cruiseluv

On a regular year Rome is always packed, I can only imagine the zoo 2025 will be. I visited early February this year thinking it would be empty and found it surprisingly full. Make hotel reservations now

I recently cruised on Vista, the newest Oceania ship. It’s an aesthetically pleasant ship with decent food and service, but I find there’s no comparison with Regent. To upgrade to a cabin the size of Regent, plus pay for excursions, drinks and tips makes it basically the same in price, plus you’re sharing the ship with more people. Service in the lounges at night, unless you were seated at the bar, was pretty bad. I’ve been on all the Regent ships( except Grandeur) and I would pick any of them over an Oceania cruise

44 minutes ago, ysolde said:

I assume Regent did not have time to arrange for a last minute excursion, though I agree, in these circumstances, a HOHO might have done the trick.

Or arrange for late check out from the hotel where they were staying 

5 hours ago, PacificView said:

This is a 10 night cruise, Barcelona to Athens.  The email notifying us of Regent's hotel & transport plan asked us to respond as soon as possible if we were choosing to go it on our own.  I did that and declined their offer.  A little while later I received an email with the terminal address and instructions to arrive between 5:00 & 8:00 pm.  I think that if Regent told us earlier that embarkation was going to be that late in the day, others may have done what I did and found their own hotel.  Of course, they would have still been upset that there wasn't a reimbursement for our out of pocket cost.  But at least it would have been their choice as to how to spend their day.  Frantic 36 is right that bringing a bad start onboard only ends up ruining your vacation.  For me,  I'm separating the two issues between the changes prior to embarkation and everything that's happened since boarding.  The people who are still upset are having a harder time doing that. I say that not to criticize them, just to say that since boarding it's been a really good experience for me - and I know that I'm not alone in feeling that way. 

I don’t understand then if Regent knew way ahead of time that embarkation wouldn’t occur until at the earliest 5 pm, why did they bus those people to the terminal at 1 pm!! ?? They should have given them a bus tour or something to kill time!

2 hours ago, Pcardad said:

I am not going to argue semantics. It is my opinion that this "policy" is for public consumption but that Corporate has instructed the ships not to enforce it. It is one of the few complaints I have about Regent. The decision not to enforce is not coming from the individual ships.

I agree, and I base it on what Frank Galzy, GM of Splendor at the time, told me when I complained during a Caribbean cruise last year. 
I suggested that the Captain himself should make an announcement over the loudspeaker, I think that might give people pause to continue with this behavior 

I love the Navigator! Cozy with a great staff, I would not hesitate if it was the right itinerary/date

5 hours ago, TashaDickens said:

First and last time I will travel of RSSC. We are currently on Voyager sailing out of Barcelona to Athen . Cruise delayed due to technical issues from day 1 and the subsequent handling and communication of issue and communication of issue has been horrendous. 99.9% of customers aboard are outraged by callous treatment from management. Email to CEO has gone unanswered. WORST experience EVER. Am sure there are many who have has great cruises on RSSC but the true culture of any company is tested at it’s worse - and this company has failed.

 

Do not use this cruise line!

If you dump and run,  providing  no details, you get no sympathy or credibility from me. 

Either I’m not very observant or this is a new thing. I haven’t been on Grandeur but don’t recall piped music all over the place on the other ships

21 hours ago, Sachasmom said:

Thanks ChatKat. Not too worried about vibrations. More about other noise.  

 

Regards a Canadian snowbird who is also in Palm Desert. 

Yeah, that's what I said before I was on Voyager. Good luck

My first time on Voyager I suffered from the vibration in an Aft cabin. Never again, next two times was in a mid cabin, would never accept an aft cabin there

On 2/21/2024 at 2:15 PM, Kwaj girl said:

 

With those "other" cruise lines....have you considered adding the name of a 2nd cabin occupant who will simply be a no-show at check-in?  That would avoid the ridiculous surcharge AND the taxes for that absent person would be refunded. 

People are already doing that .

On 2/22/2024 at 1:31 PM, NYC-London said:

Does anyone know the reasoning behind only being allowed to complete the end of cruise survey will still on the ship?

 

While on board, I attempted to complete the survey using my work computer but the installed security software would not let me continue. A few weeks after returning home I was contacted by IT that it was necessary for me to take a "refresher" course in security measures which I completed this morning. During the discussion period I mentioned the end of cruise survey which had to be completed while on the ship and was completely caught off guard when I was instructed in the future to be very cautious of such limitations.

 

I have always wondered why Regent places such restrictions on these surveys. Back in the good ole days I would carefully complete the survey while sitting in the club waiting for my flight home.

My opinion? They don’t really care to read what we have to say. I refuse to spend valuable time while still on the cruise trying to deal with their cumbersome survey. I don’t even try anymore 

53 minutes ago, edgee said:

Have completed two cruises on the new Oceania Vista. Noise problems from TV and talking on both cruises. Have identified a few cabins far forward on the ship where our TV side of room does not face another TV, so no TVs would be up against our room wall. Instead we would be against crew cabin hallway. They are the only cabins I would find acceptable if I were to cruise on that ship again. Am on Splendor in a few weeks and hope I do not have same noise problem.

