LovesPurple

Yesterday was a great day, other than the continuing toilet issues. We were at St. Barth’s, a tender port, my spouse went diving (for any divers reading this, the diving is excellent) and I stayed on board. Had a lovely lunch at Compass Rose, relaxing afternoon by the pool and then we had an exceptional dinner at Chartreuse. The toilet issues are very problematic though. Both yesterday and this morning, the whole ship was out for a couple hours each time. Not a working toilet on the ship during those times. No announcements or explanations. I didn’t have a tour scheduled today but most of the morning tours were canceled because drivers didn’t show.

It is currently John and I’ll ask at trivia if he is staying on

Day 3 was our second port = San Juan. My spouse went diving and I stayed on board to have a massage - treatments are pricey, but very good! And a lovely use of cruise credit. We have a significant amount of on-board credit and I will be using more than half - we asked as reception if I can use my husband’s credit and they said yes as we only have one credit card on the account. I’m not sure if the one credit card is mandatory, but I recommend it if you are using on-board credits like we are (I go to the spa on board, he goes diving 🙂 ). Other than the buffet at peak times, Mariner never feels crowded - sometimes we are one of only 2-3 couples in a bar/lounge in the evenings! Dinner was at Compass Rose and was delicious with great service.

Yesterday was our first port day - Puerto Plata. My included excursion (a city and fort tour that turned out to be a shopping tour) was disappointing, but the town is lovely. (I pause here to note that most of the Regent excursions are good to excellent, this one was an anomaly). For people with limited mobility, please be aware tour buses drop you off about 1 km (0.6 mile) from the actual boat and you walk through a nice area of shops and a lazy river. Food continues to be excellent on board - dinner again at Sette Mari. We also had the Regent block party - at 6 pm everyone goes outside of their suites, the attendants pour wine and canapés and some of the officers come by. It’s a nice tradition and fun to meet our neighbours. On the downside, our toilet stopped flushing for a while today. It was fixed within a few hours - apparently the Mariner has a particularly sensitive plumbing system and this isn’t uncommon. The internet is a bit slow this morning (probably because we are late into port and everyone is online). I’ll do a speed test later and post the results.

Streaming and downloading. My spouse didn’t get the upgrade initially but after the first day, he was frustrated by the included speed for anything other than email. It does make a significant difference

The multiple devices worked until I purchased the upgraded wifi, from that point on, it is only one device at a time.

We are on Deck 9 - great location and nice and quiet.

Yesterday was a great sea day! Amazing food all day (including a fantastic dinner at Sette Mare), fun trivia, great fellow passengers and good service. I love the daily Mensa quiz and had fun at the beginning bridge lesson. Today is our first port - Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. We are just about to arrive and the weather is spectacular. I’m headed out on an included tour in an hour and looking forward to it. Starting the day off right with breakfast and mimosas on our veranda. A few more things to consider for those joining soon - 1) check your shower curtain - ours was mouldy - lots of black mould on the end closest to the shower head. We did ask for it to be replaced and it was immediately. 2) the Regent app does not work on Mariner - I don’t mean it is slow or glitchy, it is just not available at all. This was confirmed by Club.com (the internet help station). 3) there are enrichment talks, and my spouse went to the first one yesterday. However he found the speaker not enjoyable - seemed out of touch about gender and a bit of a colonial tone. As an example he talked about how Puerto Rico is filled with pretty women as they participate in Miss Universe as their own country and have won 5 times.

It is more about the time than the money for us - two extra nights away (one on each end) is often not manageable for us.

Normally, with 4 devices, you could have your phone, tablet and ereader all connected. When you upgrade, you can only use one at a time

We absolutely waved! Hope you have an amazing last sea day.

If you aren’t in concierge class or higher, be aware that Regent will fly you in on the same day. I’ve used Regent Air twice and was very happy. However, now where I live, Regent won’t arrange for flights leaving my closest airport (even for an extra charge) and I would have to stay overnight in Vancouver in order to use their service. This ends up costing quite a bit more so this time, we booked our own flights.

I think that is where we were originally booked, then got a notice of change. I would have just taken the credit if I’d known.

We boarded Mariner yesterday in Miami. First impressions - the ship is obviously not new, but super clean and no complaints about our concierge suite. I had the best night’s sleep last night, and the first dinner was excellent! Service has been very good too. Some minor issues - a concierge suite gets 4 wifi devices/log-ins per person but when you upgrade, you only get one. Other devices don’t even get the included wifi, which seems very strange to me. You can switch between devices, but I wish you either got 4 upgraded ones or 1 upgraded and three normal. Another minor grumble is that they are out of the normally stocked scotch I prefer - minor, but as Miami is a provisioning port, I have no idea why they wouldn’t get more. One last point - if you are tall, try to get a shower stall instead of a bath/shower combo. My spouse is 6’4” and cannot stand up straight in it.

We flew into Miami Dec 1 and Regent had us at the Trump National Doral. We were originally told a different hotel (which I would have preferred) but a change was made a couple months ago. As far as a hotel goes, the room was fine. I didn’t really like the location though and would have preferred to be closer to downtown or South Beach. The included breakfast was also reasonable, but the first two plates I picked up were dirty (including one with a significant amount of leftover egg on the bottom - enough I had to go wash my hands before continuing).