Regent Navigator Mariner Youth Program

My wife and I are considering a Regent cruise in the Mediterranean in August and it appears to be promoting it as a Theme Cruise - Club Mariner Youth Program. We are both in our 60s and really enjoy the luxury cruises, and while we both have grandchildren that we love to spend time with, we really don't want to be surrounded by a lot of other peoples kids when we go on a cruise, especially one that is in the price range of a Regent cruise.

My gut feeling is that there wouldn't be a lot of kids on a cruise that offers free alcohol and visits the ports that this one does, however I wanted to put this out there to hear what some likeminded cruisers had to say.

Appreciate your feedback.:confused:

My first question is why you are considering the Med. in August? It is REALLY hot there and the crowds in port are overwhelming. Having sailed in that part of the world a few times, we find late April or May to be the best months to be in the area. Less crowds and better temperatures. Late September - early October is another good time to visit.

In terms of kids, there will be children on board but there may be only 20-30 (for comparison purposes, in Alaska, there could be over 100 children). Regent ships are not built for children (IMHO). We took a Christmas cruise once with only 20 kids onboard (mostly between the ages of 9 and 16). In the evening they wanted to "hang out" and there was no place to do that. So, they hung out on stairs and other places where guests were impacted by the noise and having them going up and down the stairs.

While most children are fairly well behaved (because their parents have raised them to be that way), it only takes a few unruly children (usually from parents that decided to take them on the ship but don't want to watch them) to ruin a cruise.

So, my suggestion is to sail on Regent when school is in session and sail the Med. in Spring or Fall. Hope this helps!

Thanks for your feedback. It's not the best time to visit the region, however the ports of call are just what we were looking for and Regent includes everything we want in a cruise (with the exception of kids).

As someone who has traveled with children on Regent and participated in Club Mariner, which is offered during the summer months, I can assure you that the number of children is nothing like the big ships. Regent realized that generational travel is big business and they were losing out so a few years ago rolled out Club Mariner so that the children/teens would have activities during sea days and evenings.

When it first started, it was an excellent program and extremely well attended, with amazing activities and adventures - the boys made many friends from around the world and still keep in touch years later. However in the last couple of years the program has changed and has so many rules (and these are rules, not guidelines) that make absolutely no sense whatsoever and word has spread so that on our last cruise, there were very few children actually participating in the program, which is a shame because it was such a fantastic program and could continue as such.

With regard to kids "hanging out", in my experience some of these kids are children of officers - this is especially prevalent during the summer months. These kids do not seem to have a curfew and have free reign of the ship. I know a couple of years ago there was the group of eight - they were all boys between the ages of 12 and 15 (including two of ours) - the children of the passengers were all in their room no later than 10:00pm and when I went down to use the computer at 1:00am, I saw the officers' children still out and about.

That being said, in all my cruising on Regent (I am platinum approaching titanium), I have only witnessed one child who was a brat and completely undisciplined - for the most part, the children on board are extremely well mannered and well behaved and enhance the cruising experience. Even in August, I would be most surprised if there are more than 15 children on board, esp if toward the middle/end of August since many American children are already back at school.

There are some people on board who for some reason believe children should not be allowed on the ship and stretch far and wide to find fault. I know we were called by management because someone had complained one of the children was "monopolizing" the chess board. He is a national ranked chess champion and he was having a blast playing with all his "elders" and drawing a crowd as people watched. For two days we did not allow him to play, allowing others to use the game and in that two day period, not one other person sat to play. When we allowed him to return to the chess table, people were lined up to play with him and we did hear some complaints - I can assure you if there was an adult playing and not a child, there would have been no complaints - there are always a few people on board who seem to live in some type of six star fantasy world and believe that Regent is only for the 1% and others need not apply.

Yes, the med is hot in August but if that does not bother you, I would not let the idea of Club Mariner cause you not to consider the cruise.

gnomie :)

Great words Gnomie. Xx

We have sailed 4 regent med cruises, admittedly June or Spetmember but there have been a small number of children on board each time and we have had no issues whatsoever. The med can be busy any time of year, hope you have a good cruise. Jean.:)

I echo Gnomie - I have been on Regent in the Med in August and it was wonderful. I actually took my then 13 year old on Navigator and there were only another 15 or so kids. As we were on a back to back we were invited to dinner with one of the officers along with another couple who had their boy who was a similar age - it was a great ice breaker and made for a wonderful evening.

Personally I love the Med in August and certainly wouldn't let 15 or so kids put you off. Regent is an amazing experience.

Double post. Admin Delete please.

I agree with TC2 about the Med ports in summer. They can be undeniable crowded. While Regent does a good job with their tours, once you get to the destinations, they are all extremely crowded.

Some ports will have 5-7 ships in port. Many of the ships are 2000-3000 passengers or more. Destination sites' lines will be very long and you may have to wait long hours in the sun. Just be prepared for the mass of people.

If August is the only time you can go, Regent will do a better job than most. But I think going in Summer and where are kids on board really reduces the value. For me, I would pay less and go on Princess or Azamara and do all my tours private.

J

Responding to post that indicated that children "hanging out" onboard are usually children of the officers. This was definitely not the case on our cruise(s). We felt sorry for the children as there was no where for them to go. (Note: It is better on the Mariner during the day as Stars lounge is a large space with no one in there -- the Navigator has the least amount of public space followed by the Voyager).

