Just returned from Explorer!

[bebop bonnie]

This was our first time on the Explorer, and it was outstanding! The design was jaw dropping!  The art work alone was above and beyond.  We were in an Explorer Suite which was beautifully designed and so comfortable!  It was, unfortunately only a 7 day cruise (Stockholm to Copenhagen).  I could easily have spent a month or three and not tire of the ship nor seen every detail!

 

As I've now come to expect, but not take for granted, the service was superior. Our butler Prakash was perfection. We asked him to do a cocktail party for us with some new friends. The way he set up our living room was amazing.  The only thing missing was the bride! Elena in the bar arranged a vodka tasting for a group of 10 of us.  She is so special....remembered my sister and me from an Alaska cruise 2 years ago!  She told our group that this was her first vodka tasting but she was so professional, knowledgeable and warm, you would think she had done this for years!  So many other stars......I cannot rave enough about the quality of the service.

 

Food was wonderful!  Chartreuse was our favorite and Pacific Rim and and and!  The steak tartare in Chartreuse was a winner, as was the Hamachi in Pacific Rim... and I could go on forever. The staff handled every restaurant perfectly, even when a huge group arrived late from touring Berlin.

 

We stayed one night in Stockholm pre cruise and loved the city.  As I anticipated, St. Petersburg was our favorite port.  We had a private guide and driver and she was outstanding! For us, the private car that dropped us off at every entrance, the avoidance of lines, comfort and personal attention were well worth any expense.  We did a Regent Choice tour in Helsinki that was just ok. We stayed overnight in Copenhagen.  The city was delightful....but cold!  

 

I'm happy to say we have 2 more cruises booked on the Explorer .... and one on the Splendor in September 2020.  Can't wait!!

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Explorer is our favorite ship and our next four cruises are on Explorer or Splendor. 

We loved the Explorer Suite. We did the transatlantic three times. Different suites each time. Loved each one. 

Maybe we will meet one day. We live in Lake Worth. 

Sheila

[DeepFreeze63]

4 hours ago, bebop bonnie said:

This was our first time on the Explorer, and it was outstanding! The design was jaw dropping!  The art work alone was above and beyond.  We were in an Explorer Suite which was beautifully designed and so comfortable!  It was, unfortunately only a 7 day cruise (Stockholm to Copenhagen).  I could easily have spent a month or three and not tire of the ship nor seen every detail!

 

As I've now come to expect, but not take for granted, the service was superior. Our butler Prakash was perfection. We asked him to do a cocktail party for us with some new friends. The way he set up our living room was amazing.  The only thing missing was the bride! Elena in the bar arranged a vodka tasting for a group of 10 of us.  She is so special....remembered my sister and me from an Alaska cruise 2 years ago!  She told our group that this was her first vodka tasting but she was so professional, knowledgeable and warm, you would think she had done this for years!  So many other stars......I cannot rave enough about the quality of the service.

 

Food was wonderful!  Chartreuse was our favorite and Pacific Rim and and and!  The steak tartare in Chartreuse was a winner, as was the Hamachi in Pacific Rim... and I could go on forever. The staff handled every restaurant perfectly, even when a huge group arrived late from touring Berlin.

 

We stayed one night in Stockholm pre cruise and loved the city.  As I anticipated, St. Petersburg was our favorite port.  We had a private guide and driver and she was outstanding! For us, the private car that dropped us off at every entrance, the avoidance of lines, comfort and personal attention were well worth any expense.  We did a Regent Choice tour in Helsinki that was just ok. We stayed overnight in Copenhagen.  The city was delightful....but cold!  

 

I'm happy to say we have 2 more cruises booked on the Explorer .... and one on the Splendor in September 2020.  Can't wait!!

Thanks for the post. We had Lunch on Saturday with friends who were on your cruise and also loved it. You had a lovely Captain and a great CD as well as aterrific ship and cabin.

I read your post to DW who also loves an Explorer suite. I posted "Ode to an Explorer Suite" here this January. Alas, our recent Transatlantic was only 14 days!

[Travelcat2]

It was great to read a review of our favorite ship.  So good to hear that people are enjoying this magnificent ship!  Who was the Captain, General Manager and CD on your cruise?

[cAPS lOCK oN]

5 hours ago, bebop bonnie said:

We did a Regent Choice tour in Helsinki that was just ok.

 

Was it the Fortress Island tour? We took that on our Baltic cruise, and thought it was a real dud. Plus we couldn't figure out what made it a Choice tour in the first place.

 

But glad you enjoyed Explorer as much as we did. I can't imagine a prettier, more well run ship than her.

 

[bebop bonnie]

Yes, Sheila ~  Would love to meet you on the next cruise!  And thanks, Deep Freeze 63, we share the love of the Explorer suite!

cAPSLOCKoN, our tour was a pointless ride to Provo and a walk down an empty downtown street.  We had booked the harbor cruise and for some reason the Destination Service guy said the Provo tour was better.  My fault.  Should have researched the options better.

