Voyager on board now

We are on board voyager now for 10 days...any question will hopefully be answered. We have some issues already but we are patient!

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Really looking forward to your posts. We board Mariner tomorrow and will also be reporting!

Have a great cruise!

Hooray! We board our favorite ship in February!

We are on board voyager now for 10 days...any question will hopefully be answered. We have some issues already but we are patient!

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Really looking forward to your posts. We board Mariner tomorrow and will also be reporting!

 

Have a great cruise!

Thank you swanson and thank you TC. Looking forward to any reports you can share. Enjoy your cruises!

We are on board voyager now for 10 days...any question will hopefully be answered. We have some issues already but we are patient!

 

 

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We board Voyager in 60 days; curious as to your "issues."

thanks,

Marc

We board Voyager in 30 days, so want to see your posts. Thanks a million.

The issues are not that important. We had poor service in the Horizon lounge last evening and had to go to the bar to get drinks as no one came to take our order.There were only a few people in at the time so there was no excuse. Hopefully this was a one off. The other is the internet speed but as it was the first day perhaps everyone was on at the same time.

On the positive side, last night was our first experience of the 'new' Compass Rose menu and it really is superb. In the past there have been the odd times when we struggled to find something we liked but that is certainly not going to happen now.

Also the restaurant menus on the tv are much better relative to the previous system where it scrolled through all the menus in succession.

Just on a point that was raised in a previous post it does say on the tv that reservations are not necessary in Compass Rose. If I remember in the past it said reservations were not necessary or accepted which may explain why some pax think that they can make reservations if they wish.( that's different to the bribery issue of course.)

Anyway, it's a lovely day in Livorno today, we are staying on board as we have covered most of the excursions over the years and are likely to have the ship to ourselves!

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Hope you have a great cruise Swansong and look forward to your updates. Jean.

We have just returned from an 18 day B2B on Voyager (we got off the same day as swansong embarked).

It was an excellent cruise (one of the best we have experienced in the Med).

Weather was perfect, a good pair of itineraries and the service on-board was outstanding under the leadership of Captain Daniel Green and General Manager Davor Josipovic. Even the internet behaved itself :rolleyes:. First leg was full but second leg had a significant number of cabins free, so some European Travel Agents were hosted.

A very good mix of guests - varied nationalities and ages - which meant that all venues had a good buzz until late. The Karaoke nights were very well attended, with some passable singers, and the Casino looked to be well attended.

Some families on board, including some of the officers'; kids were all polite & well behaved.

Entertainment, including visiting entertainers, was good. Lecturer on first leg was very interesting, but not so much on the second leg.

Withdrawal symptoms starting to set-in so will be following this thread with interest :D. Have a great cruise, swansong.

Recently on board Voyager from Barcelona to Lisbon - enjoyed every minute and definitely every meal - Compass Rose our favorite! Cannot speak high enough of our experience and the entire crew of Voyager! Enjoy!

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Second day now in Corsica. The service and food yesterday couldn't be faulted, I couldn't say the same about the internet.

How nice to see the lounge packed out after the show to see Natures Rhythm until 11:30, a great atmosphere.

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We are on Voyager now (since Rome) and have had no trouble with the wifi. Much better than I expected from reading this site before we left. A couple of times there were issues for a short time when in port, but the wifi is pretty fast (much faster than on Navigator last year) and easy to connect to. Service in the Observation Lounge (our favorite) has been excellent and the food in Compass Rose the best one the ship. We are aft in the ship where vibration problems are supposed to be an issue and have not been bothered - once there was a rattle in the ceiling of the cabin and a carpenter came to deal with it immediately. Very happy with our experience so far! Lovely day in Antibes today.

Since a lot of you seem to be on The Voyager now, please do yourself a favor and go to the Voyager Lounge near Compass Rose. Listen to the trio, Nature's Rhythm. WONDERFUL. House of the Rising Sun particularly inspirational.

Since my name is Caroldoll, with the implication that I am small...I amm...and say hello to Jun, the male Philippino singer. Send my regards.

Second day now in Corsica. The service and food yesterday couldn't be faulted, I couldn't say the same about the internet.

 

How nice to see the lounge packed out after the show to see Natures Rhythm until 11:30, a great atmosphere.

 

 

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So happy to hear that the Voyager's service and food is good. We are really looking forward to being onboard Voyager in March, 2018 and November, 2018. We are currently on the Mariner and learned tonight that our favorite server will be on Voyager next year - very happy!

Hello Swanson,

We will be traveling on the Voyager for 40 days starting this November. Will you please ask someone if there is a place onboard where I could print photos? I'm enjoying your posts very much. Thank you for sharing.

Going in less than 2 weeks, from Rome, Sept 19 so excited!

Jean

We have just returned home and whilst I had intended writing each day I felt that there wasn't enough of note to post so I have left it to the end.

Overall the cruise exceeded our expectations, the food and service with the odd exception, more later, was superb. Absolutely no complaints with any of the restaurants with either food or service.

The Voyager, now updated, is in super shape.

The reception at Rome airport was superb with agents waiting in the baggage hall with porters and others directing us to the departure point.

We checked in on Voyager immediately on arrival and were in our suite by 2:15.

For reasons I shall explain later we spent more time on board than usual and enjoyed the tranquillity when the ship was quiet. We had lunch in Compass Rose several times which is a relaxing experience and a good choice of menu.

The 'management' was very visible especially Captain Green and Davor the GM.

For the first time we were invited to dine with the Captain and he is charming.

He also had on board his wife and young baby which was lovely to see.

