Mariner Monte Carlo to Barcelona Sept 6th

[swansong]

We have over 90 nights with Regent so I feel that I can report my feelings about our recent cruise with some authority. ( Read.. I am not nitpicking!! )

 

We felt that from a service point of view this was the worst Regent cruise we have been on. ( and that is all I am commenting on ). I notice Ron & Sue who are currently reporting on Mariner feel the crew are less friendly than previously. The room steward had little grasp of English which made conversation almost impossible and he struggled to understand our requests.

 

Room service was good and on time but we had to ask to have the table laid on several occassions rather than the tray just left. One day it was still there when we returned late afternoon. On several nights no breakfast order cards were left on the bed as is usual.

 

The Cruise Director ( Lorraine) was not as visible as most we have known and seemed to lack energy.

 

We had some good service in Compass Rose but also had some terrible service, long waits between courses and cold food. From our point of view the menu choice seemed to have been made cheaper for Regent although there was a good numerical choice. We struggled at times to find choices that suited ( and we are not picky! ) which has never happened before. Again there was little or no interaction with the wait staff and we did try! Many times we had to grab a wine waiter to obtain a refill as they seemed to have a large area to cover.

 

Signatures was good all round and Sette Mari was superb both in food and service...far better than CR.

 

Service in the pool grill was good and friendly.

 

Reception staff were offhand bordering on rude the one time I needed to speak to them about their inability to deliver newspapers ordered at the start of the cruise.

 

We didnt interact with the Destinations staff so no comment.

 

Disembarkation was excellent but noone was at the exit wishing us Bon Voyage as has been the custom in the past....not a big deal but another example!

 

Having said all of that I guess anyone not having sailed Regent before would have thought everything was great and we had already booked another cruise next year with them and see how things are going. They have lost an edge which is difficult to pinpoint. However, based on our recent experience we were planning a winter cruise which we have now decided not to do choosing a land based holiday instead.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the comments, sounds like you were due a less then stellar cruise after 90 days (that does not make it ok however). Glad you are not so upset as to not sail with them again.

[OrpingtonT]

Thank you. An interesting review from a regular Regent cruiser. I hope you made the points forcefully on your comment card. Not laying the table for room service is astonishing and senior management should be made aware of that lapse.

 

Lorraine must have had an off time because her boundless energy used to be her stand out attribute.

 

And no "adieu" at disembarkation. Quite amazing and inexcusable.

[Threechicks]

Swan song, I think you must have meant the September 16 cruise as I was on the September 6 cruise that ended in Monte Carlo on the 16th.

I'm sorry that you were so disappointed and wonder how the situation could have changed so drastically as I considered my cruise to be one of the best I have been on. No, I am not a new Regent cruiser. I have over 100 nights on board. I found the crew to be especially friendly and cooperative. I was surprised at the number who remembered me and remembered my wine choices. There was never any problem with service in the restaurants. I do agree about Reception but I have always had a little problem in that area especially if dealing with them on the phone. I just try to ignore them unless the problem is something serious.

Loraine wasn't as visible but that's fine with me. I see enough of her every morning on the TV.

[swansong]

Apologies it was the Sept 16th cruise...I havn't got back to normal yet!

[HanaleiSailor]

So, we are less than one month away from our first Regent cruise on Voyager. For you Regent regulars, I've read hundreds of pages here and opinions on any number of issues, and after all of this reading, I'd be interested in hearing the one or two issues that you believe can make a cruise either great, or not so great?

[Travelcat2]

So, we are less than one month away from our first Regent cruise on Voyager. For you Regent regulars, I've read hundreds of pages here and opinions on any number of issues, and after all of this reading, I'd be interested in hearing the one or two issues that you believe can make a cruise either great, or not so great?

 

Good question but difficult to answer. Here are two Compass Rose issues that, IMO, can make for either a great or not so great cruise.

 

1. Arriving at Compass Rose at their busiest time when it is impossible for the staff to give you the service you deserve. Poor service every night can, IMO, ruin a great cruise.

 

2. Get to know the crew. Talk to them -- learn something about their families at home. Interacting with the crew is something we feel is very important. We ask to sit in the area of CR where servers we know will be. They learn our preferences and can make recommendations for us. The first thing we'll do when we enter CR on the Voyager in December is to ask for Zaldy's section (I may regret saying that if his section becomes full):confused: When Francisco is in CR (Head Waiter) we sit in his section. Our relationship with the staff is one reason that all of our cruises are great.

[eneri59]

Swansong, I respect that you have many Regent cruises under your belt and I have only one. I was on the same Mariner cruise and did not have any of the issues that you mention.

 

Room service laid our table. We never had cold food. If service was slow in CR we didn't notice probably due to the great table conversations that we enjoyed every night.

 

I remember several ship crew wishing us a pleasant journey home as we disembarked. None of them were officers and perhaps that's what you had in the past.

 

I thought the staff was exceptionally friendly and professional, at least compared to what I've seen on other cruise lines.

 

Perhaps you need to book a 7 night on Carnival and you might feel better about your Regent experiance.

[grandmab]

I was also on this cruise. I have over 200 nights with Regent, so am pretty used to their product. I found none of the service issues you had. Our food was delicious and service was impeccable. We dined in all four restaurants and had prompt service every time.

 

We did see some very bad behaviour from some guests (i.e. snapping their fingers at staff), but for the most part everyone was pretty easy going.

 

We did tours every day and they were run very efficiently. The only morning there was a wait to depart was when the local authorities were slow to clear the ship.

 

All in all, great cruise. I'm sure if you look for it, there is always something that can be improved, but I have found Regent staff to always be willing to help in any way they can.

[room010]

I'm a Regent loyalist but by no means a cheerleader as my previous posts/reviews will confirm. We did experience service problems in CR on Navigator/Alaska in July including very slow service, empty plates left uncleared for way too long, cold food, slow sommelier and wine service eqtc etc but upon reflection I believe it was down to one or two inexperienced or poorly supervised individuals rather than a wholesale breakdown in standards. Our delightful steward and butler were both superb. We did see some appallingly rude, arrogant behaviour from a few passengers however. I really believe that some people just don't understand the appropriate way to interact with "the help". A friendly "hello", a smile, a "please" and "thank you" makes a world of difference.

 

I'm not suggesting for one moment that OP was somehow responsible for the poor service they received, sometimes it's just bad luck, but I will be very interested to see if things have indeed deteriorated during my next 2 Regent cruises in Dec 12 and June 13.

[swansong]

Eneri 59, I made the point of saying that anyone not used to Regent would probably not have been disappointed. I also said that I have booked another Regent cruise and if I didnt sail on Regent I probably wouldnt cruise at all, especially Carnival! I have sailed on several other lines in the past ( Cunard, Celebrity, P&O ) and Regent is streets ahead in spite of the issues I raised and ticks all my boxes. I also made the point that Regent, in my opinion ( and I have to say in the opinion of some other regular cruisers we met, also SS Gold & Silver members) had lost an edge. I concur that everyones' expectations are not the same but I can only comment on issues that have never arisen before. I made the comments on the feedback card and guess that Regent read these comments too so hopefully management will take notice and next time will be back to normal!