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

[Hambagahle]

GREAT photo leaving Dutch Harbour Ronrick  !!  Your photos are fascinating though I am not sure I am going to like the cuisine at Charteuse...

[ronrick1943]

18 minutes ago, Hambagahle said:

GREAT photo leaving Dutch Harbour Ronrick  !!  Your photos are fascinating though I am not sure I am going to like the cuisine at Charteuse...

It's good but the menu hasn't changed and is very limited.  I  think one or two visits is more than enough for this one.  The service is excellent, the food is good but rich with limited choices.  I'd give it a try and judge for yourself, you could like it.

[Hambagahle]

Will try it and see.  My "problem" if you like is that I live in Switzerland, in the French speaking part, surrounded by some very good restaurants.  What I see from your photos of the dishes at Chartreuse doesn't "thrill" me.  But photos can't transmit taste - at least not yet!!

[ronrick1943]

6 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

Will try it and see.  My "problem" if you like is that I live in Switzerland, in the French speaking part, surrounded by some very good restaurants.  What I see from your photos of the dishes at Chartreuse doesn't "thrill" me.  But photos can't transmit taste - at least not yet!!

Taste, you will have-it not only looks nice but you will enjoy the flavors of the food.

[Travelcat2]

Gerry, IMO, you certainly may be correct about Chartreuse.  While we love certain dishes in Chartreuse (rack of lamb, etc.), I do not feel that it is typically French.  To give you an idea of our tastes (which may be different than yours), we love Jacques on Oceania.  Both you and Rick are familiar with that dining venue. 

[rusty2]

Thank you for the posts. We will be on the Mariner in a few weeks for the southbound from Seward to Vancouver. This will be our first Regent cruise, so we are learning from your posts. You did ask for questions. What are the bourbons and the beers available on the ship? Thank you.

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, rusty2 said:

Thank you for the posts. We will be on the Mariner in a few weeks for the southbound from Seward to Vancouver. This will be our first Regent cruise, so we are learning from your posts. You did ask for questions. What are the bourbons and the beers available on the ship? Thank you.

I'll check it out for you, we don't drink so I'll check it out tonight and let you know.

[ronrick1943]

6 hours ago, rusty2 said:

Thank you for the posts. We will be on the Mariner in a few weeks for the southbound from Seward to Vancouver. This will be our first Regent cruise, so we are learning from your posts. You did ask for questions. What are the bourbons and the beers available on the ship? Thank you.

I'll check it out for you tonight.

[ronrick1943]

Dinner last night was very good, we ate at Compass Rose.  Nice table with 4 others we met from the CC’s board.  Sorry but didn’t take any photos tonight, too busy talking.  Service again was good as usual, no complains.

 

After dinner we went to the Constellation Theater to watch Broadway in Concert (photo to proof we did go in).  The theater itself is very nice and comfortable seating and drink service fast, very attended servers!

 

Now don’t forget I always have said this is our opinion only, some may not agree and that’s OK.  Tonight’s show was pretty bad; the talent wasn’t there at all.  Could have been an off night I don’t know but more than a few people didn’t stay for the show to end.  We tried to give it a shot but did leave after 4 or 5 songs.  Regent in my opinion falls short in the area of entertainment; I wish that wasn’t the case and hope they work on this.  Saying that, entertainment isn’t why we choose Regent.

 

This morning it’s sunny skies but cold in Kodiak, beautiful mountains covered with snow.  We’re not touring today but will go into the city. Before we got off the ship we had breakfast in Compass Rose for the first time since we got on the ship.  We had perfect Eggs Benedict and shared an order of Swedish pancakes.  All very good, service just like everyplace on the ship was excellent.

 

What about Destination Services, so much not so good talk on CC about them.  Well we found them really good the few times we’ve used them.  Always a smile and always trying to help with what you need.  Today it seemed like everything worked like clockwork, the shuttle buses right on schedule.  So they get very good score.

 

The town itself is small and very friendly; people on the street actually stop to thank you for coming to town.  The picture of the fish is waste that people tossed in the ocean (really).  And yes we went to Wal-Mart, needed a few things (LOL).

[Gilly]

We also left after a few songs of the Broadway show.  We found the vocalists to be disappointing and rather shrill.

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, Gilly said:

We also left after a few songs of the Broadway show.  We found the vocalists to be disappointing and rather shrill.

Thank you, I was hoping it just wasn't me.  Regent really needs to work on this.

[ronrick1943]

I agree and on this the shows just aren't up to par---this is a big area that Regent needs to step up and make changes in management or it will never get better.  All thought this isn't way we cruise it would be nice to go to a show an enjoy what you are seeing.

