Did anyone read SteveAlan's review?

[cruzndiz]

I was surprised to find a mostly negative review posted under Mariner reviews the other day.

 

While I could conjure a reasonable explanation for some of his complaints (the buffet trays for example might not be available due to it being flu season?) I was saddened to see that he claimed "many" seasoned/repeat pax were unhappy.

 

Yet, I don't really see any complaints listed here amongst the threads.....what gives?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Wow, that is pretty awful. It reinforces my foreboding about the line. Our December Voyager trip was very nice, but the bloom was a bit off the rose. But nothing like he reports. I really hope they recover from this malaise.

[hondorner]

Wow. That is so far removed from the treatment we received on board Navigator that I am flummoxed to find any connection. As a one-time Regent guest, I obviously can't comment on what it was like in the past. But, I can directly contrast my treatment to that of the reviewer.

 

Inadequate number of waiters? Not on our cruise. We did experience somewhat slow service on our first night aboard, but that was obviously due to first night jitters of new staff. We were never offered the desert menu until the completion of our meal. We never encountered an officer on the ship without at least a smile and a nod, if not a friendly greeting.

 

"Over a third" of the wait staff cut? I know that every cruise line is eagerly searching for new staff in the wake of all the new mega-ships hiring away much of the available pool, but I sincerely doubt that any wait staff was "cut".

 

The author wisely avoids comment on the change of management. Apollo has maintained a "hands off" policy with regards to management once Prestige Cruise Holdings was set up to be the parent company of both Regent and Oceania, and moved Oceania founder Frank Del Rio into position as CEO of Prestige. My repeat experience has been with Oceania, and I can affirm that FDR has never traded outstanding service for the bottom line.

 

I don't know the root of the author's problems, but as for me, that is a review I can safely ignore.

[Threechicks]

I sailed on the Navigator from January 23 to February 2 and had a wonderful cruise so was very surprised to have some other passengers complain to me about service, food, etc., etc. One woman's complaint was always that some crew member was "snippy" to her. Therefore I am assuming that the person who wrote the negative review of the Mariner is similar to the Navigator's complaining passengers. There are people who have to complain. They just can't help themselves. On the Navigator the staff and crew were great. They remembered my name and preferences. One evening in Compass Rose I accepted Cabernet wine, which was lovely. The wine steward looked at me and said he was pleased that I enjoyed the selection that evening as he knew I always drank Shiraz. Mark, in the Navigator lounge, always had two bran muffins on a plate for me in the morning. I had only asked for them once. The Captain always had time for a chat when I met him in the hall or restaurant. I will not put up with shoddy service or poor food but perhaps I expect to receive good service and food and don't go looking for something to find fault with. A big smile goes a long way in receiving a good response.

[mikeIam]

Wow, that is pretty awful. It reinforces my foreboding about the line. Our December Voyager trip was very nice, but the bloom was a bit off the rose. But nothing like he reports. I really hope they recover from this malaise.

 

I really like this description and it fits our experience on the Voyager FLL-SAN over New Year's. Over the last two years we have see a definite decline in the quality of our onboard experience, primarily in the food area. The variety of selections on the Compass Rose menu and the preparation quality of the selections they have has gone down. Two years ago, I rated the dining experience as good as or better than some of the better local restaurants. After the last cruise, I would say that the food, on average, was only the equivalent of some of the local chain restaurants. I found the service overall to be good and the ships officers and staff were always friendly. The word "foreboding" expresses how we feel.

 

I too hope that they recover from the malaise and will be giving Voyager another try in June. Even though I really like a lot of Regent's policies (smoking, dress code, open dining) and the suite sizes, I am considering some of the competition for future cruises. The competition may not be any better (only our own opinion counts here) and in that case we will either come back to Regent or try a non-cruise vacation.

[PaulaJK]

Threechicks, Remember that the review poster had been on Mariner a year ago and very much enjoyed it. Let's not always shoot the messenger when we don't agree with the message. Frankly it has not been difficult during the past several year or so to find some measured posts from past pax reporting their impressions that there has been a decline in Regent's previous level of service, cuisine and entertainment......along w. some embarkation, disembarkation stories. My own feelings are closer to those of Wendy and Mike. I enjoy Regent but feel that I am seeing declines that don't fit with their claims of six star cruising. On the FLL-SAN cruise the entertainment was weak and the food on the level of good banquet cuisine. The crew seemed stretched thin at times. I will be sailing Voyager again in March & April 2010 and will offer further reflections during that cruise. But I also have booked my next cruise on another luxury line.

