Disappointed.. 200+ days on Regent. Weird on Explorer

[SGolffan]

We have spent 200 days with Regent and have the pleasure to do so!  Very happy with Regent.  I have to say it has been very strange!  We are on Explorer now and missed tendering into two ports Taormina and also Sorrento.  

 

We have been in much rougher seas and have tendered. It was only five foot seas and sunny in Taormina on May 5th.  I do trust the captain and the safety of the passengers.  However, things are not making sense.  

 

What continues to be more strange we are not in rough seas, she put us in port in Naples and decided to close the drapes on port side in Compass Rose since yesterday.  After crusing in the past in 30 foot seas with Regent and the drapes never pulled.. My husband and I said she is a newer captain and doing her best.

 

However, then we went this morning for breakfast and typically Regent does a nice job when you are in a port dock to position you to a better view.  Again we are at dock, not anchored and the weather is not that bad.  We questioned why were the blackout blinds and drapes pulled over the port side of the view.  They were concerned about bad weather and that is why the blackout pulldowns and drapes were pulled in Compass Rose.  We missed out on two really cool stops and now sitting in Naples at a port dock with Compass Rose blinds down on...  

 

We have a stop tmo in Gaeta, Italy and the server said the drapes may be pulled up by Livorno the following day.  

 

Asked the manager like so many right now on Explorer and he can’t explain saying it was the captain decision.  He seemed baffled like many others on the ship.   Strange.  If we haven’t spent 200+ days and being Plantinum members, I would understand others commenting back saying the caption is doing their best.  We have traveled around the world with Regent and this is very odd.

 

 

[RJ2002]

Who is the Captain?  

[cruiseluv]

I believe its Captain Melani. I can understand skipping tender ports due to rough seas, but cant follow the whole thing with the drapes/ blinds down in Compass Rose supposedly because of bad weather. What would that prevent? To the OP, you said you asked "the manager"? Who was that? The General Manager? Agree, makes no sense

[rcandkc]

I like watching storms out the window.  Not being able to see out can make feel claustrophobic and more sensitive to motion sickness. 

[Travelcat2]

You may or may not have noticed that many ports in the past month have been missed due to weather issues.  

 

If it was very windy, closing the blackout drapes could avoid the sliding glass door breaking and the glass going into your suite.  On Mariner this past week, a CC'er had their sliding glass door come off of their hinges in windy weather.  

 

I cannot imagine any Captain missing a port without a good reason.  After all, they report back to headquarters in Miami and they likely would be very unhappy if there was not a good reason to cancel the port.

[SWFLAOK]

1 hour ago, rcandkc said:

I like watching storms out the window.  Not being able to see out can make feel claustrophobic and more sensitive to motion sickness. 

I'm prone to motion sickness and I feel much better if I can see out than not being able to see, even if there are large waves. And if you can't allow tendering in 5 foot seas,  maybe you should be the captain of a river cruise.

There were some topics on this board about taking the Explorer transatlantic, and then going from Barcelona to Venice. Captain Serena only did a stop in Toulon, and a long stop at the dock near Rome. Most of the stops in the Med were skipped, because of rough  seas.

The news stories say she will be the first female captain of a new ship, and will move on to the Splendor. As long as she isn't transferred to Voyager,  I will be happy. Our July trip would be totally unacceptable if we only stopped where there's a dock. Maybe the itineraries should be changed to eliminate ports that don't have docks.

I hope this isn't the first sign that Regent cruise lines will start catering to people with limit mobility, and make the rest of us suffer for it. We had that problem on HAL Prinsendam (our first and last HAL cruise) on a 2 week Holiday cruise to the Caribbean back in December-January, a roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale. There had been a tendering accident on the previous cruise, involving someone who couldn't easily get from the ship to the tender. Since not going ashore wasn't acceptable to people who needed wheelchairs, scooter chairs and walkers, we skipped many of our tender stops. We were able to substitute one near the beginning of the cruise since another cruise line wasn't using their private beach that day. And we were able to make it into a dock on Tobago that the captain had never been able to dock at before. A number of crew members told us how proud they were since it was the first time they had ever made it into that dock, and normally anchored in an area NW of the port where no excursions were available. We had taken a cruise 6 weeks earlier on another cruise line, and had no trouble docking in Tobago.

