DeepFreeze63

We did the transfer with Regent in April 2017. Airport is: a good distance from the dock; rather small and can get crowded; and, requires buses to discharge in an unloading outdoor area a good walk (but covered) from the terminal. You have to move your luggage; go up an elevator; and find your airline. I had a 1 pm flight so I wasn't rushed but I saw lots of opportunities for delays.

Happy Fathers' Day Bob. Glad we could "meet" before your cruise. DW and I are on the Voyager for Athens to Athens in October with 3 of your Greek ports. Your posts are very enjoyable.

Thanks,

Jim

Not so "simple"! Who's the CD? Who are on our Triva team?

Marc: "knock on wood"; "Peninsula and Oriental'

My DW and I have also had recent, unpleasant high-pressure sales experiences at the Spa ( on the Explorer). Although DW and I are not novices of repelling unwanted sales proposals, it did offend us.

Maybe we should mount a campaign of comments to Regent such as the ones that led to the removal of the "art auctions"!

Yes, you can get a credit if you give up the "included" pre/post excursion - I have done this for post Shanghai in 2020.

I have done Sydney (pre-), Angkor Wat (post-), and Changi Mai (post-); I intend to do Athens (pre-) in October and Tokyo (pre-) in 2019. All that I have done were well organized and fun. The hotel arrangements varied from very nice to marvelous.

As Marq noted, the Tokyo Hilton isn't in the "best" tourist area BUT seems enough nearby to fill the free time of the excursion.

Sorry, I miss-read your post; I now understand. Yes, its not usual for a long cruise. Please ask the GM about the situation. Many of us would love to know.

Again thanks.

Huh! The Voyager is in the Arabian Gulf on a longer than 10 day cruise.

I get no satisfaction from learning that the Oceania land operations is as incompetent as their counterparts at Regent - maybe they are the same personnel!

Spent about 50 nights in 648 and 647; have reserved 652 for 26 nights in 2020. As I am not a good sailor, I love being low and mid-ship. I enjoyed being near the Library and the quiet reading area across from the Library (had good Wifi access). DW, a avid photographer, had no difficulty with sail-in/away photos from our verandah - she did with cabin 641 which is too close to the tenders.

Hope this helps.

Don't you wonder why Regent would contract for such a poor survey? They get (and supposedly consider) tens of thousands of Comment Cards every year with the info correlatable to ship, itinerary and a lot of demogaphics on the guests.Also, they could (probably do) read and consider the info on Regent's CC posts. It should readily be apparent what is (and isn't) important to "past guests".

I'm a "risk" taker; we're going to sail Mariner twice in 2019!

Per my DW, a "professional" shopper: 'The Furla bags are well priced at or below retail in D.C. area. If you see one you like buy it as they have limited quantities; on the other hand new merchandise appears throughout the cruise - talk to the Boutique manager'. She would have posted this (and more) herself but she is also a "professional" painter - now doing the kitchen woodwork!

Could you share with us the two bad excursions so we do not book them?

Sure! In both cases, the problems were not sudden; the Tour Companies were surely aware of the potential safety problems.

1. Phuket: During a magnificent cruise last November/December (see CC review that I wrote about 12/23/2017), we had a very bad experience during the "Spectacular Phang Nga Bay" excursion. The excursion had pluses and minuses BUT the ISSUE was the "at a local resort you will have a buffet lunch". The "resort" was a derelict hotel - NO overnight guests anywhere in the building; auxiliary restrooms (there were 5 Regent buses) were 2 floors of the hotel rooms with no electricity; no one at front desk. The buffet/eating area was an open, but covered, porch about 50 yards from both the river/marsh and the former swimming pool where the tiles were being removed by jackhammers. About 50 of us arrived about 1:30; I found out that much of the food had been exposed on the porch since just after Noon. The bottle and cans of drinks were being cooled in tin tubs of ice water and no paper cups were available. My complaint to Regent focused on putting the health of so many of us at risk.

2. Da Nang: Again we had a terrific Sydney to Hong Kong cruise (loved Hoi An). In Da Nang, we did an excursion to the mountain area popular during the French colony period and the site of a giant blue/white Buddah It turned out to be a construction site for a future Disney-like venue. Once off the cable car access,we were taken to the summit via small vans that passed within 3 feet of a cliff without guard rails. Leaving the vans, the Regent excursion was the only people without HARDHATS; walking on a dirt road next to moving concrete mixers. We then found out that our tour guide had never been on this tour before and we were lost. We had to exit the site via a 50 step fire escape stairway (we had a 90 year-old in the group) to the cable car station. As noted in post above, at least a dozen of us wrote letters to Regent. The wife of the 90 year-old had a vigourous discussion with the GM of the Voyager.

