My wife, mother (87 years old), sister and her husband, brother and his significant other, and I recently returned from a trans-Canal cruise, “Christmas on the Canal,” on the Regent Splendor. This was a bit of a “hail Mary” cruise after an utterly horrible experience on a prior cruise on the Splendor (see “Splendor? Not So Much”). What gave us some belief that service would be better was an intervening cruise on Regent Navigator, which was just as good as our initial cruise on the Navigator. So, this cruise was our 4th with Regent (2 on Navigator and 2 on Splendor).

I am happy to say the overall experience was excellent. To be sure, there are rough edges, but the difference from then to now was extraordinary. Following, I provide insight into air, entertainment, enrichment, food, and excursions.

This cruise departed Miami and ended in Los Angeles, so pretty straight-forward in terms of air, although every day seems to be a struggle for airlines. My mother and sister set up their own travel to Miami (going 2 days early), but used Regent from Los Angeles. My brother and I used Regent to Miami (MIA) and from Los Angeles (LAX). The advantage with Regent doing your air is that if anything goes off the rails, it’s Regent’s responsibility to fix the problem. This is really important with international travel, much less so domestically. Read more