Itinerary was the driver behind choosing this cruise, we had sailed once before with Regent on Navigator!! and this ship promised a much nicer experience and it did not fail us. Great cabin, fabulous food and a wonderful ship,, plenty of room and in great shape. However the one big disappointment was the lack of any real management system or process on board. For example on several occasions excursions were delayed or ran over but there was no communication between that team and food and beverage, so some people arrived back at the ship to find no food available. We arrived back late and were given duff information about where we could eat etc, in the end we were fine but for a while it was chaos. I spoke to the destination services people and asked "do you not communicate with food & beverage" and was told to my face "no we never talk to them about issues like this" I raised this on board and got the standard response, a nice table in one of the up-scale restaurants - which was lovely. But the point is this is a great ship with great staff and this lack of a simple process is letting every member of staff down. Read Less

This was our 3rd cruise on the Spirit. The first was for an anniversary 10 years ago - October 2006. We have made Oct 2016-Oct 2017 and anniversary year. The cruise was from Hong Kong to Beijing with stops in Japan and Korea. We had booked our own Air to Hong Kong but had problems finding a reasonable Business Class fare for the return. We checked with Regent and they were able to come up with a great fare and a much better routing then we were able to find. As we had booked a post cruise tour in Beijing Regent supplied the transfers to the airport on our day of departure. My preference has been to handle our air arrangements but this experience will have me checking with the cruise line for their airfares and schedules. Although , like many people who have cruised on Regent before its sales, the ship and the service is not quite like on our first cruise. However, Regent is still a 5 star cruise line with excellent service. Embarking or debarking in Hong Kong is an experience like no other. The cruise ship terminal is connected to a very, very upscale mall (Harbor Mall). You can not board or leave the ship without going through this mall. Keep hold of you wallets as the stores are extremely expensive. Keep in mind that this is a small ship - about 640 passengers, so getting around the ship, disembarking and accessing the dining venues about is fairly easy. From overheard conversations plus our own experience, the excursions were enjoyed by most of those who went. Regent, like many cruise lines, indicates the fitness level for each excursion. Note however that in some cases these were incorrect. One stop had many steps which made it difficult for a number of those with mobility issues. The had difficulty or could not manage the steps. This is not necessarily the fault of Regent, but those with mobility problems should keep in mind that they mnay have unexpected problems. One friend, on another cruise, was ashore with his walker and broke a wheel on the cobble stone street he was walking on. He had to purchase a new walker as no one had a replacement wheel. Excursions are included in Regent's rates. Note: we did not make use of the fitness center. If one includes the daily Trivia contest as recreation, the it was better then the listing below. this site should allow for a N/A-Not applicable One thing that is important to my wife is a bathtub. All of the ships accept the recently launched Muse have tubs. Looks like we will not be sailing on the Muse. We have sailed with Regent a number of times and itinerary permitting, will do so again. Read Less

Regent Seven Seas Voyager: The ship is not safe. We are very knowledgeable of cruise ships; however, hands down the Regent Voyager, if not the entire Regent company, was the worst cruise experience we have ever had. We should have known this as last October when we were in London to board the Silversea Whisper, I picked up a copy of Conde Nast Traveler (European edition) and Regent was not listed at all as one of the top cruise lines. Then, in the November, 2014 issue of Conde Nast Traveler (American edition), Regent was not listed as one of the top five cruise lines in any category. And here on Cruise Critic, under “Luxury Cruise Reviews,” it has a very low rating of 69 percent. The pre-boarding with Regent consisted of a cheap plastic folder with no personal message, a generic list of instructions, and luggage tags you were to fill out for yourself. We were on a 19-day cruise of China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan paying the most we have ever paid for a cruise. Our Grand Suite In a grand suite that is the next level below the Owner’s Suite, our bedroom did not have an end table next to the bed. There was a tiny hole in the wall. And this is advertised as a luxury ship? The bathroom room door opens directly into the path leading from the living room to the bedroom causing us to get banged (we did initially) if we did not walk that path carefully. This is an example of how poorly designed is this ship. The deck plans shows a closet (I have pictures of all these items) that reaches from the bedroom to the outside wall of the suite. This is a lie. Instead, there is a small closet with an ugly hallway that runs the length of the side of the room. This hallway had a secondary door to our suite which we kept double locked. One day, while we were sitting in the living room (thank goodness