Unfortunately not recently complaints about Regent extra costs excursions were met with comments like there were no problems, nothing could be done, and nobody else had issues. Unfortunately the onboard staff who are on the firing line have no authority and only the home office can provide any response or solution from thousands of miles away and opposite time zones.

Yes, lest we forget: 1) Regent bills itself as the most luxurious and charges us accordingly; 2) when Regent was acquired by NCL, we were assured that the buying power of NCl would improve excursions; the excursion operations are headquartered together in Miami for NCL, Oceania, and Regent (Destination Services is not the contracting organization).

On our 13 Regent cruises, we have had many terrific excursions but also two Horrific "included" excursion experiences (DaNang and Phuket). On the first I (and several others) wrote to Regent corporate but got no reply; on the second, I informed the GM immediately and later sent a complaint through my TA to Regent corporate. Both excursions are still being provided with apparently the same content as I disputed. It isn't obvious that "Regent" follows up to rectify excursion issues.

Also, I think the "comment cards" are an ineffective way to get feed back to "Regent" on excursions. Electronic surveys, just after the excursion would be more effective.

I am a big fan of the work of Destination Services. Most issues attributed to them, I see as due to US, the passengers!

Thanks TC2 for starting this thread.

Rachel, I got most of them stopped by complaining to Regent but I am now deluged with the Oceania brochures. Save a tree.

We get 5 times as many Oceania brochures as those from Regent despite contacting Oceania and asking for them to end.

Unlike the Regent brochures, those from Oceania, almost as many from Viking and a few recently from SilverSeas are annoying as we aren't interested in their cruises.

BUT I recognize that they will continue to arrive - I have a very large paper recycle bin and am sure that I wouldn't get a Regent "rebate" for opting out of such marketing tools.

It is interesting how people who love the Regent brand can have such differences in their opinions of decor style. We were absolutely blown away by the Explorer, I would spend time just walking around the ship and admiring. For what it's worth, pretty much everyone I spoke to felt the same way. What some people perceive as glitz, others perceive as elegance.

That said, I love all of the Regent ships, and would make my choices more on itinerary and timing, rather than ship preference.

 

Thank you Ron and Rick for your reports, I am really enjoying it.

Bob

Me too! Except I've never been on the Navigator and have no desire to be on her.

I'm at a stage where my favorite Regent ship is the last one we were on.

Today was the first day to book air deviation for our January sailing to Sydney and return home from Singapore. I called at 9 am, was on hold for about 20 minutes and every single flight choice I gave them was not available unless I wanted to pay up to $500 dollars extra per person! We always have done deviation and have never had this problem. The one time we didn't do an air deviation it was a nightmare. Now I have flights on hold, not any of my choices, and on the return the domestic flights are economy unless, you guessed it, I pay $400 per person. I am so frustrated that I wonder if people have had better luck just letting Regent pick or do you just take the credit and book your own. I have seats on hold for the next 48hrs before I have to decide.

Yes, I know that it sounds like a broken record BUT where is your TA in this? I like to scout my own flights; almost always deviate; often take the credit (especially for domestic flights) BUT I always give my TA a chance (an expert working with Regent and has a "consolidator" on back-up) find a good if not much better flight!

I have complained on several occasions regarding minor issues on Regent. However, we continue sailing on Regent because on a scale of 1 to 10, we rate it a 9 1/2 because nothing is perfect!

Personally, I do not read the Regent brochure copy, I review the itinerary and then make my choice of sailing. The adjectives are just marketing tools.

Cruise Critic is a vechicle for us to chat about our experiences, both good and not so good. Most of us do not want to discourage newbies to Regent.

Try it, you will love it and you keep coming back for more!

Sheila

We agree! I treat the Regent brochures (that fill our mailbox and WSJs) just like car ads - I enjoy the beautiful pictures and ignore the hype.

I used to bitterly complain about the Regent website but, as they promised, it's significantly improved and very enjoyable. I visit the Regent website and CC almost every day.

