My wife and I are in our late 50's, financially comfortable with me still working. By 2008 were status post 4 yearly cruises with Princess. At the time, we had gotten increasingly tired of the non-stop promotions and hand numbing signing for what seemed to be everything, and for that and many other reasons decided to cruise Galapagos on the Celebrity Xpedition in the Spring of 2008. As it happened, it was an ALL inclusive cruise, and we enjoyed that so much that we decided that our 2009 cruise had to be on an all inclusive cruise line. Seeing rave reviews about Regent SS, and ready to step it up, we decided to give this cruise line a try and selected a 12 night Southern/Eastern Caribbean r/t from Ft Lauderdale in March of 2009 on the Navigator. Our verdict of the entire cruise experience with Regent is conflicted, because there was much good to say about it, but unfortunately also some bad, with us not yet having made up our mind as to whether the "good" outweighed the "bad" to the point where we today can decide whether we would do another cruise with Regent. For now, we will have to leave it at a "maybe" - we need to let more time pass to see which memories are left standing.

Our trouble started by not receiving our cruise documents by 14 days before departure. We had filled out the guest information form and noted to Regent that it did not permit entry of information of permanent U.S. residents (Green Card Holders) and did not allow passengers with foreign passport to have a U.S. address. They never got back to us - and then when we inquired about why we had not received the cruise documents were told that we had not provided the requested information on the Guest Information form. We had to inquire, they did not alert us. By 3 days pre-departure, we and our travel agent were still tussling with Regent about the fact that their form did not permit us to enter our information (with their web-site having been down for passengers from October 09 to departure in March 09). Regent was rigid, unapologetic and impersonal in their communication to the point that we by 2 days before the cruise felt that we may not be able to go because they were still unable to get our documents. Finally on the day before the cruise we received a curt email requesting our Green Card information, provided it and on the day of traveling to Ft. Lauderdale were told that the documents had been issued and were waiting for us at the pier. That meant we had to go to the pier without luggage tags or ticket which made for a fun and speedy security clearance before we could get to the Regent desk - NOT!! Awful, horrendous experience, and not a recommended way to start any cruise!

Once checked in and on the ship, things definitely took a turn for the better. The Navigator is a wonderful ship. We boarded at noon and were greeted by a very nice staff and served a glass of Champaign. We had chosen a Penthouse suite (1014) and found it spacey and comfortable. Huge walk-in closet (almost a cabin in its own right). Nice, though not overly roomy bathroom with a somewhat narrow shower enclosure, especially for a big guy. The bathroom floor and walls were covered in marble with oodles of luxury soaps, shampoos and lotions. Read more