LIVE From RSSC Explorer

Just a brief update 5 nights into a 10 night Rome to Venice cruise on board the Explorer. Ship is gorgeous with finest furnishings, soft goods, food, and overall materials. Layout is amazing. All the amenities of a large ship without the crowds. Only 750 passengers. Service is very good to excellent. However, many of the staff appear to be zombies and disconnected. Perhaps that's a function of being a new ship with a crew that is not yet cohesive. Rarely do crew members smile. There is a feeling of indifference. Unlike other luxury lines such as Crystal where they clearly profile guests and know and address you by name from day one no such efforts made here. I will agree that this is likely the most luxurious ship in the world. Although the shipyard can build a fabulous ship only excellent management can build an outstanding crew. The only thing this ship is missing is a personality. Like an infant who matures into a child and then an adult I hope a wonderful, welcoming and outgoing personality will evolve as the Explorer grows up. Lastly, our first impression of this trip was an awful disconnect as Regent put us up at the most filthy, awful, outdated and pathetic hotel in Rome. Ambasciotori Palace. If Regent wants respect as a luxury line they must continue that offering across hotels, tours etc. Bottom line is that Regent is amongst the world's best cruise lines and my wife and I will continue to return again and again. If you are looking for a fabulous and luxurious cruise vacation and enjoy opulence without stuffiness you must try Explorer.

Thank you so much for your thoughts on the Explorer. Sorry to hear about the "bad" hotel in Rome. We had "one of those" in Stockholm near the bus station! We'll see how the hotel we've got in Rome stacks up. Fingers crossed! We're on the Nov. TA.

Please continue to keep us up to date.

Thank you for your frank assessment.

I too have heard people complaining about the hotel in Rome. Efinitely not to the same standard as the ships. We did our own hotel, so can't comment personally.

The cruise continues to be amazing. No disappointment with ship, food, or amenities. However, I still maintain the crew is poorly trained in customer service and interacting with guests. In fact, some crew are downright nasty and miserable when you least expect it. I hope Regent can fix their serious personnel issues. First they need to come down to earth and admit there is a problem. Also, of note the shore excursion staff are excellent and well organized. Entertainment fair at best, but we have no expectations with regards to entertainment. So again, a very luxurious ship which has a broken crew and lack of any personalization. Ultimately, I like most passengers believe this is a failure of management. Too much focus on the tangibles with the "most luxurious ship in the world " by Regent, but the human/people factor seems to have been forgotten in the implementation.

A happy engaging crew = happy passengers. You would be hard pressed to find a unhappy crew member on Crystal. Crystal treats their crew members as the internal customer and it clearly shows in every department.

A happy engaging crew = happy passengers. You would be hard pressed to find a unhappy crew member on Crystal. Crystal treats their crew members as the internal customer and it clearly shows in every department.

Totally agree with the above. I'm sorry to hear that some crew aren't quite up to snuff (yet?). I'm hoping that these issues will be shaken out by mid November when we'll be on board. We alternate between Regent and Crystal, depending on the best bangs for the buck and itinerary. If I had to knock Regent (past 4 cruises) it would be on service. It took almost 16 days before we had ANY crew, address us by name. On Crystal it was immediate.

I have found this to be the case with the crew, but as to Regent, it was in the past. I don't think management focuses on that, whereas Crystal does. For myself, when we return to Crystal, even after skipping years literally, some of the crew addresses us by name. Crystal does not rotate their crew from ship to ship. I think this is a good thing. Regent/Oceania does and this does not make for a friendly, cohesive crew. Sad.

Well, we haven't sailed Explorer yet (booked next April) but I hope this is just growing pains.

I can honestly say I can count on one hand the number of 'nasty' crew members I've encountered on Regent. I know, I know - one 'nasty' crew member is one too many. But we've had crew members greet us by name after a few years on Regent, and yes, it's a great feeling. And I don't remember any negative encounters with any crew on any Regent ships lately - all I recall are happy, smiling, helpful people. I sure hope that if there IS a systemic problem on Explorer that they get it addressed and corrected...

