We're home now - we saw Leslie & Brad several times today - on the shuttle to Athens airport - at the airport - on the plane - in Paris during transfers. Luckily, we were put in Business from Paris to Cincinnati and Air France even put us in Business for Athens to Paris due to our Delta Platinum status even though Regent booked us in coach.

It's really bad for Leslie & Brad for the really long flight to Salt Lake in coach.

Thanks for the updates Marc, Leslie and Peter.

Leslie, so sorry about your miserable flight situation, I too would have been frothing at the mouth so to speak. It was a long flight from Frankfort to Dulles as it was, over 8 hours, although I think maybe we got in a little early, but I was getting restless and pacing around. Glad you are almost there Leslie. Guess we will just have to find some other way to spend some time, as I was looking forward to getting to know you and Brad better.

It sounds like by comparison, we had it fairly easy, so am grateful for that.

Hugs to all of you :hug: :hug: :hug: still dealing with trying to get home.

To add potentially a little more misery to the situation, there is another strike scheduled in Greece tomorrow.

Yikes!!!! Don't even know what to say at this point, and for those that know me well, I am seldom without something to say.

Aaaahhhh! Just get home safely everyone.

Leslie did you use Regent Air or did Regent buy you a ticket home? I would think if you got booked in Coach to go home, but paid for a Business Class ticket from them, they will make you whole.

This is frothy Brad speaking under Leslie's name:

What really irks me is the way I was treated at the Destination Services desk Tuesday evening. That morning, long before the captain made several "no changes will be made" announcements, we were told that they would "see what we can do" about our coach (instead of promised business) seats. We politely left them alone to do their work all day while we enjoyed pooch and trivia.

We know they made changes, including multiple changes in some cases, all day long for others which gave us hope. With no word for hours Leslie finally asked and they said "no" so I went down there at about 6:30PM. They said someone would come out to work the desk but kept me waiting 30 minutes.

The first lady referred me to a second one who went through a series of circular routines to blow me off including "we're working on it" & "consider the 7 hours time difference" (which didn't mean anything at that point), and escalated to her assertion that Regent wasn't responsible for seat assignments and that only I could log on to Delta's site (if we had working internet) to get the seats I wanted.

With her suggestion that the problem was somehow of my own making, no apology, no sympathy, and no offer of compensation, I was so frustrated that all I could do was sputter and walk away. This was not the Regent we'd come to know & love.

We had a similar issue on the Mariner with regard to help. They told us that because we had booked our own air, we were on our own. I wrote to Marc Conroy immediately and he told me to book whatever I needed to continue my vacation, but not to take advantage of Regent, which was reasonable. Unfortunately, it was too late that I thought to do this and missed my connection to Denali.I think it may not be Regent, but a lousy front desk clerk. Doug and I would have flipped the same way you did. Write to Marc Conroy.

Brad and Leslie, I'm sure you're glad to be home finally, but I imagine "sputtering" is a mild word for what you felt and experienced! Am sure you will pursue relief (don't know the appropriate word in this situation!)

I hope everyone else will apprise us of their status re: return home.

Sitting in the Athens airport waiting to board our flights home to DFW.

Late last night I got an email from my office with the offer for those on TUT. The details on the link on cruise critic is accurate. I was not able to tell everyone on board TUT but many will check here and find out before I can get home and let everyone know. I know some that will probably take the Sydney to Beijing trip and that will be wonderful as Ken and I are on that too.

I think Regent did a masterful job overall, of course with doing last minute air for so many so fast some mistakes happened which is probably what is in those cruise critic posts. I am so sorry that Leslie and Brad had the problems they had. Their's was probably the worst scenairo in the group. It was such a crazy situation and all the staff were very stressed.

Many people had to wait until the weekend to get business class flights as there was just no space.

For my part was I was incredibly impressed with the General Manager Michael Coghlan. His attitude under so much stress was amazing. If I ever had to experience a problem like this (hope nothing like this does happen again) there is no one I would rather have in charge. He has my respect forever and look forward to sailing with him again under better circustances.