we were fully dressed and sitting), a workman comes through the hallway door, pops his head out of the bedroom and says, “Excuse me. I am here to fix the shower (the door molding had fallen off).” What a shock. He never knocked at the main door to ask for permission to enter. The ship is not safe! The desk drawer only opened if great effort was used to pull it open. Cheap construction. The exit to the balcony was blocked by deck furniture. The mats from the deck furniture were stacked and stored inside the room, an ugly display that also cut walking access. The cabinet door to the refrigerator fell off. The safe was so small that a laptop could not be secured. The television was not installed into the cabinet. It was mounted on a mismatched, after-thought board that stuck out into the room and the wires could be seen. The evening canapés were so bad (tasteless, non-descript, and cheap) that we asked the butler not to bring us anymore. Even the presentation of them had no thought behind it. And the assorted nuts were the cheapest brand and variety they could buy. Ship’s Common Area The main dining room was a joke. The tables and chairs were so close that people and waiters had to walk sideways to get to tables. Many of the chairs abutted the back of the chair at another table. During dinner you could feel a constant brushing against the back of your chair as people walked behind you. We saw a waiter spill wine on the back of a passenger. I watched a man on crutches become angry with the staff because he had to hobble sideways between chairs. And because the tables and chairs are so close together, you can hear every conversation all around you. The table arrangements in the specialty dining rooms were just as crowded. And as for the buffet at lunch, it was even more crowded. During tea time, you had to queue a buffet line to get your food and then wait forever for an understaffed room to bring tea in a metal pot (it never said high tea, so I should not expect ceramic pots). Then, thirty-minutes into tea time (when you may have finally gotten your food and tea), any relaxing, social tea time you expected was transformed into urging people to get into groups to play trivia with an accompanying loudspeaker blaring into the tea room. This is not a luxury cruise line. Theater seating was even worse than dining room seating. There are long rows of bench seats fronted by very heavy sofa chairs, all but immovable, abutted to each other. The only way to sit on a bench seat is to enter from the end; however, some of the rows are blocked by handrails thus preventing entrance to the row of bench seats. Like the bathroom door in our room that opened into a pathway, the design of the dining room and the theater is ludicrous. Several times during the evening shows, cynical digs were hurled at Carnival. If you claim to be a luxury cruise line you do not delve into this kind of behavior, but then Regent is not a luxury cruise line. The senior staff on Carnival has more class and behaves better than Regent. The basic service staff was very polite, but then most of them are Filipino and they are all polite no matter what cruise line you find them on. The “All-inclusive” Tours Regent loves to advertise that all excursions are included in the cruise price. We paid $66,000 for this cruise and believe me, the price of all the tours were hidden in the total price. They are not inclusive. Because the tours were all included, hundreds of passengers were crowded into the theater early every morning to be dispatched to a collection of buses for tours. There is nothing restful or luxurious about this feature on Regent. At the end of the cruise, you can be very tired going from one “free” tour to the next. If you want to relax on a cruise, the Regent concept of “free excursions” is not for you. The tours are a carefully orchestrated set of skimpy, budget tours, cleverly disguised as all-inclusive tours to lure you into cruising with Regent. For instance, on a tour of Shanghai, we were taken to an 88-story observation deck and then a round trip ride on the magnetic elevation train for an eight-minute ride, each way, to and return from the airport. We were then returned to the ship. On a tour of Osaka, we were bussed for several hours to Osaka Castle, a Buddhist temple, and returned to the ship. On our tour of Seoul, we were taken to the government palace, an adjacent museum, and let off on a shopping street to walk back to the bus parked at the end of the street. Not all tours on Regent are included free. There are selected tours you can purchase. We did this for a high-tea tour to a village in Taiwan to include stops for tea, an art museum, temple, and garden. Tea was not high tea; it was in a crowded restaurant where our group was squeezed into round tables, served tea, and then told to wander the one street to shop for over two hours (easily done in 20 minutes) until the bus returned us to the ship. We never went to the art museum, temple, or garden, but were charged for a bus ride to have a cup of low-tea. Numerous people complained about this tour and our suite numbers were taken along with other suite numbers. The night before disembarkation, we received a note under our door after dinner telling us that “based on overall feedback we have received, no adjustment will be made.” This is a lie as no survey was ever taken of any of the tours. When this was brought up to the CEO of Regent in a letter, he did not respond. The following morning at disembarkation, NO ONE from the ship was present to thank us or bid us “good-bye” as we left the ship. In the survey given to all passengers, we ticked “Will never recommend Regent.” Read Less