The big Regent brochure that I received yesterday was fun to browse through. Recently a few CCers explained to us on this Board how the International Date Line worked; well they need to educate Regent as the new brochure has it backwards (I think).

Rome to Monte Carlo. No Visa needed but the instructions on immigration forms and online check-in came from our TA docs. I need to call them, I guess.

Thank you.

Maybe referring to "Guest Registration Form" that Regent needs completed for each specific cruise. If so, go to http://www.rssc.com; enter "My Account" "Booked Cruises" on upper right of Home page; for cruise in question under "My To Do List", enter "Guest Registration Form" and fill it out - including passport info for all passengers.

Hope this helps but yes, I'd call my TA to confirm.

Splendor bookings opened today. 2/7 to 2/21 Barcelona to Miami is listed as an "inaugural season" voyage but 2/25-3/3 Miami to LA is listed as the "maiden voyage". So which would be better in terms of specialness, so to speak? Apparently the christening will be in Miami sometime between 2/21 and 2/25.

Thoughts?

My thoughts: It is unrealistic to expect "nearly perfect"; I'd go to enjoy the adventure plus the "bragging rights' of a maiden voyage.

In an engineering project , there are 3 aspects: Quality, Cost, and Schedule BUT as the mantra goes "at best, you can only control 2 of the 3." Once the schedule for the Splendor was set, Regent can only attain near perfection by spending scads of money on an experienced army of QC inspectors & craftsmen and/or an extensive "shake-down" cruise.

So I'd expect a lot of "nits" while on a beautiful new ship, enjoying terrific food and beverages surrounded by interesting veteran cruisers. And as mentioned above, at a relatively attractive price.

Nope, I'm not going as I''ll, HOPEFULLY, be revisiting Shanghai after 30 years while on the Voyager.

I think it is good marketing. I always book whilst onboard; any little extra helps.

 

Marc

I love it! I also always book on board. Very little down side and lots of benefits.

My wife and I are booked on a cruise at a future date that will stop in Acapulco. Acapulco has been in the news so much lately due to violent crime that I really wonder if it safe. For that matter, I am wondering about any stops in Mexico.

 

Just wondering if some of you who have been on a Regent cruise recently that went to Mexican ports if you felt safe on shore excursions?

We called in Acapulco last year on Explorer and we had no particular security issues. We took the tour which included the cliff divers and enjoyed our time there.

We also stopped in Acapulco during an Explorer MIA to LA cruise in January 2017. We worried about a stop there; however we had a delightful day (the cliff divers including a 14 yr-old girl were fantastic). Others who went to a famous hotel outing raved about that excursion. The sail-in is beautiful. Definitely was a Security presence but we didn't feel any threats and the people looked happy enjoying a very nice sunny Sunday.

In Cabo, the biggest danger is being run over by tourists!

One of the ports for this cruise is Cozumel and an excursion offered is a plane ride to Chichen Itza. Is anyone familiar with this- if so, what are your thoughts?

2nd hand info BUT for what it's worth: We were on an early 2018 Explorer cruise that stopped in Cozumel. We didn't do this excursion but the ship's Maya culture Lecturer's Partner (another professor from San Diego State) did the plane excursion and reported that she loved it and that it was facinating! The lecturer couldn't do it because she was giving a lecture on the ship.

We are doing our first PC transit on the refurbed Mariner during our first of three legs sailing to Auckland this October (Miami to Honolulu). The cruise includes Havana, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Columbia, Guatemala, Mexico ports and stops in San Diego before sailing to Honolulu. This voyage works well for us having close friends visit the Mariner for lunch in San Diego.

 

Now part of Regent's new offers that include a 3 category suite upgrade.

 

Please see:

 

https://www.rssc.com/cruises/MAR181010/summary

Wes:

We had close friends from San Diego area join us for lunch on the Explorer when we visited there in 2017 (a terrific reunion). The Regent people were super in helping access BUT the Port security personnel held up our friends' access for more than an hour. It may expedite the visit if you meet them at the on-shore security point.

Jim

Silly question, but are there any online booking tools that shows specific cabin availability like the big cruise lines? I assume not.

Go to your itinerary and START a PRETEND reservation on "Plan MY Cruise". It will show up to 6 available cabins for each category selected. Hint: select Port and Starboard separately and see up to 12 available cabins.