I hope lots of people sign up for KANGAROO!

I'm here at Denise's favorite hotel in Athens, the Intercontinental. There is another excursion offered for today to Delphi, I think as the destination.

Almost feel like I am rubbing it in to those who had less luck than I, but I was on award tickets for this one, and snagged First class through Gary Leff months ago. As you know, once travel has commenced on those tickets, no changes allowed. So I was extremely lucky Regent took over this job. Originally, they booked me in biz class on Iberia, and I stopped by reception and spoke to the lady there and said but we are to be sent home same class we came on. She left the desk, and went to other side (Destination Services) and sent an e-mail to FLL. Lo and behold, next morning on my door was a new itinerary with F class from LHR to Dulles. And so, for the first and only time ever, I'm sure, I'll be enjoying the Concorde Lounge that Ngaire and Ken have raved about. Free spa services!

We are in the boarding gate at Athens airport; denied access at lounge. :( We have a twelve hour flight in coach upcoming but can't complain as we are finally making it home in the same class we booked.

Don't know about Kangaroo. Maybe Bangkok to Dubai? I don't know about time; definitely don't want to cancel FUN or CANADA.

Hope everyone has continued safe travels.

We're in the Air France lounge with Greg and Kristin. We have business from Paris to Newark, but the rest is in coach. I'm really perturbed with Regent on the air thing--we had our air through them and we were promised we'd go home in the same class of service we reserved (which in our case was all First/Business). So much for promises. The worst part was having to get up at 3 am this morning to catch our rinky dink flight out of Athens. And to top it all off, one of my bags was left at the pier when they were loading the bags in the bus. They're going to ship it to us, I guess, but the way things are going I wonder if I'll ever see that bag again. I should have known to stay home when I got that first flight cancellation call on Sept. 30--it was a bad omen. Hopefully we'll be home again around midnight tonight--that's a long 29-30 hour day.

Al and I are in the Air France lounge now...We arrived to check in for our 3:05 p.m flight to Paris and were told that the flight had been cancelled due to a pre-planned air control strike beginning today at 3:00. They made it very clear to me that this strike has been planned for quite awhile (oops, Regent!) The strike will last for four hours and we do have a flight to Paris later tonight, where we will stay at our own expense. Then a long haul home tomorrow (8 hours + in Atlanta between flights)

Welcome home to those of you whose journey is over and safe travels to everyone else.

Kathy

Kathy, So glad you checked in, I was wondering how you and Al were doing. Hope you can recoop your hotel expenses in Paris when you get home.

Peggy, Hope that elusive bag finds its way home to FW soon. On a positive side, at least your longest flight is Biz.

Chatcat Kathy - we did our own air because we stopped in Vienna. Regent's cancellation announcement clearly stated that all would be rebooked in the same class of service. If you had Regent air you didn't need to do anything; if you had independent air they requested that you fill out a form with your destination and bring them your air itinerary which they copied. I trotted right down to Reception as we received the form from our stewardess literally as the announcement was being made; I had to have been one of the first to submit it.

Our air itinerary clearly showed we were in Business/First all the way home and most people who had independent arrangements, including those on mileage tickets, were booked in the same class of service. They dropped the ball with us.

I am assuming a full refund includes our air since surely those who booked everything through Regent will get that refunded.

The Air France check in counter was a zoo on Wednesday. There were multiple problems at the counter with agents threatening to call the police and people storming away - not sure why - maybe they were being hit up with baggage fees? It took forever to check our bags in.

After trying to check in at one kiosk I got all the way through the process but nothing printed. Tried again, but forgot to press English, so I repeated the process with French instructions... Finally used a 2nd kiosk, which worked, and was able to change our middle seats to aisle seats on the Salt Lake City flight and get boarding passes. Then the person next to me was a no show so we were able to sit together for 11 1/2 hours at least.

Anna B - Kathy - I saw in the news that the air controllers were striking in the afternoon, but hoped everyone leaving today would be gone in the morning. Regent should have picked up on that - I'm surprised they could even book the 3:00 PM flight. Have a safe trip home.

