Suite

Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Luxury Cruises

Family Cruises

Gay & Lesbian Cruises

Romantic Cruises

Cruises for the Disabled

Senior Cruises

Fitness Cruises

Gourmet Food Cruises

Venice

Barcelona

Rome (Civitavecchia)

Athens (Piraeus)

Istanbul

Monaco (Monte Carlo)

Lisbon

Malta (Valletta)

Santiago (Valparaiso)

Tahiti (Papeete)

Miami

Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)

Rio de Janeiro

Europe - All

Mediterranean

Europe - Western Mediterranean

Spain

Transatlantic

U.S.A.

Bermuda

Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

Canary Islands

Italy

France

Africa

Morocco

Caribbean - All

Caribbean - Western

Panama Canal & Central America

Mexico - All

Portugal

Very Good

Average

Excellent

Terrible

Poor

Seven Seas Mariner

Seven Seas Navigator

Excellent staff, good food but some niggles.

Ketchikan

We boarded in Barcelona for a Transatlantic cruise to New York before continuing to Montreal. Although comfortable the ship is looking its age with a surprising amount of silicone apparent in the cabin, and once you see that your eye is of course drawn to other deficiencies, of which there are many.

To summarise: The good:

All the staff were happy, courteous and obliging. To name a few, our cabin attendants ( Emma & Made ), Luke in the Gym, Raoul at the pool bar and Dominic, Shambu, Jeannette and Yuda in the restaurants.

The food in the Compass Rose was exceptional with very good ingredients well prepared and presented, and always served hot. Prime 7, good. Chartreuse, OK. Italian, least best.

Cocktails were well served in every location...and you could taste the alcohol!

As an aside, we travelled on Silver Muse a few months ago where the cocktails were weak and the food abysmal. Mariner in that regard was soooo much better.

The Signature Entertainment shows were very good indeed, well choreographed and slick.

Any concerns once raised were quickly attended to or explanation given. A yellowing toilet seat was immediately replaced with one that was new, and a topper was added to what we found to be a rather hard mattress. A kettle was also provided so that we could make our own tea with that rare commodity, boiling water.

The not so good:

A re-occurring smell of sewage on Deck 8 and a weak toilet flush. Very poor internet. Wet varnish with no warning signs. The cabin is rather small in comparison to some other cruise lines. Afternoon tea is completely uninspiring. The Spa is ludicrously expensive. No coffee machine in the suite. Upon boarding we were advised that a particular excursion had been cancelled. Even tho' apparently that had been known about for some weeks, no pre-advice was given and no alternatives were offered. The Captains P.A. announcements were completely inaudible...I only hope none of them were to 'Abandon Ship'. Not long enough in some ports of interest and too long in others ( Sydney, Nova Scotia. Has anything ever happened there? ). Small boutique with not much on offer and a pre-loved handbag shop with just a few old-fashioned items for sale. No wake-up call on a day with an excursion.

We chose this cruise to experience Regent for the first time. We have cruised quite a bit with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Crystal (before it failed). We thought we would get excellence and we’re so disappointed about so many things. We love good food but found it hard to get a good meal on this cruise. We were forced to eat earlier than we usually do for dinner to avoid a 30 minute wait for a table in the main dining room. Entertainment was poor (apart from the ship’s team shows) and just one show a night. Toilets in public areas were often unfit for use and some only took one person at a time. Embarkation was unwelcoming with directions straight to the buffet which was overcrowded and offered poor quality food. Service was ok at times but patchy. Suite was good (Concierge) & very well kept by the stateroom attendants. Cruise Director (Jude) was very good. Too many individual issues to list here that made it an experience we will not repeat. Not the full luxury cruise that we expected.

Just not good enough

We've been interested in trying Regent for some time, and this itinerary caught our eyes as it covered some lesser-visited ports we wanted to see.  One thing I hadn't realized is that Mariner was ending the World Cruise in Barcelona immediately prior to our cruise; I think the fact that a large block of the staff turned over in Barcelona (and maybe a few of the others had gotten settled in a groove with the WC passengers) made for a less optimal first-time experience.  

The Good:

Overall and enjoyable cruise.  It didn't blow us away, or make us instant Regent converts, but we had a good time.  

1) Comfortable cabin with great cabin staff.  Standard balcony cabin had decent space on the balcony, comfortable sofa and large table, walk-in closet, good A/C control.  

