lorimay

We were on deck 7 just aft of the fire elevators, port side. Other than the noise from neighbors, it was very quiet an a great location.

We had a wonderful last night dinner in Chartreuse tonight. Much of the food was magnificent, and the plating was spectacular. Top notch service from Aaron. Unfortunately, we had an 8:30 reservation so we missed the ABBA party in the atrium but we could hear it as we went to bed. We really enjoyed Krew Kapers. I’ve never seen anything like it on a cruise. So many talented crew members and the whole thing was very heartwarming. Our trivia team started out strong but didn’t do well the last couple of days. However, we did have enough points to get some fun prizes. The weather wasn’t great today so it was crowded inside. Spoke to some people coming into trivia from tea. Apparently it was an overflow crowd from Meridian Lounge into Coffee Connection and no seats anywhere. it was Italian day for lunch in La Veranda. Food was good. I wish there was a little more variety, especially the salad bar ingredients. I’m going to put my final thoughts together once I get home tomorrow. One thing I will comment on now is that I can clearly hear my neighbor’s conversation and I have earbuds in. Everything else about these suites is near perfection. I heard their phone ringing this morning. I don’t know if this is going to be an easy fix.

For the balcony cleaning, apparently they were told they couldn’t use the balcony all day. I’m just telling you what they told us. As for the food, I don’t know what their standards are. For us, our food has been excellent. We had lukewarm food in CR the first night and at the pool grill- where, by the way, they now have signs that say “order here” at the ends of the buffet. On our first day, I saw the hostess’ ordering tablet there and asked if I should order and she told me to sit down and they would come to me. So excuse my confusion as to where to order there. I stand by my “they can’t get their act together” comment from before based on our experience. Other than the food temperature, I have absolutely no complaints about the quality or preparation of the food. I don’t see much difference from Oceania, and they also have outstanding food. However CR beats Oceania’s dining room by a mile. Food is very subjective. My standard is that I am an excellent and experienced home cook and I expect better food than I can cook. Almost every dish used better ingredients and was better prepared than I could ever dream of cooking. The one area I would downgrade them on is desserts. They are usually plated beautifully but not imaginative or out of the ordinary. Nothing bad but nothing special.

Some of their issues were of expectations, and some of them were physical issues with the suite. They said the control is backwards in their shower - the switch to go from rain shower head to wand is backwards, and also you push out to turn on and push in to turn off. I didn't really understand it, but they were told it needed to be fixed. The door between their bedroom and sitting area wouldn't stay closed. It was temporarily repaired with duct tape by the engineers. Some of the cushions for their balcony were missing - after a couple of inquiries, they were told they simply didn't make the ship and would be coming later. They were disappointed that yesterday they were told the crew would be cleaning the balcony and they weren't to use it all day. As for expectations, they were younger, pretty active people and they were pretty bored. I don't think they did much research before booking the cruise. They just felt that for the very large amount of money they had spent on the cruise, the food and service was not as good as they expected. I encouraged them to make a complaint, because we had a couple of bad experiences the first couple of days and the staff worked hard to make those up to us. But I don't think they will be on Regent again.

We had a nice lunch in Chartreuse today. The food is very fussy, but I could still find things I liked. I had the modern salad nicoise, which is no really salad nicoise but still good and the grilled octopus. Very delicious. We have our dinner there tomorrow night. Tonighr we ate in Pacific Rim. Although it’s not as good as Red Gingerbon Oceania, it was still delicious. I can’t cook Asian food at home so maybe that’s why I like it so much. Food was great but service was a little off. We had an 8pm reservation and service was slow. We closed the place down. We were at a sharing table with another couple, also Regent newbies, who are having a very disappointing cruise. They are in one of the big suites and are having issues with the plumbing in their bathroom and other suite issues. They said they had high expectations that just weren’t met, especially for the money they spent on their suite. We did the art tour on the Regent app this afternoon. It was interesting but not much information on the art pieces and more on the artists. There is some very nice art on this ship. it’s a sea day tomorrow. I can’t believe it’s almost over.

