Seven Seas Mariner Review
4.5 / 5.0
21 Awards
candrey
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s
Rating by category
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Value for Money
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Dining
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Additional details
Sail Date: Apr 2019
Cabin: Deluxe Suite
We chose this cruise for the itinerary, to visit places that would be difficult to get to otherwise. We had previously visited Japan, and one of us had been on an overland trip to Alaska. This was our 6th cruise and our second Regent. We decided to do the more expensive pre-cruise excursion which took in the Mt Fuji area.
The pre-cruise itinerary was quite good, but unfortunately we had a very grey foggy day for our visit to the the Mt Fuji area. We stayed at a Hilton Spa hotel in Odawara, about 90 minutes from Tokyo and that was very enjoyable with the baths and traditional Japanese food.
The cruise was generally good, although due to trying to avoid bad weather, we missed the port of Petropavlosk in Russia. We seemed to ride on the edge of teh storm for about 4 days. We were also unable to see the Hubbard Glacier due to fog and rain, despite cruising right up next to it. However, we were blessed with excellent weather in Kodiak & Juneau and decent weather elsewhere - better than we could have expected. Missing the Russian port meant we had 6 consecutive days at sea - everyone was well and truly ready to get off by the time we reached Dutch Harbour. All the Alaskan ports were good apart from Ketchikan which was unpleasantly touristy. The 3 Japanese ports were all interesting places to visit.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Suite
The public areas excellent. Our cabin was very drafty which meant given the weather we had (maximum of 2 degrees C or about 35F some days) we were freezing. The solution from Regent was to completely tape up the door to the balcony. We were initially aghast when we saw this, but it worked and was removed when the weather improved. We also had a leaking toilet which was addressed quickly. Apart from those things, the room was comfortable and housekeeping excellent.
Port Reviews
Hakodate
We skipped the Regent excursions and got ourselves around on the local tram. This enabled us to get to the areas of town we wished to visit. The tourist office in town spoke enough English to enable us to buy a tram ticket etc. The hIghlight of a great day were the Cherry blossoms at Goryokaku Fort. 1600 trees all flowering. THe tower at the fort (we had to line up for an hour to get up the tower) provided a brilliant view
Kodiak
The only tour we could get was a 1 hour panoramic tour which we did towards the end of teh day. It was however easy to walk into town (a shuttle ws also available) and look at the marina, shops and also the nearby Near Island which had nice views and some wildlife.
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