2) Inclusive.  Drinks, tips, laundry, excursions.  The included excursions were moderate size groups (20-30) so busses were not packed full.  Quality of the guides was mixed, but typical of cruise tours.  We had some excellent, some so-so, and one dud.  

3) Plenty of space.  Mostly uncrowded with few lines (with a couple of exceptions noted below).

4) Food options.  If you wanted lobster and filet mignon every night, it was there, along with a variety of other upscale offerings.

5) Included wines.  Nothing especially expensive, but the included wines were pretty much all good quality.  They would offer a red and white by default each night, but you were free to ask for something else (such as a previous night wine that you enjoyed).

The Less Good:

There was nothing hugely wrong on the cruise, but the number of minor misses surprised me.

1) DR Food and service was mixed quality.  It got better as the cruise went on, but the maitre d's and waiters were sometimes not well organized.  The service tried to be very elaborate, but sometimes failed to deliver plates that were fresh and hot.  Some dishes were quite good, some lacked flavor.  Often the sauce was in short supply.  Oddly, the bread served was often dry and hard.  Buffet was awkwardly laid out at breakfast - too many people trying to get through the cross-over path between sides.  The Sette Marie conversion of the buffet in the evening with table service seemed to be mostly just delivering plated food that came off the steam table (not fresh prepared); we tried it twice and then wrote it off for the rest of the cruise.  

2) Entertainment was mixed.  Several nights just had a movie.  Normally we like to enjoy some music in one of the lounges, but somehow we never got really in sync with timings and locations for music on this cruise.  The production show cast looked like they would be pretty good, but they were boarded the same time we did and were mostly in rehearsal.

Great ports in Western Med

We thought Regent Seven Seas was a "premium" cruise line.  It's not.  From the first day there were problems. In our cabin, we tried to turn on the tv to see the safety information.  The tv didn't work, so we tried to call someone to fix the tv.  The phone didn't work either.  

   One night we turned on the bathroom faucet and muddy, dirty water came out and didn't clear up until the next day or so.  Another night the toilet didn't work.  Our bathroom door wouldn't shut.  After workmen came to fix it, when they left we tried to open it and the handle fell off.

   The food was mediocre.  The waitstaff in the restaurants kept getting the orders wrong, or forgot to bring orders at all.

   The reception clerks were perfunctory and didn't seem to know what they were doing.

   The "unlimited" wi-fi either didn't work at all on some days or on other days it was intermittent and slow.

   There was a big leak in our bathroom. Our shower didn't drain, so we showered in pools of water.  The women's public rest rooms had broken toilet seats and doors.

   The wallpaper on one of the walls in our cabin was peeling off, so workmen had to come in and replace it.

   We had hoped for a relaxing and pleasant cruise, but with the constant stream of workmen coming in and out of our cabin to fix things, it was one interruption after another.

   By the end of the cruise, I had a serious eye infection and both my wife and I had severe allergy problems, probably from exposure to all the work dust and fumes.

   Maybe things changed when Regent was taken over by Norwegian Cruise Lines and Apollo Mgt.  That's what other passengers told us. They are obviously trying to cut back and have turned what may have once been an upscale cruise line into a mediocre one, certainly not worth the money they charge.

Cruise from hell

These are some sad experiences on this year’s July cruise.

The butler appeared to be under extreme pressure at times and here are just some of the issues:

iPad.  We asked whether we could have some music in our suite and he said that iPads were not available   however two days later he delivered one to us.

We asked for some videos and he told us they were available at reception.  The reception said that they do not have any videos available!  

In accordance with our suite arrangements we requested the free pressing of four items which eventually arrived on the evening of the following day.

On the last day we requested breakfast in our suite which arrived without any butter for the toast.

I asked him what the dress code arrangements are for dining at lunch at the Splendido.  He enquired and said that long trousers must be worn.  Whilst I was at reception before departing there was a local person on the hospitality desk and I rechecked with her and she said no, smart shorts are allowed, so I asked her to ring the hotel just to confirm this was the situation (it was).

The above Butler service was not what we had experienced before or what we expected this time.  I think they need to be better briefed and I don’t know whether he is a new person on board the ship but felt as though he wasn't up to coping possibly due to the ship being full!

