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Luxury ship or a suite on a premium cruise line?


kikki21
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This is a hard question to answer because it really depends on what you are looking for. Most luxury lines are more formal than mainstream lines. I like the suggestion of a Windstar Cruise. I can see that being very informal and romantic.

 

My husband and I did a Silverseas cruise around Seychelles. We were probably less than half the age of everyone else on the ship, but we had the most amazing time. For our Safety Drill all the passengers fit in a small room. Compare that with carnival and the multiple stations / loud announcements etc.. no comparison.

 

We took two cruises on Regent and personally do not feel they compare to the small ship we had on Silverseas. The food was fantastic, however they are still *big* ships and for us had a big ship atmosphere. To us luxury means smaller with customized service.

Also there were many people upset with their bill at the end of one of our Regent cruises. If you get a massage package, make sure they don't upsell you without knowing it. When some guests arrived they were asked if they wanted a special massage, but it wasn't made clear there was an extra cost for this. Then they saw it the last day of the cruise on their bill. Regent said the massage service was offered by a separate company so they couldn't do anything to help. This happened a few years ago so things have hopefully changed, but still not something you'd expect on a luxury line.

 

My 2 cents for what it's worth... You can visit the Greek islands on many major lines for a reasonable price. We found the Greek Islands interesting, but pretty much the Caribbean equivalent of Europe. If you're going to shell out the big bucks for a luxury line consider booking one of their more unique itineraries.

I also would second St. Barts as special port. Only small ships and very very small planes can travel there. We loved that island.

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This is a hard question to answer because it really depends on what you are looking for. Most luxury lines are more formal than mainstream lines. I like the suggestion of a Windstar Cruise. I can see that being very informal and romantic.

 

My husband and I did a Silverseas cruise around Seychelles. We were probably less than half the age of everyone else on the ship, but we had the most amazing time. For our Safety Drill all the passengers fit in a small room. Compare that with carnival and the multiple stations / loud announcements etc.. no comparison.

 

We took two cruises on Regent and personally do not feel they compare to the small ship we had on Silverseas. The food was fantastic, however they are still *big* ships and for us had a big ship atmosphere. To us luxury means smaller with customized service.

Also there were many people upset with their bill at the end of one of our Regent cruises. If you get a massage package, make sure they don't upsell you without knowing it. When some guests arrived they were asked if they wanted a special massage, but it wasn't made clear there was an extra cost for this. Then they saw it the last day of the cruise on their bill. Regent said the massage service was offered by a separate company so they couldn't do anything to help. This happened a few years ago so things have hopefully changed, but still not something you'd expect on a luxury line.

 

My 2 cents for what it's worth... You can visit the Greek islands on many major lines for a reasonable price. We found the Greek Islands interesting, but pretty much the Caribbean equivalent of Europe. If you're going to shell out the big bucks for a luxury line consider booking one of their more unique itineraries.

I also would second St. Barts as special port. Only small ships and very very small planes can travel there. We loved that island.

 

Agree with much of what you say. Windstar is romantic and casual -- one of our favorites despite many cruises on most luxury lines. Small islands or ports that big ships can't sail into are a special treat for a cruise. In that respect, I can highly recommend French Polynesia on the Paul Gauguin or Windstar. However, I must disagree with you on the Greek Islands being the European equivalent of the Caribbean. No comparsion. Many of the Greek Islands (e.g. Crete, Santorini, Delos) have wonderful history and archeological dig sites that are fantastic. Nothing like it in the Caribbean.

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When we lived in Europe everyone went to the Greek Islands for a cheap holiday, the same way friends here go to the Caribbean for a cheap holiday. Hence my comparison. However smaller ships will show you a different side of either destination and probably make for a better trip.

 

If you are interested in the archaeological digs that is something very unique to the Greek Islands. We enjoyed viewing the digs, but I do remember them being very hot with little shade so I'd keep this in mind when picking dates.

 

We never got to sail on the Paul Gauguin but it has a great reputation. Sailing around Tahiti on honeymoon sounds pretty good to me!

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When we lived in Europe everyone went to the Greek Islands for a cheap holiday, the same way friends here go to the Caribbean for a cheap holiday. Hence my comparison. However smaller ships will show you a different side of either destination and probably make for a better trip.

 

If you are interested in the archaeological digs that is something very unique to the Greek Islands. We enjoyed viewing the digs, but I do remember them being very hot with little shade so I'd keep this in mind when picking dates.