Agreed.

We board in Venice on Saturday - I'm hoping all will fine tbh.

Crew on Mariner last year were great with occasional, minor exceptions - happy with that. They are all human after all and nobody got hurt, upset or disturbed.

Bill agree with you but also agree and understand that all Regent ships may still be going through some growing pains since as of two months ago, 25% of the crew were new to Regent (again, on each ship - not just the Explorer). Regent puts a lot of focus on service and the crew interaction with guests.

If there is a bit of confusion on the Explorer at the moment, I'm wondering if it has to do with the schedules being different for the crew? I read on CC that some European TA's were boarding the Explorer with what looked like overnight bags (for the current cruise). While I understand Regent wanting to give TA's the opportunity to sail on the ship, if people are embarking and disembarking at different times, it would likely mess up some schedules.

We were onboard in July and I found that even long time crew members with wonderful personalities were concentrating more than usual which could be taken as being morose or robot-like. One of our favorite servers was more sedate that we have ever seen her. We are looking forward to boarding the Explorer again in November and expect to see the crew much more relaxed and giving the excellent service that they are known for.

Sorry, but crew being new to Regent is no excuse for poor or nasty service. No crew member should be put in service on the "most luxurious ship in the world" until they are thoroughly and completely trained in how to live up to the marble and gold and bling in the fittings. Luxury is more about great service than fancy surroundings. jmo.

Sorry, but crew being new to Regent is no excuse for poor or nasty service. No crew member should be put in service on the "most luxurious ship in the world" until they are thoroughly and completely trained in how to live up to the marble and gold and bling in the fittings. Luxury is more about great service than fancy surroundings. jmo.

I totally agree. Absolutely no excuse.

Sorry, but crew being new to Regent is no excuse for poor or nasty service. No crew member should be put in service on the "most luxurious ship in the world" until they are thoroughly and completely trained in how to live up to the marble and gold and bling in the fittings. Luxury is more about great service than fancy surroundings. jmo.

While I agree with you, I also understand that you can't just snap your fingers and come up with 550 trained crew members. I'd expect some hitches in service the first few months, but there is NO excuse for nasty/surly behavior. If that's happening, it needs fixed immediately, if not sooner...

Sorry, but crew being new to Regent is no excuse for poor or nasty service. No crew member should be put in service on the "most luxurious ship in the world" until they are thoroughly and completely trained in how to live up to the marble and gold and bling in the fittings. Luxury is more about great service than fancy surroundings. jmo.

I absolutely agree with this.

Regent has set its own bar very high for Explorer.

There has been plenty time for staff training in customer care, and that should have been well in advance of the maiden voyage.

On Mariner recently we found the service to be excellent and staff interaction top notch. The service should be exemplary fleet wide. Jean.

On board now, and we have not encountered any nasty crew members.

We never experienced any poor crew "attitude" on the maiden voyage except, perhaps, the surly Destinations staff but that seems to be a common problem on many ships/lines. Mind you, they have to endure a constant barrage of complaints, some valid, some petty, which must be very draining. I'm amazed they keep their composure sometimes dealing with "difficult" passengers.

No amount of training can prepare you for "real life" experience and with so many new crew on board it's unrealistic to expect all of them to be fully up to speed so soon. We've always found that a smile, a please/thank you and some basic respect and appreciation (and patience!) works wonders. They have to deal with some very unnecessarily rude passengers.

Yes rude people are everywhere. The old saying goes you get more bees with honey than vinegar. Even when I have a complaint my approach is very pleasant to who I am speaking with. Works miracles.

I am with you...you get more with honey! LOL

True, however when your paying for a cruise one would except any service or crew problems would be taken care of before that ship leaves port. Now if you get a discount because it's the 1st, 2nd or 3rd cruise - then you know what your getting into. Once you pay the price you should get what your paying for-it's not your job to help in the training.

And yes you should treat people the way you'd want to be treated, the crew is on the ship to help you enjoy your trip -----but their is a limit to what they can do.