Thanks for checking in everyone. Glad you are on the way home, although for some it sounds less than optimum. I feel bad for all the problems you've encounterd Leslie,Kathy, and Peggy, we were very lucky with our flights, and we did our own air too using FF miles, we told them we preferred UA/LH if possible, and thats what we got, maybe because Washington DC has a lot more options for flights or something, I don't know. I think we may have been in one of the first groups off. Too bad they didn't route some of you thru IAD, as AA then has non stops to DFW.

I saw that offer on CC, but haven't had any official word from Regent, I'm sure Debbie will forward that to me later today. We haven't really talked about it at this point, KANGAROO was of interest early on, although I don't see it on the CC list I printed out. We too don't want to change or cancel FUN2 or CANADA, we also have some friends/clients sailing with us on both of those.

Take care everyone, check in again when you get home and have a chance to just rest and get back to normal, whatever that is right now.

Had a call from Tom and Mona last night, they said to tell everyone they are thinking about them and feel so bad for this situation.

Leslie - Some of the problem at the Air France check-in counter could be related to the 50 pound limit on checked bags that Marc posted about a few weeks ago. We were very fortunate to check-in at the Elite counter (which we have the right to as Delta Platinums) since the agent even put us in "business" even though Regent ticketed that segment in coach (Y) - perhaps the flight was oversold and it was really an operational upgrade. I really feel bad for you & Brad being in coach all the way from Paris to Salt Lake. When we handed our form to the Cruise Consultant she just marked Delta & Business on the form didn't really look at or made a copy of our tickets. When the Cruise Director called to let us know of the arrangement, she just confirmed that we had originally booked in Business - although I do have a complaint about her since I said that the arrangemnents should be fine but I will need to speak with Mark about it - she said "it will have to be fine - we're not making any changes" which infuriated me some since she should have said something like "please keep in mind that our options to make changes are pretty limited" etc.

Marc - we were granted access to the lounge but the hostess made copies of our boarding passes as well as our DL PM cards so not sure which one got us in.

As to the refund / replacement cruise option - we're not sure what we want to do yet - but we still have the issue of the air ticket which we bought on our own to deal with. I'm hoping (assuming) that Regent will reimburse us for that since the Delta upgradable ticket was a little under $3,000 which is basically the same as Regent air with upgrade that should be refunded in lump sum if one chooses.

Our tickets on AA/BA were about the same as Regent's business class would have been as well. I will need to look at my notes, but I remember the $3,400 being just slightly less than it would have been to book through Regent, and since we were stopping enroute they wouldn't have booked air for us anyway. Plus I always like to have control... hah!

We're home, wiped out but home safely.

I just read our cruise options. I'm disappointed that one of the options isn't the June 17, 2011 cruise on the Mariner. It is fewer nights (12) BUT a similar itinerary to what TUT should have been, even if fewer days it includes 2 overnights :

Jun 17 Fri Athens (Piraeus), Greece 8:00 pm

Jun 18 Sat Cruise the Kasos Strait, International Waters

Jun 19 Sun Alexandria, Egypt 7:00 am 6:00 pm

Jun 20 Mon Cairo (Port Said), Egypt 8:00 am 6:00 pm

Jun 21 Tue Tel Aviv (Ashdod), Israel 6:00 am
Jun 22 Wed Tel Aviv (Ashdod), Israel 8:00 pm

Jun 23 Thu Jerusalem (Haifa), Israel 6:00 am 8:00 pm

Jun 24 Fri Limassol, Cyprus 8:00 am 6:00 pm

Jun 25 Sat Antalya, Turkey8:00 am 8:00 pm

Jun 26 Sun Rhodes, Greece 8:00 am 6:00 pm

Jun 27 Mon Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey 8:00 am 5:00 pm

Jun 28 Tue Istanbul, Turkey Noon
Jun 29 Wed Istanbul, Turkey

You could make it a B2B making it a 19 night cruise including June 29-July 6 from Istanbul back to Athens (making 2 nights in Istanbul) and the Greek islands.

