Seven Seas Society question

[AlanR2]

When trying to determine the level of membership, I would assume that cruises on Radisson also count as nights on Regent. Am I correct? We crusied the Paul Gaugin about 15 years ago and that will put us into the silver level and free internet. That can get pricy.

 

Thanks,

 

AR

[Travelcat2]

Paul Gauguin nights under Radisson definitely count towards your Seven Seas Society Awards.:)

[leese]

I'd like to hook onto this thread as I also have a question about the society as welll...

 

Can anyone comment on an example of what an "Exclusive Gold, Platinum and Titanium activity aboard or ashore on every sailing" might be? This is quoted from the Regnet site.

[RachelG]

Have only been gold for one sailing as of yet, but our "event" was a cocktail party with the captain and all the officers in attendance. It was nice because it wasn't crowded, and we were able to visit, but otherwise nothing special.

[Travelcat2]

We have only been "Gold" on our last two cruises. From what I understand, the events used to be better. . . . but then, there were less of us. We had a cocktail party outside during a sailaway. Officers were there, caviar, other upscale canapes and drinks were offered. The event on our Mariner cruise that just ended had far too many Gold and above as it had many former world cruisers on board. We gathered in the theater (drinks, etc.) and they presented a magic show. Fortunately, we were in the back of the room so when the lights dimmed we snuck out.

 

The best part of being Gold (or Silver) is the free internet and phone calls. Actually, I take that back. . . .the best part is having over 100 days on Regent under our belts. Some people reach that level on one cruise. . . . it took several cruises for us to reach "Gold":-)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Several? It took us nine cruises to make Gold. Starting with the Paul Gaugin in 2000, and several Radisson cruises after that, before the name change, and finally making it about a year ago. So, yes, your Paul Gauguin cruise definitely counts.

[Travelcat2]

Several? It took us nine cruises to make Gold. Starting with the Paul Gaugin in 2000, and several Radisson cruises after that, before the name change, and finally making it about a year ago. So, yes, your Paul Gauguin cruise definitely counts.

 

It took us nine as well:) People on the South America cruise (71 nights) will make it quite fast!

[leese]

Thanks for the info! We only have 34 now, but are taking 2 legs of the WC, so will be gold for the second leg if it is in fact true that you hit the new level at the beginning of the leg during which you get to the number of days required for the next level (hope I made sense!) Thanks again...and I for one definitely think the internet is the biggest perk! I remember when we didn't have the comp internet how frugal I was and how I never wanted to use it. Thanks again!

[ChatKat in Ca.]

Once you are gold it takes forever to get to Platinum

I would love them to combine Oceania and Regent nights and benefits.

 

They have changed the benefits so the special events are not as special.

[tallship]

I agree and would like to see SSS benefits carry over to Oceania

The timings of some of their sailings work better for me and I like booking my own excursions

[countflorida]

At a Town Hall meeting last year, Mark Conroy responded to a question on this topic by remarking that combining the two programs or crediting time on the other was something he viewed with some concern, since Regent needs to remain clearly differentiated from Oceania to avoid loosing its clients to it’s decidedly lower cost but very good non-all-inclusive partner line. As Oceania is reputed to have substantially the same food budget for its guests as the higher cost Regent, he may in fact have a valid concern.

 

Also last year, a responsible person with Silversea mentioned off the record they were considering giving some kind of credit or comparable benefits to Regent/Radisson Silver Seas Society members, but I haven’t seen any evidence they’ve done anything along those lines yet. It should be noted that many of the top people at Silversea, including Ken Watson, and Christian Sauleau, formerly executive vice presidents of Marketing and Operations respectively, were with Regent during the time its tiered rewards system was developed and introduced.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I doubt we will see this any time soon, since it is a differentiator They would have to introduce a whole reward tier system to Oceania, and that doesn't fit with the "a la carte" approach.

 

But wouldn't it be nice? Many folks like us could then feel freer to mix and match between these lines, sometimes choosing all-inclusive, sometimes a la carte. It would be a powerful inducement for the R crowd to try O.

[loulou942]

I agree and would like to see SSS benefits carry over to Oceania

The timings of some of their sailings work better for me and I like booking my own excursions

 

I am presently on the Marina cruising to Miami. I would like to try Regent and it would be nice if Regent would recognize my 12 cruises credits on Oceania.

 

Louisal

[petlover]

It seems that as more and more people have reached certain tier levels that the milestones/events don't mean as much. We had a special Platinum/Titanium dinner once on the Mariner in the Connoisseur Club, I think there were only 8 of us and the food all came from Signatures. It was wonderful ! We were joined by the Captain and CD.

 

Has anyone heard of Regent considering adding any additional tier levels ? Maybe something like a FREE cruise after so many nights ?