 

Jackie, I read the Regent Board regularly...and really pay attention to your informative posts....but strangely, I cannot remember who was the Captain, GM or CD.  I'm delighted to say that I most likely didn't pay attention because the officers did not seem to be very visible to us and happily I had no concern to share with them. Did, though  have a great chat with the Cruise Consultant, Jacques which resulted in our booking the Splendor for September 2020!! 

[Ladys Mom]

We agree that the Explorer is our favorite ship.  We have not been lucky enough to be in the Explorer suite, but we we definitely consider it for a future cruise.  Hope to meet you on a future cruise.

[Hambagahle]

I loved reading your mini "report".  And I wonder if your guide in St Petersburg might possibly have been Galina?  she was our guide - got us into the Hermitage Gold room when it was closed to the public, same into Catherine's Palace.  We never saw a queue for anything...and she was so knowledgeable.  it was a fantastic 3 days.

[bebop bonnie]

Thanks, Hambagahle....our guide in SP was Vica.  I think it is against CC rules to name the tour agency, but they were excellent.

[Travelcat2]

It isn't against CC rules if you are asked for the name of a tour company (not a travel agent) and you respond.  When we were in St. Petersburg, we used Alla Tours but have heard that Red October is also very good.

[cAPS lOCK oN]

3 hours ago, bebop bonnie said:

cAPSLOCKoN, our tour was a pointless ride to Provo and a walk down an empty downtown street.  We had booked the harbor cruise and for some reason the Destination Service guy said the Provo tour was better.  My fault.  Should have researched the options better.

 

So Regent is 0 for 2 on Choice tours in Helsinki. That is useful information for future Baltic cruisers.

[bebop bonnie]

Yup!  Actually I rarely use Regent tours but, for example a "Florence or Rome on your own" is an easy way to get from ship to city.

[bebop bonnie]

Private tour company in SP was Anastasia Travel.  Excellent from first email communication to hugs goodbye at the end of the second day!

[Xerxes10]

Prakash was our butler as well on our cruise last winter. He did an outstanding job. 

[Ladys Mom]

On 7/8/2019 at 8:19 AM, bebop bonnie said:

Yes, Sheila ~  Would love to meet you on the next cruise!  And thanks, Deep Freeze 63, we share the love of the Explorer suite!

cAPSLOCKoN, our tour was a pointless ride to Provo and a walk down an empty downtown street.  We had booked the harbor cruise and for some reason the Destination Service guy said the Provo tour was better.  My fault.  Should have researched the options better.

 

Jackie, I read the Regent Board regularly...and really pay attention to your informative posts....but strangely, I cannot remember who was the Captain, GM or CD.  I'm delighted to say that I most likely didn't pay attention because the officers did not seem to be very visible to us and happily I had no concern to share with them. Did, though  have a great chat with the Cruise Consultant, Jacques which resulted in our booking the Splendor for September 2020!! 

We were on the Explorer the last two weeks in May.  It was an outstanding voyage except for one aspect—-Destination Services.  They were not accommodating when we wanted to change an excursion because of illness.  They did not give us correct information in one of the ports, resulting in our taking a seven mile hike (per my Apple Watch), to walk back to the ship.  Interestingly, they were at their most difficult, right after I watched John, the CD, interviewing them for a video that was being filmed on the ship, say how eager they are to work with guests to accommodate their needs.  Other than DS, everything else was beyond our expectations.

[Travelcat2]

Destination Services has the worst reputation of any department on Regent. While they occasionally are good, they typically are clueless in terms of what is going on.  They consistently give incorrect information.  The worst person that I have dealt with on Regent, in our 33 cruises, was the head of Destination Services on Explorer.  Obviously I cannot name the person but I hope to never see her against I have never been treated so disrespectfully.

[GOARMY]

As we will board Explorer at Stockholm on August 30th for a BTB which concludes at Southampton on September 23rd--appreciated TS's comments on excursions and Regent hotel accommodations.  

 

We will, at this point, be at Regent's assigned Stockholm hotel--like for more than a day prior to boarding.  I will try to determine beforehand if our room will be at the compact car; SUV; or Lincoln Limo square footage level.  And, we signed up for that "Helsinki By Sea and Fortress Island" tour.  

 

This will be our third stop at Helsinki.  We did not do this particular tour on previous occasions.  

 

So--will carefully record observations as to both of the above experiences, and share while aboard.  

 

Regards, 

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[flossie009]

IMHO it is highly disrespectful to trash a complete department of hard working, conscientious Regent staff based on a few unfortunate experiences.

 

Destinations personnel have a difficult job juggling the many disparate wants of guests, some of whom can be very difficult to please and/or fail to do advance basic research on the tours they are choosing..