JoAnn, KANGAROO is definitely on the list, and Ngaire mentioned that she thought some people might switch to it.

Come join us. I also agree with you that IAD is a good place in terms of flights to/from Europe and easier than JFK. We find with DL, it's especially convenient because of codeshares with AF.

-------------

Eugene

ok Eugene, must have missed it, or it didn't print out, will go back and check. Thanks.

From the thread on Cruise Critic: Substitute Cruises Offered because of TUT cancellation.

-----------------

Eugene

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deleted

I see it now, for some reason when I printed it out, it didn't print that one, just went from the January 14 one to the April one. Go figure. Thanks.

Just received this via Terry Breene newsletter:

Just a follow-up on the Voyager; just heard back from the ship and the repair will not be in Genova and is NOT extensive. They will be back on schedule for the next cruise. So good news! Just wanted to quell any concerns. You know how rumors fly. All will be well. Cheers!

Just received another e-mail from Terry Breene:

I have received LOTS of emails regarding the status of the Voyager --- I didn't know so many people read my newsletter!

Let me be clear --- I am not an official spokesperson for Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Until the official word comes from the office we are all just guessing --- guessing leads to rumors -- and rumors are worthless. I am hopeful. I know there are many people effected by this and every effort will be made to get her back on schedule as soon as possible.

Sorry, Leslie that you and Brad somehow slipped through the cracks and ended up in Coach. That's one long flight.

The good news is that everyone is safe and most are home and there are a number of excellent options for future cruises.

Have you read your RSSC email? See the "new" cruises offered.

I started reading the initial thread where Joanna posted regarding her flight delays, cancellation, re-routing, losing luggage. Whew, horrible....I thought. After reading this entire thread, it sounds unbelievable, like you guys were making up this nightmare. So sorry you all are having this experience. I am sure you are all physically & mentally exhausted. You need a vacation, lol!!!

True and True Kimmi! We are all exhausted and we all need a vacation.

Beth, I didn't get any email ?? What cruises were added since the ones posted on C.C. ?

Today I reached the point of "party's over". Ready to be home, but that 4:45 AM luggage out the door was not a good message. Wish I had just called Stelios rather than deal with one more bus and all the extra time it takes!

Marcie - it was just "mini segments" of the WC as far as I could tell. Nothing to do with move offers in regard to the cancellation, just a general email from RSSC if you are signed up for their emails.

The offers on CC are still the ones.

What are you and Tom thinking? Olivia how about you?

Anyone else got any ideas? We are sort of considering the Sydney to Bejiing, whole new area for us, but haven't really talked about it. I did call my agent at Regent to ask some general questions and get some more info, but thats as far as I've gone. Saw the one you mentioned as well Marcie.

I'm unclear how several future cruise credits used towards TUT will be valued if it comes to taking a refund ?? I was hoping that since we missed a 2 week cruise that we could choose ANY other 2 week cruise, I didn't know it had to be one of Regent's choices even if those offered are longer cruises.

We were booked on the 10/17 sailing, Venice to FLL. In spite of Terry Breen's earlier posting the 10/17 sailing is cancelled and the ship is going to Genoa. Sorry you all had such bad luck. We are also working on lemonade.

Total Bummer

Check in with Ngaire Marcie, she probably can answer that question better than anyone about getting those FCC's you used for TUT put back so you can use them on a future cruise, although there could be deadlines as to how long they might be available, I don't know, but I'm sure she will.

Seems that what is needed at this point is Lemoncello.

We are home. :(

Definitely the worst cruise we have never taken. ;)

But a wonderful five days with wonderful friends.

The ship is in great shape (at least on the inside) and food very good. Wonderful crew with a very good General Manager. We even had cocktail service in the card room. ;)

I still prefer Mariner to Voyager, though, because of the configuration of public spaces.

We, too, are considering Kangaroo but I need to get vacation approved first before planning on being away for over a month.

See everyone on FUN2.