home.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the airport. When we arrived Jerel's bag was there (yay!). We found our check-in area complete with a huge line. We were able to check in by kiosk but still had to stand in line to drop our bags off. It moved pretty quickly though. I would say we only waited about 20 minutes. Even better, the agent didn't give us any problems with checking 3 bags. I was worried we would have to pay a huge overage fee.

We've just finished a bit of breakfast & will just relax since we have 2 hrs until our flight.

I will check in & let you know how Santorini is. Oh - we still don't know how we're getting home from Athens yet. I sent Guest Relations an email letting them know we had left the ship & asked them to send me an email when we are booked.

Another fun night in the Observation Lounge before and after dinner and this a.m., had a note on the door that we leave Biz Class on Sunday at noon on Cont'l direct to Newark; 2 hr. layover to Cleveland. That suits us just fine as they'll put us in a hotel and give us credit for $100 per person per day while there.

We're happy campers and feel we've been treated well. One day we'll do what was left undone river cruise-wise.

In the meantime, 2 excursions are available so I'm going to go sign up.

Life is good!

Cheers! Ray & Penny

Still no flights for us. The ship is going into dry dock tomorrow morning, so they're transferring all the stragglers to the Intercontinental in Athens until arrangements can be made. We have a $100 pp credit per day at the hotel for meals, etc. so I guess we can survive on that. Everyone has to be off the ship by 8:00 am tomorrow. I'd love to get things settled--pretty much all I want to do is go home at this point, but I guess we'll soldier on :mecry: .

We're making good headway. We are sitting in Lufthansa lounge at Athens airport waiting for our flight. We got lucky and have a 2hr.30min flight to Munich, a 1 hour layover than a NON-STOP to LAX (12 hr.30min..) all in Biz class. We'll be home sleeping in our own beds tonight.

As unfortunate as this incidence has been, we did have a lot of fun with old friends and meeting new ones.....kind of like a big 4 night Ho-Down party with lots and lots of laughs and fun. Many hugs good bye as one by one we're getting off the ship. Last big hug was to Joanna & Tony here at the airport. They're off to Singapore for a week or so to visit their son Carter. Our flights leave the same time so we'll wave across the tarmack.

Sweet Olivia was up early for our send off from the ship. She and others must be out by tomorrow morning when the Voyager leaves for dry dock. Regent is puting them up at Intercontinental with $100. per person daily allowance for food and beverage. Talked to several who will be there until their flight on Monday. Others don't have any clue as to when they'll get a flight.

Ngaire & Ken have been the BEST, always making sure everyone is taken care of before caring about themselves!!

Considering what has happened on this cruise to nowhere, I'm disappointed that Capt. Mario did not make his presence known except making announcements as needed. I think it would have been good Regent PR had he been visible once in awhile around the ship (McNeil, Dag, Knute, type of interaction). Capt. Mario stayed in hiding.

So that's the latest on the Matassa end !

I must say I had been having the same thoughts UNTIL last night when I talked to another passenger. She said that she had seen him several times and once down at reception for several hours talking to passengers. She asked me to please let people know that he seemed very concerned for everyone and she thought he was truly doing his best. She asked him how much sleep he had had in the last 48 hours and he said about 6 hours AND not all at one time. I told her I thought his announcements seemed quite "brisk" as when he came on and very quick and to the point said "I regret to inform you this cruise has been canceled" I thought he could have come across as more sympathetic. This lady told me that she had the oppisite reaction... she thought that he had probably just heard the news, and broken it to the staff and then to all passengers as he knew we were all waiting to hear something and wanted to tell us as soon as possible. She said she thought that his "manner and abruptness" was probably because he was upset too and hadn't had time to sit and relax a few minutes before announcing it.

Given that Regent ALWAYS trys to do the right thing, I think she is on to something. When something goes wrong, we seem to always be saying "why didn't they tell us sooner?" so he was probably thinking he was doing the right thing by announcing it right away, even though he might have been so stressed that he didn't deliver the news exactly as we thought he should have. Maybe it is just one of those thinge were you can never seem to do the right thing no matter what you do.

This morning I passed a butler in the hall and insead of the usual "good morning" he said "Keep smiling" and it struck me that that is what they are telling all the staff below decks... "Just keep smiling no matter what" I think all in all, considering everything, and with a few exceptions they have been miraculous in a really really difficult situation. Just my 2 cents.