[DocJames]

1 hour ago, ronrick1943 said:

I agree and on this the shows just aren't up to par---this is a big area that Regent needs to step up and make changes in management or it will never get better.  All thought this isn't way we cruise it would be nice to go to a show an enjoy what you are seeing.

My biggest beef with Regent and their shows is the repetitive nature.  While I understand there is a cost to purchase the rights for their productions,  and they want to maximize it, it doesn't please the customer when we keep on seeing the same shows over and over again. (eg. Revolution, Broadway, for example). If you take several cruises on Regent per year, you might wind up seeing the same shows 3 or more times each over a 2 year span.  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I'm so glad that the shows aren't important to me on Regent!  I must say that none of the smaller, luxury or premium lines do much better--the shows on Seabourn last fall were pretty lame too.

[CruisetheCs]

For those onboard, I'm curious how you find the volume of sound in the theater and lounges.  It was way too loud for my taste on the Explorer last fall.  One of the unpleasant things about the shows was that the music was simply too loud.

[Travelcat2]

Agree that the shows and many times the lounge music is excruciatingly loud.  I can only imagine what the decibel level is.  

[hypercafe]

It is strange that Regent and Oceania have weak shows while NCL has great ones. When NCL became part of the fold I hoped all three would share the talent.

[boblerm]

4 hours ago, DocJames said:

My biggest beef with Regent and their shows is the repetitive nature.  While I understand there is a cost to purchase the rights for their productions,  and they want to maximize it, it doesn't please the customer when we keep on seeing the same shows over and over again. (eg. Revolution, Broadway, for example). If you take several cruises on Regent per year, you might wind up seeing the same shows 3 or more times each over a 2 year span.  

I'm pretty sure that the same can be said for pretty much every cruise line.  We cruised on Crystal last September, and saw some of the same shows that we saw a few years ago.

[ronrick1943]

On 5/8/2019 at 1:15 PM, rusty2 said:

Thank you for the posts. We will be on the Mariner in a few weeks for the southbound from Seward to Vancouver. This will be our first Regent cruise, so we are learning from your posts. You did ask for questions. What are the bourbons and the beers available on the ship? Thank you.

We got a drink menu to look at, hope this helps you out.

[ronrick1943]

9 hours ago, CruisetheCs said:

For those onboard, I'm curious how you find the volume of sound in the theater and lounges.  It was way too loud for my taste on the Explorer last fall.  One of the unpleasant things about the shows was that the music was simply too loud.

I think the theater is OK for sound, but the lounges way to loud-should be back ground music not a show.

[ronrick1943]

OK, it's off track, let's talk about this cruise.

[ronrick1943]

This was an amazing morning pulling into Seward Alaska.  The views spectacular, you’ll see in the photos below.

 

We just had a very light breakfast in the suite and off to the theater to exchange are tickets for the Exit Glacier & Sea life Center.  We got our bus tickets and off to the bus, we’re looking forward to the Sea life Center.  The bus driver was good, except he wasn’t the planned driver and wasn’t sure about a few things.  No tour guide.  Arriving at the center which was just beginning to open was just a walk around the center, no trainers for the wild life or what they do to help save them.  In other words nothing, after walking around the center most people waited about 30 to 45 minutes for the bus to pick us up for the Glacier part of the tour.  Arriving at the Glacier, which we knew would be on our own—however no one knew that the Visitor was closed until May 27^th.  I kind of think in my opinion, Destination Services should have known this beforehand.  To pay extra for this tour one would think at least a Tour Guide.  Bottom line is that Destination Services didn’t do their job.

 

Oh a PS: Didn’t see the Moose, but we know he/she was here to greet us but wouldn’t wait.

 

Back to the ship we stopped for lunch at Compass Rose, super nice lunch.  The food was really good, service the same.  Louis the wine Stewart as always pleasant, always remembering what your beverage of choice is.  You’ll see from the photos that the plating was perfect you’ll have to believe me about the taste.

 

Tonight we’re staying in, just too much food – so staying in is a save way not to over eat, however let’s see what tomorrow brings.

[ronrick1943]

Photo's of a really good lunch.  If they have the Rib's on the menu order them.

[ronrick1943]

OK, one last thing for tonight.  We always get our Gucci (dog) a toy whenever we go on a trip, she loves her toys.

[Travelcat2]

Gucci is adorable and the octopus 🐙 should make her very happy. Photos are also great👍

Edited May 10, 2019 by Travelcat2