 GENERAL, DINING (NOT IN ANY SPECIFIC ORDER)

The general dining standards were standards on this cruise were very poor in relation to previous cruises and a few other people had also said that they believed it was also and it was evident that there were some cut backs in quality being introduced.  The ship had a capacity, I’m informed, of 768 with many families and we were constantly told this but it was not what we wanted to hear.

Sunday (lunch) Veranda.  We tried the veal, it was very tough and very difficult to cut.  The salads were of a poor standard and also the food choice was poor, lacking in imagination and quality.

Breakfast in the suite mostly took an hour to arrive and the poached eggs were solid	and the toast cold.

We had lunch in the Veranda on two more occasions, the lamb with a feta crust was very tough and the pork was quite inedible, again, with very poor salads.  The choices were limited and mostly the same each day with few local dishes.

Lunch in the main restaurant was at the best average with poor choices. 

Dinner, one night we pre-ordered Crepe Suzette’s, they arrived cold on cold plates, such a shame as the sauce was very good.  This was pointed out to the waiter who apologized.

Veranda (Evening).  My wife ordered the veal chop, it was so overcooked I can only assume that it had been pre-cooked then heated up (veal should always be served pink).  I complained to the waiter but no one came to see us.  We had another night without a main course.

Prime 7.  On our last night we had a rearranged 7 o'clock reservation instead of A sharing table at 9 o'clock.  We both ordered the hot crabs legs.  On arrival the smell was very strong, we called the waiter who agreed and sent them back.  We then ordered 	lobsters tails instead one of which arrived just fine, the other was partially translucent.  For our main course we ordered steak Pittsburg style (a little burnt on the outside and pinkish in the middle).  Two extremely rare steaks arrived, when we pointed this out the waiter came and apologized with a plate to take them back to the kitchen and cook them some more.  We said “well what about the vegetables!”  the Maître d’ arrived and said to take it all away and start again.  Dinner then arrived at 10 o'clock.  	All in all It was the worst food we have had on any cruise ship and we were constantly told the ship is full and that is why the standards were not up to scratch. This is not our problem and something we should not have to think about.

Subsequent correspondence requesting the cancellation of another cruise booked for October this year on the same ship was not even considered.  They wanted to charge a cancellation fee based upon 50% of the full fare amounting to £6101.50 they would not consider also transferring this cruise to a third party or to allow a credit on a future cruise so there was no option to proceed and I can only hope that everything will be 100% in October.  

Having been a loyal customer and ambassador to Regent for many years with almost 70 days cruising I feel that they have been unreasonable and inflexible.

Major Disappointment

I have just been reading the advice on avoiding trips with children. The advice given is no guarantee as we found out and though a couple of years ago I thought I would share. We are keen to cruise again but our last experience made us wary. We booked Regent Seven Seas and it didn't occur to us that people would bring youngsters - to be fair they were mostly probably 10 & above. Mostly they were American who, we discovered, broke up earlier that European schools.They were fairly well behaved but they do what young people do and spend a lot of time in the pool - jumping in and out and being of high spirits they were fairly noisy. As there was only one pool and it is quite small this restricted use by adults wanting a dip. Temperatures were the highest for 100 years as we sailed to Rome so it was very uncomfortable not to have an occasional swim. There is no time restriction for lane swimming to allow the use of facilities by all. So it was monopolised by youngsters most of the day.

A few of us made for an area above the pool deck which was quieter and we were able to lay out and read in relative peace - although away from the pool.

In feedback we made comment of this. People who had sailed with Regent before said they hadn't experienced this and also were unhappy - so booking a luxury cruise is no guarantee. I am surprised that Regent don't restrict the numbers as it does effect the dynamic, or consider some way that all groups can have a fair share of the facilities.

We mentioned it on the feedback form and did suggest a 'spa' deck to allow a quiet area if needed. Despite the criticism and suggestion we didn't hear anything from the organisation. I am surprised about this as they are selling a' big ticket' item and loyalty should be important.

We are looking for a cruise for 4 of us and this abiding memory makes us rethink our approach.

 We had a penthouse cabin with butler - that was well worth the extra. We liked to dine in the Italian restaurant which was a bit more intimate. The special dining rooms were excellent. We found the lunches below par. They seemed a bit "that'll do" especially the food on the pool deck.