I understand that there are many people who have mobility issues. But there should be cruises that cater to those who can't easily get off the ship, with excursions catering to them. Maybe 10 years from now I might want to be on one of those cruises. But right now, I expect to have a chance to tender in 5 foot seas. I've done that and more a number of times.

[rcandkc]

21 minutes ago, SWFLAOK said:

I'm prone to motion sickness and I feel much better if I can see out than not being able to see, even if there are large waves. And if you can't allow tendering in 5 foot seas,  maybe you should be the captain of a river cruise.

There were some topics on this board about taking the Explorer transatlantic, and then going from Barcelona to Venice. Captain Serena only did a stop in Toulon, and a long stop at the dock near Rome. Most of the stops in the Med were skipped, because of rough  seas.

The news stories say she will be the first female captain of a new ship, and will move on to the Splendor. As long as she isn't transferred to Voyager,  I will be happy. Our July trip would be totally unacceptable if we only stopped where there's a dock. Maybe the itineraries should be changed to eliminate ports that don't have docks.

I hope this isn't the first sign that Regent cruise lines will start catering to people with limit mobility, and make the rest of us suffer for it. We had that problem on HAL Prinsendam (our first and last HAL cruise) on a 2 week Holiday cruise to the Caribbean back in December-January, a roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale. There had been a tendering accident on the previous cruise, involving someone who couldn't easily get from the ship to the tender. Since not going ashore wasn't acceptable to people who needed wheelchairs, scooter chairs and walkers, we skipped many of our tender stops. We were able to substitute one near the beginning of the cruise since another cruise line wasn't using their private beach that day. And we were able to make it into a dock on Tobago that the captain had never been able to dock at before. A number of crew members told us how proud they were since it was the first time they had ever made it into that dock, and normally anchored in an area NW of the port where no excursions were available. We had taken a cruise 6 weeks earlier on another cruise line, and had no trouble docking in Tobago.

I understand that there are many people who have mobility issues. But there should be cruises that cater to those who can't easily get off the ship, with excursions catering to them. Maybe 10 years from now I might want to be on one of those cruises. But right now, I expect to have a chance to tender in 5 foot seas. I've done that and more a number of times.

Yes, we were on the Voyager in 30 foot seas and bad storm for several days. We sat looking out at the waves and NEVER felt sick or claustrophobic.  Don’t put me in a windowless box!

[MalbecWine]

First of all it’s not all about the five foot waves and having a six pack captains license for years.  The other thing that can hamper any vessel is wind, current and anchor not be able to set and it drags the bottom.  Sometimes a ship will use side thrusters but in some cases the current is strong also tide changes come into play.  Boarding a tender in some of these conditions can be daunting and dangerous.  The captain will make a safe decision.

[cruiseluv]

1 hour ago, Travelcat2 said:

You may or may not have noticed that many ports in the past month have been missed due to weather issues.  

 

If it was very windy, closing the blackout drapes could avoid the sliding glass door breaking and the glass going into your suite.  On Mariner this past week, a CC'er had their sliding glass door come off of their hinges in windy weather.  

 

I cannot imagine any Captain missing a port without a good reason.  After all, they report back to headquarters in Miami and they likely would be very unhappy if there was not a good reason to cancel the port.

 

Jackie, they way I understand it , the OP is referring to closing blinds and drapes in Compass Rose while the ship is docked. That does sound weird

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Odd.  We really liked Captain Serena, had her more than two years ago on Mariner.  The whole thing must have an explanation.

[rcandkc]

About closed drapes causing motion sickness...in post #1 they had been told maybe they could be opened the next day in a different port...so that is just not in port.  All I’m saying is that there are people perfectly happy on a cruise ship and have no issues...as long as they can see outside if they desire.  I’m on a cruise ship to enjoy the ship AND ocean. 

[RJ2002]

Will add our kudos regarding Captain Serena. There must be more to this.  

