BACKGROUND: We were first time cruisers with Regent Seven Seas Mariner. We booked because of friends who had told us about the cruise line and we were not disappointed. From the booking with Justine Workman of the cruise line who helped us with the reservations and shore excursions to answering any questions we had right up to date of departure. She was terrific and always promptly responsive.

TRAVEL TO PORT OF EMBARKATION: We traveled on our own. We received credit for not taking the included flight to Venice. We were on Delta on frequent flyer tickets, and we purchased the Economy Comfort seats. On the Boeing flight which has seating of 2-3-2 the additional room was minimal,and next time we will go for the Business Elite on the trip over since the seats are recliners and good for sleeping. On the way home from Rome we were on an Airbus A330 and had 2 seats on the side in the Economy Comfort area and they definitely had more room. This is very important for my wife as she has some difficulty with her knees and legs, which cannot be cramped for hours-like 8 or 9. The service on the flight home was superb, very attentive. We would give a high five for the service and flight. Upon arrival at the airport we had arranged for transportation to our hotel by Viator, which was terrific. We checked in at their desk and then walked to the docks about 10mins on a covered walkway from the terminal to the docks where our water taxi was waiting. We shared it with two other couples and it took about 45mins to 1hr to get to the hotel, but what a great way to arrive in Venice. It was fabulous and very convenient at a reasonable rate--given the prices for water taxi in Venice. We were taken to our hotel's own dock and met by the bellman there.

HOTEL; Included in the cruise is a pre-cruise hotel stay. Since we went over a day earlier so we would have more time in Venice, we had to secure a hotel on our own. We booked with the Hilton Molino Stucky on Guidecca Island across from Venice proper. It was rated 5star Luxury and certainly the room was very comfortable, and the over all hotel very nice, but we felt it was a 4 star at best. There were many cruisers for the Mariner staying at the hotel. The room was a typically sized room which was very clean, comfortable and definitely provided an excellent sleep. The morning breakfast which was included was adequate, but certainly not up to a 5 star standard. We were disappointed with the service as well, not attentive at all, which was surprising given the overall good reviews we had read. The hotel has a free shuttle to Piazza San Marco which runs very timely. While we were there the America's Cup World Series was competing. This was May 18,19,20, and as a result the shuttle during race time had to drop us off across the Guidecca canal at the Vettere vaporetto stop which then necessitated a 20 min walk to the Piazza San Marco, which turned out to be a good thing as we saw parts of Venice we might not have been able to explore with our short stay. On Saturday we checked out and caught the shuttle to San Marco, and then transferred to the shuttle provided by San Clemente Palace Resort which was the hotel included with our cruise. If we had any question of the 5 Star nature of the cruise, the hotel stay put that all to rest. It is 5 Star +! The resort is on its own island about a 20 min shuttle ride from San Marco. It is a renovated 12th Century Monestary with a church built in 1135 on the grounds. They are working with the government to get the ok to somewhat restore the church. The church is all cleaned up and there are many original fresco on the walls to be amazed by. The hotel has scented toilet paper even in the public restrooms, if that tells you anything. The room was beautiful with a very large bathroom and every conceivable convenience. We had a ground floor room which opened to a large courtyard, and we are sure they have far more elaborate accommodations, but we were very pleased. Excitement during the night there was a 5.9 Richter scale earthquake about 4 AM...no damage. Everyone felt it, particularly the women, as we found out during conversations both in the hotel and then later on board the ship. Then about 4 days later there was another quake in about the same area NW of Bologna and it killed several people. Again no damage to the Venice area that we heard of. After a very 5+ Star breakfast buffet we met some other people who were also on the cruise and then we all caught the 12:30 pm shuttle to the ship. Read more