Marcie,

Can you enlighten us on some of the perks you and Tom received by doing the full cruise? I think I remember some: like special dinners for full cruisers, jackets, etc. Thanks for your input. I also look forward to meeting you and Tom.

Crystal, cough cough ....

Sorry never figured out reply/copy thread - we have found segments to be very $$$$$$ but no regrets. Segments we have done fantastic.... we are looking at CT to Fl 27 nights too

YIPPEE, Joanna, glad to see you all are looking too. It would be great fun to have y'all on.

As far as the expense goes, my momma always says, "It's only money!" Great justification for almost anything.....

Beth, you're right....lots of various perks when we were "full circle" cruisers. We've gotten jackets, all sorts of safari gear last year, Regent robes (delivered to our home), telescope, tiffany style lamp, nautical wall clock, an engraved brass bell, lots of "pillow gifts" left in our cabin at night. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. Then you also get free 1st class air (or as we do, take the $3,000 per couple credit), IPS luggage pick up and delivery (this is great!), limo ride to and from the airport/port, $1,000 shipboard credit, plus certain complimentary excursions (some are for all cruisers and some just for the "fulls") and special dinners. The very best of the "special events" we ever received was on the 2006 South America cruise...better than the World Cruises.

I look forward to meeting you and Crystal too. We've never been on the Navigator before. It sounds like a ship people either love or say it's their least favorite....no in between.

Marcie,

Let me add that I, too, look forward to meeting you. We are on for the full DC.

I'm a newbie on this board, but back in '05 when I was planning for the '06 WC, you gave me great advice on the other board as to what to pack for such a long trip. Everything you said was a must bring we brought and used.

You also just brought up a point that I've been struggling with - Navigator vs. our Voyager experience. I'm concerned about limited dining venues for such an extended trip. We are spoiled from the Voyager. Any input from others who have sailed on both for extended periods would be appreciated.

Tina

Marcie, Thanks for sharing your Full Cruisers perks. They do sound like some good ones.

Here is what the Regent webpage gives as our perks:

Inclusions for Full Discovery Collection Voyage (82 nights) guests:**

+ Domestic First Class air. International Business Class air*
+ 6 segment guests: Monte Carlo to Fort Lauderdale - 82 nights from $1,400 per suite shipboard credit for categories MS - B from $700 per suite shipboard credit for categories C - H
+ 5 segment guests: Athens to Fort Lauderdale - 71 nights from $1,200 per suite shipboard credit for categories MS - B from $600 per suite shipboard credit for categories C - H
+ Five exclusive events ashore
+ Pre-cruise overnight hotel stay and dinner at the Grand Bretagne Hotel in Athens
+ Commemorative gifts
**71 - night (Athens to Ft. Lauderdale) Discovery Collection guests qualify for select inclusions.

Not sure what Regent has in mind for "select inclusions" for us 71 nighters.

Marcie & TinaCC,

I was on the Navigator in June and 2 other cruises in 2001 & 2002. She is a small intimate ship with 490 passengers. Besides the CR, Portofino's is other dining option. With Jerry from the Diamond, it is a fun evening.

We enjoyed Captain McNeill. He rivals Captain Dag in charisma and looks. I hope he will be on this cruise. I have looked for your formal night photo, but having technical difficulties getting it uploaded.

I have often wondered the same thing...taking a longer cruise on Navigator would you get tired of the same dining venues vs. double the choices you would have on the Voyager and Mariner?

The last 2 segments of the DC look really enticing, but until Tom retires I doubt he would be able to take off that amount of time, but the time of the year works out great with his job.

Beth, it probably means some type of show or special dinner (just guessing).

Sue, maybe you and Tom could come on at least one segment? The pricing is good. Ngaire & Ken are escorting the segment from CT to Rio, another reason it's so special.
If we do this B2B we're going to do a pre-cruise safari for 3 nights and 2 nights at Birkenhead so we'd get basically the same highlights that we'd do on ROAR2 (which we'd cancel). I really think it's all making perfect sense and as much as we hate to fly...better just a one way to CT then a round trip. Africa really is one of those places that gets "in your blood" once you visit!