[Hambagahle]

If I were on board with you right now SGolffan - I would ask Captain Serena directly why the blinds are closed!  Just write her a note and drop it at Reception.  You will probably get an answer in a couple of hours...

 

Having been in a lot of ports myself my first thought was - they are offloading the garbage, CR is close to the dock level and someone feels this is unsightly.   Not the sort of thing to see when having a meal.   It may well have been the Restaurant Manager's call, not the Captain's.

[kjbacon]

Asking the Captain is an excellent idea. She is absolutely forthright and open; the rumors are truly a cancer. She spoke with us candidly on our cruise and I was very impressed with her. To this day, I am grateful to have sailed with a Captain that made decisions based on safety in a storm as opposed to the Viking Captain who had to declare a mayday emergency.

 

I watched rumors start and grow on our cruise and there is misinformation still stated as fact on this thread about some of it. We never never never cancelled a port due to a holiday. That particular chain of events started with a medical emergency reroute hampered by stormy weather and culminating with the rescheduling being a challenge due to the holiday (this is only one example of several on our trip).

[SGolffan]

I love that idea! Thank you for it.  Again I wasn’t slamming Regent or we wouldn’t be  Platinum members and have traveled over 200 days with this cruise line.  We have many other opinions as well.  

 

Again, we were disappointed missing two ports as many others.  We have traveled a lot and know what we saw and I am not questioning the Captain or putting her down.  Miscommunication can happen and it did on this trip about the blinds.  It was strange and I like positive feedback and action plan.  Love your idea and we will act on it. 🙂

 

All the best!

 

In the future, I think I will keep my comments to myself - YIKES! 

[kjbacon]

25 minutes ago, SGolffan said:

 

In the future, I think I will keep my comments to myself - YIKES! 

 

I hope my response did not cause you to feel this way but if it did, I am most sincerely sorry. Please don’t keep your comments to yourself! I’ve felt that way on here occasionally but as long as we are all polite, vive la difference. How boring would these boards be if post after post read exactly the same.

 

I am still a little touchy over the riding Captain Serena took over our bad weather. I witnessed very rude and unkind behavior from guests and found myself completely frustrated with the rumor mill.

[Kwaj girl]

Did I miss something...or has the 'real' reason for keeping the CR drapes closed still a  mystery even though SGolffan has now reported that they are open...?

[Travelcat2]

8 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

If I were on board with you right now SGolffan - I would ask Captain Serena directly why the blinds are closed!  Just write her a note and drop it at Reception.  You will probably get an answer in a couple of hours...

 

 

Yes Gerry - this is what should have been done in the first place.  Captain Serena is generally around the ship a lot and is very approchable.  Alternatively, you an leave a note at Reception as Gerry suggested.

 

P.S.  Sincere apologies for earlier post - there is no place on CC for that.  There is also no place, IMHO, to make derogatory personal comments about a Captain....... and I quote "And if you can't allow tendering in 5 foot seas, maybe you should be the captain of a river cruise."

[cruiseluv]

4 hours ago, SGolffan said:

I love that idea! Thank you for it.  Again I wasn’t slamming Regent or we wouldn’t be  Platinum members and have traveled over 200 days with this cruise line.  We have many other opinions as well.  

 

Again, we were disappointed missing two ports as many others.  We have traveled a lot and know what we saw and I am not questioning the Captain or putting her down.  Miscommunication can happen and it did on this trip about the blinds.  It was strange and I like positive feedback and action plan.  Love your idea and we will act on it. 🙂

 

All the best!

 

In the future, I think I will keep my comments to myself - YIKES! 

Please, if you find out why they closed the blinds/ curtains on Compass Rose while in port, let us know!

[Just2guys]

After seeing a number of comments on the various threads regarding "questionable" missed ports on the recent Explorer sailings, I felt in necessary to comment regarding the appearance of (or lack of) danger (i.e. waves) vs. what is actually happening...following along with what MalbecWine previously mentioned.  I am no naval expert, but will just relate our experience: 

 

Several years ago on a Panama Canal sailing, we anchored at George Town in the Cayman Islands.  It appeared to be a beautiful day, with very minimal swells.   However, early that morning the Captain canceled all tenders to the island due to "safety issues".  While we remained in port as scheduled, no tenders were ever dispatched through the entire day.  And, like on the Explorer recently, there was great deal of comment and disappointment among some of the passengers since the swells didn't look like very much danger at all.  While it didn't affect us (we had not planned ongoing ashore anyway), some passengers got very testy.  Again, it didn't "look" bad at all...and we never quite understood the reason for the issue.

