We had travelled with Regent before and wanted to experience their new ship. Although quite different in decor to the other ships - the wood is slightly darker, it is a stunning looking vessel with lovely touches such as beautiful glass and works of art scattered around the ship. The internet needs work - it seemed to be switched off in port which, as we were in port most days, meant that it had limited availability. The staff were amazing - so friendly and kind at every single level and always smiling. The entertainment was brilliant - I know there are those who still think they should have Celine Dion every night but that is not going to happen. Those seeking such high levels of entertainment should perhaps go to Las Vegas? The singers and dancers were really good and thoroughly charming both on and off the stage.They did some great shows. The acts they fly in were all tremendous Paul Soha the violinist was exceptional. The cruise director is first class - John Barron. He is funny, unflappable and a great entertainer and a complete asset to Regent. His sense of humour might not be to everyone's taste but he was popular with 99% of those on the ship and his own shows were packed out. His assistant David was also excellent. They have added a new restaurant called the Pacific Rim which was just fantastic - Asian fusion and a real stand out service from start to finish. The French restaurant actually got our vote for the best food - yes it is French food, which may be a little refined for some travellers who like their food in larger quantities. Prime 7 is probably the most popular with US travellers as it is home from home and it is always fantastic. That said, the Compass Rose which is the general restaurant has also really upped its game in terms of the variety and quality of food. We did not manage to eat in Sette Marie this time as we ran out of time but as were were travelling round Italy we had quite a bit of Italian food anyway. The excursions were all excellent. More detailed guidance on how strenuous they were and how long meant that there were fewer occasions when someone was on the wrong excursion or we have a petition to go back early because those who like to eat at 6pm had dinner reservations. There was something for everyone. A standout person in the Explorer lounge was Magdelena - a fantastic coctail maker, totally calm and collected and always remembers your drink. Any downside? Well, as the age profile of the travellers starts to go down, perhaps a bit more nightlife would be good as most things closed at 11.30. Read Less

We combined a 12 day land tour with an excellent tour company. Our TA coordinated everything with Regent and tour company so that our Regent Air brought us into Milan on 10/18 and we were driven to Lake Como for 3 days -- group was just one other couple, with whom we got along fabulously. Our tour captain was great, so it was a wonderful prelude to Mariner Cruise. In land tour we spent 3 nightsn Lake Como, 2 nights in Lake Maggiore, 3 Nights in Cinque Terra/Portofino/Santa Margherita area, and finished with 3 wonderful nights at a vineyard resort outside Siena in Tuscany. We then took high speed train from Florence to Vienna -- great experience but difficult with two suitcases apiece!. We then were met at Venice train station and tranferred to Hilton Stuckey Molino Hotel -- and it was a wonderful hotel and location. The 2nd morning we were there we watched the Mariner go past our hotel window at 7am, which was special. The embarkation should have gone easily since the Mariner was visible from our hotel, but the water taxi firm that was used made numerous bad choices and it took us about 45 minutes - and should have ben 15 minutes. Once aboard, all was smooth and fast -- got in rooms by 330 and luggage by 5 Throughout the trip we had wonderful evening meals at Comp[ass Rose as well as Prime 7 and Signatures. We made no effort to get more evenings there -- Compass Rose was great for dinner and a few lunches when we were on board. Veranda was always nice and easy to get tables. Had several opportunities to swim in the pool (in November) so pool service was good (and so was the ice cream) Special meals on pool deck were OK, but we bypassed two of them. The block party was great and we made some good friends that we are staying in touch with. Excursions were never crowded, guides were good, and Destination did a good job of adjusting as we had to by pass three ports - Sicily became a Sea Day, Sorrento was switched to Naples, and Portofino was switched to Genoa. Most excursions were maintained except Sicily - we really wanted to see Mt Aetna., but saftey first,.Had a mix of great weeather and rough weather. ABsolutely worst was last night with waves crashing at 15-18 feet as vessel travelled from Genoa to Rome. Had to cancel Cerq show and many people got very sick -- very hard to pack that last night. New experience. Pompei was the most interesting excursion. Dubrovnik was still interesting the 2nd time around. Got to see the countryside. Entertainment was not as good as on past cruises -- dancers were good but lead singers were below par. We have always enjoyed them in the past. The boutique had good selection for its size and surprisingly had items that were 2XL -- my size. Our room team -- butler and roomsteward were just great!! S=Disembarkation went very smoothly and we were taken to Sheraton Golf Resort for overnight. Not fancy but convenient to airport the next day and Regent handled it well. Those that wanted to could take a shuttle into Rome. We had been to Rome before and just wanted to relax before our flight back to Tulsa. All in all a wonderful cruise and we have bought our $2000 certificate for a future cruise so that we retain on-board booking discounts Read Less