We certainly haven't been put off Regent but now are looking at other options when going back for our second experience. And wanted to make the point that just by choosing the luxury end of the market does not guarantee avoiding other people's children.

TOO MANY CHILDREN

As a frequent cruise enthusiast I was happy to travel for the first time with Regent, which had been touted as one of the best. The initial online experience with booking specialty restaurants and excursions was good but I was unable to book the spa for the days at sea when the facility tends to be more crowded. The advice given was to arrive early at the ship and head right for the spa for booking. We were given a 4 pm boarding time but on arrival in Barcelona the day before we found out that the bus for the port would leave at 11:45 am the next morning, which gave us no time to do a little Barcelona touring that day. And the 11:45 bus was already full. We managed to get on the second bus at 12:15 by just going to it and finding there were 5 empty seats though we were told it was also full. On arrival at the ship we went right to the spa only to find the preferred days were all booked ahead of time. We were told that guests had contacted the spa services provider directly and that this is what we should have done but we had not been advised that this was an alternative by Regent.

That was just for starters. 

The excursions were poorly organized and very little information was given on what to expect. At the beach in Ibiza we were dropped off to fend for ourselves without any info on services, restrooms, restaurants, chaise lounge rental, etc. There were 2 buses for pick up and only 1 showed up. Some people had to find a taxi back to the ship.

The service on the ship was downright insulting. The waiters had bad attitudes and were surly. When a cabana man was asked for a setup for the chaise lounge he responded that he would have to go down to a lower deck for the padding and the towels implying that this was too much to ask.

For those that just wanted to get into town on a shuttle bus there was no posted schedule at the exit gangway and you had to go up to the excursion desk, which was usually empty, to get the times for the shuttle buses.

In Mallorca, we were told that the tour bus we took to Soller would drop us off in Palma on the return but the bus driver got into a heated argument with our guide and would not do the drop off because he was "late". He took us back to the ship then we had to take a cab into Palma.

On the ship there were not enough chaise lounges by the pool and very few umbrellas to shield from the sun. 

The service was terrible. My wife asked if they had any smoothies that she saw people drinking but were not on the menu. The waiter, as he passed by, pointed at an alcoholic mango drink someone else had and said, in a snarchy way, "lady you take the alcohol out of that drink and you have a smoothie" as he proceeded to continue on his way.

There were many other instances like that but you get the picture. The senior staff, to which we complained, was very good at apologizing but really did nothing to improve on the situation. 

The weather was perfect throughout with sunny days and calm seas but the stop at St. Tropez was cancelled because of "high seas". As we cruised past St. Tropez the seas were flat as a pancake. We were very disappointed and felt that they just wanted to get us back to Barcelona where we spent an extra night on the ship.

The service in the restaurant was bad. We missed two shows because the service was so slow that it took 2 1/2 hours to finish dinner and the food was not that good either.

This was a complete waste and so we wrote to Regent to complain. Again, the VP for customer relations was good at apologizing but that was about it. He offered a $500 credit on the next Regent trip we took but it was only good till Dec of 2016. Not good enough.

Needless to say, we are through with Regent.

Big Hype but Bad Experience

This was our second cruise on Regent, but our first on Mariner. We went to the Baltic last year on Voyager, and enjoyed it so much that we bought a future cruise certificate. We chose to use it on this 10 day Barcelona roundtrip because of the itinerary. It concentrated on the Riviera, and went to a lot of places that we haven't seen before (Antibes, St. Tropez, Portofino, Sardinia and Corsica). We have seen enough of the historical sites in the Med, and this time decided to just see the luxe side of it.

We took the included air with Regent on our other cruise, and it worked out great. So we thought we'd do it again. I know lots of people prefer to make their own air arrangements, but there is no way we'd be able to fly business class from Phoenix if we did it on our own. This time their first itinerary had us making two stops each way, which we didn't want. So we paid the $175 deviation and our TA request one stop. Regent put us on Delta through Atlanta on the way out, and United through Newark on the way back. Everything was perfect, and we wouldn't hesitate to use Regent's air in the future.

