Johnthesailor

This fits the description perfectly an individual on the Grandeur cruise from Miami to New York a few weeks ago. Was he on another Regent cruise as well? Interestingly, his companion dressed fine.

We were on the cruise preceding yours (Miami to New York) and we did not receive an invitation to an upper tier event (we are Titanium), just the normal society function. I figured they had done away with them as an economy measure. Good to know they still have them but wonder why we were not included. Just a little glitch I guess. Enjoy the rest of the cruise!

We are flying from Austin, TX. Not a very long flight and should not be problematic. The weather was OK in both cities this morning as well as in the location the flight was coming from so not sure what happened but the rebooking agent said that the plane was being used elsewhere to fly folks that were cancelled yesterday because of east coast weather. Does not make a lot of sense to me as a reason to cancel additional flights but I’m not an airline logistics expert so who knows what the reason was. Ironically, tomorrow AM flight time has a forecast in Austin of thunderstorms and rain.

Z, Looking forward to this cruise. Our flight to Miami got cancelled this morning so we rebooked for tomorrow AM - hoping all goes well. Otherwise, we will be a few days late. John

Strange journey, this one. By far, the worst internet connectivity I’ve ever had on a Regent cruise and we have over 400 nights. Several days of almost nonexistent internet - so bad that they made an announcement about it. Other days so slow that server connections timed out on simple things like email and Apple News / web pages just would not load. Frequently disconnected and had to sign in to ships internet frequently. Staffing issues seem resolved for the most part but still a few new folks that should be shadowed by experienced employees. But the expected Regent experience with staff is pretty much normal. For some reason, the door on deck 11 near the bar is cordoned off but staff still use it normally. Not a real problem but strange. The lack of a tour or dayroom on the day of our flight leaving, extensively discussed in other posts, is a first for us. Similar problems in our past experience were solved by providing a later bus and allowing impacted passengers to stay on deck 11 and lounges for a few extra hours but no alternatives this time. Can’t even go to the lounge in the airport since the ticket counter and lounge won’t open for several hours after we get dropped off although I might have other options to get around this. Some of the tours have been great but some lacking. One tour had an unannounced lunch included and the guide cut each other visit short in order to get the bus back early. Why? I can understand some of the tour issues as Japan has just recently opened and Covid created lots of issues as a result of its duration. The Sunday brunch on a sea day is apparently discontinued as this one did not offer it. The deck party/buffet on an overnight in port is also apparently gone as this one did not have it either. Not big issues but we were anticipating those events. We have cruised on Regent several times since they resumed sailing and this one is the most normal with respect to staffing (the continual improvement is good to see) and we have several booked but there are enough oddities on this one to make us hesitant to readily book Explorer in the near future in case our experiences are isolated to this ship as we have not heard of them occurring on the other ships but possibly we are seeing the (minor) impact of the cost reductions necessary to return to profitability. I have to also give accolades to the restaurant manager for learning that we were repeatedly told they had run out of Prime Rib in Prime7 so he sought us out and told us he reserved some for our dinner tonight. We will still continue to sail with Regent but this is a slightly different experience than we have had in the past, even post Covid. Best, John

We have never sailed on Navigator but have multiple sailings on all the other Regent ships. We really like the newer ships but also enjoy Mariner and Voyager very much. We are thinking about a short cruise on the Navigator but have multiple question on her current state and would appreciate recent cruisers input: - I know that there is no French or Asian restaurant onboard and we are OK with that but I have recently read reviews that basically say the food is lacking compared to the other ships or the Navigator pre-pandemic. Opinions? - Is there enough lounge capacity around the pool? The area looks considerably smaller than the other ships. Are there lounges/chairs that are shaded? Are they all taken by the lounge hogs very early in the morning? - Is the coffee connection large enough? - I understand that the interior common spaces get way too crowded on bad weather days but is there sufficient space to leisurely sit and read or talk on regular days when we have had enough sun and hot weather? - I’ve heard that the cigar lounge was removed and the only place to smoke is an area of the pool deck. is it somewhat protected from weather? And most importantly, is it sufficiently away from non-smokers as I do not wish to bother others who do not want to smell the smoke. -Has the ship been maintained well or is it really tired? Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Having fun on the ship. Met Flossie and the cruise critic folks the other day. Cruise is generally good, most staff very good. Little errors like wrong drinks delivered, less attentiveness in Compass Rose, but in general, the Regent experience. We got bumped from our selected cabin (seems the “trainee” cruise director for the next leg wanted it) to a comparable cabin but we were disappointed that they would shift us when we had selected and confirmed a particular cabin. This in turn, appears to have caused my daily Wall Street Journal to not get delivered to me. Spoke to the front desk after three days - they assured me it would be corrected. Still not getting it long into the cruise. Spoke to GM today about but he said nothing that inspired confidence that I would get it. Davor would have it fixed quickly - this GM , eh. Sorry to rant, but the internet speed makes it very difficult for me to read it online. The cruise overall is pretty good but sometimes the little issues that the GM can’ t or won’t fix can be irritating.

We are on the next cruise. Would you mind telling me who the cruise director and General Manager are? How were the shows? Looking so forward to the cruise. Thanks for the commentary.

Ok, that may explain it. We are April of next year and made the request once the window opened. I believe Regent said they would handle in date order. If they are totally slammed maybe they have not gotten to next year. Still, we have researched the flights and it would be a 10-20 minute conversation to select. It just seems incredulous that the paperwork has sat there since July 1.

How far out is the travel date?

Submitted July 1. Their stated response time is sadly totally incorrect and woefully understated. We always were able to handle deviations with a 10 minute phone call. I know it is largely the fault of the airlines but this is ridiculous.

We are at 17 days and still waiting. Maybe they did go to only 90 days out.

The response time under the new method is much longer than ever before and longer than the stated response time (7-10 days). We submitted the form (actually, we called and reservations -not air ops- filled it in for us) 13 days ago. Have not heard a thing. The cruise is not until next year but it is still frustrating not knowing if our preferred flights are being sold out for the number of seats allotted to Regent. We are not liking this new system but it remains to be seen if our preferences will be fulfilled. We had also been considering a European cruise this year but have pretty much eliminated it due to the air hassles. Probably do a Caribbean cruise this winter instead to minimize the to/from hassles.