It does seem that the people that don't see the problem with children on Regent's small ships are the ones that have children on board. We try not to sail when school is not in session because that is the time when there are children onboard (and I have no problem with that). My issue is when people take children out of school - there is no program for them onboard and no other children! We do have a sailing this summer and will not be complaining about children because it is my choice to sail when they are out of school. Our four future cruises are when school is in session.

Back to the heat for a moment, we had a tour guide Venice in May. She called the month of August "hell" - both from a crowd and heat standpoint. If your itinerary has Santorini as a port, there could be thousands of people from multiple ships in port. It really takes away from the enjoyment of what we consider one of the most beautiful islands in the world.

We sailed from Venice to Rome on Mariner in August 2015 and had no issues with children, excessive heat or unbearable crowds.

Maybe we are too easy to please :D

We were in the same situation as bknight, we wanted to cruise the Med but not be inundated with OPKs (Other People's Kids). We've been happy with Regent overall from a kid standpoint, but a few years ago we were on an August cruise that although it wasn't overloaded with kids, the ones that were there all seemed to suffer from a severe lack of parenting.

I agree that the ports are usually hot and crowded, but we still enjoyed them (mostly). I think having unruly kids on board is more just the luck of the draw, really.

We took our girls to Alaska once figuring there would be other kids on board, but we must have been too early in the season, as there were almost no other teens there. Our girls mostly stayed in the cabin watching Glee on TV and ordering room service...

Although we try to avoid August if possible, we'd sail in August again if the itinerary was perfect. It's worth the chance, I think.

There were absolutely no complaints from us but the kids onboard one of our Navigator cruises were most definitely the children of officers.

We sailed from Venice to Rome on Mariner in August 2015 and had no issues with children, excessive heat or unbearable crowds.

Maybe we are too easy to please :D

Agree with you -- either much too easy to please or used to children that do not have parental supervision. Also, with the climate change issues, August, 2015 may have not been hot (definitely unusual). It is only June and most places in the Med. are already in the 80's.

We were in Venice in May (2 years ago) and the crowds boarded on unbearable. As mentioned previously, it was a Venice tour guide that called August in the Med. "hell". Must say, however, that it is currently 110 degrees in Los Angeles and some people (my daughter for one) loves it. Many other people find it unbearable! IMO, it is important to know your heat and crowd tolerance level!!!!!!!!!

P.S. A few years ago, the Captain of the Voyager determined that the crowds in Santorini were so bad that he changed our itinerary. Instead of 9 cruise ships in port, there were only six.

Thank you all for your feedback. We have decided to go ahead with the cruise and feel (fairly) confident that the ship will not be overrun with unruly kids. We have done a Venice to Rome cruise in August a few years ago and at least then the weather was not too hot for us. We did run into huge crowds in Santorini but I hope the Regent excursions will help make to steer us away from most of that.

Thanks again to all.

Responding to post that indicated that children "hanging out" onboard are usually children of the officers. This was definitely not the case on our cruise(s). We felt sorry for the children as there was no where for them to go. (Note: It is better on the Mariner during the day as Stars lounge is a large space with no one in there -- the Navigator has the least amount of public space followed by the Voyager).

 

It does seem that the people that don't see the problem with children on Regent's small ships are the ones that have children on board. We try not to sail when school is not in session because that is the time when there are children onboard (and I have no problem with that). My issue is when people take children out of school - there is no program for them onboard and no other children! We do have a sailing this summer and will not be complaining about children because it is my choice to sail when they are out of school. Our four future cruises are when school is in session.

 

Back to the heat for a moment, we had a tour guide Venice in May. She called the month of August "hell" - both from a crowd and heat standpoint. If your itinerary has Santorini as a port, there could be thousands of people from multiple ships in port. It really takes away from the enjoyment of what we consider one of the most beautiful islands in the world.

How lovely, are you going to be on the new Explorer? Hope it's not too .....well childreny for you. :)

When do the snarky comments end?

When do the snarky comments end?

Either when we go to another website, or when the mods delete comments, apparently...

Agree with you -- either much too easy to please or used to children that do not have parental supervision. Also, with the climate change issues, August, 2015 may have not been hot (definitely unusual). It is only June and most places in the Med. are already in the 80's.

I do not understand why you have to challenge my post, the facts having been given in good faith to provide a balanced view of cruises in the Med

We have zero tolerance for badly behaved children and lack of discipline from parents; however we did not have any issues on-board during our cruise. In fact we have never seen that many children on a Regent cruise at whatever time of year and mostly they have been Regent officers' children

Weather in the Med can be changeable; we did not find the heat excessive, but others might

Yes, ports and towns will be busy in August; we did not find any of our trips unbearably crowded, but some may find the most famous tourist attractions too over-populated for their liking

I do not understand why you have to challenge my post, the facts having been given in good faith to provide a balanced view of cruises in the Med

 

Challenging you? I was agreeing with you. You sound more tolerant of heat, crowds and children than I am. My posts on this thread have been a balanced view from my perspective (and my intolerance of said items). Isn't it up to the reader to decide what their tolerance levels are based on different views provided by posters?

Have to agree with Eager2Travel and add that I cannot understand how someone can be questioned when they have agreed with a poster.

A balanced view from just one perspective seems somewhat incongruous....................but what would I know?