Explorer at Christmas

[swansong]

For those in the UK there is another programme about Explorer at Christmas with John Barron on Friday 27 th December Channel 5 @ 8:00 pm.

Edited December 25, 2019 by swansong

[Hambagahle]

For those in Europe with cable too...  or Sky.  Looking forward to seeing it!

[English Voyager]

I hope in this programme they don't keep telling us how much things cost.

[Zqueeze1]

Too bad we don’t have access to it here in the US unless someone posts it in YouTube like the previous program.  I would love to see it. 

Z and TB

[Hambagahle]

It was totally NOT worth seeing...  More of the "same" staged stuff.  And more of how much things cost.   The "party" in the Regent Suite needed 10 butlers apparently to serve about the same number of guests.   

 

It is clearly something that was directed to a "certain" audience - people who are overly impressed by price.    I did not like it.   Not at all.

[English Voyager]

36 minutes ago, Hambagahle said:

It was totally NOT worth seeing...  More of the "same" staged stuff.  And more of how much things cost.   The "party" in the Regent Suite needed 10 butlers apparently to serve about the same number of guests.   

 

It is clearly something that was directed to a "certain" audience - people who are overly impressed by price.    I did not like it.   Not at all.

I switched off after 25 minutes.

 

As for the frequent reference to cost, perhaps it was an attempt to justify Regent's per diem rates ( even for the entry level accommodation).

[eliana]

We switched off after a few minutes. We regret telling our children to watch it to see the ship we were sailing on shortly. They will get the wrong Impression of what we like and might worry about their inheritance which we are rapidly reducing by cruising a lot on Regent.

Edited December 28, 2019 by eliana

[swansong]

I agree, it was mainly all about the Regent Suite and its occupants. It didn’t really show much of what the other 700 guests experienced other than a few showings of Christmas decorations.

We are booked on Splendor over next Christmas and had high expectations of getting a flavour but were disappointed. We were unsure whether the cruise shown actually covered Christmas as it didn’t show anything of Christmas Day, just a trial dish prepared in the galley of goose with prunes that didn’t appeal!

 

IMHO a very poor advertising gimmick that didn’t work and the constant mention of cost.

[Belfast Taxman]

I agree that this “Christmas” special was not a great programme, and no it was not actually Christmas, but I suggest that we should refrain from criticism of Regent. This was an independent television production and Regent will have had very limited editorial control. For instance, the constant referencing to price was a follow on from the earlier series entitled “The Most Expensive Cruise Ship in the World”. This clearly led to the concentration to the vulgar events in the Regent Suite, or am I just jealous?🙄

 

[ronrick1943]

When a company agrees to a show like this, it's hard to believe Regent didn't have input.  If not the PR Director for Regent isn't doing a very good job. 

 

[Stickman1990]

For those who want to watch it

Many thanks to Cindy for posting it up for us 

 

 

[Stickman1990]

On 12/27/2019 at 3:06 AM, Zqueeze1 said:

Too bad we don’t have access to it here in the US unless someone posts it in YouTube like the previous program.  I would love to see it. 

Z and TB

Done

[Zqueeze1]

Whether this show was or was not sanctioned by Regent is one thing. I would believe that the show’s producers/editors had the final say as to what was presented. However, we have met John Barron several times and must say he is a top notch cruise director and entertainer. He is also a hard working CD with the customers’ interest in mind. I would say that those that find him to be under par are  in the minority of passengers’ opinion of him.   He’s got our vote. 

 

Thanks Stickman for the link. 

Z and TB

 

[wcsdkqh]

Zqueeze1 — you are correct regarding John Barron.

[ronrick1943]

26 minutes ago, Zqueeze1 said:

Whether this show was or was not sanctioned by Regent is one thing. I would believe that the show’s producers/editors had the final say as to what was presented. However, we have met John Barron several times and must say he is a top notch cruise director and entertainer. He is also a hard working CD with the customers’ interest in mind. I would say that those that find him to be under par are  in the minority of passengers’ opinion of him.   He’s got our vote. 

 

Thanks Stickman for the link. 

Z and TB

 

I agree John is not only a good CD, but a decent person.  Now I disagree with you regarding the show---as PR was one of the functions under me when I was working---Never ever would a good PR department not have final say so in a movie, TV or anything that the public would see would not have final approval.  After all Regent is a trade name, logo and any PR department would want to protect the Regent image.