Tom & me, Joanna & Tony would love to have all you great LCTers onboard that we want to meet (and those that we've already met too!)

Sue, It would be great to have you and Tom along.

Beth: Where can I find the information of the exclusive shore events? I only know of the Luxor trip.

Ardis

Tom said as much as he'd like to there is no way he would be able to get away for both segments 5 & 6, but he said one would be great.

We are going to hold off until we go on our Navigator cruise in December and book segment 6 then, if we like the smaller ship (I hope it isn't too late and sold out). It really would be so nice to meet more LCT friends! :)

Ardis, If you look at each cruise and look at the excursions, some of them say that there are special events offered. Cochin has one. Mombasa has four. Walvis Bay has one. Fortaleza has one. Barbados had one, but it disappeared.

Sue, Good news. Hope you like the Navigator.

Thank you.

We're in Limbo on this one. We're on a priority waitlist for suites, currently unavailable, for 3 segments - Athens to Cape Town. Should the space clear, we will definitely add a safari after jumping ship in Cape Town. Too early to get too serious about it, but are thinking about Zambia or Uganda. Not the best time of year for both, but not all bad either!

The Navigator is pretty well filled up as far as premium suites are concerned. All the G suites are gone as are all the E's. We have settled for a non-balcony one and are wait listed for an E. It's not an earth shaking decision, after all. We traveled for many years without a balcony!

Ardis, We cruised on the Song of Flower for 7 years with no balcony and were happy as larks. This summer and again in January we are without a balcony. Crystal and I thought that with 71 nights we needed one for extra space and hopefully lovely views in some locales.

edited to add: We have an E cabin waitlisted for F.

Ted, Hope your suite opens up.

WOW Beth 71 nights bet you and Crystal are excited - my guess is you will love your balcony and your lovely views...understand about being happy as larks - sometimes I think I was as happy with bare bones cottage in the woods vs some fancy digs I have experienced - "fancy and fun" don't always equate - Joanna

Joanna, I'd much rather be drinking a beer in shorts and a T (sans make up) with one leg thrown over the arm of a chair then dressed up for Formal Night.

Beth: NO, NO, NO! Do not take an T under any cirsumstances. The vibration in that part of the ship is bad!!!

Edit that to say: F F F category

Ok, Ardis, thanks for the tip. I hadn't heard that about the aft cabins on the Navigator.

Mr McKeever

I do wonder what is happening here. I tried to make the booking 15 months prior to the sale date. I was told that the requested suites were sold out (not available). The question is whether they are,indeed sold out or whether they are being held back (justifiably) for those who would book them for the entire cruise or more segments. What I have to ponder is how long they will wait before releasing them.

Beth: We often pass on formal night - been there done that - love RS in cabin in our grubs!~!!~

Joanna, On our past two family cruises, we have set aside one night when the 6 or 7 of us get together in one cabin and order tons of RS and watch movies. It's a mess for the folks in that cabin... but we have loads of fun.

We had party for T's bday in standard cabin - 11???? tight but fun - I have thought about B2B and hope the group will agree to your cabin RS idea - we are all next door or across the hall

Maybe you can get the conference room or card room for B2B. It would be a larger room. I bet it could be done. Just have to ask the right people!! Get a DVD player and TV and your set.

NO I'd have to dress for that one - I was thinking grub party cabins in a row just cabin hop - and good music - (low) then when I get tired tell all to go back to their cabins

I don't know if I missed answers to these questions on page 1, but I'll add my 2 cents worth anyway.

Regent says that whether you start in Monte Carlo or Athens and go to FLL. you're considered a "full cruiser" and get all the perks.

I've been on a couple of 2 month cruises on the Navigator and never had a problem with only 2 restaurant venues - they take good care of you and they change the theme of the alternative restaurant every few days on long cruises. There are always good local restaurants in ports when we stay late enough for dinner.

The Captain may be Jarle Jensen who used to be staff captain with Dag but is now a Captain on the Navigator. He was a "Guest Staff Captain" on FJORDS and is very personable.

It sounds like we may have several LCTers on the whole cruise and on segments. Lots of fun to be had.