We just got this notification too. I think it’s extremely fair since they let is know this far in advance. Very sad to not get to Israel and Egypt but was kind of expecting that. The overnight in Istanbul is intriguing. I think we will be looking for alternatives. If this were on an Edge class we would definitely keep the cruise, but Silhouette is not my first choice.

Finally getting a chance to catch up on my reports. We ate in Compass Rose on Sunday night. Had an excellent meal and excellent service. I like Compass Rose because of the large selection and the Chef's specials usually contain some incredible dishes. I had the eggplant wonton appetizer and the smell of the miso broth that surrounded it was divine. We were seated at a two-top by the windows near the front. We were able to have a conversation, so I didn't feel it was that loud. The windows have clear panels in front of them that have lights embedded in them so they look black with stars in them. It's very pretty. During the day the panels are clear so you can see out, but you are a foot or two away from the walls so you can't really see down. Not an issue for me, but it may be for some. That night we had a conversation with another couple who are also on their first Regent cruise and are Celebrity loyalists. We all agreed that there's no comparison in many ways. If you look at the quality of the food and the huge number of choices. I don't think the downgrade in food on Celebrity is new. It's been happening for years. But what distresses us is the fewer number of choices. We spoke to another couple one day that is also trying Regent from Celebrity. People talked about it a lot on the Celebrity forum, but clearly they are actually doing it. Yesterday was Costa Maya. We had an excursion booked to Chacchoben Mayan ruins. We were the first ship in port and so it wasn't crowded. There were about 5 busses from Regent heading to the ruins. Unfortunately, we ended up with the guide who spoke very poor English. She tried really hard, but her pronunciation was bad and it wasn't a great experience - and I am very tolerant of non-native speakers trying English. However, the ruins are very interesting. We got back to the port and the Carnival Valor, Carnival Dream and RCCL Voyager of the Seas were are in port and were discharging passengers. I am not kidding when I say 10,000 people were coming at us as we were trying to get back to the ship like salmon swimming upstream. The port was so crowded and they make you walk all the way past shops and bars. It was awful. We got back to the ship too late to make La Veranda so we went to the pool grill. Should have done room service. They just can't seem to get their act together at the Pool Grill. I ordered two iced teas, a club soda, and peel and eat shrimp. The club soda came, I had to ask for the iced tea three times, and the peel and eat shrimp arrived after we were already done with the items we got from the buffet. No one on the staff there seems to know who is supposed to take orders or serve or clean up. I also think the food on the buffet isn't great, although their hamburgers are 100 times better than the ones served at the pool grill on Celebrity. We had reservations in Prime 7 for dinner. Had to wait a few minutes to be seated, so we looked at the drinks menu and saw that in the non-alcoholic mocktails section they had drinks made with Lyre non-alcoholic spirits, mainly the "gin". We ordered the "No-groni" and one other, both were delicious and it was nice to have real cocktail style drinks with no alcohol. Food was excellent last night, although I think the steak in CR is just as good as in Prime 7. Service was top notch. We love the atmosphere there - very clubby with all the leather. We missed the show in the theater, Broadway tunes by the singers, and went to the Observation Lounge to listen to Gino play. He's so good and not over the top like some piano bar performers are. He's a great entertainer. Breakfast this morning in CR. Service was a little slow but it's breakfast so who cares. Food was well prepared and they do have quite a variety. Once my husband was banned from our dune buggy excursion here in Cozumel for being over the age limit (the excursion information on line had a higher age than reality so it let us book, then they rescinded) there wasn't another excursion that interested us, so we're staying on board today. There is a Viking ship docked next to us and I believe the two Carnival ships from yesterday are here too. Maybe it's a good thing we're not going in. One other observation - I had some laundry done and was amazed by the attention to detail. It was returned to me folded in a box and wrapped in tissue. Definitely much nicer than other cruise lines. Can they come to my home and do that for me? Tonight is Pacific Rim. Really looking forward to it.

The other stars of the ship are the marble floors. Every area has intricately patterned floors in shades of white, black and gray. They are incredible. I agree the Christmas decorations are understated but elegant. The gold and silver everywhere complements the muted color scheme. It’s not over the top. I would love to know the story of the huge tapestry outside the fore elevators. I’ve never seen anything like it. It appears to be a tree of life. It must have taken years to create.