Very disappointing cruise considering the reputation of the company and the cost. I will cover each area of concern separately. 1. All inclusive: Part of their sales pitch is that the cruise is all inclusive except for some obvious things such as gambling. It is nice to have unlimited wine. However, the major value of "all inclusive" is the unlimited hard drinks; if you don't drink, you won't get the value of this feature. The drinks were long on ice and flavorings, short on liquor anyway. 2. Food: Highly disappointing especially as compared to Oceania. Offerings were repetitious; desserts, for example, were mostly flavored whipped cream/mousses or ganache; there were cakes of sorts, mostly thin slices of cake layered with mousses. The cake was terribly dry and unappetizing in any case. There was an overuse of mayonnaise in salads and seafood dishes, unpleasantly so. The attempts at ethnic food were failures. One curry was inedible. Sette Mare, the Italian restaurant, was one of the worst I've ever been in. Cioppino is supposed to be a well flavored fish stew; what I was served was simply watered down tomato paste with some seafood, no garlic, fennel or other seasonings discernable, nor was any fish stock. If you enjoy eating, if you are a gourmet/foodie, if food is a big part of your cruise expectations, DO NOT choose Regent. 3. Tours: The suspicion is that Regent didn't care about tours; the company seemed to just contract out the service and walked away. The tours were generally poorly handled by poorly trained guides, many of whom barely spoke English. Sites should have been better chosen. In Seoul we went to some memorial and watched the changing of the guard, then went shopping for 45 minutes. That's the best a large city has to offer? Buses were not at the dock when tours were to begin, wasting time. The process to register and get on buses was long and convoluted. Tours often had to be truncated. More time in other ports would have been the proper decision for Regent. EXCEPTION: The three days in Tokyo post-cruise were very well done. 4. Ports: Dalian in China and Kaoshioung in Taiwan were total wastes of time. One would have thought that Regent would select ports with more care. There was also endless confusion about docking. To be fair, the ship was to have docked at Kai Tek in Hong Kong, but the authorities changed to the new facility which was the old airport about 50 minutes away from anything by the transportation provided. Even taxis didn't want to go there. The least Regent could have done was to arrange better transport into the city. 5. Health: This was the sickest cruise I've ever been on. The constant coughing and sneezing sounded like a chorus in a fever ward. There was apparently also a case of dysentery so severe that the passenger had to be quarantined in his room. The story I heard was that a crew member brought something on board during the cruise previous to ours, but that he could not be taken off until the ship reached Beijing. It's hard to control such things in a confined space, and there were hand sanitizers everywhere, but there didn't seem to be any adjustments made. For example, Oceania has gloved staff serve all food with the exception of some desserts. Regent has self-service in the buffet area, which would not seem to be a wise choice if there is illness. 6. Entertainment: Overall amateurish just as with Oceania. The comedian was awful. Pianists and singers were good.   Read Less

Very disappointing cruise considering the reputation of the company and the cost. I will cover each area of concern separately. 1. All inclusive: Part of their sales pitch is that the cruise is all inclusive except for some obvious things such as gambling. It is nice to have unlimited wine. However, the major value of "all inclusive" is the unlimited hard drinks; if you don't drink, you won't get the value of this feature. The drinks were long on ice and flavorings, short on liquor anyway. 2. Food: Highly disappointing especially as compared to Oceania. Offerings were repetitious; desserts, for example, were mostly flavored whipped cream/mousses or ganache; there were cakes of sorts, mostly thin slices of cake layered with mousses. The cake was terribly dry and unappetizing in any case. There was an overuse of mayonnaise in salads and seafood dishes, unpleasantly so. The attempts at ethnic food were failures. One curry was inedible. Sette Mare was one of the worst Italian restaurants I've ever been in. Cioppino is supposed to be a well flavored fish stew; what I was served was simply watered down tomato paste with some seafood, no garlic, fennel or other seasonings discernable, nor was any fish stock. If you enjoy eating, if you are a gourmet/foodie, if food is a big part of your cruise expectations, DO NOT choose Regent. 3. Tours: The suspicion is that Regent didn't care about tours; the company seemed to just contract out the service and walked away. The tours were generally poorly handled by poorly trained guides, many of whom barely spoke English. Sites should have been better chosen. In Seoul we went to some memorial and watched the changing of the guard, then went shopping for 45 minutes. That's the best a large city has to offer? Buses were not at the dock when tours were to begin, wasting time. The process to register and get on buses was long and convoluted; Destination Services came across as confused, unaware, disorganized, uninterested. Tours often had to be truncated. EXCEPTION: The three days in Tokyo post-cruise were very well done thanks to the company there. 