WORLD CRUISE 2024

[cruise_loverinlaval]

10 hours ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

Not publicly that I know of. We're 1st time Regent cruisers after many years on both Celebrity and RCI. I definitely understand the why behind the changes but Regent's offer is not one to make me want to book something else. 

Hello, I understand your disappointment but based on my December 2023 on the Mariner, you will not be missing to much.  The Mariner is an old ship and have a serious toilet problem, intermittent, but when you have 8 days out a 12 days cruise, some problem with your suite toilet, it is not fun.  The Mariner goes to dry dock in November 2025 and hopefully, fix its toilet problem. I will highly recommend that if you want to experiment/try the Regent cruise line, book a cruise on one of their new ship!

[mnocket]

17 hours ago, crusin7 said:

The Captain announced that we will skip the ports of Fakarava and Moorea to avoid the Cyclone.  We will arrive in Papeete 12 hours earlier.

 

That's sad news. Moorea is my favorite island there. 

[mnocket]

1 hour ago, cruise_loverinlaval said:

Hello, I understand your disappointment but based on my December 2023 on the Mariner, you will not be missing to much.  The Mariner is an old ship and have a serious toilet problem, intermittent, but when you have 8 days out a 12 days cruise, some problem with your suite toilet, it is not fun.  The Mariner goes to dry dock in November 2025 and hopefully, fix its toilet problem. I will highly recommend that if you want to experiment/try the Regent cruise line, book a cruise on one of their new ship!

In truth, the Mariner did have a spat of toilet issues that far exceeded what is normal.  However, there is some reason to believe that the situation has returned to a more normal pattern of occasional outages - something that happens on many (most?) cruise ships due to the nature of the vacuum waste systems.  At least we can hope🙂

[Pcardad]

25 minutes ago, mnocket said:

In truth, the Mariner did have a spat of toilet issues that far exceeded what is normal.  However, there is some reason to believe that the situation has returned to a more normal pattern of occasional outages - something that happens on many (most?) cruise ships due to the nature of the vacuum waste systems.  At least we can hope🙂

These systems tend to work better when guests don't flush articles that should be disposed of in a garbage can.

[crusin7]

We are crawling our way to Papeete.  We are try to avoid 2 cyclones.  Nat is now a Tropical Depression. Cyclone Osai is going towards the Cook Islands.  We have 9 foot swells and it’s pouring rain.  We will be glad to dock tomorrow. Internet has been very spotty.

[papaflamingo]

19 hours ago, Pcardad said:

These systems tend to work better when guests don't flush articles that should be disposed of in a garbage can.

Absolutely true. But we were on Mariner in Dec. and the "word" was that they were finding some seal issues in the system that prevented the vacuum from building in areas.  They took the entire system down (I think it was the entire system) for a relatively short time when we were in port one day to work on it.  Sadly all they can do is troubleshoot when trouble occurs.  

My son was a Navy Pilot.  When he deployed for 7 months on the U.S.S. Bush (they also have vacuum toilets) and the system was not working the entire 7 months.  They actually had to dedicate a couple of crewmen full time doing nothing but keeping some section of the toilets working throughout the ship.  My son told me that first thing in the morning an announcement was made as to which "heads" were operable.  

Edited February 10 by papaflamingo

[pappy1022]

Yep, it’s not the evil passengers throwing “stuff” done the toilet. There is a systemic problem with the system itself.

[pappy1022]

As far as the cyclones in the French Polynesia, it is the rainy and stormy season in that area of the world, so it is always a risk. I wish Regent would cruise their between May and September but they so I will be on the Paul Gauguin in June.

[Pcardad]

41 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

Yep, it’s not the evil passengers throwing “stuff” done the toilet. There is a systemic problem with the system itself.

It absolutely was blocked by a person who flushed an article of clothing to "hide" it. This blocked the system and caused the rupture of other seals which had to be identified and replaced. 

[forgap]

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

flushed an article of clothing to "hide" it.

Hmmmmm…..something  not belonging to the wife?  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

So sorry that French Polynesia's Society Islands are mostly a "washout".  After all those sea days.  Let's hope the weather improves as you sail west.

[crusin7]

Good Morning Papeete!  It’s raining and John, the CD, just announced all boat tours are canceled.  So much for the catamaran excursion.  We will go to the market later.

