PART#2 CRUISING IN THE SS MARINER FROM TOKYO TO VANCOUVER

[1985rz1]

34 minutes ago, merlot101 said:

We will sign up, but 2021 is a long way off.  Are you doing any cruises before 2021?

Yep, but on Oceania. An short 7 day cruise along the California coast in December of this year, and a 19-day Scotland-Ireland trip in July of 2020.

 

How about you?

[rcandkc]

3 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

Yep, but on Oceania. An short 7 day cruise along the California coast in December of this year, and a 19-day Scotland-Ireland trip in July of 2020.

 

How about you?

When you say along California Coast...where do they go?  I would like more options with US embarkation and debarkation  and wish Regent offered more. 

[Travelcat2]

11 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

When you say along California Coast...where do they go?  I would like more options with US embarkation and debarkation  and wish Regent offered more. 

 

Also wish that Regent offered more west coast departures.  Since they don't, we did a "California Coast" 7 night sailing last September on Celebrity.  It began in Vancouver and stopped in Seattle, someplace in Oregon - may be Astoria, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, ended in San Diego and I may be missing a port.

 

We did this on Celebrity as it was quite inexpensive compared to Regent or Oceania (which makes sense since Celebrity is a premium cruise line - not premium plus or luxury).  They ran a special where they included all specialty restaurants (generally approximately $50/person for these dining venues), included internet, premium alcohol package and $250 OBC (and $250 goes a long way on Celebrity - many things for $10).

 

We had a lot of fun on that cruise and were able to meet our daughter in Santa Barbara for lunch.  Did not are for lunch on Celebrity (most dining venues closed when ship is in port) but had wonderful meals ashore.  The ship stopped near Fisherman's Wharf in S.F. so we were able to get clam chowder in a sourdough bowl.  

 

While Celebrity would never be my cruise line of choice, we really had a nice time (and their computers are Apple - work better than on Regent and there are people there that have classes on Apple products).

[1985rz1]

40 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

When you say along California Coast...where do they go?  I would like more options with US embarkation and debarkation  and wish Regent offered more. 

 

22 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Also wish that Regent offered more west coast departures.  Since they don't, we did a "California Coast" 7 night sailing last September on Celebrity.  It began in Vancouver and stopped in Seattle, someplace in Oregon - may be Astoria, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, ended in San Diego and I may be missing a port.

 

LA (San Pedro) to LA (San Pedro) Dec 7-14, 2019:  LA - Catalina Island - Ensenada, MX, - Day at Sea - San Francisco - Monterey, CA - Santa Barbara, CA - LA.  There's a second sailing afterwards, same ports.

 

We look at it as a quick one-week getaway, relaxing on the Sirena (new ship) and poking around the ports on our own, although we're doing a wine-tasting ship excursion in Ensenada, and plan to reserve a privately-arranged tour on Catalina Island...also maybe visiting a niece and perhaps a Dim Sum lunch in SF

Edited May 14, 2019 by 1985rz1

[Travelcat2]

14 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

 

 

LA (San Pedro) to LA (San Pedro) Dec 7-14, 2019:  LA - Catalina Island - Ensenada, MX, - Day at Sea - San Francisco - Monterey, CA - Santa Barbara, CA - LA.  There's a second sailing afterwards, same ports.

 

We look at it as a quick one-week getaway, relaxing on the Sirena (new ship) and poking around the ports on our own, although we're doing a wine-tasting ship excursion in Ensenada, and plan to reserve a privately-arranged tour on Catalina Island...also maybe visiting a niece and perhaps a Dim Sum lunch in SF

 

I see that this is on Oceania's refurbished former Princess ship  (can certainly be called "new" but it is the same age as other small Oceania ships).  We do not care for these ships but would not mind doing a similar itinerary on the Riviera or Marina.

 

 I know that ships have to make one stop outside of the U.S. and we prefer Vancouver to Ensenada and can do without Catalina Island (those of us that were raised in California have been there too many times and, for us, there is nothing of interest there except pretty water that is too cold to swim in).

 

In any case, it is another option for people that are not as familiar with Catalina and Ensenada as we are.

 

P.S.  Rick - we are doing it again (going off topic) so I won't post any more about west coast itineraries.  Sorry!

Edited May 14, 2019 by Travelcat2

[Zqueeze1]

Ronrick:  we are one of your many fans and are enjoying your comments and beautiful descriptions of your adventures. We look forwards towards reading more from your future cruises and hope that we cruise together again sometime.  In the meantime, hugs to Karen, John, and Terri and Ray if you see them. 

Z and TB

[ronrick1943]

17 hours ago, Brownie54 said:

I too have really enjoyed your comments and photos! My husband and I look forward to meeting and sailing with both of you on Splendor from Miami to Barcelona.

Looking forward to meeting you also, should be a great cruise.

[ronrick1943]

15 hours ago, Zqueeze1 said:

Ronrick:  we are one of your many fans and are enjoying your comments and beautiful descriptions of your adventures. We look forwards towards reading more from your future cruises and hope that we cruise together again sometime.  In the meantime, hugs to Karen, John, and Terri and Ray if you see them. 

