We also just returned from from Splendor, Southampton to Barcelona, following the previous Southampton to Southampton. It was our first experience with Splendor, with most of our previous experience on Voyager. Our last cruise on Regent was back to back Singapore to Singapore, Singapore to Sydney, Dec to Jan, 2019 to 2020, on Voyager in a Penthouse B, which we loved. This was our 3rd attempt at this Splendor cruise, due to Covid delays, in a Concierge E.
We loved the layout of our cabin on Splendor since it was wider rather than narrower. It wasn't quite as wide as the Penthouse B on Voyager, but it worked for us. We didn't miss having a butler, and our room stewards provided really excellent service.
There was definitely a problem with staffing. At many ports, we saw staff leaving and new staff arriving. Quite a few of the staff had been asked to extend their contracts. We felt that the staff was doing a very good job, while bringing the new arrivals up to speed.
We did, however, have problems with Prime 7. We had booked the first night of our first segment, and everything was perfect. Both my seafood and meat choices were perfect, and the service was well paced. We ate there for lunch during the first segment, and it was also a good experience. During the second segment, the service was slow at lunch and dinner. Our dinner near the end of the cruise was not good at all. There were several large tables, even at 6:30, and one had an officer dining with them. They were given all the attention by the waitstaff. The food that night came poorly cooked, and of inferior quality to what we had previously.
We totally enjoyed our 2 dinners and 2 lunches at Chartreuse, and our 2 dinners and a wine lunch at Pacific Rim. The food and service were all excellent.
Our biggest complaint was with Destination Services. They seemed to schedule too many excursions at the same time, and normally it was over lunch. When 500 people return to the ship at the same time, and the only place still open to eat lunch is the Pool Grill, it's hard to find a place to sit. They had to reopen La Veranda a few times to provide lunch. I'm sure that affected dinner service. I think our second segment was near capacity. The first was not.