Thundery

Thanks so much for your great detailed notes on this new exciting ship. I am sure it took many hours of time you could be enjoying the atmosphere.

We embark in Rome in November and disembark in Los Angeles in January and cant wait to experience the the whole adventure.

looking at the PH suite we have booked it looks a tad crowded to me but then I don't spend a great deal of time in the cabin anyway.

Looks like lots of CC folks will be on this cruise with as as we are doing a few B2B Miami

Look forwaard to meeting all and the wonderful dining experiences

Sandy Gibson - Calgary Alberta

We're doing the Barcelona-Haifa cruise on July 13th. Looking forward to it, lots of new ports for us!

 

Have you searched for/started a Roll Call for this sailing?

No never done that before will try it

Anyone doing the Jerusalem - Venice trip July 25 on the Navigator

They were instead of evening shows. They often showed movies at night - can you believe that one night they showed "Charlie Brown" to a ship full of adults

We find the 6 pm shows so annoying. I am usually still in the shower. Have recently sailed on the Voyager from Dubai to Singapore, Nov - Jan there were far too may 6 pm shows for our liking so except for cruise capers which we love to support, we never went. We had a lot of European passengers on this trip and wonder if it was in difference to the fact they like to late - so the shows were geared to them, Have no idea. But we surely are not in favour of the early shows

And for the record we are in our mid 70's. We dance all nite so not early birders

Hi Jill and Kevin, we sure enjoyed spending time with you on the Voyager, would enjoy keeping in touch

Sandy and Terry Gibson. Calgary

Review of 30 day Dubai to Cape Town Cruise.

This was our 4th cruise, two on Silversea and two on Regent.

One Silversea cruise was 28 days so this 30 day cruise was about the same duration.

We really enjoyed the cruise and I felt I could have continued on to Singapore.

It wasn't perfect but we look to the positive side of life, and any complaints ( and they were trivial ) didn't spoil our happiness at all.

Our only complaint was the Internet ( see below).

 

Pre cruise tour of Dubai and Abu Dhabi

We added an extra night to the 3 night pre cruise at the Ritz Carlton and were lucky to be given a 2 bedroom apartment. I spoke to someone who had been given a 3 bedroom apartment for the 2 of them.

The hotel was very good and breakfast was included.

 

The tour to Abu Dhabi was well organised and interesting, especially the Grand Mosque. The dress requirements were very strict as stated in the tour itinerary but several people were sent to buy an abaya due to ankles showing or slightly transparent fabric on the sleeves.

The Dubai tour was also interesting and we'll organised. We had been on the hop on hop off bus the day before which gave us a good overview.

 

 

Embarkation

As we were on the pre tour Regent supplied the buses to the ship. Our bags had been brought down earlier and we identified that they were in the hall and boarded the bus.

We walked straight on to a glass of bubbles then to the theatre to check in.

We were disappointed that we didn't get an upgraded as the TA had suggested we might. We had paid for a concierge suite to get the pre cruise Dubai package, only available to concierge and above when we booked. Later it, or the post cruise package was extended to everyone. That meant we had the same size cabin for a lot more money. Yes, we did have access to restaurant and tour reservations earlier, and a coffee machine that we didn't use, but not worth the extra money we paid.

However, we put it out of our minds and it didn't spoil the cruise.

 

Food

Compass Rose.

We were happy to eat here. The food and service was mostly good.

We had breakfast a few times on sea days and enjoyed it although service was quite slow. That didn't worry us.

We had lunch once but thought that other venues were better.

At dinner if we hadn't arranged dinner with new friends, we always asked to sit at a shared table and it was always interesting and fun.

La Terrazza

We had breakfast and lunch here several times. Food was quite good but not outstanding.

Sette Mari

Dinner here was always good. They converted from Italian to French for a week during the cruise. We went the first French night and unfortunately it clashed with the 110 people celebrating Hanukkah dinner in the other side of the restaurant. Service was very slow and we saw some people walk out with the maitre'd running after them to persuade them to stay. Our waiter apologised for the delay but we were enjoying the company and hadn't noticed!

My husband thought the cioppino ( seafood stew) was the best meal he ate on the cruise.

Prime 7

We ate here twice ( shared table) and food and service was excellent.

Signatures

We ate here 4 times. The first night was my birthday and we shared the table. Later in the cruise we helped celebrate birthdays on 2 other nights and on the last night in Cape Town we ate with the couple we shared the first night with.

