Our first Regent cruise. Had sailed to Alaska on the Silversea Silver Shadow in 2011 and were very impressed with the incredible, seamless service there , but opted to try Regent this year for our anniversary Adriatic/Meditteranean cruise for 2 reasons: 1) the itinerary and length of the cruise matched our interests more than what Silversea offered, and 2) we liked the idea of an "elegant casual" dress code on all nights on Regent, instead of the greater formality of Silversea dress codes. We were not disappointed on the dress code, as passengers made efforts to look nice for dinner without having to fuss with tuxedos and gowns.

Overall the cruise was good to very good, but not as flawless as our Silversea experience (as our cruising experience is limited, perhaps we had been lucky, and perhaps Silversea also has more problems in 2012 than they did in 2011). Food in the main restaurants was abundant and visually nicely presented, but overall was not gourmet (except in Prime 7) . Service in the main restaurants included intermittent episodes of lines, confused waiters, waiters who incessantly interrupted conversations, and/or snatched plates away when we were not finished, and not uncommonly there were communication problems. The sommeliers were outstanding and very helpful, a delight (we used our concierge level 25% discount on wine list wines several times as the daily free wines were not up to our standards much of the time; last year on Silversea, they were).

When we were on Silversea each suite had its own butler, which at the time we thought was unnecessary and over the top for us (we are professionals in our 50's and are used to doing a lot of things ourselves). So this trip we had booked a butler-free E suite on Regent Voyager but with an upgrade to "concierge" level, thinking we did not really need our own butler but could enjoy early reservations for preferred tours. But in hindsight getting the concierge level was not worth it. Except for one tour (Corfu 4x4 -- see below) we would have gotten all the tours we wanted to do anyway without paying extra in advance. The "special gift" that came with concierge level was a joke plastic tote bag with a Regent logo, and the pre-departure "upgraded" hotel was the Hilton Molino Stuckey with a standard room without any view, looking out to the back of the building with nothing to see, it was just a basic clean place to sleep, not centrally located as you still had to water-taxi into the main part of Venice). Read more