So, our flights to Rome were pretty good…thank goodness for Aeroplan points. We had enough Aeroplan points to fly Business Class most of the way although we had to fly from Saskatoon to Vancouver first, then to Frankfurt and on to Rome…a little convoluted I agree but you do what you have to, to use the points. All was great except that our connecting time in Frankfurt was just too short even though we were 10 minutes early. It meant having to really hurry along the way (no German pretzels for Ed) and get one of the agents to help us jump the queue at the security line (and thanks to the couple that let us go before them) in order to make our flight to Rome. Even though it was a legal connection, I would recommend at least 75 minutes between flights.
None the less, we made our connections and I must say that the service was exceptional on Lufthansa and the lay flat beds meant that we could get some much-needed sleep along the way. We booked our hotel in Civitavecchia rather than Rome as that is where the port for Rome is and we really had no time for sightseeing in Rome anyway. We booked the “Gold” package with a hotel called Hotel San Giorgio which included 1 night accommodation, transfers from Rome airport, dinner at their hotel, breakfast at their hotel and then transfers to the ship. The cost was 330 Euro (for both of us) which seems like a lot but when you include everything, was very affordable. Unfortunately, we were exhausted and completely missed breakfast. Civitavecchia, although just a port town, seemed like a very nice place and we wished we had more time to explore it.
Getting on board the Regent Voyager was relatively painless although it is time-consuming registering and boarding about 650 passengers. The crew was very friendly and accommodating. Being a concierge host for a group means a number of duties getting ready for the cruise including sending out welcome letters, confirming where the cocktail reception is being held, confirming meeting room space for our pre-shore excursion and confirming where our office hours will be held, meeting the shore excursions manager, reception manager and food and beverage manager. But, with all that out-of-the-way, we were able to head out for dinner after a couple of stops to make specialty dining reservations for a couple of our group guests.
The dining room has gone away from the pre-set dining times and now you can dine when you want. I don’t necessarily like that concept as with the set dinner times you meet and make friends with more people. None the less, the dinner was fantastic and we really like the all-inclusive nature of Regent cruise lines which means the wines at dinner were included as was the pre-retirement glass of port.
I forgot to mention that Regent has a “block party” on the first night before dinner. That means you take your glass out into the hallway with you and they serve wine and cheese to everyone in your hallway. It’s meant for you to get to know your neighbours and we thought it was a great idea. Go figure, our one neighbour is from Edmonton of all places! Nice ice-breaker.