4. Ports: Dalian in China and Kaoshioung in Taiwan were total wastes of time. One would have thought that Regent would select ports with more care. There was also endless confusion about docking. To be fair, the ship was to have docked at Kai Tek in Hong Kong, but the authorities changed to the new facility which was the old airport about 50 minutes away from anything by the transportation provided. Even taxis didn't want to go there. The least Regent could have done was to arrange better transport into the city. 5. Health: This was the sickest cruise I've ever been on. The constant coughing and sneezing sounded like a chorus in a fever ward. There was also apparently a case of dysentery so severe that the passenger had to be quarantined in his room after being taken off his tour in Seoul and brought back to the ship in a taxi. The story I heard was that a crew member brought something on board during the cruise previous to ours, but that he could not be taken off until the ship reached Beijing. It's hard to control such things in a confined space, and there were hand sanitizers everywhere, but there didn't seem to be any adjustments made. For example, Oceania has gloved staff serve all food with the exception of some desserts. Regent has self-service in the buffet area, which would not seem to be a wise choice if there is illness. 6. Entertainment: Overall amateurish just as with Oceania. The comedian was awful. Pianists and singers were good. Artful Travelers was excellent, but is not on every cruise. 7. Maintenance: We reported that the shower stall door did not close and the water did not drain well; neither was fixed. The burned out floor night light was also reported and also not fixed. 8. Summary: This is a highly overpriced cruise line for anybody who is interested in value for cost, or wants to tour rather than just drink and gamble on board. Read Less

We started a our cruise in Beijing.China. Not a good start the night before when Regent was hosting our free night in the Peninsula Hotel Beijing with a social dinner in a special room where we could meet other guest s who would be travelling with. Well, No Host from the ship turned up !!! Food was like a sub par meal you could get in a bad restaurant!!! Next we get on ship which was fine, suites always comfortable and clean and service there second to none. Staff wonderful. Restaurants on ship overall very disappointing . standard of food not good, when I spoke to the chef, was told that Head Office dictate the quality of food, steaks on the ship were uneatable sent back to the kitchen many times. Know for a fact, was not the best of quality having been in the Restaurant Business many years before. Fish was always overcooked, had to make sure they knew what to ask for when we wanted anything in the dining rooms!!!. Service in restaurants had been cut back staff had too many tables to cope with. Very often we had to wait 10/15 minutes to remove our dinner plates, we ended up walking out of the restaurants. We found having travelled before on both the sister ships that after they were sold, standards dropped and now after hearing the CEO of the company all they are looking for is the bottom line= meaning money money money. They do not care for the discerning traveller. how sad.!!!! We were on the ship for 78 nights.Think again about making a long travels with this line. Read Less

We took advantage of the perks that sailing with Regent gives you, upgrades to Business Class airfare, being able to deviate the flights to suit us and going on both the pre- and post-cruise land trips offered. Unfortunately when we were making our flight arrangements Regent didn't have the flight schedules for our post-cruise tour correct and didn't tell us that. About a month before our trip we were told our flights had to change and not for the better. The Regent staff tried hard to help us but options are few out of Bangkok so we didn't have the best flight schedule back and it cost us money to change flights from Vancouver to our home as well as to stay over an extra night in Vancouver. We went a day early to add a private tour to the terracotta warriors. Flight went smoothly and Business Class makes the long flight much easier to handle. Pre-cruise land package in Beijing After arriving back in Beijing, we checked into the China World Hotel. Beautiful hotel, our room was very nice and the daily breakfast buffet was great with lots of variety. The hotel is located above a huge underground shopping centre so we had options for the 1 dinner we were on our own for. Our tour guide was excellent. The buses were regular greyhound size with about 30 of us on our bus so lots of room and not too crowded. All the sites we saw were fascinating - Great Wall, Ming tomb, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Cruise A number of buses arrived at the port at the same time but after a short wait on the bus the rest of the embarkation process went quickly and easily. Being greeted by smiling faces and a glass of champagne as we boarded are only 2 of the reasons we love sailing with Regent. Shortly after arriving at our suite our cabin steward & stewardess came by and introduced themselves and checked to see if we needed anything. Throughout the cruise they did an excellent job, were friendly and helpful. Our luggage arrived shortly so with the help of a glass of