[cruiseluv]

I am not dismissing this poster's assessment just because I don't like the message, I will aggregate it with other recent reviews . Hopefully we will not see the need to cancel our Mariner Rome to Venice cruise in August. I already have air and hotels booked and just booked our excursions a couple of days ago.

 

What he describes is really disturbing, not a blip during a cruise.

[Travelcat2]

We have taken seven Regent cruises since 2006 (we don't really count the PG in 2004 as it was not a Regent-owned ship) and have seen some changes -- certainly not all negative. The ships have had multi-million dollar upgrades. Regent went all-inclusive. Airfare is now included. Excursions are included (I don't consider this a plus or a minus -- it seems to create more problems than it solves).

 

The food offerings are defintely down -- we notice this on every cruise. The entertaiment has never been that great. The service on our last two cruises has been excellent. However, even with excellent service, it is obvious that more staff is needed in Compass Rose.

 

It's too bad that "SteveAlan" cancelled his Cape Town to Rio cruise as it was one of our favorites. His experience on the Mariner was definitely a poor one. It probably was not mentioned on the Regent board simply because he did not post about it. Also, reviews that appear only on the Regent board eventually become lost amongst the thousands of other posts while reviews in the "Review" section remain.

 

None of the cruiselines are perfect.

[linda_22003]

We were on Mariner in Alaska last May, and liked it almost as much as Voyager (still our favorite). We'll be on Mariner again in September and will be able to assess whether there's been any slip or not.

 

He was unhappy about the "desert" choices and when he had to make them; if I ordered sand to eat I guess I would be unhappy too.

 

I also don't ever remember trays in the cafes or buffet line; generally a waiter wanted to carry things for me whether I wanted that or not! :)

[Island Cruiser]

I was sorry to read this fellow's review. He is clearly disappointed with Regent. I'm glad he shared his views with us. And I hope I don't find myself reading reviews like this more frequently in the future.

 

We were just on Voyager in December. We were generally impressed with the food and the service. Since there is some buzz around about perceived staffing and food budget cuts, I decided to pull out the menus from our November, 2007 crossing on the Voyager and compare them to our December Rio to Ft. Lauderdale cruise on Voyager. They were somewhat similar cruises, 16 days on the former and 14 the latter. I was looking for any evidence of cuts. Essentially, I found almost none. If anything there were a few more choices offered on the recent cruise than offered in 2007 before the big recession. The only substantive cut I noticed was filet mignon was eliminated as a "simplicity" choice on our recent cruise. Pat

[bennett2005]

I just read the review. I can not help but wonder if any , both the positive and negative reviews on the internet have any value any more. I do not trust them as it is well known that people post things , again positive and negative to influence readers to a particular agenda. All readers need to keep this in mind. There is almost a business being created to post positive and negative reviews of many cruises, hotels, etc on the internet.

[Travelcat2]

I just read the review. I can not help but wonder if any , both the positive and negative reviews on the internet have any value any more. I do not trust them as it is well known that people post things , again positive and negative to influence readers to a particular agenda. All readers need to keep this in mind. There is almost a business being created to post positive and negative reviews of many cruises, hotels, etc on the internet.

 

I believe most of the reviews on CruiseCritic are honest ones. It can be difficult to ascertain what the reviewer's point of reference is. Even without an agenda, you would likely get different reviews of the same cruise from first time cruisers , first time luxury cruisers with experience on mainstream cruise lines, repeat Regent cruisers and those who have sailed on other luxury cruise ships. IMO, those reading reviews need to look at issues that are repeated over and over -- both positive and negative. In the case of the Mariner post, while I do not doubt the experience this person had, it would be interesting to hear from others on the same cruise.

[turtlemichael]

I just read the review. I can not help but wonder if any , both the positive and negative reviews on the internet have any value any more. I do not trust them as it is well known that people post things , again positive and negative to influence readers to a particular agenda. All readers need to keep this in mind. There is almost a business being created to post positive and negative reviews of many cruises, hotels, etc on the internet.

 

I tend to agree. Having sailed on Mariner in December with a full ship across the Pacific virtually none of my experiences reflect what the review poster says. I no longer trust the judgment of anonymous people I do not know when it comes to cruises, hotels, restaurants etc. I use the boards for factual information not opinions from unknown sources. I am influenced by those I know and respect but most of all by my own experience.

[JPR]

We were on Mariner from Osaka to Shanghai (had to leave early due to work schedule) just this past October, and generally the cruise was wonderful in all respects. The Compass Rose cuisine is not what it once was but Prime 7 was consistently wonderful (we went there three or four times in the 12 cruise nights) and so was Signatures. They did run out of fresh fruit the day we got off (but before that I had fresh papaya with lime every morning for breakfast!) but otherwise I have nothing materially negative to report about our experience.

