This was our first cruise with Regent. I have read so many raving reviews on this board I was expecting Regent to take us to another dimension. Compared with mainstream cruise lines, cruising with Regent would be like swapping your girlfriend Phyllis Diller for Christie Brinkley.

BOARDING

We arrived in Athens Sunday evening and checked into the Athena Intercontinental, a hotel arranged by Regent. At 12:30pm next day, we all packed into 3 buses and headed to port. The gods were angry with Athens that day. The city was covered in thunderclouds. Buckets of rain came pouring down. Mixed with garbage and transit strike, city streets were flooded with traffic and rising water. Sewers were plugged with debris. What should have been a 15min ride turned into 2 hours. We could see the ship but could only crawl slowly into the terminal. I swear I saw a turtle passing us on the right. Then things got worse. After going through security, a shuttle bus took us to the ship for boarding -â€" open berth. It was still pouring rain but everyone had to line up outside the gangway. One crew was trying to pass out umbrellas (2 at a time) to passengers near the front of the line. We were all soaked like wet t-shirt contestants, slowly dragging our carryon up the gangway to deck 5, only to see 3 crew members standing there smiling and welcoming us on board. Another crew is handing out cold champagne. Now some of us have not eaten since 7:00am. It is now 3:00pm. The last thing on our mind is cold champagne when you are hungry and wet. As we made our way into the Constellation Theater to check in, we found the line up to be in complete chaos. Some passengers were told to sit until their row was called. However, there was no one assigned to control the crowd. Another line formed on the left side of Constellation Theater and other passengers were moving up directly to the check in area up front. This naturally got people waiting in their seats all upset. After all is said and done, Regent never offered an apology publicly. Regent had to know there would be 3-bus load of passengers coming on board at once. Yet they seemed to be caught off guard in anticipating the crowd; sheltering passengers from pouring rain; and organizing orderly check in. Not a good start for first impression. Read more