I'll bet a certain Captain we all know and love is glad he's not on the Voyager anymore ;)

Thanks Arlene for your "valuable" two cents. I think it helps to put things in perspective. I'm sure that it has been extremely difficult for all concerned. I must say that some of the posts on Cruise Critic that are sniping at Regent during this situation strike me as inappropriate and in bad taste, and actually some on CC have implied as much regarding these negative posts.

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Eugene

Good points Arlene.
At least you all got another few nights, I was hoping we would have had a day or two more. But we are home, and I fell into an exhausted sleep last night and probably didn't move for several hours. Frank consoled himself with the replay of the BAMA-FL game and I have no idea when he came to bed.
Any news on your flights yet? How about the Dallas group, sounds like they will end up in a hotel according to Peggy. Guess somehow we were in the first group to get some flights confirmed, but we sure miss everyone. It must be tough getting airline reservations for 800 people, as flights are so full these days anyway.
Take care everyone, see some of you on FUN2.

I agree with Marcie and Arlene--Regent is doing the very best they can under some terrible circumstances. All the administrative staff working on this are exhausted from lack of sleep, but they all still have smiles on their faces. We also got a nice offer this morning to ease our pain about missing the Oct. 17 cruise --I'm guessing there will be one coming out for the folks who were only on the Oct. 3 cruise very soon. They are definitely trying to make it right, as usual.

Thanks Arlene for your insights. It sounds like everybody is doing the absolute best they can, under very trying circumstances.

Absolutely the staff did and is obviously still doing an amazing job. They have been working 24/7 since the announcement Monday morning and dealing with a lot of people who are upset, angry and just in a daze.
Luckily none of the LCT'ers were any of those, they just regrouped and started playing pooch!

Take care everyone, keep us at home updated and safe travels back whenever they are.

Such a disappointment but I guess nobody's fault so all you can do is try and make the best. Safe travels to all.
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Helen

CC has posted an article that outlines the choices for those on TUT. Here is the link:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4123

If this is accurate, it seems like a pretty fair settlement, allowing for the fact that nothing can completely make up for the aggravation, disappointment of a canceled cruise

Here is an interesting article about displaced Voyager cruisers and their options.

Editing to add, I didn't see that Mitch already posted the link in his message right above this one!!

We are finally getting off in the morning. We will be in the last group off the ship at 0800. The staff has been wonderful, the ship in great shape (except for pod), the food and drink fantastic, and our fellow cruisers the best of all. Yes, I would have liked more information and more "cruise like" activities (e.g., a Captain's welcome dinner and presentation). But, the staff has been working their best to get us all off in a timely manner while also looking after their dwindling staff. Still, the best "staff" on board has been Ngaire with her trusted assistant Ken. They have made this a wonderful experience as they have looked after their group of "cherubs."

I was so looking forward to this cruise and I am quite upset. Still, I can never be more upset than is Regent, itself. I will transfer my anticipation to FUN2 and then to whatever we sail as a replacement; I hope they live up to the anticipation.

I have met so many wonderful friends from past trips and met many new friends; all will be great memories. As this was our third trip to Athens in three years; we did not take advantage of any of the ship's excursions; still we were able to fill our days with Pooch and friendships.

I hope neither I nor anyone else has to relive the experience of a cruise cancellation on the first day. Still, I feel that the trip was worth the time spent and the flight over; just to get together with friends.

thanks for checking in Marc...great attitude. Safe travels home for you and Arlene.

Nancy

We have made it to Salt Lake City. A long 11 1/2 hours in a coach seat, after the 3 hour flight to Paris. Our flight to Albuquerque leaves in about 90 minutes.

Unlike most people who were booked in business if they had business class air, we were put in coach and after multiple visits to destination services to try to rectify the situation, they did not offer us a solution. We're particularly annoyed since we bought business tickets instead of using miles for free or upgraded tickets. I can only imagine what a nightmare logistical problem they had to deal with and since the worst is over from a flight standpoint (and Brad has stopped frothing at the mouth...) we hope Regent will come through with something to make us feel better. I'd rather have gotten home than be left in limbo in Athens for several more days.

It was great seeing everyone on our little journey to nowhere.

Oh, this isn't acceptable...Glad you are almost home, Leslie.