Z and TB

Thanks, and we'll say hello to them---in fact we talked about you two with Karen and John (all good🙄), we had dinner with them and lunch at Tracy's.

[ronrick1943]

It truly is beautiful in Skagway; the temp is 62 degrees today with clear blue skies.  What could better; a tour of the area by train.  We got off the ship after a light breakfast and walked a few 100 feet to the train which was pretty much parked ship side.  Really can’t say much, the pictures will tell the story.  We believe this is a must do tour, easy and very, really scenic.  Take the 2 hour tour not the 4 plus tour! The town is small, same shops as everyplace else we’ve been.

 

A little about Destination Services on the ship, they are pretty good.  Every time we needed them for something, always pleasant, efficient, helpful, and seem to take care of any problems that came up with tour reservation. 

 

Back on the ship we lunched on the pool deck, service good, and food good-a nice day.  Sergill pronounced Serge’ was a great bar master!  We leave port at 3:00PM today, just a few more days and it’s time to pack it up and go home.

 

Dinner tonight will be Prime 7.  I had Prime Rib, Ron had New York steak, just really good and cooked to perfection.  Top that  off with great service from Kenny, wine person Margarita and the Prime7 staff makes out to be a great night.

 

Internet has been down again for some time, so I’ll finish today up. No tomorrow as they don’t except service until 3 AM and we won’t be up at 3.

 

Went to the show Krew Kapers, sad to say it’s was one of the best shows on the ship during this cruise.  It was enjoyable and we were entertained, the hour just flew by and was over before you knew it. We stayed for the whole show but wanted more to see.  Besides giving excellent service this crew has some talented people!

 

As the cruise comes to an end I’ll write a little tomorrow (depending on internet service) about how I feel about this cruise on Regent.  What we liked best and what we didn’t like about the cruise.  So we hope you have a good night and the internet is up and running later tonight or I’ll send it out in the morning.  Thanks for reading and we both hope you enjoyed the post and got some information you may have wanted.

 

Finally the internet is working.  More about that later!  Also I’ll add more photos later.

[1985rz1]

32 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

As the cruise comes to an end I’ll write a little tomorrow (depending on internet service) about how I feel about this cruise on Regent.  What we liked best and what we didn’t like about the cruise. 

Very much looking forward to your synopsis.  Really enjoyed the daily updates, and they have helped us know what to expect in 2021. Thanks!

Edited May 14, 2019 by 1985rz1

[Travelcat2]

Lovely photos.  In terms of the internet (and I mentioned this on the other thread) in our 4 Alaska cruises (3 on Regent), there have always been black-outs.  I have mentioned this before but there was some disagreement.  In my opinion, it is important for future passengers to know about the ports/places where there is no internet so they can plan for it if they need the internet for work, etc.

[ronrick1943]

3 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Lovely photos.  In terms of the internet (and I mentioned this on the other thread) in our 4 Alaska cruises (3 on Regent), there have always been black-outs.  I have mentioned this before but there was some disagreement.  In my opinion, it is important for future passengers to know about the ports/places where there is no internet so they can plan for it if they need the internet for work, etc.

Not so sure about that, after you call the desk and question they say it's a ship problem.  Some how after the some of the calls it's fixed.????🙄

[ronrick1943]

Here are a few more pictures of Skagway the White Pass & Yukon Route train ride (really it's the tour to take) and remember I'm the one that doesn't like or care too tour.

[1teach53]

On 5/13/2019 at 4:37 PM, Zqueeze1 said:

Ronrick:  we are one of your many fans and are enjoying your comments and beautiful descriptions of your adventures. We look forwards towards reading more from your future cruises and hope that we cruise together again sometime.  In the meantime, hugs to Karen, John, and Terri and Ray if you see them. 

Z and TB

Ohhhhh .... Z , 🤗 hugs back at you !

Food porn just for you! 😋

[ronrick1943]

Just a last minute photo to prove we went to Krew KAPERS on the ship.  They were really good, light hearten, fun, entertaining, talented.  I could have watched a few of these shows. 

[ronrick1943]

End of Cruise-Really😥

 

As we end this cruise I’ll try to let you know our likes and dislikes, plus a few things in between.  Should you have any additional questions let us know and we’ll get back to you.

 

We’ll be flying home to Rancho Mirage, California (near Palm Springs) in the desert.  So please give a little time to get back to you as it’ll take a day or two to get back to normal living.

 

So here is the wrap up of the cruise with the exception of getting off the ship, which is a brainer as we always take a late afternoon flight home just in case.  We always get off last having breakfast in the suite and some last minute coffee in Coffee Connection until they call us.  Then off to the airport, an hour or so in the lounge and home.

 

Would we cruise on Regent again after this Regent experience, yes we would as we pre-booked a cruise while on the ship.  Not everything was perfect, one major problem accrued during the cruise and a few hiccups happened.  