We've spent a bit of time in Barcelona previously, and decided to just take the included one day pre-cruise hotel. We treated it as a way to shake off our jet lag, and so didn't care much about the hotel. Regent uses the much maligned Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos I. It's a modern high-rise hotel that's kind of poorly located. Our room wasn't ready (we arrived at 10:00 AM), and so we paid $100 to upgrade to a suite that we could get into immediately. It was a stunning room; one of the very best (and biggest) hotel rooms we've ever stayed in. We took the hotel shuttle to Placa Catalunya and stopped at some of our favorite places, then came back to our hotel and crashed early. I suppose a boutique hotel in the heart of things would have been better, but we really loved this place too.

Embarkation was swift. One of the male JAR dancers handled us and shmoozed my wife, who was smitten by him. We had a little something to eat, and at 2:30 the rooms were ready. Our luggage hadn't arrived, but we got  to meet our butler Immanuel, and our two cabin attendants.

Our room (912) is a Penthouse C. We splurged on it because it's substantially bigger than the standard rooms. That's not true on Voyager, btw. Instead of the tub the room has a large shower. I'm 6' 2" and it was plenty large enough for me. The bathroom had both Hermes and L'Occitane toiletries, a nice touch. Per our request, there was a bottle of Maker's Mark and one of Absolut Orange. My wife had noticed that the bars had Absolut Kurant, and asked Immanuel if she could swap her vodka for that. He quickly went and got it but left the Orange vodka behind. "You paid for it," he said. The room was spotless, and remained that way throughout the cruise.

A word about the butler... We doubted that we would use him at all, but that turned out to be wrong. He brought us canapes every night, and was available for questions at basically any time. While that doesn't sound like much, it really improved the cruise to have our own guy on the inside. I wouldn't pay extra just to get a butler, but I'm glad we had one.

We toured the ship, and naturally compared it to Voyager. We thought M's public rooms were plusher than V's. In particular the Mariner and Horizon lounges' sitting areas were beautiful and cozy. One thing that we noticed is that the public rooms on M seemed narrower than on V. That's good for the Observation lounge, which is too big on V anyway, and good for Compass Rose because it gave M's version a more intimate feel. Some of the other rooms (like the Mariner lounge) were kind of unwieldy because of the layout. The bar is pretty far away from the sitting area, and having the piano in the middle of a long, narrow room is kind of awkward. The theater is about the same, and Coffee Connection is way better on M.

In no order, here's our thoughts:

Dining:

The food was good to very good throughout the cruise. We ate dinner at Compass Rose 5 nights, Sette Mare twice, and once each at Signatures and Prime 7. The remaining night was the evening barbecue on deck, which was much better than we expected. Standout dishes were the rib eye steaks in Prime 7, and a veal chop scallopini in Sette Mare. But we had no complaints any night. Breakfast was OK, actually better in La Veranda than in the dining room.

Dining room service was problematic, and really our only complaint with Regent. We like to eat late, especially since Immanuel brought us shrimp cocktails at 5:00 every day. We found that service after 8:00 really suffers in the dining room. I don't know if they redeploy staff after the rush, or concentrate more on shutting down than serving passengers, but it was quite noticeable. 

We gave up on dessert one night because it took so long to get through the meal. Another evening we waited 20 minutes for our dessert, which was simply ice cream and a piece of cake. We like to linger over a meal, but it's different when you are abandoned during it.

The problem went away if we dined early. We had a dreadfully slow and poorly served meal at Sette Mare late one night. Later in the cruise we gave the restaurant a second chance, but this time at 6:30. We were seated in the same section with the same wait staff, and this time had excellent service. So it's more likely a management issue, and one that Regent should take care of.

Other Service:

The bartenders were fantastic. This was a relatively young crowd and the bars were busy. The staff worked hard, and were friendly at the same time. Special kudos to the bartenders during the cookout. It was really hot that night (and every night), and they were slammed. Yet it was still service with a smile.

The ship was kept amazingly clean. There's a lot of glass (tabletops, elevators, etc.) and yet we never saw a fingerprint on any surface. 

Destination Services was great to work with, as was Reception. Those are often problem areas on ships, but not this time. We canceled and rebooked several tours, and the DS people were so easy to work with.

Entertainment:

Better than expected. A British singer performed two nights, and she was well above average. She's starred in London West End productions for many years, and put on two superb shows. A very entertaining classical pianist performed two other nights and was also good.

The rest of the time it was the Jean Ann Ryan dancers. We're not a fan of these shows, but the cast was talented and worked hard. It wasn't enough to salvage Cirque Rock 'n' Roll, but it wasn't their fault.

