makai 7

We originally booked a Superior suite (F1). We paid for a change/upgrade to a PH3 after the flights had been ticketed. Regent did not offer to change the flights.

Dear Regent Seven Seas Cruises Our relationship began in 2011. Like many new relationships, we were flush with excitement, anticipation, and the feeling of new love. Over the years, we spent quite a bit of time together, 119 nights plus pre- and post-cruise experiences. As the years progressed, it began to feel like you were no longer as interested in us as we were with you. Like many relationships, the initial crush ended. Instead of an even give-and-take, it felt more and more like you were taking without giving in return. On this most recent cruise, it was obvious to us that you were no longer interested in us at all, and that you no longer cared about any of the things that made us fall in love back in 2011. Please take this “dear John” letter as our way of breaking up with you. It is over. We wish that our final memories of you were the “Unrivaled Experience” that you advertised. They were certainly memorable, but not in a positive way. Sincerely Mr. and Mrs. Makai 7

Part 3... 5. Amenities / communication WiFi was abysmal. For our “status” and our stateroom, we had 4 logins. Worthless. It was impossible to check basic email messages. I sent one that took 3 days to get out of the outbox. I could not take care of some things on line that were easy to manage on previous cruises. Ship to Shore calling ended up being useful since I could not do anything over the internet. That worked just fine. Laundry service was excellent. Several passengers on board had Covid. We spoke with a passenger on Deck 6 who had noticed security tape across the hall a few doors down from her cabin. She asked Reception if there was Covid on board, and if the cabins down the hall were being used for quarantine. She was told “absolutely not”, no Covid on board. She met someone whose travel companions had been moved to Quarantine down the hall from her because of positive Covid tests, so she knew that Reception was either uninformed, or not telling the truth. She asked her stateroom attendant if these were quarantine cabins, since he was servicing them. He told her the truth – YES, they were being used for Covid passengers, and YES, he was servicing them, but only AFTER all other cabins were serviced, and he had to wear special protective gear. She was right to be concerned, since there was the potential for contamination of her cabin. Once the cases on board rose to 1%, the captain made an announcement and all crew started wearing masks. So did we. 6. Shore Excursions, Post Cruise package I agree with Rachel-too many excursions that went to typical tourist locations and too much time on a bus, with poor descriptions prior to booking. One excursion we booked in Jeju was cancelled, and I only discovered this because I checked my booking on line and it was gone. I was never notified. Tours that I had waitlisted in other ports did open up, and I returned the tickets for the tours I did not take so someone else could get a spot. We heard many, many people complaining at the shore excursion desk because there were not enough excursions for the passengers onboard. That just doesn’t feel right, when you are pre-paying for excursions (NOTHING is “Free”). We did enjoy going to some of the places we visited, but felt that there were very few options and many of the tours were the same with tiny variations. We upgraded to the Hakone post cruise tour – and with only 10 people in the group, it was excellent. Flossie009 did a fabulous job describing this tour. Our guide was with us the entire time, and we felt that this was the best part of the trip. 7. Shops and Spa What to do with onboard credit? It has become a problem. They have raised the prices of their spa services to ridiculous levels. $280 plus 20% gratuity for a 50 minute massage? Wine Tasting dinner $180 per person? The prices in the shops also were extremely high. There was very little “Regent” branded merchandise to be found, and nothing branded for the Explorer. I did manage to fine a lightweight pullover with “regent seven seas” for $110. Nothing for men. I also discovered a little change… in the past with Gold status you would receive a discount in the shops. This discount is gone. It is no longer listed in the benefits. Not an issue since we couldn’t spend all the OB credit as it was, and it would just have left more for them. 8. Summary In our opinion, Regent is no longer the same cruise line. Over the years the quality of the experience has decreased. That feeling of a special experience isn’t there any longer. The cost reduction in staffing, food variety/quality are evident to us. I will not say that we will never cruise with them again, but it is highly unlikely.