 

Let’s get the bad stuff over with now.  As you know those that have been reading this post know that the suite temp control hasn’t been perfect.  The first few days the suite was so cold they gave us blankets to keep warm.  For two days we really didn’t have the use of our suite because we had 3 to 5 workmen in the suite at any one time.  After that the suite got so HOT we had to keep the deck door open to cool it down.  After that some good days, some bad days but we got along.  For me it really wasn’t even handled to my satisfaction.

 

Food, we had a few not so great meals – but thinking about how many meals we had on the ship I think over all the dining was pretty exceptional  an enjoyed them.  The only exception was Sette Mari, we just didn’t like it at all-but that is our opinion as some of you may love it. Giving some credit we did enjoy the cold buffet part of the restaurant just didn’t think the hot menu was good.

 

Entertainment just wasn’t good at all, now I know this for a fact because a lot of guests said the same thing, it was the talk of the ship.  We don’t expect Broadway’s greatest, but it should be good and give you the feeling that you’d like to go to one or two shows.  Even the lounge acts were pretty bad, when it should have been back ground music it wasn’t. 

 

Tours, one tour we took just was bad and it was a Regent pay extra (SWD-001, Exit Glacier & Sea Life Center.  First no guide, bus driver was called last minute and didn’t know much, in fact he was told to follow the bus in front of him.  At the Sea Life center we were just dropped off at the front door and asked to go in – nothing and people got done and waited about 45 minutes before the buses came back

Now Krew Kapers really was entertainment, these people have talent.  I believe they enjoyed doing the show as much as we enjoying watching.

 

To take us to Exit Glacier, dropped off again with no explanation was told to be back at 12:30PM for the return trip.  Believe it or not the Visitor Center was closed until May 27^th, so you had to read signs to know where to go.

 

How about some good?  Well most of the cruise was really very good.

 

Service; really was the best.  Not at any time did we feel not looked after.   That fact was everybody in the crew really worked hard to make sure things went right and you had a great time.  We had a few crew members stand out which will always happen on a cruise-but stand out for good reasons, not bad

 

Now Krew Kapers really was entertaining, these people have talent.  I believe they enjoyed doing the show as much as we enjoying watching.

 

Suite crew, Butler, Stewardess were “outstanding”, if you wanted to look for something to complain about you couldn’t because it was that perfect.

 

Coffee Connection, Love the place and great service from the team—but please add French Press.

 

The Spa, We only used it a few times, and it was very good.  Nice staff and really didn’t push product.

 

The Boutique, Ok with a nice staff ready to help you.

 

Valet Laundry, Really nice work and on time every time.

 

Internet; good service when it worked, however, we had a lot of down time which I think didn’t need to happen.

 

Medical Service just didn’t need them.  But heard from others it was good.

 

Casino; again we didn’t go in a first for us, but we had friends go in and had a good time and a friendly staff.

 

Restaurants , we enjoyed most Prime 7 being the one we liked the most, wish Chartreuse had a bigger menu, Compass Rose very nice for dinner and lunch, Pool Grill great when it’s warm, La Veranda the best for lunch, Casual Dining at the Pool Grill was just too cold for us, Sette Mari let’s just move on.

 

Don’t know what else to say but I’d give this cruise an overall “8.5” out of 10 and I never give a 10.  So to sum it up it was a good cruise and we’re happy campers.

 

But we are happy to go home because we have Gucci (see below) to be with and look forward to our next cruise.

 

Would like to thank all you CC’s for reading and posting, plus the ones on the ship wishing everyone safe travels home – hoping to cruise with you again.

 

Safe travels!

 

Rick & Ron

[boblerm]

Thanks for taking us along.  I had a wonderful time!😁

Bob

[Pinksunset]

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your wonderful experiences with all of us.  Your quirky humor,  honestly and sense of appreciation have been delightful!  It’s been fun to read about your cruise!  

[gjkov]

We’ve really enjoyed your commentary and photos. And appreciate the fair and balanced review. Thanks for sharing! 

Safe travels to you two. I’m sure Gucci will be thrilled to have you home! 

[Travelcat2]

2 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

Your dog is gorgeous!

 

 

[Brownie54]

As I said before, really loved your photos and all you had to say!

Really look forward to Splendor on April 1. In the meantime, enjoy being home!

 

Sue 

[liptastic]

Rick thanks to you and Ron for your great posts and photographs. You have a really lovely honest style of writing a real pleasure to read each day.

Have safe travels home and a real good reunion with Gucci who is adorable.

Jean.

[ronrick1943]

3 hours ago, boblerm said:

Thanks for taking us along.  I had a wonderful time!😁

Bob

Thank so much😉

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, Pinksunset said:

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your wonderful experiences with all of us.  Your quirky humor,  honestly and sense of appreciation have been delightful!  It’s been fun to read about your cruise!  

Happy you enjoyed the post as much as we did😊

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, gjkov said:

We’ve really enjoyed your commentary and photos. And appreciate the fair and balanced review. Thanks for sharing! 

Safe travels to you two. I’m sure Gucci will be thrilled to have you home! 

Thanks, I know she will🤗I hope.