[cruzndiz]

Well, I'm not too worried in any case.... I just thought it a little strange. In any event, I am totally hyped about my upcoming cruise (even though it's still 11 months away!:()

 

Plus, taking this family cruise next week on NCL is going to be a MAJOR let down for Mike and I. We are completely spoiled (just as Jackie and other seasoned pax warned me would happen) so when we once again board our wonderful Mariner I am sure that we are in for a completely luxuriously pampered time!

[trigger663]

Well, I'm not too worried in any case.... I just thought it a little strange. In any event, I am totally hyped about my upcoming cruise (even though it's still 11 months away!:()

 

Plus, taking this family cruise next week on NCL is going to be a MAJOR let down for Mike and I. We are completely spoiled (just as Jackie and other seasoned pax warned me would happen) so when we once again board our wonderful Mariner I am sure that we are in for a completely luxuriously pampered time!

 

We were on NCL this past Dec. We had a PH suite . We had low expectations but thought we would give it a try. WE were pleasantly surprised. There is a special room to check in for boarding. WE gave them our Credit Card and was escorted past the thousands waiting to do the sane, On the other side of the gate the butler was waiting for us, to show the ship and our rooms. It was the best service we every experienced. A special restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch. You can avoid the Buffet! They spoiled us after being on Crystal,Oceania,Cunard,Windstar,Celebrity ,Azamara and Hal.By the way the suite had a bedroom with double sink, glass stall shower and whirlpool bath and floor to ceiling window. There was a gourmet coffee

machine in the room and four TV. We paid a lot more money for less space and service. It is a different cruise experience but it's interesting to see what other lines are doing.

[Hambagahle]

It certainly was not a positive review! However as someone (TravelCat?) said, sometimes on the same cruise two people have two very different opinions. I know this was true on our May 09 Navigator crossing when I was posting from the ship at how pleased we were, and another CCer was posting saying that everything had gone to hell in a handbasket!!

 

I can only imagine that the lady who asked for a tray at La Veranda wanted to take her food back to her suite with her and that is why she was asked to ring Room Service. That would make sense to me...

 

We are on the Mariner 7th April. I shall post from the ship and say what we see (and eat!). Hopefully we will not be disappointed, but in this life nothing is ever certain.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

We were on NCL this past Dec. We had a PH suite . [...] We paid a lot more money for less space and service. It is a different cruise experience but it's interesting to see what other lines are doing.

 

Do you mean that you paid a lot more money for Regent and got less space and service? Sorry, just a bit confused. How did the cost of the PH Norwegian experience compare to your typical Regent experience?

[trigger663]

Do you mean that you paid a lot more money for Regent and got less space and service? Sorry, just a bit confused. How did the cost of the PH Norwegian experience compare to your typical Regent experience?

 

I ment we paid less money for ncl and had a great service and exceptional accomodations !

I enjoy trying different cruise lines and using CC reviews etc . In the case of NCL which was mentioned I found them to exceed our expectations.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

What ship was it, and what type of PH? (I'm looking around.) Did you have to pay extra for the butler?

[trigger663]

What ship was it, and what type of PH? (I'm looking around.) Did you have to pay extra for the butler?

 

We were on the star deck 7 fwd starboard. The butler was included in the cost .

It was a PH suite. There are only ten of these on this ship. They are like a 2 BR apartment.

[hondorner]

Unfortunately, NCL allows smoking in the staterooms, balconies and most outdoor areas. That's a deal breaker at any price.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Well you know, Horndoner, we cruised Radisson/Regent a few times before they banned smoking in balconies, staterooms, etc., and we really did not have a problem. And second-hand smoke is a big deal for us, since my husband is an ex-smoker who is very sensitive to this.

 

So don't think it's a deal-breaker, although I wonder how well NCL does at getting rid of the smoke smell from a former occupant. Something to think about, for sure, thanks.

[OrpingtonT]

Unfortunately, NCL allows smoking in the staterooms, balconies and most outdoor areas. That's a deal breaker at any price.

 

It would be a deal-breaker for me, too. The residue of a heavy smoker in the suite for a week or two, or even more, ahead of me, would spoil my enjoyment, I'm afraid.

[hondorner]

My kids tell a story about their Mother -- they say she was sitting in a high school football stadium on the Home side, and someone on the Visitors side lit a cigarette -- and she smelled it. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm not taking any chances....:)