Have just returned from the PG. Unfortunately I have no pictures to share of the aft Level 7 cabins but talked my way into one to drool. They are much wider (balcony also), have the closets on the wall opposite the bed, and have bathrooms to die for. They have walk in showers (no tub) and are completely done in brown, glass tiles -everywhere except the beautiful dark brown cabinets. They are square in shape also. Cabin envy!

Bam! You're just back? Did you have a great time? What did you think of your cruise and the ship? Would love to hear your thoughts.

We got back on June 5. LOVED the cruise and the ship. We have only done NCL ships before and NEVER again. We are sold on Regent. The weather was kind of rainy the first couple of days, but perfect for the moto day and most of the rest of the trip. The clouds were always welcome. We always found something fun to do despite the rain. The entire crew was exceptional, especially the sports platform gang. The diving was not as spectacular as Fiji, but we had so much fun on the other toys, windsurfer, kayaks. Fun Fun Fun. AND the food, over the top spectacular!

The only complaint I have is that we did not do the 10 day. Seven days is too short.

Now we are looking for a total family river cruise in Europe next year that rivals the service we got on the PG, so I better start another chat on that.

bam, after a PG cruise, SO many people who have gone on really large ships in the past become converted to Regent! The ships get better after the PG, to my taste. Suites are much better, there more interesting dining options, but all the same service. But you will never duplicate the magic of FP!

No duplication, but it will always be in our memories and on our digital photos. Some of our cruise mates on the PG recommended Viking river cruises. Wish Regent had a smaller boat inside of Europe. May have to spring for the Mediterranean.

We're currently on the PG, and staying in one of the aft cabins (767). I've shot photos but haven't had time to upload them yet; will do later this week. (The Internet conection is somewhat slow, and I've been sending photos to family and friends when I've had time so far.) The cabin is definitely a little larger. The bathroom is almost -- dare I say this? -- spacious. So far, I'm happy to say there are NO signs of any vibration that several people thought might be a problem. Tonight we head out frm Bora Bora to the Marquesas, so we'll get a true picture how things are at full speed, but I didn't hear anything on the trip over from Papeete to Tahaa the other night, nor from Tahaa to Bora Bora at full speed in a bit of a storm last evening.

More of a report, and photos, when time permits. (I don't know when Steve finds the time!)

-- Eric

Eric,
I just got off the PG on June 10th. I was speaking with a couple in an aft suite and they were complaining to Regent that they couldn't use their balcony because of some kind of black soot that kept coating everything. We experienced the soot while sitting outside of La Palette in the evening. Have they resolved this?

Jill

Welcome home, Jill! What did you think of your trip to paradise?

Jacobse. We will be staying in the same cabin and are axiously awaitng pictures. If you do find the time I would love it if you could email them to Iam588@hotmail.com
Do you find the balcony private or more public since it is over the outdoor seating area?

Jill, our cabin stewardess mentioned something about black soot when we first arrived, but we haven't seen any sign of soot so far. There is a roof over the balcony -- which overhangs the edge of the balcony by a good foot -- whcih would seem to prevent soot unless it drifts down and back onto the balcony. I'll update this report as the trip goes on, but so far, so good on this front.

Chipsahoy, I will post some pics tomorrow, when we have a full sea day. Regarding the balcony's privacy: this would be the one negative I have to report so far about the new aft cabins. The balconies have a glass half-height wall at the back, and I have to say, it seems stupid to me that these are glass. Or that they are *regular* glass, and not one-way glass. I know on some cruise ships, there are cabins on promenade decks where people can walk around directly outside the rooms, and they equip the rooms with one-way glass. That would have been the right nove for the PG, but inexplicably to me, they put in regular glass. The result is that your first few steps onto the balcony are invisible to anyone below, but if you step further out onto the balcony, it is possible for someone walking below to look up and see you -- not optimal if you want to walk out on your balcony while less-than-fully clothed. That being said, the "view" from below is the Deck 6 area outside La Veranda restaurant, and each morning that I've been out on the balcony, I have yet to see anyone walk underneath in this area. So I'd say they did this in a way that seems less than optimal, but it hasn't really detracted from our use of the balcony so far, either.

No noise from the area above (deck outside La Palette Lounge), and no noise from vibration of the ship yet. (Tonight, we're at full 15 knot cruising speed towards the Marquesas, in 4-6 foot seas with mild ship motion -- no vibration problem at all.)

-- Eric

Looking forward to your pictures, Eric - I looked at your itinerary and saw the 2 upcoming sea days and figured we'd hear from Steve again, too, during that time. It's wonderful to hear from you both - please do enjoy yourselves! How has the weather been?

Hi Rick--so excited to see your post. We have been thinking about you. Put us on your list of people to send pictures to. Did you take your own laptop? Have fun!

The weather has been, well, spotty. The first day in Tahaa, it rained -- poured -- once during the day, and the rest of the day was partly cloudy but mostly sunny. Motu day salvaged reasonably well -- whew!