Part two... 3. Ship Explorer is a beautiful ship. We found it to be quietly elegant. The crystal and much of the artwork is not to our taste, but it did not detract from the overall feel of the ship. Some areas are definitely showing wear and tear. Outdoor furniture near La Veranda was falling apart, cushions torn on some of the seats. It was difficult to find a comfortable place to sit, as elegant is not the same as comfort. We were in a Penthouse suite, and the layout was excellent. The furniture was NOT comfortable to sit on – however pretty it might be. Great balcony, but the weather did not cooperate for many days to sit outside. We liked the bathroom with two sinks and the huge shower. Water pressure was fabulous, and we nicknamed the body sprays “the car wash”. Best feature of the cabin. Bed was comfortable, plenty of pillows, and nice quality sheets. Surprisingly, the towels were frayed! We would expect that any damaged sheets or towels would be discarded and not used again but this seemed not to be the case. The dining areas outside of La Veranda were heated – fabulous idea and we spent every morning having breakfast and coffee outside and were comfortable, even on the very chilly mornings. Overall, the ship was pleasant to live on for two weeks. 4. Dining I wish I could be positive here, but I have to say that most meals ended up simply being a way to stop being hungry. We expected so much more! Sette Mare continued to be our favorite venue, and we had some familiar faces in the crew here. Most meals were exceptional, and all were enjoyable. I had one meal (Fritto Misto) which was a mistake to order, but was offset by the soup and starters so not an issue of going to be hungry. Service was friendly and well managed. We dined in Pacific Rim twice. On the first night, we never were provided with the hand towels or the edamame ‘starter’. Some tables received them, others didn’t. The food was tasty, but very slow coming out of the kitchen. Our second meal, we received the hand towels after the edamame, instead of before. Again, service was haphazard. We have never had a positive experience in Prime 7, with the exception of our first cruise with Regent in 2011. They were very consistent in providing an extremely disappointing experience. Reservation for 8pm, seated at 8:10. Server never introduced himself. Received ONE menu at 8:20, and were told that they ran out of menus. Really? Fortunately we have no problem sharing a menu. Finally got some bread and water, and drinks. The bread was stale – sliced baguette was hard on the cut edges and had obviously been sitting for hours. He brought a second menu at 8:30 (we were thinking about leaving), and we told him we didn’t need it, please just take our order. At 8:40 or so, received the same old tired amuse bouche “compliments of the chef”. It really is time to stop saying that. And these were tired… lukewarm, had been sitting in the kitchen so long that when I tried to remove the tiny cracker it broke and sank to the bottom of the glass. Receive the starters around 8:55. Wedge Salad and New England Clam Chowder. Salad was OK. NE Clam chowder is not supposed to have carrots and corn… Main courses came out in a timely fashion. Water/drinks were not refilled. My small plate steak was cooked properly and was tasty, however the béarnaise sauce had been sitting in its little dish for so long that it had a thick skin. Spouse had the “seafood plateau”. It too, seemed like it had been sitting out for too long – the seafood was limp and not cold, and the sauces also had a skin on them. Without getting too graphic – it was not good and his body eliminated his dinner extremely quickly. We did not have dinner in Chartreuse as we do not care for the menu, but we did have lunch there twice – and the food and service at lunch was very good. Breakfast at La Veranda was mediocre. For lunch, the best item was the Buffalo wings. Lobster Nachos were OK but seemed soggy to me. Some of the ethnic (Mediterranean, Indian, Italian) items at lunch were good. After our skinned over sauce experience, I noticed that the prepared servings of Ketchup and Mayonnaise were put out at the Pool Grill around 10:30 am, and then sat unrefrigerated all day until they closed at 4pm. We found the bread and pastries were often stale here too. We noticed that they were lacking quite a few food items – for example no fresh berries, strawberries, no shrimp for the salad bar (or cold options at lunch). We heard that they ran out of quite a few items too, including beers and Chianti. After a few days, we noticed that hors d'oeuvres were no longer offered at the Meridian lounge. They also stopped offering chips or nuts. Nothing to snack on with your drink. Overall, food and dining were a disappointment.