Today we were at Harvest Caye in Belize. This private island was beautifully built and maintained. It reminds me of Holland America’s Half Moon Cay or Coco Cay (before it became “A Perfect Day”. Because we were the only ship it was very empty. Almost like a private experience. It’s a long walk from the ship but they had plenty of shuttles to take you back and forth. We live near the beach so it’s not an attraction for us, the sand was raked smooth and the loungers and umbrellas were clean and plentiful. If you don’t like the beach, there’s a huge and beautiful pool. The only downside is that food and drink are not free here. But most of the excursions are. Really a nice “beach” day. Got back to the ship about 2:30 and went to the pool grill. They still have not gotten their act together. Had to order our drinks twice. We wanted to order something off the menu. Had to wave a waiter down after another waiter walked by us several times. Food from the buffet was good, but not outstanding. La Veranda has been great - I’m not sure what’s happening outside on the pool deck. We went to tea in the Meridian Lounge this afternoon. It was great. I tried to get into any specialty restaurant tonight. Our specialty restaurant reservations don’t start until tomorrow night. Nothing was available anywhere. We have sharing in Pacific Rim one night and she couldn’t even give us a solo table. This is the downside of a full ship. David Nevin is doing the show tonight and I’m looking forward to it. Last night was Ignite the Night. The dancers were great. I’m still not in love with the singers. However, the two production shows have got those old, tired productions on Celebrity (I’m looking at you, Topper) beat hands down in every way.

A follow up on our bad service on day 1. Today we got a phone call from George, the maitre d’ at CR, apologizing for our bad experience. He was very genuine and sincere. We explained service was great the next night. He said we know there were mistakes and we know how to do it right. We also had the housekeeping officer deliver a bottle of nonalcoholic wine to the room and apologize in person for the promise that an alternative to champagne would be in our cabin and it didn’t happen. He said he and the head sommelier scoured the ship to find something. We were very grateful. Clearly the comments I left were taken seriously and we appreciate that. Also, I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not, but yesterday I commented on the lack of cold towels on the dock when you come back from excursions. Today a crew member was handing them out. The people around us were also delighted because it is so refreshing. I feel that some of the negative things we have experienced are just because it is a new ship and they haven’t gotten their normal procedures in place yet.

A comment on what Regent does very well - the feeling of luxury. In the staterooms, all of the furniture and cabinetry is very good quality. The sofa is remarkably comfortable compared to those hard benches in the Edge class cabins. The soft goods are incredible. The mattress is so comfortable, the sheets feel so luxurious, and those soft, fluffy towels are to die for. All around the ship the fabrics are high end. There is beautiful art work but it’s not “in your face” like on Celebrity (don’t get me wrong, we love the Beyond). Overall, it gives the impression of luxury- like a high-end hotel.

For us, hearing our neighbors is just surprising but not a huge annoyance. One of our trivia partners said that on the last leg, the couple in the next cabin was not getting along and the could hear them fighting. I’m just wondering why it’s such a problem on this ship compared to the others. Our same trivia partners have had a huge issue with noise in their suite. They plated us a recording of a loud clicking and popping sound. They had crew work three hours on it yesterday.