As we sailed out of Tahaa, the weather closed in and it poured for awhile. There's a bit of a sea swell from strong winds, so the captain decided to hustle the 40 miles across to Bora Bora to anchore for the night within the lagoon. Morning came and it was fully overcast and raining. Unfortunately, that meant all morninng tours were cancelled. That was expecially disappointing to us, as the tour we had been wanting to do since seeing it on our first PG cruise six years ago -- waverunners around the lagoon -- was lost. The weather cleared somewhat in the afternoon, so people were able to get out and do excursions or visit the motu.

As we left Bora Bora last night, the clouds closed in again, so our sail around the lagoon and out to sea at "sunset" was dark and cloudy. Today at sea has also been a mixed bag -- some brilliant sun, several short showers, and a bit of cloudy weather. They say the weather improves as we head north, so we're hoping to shed the clouds and rain as we move notheast at 15 miles and hour towards the Marquesas.

-- Eric

P.S. BJ, I'll send you a private message when I have a chance; we've been taking careful notes for you!

Okay, the long-awaited pictures from inside an aft cabin are hereby posted! I don't have time to do a fancy slideshow like Steve, but here are some pics from 767, the center of the 5 rear cabins:













More in the next posting (this board limits the number of pictures which can be in each posting)...

-- Eric

More photos of 767...














I hope that helps satisfy some of the curiosity about the newly added cabins. No problems yet with soot or vibrations -- and we're doing some serious rocking in 8-foot swells today. The room is great, and the only negative I have to say is the clear glass panels at the dge of the balcony -- they should have used reflective glass to make the balconies more private, although it's really not a major problem.

-- Eric

Excellent pics, Eric, thanks for posting them! The bathroom does look bigger than the pics of the bathrooms I've seen of the "regular" non-aft balcony cabins.

Sorry to hear the weather has been iffy! Shoot! Well, hopefully as you head north, it will clear up, as they indicated it might.

Thanks again, and continue to enjoy your vacation in paradise!

Excellent pictures. What cabin are you in?

Chipsahoy, I think he's in 767, right in the middle.

Great pics and great reports! Just one question for those of you who have cruised in the PG aft suites. Did you experience any undue vibration? I ask this as we cruised the PG last Sept. when the area now occupied by these suites was still a lounge area --- and it vibrated like a car with square wheels! As nobody has mentioned such a problem, I hope I'm correct in assuming that this problem has been fixed. While it wasn't a problem for us then to use the lounge, we were concerned when we learned that this area was to be converted to suites. But if ithis has been fixed, they surely must be great suites!

Thanks,
Richard

We are on the September 9, 2006 PG cruise. Any suggestions about private tours on any of the islands or are the ship's tours just as good? We have generally found private tours in the ports to be more extensive and less costly (especially with 2-4 couples involved). Any help will be appreciated.

The bathroom is twice the size of the other regular cabin bathrooms. Just lacks a tub.

Eric - we booked the waverunners with an outside operator. If the ship cancels the morning tour and you cannot get on the afternoon one, just go to shore and the welcome area and they will find you a waverunner company for 1/2 the price.

Richard -- as I wrote above, we've experienced no problems with vibrations being in 767, the center of the 5 aft cabins. Well, there have been some vibrations, but only because the entire ship has been rocking and rolling the past two days on our trip up to the Marquesas in swells up to 20 feet. Everyone on the crew indicates this is highly unusual. But in terms of noise from engines or vibrations under full steam, I'd say there's nothing I'd be concerned about with our aft cabin.

-- Eric

At last we finally have those aft cabins pics.......thanks so much for posting them Jacobse! It sounds like you have had some pretty good swells to give the cabin a real shakedown and it's great to read that you have experienced no vibration...... just the usual ship's rock-n-roll in high seas. I hope they fixed the soot problem as that would certainly curtail any balcony enjoyment. Just a couple of questions and observations. With the larger cabin I was hoping they would have managed to put in a bit more closet hanging space but it looks the same as the other C cabins. A tight squeeze at best for the 7 day itinerary but it will make it interesting packing for a 14 day plus voyage with the limited closet. I was glad to see that they used the same credenza set up for the tv and fridge as it had lots of drawers and cupboards to store stuff in which came in real handy to lessen the desk clutter. The balcony looks a lot bigger then the standard C's. I was disappointed to see that there was not at least one recliner or semi-recliner out on the balcony. Do you think there is room for one? Perhaps a few $$ could persuade a room steward or deck hand to bring one down from the pool deck. Also, how have you found the aft balcony for wind protection while under power......pretty good??? Have you been able to sit out there on sea days?? I was studying your pictures trying to figure out what is different about the cabin besides the extra space when it finally dawned on me that it's all those white walls and the lack of the wall length mirror that gives the regulars C cabins such ambiance. Too bad they did not install the wall length mirror somewhere as it really adds to the cabin....even if they put it down behind the loveseat it would have made a difference. All in all the new cabin looks pretty darn good. Enjoy your cruise and thanks for taking the time to share with us.
Pat

Pat,
I applaud your noticing the lack of a mirror. Now I can see why it looks different. I would give up the mirror anyday to avoid always having to let my husband in and out to go to the closet on the one side of the bed. That is the only problem with the location of the closets on the regular old C cabins. One most other cruises we have taken, the closets are usually in the hallway opposite the bathroom. Not complaining about the size and storage though. It was great.