Rachel G did a fabulous job describing tours and overall activities on board. My goal is to share my overall impressions of this cruise, compared to my experiences on board Regent ships over the past 12 years. I will preface this commentary with a disclaimer- if you are a Regent Cheerleader; please do not bother reading further. Please do not berate me for not raising issues with the executive concierge, restaurant manager, etc. From past experience they have made excuses and then fussed over us, and we were not interested in this. The opinions expressed here are solely mine, and my spouse’s, and other’s experiences have been significantly different. There were positives and negatives on this cruise. I will do my best to highlight both. Since this is fairly long, I will post it in several parts… 1. Arrival and Embarkation We left our flights in Regent’s hands. They had us arriving at Haneda Airport at 5:10 am the day of the cruise. We were concerned that we would be stuck at the port for hours before getting on board, but our TA assured us that this would not be the case… Do not berate me for arriving the day of the cruise – If RSSC told us that we needed to arrive a day early, we would have paid for the Hotel night – or used the one night included with the Penthouse suite. We assumed that the World’s Most Luxurious Cruise Line would provide the Unrivaled Experience as advertised. After customs and immigration, we were led to a taxi with a driver who did not speak English. He drove us to a port that was NOT the one on the boarding passes, and left us on a corner at 7am, outside in the rain and cold, and pointed down the street towards an entrance. We dragged our bags to the entrance, where the security guard told us it was too early and we were not allowed to enter. Our choice was to stand outside in the rain for 4+ hours, or walk ½ mile with our bags to a Starbucks that did not open until 8am. Fortunately, a local agent intervened and convinced him to let us sit inside the empty building. There was little to no heat – we pulled our winter coats from our bags and shivered in the cold. There was no food or water available. At least there was a restroom. While the current passengers departed the ship, many crew members and officers saw us sitting there – and ALL ignored us. They would not make eye contact. It was apparent that no-one cared. There was a very large group of Japanese travel agents that were welcomed and processed to go on board early for tours and lunch. Eventually other passengers began to arrive around 10-10:30 am, and we were finally permitted to drop off our bags around 11 am, and boarding started around 12. Worst arrival and embarkation experience we have ever had, with any cruise line. 2. Crew The crew on Explorer are exceptional, as they have been on all Regent ships. We saw many familiar faces, and it was nice to be remembered. Many have been promoted over the years and it was great to see them progressing in their careers. Everyone worked exceptionally hard. It took several days to get our Butler to understand our requests (not many – probably too few for him) but eventually we all worked out how to communicate, and he did his best to take care of the few things we asked for (San Pelligrino, nuts and chips, occasional in room dining). We noticed that there were LESS dining/restaurant staff than on prior cruises and this was clearly evident in the inconsistent service with ONE exception – more on that later under dining. It also seemed like there were fewer stateroom attendants to handle the almost full ship. Great crew – as on every other cruise on Regent.

Yes, just got this same message when I signed in. I also had to upgrade my password...

Once you book your excursions, you may want to check them every few weeks to see if they are still shown on your reservation. We have had several incidents where the excursions were canceled by Regent, and we were never notified. If I had not checked, we would not have had any excursions in those ports and chances are high that nothing would have been available once we were on the ship. This happened most recently for the port of Jeju on the Explorer cruise that ended on April 11.

We just arrived home after the post cruise tour that went to Odowara. there were no toilets on any coach for any tours in the Japan and Korea ports, and the coaches are very tight- small seats. The tours all provided plenty of bathroom stops, most had western toilets but a few had the Asian style squatters.

From a Wi-Fi perspective, I cannot get email to load or send….

On board, have many things to say about this cruise- but abysmal internet service prevents me from commenting. I will post details regarding how poorly this cruise compares to previous Regent experiences after I return home.

We will be doing this same Post cruise tour- and you confirmed that it was the right choice for us. Thank you for taking the time to share!

March 2008…We stayed at the Viña hotel Del Mar casino hotel (Enjoy hotel chain). It was many years ago, before it was so easy to do research on the internet, but we were extremely impressed with the quality of the hotel and restaurants. we used Bestour Chile, our driver/guide was named Mauricio Molina. the first day we toured Valparaiso, rode the ascensior, had a seaside lunch, and saw local sights. we visited the Miapo valley one day, Concha y toro tour and then a small independent winery, and had lunch in a tiny restaurant in the region. The next day we went to Casablanca valley and had lunch at Indomita, and it was wonderful, memorable.