 

We never got to sail on the Paul Gauguin but it has a great reputation. Sailing around Tahiti on honeymoon sounds pretty good to me!

 

We've done 2 French Polynesian cruises on the Paul Gauguin (one a 7-day to the Society Islands, the other a 12-day that included the Marquesa Islands). Both are at or near the top of our favorite distination list. Windstar has also announced they are returning to Tahiti next winter. So you have two good choices, and I can heartily recommend both.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice to see some good healthy debate on this thread!

 

Well we are back from our Jade cruise which was very good and now considering our options again!

 

It looks like we will go later now than planned due to work and we are definitely going to choose the Med, we have to go later than 18th June and before the middle of July and this actually gives us more choice in cruises and cruise lines.:)

 

This means that we have a choice of Oceania x 2, Silversea x 1, NCL x 2, Seabourn x 2, Azamara x 1 and Celebrity x 2 cruises.

 

At the moment, I like the Azamara option as they have a special offer on but it's a 7 night cruise and no sea days so if we choose that one, we would have a week on a Greek island beforehand, handy as the cruise goes to/from Athens.

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Travelcat, my comparison was about service, and service is service. Whether it is on land or sea. Having been trained in that discipline, I believe that I have the expertise to comment on that. True, I have not been on the other luxury lines, but I plan to correct that in the future. And from what I've heard, they all do service very well.

 

I was extremely disappointed with the service on our recent Navigator cruise. It was no better than on any of our 25 cruises on Celebrity, RCCL, HAL, NCL and Princess. Somedays good, others not so good. For the first couple of nights , there was only ONE waiter in the show lounge. Once, room service never delivered our breakfast order. We had to reorder from the room service menu as it was then past the normal breakfast hours--and that took 35 min.!! Once, they ran out of eggs 20 minutes before breakfast was over! Another time, all the tables were dirty and the dining room manager did not help us find a clean table!! That doesn't sound like luxury to me, that's for sure. This was our second Regent cruise. I don't think I met a single person who was completely satisfied with the service. And, I read on CC the previous cruise wasn't much better, service wise. Perhaps Regent thinks if the passengers are always inebreated, they won't notice the mediocre service! These issues perhaps occurred only once, but they should not have happened at all.

 

No, luxury lines do not always offer exemplary service!!!

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We have never had poor service on Regent or Silversea. However, we also avoid the Navigator as, IMO, it carries to many passengers for the size of the ship. Fortunately, the Navigator does not sail in the Med.

 

As stated previously, there is no accurate way to compare luxury cruise lines with mainstream (NCL) unless you wrote a book:confused: You are also looking at dramatic price differences. There is a thread on the CruiseCritic "Luxury" board that discusses top cabins on mainstream cruise lines vs. the lower categories on luxury cruise lines. Interestingly, it was started by kikki21:) Here in a link http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1799226 .

 

When considering Oceania, Silversea, Seabourn, Azamara or Celebrity, I would not sail on Celebrity -- it just isn't in the same class as the others. For luxury, either Silversea or Seabourn would work -- as long as it is not on one of the Seabourn small ships (209 passengers). For Oceania and Azamara -- Oceania is rated a bit higher than Azamara but I've heard good reviews about both.

 

And, for the record, for us, service is completely different on a ship than it is on land. On a ship you are interfacing with your stewardess/steward, butler, servers and bartenders on a daily basis. Even if you stay at a hotel for 7 or more days, you don't necessarily dine there three times a day, etc.

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I just want to offer my opinion that the small ships of Seabourn offer the best food and service of all. What they lack in the latest technology they more than make up for in every other area. This is such a subjective topic though. Some people prefer 50000 ton ships. To me the smaller the better, especially in the luxury category.

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We have never had poor service on Regent or Silversea. However, we also avoid the Navigator as, IMO, it carries to many passengers for the size of the ship. Fortunately, the Navigator does not sail in the Med.

 

As stated previously, there is no accurate way to compare luxury cruise lines with mainstream (NCL) unless you wrote a book:confused: You are also looking at dramatic price differences. There is a thread on the CruiseCritic "Luxury" board that discusses top cabins on mainstream cruise lines vs. the lower categories on luxury cruise lines. Interestingly, it was started by kikki21:) Here in a link http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1799226 .