This cruise kicked off Regent's affiliation with the Smithsonian, which was supposed to be one of the the cruise's highlights. In reality it was a complete bust. The speaker gave four talks, mostly about Spanish art. Nice if that's your thing, but hearing about Gaudi yet again while we were going from Sardinia to Corsica seemed senseless. Plus she gave simple PowerPoint presentation, reading from her notes with her head down. She also accompanied our Sardinia tour, but didn't talk at all during it. 

We booked before the Smithsonian announcement, so didn't have any stake in it. Lucky thing!

Ports: 

Good and bad. One problem is that it was BLAZING hot for the entire cruise. I'm talking mid 90s with humidity. That kind of heat really sapped our energy. We stayed late in most of the ports - we left three of them at midnight - and had expected to spend time ashore in the evening. But it was hard to leave the air conditioned comfort of our ship after getting punished by the heat all day.

So that means we saw Ibiza at its worst; it was mostly hungover 20-somethings just getting up (although I don't think we're Ibiza's target audience anyway). We loved Mallorca, Ajaccio (Corsica) and Portofino, and hated Cagliari (Sardinia). We took an included tour of Monaco from Villefranche (which replaced Antibes due to high seas), and had a fantastic time. Our favorite day was Toulon, where we took an included tour of Cassis. We skipped St. Tropez due to high seas and went to Barcelona a day early. As I said, we know our way around Barcelona so that was OK.

There were conspiracy theories as to why the itinerary changed. The seas were calm, but the captain said that tendering in Antibes and St. Tropez would have been impossible. I'm willing to take his word.

Fellow Passengers:

There were about a dozen empty rooms on the ship, but this was offset by families that had more than two people in a room. So it probably sailed at capacity. There were maybe 25 kids (mostly 12-18 years in age), and they were all behaved perfectly, although they still got glares from some grumpy passengers.

The average age was a lot younger than on our Baltic cruise. The bars were humming all night, as was the casino. It made for a much more fun evening experience than last time.

Finally:

If only Regent would have avoided the late night dining issues, this would have been a 5 star cruise across the board. We had good food, good drinks speedily served, a wonderful room and excellent service in every other respect.

The only other category that was less than 5 star would be "Value." This is the most expensive cruise we've taken, and while we feel we got what we paid for, in no way could it be considered above average in value.

First Cruise on Mariner

My wife and I travelled with friends on the seven seas mariner cruise that our valued travel agent recommended and advised us on .

We were told that this ship is a true "six star" ship recently renovated and up to the best of them at the moment.

We were very pleased with all the facilities and our stateroom was definitely comfortable and well appointed .

We have no complaints about presentation of the ship or the amenities and common areas.

However , when it comes to service and value for money its a totally different matter.

Service and help at the pool was simply non existent- we had to help ourselves each and every day or complain and wait for someone to help get chair and or a drink .

Breakfast was just a horrible experience - no one knew about how to cook fried eggs

Anything that was ordered hot came at least 30 mins late and by that time we were all ready to leave. Breakfast area was nothing short of a chaotic experience more like a cheap cafeteria in a department store or a zoo.

Even at night one waiter served ice cream to our table that he tasted before he served from the very same bowl.

I gave my expensive newly bought linen pants to be dry cleaned and they came back shinny and ruined . 

I made a claim which was endorse by the ship's staff and brought it back to my agent to process .

After several weeks an response came back to say that they take no responsibility and I should have claimed from my travel insurance - well that is really disgusting.

We were advised that two of our planned destinations were to be cancelled the night before we were to arrive - so instead of taking us to St Tropez they took us to Toulon which was to be the next destination anyway .

The buses to take all who booked to Aix en Provence were waiting for us but no buses were arranged to take us to St Tropez which was less distance than Aix en Provence.  We were told that if we have arrangements in St Tropez we could take a taxi.  Taxis would be approx. Euro 25O each way.  Not only did they not help us to get there but instead of staying an extra night in Toulon, we were taken back to Barcelona one day earlier to abruptly end the trip prematurely.

So two ports were cancelled during this trip both were highlights and no apologies were given despite the fact that weather conditions were not as they had reported, but quite manageable if they tried,

The captain never made any appearances to explain and on our return our agent made a full report and claim for at lease one night refund but to no avail .

They simply refused to accept that there was any reason for claim.