 

Fast forward a couple of years to when we were anchored at Edinburgh (Queensferry).  Most of the ship tendered off in the morning---it was a beautiful one---for tours and whatnot, with most planning to spend the bulk of the day ashore.  In the afternoon, a rather normal quick Spring storm blew through.  After it passed, however, the winds did not let up.  And, while the swells in the river again appeared to be not very high at all, they were coming fast and furious one right after the other.  As a result, our tender ride back to the ship was one of the few nightmares we've had in years of cruising (the other was a two-day storm on the infamous Tasman Sea).  In this case, it was almost impossible for the tender to make any headway back to the ship...it took forever...and then, once we got there, it was impossible to keep the tender against the ship or in a steady position long enough to get the passengers off.  Many of the passengers in the tender were getting motion sickness riding up and down for that long of a period of time.  And then, there started to arise a panic that we wouldn't be able to get off at all---or even back to shore---given the situation.  Additionally, the fear/concern on the crew's faces while they were assisting people off didn't help, either.  None of these folks on the tender were mobility impaired---it was just impossible for anyone to get from the door of the tender onto the stairs up to the ship.  In the end, it took close to an hour to get everyone off...topped off with one accident that happened when a lady lost her footing getting off as the tender went down during a swell, and then caught her leg between the stairs and the tender as the tender came back up. 

 

Needless to say, the situation was so bad that ours was the last tender dispatched to the dock.  The remaining passengers still on land were advised to wait while the Captain made arrangements with the dock authority there to use one of their larger police craft to ferry everyone else back. 

 

The moral of the story is that looks are very deceiving...and I'll continue to leave it to the Captain's discretion.  I've learned at this point to accept the disappointments (we never got to see Milford Sound after the Tasman Sea travails) along with the good things that we've been able to do. 

[rcandkc]

7 minutes ago, Just2guys said:

After seeing a number of comments on the various threads regarding "questionable" missed ports on the recent Explorer sailings, I felt in necessary to comment regarding the appearance of (or lack of) danger (i.e. waves) vs. what is actually happening...following along with what MalbecWine previously mentioned.  I am no naval expert, but will just relate our experience: 

 

Several years ago on a Panama Canal sailing, we anchored at George Town in the Cayman Islands.  It appeared to be a beautiful day, with very minimal swells.   However, early that morning the Captain canceled all tenders to the island due to "safety issues".  While we remained in port as scheduled, no tenders were ever dispatched through the entire day.  And, like on the Explorer recently, there was great deal of comment and disappointment among some of the passengers since the swells didn't look like very much danger at all.  While it didn't affect us (we had not planned ongoing ashore anyway), some passengers got very testy.  Again, it didn't "look" bad at all...and we never quite understood the reason for the issue.

 

Fast forward a couple of years to when we were anchored at Edinburgh (Queensferry).  Most of the ship tendered off in the morning---it was a beautiful one---for tours and whatnot, with most planning to spend the bulk of the day ashore.  In the afternoon, a rather normal quick Spring storm blew through.  After it passed, however, the winds did not let up.  And, while the swells in the river again appeared to be not very high at all, they were coming fast and furious one right after the other.  As a result, our tender ride back to the ship was one of the few nightmares we've had in years of cruising (the other was a two-day storm on the infamous Tasman Sea).  In this case, it was almost impossible for the tender to make any headway back to the ship...it took forever...and then, once we got there, it was impossible to keep the tender against the ship or in a steady position long enough to get the passengers off.  Many of the passengers in the tender were getting motion sickness riding up and down for that long of a period of time.  And then, there started to arise a panic that we wouldn't be able to get off at all---or even back to shore---given the situation.  Additionally, the fear/concern on the crew's faces while they were assisting people off didn't help, either.  None of these folks on the tender were mobility impaired---it was just impossible for anyone to get from the door of the tender onto the stairs up to the ship.  In the end, it took close to an hour to get everyone off...topped off with one accident that happened when a lady lost her footing getting off as the tender went down during a swell, and then caught her leg between the stairs and the tender as the tender came back up. 

