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"inaugural" vs "maiden"


Kwaj girl
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Splendor bookings opened today. 2/7 to 2/21 Barcelona to Miami is listed as an "inaugural season" voyage but 2/25-3/3 Miami to LA is listed as the "maiden voyage". So which would be better in terms of specialness, so to speak? Apparently the christening will be in Miami sometime between 2/21 and 2/25.

Thoughts?

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If I remember correctly, the first year that Explorer was sailing was the "inaugural season". In the case of Explorer, the "maiden voyage" was after the christening but from you posted, the Splendor will be christened after the maiden voyage (not usual). I guess it is whatever Regent says that it is. We are happy to be on the 3rd sailing of Splendor - even if it happened by mistake:halo:

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The original post clearly indicates that the christening of Splendor will take place before its Maiden Voyage.

(TC2, is the jet lag still having an effect? ;p)

 

Hope Regent and the shipyard have left enough time in their build and sea trials programme to get all the snagging sorted out this time around.

 

I see that the wasted space, “The Study”, is still shown on the Splendor deck plans. Hopefully that will disappear.

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Just got off the phone with Regent. Even THEY don't know what's what. Apparently there will be some kind of event on each of the specified 'inaugural' voyages but whether the Barcelona or first Miami sailing is THE big one....who knows at this point. "Stay tuned for further details."

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The original post clearly indicates that the christening of Splendor will take place before its Maiden Voyage.

(TC2, is the jet lag still having an effect? ;p)

 

Hope Regent and the shipyard have left enough time in their build and sea trials programme to get all the snagging sorted out this time around.

 

I see that the wasted space, “The Study”, is still shown on the Splendor deck plans. Hopefully that will disappear.

 

While still a bit jet lagged because of the 15 time zones, I've read the TS's post five times and still don't see how the christening - reported by the TS to be between 2/21 and 2/25 can be before the maiden voyage which, despite what may be said at the moment, is the voyage to Miami. While you can have a christening any time, the maiden voyage (aka first voyage of a ship) is when it is.

 

The fact that the Explorer was handed over to Regent late was not the fault of Regent. As you may recall, they had to cancel one shake-down cruise (still had the second one) because of the late handover. Despite the hoops that Regent staff had to go through to have the ship ready for the shake-down and christening cruises, I felt that they did a great job and, for the most part, most things were completed. When we were on the christening cruise, there were few issues. Some of the issues were not apparently until the ship did their transatlantic crossing. When the ship arrived in Miami, there were people from the shipyard there - waiting to do some fixes.

 

Guess that we won't know if Splendor will be finished on time until 2020.

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While still a bit jet lagged because of the 15 time zones, I've read the TS's post five times and still don't see how the christening - reported by the TS to be between 2/21 and 2/25 can be before the maiden voyage which, despite what may be said at the moment, is the voyage to Miami. While you can have a christening any time, the maiden voyage (aka first voyage of a ship) is when it is.

 

The fact that the Explorer was handed over to Regent late was not the fault of Regent. As you may recall, they had to cancel one shake-down cruise (still had the second one) because of the late handover. Despite the hoops that Regent staff had to go through to have the ship ready for the shake-down and christening cruises, I felt that they did a great job and, for the most part, most things were completed. When we were on the christening cruise, there were few issues. Some of the issues were not apparently until the ship did their transatlantic crossing. When the ship arrived in Miami, there were people from the shipyard there - waiting to do some fixes.

 

Guess that we won't know if Splendor will be finished on time until 2020.

 

If you don't mind, what sort of impacts were there on the first trip(s) due to the late completion? Did it matter much? We are booked on the first MIA-LAX trip on the Splendor so are obviously a bit curious what we might expect. Thanks in advance for any info.

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If you don't mind, what sort of impacts were there on the first trip(s) due to the late completion? Did it matter much? We are booked on the first MIA-LAX trip on the Splendor so are obviously a bit curious what we might expect. Thanks in advance for any info.

 

Explorer had a few issues that I don't expect Splendor to have. The main one was whistling doors due to the seals that were not working. Some people asked to have their sliding glass doors taped shut at night to avoid the noise. The sound-proofing in some areas wasn't as good as it is now (again, do not expect this to be an issue on the Splendor). When Explorer arrived in Miami, they installed additional soundproofing.

 

We were on the cruise before the maiden voyage and it was great - few problems. There was artwork that had yet to arrive but no one noticed. A couple of suites had water issues. We were so excited to be on the cruise that nothing really bothered us.

 

The crew had been training for the new ship for a while and they had their best crew members onboard so that went very smoothly. Both food and service were great. I would have no hesitation booking the first few cruises that the Splendor is doing ..... in fact, we are on the sailing after yours!

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If the Explorer maiden voyage is anything to go by, don't expect any "special" events or general hooplah apart from a certificate. We didn't mind that the ship wasn't finished - it's unavoidable - but admit the lack of any acknowledgement that this was the official maiden voyage was a bit disappointing, especially as we paid so much for the privilege.

 

We were quite glad that not all the artwork was installed yet (joke!)

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I do remember that many of the corporate people that had been on the christening cruise had to leave the ship (reluctantly) to make room for the very full maiden voyage. I believe that there offers made to people on the maiden voyage (quite a bit of money) to change to another cruise. Noticed that prices for the maiden voyage of Splendor are considerably lower than for Explorer and rumor has it that the christening will be in Miami (which, In my opinion, is a great idea). Hopefully Regent learned quite a bit from the debut of Explorer and everything will be perfect (or almost perfect) for Splendor!

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Splendor bookings opened today. 2/7 to 2/21 Barcelona to Miami is listed as an "inaugural season" voyage but 2/25-3/3 Miami to LA is listed as the "maiden voyage". So which would be better in terms of specialness, so to speak? Apparently the christening will be in Miami sometime between 2/21 and 2/25.

Thoughts?

 

My thoughts: It is unrealistic to expect "nearly perfect"; I'd go to enjoy the adventure plus the "bragging rights' of a maiden voyage.

 

In an engineering project , there are 3 aspects: Quality, Cost, and Schedule BUT as the mantra goes "at best, you can only control 2 of the 3." Once the schedule for the Splendor was set, Regent can only attain near perfection by spending scads of money on an experienced army of QC inspectors & craftsmen and/or an extensive "shake-down" cruise.

 

So I'd expect a lot of "nits" while on a beautiful new ship, enjoying terrific food and beverages surrounded by interesting veteran cruisers. And as mentioned above, at a relatively attractive price.

 

Nope, I'm not going as I''ll, HOPEFULLY, be revisiting Shanghai after 30 years while on the Voyager.

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