We and others on the cruise are convinced they made a commercial decision to return to Barcelona early and cut their costs.

Regent Seven Seas Rip Off July 2015

I just sailed the Seven Seas Mariner. My husband and I sailed the western Mediteranean  with our two young adult sons to celebrate their successful completion of undergraduate university degrees. As a family, we have cruised many times previously but always with 5 star lines such as Holland America and Celebrity. With few hitches here or there, we were always happy with the cruise experience. This time, we decided to try a smaller ship.

We were disappointed. Of course, I had high expectations. Eighteen months ago, my husband and I sailed on the Seven Seas Voyager in the Middle East. We were entirely happy with our first Regent experience but perhaps it was because we were insulated by the moderate size medical conference we were attending on the ship. At the time, Regent's inflexible policy of not serving alcohol to people under 21 years of age was of no relevance to us. The subtle discrimination against the young was also inapparent.

I will further preface my comments by stating that we paid for 2 concierge level suites on the 9th deck. My sons should have been perceived as full paying customers, not discounted passengers sleeping on a pull out couch, not that that should matter. It was was our intention to spend some time together as a family before our sons move to opposite sides of the North America in August.

The problem of age discrimination became noticeable early on. If my sons sat at a table for breakfast without a parent, they would not be offered water, juice or coffee until one of us arrived. If they stood at the "make to order" pasta bar at lunchtime, priority would be given to "real" adults who would line up behind them. Sadly, they weren't really being recognized as equal paying customers.

One night, my sons had an accidental intrusion in their state room. A rather confused elderly man was wandering the hallways at 2:30 AM and due to some miscommunication between the reception staff and security about his stateroom number, my sons awoke to two strangers at the foot of their beds. Of course, there was an apology from the security staff but little else from management. When this was followed up with the reception staff the next day after a long excursion in port, there was a further apology and finally an offer to further investigate the matter. The security staff was professional about the incident but the "hotel" management fell short of offering any form of formal apology.  I wonder if the operational standards would have been so lax had the incident involved two elderly women instead of two young men.

As for the cruiseline's policy about not serving alcohol to "under aged" individuals, it was very frustrating that we could not all enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. I understand that on other cruise lines, parents are able sign a waiver to allow their young adult children to consume alcohol on the ships under parental supervision. I would have been happy to do just that. We didn't have any intention of falling over drunk from the dinner table. We are Canadian and our children have been of legal drinking age for some time. Furthermore, we were sailing in the territorial waters of the European Union where the legal drinking age is 16, if one even exists. On the last night of the cruise, one of the wine stewards mistakenly poured my 20 year old son some wine with dinner in the main dining room. We did not refuse it. Another staff member alerted one of the assistant managers of this. Immediately, a sommelier was sent to our table to reprimand us about our dishonesty. 

Alas, I recognize that this is a Regent Policy. The main difference between Regent and some other cruise lines is that the alcohol is "included" in Regent's fare. 

Tangential to the main thread of discussion, the food on the Mariner was a hit and miss. The breakfast buffet was the same everyday as was the pool deck restaurant menu. Lunch in la Veranda was probably more variable but it was often too late to go there after a 5+ hour excursion. The food in the Compass Rose was well presented but the main course was often over salted. 

Regarding the excursions: it was a nice change that the tours didn't all end with a focus on shopping. However, it seemed odd that all the excursions had an hour of free time. It's perhaps enough time for a coffee but not really enough to do anything else on our own. On our only other Regent cruise, lunch was always included on long excursions whether "free" or "Regent Choice". This time, we paid $259 pp for an excursion to Rome which did not include a lunch or even an option for organized but self paid lunch. We had an hour for lunch and as advised, we ordered a one course meal (pizza) a block away from Piazza Navona. The service was slow. It took 50 minutes to get our order.

Finally, to be fair, there are some positives. The staterooms and public areas were well maintained. The cleaning staff are to be applauded for their hard work. The ship security officers at the gangway always smiled sincerely and welcomed folks back on board. The Maitre D', Stephane and staff of Signatures (specialty) Restaurant were absolutely professional and the food probably the best I have eaten on the land or sea for quite some time. Many of the servers were genuinely pleasant and helpful, notably Samuel, Muhamed, Maxwell and Shawn.

A disappointment

Filters

1-10 of 19