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We hope they are worth all the effort. HAL treats guest in a much better way, so we will just wait and see.
BEWARE - That is why travel agents are a very important necessity even now in our cyber age.
Having said that, I must say that our 1 cruise with them was SPECTACULAR (R3 Tahiti). The ships are beautiful, there's NO SMOKING (important enough to me that this factor alone puts them above most other lines), no announcements (except for emergencies, drills and disembarkation), no children (except a few who were already booked before the policy changed), no formal attire, a good open library, and a nice buffet area with lots of beverage selections (Crown Princess in April had water, coffee and tea).
When you get the version that includes air it can be rather restrictive, but costs much less than other lines. High charges for visas were mentioned above, but for high charges look at the $800+ that Princess wanted for air for our transatlantic cruise. I booked ours independently for just over $400. Princess wanted $40 for their transfer into Rome, but we paid $4 for the train ride instead.
R3 food was about average, but desserts were the best I've had in 26 cruises (I have no idea whether this was a Renaissance thing or just because of a good chef on R3). Beef dishes were better than Crown Princess, but seafood not quite as good. Meals are open seating, but they don't have wonderful events such as the parade of baked Alaska (cringe).
I wouldn't hesitate to go on Renaissance again. In fact I hope to this fall. If you want to be safe, get the insurance. I'd also recommend flying into your departure city the night before, which is what we did for our LAX departure.
Deposit, Full Payment and Cancellation policies are being changed and will be more in line with the industry standard.
Cancellation Insurance will now be available through Berkley Care.
The no smoking and no children policy are currently under review and may be revised.
Charges for Visas, port charges and other govt taxes, fees, etc will be brought back to "reality"
As for the product itself; it is a fantastic value and few, if any cruise lines, give you as much "bang for the buck". The ships are simply stunning, the itineraries fascinating, on board service and catering is provided by Apollo Ship Chandlers, the same company that provides the on board catering for Celebrity.
Ren isnt "perfetc", no cruise line is, but take any negative critcism with a grain of salt as TA's love to bash them due to the fact that they were anti-TA in the past, but they are attempting to mend fences as they now have a new executive management team in charge.
Look for Ren to expand their itinerary base to the Caribbean and North America (including Alaska and South America in 2001 or 2002.
--Tim
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