Pat, there definitely would be enough room for a reclining lounge chair on the balcony in our cabin. Good luck trying to smuggle one down from the pool deck, though -- I'd think they'd frown on that.

We hadn't noticed the absence of a full-length mirror; doesn't bother us at all. And I agree, having the closets in the hallway works well, and we don't get in each others' way at all.

Pat, asw to wind protection, I've actually found the balcony to be quite protected. In fact, several days, I've opted to go up on deck rather than sit on the balcony because there wasn't much air movement on the balcony and I wanted a breeze. That may vary if you're in one of the cabins closer to the side -- we're right in the middle.

-- Eric

It's hard to believe with the extra money I'm sure is charged those aft cabins, that the balconies wouldn't be more private or at least one way glass or better yet, not glass at all but some other structure. That would be a deal breaker for me. We were in 726 and I'd rather have that cabin. It was stable, private, quiet, no soot and had a tub!!
j.

Are they extra? I thought they were priced as a Cat C cabin? The ladies that let me into theirs told me that they booked last minute and just got it. Lucky them. I tried and tried to change my cabin to be closer to our other family members and was told the ship was sold out. Not true. I think we had 250 on board.

Nana, I don't think there's any extra charge for the aft cabins -- a "C" is a "C" for pricing. It certainly was for us, and I haven't seen anything indicating they've created a different cabin class for these few cabins.

Going back to my earlier posts, I need to correct two things I said above. First, there *is* a full-length mirror! It's in the area between the hallway closets and the entertainment center wall unit. When I responded to Pat's comment, I was downstairs on Deck 5, and just assumed there wasn't a mirror -- but I slapped my head when I returned to the cabin later and saw it was most certainly there.

Also, there *is* a little bit of soot on the balcony. So little that I didn't notice until after our stewardess pointed it out while cleaning one day. It's not big flakes of soot, just tiny little dots, not much of it, and only at the very rear of the balcony. To me, this was a non-issue -- no more a problem than sitting on deck chairs at the (uncovered) outside of La Palette lounge on Deck 8.

And now that the cruise is over, I'll reiterate that there were no problems with vibrations at any time as far as we noticed. In fact, I expected to at least feel some rumble from the engines, as we did just a little on the late Radisson Diamond, but I found it very quiet. When the ship is at full speed, you can hear some noise of water passing the hull from the main dining room at the back of Deck 5, yet you can't hear any such noise in the cabin on Deck 7.

-- Eric

Steve: you can see the mirror in 2 of your pictures....at least I think that's the mirror......as it's reflecting your blue bag sitting on the floor. Not quite the wall length mirror as found in the other C cabins but good enough and certainly a much better trade off for the size you gain etc. Thanks for answering my questions about the lounge chairs and wind protection. After reading your wonderful reports we have now deposited for the November 03, 2007 Tahiti to Fiji cruise. The only thing holding us back before was fear of a vibration on the open seas. Thanks Steve!
Pat

Jacobse...thank you for posting pictures and your thoughts on the new aft cabins!!

RE: the soot...has anybody been able to tie it to volcanic activity? Soot from a volcano eruption can travel thousands of miles. Just curious.

Pat, it's Eric, not Steve, but you're correct, you can see the mirror in a few of the pics -- just not clearly (probably because I was trying to avoid taking a photo of myselt taking the photos!) It is the full height of the cabin, and probably at least 3 feet wide, maybe more. For anyone who likes to have a full-length mirror, you have one in this cabin, so you won't be disappointed.

Gatowoman, the soot I'm sure has nothing to do with volcanic activity and everything to do with exhaust from the ship's smokestacks. Again, these are tiny particles, not big flakes of soot. I guess there is some small particulate matter in the exhaust from the four generators which power the ship, and although you can see some smoke rising out of the towers and blowing behind the ship, there must be some tiny particles which fall out of the exhaust and onto the rear of the ship. I never noticed it when walking on the rear of Deck 8, which is wide open, or Deck 6, which has a small open area behind the restaurant -- possible because every area gets hosed and/or wiped down daily. So do the stateroom balconies, which is why it seems no big deal to me. I suppose if you are concerned about going outside int he morning in white clothes, take a towel and give the chairs a quick wipe -- although as I said,my wife and I never even noticed anything until it was pointed out to us.

-- Eric

Thanks Eric...I wondered about the smokestack as well, so that makes sense...still sounds like a non-issue. Great job on the cabin report!

Yes, of course it's Eric.....sorry my faux pas. No affront intended believe me. Thanks for the dimentions of the mirror......quite a good size and more then adequate.
Pat