ChucktownSteve

We docked right in downtown Hamilton, Bermuda about 3pm Wednesday and off to a glass bottom boat excursion at 3:30. We went out to the reef. It was interesting but not as colorful as the reefs I have dived before. Our boat was litterally just a few feet above the area the captain took us to. The bow of an intentionally sunken ship from the 1800's that was an ironclad that never fired a shot in anger. The fish have been trained to go into a feeding frenzy when the bread from a bucket supplied by the boat operator is tossed overboard by the passengers. This morning is beautiful in Hamilton. The weather is perfect. Here is a panoramic view from our suite balcony . We're on the port side which isn't facing the port. 😉

I now understand How do you Doooooooo! lol Will dooooooo. Absolutely no vibrations for the show last night which was excellent btw.

Here ya go. The lazy way.

I thought I would share an interesting, what some might call frightening, episode about two hours out of Bermuda. We were in our suite and all of a sudden I thought I was back on a sailboat. The ship keeled sharply. All our bottles of champagne, Vero Water and liquor slid to the opposite end of the desk. A coffee cup slid off the saucer onto the fruit dish. My DW thought it might have been the remake of The Poseidon Adventure just more politically correct. When we went to lunch shortly afterwards, another passenger at the adjoining table told us they were in Compass Rose when it happened. She said there was a cascade of glasses and wine bottles crashing in the galley. Then she heard lots of shouting behind the closed doors and sounds of large amounts of glass being swept up. We found out shortly thereafter that they had to take the sudden and what I perceived a sharp, drastic course alteration to avoid some fishing nets in the water. Too bad there wasn't enough time for me to toss my hands in the air and shout weeeeee. Weee, weee,Weeeeeeee. 😄

Had two pots of coffee delivered via room service at 6:30am today to hold us over until Compass Rose opened at 8am. We wanted a quiet and leisurely served breakfast this morning. Yesterday was room service breakfast. I had the strip steak which was about 1/2" thick, cooked to MR temperature. I also requested eggs over easy while my DW ordered over medium. Everything was cooked as ordered. The food came out hot and in good time. Everything was on point and coffee was refilled regularly. They certainly had their rhythm going today. Let me add here that the space launch was actually taken from the starboard side. I thought starboard but my brain typed port. lol

I was going to do that today but my request to the server last night in Prime 7 got the desired results before I submitted it. I like that the verbal comment was sufficient. I was incorrect earlier. We're only through about 1/3 of the 16 day cruise.

Our Concierge Suite sitting area The Spacious walk in closet. More hanging and drawer space than we could use. 10 minutes before we sailed from Port Canaveral the Space Center launched after we did an excursion to the KSC. If you can download, then zoom in, you will actually see the rocket fuselage above the flames. This was taken from deck 10 port side. Sailing into the Charleston Jetties with the Morris Island Lighthouse in the background. Sailing in towards the USS Yorktown and Cooper River Bridge named Arthur Ravenel Bridge. First night overlooking Charleston sunset. Navigator from Charleston Harbor As we sailed out of Charleston we passed the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum where I worked part time for six years waiting for my DW to want to retire.

I just received a call on behalf of the chef inquiring about my preferences for the sugar free desserts and if they could use artificial sweetener. Looks like I'm going to get my just desserts. 😁 That's very accommodating which I appreciate. Just a few hours out of Bermuda. At about 2pm CD Ray (I call him "Clicker" for the noise he makes as he transitions segments on the daily TV schedule.) will give us a narrative to the open decks as we sail into Bermuda.

I wonder what this tells us all about the suite we're booked mid-ship on the port side, "Not yet reviewed"?

Thank you for the nice comments. The smallest ship I've sailed to date is an Azamara R class twice. Once aft facing. The only vibrations on that ship was when we reversed the props to slow and dock. It was for only a short time. Who would have thought a mid ship suite on deck 8 would be as bad even though some vibration is expected. Fortunately the Captain has slowed to a moderate pace so the vibrations have disappeared. We were booking it in 3-5ft seas when the problem occurred. I'm sure the seas where the itinerary sails is also a contributing factor. I'm not having a bad cruise. There is a higher quality of service and offerings than other lines we've sailed. Whether the added price is justified, the jury is still out for me But that is a subjective opinion that only each person can determine for themselves. I do have the rest of this cruise (we're not even half through it) and the two additional ones for better that later. I've run into countless people who have a preference to Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises. I feel if that's what they enjoy good for them. Until now we've only sailed Oceania and Azamara in the premium sector. So we stepped up to Luxury to form our own opinions. On this cruise, we just have happened to be exposed to some of the newly trained crew that obviously haven't grown yet into their position. The attitudes are positive across the entire crew. Prime 7 last night was par excellence. Double cut lamb chops were cooked perfectly to temperature and flavorful. Service was quick and impeccable. I wish F&B would understand the difference between "no sugar added" and "sugar free" for those of us who have to watch our glucose levels. Recently in Celebrity's Edge class Laminae and Azamara's sailings, they made really good sugar free, diverse deserts. Even though I've requested here, all they serve on Navigator for sugar free is mixed berries. I'm berry, berry tired of berries for dessert every evening as the only option despite my multiple requests.

