Wuzzle10

We were on Explorer jan 2023, not a good experience , first time with RSSC and last, cancelled our South Pacific cruise 2024 as to risky , lots of reasons for a bad review but Regent handled it badly and never got back to us so we have gone back to Seabourn which has been great for us 

We were on Seabourn recently in the Caribbean , at the start of the voyage there were chair hogs and we couldn’t get a chair by the pool, I did complain and it was put in the daily news sheet not to reserve chairs, it got better and we were able to get seats, it was on the newssheet most days not to reserve seats

We have sailed with RSSC once, they took no notice of the issues we had which were substantial so we cancelled our next cruise which we had booked with them as they just didn’t care , I have sent numerous feedback but with no replies so we won’t bother spending our money with them 

On 2/13/2024 at 5:47 PM, OskiBear said:

Relatively experienced cruiser here and we are currently on Voyager (Buenos Aires to Santiago) with an extraordinarily disappointing voyage. I’m not usually one to complain about little things and I tend to roll with things, but some less than optimal things have so far combined to make this journey one that is leaving a very bad taste and impression of Regent. So far:

 

1.     Embarkation – I had read about the issue with the terminal in Buenos Aires in advance so expected a bit of a “shuffle.” However, we were given a specific time to arrive at the alternate terminal at which point we were instructed to simply sit and wait an hour for a bus to shuttle us to the original terminal. It seemed a very poorly managed process with everyone waiting for a long time without really much coordination.

2.     Skipping Ports – we arrived at Stanley, Falkland Islands and the captain informed us it was too windy to disembark, so we sailed away. We then turned around to disembark a passenger with a medical issue before sailing away. We later found out other ships had arrived Stanley with no issues. On our second of three scheduled days cruising through the Antarctic Peninsula, the Captain announced that we were hightailing it out of there because of anticipated winds in the Drake Passage, cutting that part of the journey short by one day. Prior to arriving Ushuaia, the Captain informed us he would be skipping Punta Arenas because of weather – this was announced three days in advance of even arriving at the port. Currently, everyone is aware that Holland America Oosterdam (that we saw in port in Ushuaia yesterday) is currently docked in Punta Arenas while we are skipping the port.

3.     Captain – not sure how much of the port skipping attributable to the captain’s or Regent’s decision, but the whole situation has been very poorly handled. The captain is very cavalier in his announcements. There have been no apologies for the deviations from schedule and he’s just been generally flippant and dismissive of the diminished experience of the paying passengers. I overheard a passenger inquiring and he because defensive and borderline hostile.

4.     Overall, the ship is old and tired. During the first night of rougher seas, our cabin not only creaked, but sounded as if it was going to explode.

5.     Food has been okay and service, while slow, has been very pleasant and staff have all been wonderful.

6.  Internet - this has been abysmal. There's a router outside our cabin but no service unless I sit on the floor at the. The signal doesn't extend to the rest of the cabin. It's really slow in general and has actually constantly gone down ("satellite" problem). We just did a transatlantic crossing on QM2 in November and the internet was fine the entire journey across the Atlantic. Why is it so bad on Voyager? 

 

So, is this par for the course for Regent? Or Voyager? Or this Captain?

January 2023 we were on Explorer, first time with Regent, they advertise it as the most luxurious ship etc, didn’t find this, to many niggles, we had booked Voyager to South Pacific  in 2025, we have cancelled it, just got back from a Seabourn cruise on Ovation and we couldn’t fault it. 
Our Regent cruise had been our most expensive holiday , it was not worth it, memorable for all the wrong reasons 

On 1/8/2024 at 2:34 PM, Stefken said:

Anyone doing Great Barrier Reef excursion. Just a heads up.

 

We did the Great Barrier Reef excursion in November from Airlie Beach extra cost of £159. From the Explorer.

 

Luxury Catamaran it was not, the pontoon was filthy, bird muck over decks and loungers. Shabby in the extreme, extensive buffet was at best mediocre. Having researched the company who provided the Reef cruise, on our return home, Their  advertising pictures bare no resemblance to the actual experience. 
 

I personally only spent 5 minutes in the reef, as after the cyclone passing through days earlier  made the reef very choppy, I consider myself a strong swimmer, but I felt concerned by the conditions, couldn’t see any fish because visibility was very poor. 
 