Some may remember Captain John McNeil. Captain Green invited him on board when we were in Valencia, John lives in Spain and Captain Green was First Officer with him for a period. It was lovely to meet him again as he was captain on our first Regent cruise and it was John's first contract with Regent. That was on Navigator many years ago now.

Departure was as well organized as usual and we were sad to leave. We have booked our first cruise on Explorer so we have something to look forward to in the future.

Now we all have gripes and mine are incidental and in the grand scheme of things didn't affect our experience at all. But we did mention them in passing to management and on our cruise final questionnaire.

As I mentioned earlier our experience on the first night in Horizon lounge was poor. Unfortunately this happened several times again where we had to go to the bar for a drink having waited for too long. Basically it was inattention as there were staff around. One evening having spent an hour or so in the lounge we wanted a final drink, only coke, and were told the bar was closed. We subsequently discovered that if more than three people are in the bar it should remain open. There were many more than three.

We had no such issues in any other location. Far from it the service was exceptional.

The internet was poor. I know another poster on the same cruise stated that they hadn't a problem but we did. I started to speed test at various times of the day and the best I got, only once, was a download of 11.70 Mbps and an upload of 0.24 Mbps. This was at 15:30 on a day the ship was deserted due to excursions.

The average and normal at other times was around 0.6 Mbps download and anything around 0.1 Mbps upload.

As I have always downloaded my favorite newspaper this didn't help. The first day it took 111 minutes against 15 seconds at home. I eventually set up my iPad to download during the night but of course I had to stay connected which didn't help with the general issue. Something should be done about this and I understand all the issues around bandwidth etc. & the signal strength in our suite was high so that wasn't the issue.

The entertainment was the worst we have experienced on Regent. The production shows lack flair and production values. They rely on back projection and not sets which doesn't in our opinion deliver quality. The singers and dancers are ok but can't show themselves off to best advantage especially with the content. Jean Ryan were far far better. I guess that there is some cost cutting here.

Ray Solaire was good, but two shows were one too many. He is old style music hall and whilst a great bloke and cruise director, Regent should be investing in some more modern talent.

We had a British magician, he was terrible. Originally a busker, he ought to return to that.

The best entertainment was undoubtedly Natures Rhythm, they were great and well supported. The Regent orchestra were excellent too. Regent please get your act together with the production shows!

Now on to excursions. I am one of those who would like to see a return to not including them in the price...let's not get into the free stuff please. If they weren't 'free' the quality would have to improve as customers would require refunds.

Our first excursion was so dire with a guide who never stopped talking for a second the whole time, constantly repeating what she had said ten minutes before and with time wasted, in our opinion, to bulk out the tour. After this we cancelled all but one tour. This first tour was in Cannes and we left the guide to do our own thing but it would have been nice to have had lunch there rather than being taken to a perfume shop for 90 minutes. Chanel it wasn't!

This brought up one of the above issues. We went to Avignon where there is plenty to see and we then went to Le Baux where there isn't. So we spent 90 minutes there which could have been better spent in Avignon as it only took 15 minutes to see the whole place at Le Baux and took 45 minutes to get there. This happens so often with the tours.

Just a few points to finish on...

There used to be an order form for newspapers in the suite, this time there wasn't. However they can still be ordered from reception.

We use the in suite phone to call home very day ( we need to for various reasons) and for the first couple of days couldn't get a connection. Finally after speaking with reception they told us that the information re. Dialing codes was incorrect in the suite info book and gave us the correct one. Why not correct the book?

As we are SSS gold these are perks that we appreciate and that is why I mention them.

Also, there was no cruise video this trip, don't know why as it has just dawned on me but we usually get one to remind us. Perhaps they didn't want us reminded of the shows!

Dress code was enforced as one gentleman with ripped jeans was asked to leave Compass Rose. Apparently he was extremely annoyed and we were informed that Regent offered him clothing free from the boutique or for a crew member to loan him something more suitable. They couldn't have done more.

I was asked if there was photo printing availability on board. I was told not.

So that's that for another year, we have booked Explorer for next year so have something to look forward to. Please remember my qualification for the critical stuff, Regent is still our cruise line of choice. The onboard experience is superb and hopefully the back office will register the issues that many mention and raise their game to match that of those on board.

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Swansong - Thanks so much for posting such a comprehensive and balanced review. Your comments were exactly "as you saw them and as you experienced them". I really appreciate the objectivity. Best Regards.

Thank you so much for your review. We board in early February. This will be our 5th time on Voyager, our favorite ship. It's funny how some staff always go rogue, saying things that aren't exactly true. On our last Navigator cruise, Davor was following my on-going blog and when he finally recognized me, set straight some mis-information I had been given (and remedied it that evening!). I think the officers genuinely appreciate feedback from guests as long as you are polite about it. Stuff happens and we try to take it in stride.

I loved your comment about the entertainment! I can never seem to stay awake for a show, and I must say, puppets and magicians are my least favorite style.

Thank you for your review!

Swansong enjoyed your end of cruise resume. Well written and detailed.

Like you we also met Captian John McNeil on Navigator many years ago. Also being Scottish we had some areas in common with him, he was so popular and personable.

Glad you had a good cruise and booked ready for next year. Jean.

swansong,

Thanks for your excellent balanced review

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Also, thank you for finding out about printing off photos. I do appreciate it.

Thank you so much for your review. We will be there in a week and a half and are looking forward to it.

swansong, I also appreciated your review. We also had less than stellar service in Horizon Lounge on the Mariner so we switched lounges. On our cruise the Observation Lounge had the best service.

We like to find a favorite bartender and stick with them (already have one picked for November). We tend to sit at the bar with friends as it is a great place to get the bartender to try out new cocktails.