Pool Grill

We usually ate here at lunchtime. The theme changed daily and there was always something we liked, even a hamburger a few times. The seafood buffet on the pool deck one night was wonderful. The staff had done a great job setting it up in between rain squalls that didn't reappear during the night.

Coffee Connection

We often had breakfast here on sea days before going to a lecture. Depending who made the coffee, we found double shot cappuccino suited us.

 

Room Service

We had breakfast in our room on port days when we had early tours. It always came on time ( or early). We didn't order a hot breakfast so don't know if it arrived hot enough.

We ate dinner in our suite twice after long day tours and didn't want to change. The first time it was cold and several things had been left off the order. It was better the second time but I don't think we will try this again.

 

Dress Code

Early in the cruise we saw someone asked to leave Compass Rose and change out of jeans however as the cruise went on the standard dropped. Many people we spoke to were angry that the standards were not enforced. At all the tables we shared all were dressed appropriately.

 

Wine

My husband went to the first wine tasting so had a list of the complimentary wines and he had ticked the ones he liked. He took it to dinner and if we didn't want the wine offered that night they were always happy to get something we asked for.

 

Suite

Our attendants kept the room beautifully. We were very happy with the size of it and spent time out on the balcony especially when arriving or leaving ports.

The bed is very comfortable and linen and towels of good quality.

The toiletries in the bathroom were very good and always kept well supplied.

 

Excursions

We took the ship's excursions in all ports except Durban where the one we had booked was cancelled.

The organisation to get the tours off the ship was good although people insisted on going to the theatre early. I couldn't understand why you would do this as you were asked to sit and wait till the tour was called. Some people wouldn't sit and stood around the doors and blocked any tours called before theirs. I think this was to be first on the bus to get the front seats.

Most buses had 25 to 35 people on them so not overcrowded. At different ports the standard of bus varied. We always had air conditioned ones ( some more effective than others) but not everyone did.

Our tour guides were mostly good, some with accents I found difficult at times.

Sometimes I think the tours had stops that were too long and it felt like the guides were filling in time.

 

Shows

We aren't great musical theatre fans so didn't see many shows. The performers who came on board for a few shows were poor to good.

 

Lectures

The two lecturers were very good. We enjoyed both of them although they were quite different. We learnt a lot about the countries and ports we visited which helped us appreciate where we were.

 

Internet

We had 500 minutes free WiFi and it was very slow for the first few weeks. We do a blog with photos and it took about 24 minutes to publish each day, if it actually didn't drop out. Very frustrating.

On the mid cruise satisfaction form my husband complained and we were given another 200 minutes which was nice of them. After that we paid for unlimited WiFi ($14.95 / day ).

It was explained that 80% of suites had unlimited WiFi and they didn't log off, which made the Internet slow. It did speed up after 2 weeks and the theory was that the people with the free 500 minutes had used it up and didn't bother logging on again.

 

Disembarkation

The ship arrived in Cape Town the day before so it was an easy disembarkation for us as we were not part of a ships programme where people had to meet in the theatre.

We left at 8am, picked up our bags, met our driver and we were on our way. Very easy.

 

Summary

A totally enjoyable cruise. The time flew by for us.

The itinerary appealed to us and it was interesting to visit the different countries.

Service from everyone was outstanding, the food was delicious most of the time, wine and drinks were good, and company with new friends was fun.

Just spent a few minutes reading all the posts.

We join the ship in Dubai and must say we are so pleased by all the good reviews for the ship and the food etc. We are frequent Regent cruisers but only once on the Voyager and it was a long time ago. Hope to meet any of you going on to Cape town

Sandy and Terry - Calgary

Will try tonite

Have dins in Signatures at 7:30

Will have a black and white dress on

Room 832

So happy that you have taken the time to post and that the Regent Experience meets or exceeds expectations. It is unfortunate that the people hired to represent Regent at the Sheraton Hotel were not on top of things. I hope you will make a note of your experience at the Sheraton on your mid-cruise review.

 

Your onboard experience is what hooked us on Regent many years ago. It is the onboard staff that makes the experience as great as it is. You obviously pay attention to detail (like the tissues in the bathroom that we also appreciate).

 

Just a tip for while you are onboard presumably eating too much...... remember that you can order an appetizer size entrée or a entrée size appetizer. Sometimes we get two appetizers instead of an entrée..... or, when lobster is involved, we get a double portion. Lastly, you can order just about anything in Compass Rose if you give them 24 hours notice.

 

Really looking forward to your review when you return. I'll probably be reading it from the Voyager...... we board next Friday:D

We've been on the Voyager sine Dubai. Would love to meet yoi