champagne we got the bags unpacked and all settled in. Love the standard suite on Voyager. Dining One of the things I learned from CC was how to score extra reservations in the specialty restaurants. We managed to dine in Prime 7 and Signatures at least a couple of times each. On all occasions our food and service were excellent. We actually only ate in the main dining room a couple of times. The first time was the night of the Captain's reception and the food and service left something to be desired. Very busy night so forgivable. I did mention it on our mid-cruise evaluation form and received a call from the executive chef apologizing and hoping that everything was great since then and to contact him if need be. We had no other issues in any of the venues. The rest of our dinner meals were in Sette Mari which we really liked. The service and the food was great. My recommendation to ensure you are seated quickly you arrive before 7 or 7:15 pm. For breakfast we had room service or ate in MDR. We did try La Verandah once for breakfast but decided it really wasn't our thing. Service and the food for breakfast were both very good. Lunch when we were on board was mostly out at the Pool grill either enjoying burgers and salad or the special pool luncheons offered. I loved their tuna burger and highly recommend that. Again the food and service were great. Lounges and Entertainment We don't cruise for the entertainment and rarely attend the performances except for the occasional featured performer. We went to one cruise staff performance and that was enough for us. Not bad but not our cup of tea. We generally went for a before dinner drink and for the most part the service was good. Occasionally in Horizon's Lounge when we joined others it took awhile for them to take our order. This may not be entertainment but will mention here in order to decrease the categories. The NPR speakers and the guest lecturer were excellent and really added to the enjoyment of the cruise and in particular the various countries and ports. Excursions We took all Regent tours, 2 of the paid ones and all the rest the 'free' ones. The ones we took part in were well done and the buses were not full so they didn't feel crowded. Our favorites were the Ha Long Bay boat cruise, Mekong Delta boat tour and the trip to the Imperial Palace in Bangkok. We had really good tour guides on all our tours. I know on the boards there seems to be constant complaining about the included excursions but we enjoyed all of ours. My complaint is not with the tours but with Destination Services. When we had a couple of days cancelled because of propulsion issues (more on that to follow) and I went to see them about our excursions, I was treated very rudely by one of the staff. I mentioned this in the evaluation forms and unlike the executive chef I never heard a word from them, no apologies or even any questions about what happened. Post- cruise land tour The flights could have been handled better. After an early morning exit from the ship, we got to the airport and was deserted by the tour staff person to find our own way to the check-in area and handle the check-in process. Buses that came after us were guided to check-ins that were opened for our group, too late for us as we were in the middle of a large line by then and would have had to start over again at the back of the line. Our flight schedule was screwed up and we discovered when we got there we were supposed to be on the later flight. Luckily the airline staff person was able to change us to the early flight. The tour guide we had was fabulous and the tours wonderful. The only blip was the number of people on the buses were not even out so we had a bus full while other buses were only a 1/3 to 1/2 full. Organization by the local tour organization was not the best but the trip was still very worthwhile. The people in Cambodia are fantastic and the sites fascinating. Our flights back to Bangkok were changed from our original schedule but were straightened out in advance so no big deal. The downside to the cruise As mentioned above we had propulsion issues. On our way to Shanghai we lost some of our propulsion. The story we were fed was that we ran into some cold water and it caused a problem. I am sorry but that sounds like a load of nonsense. What happens when they go to northern Europe? Do they do everything at half speed? Nonsense. The ship had propulsion problems on an earlier cruise and I believe it wasn't totally fixed but they didn't mention that or any possible connection to our problems. We ended up losing our first day tours in Shanghai and missed our stop in Xiamen. They gave us a later departure in Shanghai but from my perspective that was nothing. Now this is probably the only time we will be in that part of the world so it was very disappointing to miss out on these opportunities. Stuff happens but I don't appreciate being misled with no offer of compensation however minor for losing some of our tours. We had 9 days in port and lost almost 2 of the 9, to me that is significant. Downside to Voyager I have done a number of cruises and generally work out every sea day and sometimes on port days. I used the fitness room maybe twice because it is pretty small and crowded most days. Otherwise I love the ship and its size. Overall We enjoyed the cruise immensely and did take advantage of their deposit program to secure savings on a future cruise. The downsides were not major enough to put us off Regent but it did tarnish my opinion of the company. Read Less