This was our 9th Regent cruise, our 3rd on Voyager. It tends to be our favourite ship, although we have not cruised on Mariner. (The Paul Gauguin doesn't count; it's in a league of its own, and no longer part of the Regent family.)

We chose this route for the time of year, the embarkation port (Rio), and the value--since this was kind of a "vertical crossing", we thought it would be a good way of testing our tolerance of sea days--we'd previously had two in a row on the Paul Gauguin, but here there were 7 scheduled sea days, with the longest stretch being 3 in a row. This turned out to be plenty for us, not sure we would do a crossing, at least not for another decade.

After a fantastic pre-cruise stay in Rio, we boarded the ship and peeked immediately into our splurge Penthouse B suite. Again, this was an excellent value on this itinerary and it was very worthwhile, although I would not do this on most itineraries where the additional cost over a standard suite is considerable. But the PH is lovely--not a lot bigger than standard, but laid out wonderfully well, with an extra window, and squareish rather than long. We also loved having a butler; this was a real treat for us. Our room was spotless and maintained very nicely throughout with good service from both butler and stewardess. Read more