There is a 90% chance of rain and thunder showers. 
 

[CJANDH]

8 hours ago, Pcardad said:

It absolutely was blocked by a person who flushed an article of clothing to "hide" it. This blocked the system and caused the rupture of other seals which had to be identified and replaced

That doesn't explain all of the toilet failures over the last few cruises. On our cruise the engineer fixing the problem said that the vacuum pipes are weak and leak too often. BTW do you work for Regent? You seem to have a lot of insider knowledge.

[Pcardad]

33 minutes ago, CJANDH said:

That doesn't explain all of the toilet failures over the last few cruises. On our cruise the engineer fixing the problem said that the vacuum pipes are weak and leak too often. BTW do you work for Regent? You seem to have a lot of insider knowledge.

They are 23 years old - seals dry out over time. Mariner is in for a few nice upgrades next year and there might just be a surprise or two coming this WC as well. I am in NO way affiliated with Regent.

[pappy1022]

Sounds like they should have replaced the seals years ago.

[crusin7]

We went to the Market today.  There is a wide range of products available.  I got some vanilla beans.  Best of all we were greeted by these wonderful ladies!

Another Greeter

The market had beautiful flowers.

 

 

We have had no internet today.  It rained cats and dogs!  All tours are canceled tomorrow. 
Congratulations to Patrick and Ross @MarinerLad for being the Kings of Bridge! Yippppeeee!

[Pcardad]

13 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

Sounds like they should have replaced the seals years ago.

Manufacturer's maintenance schedule is followed and Voyager isn't having the issue. When a system is mis-treated, it places additional stress on the system. 

[CJANDH]

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

Manufacturer's maintenance schedule is followed and Voyager isn't having the issue. When a system is mis-treated, it places additional stress on the system. 

How do you know all this?

[mrlevin]

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

Manufacturer's maintenance schedule is followed and Voyager isn't having the issue. When a system is mis-treated, it places additional stress on the system. 

Mariner is French built whilst the remainder of the Regent fleet is Italian (with initial work on Navigator by USSR).  To compare any of the Mariner infrastructure to the Voyager infrastructure is meaningless.

Edited February 11 by mrlevin

[Pcardad]

1 minute ago, mrlevin said:

Mariner is French built whilst the remainder of the Regent fleet is Italian (with initial work on Navigator by USSR).  To compare any of the Mariner infrastructure to the Voyager infrastructure is meaningless.

True - the shipyards are different but the toilet systems are very similar and Regent doesn't have a history of skimping on maintenance. Its like getting hot water tank from different plumbers - the systems they use can all be the same. The shipyard does not make all the parts installed in a ship....they build (assemble) the ship and source most parts/subsystems from 3rd parties.

[mrlevin]

Agree with all you say; however, Mariner and Voyager are nothing alike beyond their berthing capacity.  Mariner much larger ship (in GRT) with two passageway configuration on passenger decks whilst Voyager is single passageway configuration.  I hate it when people, including some Regent cruise consultants, call them sister ships.

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, mrlevin said:

Agree with all you say; however, Mariner and Voyager are nothing alike beyond their berthing capacity.  Mariner much larger ship (in GRT) with two passageway configuration on passenger decks whilst Voyager is single passageway configuration.  I hate it when people, including some Regent cruise consultants, call them sister ships.

Agreed...they are not sisters. 

[crusin7]

Good Morning Tahiti!  Time to rise and shine!

 

 

 

We walked around town a bit before the rain.  All excursion’s were canceled due to the weather.  The first bus load of new passengers just arrived.  The Super Bowl will be shown in the theater at 1:30.  

[pappy1022]

So I guess the unruly people who throw things down the toilet only cruise on Mariner. I wonder how Regent is so successful in getting those people to only cruise on Mariner. Obviously I say this tongue in cheek. I realize that people can be the source of some of these issues but it is too rampant to believe that there isn’t a system problem as well.  

[Pcardad]

56 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

So I guess the unruly people who throw things down the toilet only cruise on Mariner. I wonder how Regent is so successful in getting those people to only cruise on Mariner. Obviously I say this tongue in cheek. I realize that people can be the source of some of these issues but it is too rampant to believe that there isn’t a system problem as well.  

When things, and people, get older they are weaker and more prone to failure. I am certain this is a planned repair in the future but, for now, the issue has been solved.