I’ve been on Splendor two times and never experienced that, or heard of anyone that did. On Vista it was quite bad

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

I just looked in the closet and we have Platinum and Titanium on the bags....I thought I remembered Gold but I could be wrong. Yep, I am wrong. Platinum and up. Sorry for the bad memory.

Yes, I think you were mistaken about Gold getting anything

5 hours ago, Pcardad said:

I have pleather luggage tags (I think) that say GOLD on them and leather tags for PLATINUM and TITANIUM. They came in a grey box. I will see if I can grab a pic.

Never got them

2 hours ago, ernieb said:

We will be boarding the Splendor March 24 in San Juan. I understand that when embarking and debarking the ships use the Pan American dock. If it’s only a port call they use the Old Town dock.

Not correct, in our December Splendor cruise San Juan was just a stop. It could have been because it was our last stop before Miami and its a US territory we had to do immigration there. Maybe thats the only place where they have such facilities

6 hours ago, Pcardad said:

Yep, you will get tags at Gold. The ones given out at the hotel by the Regent rep are adhesive with blank lines to fill in. You can also get them on board the ship. Neither the adhesive labels nor the ones mailed out by Regent are meant to take the place of a normal luggage tag. They are simply to assist in getting your bag to your room.

I’ve been Gold for ages, have no idea what special tags I’m supposed to get?

24 minutes ago, CardowMD said:

I have been trying to get back on the mailing list. Everything stopped about 2 years ago, but still get weekly Viking and occasional Oceania mailers Despite applying for RSSC. I refer back to deck plans on old catalogs all the time…these haven’t changed, although itinerary’s have had many changes.

Boy, do I wish I was as lucky as you! Hate getting all the brochures and advertising, it clutters my mailbox. I’ve tried having them stop to no avail

6 hours ago, Aloha 1 said:

 All the tag has on it is the deck number and a space on the back to put your name and room number. Not familiar with the hotel ones as we typically book our own hotel. We are Silver right now but will be gold in July. Is that the level to get the "old" tags?

I have been cruising with Regent since 2000, when it was still called Radisson, and the luggage tags I received were always like this, just the deck number, I had to fill out my name and cabin number. Don’t see what’s the big deal

2 hours ago, ysolde said:

I got my cruise docs, and it says we are arriving at San Juan, but it does not say whether we are arriving at the Pan American cruise terminal, or the one in Old San Juan.  Does anyone know which cruise terminal Regent uses, or do they use both?

What ship are you on? In December we were on Splendor and it docked at Pan American pier

On 11/11/2023 at 8:17 AM, NCCruzQueen said:

It’s right in town, easy walk to shops and restaurants.

Not always . Early December we were on Splendor and the ship docked at the Pan American pier. They offered a shuttle to Old San Juan, took about 10 minutes 

8 hours ago, rcandkc said:

I don’t know…when this many people complain/report issue and it has never been an issue reported on Regent’s other ships, I listen. 

Yep, I do too. I’ve been on all Regents ships more than once and I’ve never heard a peep from cabins next to us, nor heard anyone complaining about it. As I previously said I was just on Oceania’s new ship which has this same problem and I now learn that coincidentally they were built at the same place

On 1/22/2024 at 10:53 AM, rcandkc said:

Well, I’m a VERY light sleeper so it’s important to me.  I’ve never heard the tv from other suites on the other ships so I’ll stick to them if I can’t get a suite on grandeur that I know will not need soundproofing.  My choice. 

And trust me, if you can hear your neighbors TV you’ll hear other noises as well….

On 1/22/2024 at 8:59 AM, bitob said:

The cabin soundproofing issue is also a problem on Oceania’s new build. Same parent  company. Same shipyard. This can only be corrected at dry dock 

 

i was on the grandeur for 3 cruises starting Nov 24. 3 different suites. No soundproofing issues. 
 

btw. I thought grandeur was fabulous. I booked 4 more cruises booked on her

You’re absolutely right, I was on Oceania’s new build Vista for the New Years cruise and the lack of soundproofing is pretty bad, day in, day out. I have a b2b reserved on Grandeur in 2025, 26 days , and I’m having serious doubts.

interesting you didn’t have any issues on Grandeur, maybe some locations are worse than others?

On 1/11/2024 at 10:50 AM, snorkle lover said:

We are not big drinkers, DH enjoys scotch and I am more of a mixed drink gal ( gin, vodka). We will be cruising in the Caribbean in a couple of weeks. Can anyone suggest a girlie kind of  drink that they really enjoyed.

Cheers! 

Do you like martinis? Then Vesper martini. Another gin based drink I enjoy is Negronis. I don’t know if they are “ girlie” but they’re good!