Just got back from Sette Mari. We were invited to join our trivia partners who have cruised Regent many times. Our experience was fantastic. The food and service were great with very nice company. I can see why they prefer it to Compass Rose. We ended up not taking the excursion. It would have been 5 hours on a bus to be outside in the drizzle. We walked to town instead. Really not much to see. A few observations: we were a little surprised that there wasn’t anyone on the dock at the end of the gangway helping people. We are used to Celebrity where a crew member assists and welcomes you back. Also no cold towels or cold drinks by the gangway. Also, I used the bathroom on deck 5 near reception. The first stall had a dirty toilet and toilet paper on the floor. The next one had an empty roll and the wrapper from the new one on the floor. I probably just hit it at the wrong time but you also don’t see crew cleaning all the time like you do on other cruise lines. The ship is spotless, so I think it was just the timing. Our trivia partners, both couples, who have been on the Explorer and the Splendor, commented on how the Grandeur is the only ship where you can hear conversations from the neighboring cabins. We had noticed this too -especially if you are in the sofa, you can clearly hear voices. You can’t hear from the hall at all. They feel it is a design flaw. I might have joined the camp that says Destination Services is a problem. We had a phone message saying my husband can’t participate in our Cozumel excursion because he’s too old, even though all the material says he’s below the age limit. Clearly there’s an issue but we’ll see if we can work it out tomorrow. As for coffee, I’m not a coffee drinker. My husband, who doesn’t like his coffee strong, said the room service coffee was like brown water. He got a nice Americano in Coffee Connection, but we were both surprised there are only machines and not a barista. It just seems a little strange. There is a bar next door so I’m assuming you can get coffee with spirits there. I filled out my comment card today. It will be interesting to see if we hear anything back. Mostly minor issues of course, but I did document our awful service in CR the first night. Tomorrow is Harvest Caye and the weather looks good.

We went to trivia yesterday afternoon and got on a team with some lovely people. They were all long time Regent cruisers and had been in the ship since it left Italy. They assured us our experience the first night was way out of the norm. Trivia was crowded and a lot of fun. Also found out that they are opening the specialty restaurants at 6pm for this cruise to try and alleviate the crowds. Went to CR for dinner last night. Got seated right away although once again we were way in the back, but this time on the right side with waiter Denver. He was great and service was much improved. Food was actually hot when it arrived and delicious. I’m realizing the quality of the ingredients and the individual preparation make a huge difference, unlike the banquet meals they serve on Celebrity. For example, we were on the Equinox earlier this year in lobster night. I asked for a steak with my lobster tail. They are very small tails. The waiter refused to plate the two together, but just brought two pre-plated meals. One of the reasons we ate moving on. We went to the Icons show last night. It was a strange mix of songs. Dancers are pretty good and very high energy. The singers are trying hard but none is fantastic. One female can belt it out at high volume but doesn’t have much finesse. The other doesn’t project well. One of the males is constantly off tune. However, they are all much more talented than I am! The orchestra is very good. We did more wandering around the ship. The casino tables seem to be pretty popular but I haven’t seen many of the machines occupied. The library is incredible. One of the nicest I’ve seen anywhere, let alone at sea. The culinary arts center is always busy. Once again I heard the word stunning applied to the decor of the ship. Lots of seating areas and cozy corners all over. We are supposed to be in Roatan by 1. Right now it’s pouring rain and the pool deck is flooded. We are scheduled on the “Best of the West” tour which includes shopping, an eco tour and beach. I’m wondering what will happen but I have a rain jacket so I’m ready. Our room attendant Alyssa is just great and no complaints about the room, although we have heard complaints from others about loud noises in their suites because of the rocky seas. We are hoping to get into Sette Mari tonight.

Things appear to be picking up. After an interesting lecture by Hugh Neighbour on Mexico's history, we went to Prime 7 for lunch. Service was excellent, as was the food. My husband had exceptional shrimp and grits (he even ordered a second portion) and the Cuban fried chicken (a little soggy). I had the fisherman's platter which was very good. The difference in service from last night was like night and day. We are noticing that the quality of the ingredients on Regent is clearly a step up from Celebrity, but I don't notice much difference from Oceania. Interesting note on the ship. We had rough weather last night and this morning, but we really didn't feel much roll. I was worried since the ship is so much smaller than we are used to. But it was nothing compared to our transatlantic on Beyond last year, where it was so bad for a couple of days that you could barely stay in bed and walking was difficult. We are so very impressed with this ship!

