Voyager Mini review

We just returned from a Baltic cruise on Voyager. I know this can't compete with the ongoing group live post from the Mariner :) This was our fourth Regent cruise, and frankly did not find the cutbacks that some posters have commented on. To get the bad item out of the way, our embarkation was a disaster. Apparently the computer connections in the Stockholm port building blew out, and the transition time to bring the computers back on ship and then total disorganization with having all of the passengers go into the Constellation Lounge. It was just bad news. Our BA flight from Miami to London was delayed by three hours, I called my travel agent who contacted Regent, they were on it already, made sure we were reserved on the later flight to Stockholm and gave us assurance that we would be met on the later flight for transfer, and that went smoothly. We found the food to be good to very good. Our meals in Signatures and Prime 7 were excellent. We found the crew to be very accommodating and it was great to see some of the same crew from previous voyages. We sat with the same server in Compass Rose the four times we ate there, and by the second night he and the wine server knew our preferences. All of the restaurant staff were very good. We found the excursions to also be good to very good, and were pleasantly surprised that the best tours were in St. Petersburg. These guides were excellent. We also found that destination services was more efficient than some previous cruises. We spoke to a few couples that have sailed recently on Seabourn and they thought the Seabourn service was a little more personalized and attentive, however they were very pleased with Regent and would sail with them again. We think the shows are average and therefore don't go very often. We find Regent to be very comfortable for us. We do check pricing with the competitors before booking, however with the size of the suites, and just about everything included (yes we use their excursions most of the time), we will stick with Regent unless there are significant service failures in the future. We purchased a "Future Cruise Deposit Certificate". I don't recall seeing this in another post but the deposit went up from $2000 to $3000.

Thanks for posting. I enjoy reading about how our favorite Regent ship is doing.

Our favorite cruise ever was the Baltic on Voyager. It sounds like it's as good as ever. We also loved the guides in St. Petersburg. Was one of yours named "Adele" by any chance?

Thanks for your review, I am glad that you enjoyed your cruise. I would agree with your comment that the service on Seabourn is more intuitive and personal. Also, it is unfortunate that the future cruise certificate price on Regent has substantially increased. That is just not good value any longer. By comparison, we paid $500 ((CAD) for our Seabourn cruise certificate which provides a standard 5% savings and is good for 4 years (automatically refunded if not used). We still have a future cruise certificate on Regent that expires soon, so I will probably cash it in and make some money on the exchange rate now. :)

cAPSlOCKoN, sorry we didn't have Adele. I had a little concern since it would likely be our only trip to St. Petersburg, but as I said all three guides were excellent, and we covered a lot of ground.

Sunprince, that sounds like a great deal on Seabourn, thanks for sharing that information. I would love to try Seabourn, but the smoking issue which has been discussed ad nauseum on this board, keeps us away.

cAPSlOCKoN, sorry we didn't have Adele. I had a little concern since it would likely be our only trip to St. Petersburg, but as I said all three guides were excellent, and we covered a lot of ground.

Sunprince, that sounds like a great deal on Seabourn, thanks for sharing that information. I would love to try Seabourn, but the smoking issue which has been discussed ad nauseum on this board, keeps us away.

Thanks, just to let you know, on our recent cruise on Seabourn we had zero issues with smoking so don't let that deter you. I smelled more smoke coming out of the smoking lounge into the bar and common spaces on the Navigator than anywhere on Seabourn ( even if someone was smoking in the Observation Lounge after 8pm). It was a great concern booking Seabourn since I am highly allergic to smoke, but it turned out to be a non issue. Plus Seabourn pricing was much lower ( depending on when you book) for a higher standard of service! I could go on.., but will likely get called out by those who prefer Regent over Seabourn

Taxare,

this is a great review and makes us realize we did choose the right cruise and the right ship for us. I also want to again thank you for replying to my other post.

The Voyager is also our favorite ship and the Baltics one of our favorite destinations. Sorry to hear about embarkation issues -- as you know, Regent cannot control what goes on in the ports or with computers.

Good to hear that you had the same experience sitting in the same area in CR. It is so nice when the servers, etc. learn your preferences. It would be so nice if the unfounded rumors about Regent cut-backs were laid to rest. Even the servers know that there are just as many of them, handling the same amount of tables as there was prior to the NCHL and PCH purchases of Regent.

Really wonder why there are so many Seabourn customers on Regent lately!? There were many on our last cruise. Seabourn ships - if they are running full, carry only 450 passengers compared to the Voyager and Mariner's 700 passengers. It is a bit easier to give more personalized service when you have a smaller ship. In terms of smoking, a Regent loyalist tried Seabourn - enjoyed the food and service but had smokers on the balconies on both sides.

It is also great to hear that St. Petersburg is as wonderful as it always was. Unfortunately, the news in the U.S. makes it sound like visiting Russia could very well be a problem. When you are there, you learn differently (just as our visits to Turkey, Cairo and Israel were wonderful - nothing like what you see on television).

P.S. Your review was great - no need to try to compete with our thread with multiple bloggers:)

Travelcat2 asks why there have been several Seabourn customers on Regent recently. Our reason was that we felt we would like to give Regent another try, after a few years of absence, when there was a (comparatively) cheap offer for a cruise on Mariner. We met two other couples who normally travel Seabourn, and we all agreed that Regent was not, overall, as good as Seabourn for us. I have reported already on what we personally thought.

If you look above, you will see that there were people who like Regent and tried Seabourn who did not find smoking any more of a problem than Regent - nor did we.

As I have pointed out on other threads it is all the luck of the draw with the smoking situation. We had smokers on both sides of us on Seabourn who smoked several times of day on the balcony often when we were sitting outside such as during Sailaway. The smell was quite strong. Service on Seabourn was excellent but smoking situation is a turn off. It would have been especially disconcerting if we had been in a warm weather setting. We use our balcony a great deal.

If you had no problem than you were just lucky.

We just completed our Baltic cruise a few days ago. There were more smokers on this voyage than I remember on previous voyages but they were contained in areas that were easy to avoid.

We had a great cruise with the only hiccup being a lead sommelier in Signatures who was so intent on up selling wine that he failed to serve us any wine - first courses were on the table while the waitstaff scrambled to get a red jacket to pay attention. I mentioned it in my mid cruise comment card and immediately got a phone call. From then on I think our pictures were posted below deck as we got stellar wine service!

We had perfect weather, great excursions, and entertaining guides for the most part. I was not a fan of St. Petersburg. I found it a bit oppressive and the Hermitage was mobbed. Helsinki was magical. Stockholm was way too short of visit - docked at 8, off the ship at 9, sail away at 3 so we had to be on board at 2:30! Gdansk and Klepedia were also very interesting stops.