 

Needless to say, the situation was so bad that ours was the last tender dispatched to the dock.  The remaining passengers still on land were advised to wait while the Captain made arrangements with the dock authority there to use one of their larger police craft to ferry everyone else back. 

 

The moral of the story is that looks are very deceiving...and I'll continue to leave it to the Captain's discretion.  I've learned at this point to accept the disappointments (we never got to see Milford Sound after the Tasman Sea travails) along with the good things that we've been able to do. 

Were you on the Voyager cruise with 30 ft seas? I bet you were...that was quite a storm we were trying to out run. 

[Hambagahle]

2 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Yes Gerry - this is what should have been done in the first place.  Captain Serena is generally around the ship a lot and is very approchable.  Alternatively, you an leave a note at Reception as Gerry suggested.

 

P.S.  Sincere apologies for earlier post - there is no place on CC for that.  There is also no place, IMHO, to make derogatory personal comments about a Captain....... and I quote "And if you can't allow tendering in 5 foot seas, maybe you should be the captain of a river cruise."

There are SO many factors involved in tendering --  first and foremost I would think is - can you be SURE to get the tenders back to the ship at the end of the day?   We were in the Baltic on the Voyager.  Missed a tender port (island off Sweden and I forget the name!)  Captain Knut said at the time that the week before people had had to be left onshore for the night because winds would not permit the sea anchor to work.  And he didn't want that to happen to us.   So we sailed by - Bornholm perhaps?.   We were supposed to anchor off St Tropez.  John McNeil (Navigator) said swells were too much to safely board the tenders.  So he put "the pedal to the metal" - his words exactly - and we went to Villefranche where because of the protected anchorage we had no problem

 

PLUS I cannot imagine that Regent would put Captain Serena as Master of the Splendour if she were not qualified.  I have not - yet - met her.  But from what I read she IS more than qualified...

[cruiseluv]

Frankly, the only thing I would like is for SGolffan to ask somebody in authority on the ship why was it necessary to close blinds/ drapes in Compass Rose while docked. For me, although not the end of the world, sounds weird

[Just2guys]

No...rcandkc...it wasn't the Voyager.  It was many years ago on the Navigator, sailing out of Hobart with the next stop scheduled to be Milford Sound.  We can't remember now how high the waves were...but we had a very-far-forward suite on deck 8, and the wash after many of the swells was spraying heavily onto our balcony.  The crew had brought in all of the chair pads, turned the table and chairs upside down, and then locked many (all?) of the doors out onto the balconies.  It was quite a ride...and for two days....although, I thought that the Navigator itself handled it very well.  As a result, we had to bypass Milford and continue straight to Dunedin to arrive there as scheduled.  To say that the whole ship was disappointed at missing Milford would be an understatement...

[rcandkc]

26 minutes ago, Just2guys said:

No...rcandkc...it wasn't the Voyager.  It was many years ago on the Navigator, sailing out of Hobart with the next stop scheduled to be Milford Sound.  We can't remember now how high the waves were...but we had a very-far-forward suite on deck 8, and the wash after many of the swells was spraying heavily onto our balcony.  The crew had brought in all of the chair pads, turned the table and chairs upside down, and then locked many (all?) of the doors out onto the balconies.  It was quite a ride...and for two days....although, I thought that the Navigator itself handled it very well.  As a result, we had to bypass Milford and continue straight to Dunedin to arrive there as scheduled.  To say that the whole ship was disappointed at missing Milford would be an understatement...

Our ship was very disappointed too to miss Milford Sound but the correct call.  We had bad storm for multiple days as we were running from basically a hurricane.  80 mile winds with 30 foot seas.  We missed several New Zealand ports but had great Australia weather before heading across to New Zealand.  Just can’t mess with Mother Nature.  😳