 

They are also in the front line of receiving complaints, and rants, when something does not go to plan.

 

A review of CC posts will show there are more plaudits for Destinations staff than complaints.

[DeepFreeze63]

2 hours ago, flossie009 said:

IMHO it is highly disrespectful to trash a complete department of hard working, conscientious Regent staff based on a few unfortunate experiences.

 

Destinations personnel have a difficult job juggling the many disparate wants of guests, some of whom can be very difficult to please and/or fail to do advance basic research on the tours they are choosing..

 

They are also in the front line of receiving complaints, and rants, when something does not go to plan.

 

A review of CC posts will show there are more plaudits for Destinations staff than complaints.

AMEN! I wouldn't want to deal with "us".

[GrJ Berkshire]

5 hours ago, flossie009 said:

IMHO it is highly disrespectful to trash a complete department of hard working, conscientious Regent staff based on a few unfortunate experiences.

 

Destinations personnel have a difficult job juggling the many disparate wants of guests, some of whom can be very difficult to please and/or fail to do advance basic research on the tours they are choosing..

 

They are also in the front line of receiving complaints, and rants, when something does not go to plan.

 

A review of CC posts will show there are more plaudits for Destinations staff than complaints.

Totally agree, never had any problems with destination services.

I think they do a superb job, most of the excursion issues are due to fickle passengers.

[ronrick1943]

It's a nice ship, we had a good time on her,=.  Happy that you took the time for the review--it's always nice to hear when a person had a great time as you did.  Thank you.

[Travelcat2]

9 hours ago, flossie009 said:

IMHO it is highly disrespectful to trash a complete department of hard working, conscientious Regent staff based on a few unfortunate experiences.

 

Destinations personnel have a difficult job juggling the many disparate wants of guests, some of whom can be very difficult to please and/or fail to do advance basic research on the tours they are choosing..

 

They are also in the front line of receiving complaints, and rants, when something does not go to plan.

 

A review of CC posts will show there are more plaudits for Destinations staff than complaints.

 

Granted, there have been fewer complaints about DS (Destination Services) recently (although there was one post - do not recall the thread which indicated that the problems still existed).

 

In terms of being "disrespectful", in our opinion, it is far better to warn people new to Regent about the issues than to pretend that it does not exist.  Posters complain about different things all the time and are not called "disrespectful" (unless they name a person which I did not do......... DS personnel change ships so there is no way to tell who I am discussing).  

 

On our last cruise, we were consistently given different information in terms of disembarking in Los Angeles (a place that I hope to never disembark again).  DS sent out a letter the night before we disembarked to all passengers stating that luggage should not be outside of your suite at 10:00 p.m. and gave reasons why we needed to hold on to it.  Different information continued to be spread around the ship.  We were told specifically by the GM to leave our luggage outside of our door at 10:00 p.m. which we did.

 

In the morning, we had no clue where our luggage was so it was back to Destination Services that had yet another story.  Fortunately, the GM was in the area and he was able to give us correct information and all was solved.

 

For the record, we have never been disrespectful to a crew member (but have spoken to people that were yelling at them and strongly suggested that they stop the tirade).  When something goes wrong, we contact the GM.  When something goes right, we contact Regent Corporate.  Unfortunately, the best DS crew member that we have encountered - (she used humor to handle the frustrated passengers in the theater when tours left late - very effective), had to go home for a family emergency.  Even though she left the ship, we let Regent Corporate know how amazing she was and what a great asset she is for Regent.

 

Once again, we all should be able to post an opinion without being called "disrespectful".  Posting that your experiences have been different than mine would have sufficed.

 

P.S.  We do not bother DS when we do not like an excursion or it isn't as described correctly.  We address that on our Comment Card

 

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by Travelcat2

[bebop bonnie]

As I've said more than once, I am a huge fan of Regent and the Explorer is now my favorite ship!  When it comes to anything negative, farther  down on the Regent thread you'll see my "post cruise concern in Copenhagen'.  I posted that partly out of frustration and disappointment and also to, like all of you, share my experience. It's an understatement to say I've learned so much from cc.  The great, and sometimes the not so great are always helpful.  And GOARMY, I'd say the Sheraton Stockholm was a little little minivan!  

[boblerm]

bebop bonnie, I love your positive attitude.  I'm so glad that you had a great cruise, and that you have more cruises to look forward to on this fabulous ship and it's (even more fabulous?) upcoming sister.

Bob

[bebop bonnie]

15 hours ago, boblerm said:

bebop bonnie, I love your positive attitude.  I'm so glad that you had a great cruise, and that you have more cruises to look forward to on this fabulous ship and it's (even more fabulous?) upcoming sister.

Bob

Thanks so much, Bob!  And yah, pun intended.....Sailing in September 2020 on the is Sister Splendor with my Sister!!!!!