We have just returned from a Regent cruise on the Voyager starting in Rome, around Italy to Croatia finishing in Venice. This is our 3rd cruise, the first two have been with Azamara which we thoroughly enjoyed and had no complaints at all. We decided to try a different cruise line as a comparison and paid more as we had read good reports about Regent. It’s difficult to know where to start with the disappointments. We were aware that the Voyager had been having a refit prior to this cruise and we took the 4 hour delay in our transfer from the Rome Sheraton to the port in good faith as these delays can happen, an apology for the delay would have been nice instead we encountered stressed staff with strained smiles and at the dock, cues out of the reception tent door. Firstly I would not recommend the Sheraton, a mistake on Regents part with sullen staff apart from a few lovely bar staff, poor and expensive food and drink, but we looked forward to an elegant, clean ship, which it was. We had expected excellent service, we ordered drinks for our suite from our steward, we had to ring reception on 3 occasions to remind them and waited two days for the requests to be fulfilled and excuses were made about the telephone system having a problem, even though we had asked the steward in person for the items, we even had to ask for the bottled water to be replaced in the cabin. We found most of the food to be boring, lacking in flavour and very often cold, particularly in the pool bar, we had to return cold tuna burgers (this could have been a health issue) and when we questioned any of the poor quality food, we were given an excuse not an apology and no offer to improve the situation. The desserts in most restaurants and snacks in Coffee Connections were tasteless and of poor quality. One night in Compass Rose we spent 30 minutes trying to get a glass of wine, staff seemed to be in a particular area and forgot about us. Breakfast in our room was uninspiring with water too cold to make tea and as it was often necessary to have breakfast in the rooms, more than we would have liked, as the trips were organised far too early. The only half decent meal we experienced was in Signatures on our last night but no better than a regular meal experienced on Azamara Journey in the general restaurant. In addition, the opening times in all restaurants was too limiting which put pressure on guests to plan their day around activities trips etc. Regent seems to have forgotten that a holiday should be relaxing as well as having stimulating trips. We often found that food was being taken away in the Veranda restaurant without being replaced well before the official closing time. We had expected themes in the food linked to each place we visited, there was no connection with the cruise and its ports of call, and it was reminiscent of canteen food. In addition staff tended to rush the eating experience, giving the impression that they wanted to clear away to encourage guests to leave. There were a few attentive members of staff but only a handful, a very inconsistent regime. One striking thing, which seemed to prevent guests from socialising in communal areas, was due to the temperature, it was really cold, and left these areas as a barren wasteland, particularly in the evenings when you would expect more interaction between people as they made their way to restaurants and theatre etc, this was mentioned to staff by many guests but the temperature never improved. This takes me to the entertainment; this was uninspiring apart from guest entertainers Soprano Rachael Russell and Comedian John Martin, both from Liverpool, who were excellent. The theatre seemed under used and was mainly a venue to congregate for the trips early mornings. We did have some unexpected humour with other guests due to the ‘lift music’ loop piped constantly in the pool area; it was so poor that we all commented on it and a bit of fun. If we heard ‘Two Lovely Black Eyes’ once while sitting there we heard it 6 times. We did catch Paul the Cruise Director on a fleeting pass in the atrium early in the cruise and mentioned this poor musical entertainment, he abruptly, without empathy, said it was on a 24 hr loop and must have a problem, nothing changed throughout the cruise and many people complained. The Spontaneous duo were good and could have been utilised up on the pool deck more often, the only time we saw them we couldn’t hear their music. As you will see from the comments, we felt this cruise was poor value for money and not a pleasurable experience, we are not naturally the type of people who give this level of criticism and when you are on holiday it is an unwelcome impression to leave with. We found we were constantly commenting to each other about problems which did spoil the holiday. To generalise we found the staff on this ship to be too serious, they did not interact with staff and gave the impression that guests were an inconvenience (remember we are their salary source). This holiday was low on fun, lacked exciting flavours in food and offered boring entertainment. There seems to be a great deficiency of pride with the staff on this ship. I must add other guests agreed with our findings, some had cruised with Regent on many occasions and were surprised at the poor quality of this cruise experience compared to previous trips. We are so disappointed that we waited until Regent lowered their standards but not their prices. However, some of these poor experiences have nothing to do with money its more to do with a poor positive attitude from Regent. On a final note on return I have logged onto my account on Regent’s website to discover they have removed the history of passed cruises, maybe the just hope we will forget about this disappointing cruise! Before posting this review I asked Regent’s guest services for their comments, after a week I received a two page letter giving feeble excuses for some of the points raised. We will not be cruising with Regent again. Read Less