More positive comments from this morning. Starlink is working great. I upgraded to streaming. Just as fast as home. Room service showed up with coffee this morning right on time and service was great. My husband wants to take the bathroom home. Shower is fantastic. And it’s so beautiful. One negative- we got turned away from CR this morning at 8:45. They refused to say it was full. Just kept saying they had to turn over tables and there were a lot of people ahead of us. We had a lovely breakfast in La Veranda instead. Yesterday I had two positive experiences with Destination Services. They were very helpful changing a couple of tours. David Nevin seems to be a great cruise director. Show last night was fun - and he recovered well when the music started but the dancer simply didn’t show up. He said it was a first - and it wasn’t a joke. They moved her act to last. I went to reception to ask for a comment card. Rep at the desk said he could take a comment. He was appalled at the story of our dinner last night. Agreed it was unacceptable. He said we will see changes. I will wait for the comment card for the other disappointments. off to the lecture and a sea day of activity.

Hello from the Grandeur. I have never done a live review before but thought I’d share my experience. About us - we’ve cruised quite a bit, in the last few years mostly on Celebrity with a couple of recent Oceania cruises on Marina and Riviera thrown in. This is our first Regent cruise. We’re a little fed up with lowered food and service on Celebrity and the feeling we were being nicked and dimed. We liked Oceania but found it a little sedate for us and we are not big partiers. Here’s some hits, missed and fails from our first day. We had a 12:30 check in and arrived at about noon. There was a huge line and we were told it was still the 11:30 line so sit and wait. The line moved slowly and check in seemed really old fashioned compared to the experience on Celebrity. Not a huge inconvenience but not the luxury experience we expected. We got on board around 1pm. Slight miss I asked at checkin and again at the destination desk about checking our carry ons. No clue and didn’t even ask anyone. Turns out there was one in the casino. Big miss. The ship is gorgeous. I heard the word stunning from several people. We are in an F1 and it is perfect. Lots and lots of storage. Beautiful decor. We ate lunch at the pool grill. We didn’t understand the system. There were no servers. Tables were not set. We asked for silverware and the one server said we could order from her. My husband ate from the buffet- lots of choices. I wanted a Reuben with no sauerkraut. She told it would be difficult since they are pre made. Ordered a hamburger medium and it showed up rare, but my husband’s steamed shrimp were excellent. I ate a sausage from the buffet and it was cold. Got an iced tea after I flagged someone down but they never refilled. Not a great beginning. I was really expecting outstanding service but it seems something is really off on this cruise. We went to CR for dinner at 7:30. Maitre d’ apologized for the bad location of our table, all the way in the back in front of a service area. It’s a full cruise. Location was not a big deal. However, service was not good. I got offered wine right away which would have been fine but I don’t drink. Never got offered an alternative beverage. Water was poured without asking if we wanted sparkling or still I prefer sparkling but they never came back to refill. We sat for 30 minutes before the waiter came to take our order, then he mumbled an apology. Three tables around ours got up and left before their meals were served. The food was very good, but our mains were lukewarm and my hollandaise was so cold and congealed it wouldn’t pour. My husband ordered the cheese plate for dessert and got the cheesecake. I’m sorry, but this is not luxury cruising. The biggest fail for me was this one. Because we don’t drink, I contacted special requests a few weeks ago to ask about non-alcoholic spirits in the lounges. I got a very nice response saying they had been able to get the “gin” but not the vodka. Then the rep said that since we didn’t drink, they would remove the alcohol from the refrigerator and have a champagne alternative in the room. That was a nice gesture that we didn’t need or expect. We don’t have alcohol issues, just choose not to drink. Needless to say, there was beer in our fridge and the bottle of champagne on ice when we arrived. Don’t make the offer if you can’t follow through. Finally, got back from the show (where they had a big glitch) and pressed the room service button on the phone to get hot water and some ice. A few minutes later the door bell rings. Room steward wants to know what we need but meanwhile we had found the ice bucket in the fridge. We told him hot water. He said we had to call room service. We said we did. He said he couldn’t help. Then two minutes later the hot water shows up. We were laughing hysterically. I’m just hoping things improve! Should we go talk to someone?

We were on the Edge in March and the Elite breakfast was in the Bistro. I think it’s normally there in Edge class ships but they move it if there are a large number of Elites and above.

Is there a list somewhere of good luxury travel agencies? I know we can't recommend here. But my last two attempts at luxury agents were a flop - unresponsive and not very knowledgable. I would love to be able to get a recommendation.