Years ago my former TA accidentally sent their invoice to me, and it showed commissionable vs non commissionable portions of the charges. included air did not generate any commission.

After the end of a cruise from Rio, we spent two nights in Valparaiso and hired a private guide for 3 days ( this was probably 10 years ago). Toured the coast and Valparaiso, went to several vineyards in different regions, ate in some wonderful restaurants. It was a great way to finish the trip. first time we started in Santiago and spent one night pre cruise there, and had a local tour prior to going to the port. Also very nice. i can share more info if you like.

This sounds no different than our experiences pre Covid. The excursions both pre and post have ranged from excellent with a reasonable size group to poorly executed with dismal stops and bad guides, overcrowded and with people who did not meet the mobility requirements. all with exceptionally poor service by the shore excursion department. my expectations are low, and I hope that I may be pleasantly surprised with some tours on my next two cruises.

We are also doing this upgraded post cruise tour in April - looking forward to hearing about your experiences, and thanks in advance!

It seems that everyone has a different perspective on what is an acceptable risk to them. In case it has been forgotten, at the time of final payment for the next two March cruises out of Tokyo, Japan was still closed to tourism. There was no Guarantee that the cruise would even take place. Many people chose to cancel at that time. if you didn’t cancel then, you (I) were willing to take a chance. No one knew at that time what the entry requirements would be for a cruise. There was no way for Regent to tell us. Japan has been changing rules every few weeks. They could change again depending upon how things play out. No one knew if the cruise would exist. so, if the uncertainty of testing requirements and the chances of getting Covid are an issue for you, then you should simply find a different travel option where you have more control over everything.

Most of the hotels have been similar to what we would book on our on, except for the Conrad (now Brickell) in Miami. That was awful and we told our TA so. some of the buffets for breakfast and dinner were not as good as could be expected, but mostly due to fellow passengers who were gluttons or couldn’t make a choice and completely blocked the buffets for others.

Not quite the answer you are looking for, but you can decline the pre-cruise hotel, get a credit, and ask for a post cruise hotel, then apply the credit towards the cost. The cost will most likely be higher than the credit.

I don’t recall the room,it was probably a standard with a queen bed. I do remember that it was comfortable, clean, and quiet. We booked an extra night before the 3-day pre cruise winelands and wildlife tour, and we were checked in immediately upon arrival around 10 am. Make sure that Regent adds the extra night to the tour, otherwise they try to put you in a different hotel! It depends how early you arrive, and if you are part of the large group to determine if you need the extra night/day. make sure you keep the contact number for the tour company handy, as we had significant delays due to BA late arrival and luggage handling, and our “meet and greet “ was nowhere to be found. A phone call resolved the issue and we were taken to the private car for the transfer. tip… join the southern sun rewards program and you get a discount at the bar and restaurant on site as long as you pay directly - do not charge to your room. Their little restaurant next to the pool was excellent to grab lunch and drinks, very reasonably priced and they honor the discount. The food was tasty and the drinks were cheap! I didn’t care about earning points, but improved Wi-Fi and the discount was worth it. https://www.southernsun.com/frequentguest/hotel-rewards/join The hotel shuttle to the V&A waterfront was handy. We also hired an awesome private driver/guide after we disembarked in Capetown but you won’t need that…

I was told by my TA that they pay/ticket at 45 days.

Enjoy the cruise! We will be on splendor in October, and I can’t wait! I never thought to make the crabcakes a main. What a fabulous idea!

FYI it is $600 per cabin, not per person for the anniversary ob credit.

If you are using Regent transfers, make sure you bring the document with the LOCAL emergency contact information. No on was there to pick us up at Cape Town either, and when I called the number, there was someone there within about 10 minutes to get us to the car and to the hotel. the local company in Cape Town (Akorn) was awful all the way around. Disorganized, confused, late, chaotic, etc. We complained to our TA and Regent, and never received an appropriate response other than a “we will tell head office “.

We have only had one upsell offer. Our TA knows that we are willing to accept them, but I think RSSC is not being as generous with them as they were before Covid.