[Travelcat2]

My vote would be for Oceania and Regent to remain as separate as possible. It appears that Oceania is headed towards being a luxury ala carte cruise line while Regent is luxury all-inclusive. With the announcement that Oceania will lease the Nautica to another cruise line when the next ship debuts, it pretty much points in that direction.

 

The Silversea idea/rumor could actually be a good marketing tool for either Silversea or Seabourn. Since it appears that these lines are not sailing to capacity, they could offer 1 day credit for every 2 sailed on Regent. They would need to update their customer rewards program a bit to make it work.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Funny, we declined attendance at our first Gold/Platinum/Titanium event in December because we were travelling with a relative newbie and wanted to attend the SSS party with him (and they were at the same time.) I was surprised to learn that there were only something like 20 Golds on our cruise, a handful of Platinums and a single Titanium. I don't see why they don't give a free cruise at the Titanium level.

[Responder]

Thanks for the info! We only have 34 now, but are taking 2 legs of the WC, so will be gold for the second leg if it is in fact true that you hit the new level at the beginning of the leg during which you get to the number of days required for the next level (hope I made sense!) Thanks again...and I for one definitely think the internet is the biggest perk! I remember when we didn't have the comp internet how frugal I was and how I never wanted to use it. Thanks again!

 

A while back we reached silver in the middle of a 14 day cruise.

 

I asked the same question as yours at the desk and they said we were already switched in mid-stream, so to speak.

I know it worked, as my internet became unlimited and phone calls were not charged from that point on.

[wripro]

TC2,

Just for clarification Oceania is leasing the Insignia to Hapag-Lloyd, not the Nautica.

[Travelcat2]

TC2,

Just for clarification Oceania is leasing the Insignia to Hapag-Lloyd, not the Nautica.

 

Oops. Thank you for the correction:p

[Grothj]

We are on the first leg of the World Cruise now. Tonight is the "special event" for Gold, etc. and it is Cocktail date with Terry Waite in the Theatre. With that location, I'm sure there will be a lot of people there and probably not as special as they used to be! I'll post more tomorrow after the event.

[Grothj]

The event was not very well attended. They said there are 270 passengers on board gold or higher but that is all they said. The canapes were a bit nicer, caviar, etc. There were only about 60-70 people in attendance. We had to leave early - just barely got our cocktails - because we had reservations at Prime 7. I would say it was not a very "special" event at all.

[BARBYQ]

It wouldn't surprise me if there were a mass exodus, to Silversea from Regent , if they introduced a system of rewards based on nights spent with Regent. A lot of us " old timers " , who are quite displeased with quality of food , wine and general experience would love to try something new. We stay because of the " perks ". It's sad !

[Responder]

It wouldn't surprise me if there were a mass exodus, to Silversea from Regent , if they introduced a system of rewards based on nights spent with Regent. A lot of us " old timers " , who are quite displeased with quality of food , wine and general experience would love to try something new. We stay because of the " perks ". It's sad !

 

We also treasure the perks and did recently veer off to another top rated luxury cruise...Crystal, if I'm allowed to indicate that.

 

With all kinds of shipboard credits supplied by both our TA as well as in reality pre-paying for them in our fare, we were very disappointed.

Sure, the food was good, but the table for 2 they assigned to us, with no option to change the table or time, allowed us to share the experience with those who work at the serving station...Help!

 

The tipping mystic of having the TA pre-pay the tips doesn't work too well. We still detected many undercurrents of solicitations, and I'm generally considered an over-tipper.

 

The few shops on board were terribly over priced and having to pay and tip for virtually every move was not pleasing. The internet service, besides not working too well, was also very expensive. The library had an attendant the way Regent used to have...Do they think people will steal the books?

 

I don't remember their smoking policy, but I smelled smoke coming out of the cabins and on the decks and in some of the public rooms.

 

The worst part for us was lack of comfortable seating almost anywhere on the ship and virtually none in the cabin...we read alot and the lighting was horrible....and the cabin was small and poorly designed...more room in our empty suitcases than in the closet.

 

So if anyone wonders why we stay with Regent...sure we may not get a perfect meal or perfect service every time, but we have paid far more for dining in some of our upscale local restaurants and have received some pretty bad food and service at times.

[wifeofgrapestake]

Just came off 45 days on Mariner and am at Gold level. Agree with Travel Cat's comments completely, but we did get a great event on the Antarctica leg. We were invited on to a private crew deck (7) for a cocktail party while we sailed into a glacier. It was a much better perspective than from Observation Lounge and deck.

[Travelcat2]

Just came off 45 days on Mariner and am at Gold level. Agree with Travel Cat's comments completely, but we did get a great event on the Antarctica leg. We were invited on to a private crew deck (7) for a cocktail party while we sailed into a glacier. It was a much better perspective than from Observation Lounge and deck.

 

Hi "wifeofgrapestake"! Think they waited until we got off of the ship to do a great event. Your cocktail party is dramatically better than a magic show! Glad that you enjoyed it;)