 

When considering Oceania, Silversea, Seabourn, Azamara or Celebrity, I would not sail on Celebrity -- it just isn't in the same class as the others. For luxury, either Silversea or Seabourn would work -- as long as it is not on one of the Seabourn small ships (209 passengers). For Oceania and Azamara -- Oceania is rated a bit higher than Azamara but I've heard good reviews about both.

 

And, for the record, for us, service is completely different on a ship than it is on land. On a ship you are interfacing with your stewardess/steward, butler, servers and bartenders on a daily basis. Even if you stay at a hotel for 7 or more days, you don't necessarily dine there three times a day, etc.

 

I LOVE Navigator. To me, it is the most perfectly designed ship. I am not trying to bad mouth Regent. I just want them to be aware that someone is not doing their job on Navigator. I want them to weed out the slackers so the ship will be "luxury" when we return. You cannot call a ship "luxury" if the service is no better than on mainstream cruiselines.

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In my opinion, you should think of it like buying real estate -- buy a home in the most expensive neighbourhood you can, and the best value is the smallest home in the richest neighbourhood. So, translated to cruise vacations, that would be a smaller cabin on a more luxurious ship, rather than a larger cabin on non-luxury ship. The reasons are the same......to take advantage of the food, service, and amenities of the luxury ship, but stay within your budget. From my own cruise research, the service and food quality on the luxury lines can't be matched, even though other lines may offer larger cabins/suites.

 

Well, that's my philosophy, and I'll be sticking to luxury or premium lines.

 

This is totally spot on!

 

Worldspan

132 cruises strong

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I LOVE Navigator. To me, it is the most perfectly designed ship. I am not trying to bad mouth Regent. I just want them to be aware that someone is not doing their job on Navigator. I want them to weed out the slackers so the ship will be "luxury" when we return. You cannot call a ship "luxury" if the service is no better than on mainstream cruiselines.

 

While I respect your opinion, I could not disagree more. IMO, the "perfectly designed ship" is the Silver Whisper. It is the same size as the Navigator with 50 less suites -- much more open space -- really beautiful. I am interested to know what ships you are comparing the Navigator to.

 

As you probably know, the hull of the ship was designed as an ice breaker/spy ship for the former Soviet Union. With the fall of the Soviet Union, it sat around rusting for a few years. Radisson picked it up and did the best it could to make it a passenger ship. For the first few years it had every possible problem....... losing power and drifting aimlessly at sea (similar to Carnival)...... it had a horrendous aft vibration, etc. When Radisson/Regent was purchased by Prestige Cruise Holdings, it spent around $100M to fix the Navigator. While most items were fixed, they were not able to completely do away with the aft vibration -- even with the expensive "duck tail" that was installed to stabilize the aft of the ship. Unfortunately, the Navigator, while physically beautiful, is the least stable of Regent's three ships. This is a fact -- not my opinion.

 

In terms of service, Regent compares the fare of their ships to Princess and Celebrity (wish they did not do that). As a result, during the summer and school breaks, the Navigator is, IMO, about the same as Carnival, NCL, etc. They are sailing in the same areas and the lower "suites" are priced at not much more than main stream cruise lines. Many Regent regulars avoid the Navigator like the plague during the summer, Christmas and February - April as it is not typical. While I agree that passengers on the Navigator should have the same experience as on the Mariner and Voyager, experience tells me that this is not the case.

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You don't have to wait for the funicular -- we just walk up the path to Thira -- mind you do have to watch put for the donkeys coming down the path at a good clip -- they get fed at the bottom!

Do they still use the donkeys? I was last there in 1972 - brings back memories.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for all the input - After all that, we choose Azamara. Price wise and what they included far outweighed everyone else so we plumped for them!

 

I have been to all the ports of call on the cruise so excursions are not a problem as we will do our own thing anyway as we want a relaxing holiday, just glad to be going on another cruise!

 

We have a lot of cruises we want to do one day so we may yet get to Tahiti and I don't mind trying other cruise lines either.:)

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Think about the size of the ship you want too: we were upgraded to Queen's Grill on QM2. Lovely room, terrific private bar and dining room for the Grill passengers. But still meant hundreds of other passengers on board, waiting in line for everything else.

 

Have cruised on Silversea in a Veranda Balcony and will do so again this fall. 340 passengers, really no lines.

 

When you are doing pricing, remember to add in your wines/bar bill/tips where appropriate as only some lines include those.

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  • 2 months later...
I agree with visiting Oia.

However, after 10 cruises with Regent, I can say from experience that their "free" land excursions (which you pay for in your cruise fare), are not worth the cost. Forget Regent and try one of the other luxury lines.