Since you're the long time expert here, would you please find the link to UUNetBill's guru thread post on Suite 834 that could have warned me? I couldn't find it before or again just now.

sunprince, I understand many people prefer the Navigator. I’m fine with that. this is ourfirst Regent cruise. Yes people mentioned the vibrations however until this particular cruise, how could I know how much it would impact our experience? I’ve usually experienced vibrations at stern cabins on other ships. We are midship and relatively high. I didn’t expect it to be the whole ship. Guess it’s my fault for booking this cruise. I promise you I won’t have this problem again. Btw I’ve only been reading Regent’s board for a little more than a year. Searching on CC boards isn’t necessarily the easiest way to find things. Why didn’t you warn me this past year? You knew long ago. 😁

We're center ship deck 8. Several times a day we hear what I suspect are stabilizers being extended or retracted. Very noisy and vibrates even this high. I received a bottle of veuve clicquot champagne after I commented to a guest services staff about Compass Rose's problems the first night. Too bad I can't drink wine or Champagne. lol Guess I'll offer it to my cabin stewardess. With all the ship vibrations, I hope it hasn't shaken the bottle too much. 🤣 If we book Regent after the current set of itineraries, it definitely won't be on Navigator.

I forgot to mention embarkation in Miami was horrendous. It took us almost two hours of standing on line before getting cleared to board the ship. it would have taken us longer however during a conversation with a regular standing in front of us I mentioned that I hoped it wouldn’t be much longer since my glucose level was close to reaching my low limit alert. He knew one of the senior staff who working the line and was letting people with walking, medical or standing difficulty use the priority lane. He shared my situation with the senior staff member who invited me to use the priority lane. That was my first experience on how friendly and helpful the other cruisers are to each other. I never would have asked the advantage for myself. I know the check in people work for the port and not Regent. They were under staffed and not well trained. I heard from others it was their worst Regent embarkation. It certainly was mine for any other cruise line too. Our first night we came back to the cabin about 9:00pm, noticed our Concierge suite had not been turned down or the towels we used to shower had not been replaced. Shortly after we got undressed for bed, the cabin Steward rang our doorbell. Not a good impression. Needless to say I declined service because we didn’t want to get dressed again for that. The cruise before ours was 25% capacity. Our cruise is full capacity. I believe some staff may have had difficulty adjusting to the much higher workload and hadn’t gained their rhythm yet. We haven’t had a problem since because we communicate now with the refresh or privacy door hanger. I hope you don’t take my comments as complaining. I’m trying to share my observations as a first time Regent cruiser.

We're on our way to Bermuda tomorrow for three days before heading further north and colder weather. The best part of this cruise is so many other passengers who are extremely friendly and inviting into conversations. I've never experienced that as much on any other cruise line although Azamara was somewhat similar in nature. The entertainment is wonderful. Cruise Director Ray surprised me with how good he is and can really sing! The excursions so far have been well organized. The crew attitude is very friendly. Even the senior staff are engaging. We're beginning day four and the food has been hit or miss...especially in Compass Rose. Twice I had a waiter that didn't pay much attention to the tables because he was too preoccupied with slips of paper and doing busy work. I noticed several other servers telling him how or what to do. We never got coffee even after ordering it three times. So finally last night I asked another server if the first guy was on his first contract. I discovered it wasn't but he was just promoted to server. There appears to be a lot of new crew in positions learning how to do their job to the apparent Regent caliber. In speaking with the F&B Manager he shared that there are a lot of new crew and they're having some challenges in receiving items due to supply chain difficulty. Several regular Regent cruisers say this cruise is not the standards they've been used to and many of them have complained. The Compass Rose galley, IMO, is the weakest of the venues in their execution. So I don't feel as bad that it's not just my expectations that haven't been reached yet. However they are improving. The F&B Manager did admit they've received a lot of complaints. I like the menus and diversity but nothing that outstanding except Prime 7. We were able to get an extra available slot the first sea evening. Service was impeccable. Food was hot, cooked properly to temperature and very tasty. Yesterday my DW asked me what was so special on this cruise we hadn't received on some of our other cruises to justify the added cost. I couldn't answer her question yet. I do like the overall caliber of the cruise but waiting to see the wow. It's not a bad cruise but just hasn't lived up to what you experienced Regent loyalists have been accustomed to. Our best cruise of all time still is the Azamara Baltics cruise pre pandemic. We covid tested yesterday as required by Bermuda before docking. It was handled very efficiently. I did find out seven people tested positive although none of them showed any symptoms. That was admitted to me by a senior staff member when I inquired. The Navigator being the smallest and oldest Regent vessel is not the smoothest sailing. There are a lot of vibrations throughout the ship when were booking it or docking. These are my initial observations. I'm sure they will be improving. Our next Regent cruises are in September to Alaska and then the Panama Canal in January. The ships will each increase in size. Thus I should gain a good comparison before determining my final Regent opinion. Here's hoping it just gets better and better.

Thankx for the two prompt replies. Peace of mind and less stress is the way to go then! I took your advice. The 1315hrs flight is booked. It's a Monday morning so traffic could be problematic if I tried earlier. Just wish we didn't get in at midnight though with a layover in ATL. They cancelled our nonstop. grrrrrr. But at least we'll have the lay down seats for most of the trip. Again appreciate it guys. Let's hope they don't alter this reservation.. It's already been changed twice by them.

To those of you who have disembarked in LA, how long does it take to get to LAX? I don't know which port Regent uses or how far it is from the airport. The airline rebooked us on a flight at 10:25. I don't believe we can make that. They have a flight at 11:35. Is that possible to transfer or do we need to book the 1:15pm? We appreciate your input as quickly as possible please.