We have just disembarked Explorer on a very port intensive 10 day cruise which we are not used to, we prefer longer cruises with some sea days but the excitement of a brand new ship was too much to resist.

Whilst we can agree to some of the comments into crew personalities we definitely did not see any nasty members. On discussions with some they are still coming to terms with their schedules and we found if you smiled at them and engaged them in some communication they were much improved.

We also found some of the supervisors were riding them to make sure they were setting up tables correctly and completing their chores.

Can't remember any of them calling us by name, but they still remembered our drink favourites.

The destinations crew have definitely lifted their game since we were on Voyager last Christmas, and seemed to have mastered the old problem of passengers racing to buses to get the front seat. Now they only issue bus tickets when the buses are ready and everyone leaves together.

The ship is fabulous, a little over the top in places with quite dark colours in some areas. Overall it is a beautiful ship.

I don't mean any disrespect, but I don't know the OP and don't know her/his frame of reference to call some of the crew "nasty". So unless I'm given more examples of what's deserving of this label I'm not going to join in the chorus of critics. As for service not being "personal" because the crew doesn't know your name, frankly I couldn't care less about this. I want good service with a smile, that's about the extent of my demands,

I'm glad to report with just a few nights left service has definitely improved overall. Amazing how some CC posters get so upset at the suggestion that crew members are "nasty". It's an observation and experience and my wife and I are overly polite and kind all the time/anywhere we are. Some of the robotic and fearful behavior (like a kicked dog) is still evident with crew. A previous poster mentioned supervisors riding the staff and perhaps that is the issue. Please note I indicated the cruise is outstanding and stand by that. The critical observation of this post probably would not be as relevant on a Princess or Holland America posting as that type of crew interaction in the mass market is to be expected. However, when Regent sets the bar so high as branding Explorer as the most luxurious ship in the world it also sets certain expectations amongst guests coming for that experience at a minimum of $1000 per person per night. I have a great deal of faith and confidence that in 3 to 6 months most of these service kinks will be worked out. I'm not going to focus on specific examples of nastiness, but will give a few examples of other very minor issues. The cabin steward cannot seem to keep simple requests like ensuring there is always bottled water in the refrigerator. Dirty dishes not automatically removed from stateroom on several occasions and we came from excursions to find empty and dirty coffee cups despite the cabin being made up. I'm sorry if that offends anyone, but I certainly expect more as a paying passenger. I'm sure somebody will comment that this is petty and these poor people work so hard. Another example, on 4 occasions my wife and I have gone to the buffet for breakfast and dined outside early when it was rather chilly. There are beautiful and expensive built in heaters in the ceiling. We asked if they could be turned on all 4 occasions and nobody knows how to do it and they have yet to figure it out or follow-up that there is an effort being made. Again, a few months and I'm sure kinks will work out. Nonetheless, let me stress again - and reassure those sailing or thinking of sailing on Explorer - that this ship IS the most luxurious in the world. Once the customer service experience is ironed out it will be perfect. I still would give this ship a 9.5/10 at this time so my observations have really not had any negative impact. I wanted to give those anxious to hear about Explorer a brief overview. Overall, I think given that Explorer is only 2 months into her infancy Regent has done a fabulous job and Explorer has been a massive and incredible accomplishment.

I could sure live with a 9.5 out of 10. Easily.

Thanks for the update and expanded post. After reading these posts the other day I thought back over our previous Regent cruises (just 6 so far) and honestly, the only 'nasty' person we ever encountered was someone in Destination Services about 3-4 years ago. We mentioned it on our comment card, and looking back on it, it was such a minor blip that I don't even remember what the disagreement was about.

Truth be told, I find it amazing that the crew can remain so positive considering some of the abuse and degradation I've seen heaped upon them in the past. Just because someone is paying good money for a cruise doesn't give them the right to treat the crew badly. I commend 99.999% of the crew members I've come in contact with - that's a much higher percentage than it is among the passengers, I'm afraid...