We changed out of swimwear in less than adequate changing rooms, got back on the catamaran and waited 1hour thirty minutes for our return to the ships rather than get back on the pontoon.

 

To have waited over a year for this visit to the reef, this was so very disappointing.its the same people doing the Cairns  and Airlue beach excursion. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone I knew wanted to do the Barrier Reef.

 

We attached the only only one a wanted to take, taken as we left, with no fond memories at all.

 

This my opinion, but thought it may be of interest to others thinking of doing this excursion.

We were on this exact trip, but in January 2023, doesn’t look as though anything has changed, we complained about the whole cruise as most of it was not good, but this excursion was about a 1 star experience , I don’t think any Regent representative has ever been on it and why keep sending guests there is beyond me 

We were on Explorer, Sydney to Bali and had a few terrible excursions, on complaining on our return to our TA, she told Regent of our poor experience , they said excursions were through their third party suppliers and there was nothing they could do!! I think this is outrageous as they should have been on these and if they had they would realise that some were a disaster, this isn’t what you expect from 6 star cruising in my opinion

On 2/21/2023 at 12:01 AM, clelbonv said:

Thank you for the detailed review. We are scheduled for Sydney to Singapore  January 2024 and this was very helpful. I have been reading about the poor excursions that regent offers and have been planning on a few my own. Do you specifically have any ports that you suggest we skip the regent tours all together? Sounds like Cairns may be one of them. Also our cruise has two ports of call in Papa New Guinea so this is concerning regarding the poor quality of the tours and the safety of the area. Did not plan to do a private excursion. Would you recommend just walking around and not doing a Regent tour?

Do not walk around Papua New Guinea on your own, it is very dangerous there, best not get off the ship

On 1/20/2023 at 4:11 PM, Trunkabella said:

Irishwitchy, it’s testing us, too.  We tested positive for COVID, so we’re confined to our cabin until we test negative (hopefully Melbourne).  We are being well taken care of, but it seems like this trip was not meant to be for us.  On the positive side, our missing suitcase was delivered today!

Hi, how long did it take to get your suitcase? Was it lost by the airline? We arrived in Sydney last night and our luggage is still in Heathrow !!

We have done an Amazon river cruise in Equador, not with Regent but on a small boat Anaconcda, we went in March, we wore hiking shoes and took rain ponchos , only rained once during the week but what a downpour !!

didn’t get bitten , I took vitamin B1 2 weeks before you go and all the time you are away, this really works as I always used to get bitten, plus mosquito bands and bug spray.

it was cool in mornings 

3 hours ago, forevertravel said:

After reading many negative posts about Regent I thought I'll post my thoughts on our latest cruise. We started in Singapore where we spent three days as part of the precruise tour. We stayed at the Fairmont which was a great hotel (great location and service) and had a wonderful guide to take us places. It was a very good tour. The only negative and it was not Regent's fault because the local tour company chooses the restaurant was the last dinner at the Grand Shanghai hotel. The food was not of Regent's quality. We went from Singapore to Sydney. We visited Java, Bali, Subaraya, and several ports in Australia. While I found Java disappointing because there isn't much to see, Subaraya and Bali were very nice as the Australian ports. Food and service were top notch. We didn't lack anything. I should add we are platinum and we reconnected with many crew. The GM was wonderful. We had dinner with him and the captain and in my opinion he's one of the best. Andy Heath was the CD and he and his wife (social hostess) were awesome. The entertainment was excellent. The Regent dancers and singers were wonderful. I just saw a complain in Facebook because we missed Brisbane and Thursday island. Well, Brisbane cancelled us because they stopped using the port we were supposed to dock in. Thursday island had to be cancelled because the waters were too rough for the tenders. It was a matter of safety. I can't find a thing Regent did wrong or was not to our expectations. No,, I don't think Regent has gone down. This was one of best cruises and everything was as expected and top notch. I realize we all have different expectations but let's be realistic. The world has changed and Regent as well as hotels, airlines, etc are doing the best. Sometimes getting the right supplies is beyond their ability. We were very happy with our cruise and are looking forward to our next one next Summer.