I know you posted this months ago, but my in-laws have recently started thinking about a Regent cruise, and have asked me to do a little research for them.

 

If you would share what has caused your disappointment with Regent excursions, I would appreciate it. Obviously this sort of info plays into the choice of cruiseline my in-laws will eventually make.

 

Thanks!

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I know you posted this months ago, but my in-laws have recently started thinking about a Regent cruise, and have asked me to do a little research for them.

 

If you would share what has caused your disappointment with Regent excursions, I would appreciate it. Obviously this sort of info plays into the choice of cruiseline my in-laws will eventually make.

 

Thanks!

 

If your in-laws feel more comfortable taking all their shore excursions with a cruise line, then they will get value from Regent. Our problem is that we didn't find the excursions offered in every port were up to our standards and interests, so we ended up booking private tours in some ports. And if we had been somewhere before, we just wanted to walk around town. Since there are no rebates for not taking the ship's excursions, you end up paying for something you are not using. And if you take your own excursion, you end up paying twice. So for frequent cruisers like us (59 cruises to date), the Regent value proposition just doesn't work. However, having said that, we love Regent in every other way.

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I too only book private tours or explore on my own as I do not like being stuffed on a bus with forty other people and subject to the whims. Therefore Regent is a total waste of money for me as I am forced to pay a lot for these excursion I will never take.

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If your in-laws feel more comfortable taking all their shore excursions with a cruise line, then they will get value from Regent. Our problem is that we didn't find the excursions offered in every port were up to our standards and interests, so we ended up booking private tours in some ports. And if we had been somewhere before, we just wanted to walk around town. Since there are no rebates for not taking the ship's excursions, you end up paying for something you are not using. And if you take your own excursion, you end up paying twice. So for frequent cruisers like us (59 cruises to date), the Regent value proposition just doesn't work. However, having said that, we love Regent in every other way.

Yes, I understand the economics of paying for excursions one does not use -- what I was asking was what made the excursions inferior (not "up to your standards") relative to other excursions you have done. If the excursions offered were simply not of interest to you, no explanation solicited.

 

As for the excursion experiences and preferences of my in-laws: they have not cruised enough to develop any.

 

Thanks for your help.

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Yes, I understand the economics of paying for excursions one does not use -- what I was asking was what made the excursions inferior (not "up to your standards") relative to other excursions you have done. If the excursions offered were simply not of interest to you, no explanation solicited.

 

As for the excursion experiences and preferences of my in-laws: they have not cruised enough to develop any.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Good question. Regent offers some excursions that are free, and others than require a supplemental fee. Many of the former were not of interest to us and were inferior to what we could arrange locally. In some cases, the supplemental fee excursions were of interest to us but were far more expensive that we could arrange through local providers. As a example, on our cruise to New Zealand we found a good number of people who shared our disappointment with Regent's excursions and together we booked private tour mini-fans to take 8 or us to places we wanted to see at a fraction of the extra cost that Regent wanted.

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SeagoingMom: Hope you also post this question on the Regent board. You will get more responses there.

 

We are also disappointed with some Regent excursions (depends upon the part of the world we are in). However, passengers from mainstream cruise lines or who have not experienced private excursions find most of Regent's excursions wonderful. Not all excursions are crowded -- many have less than 30 people on the bus. Some Regent long time customers do like bus tours with up to 45 people on board. Some excursions are too long and could be cut shorter if so much time wasn't spent shopping and wandering around. Some are simply boring (which could be unavoidable - there are ports with little to see).

 

Our experience has been that the excursions in the Middle East and Asia are some of the best. European excursions typically have a charge associated with them. "Free" excursions in this area are typically crowded (especially in the summer - a time of the year we avoid).

 

There are exceptions to everything. We did a "free" excursion in Rhodes, Greece in May, 2012 that included a tour of the city, a cooking demonstration in a local restaurant and an incredible lunch. One of the best included tours we have done in Europe!

 

The main thing I do not like about included excursions on Regent is that passengers sign up for everything because it doesn't cost money. Then they may not show up without bothering to cancel. So, passengers sit in the theater waiting for their bus numbers to be called while Regent is trying to figure out where everyone is and who they can take off the waiting list.

 

Obviously, I have strong opinions on this subject:)

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This is just my opinion but as far as I'm concerned any excursion on a bus is inferior since I do not like to be crammed up with thirty or forty other people.

I agree

Free or not I would do a private tour

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