We were on Beyond in October of 2022 and Edge in March 2023. On both cruises we had Anytime Dining but made reservations for a particular time in advance and the reservations were honored on board. I would make a reservation for the time and dining room I wanted (each night a different dining room). We were seated immediately instead of waiting for a table. Sometimes there were lines waiting to be seated but the lines move quickly. My understanding is that if you want the traditional dining experience, you can sign up for fixed dining and they will assign you one dining room with the same table and same staff each night. On the Edge, we were seated and then asked to move one night because it turns out the table had been reserved for someone who was doing fixed dining at the late seating. You will find that the food (other than the specialties) is the same in all dining rooms, but the service is not. Some are better staffed than others and some are just run better than others. There didn't seem to be any consistency about it.

They are free. My experience on the last couple of cruises is that they are awful. Some people have been able to ask for a cheese plate instead. The canapes are small bites of things you find in the buffet. So watermelon and feta salad, small piece of salami, brownie bite, etc.

We made elite before our Edge cruise in March and I was so excited about being able to go to the elite breakfast. It was held in Le Grand Bistro and was never full. I was very underwhelmed. I don't drink coffee and my husband only drinks Americano, so the fancy coffee is wasted on us. It was the same food you could get from the buffet except pre-plated. Service was very spotty. My biggest disappointment was that I drink iced tea at every meal and they would not get it for me. The first day they said it wasn't available. After that I would ask for hot tea and some ice. Other than the fact that I could sit in a room and have people bring me the same food as I could get in the buffet, there wasn't much special about it. Sorry to be so negative - that's the way I experienced it.

We have sailed concierge class on several ships, the last time in February on Equinox just for the extra CC points to get us to Elite. On S class (Equinox) the cabins are the same size as regular veranda cabins. I think on Equinox the decor has been slightly updated (soft furnishings) and I don't believe that happened to the regular cabins. Bathrooms are identical. On M class, the concierge cabins are slightly larger. The canapes were truly awful on that cruise. I don't know how many times we got watermelon and feta salad and dried out chocolate cake pieces. I don't have a high standard for snacks, but they were terrible. The embarkation lunch is a nice way to start your cruise. Menu is very limited but it's a quick meal. It can be crowded depending on where they have it. Sometimes you get a couple of extra perks - helipad sail away, extra CC event. The service from the room attendent is no different (our attendens have generally been fantastic). The concierge may leave you annoying reminders about events on your phone. You have to request the bottle of sparkling wine now, it used to be in the room waiting. I will say that we have experienced getting priority seating in the dining rooms because of concierge status, although other people on this board will tell you that's not true. I think it's hit or miss for that and it's not published anywhere. Now that we made elite (and will never get any higher) we won't spend the money on upgrading from a regular veranda cabin.

I did several zoom calls from my stateroom on Equinox in February. This was via starlink. The first day we had really poor service in the cabin. I complained nicely because I had a zoom that was important and they came and installed a wifi router in the cabin, Every time I have had premium wifi (Beyond last fall transatlantic, Equinox and Edge Caribbean during the spring) I was able to do zoom call with very good success, although the connections are not as stable while in port or in the middle of the Atlantic. If for some reason it's not a good connection in the cabin, you can go to the iLounge where the connection is very good.

Thanks for the advice on sharing a table. I was able to get a reservation. If you are new, like us, to the Regent system, there's no way to know these things. Even if we didn't get in all the restaurants it wouldn't have ruined our trip. We've cruised a lot, had a lot of ups and downs on different cruise lines, and pretty much go with the flow. We booked this cruise rather late so I understood why we didn't get some of the excursions we wanted, but if you offer specialty restaurants included then you would think everyone would get a chance. I'm a little gun shy about the "get them on board" reservations because we had an unpleasant experience on Oceania last year. We were trying to get into Jacques, they said just come at 8:15, we finally got seated at about 8:45 and we were the last and only table left in the restaurant. They were clearly closing up shop and our food was not up to the same standard as visit earlier that cruise. Luckily for us we don't mind eating late - there were no reservations available before 8pm for any of the restaurants when they opened up to us yesterday.