 

Thank you for posting this, we will be doing the Sydney to Bali cruise and I was beginning to get worried at so much negativity, this will be our first cruise with Regent after it being cancelled twice due to Covid! Just looking forward to a nice relaxing cruise, with some delicious food, and hopefully meeting some nice fellow cruisers and visiting some great places 🤞

On 12/2/2022 at 11:14 AM, Boatmans Lady said:

Much excitement in our house today as this envelope arrived from Regent with 

deck luggage tags enclosed. No making my own like last year and thank you to Regent for listening to the feedback and sending these out. 

 

Excitement is beginning to mount but we have a little event called Christmas to get through before our pre-cruise tour 😀 

 

Ours came this week as well, very excited, which cruise are you on? We are Sydney to Bali on explorer 

10 minutes ago, lprp said:

I don’t think you will be boarding until 29 December - that’s when Explorer is due to arrive in Sydney?

We are sailing Sydney to Bali, 26th January -13th February 

We are boarding in Sydney on this day, just realised it’s Australia Day, hope we get an amazing view of the fireworks and the regatta that’s on the 26th, should hopefully be a great start to the cruise

Hi 

We are on Explorer Sydney to Bali in January , our 1st Regent cruise! We will I believe be required to disembark early morning our flight is 8pm ! Do regent lay anything on or are you just taken for a very long time wait at the airport ! ? 

Please do not ride the donkeys in Santorini, this is cruel as a lot of people are far to heavy for these lovely animals , if no one rode them they wouldn’t be there

get the cable car down, I did when we were there but I can honestly say I really don’t like this island, to hilly, to touristy, to busy

18 minutes ago, pingpong1 said:

Actually, I find myself feeling very sorry for the donkeys!  It's certainly not much of a life for them!  😟

I hate showers, I like to relax and read a book in a nice warm bath, I like a PH1, seems I will either have to upgrade or downgrade!!

it’s exactly the same on the new regent ship Grandeur no baths in a Penthouse!! Very disappointing 

We were on Seabourn August 2021 for a cruise around Greek islands for 7 days, we were invited to 4 hosted tables and went to everyone, really enjoyed them, a great cruise, we loved it, no one wore masks either on board , apart from the testing during on and off and on board tender you would have thought Covid didn’t exist , it was fabulous 

Can’t wait, really looking forward to our cruise on vista, hope we are all in better times by then

I have a safari booked with Tanzania included and flying back from Kenya to UK, does anyone know how all the testing for COVID will be managed with multiple countries in Africa!

my final payment is nearly due and wondering if it is worth committing such a large sum of money , 

Thank you so much for your reply, very interesting and informative , we are doing the Tanzania extension as well

Has anyone been with AMA to Africa? We are meant to be going in June but there European river voyages haven’t started yet and my final balance is due soon so a bit nervous of paying if it’s not going to go, any advice/tips welcome

Does anyone know why the Whitsunday Islands is showing no excursions yet for cruise starting 26th January 2023 from Sydney when all other ports have excursions! 

We sailed on Seabourn for 1 week in August 2021 and shared a table 6 nights out of 7, we enjoy sharing a table and meeting new people

cannot wait to go on Explorer next January for our first Regent cruise

On 9/28/2021 at 1:30 AM, DatawCruiser said:

I am on the 2/3/2022 Splendor cruise in a PHC Suite.  I have another 8 days until final payment.  I am having a hard time justifying this cruise, primarily because of the masking requirement.  I have cruised on Regent before and actually cancelled a previous Mediterranean cruise in September because I thought things would have settled down by next February.  My issue is with the all encompassing mask requirement onboard.  I am not willing to pay the premium prices for Regent if I have to wear a face covering on a 100% vaccinated guest and crew population. I understand there is a risk of excursions causing the possibility of a breakthrough infection.  But I take that risk every time I go grocery shopping even though I mask up for that (because there are no vaccination guarantees  for grocery shopping in SC).  I am on the fence as to whether to cancel.  Any thoughts?

 

Thanks.  Be gentle.

 

Andy

We were on a Seabourn cruise around the Greek islands in August, no mask wearing for guests, shared tables, no social distancing, completely normal cruise, could go where you liked when you got off to visit the islands, if you are worried move to Seabourn, it was fabulous you would barely have known there was a pandemic, obviously there was tests to get on and double jabbed 

Well Australia now officially cancelled 😢, our new itinerary Cape Town to Singapore and a week longer!! Not sure about this, a few days to decide what to do !