Jim

Jim, Thanks for clearing up the Full Cruiser question. So am I correct in saying that you and your wife are booked on the DC cruise as well?

Yes, thanks for clearing that up, Jim. When our TA asked a while back, they still weren't sure. Re the restaurants, someone other than me will be shopping, cooking and cleaning up. I can't see getting bored with that!

HRPROF;

My guess concerning the scarcity of good suites is that a travel agent took them down (justifiably) for their customers.

I think the premium suites on most lines are gone far ahead of time. Fourteen years ago, we went on our first cruise (RCCL sister ship to Majesty, I just went blank), Southern Caribbean out of San Juan. We requested "B" category a year out, had to waitlist; it never cleared and we sailed in a "C". We were able to snag a "B" on Legend of the Seas for Panama Canal, and talked to a lot of people who had waitlisted for that category months out and wished we had canceled.

We've tried for premium suites on Navigator, and had to waitlist until final payment date; some cleared, some didn't. With the Navigator Suites being directly under the pool (except for that one new one), the demand for Grand and Master seems major. A travel agent who blocked those off would need to be very sure of his/her clientele. When the 60% off sale hit, we signed up for a "normal suite" on deck 6, so we may very well step out of the competition for the larger suites. This time, we just want to recreate the cruise we took in February, because there's been so much trauma in our family since we got home.

A travel agent would not take down the upper end suites. The normal thing is for a TA to take down a group of modest priced suites on a highly desirable cruise for their clients expecting to Ngaire could probably all. This is not an unusual thing. Ngaire could probably clarify this for us all.

Many cruise lines do block cabins for groups and McKeever is correct normally low - mid range cabins.

However,with Regent they do not normally hold blocks of space for groups without a full deposit on each cabin.

The suites that sell the fastest on a ship are the upper level and lowest level suites.

On long voyages prime cabins (such as 601 and big suites) are often not for sale on segment cruises but held for people doing the entire voyage.

This is somewhat off the thread re Africa, but I'm interested in speculations. First, I have unshakeable confidence in my TA - she worked magic in getting us off the waitlist and into our desired suites on a B2B to SA in February on Oceania (our first cruise with that line). We have sailed on all Regent ships (past and present) and have always been able to get what we requested. This is clearly a desireable itinerary and high demand would be anticipated. We were out of the country when it surfaced, but still booked 15 monnths ahead. We made a full deposit to be put on a waitlist, so will wait and see. So, my query, is it likely that all preferred suites are really booked and deposited or are they "unavailable" until such time as it is judged that they won't sell for more segments than the 3 we are planning on? I'm not implying that any part of this is in some way "unfair", it is how the business is run.

I'm sure there are no certain answers, but would appreciate some thoughts.

BTW, this is somewhat relevant to "Africa" since we plan to end our cruise in Cape Town with a safari, and we know how far in advance those places fill up!

Thanks

Ted

We are doing the entire trip and we are waitlisted for E.

Ngaire

Thanks for your clarification re "big" suites It confirms my assumptions - will wait to hear from my "super TA"

Mr. Mckeever - Have a great trip - I envy you! May see you between Athens and Cape Town.

Ted

Sorry no real answers Ted. This could be handled differently on different voyages based on the demand they forsee. They could be all booked or some may be still held for full voyage bookings and released at a later date.

The representatives that answer the phone at Regent wont know either. Only the guys at the top know and there is no value in really sharing all this with me or anyone else.

Individuals or TA's call Regent and the representative is trying to help. They may honestly believe what they are saying is correct, they are asked so many questions in a day. Then I see it posted on CC or LCT that Regent or their TA said XXXX is the case. Experience tells me that I know that this is obviously not accurate.

Misinformation is a constant problem with things out of the box. Not just with the cruise lines but with everything in life. Black and White is easy but anything else is a problem. I think people have an issue with saying "I do not know" so there is a tremendous amount of "guessing" that goes on.

Let me add that you are correct in the fact that you have someone really looking out for you and if there is any way it will happen.

McKeever in your case all the E cabins will be gone and booked. You would definitely be able to get one if it were available as you are doing the full cruise. Of course Category E is the PRIME choice on the Navigator and by far the most sought after cabin.