[EAGLESLOVER]

We have cruised with John several times 

we are looking forward to seeing him again on Splendor 

he is a fantastic CD

[ronrick1943]

Well, I still agree with what I said about a PR Department and protecting a companies image---However after watching the posted show I see nothing wrong with the show.  The Producers and Regent did a great job with the show.  They showed many things around the ship, everything was in good taste and great PR for Regent.  They could have shown another suite, but any company is going to show the best they have.  After all you only have so many minutes----Great job.

  

[gnomie1]

9 hours ago, Belfast Taxman said:

I agree that this “Christmas” special was not a great programme, and no it was not actually Christmas, but I suggest that we should refrain from criticism of Regent. This was an independent television production and Regent will have had very limited editorial control. For instance, the constant referencing to price was a follow on from the earlier series entitled “The Most Expensive Cruise Ship in the World”. This clearly led to the concentration to the vulgar events in the Regent Suite, or am I just jealous?🙄

 

Actually, Regent probably had extensive editorial control - they probably invited the production team on board and dictated what was taped and had final say on the finished product.

 

Remember, the only way the production team had access to anything was with the permission and blessing of Regent, this was not the type of documentary where one had to work behind the scenes to film. I am wondering who Regent thought their target audience would be for this programme? Actually, a big fail for the PR team and suspect that FDR had a hand in this because he loves to brag about how much everything costs. As Hambagahle stated, this was just "tacky"

[Gilly]

We had several mailshots/emails from Regent highlighting the showing of this programme (which we haven't yet seen).  That suggests that Regent are pleased to promote the production to existing Regent clients and happy to be associated with the finished project.  I might add that, if it's in any way similar to the previous short series of programmes shown in the Autumn, I'm in no hurry to watch.  I'm of the same opinion as @gnomie1 and @Hambagahle on this one.

 

Speaking of cruise ships on TV, we stumbled upon a series on the Quest channel (UK) which we preferred. In googling for the link, I see it's shown on the Smithsonian Channel in the USA 

https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/shows/mighty-cruise-ships/1003687 

We saw the Viking Sea episode, which gave a good insight to life on board a Viking Ocean ship, we thought, but more interesting was the programme which followed, on board Oceania Marina on a cruise around the British Isles.  What's strange is that on the website, that programme doesn't show up - there's one on board Europa2 in its place.   When we have time, we'll see if we can catch other programmes in the series for a less flashy, more "real life" approach.

[Belfast Taxman]

Gnomie1

you might be right - we were not part of the discussion- and I agree with you that it was all a bit tacky. Indeed it was more tacky than the original four part series made by the same TV production company, which also had, as one of its main themes, the cost of everything on the “most expensive cruise ship in the world”. It would seem that Christmas became an excuse to really go over the top. As for Regent, they may well have thought that was good for their corporate image, what I personally found difficult to take was the presentation of Regent customers.

[flossie009]

We are with those who feel that Regent have done themselves no favours in the UK market with their 2019 series of documentaries about life aboard Explorer, culminating in the "Christmas" special. 

 

If Regent felt the need to market themselves on UK TV, why did they not join the numerous cruise-lines who entrusted themselves to the BAFTA winning UK Channel 5 TV series "Cruising with Jane McDonald".

We are not fans of the ex cruise ship entertainer, Jane McDonald, but at least her programmes give a reasonably balanced view of the cruise industry and the various ships (from mainstream to luxury) on which she sails.

[phillipahain]

4 hours ago, flossie009 said:

We are with those who feel that Regent have done themselves no favours in the UK market with their 2019 series of documentaries about life aboard Explorer, culminating in the "Christmas" special. 

 

If Regent felt the need to market themselves on UK TV, why did they not join the numerous cruise-lines who entrusted themselves to the BAFTA winning UK Channel 5 TV series "Cruising with Jane McDonald".

We are not fans of the ex cruise ship entertainer, Jane McDonald, but at least her programmes give a reasonably balanced view of the cruise industry and the various ships (from mainstream to luxury) on which she sails.

Likewise i am no huge fan of Jane  Macdonald but i agree that neither the 4 part series or this Christmas one show Regent in the best light ...we have loved everything about Regent and recomended them but the debacle over the inaugural Splendor cruise and these TV programmes which highlight a small specific section of Regent Passengers does not present Regent in its best light ..add on reports of training issues and lots of new staff is very puzzling because Regent has a core of truly brilliant staff and they normally only pick and employ the best so i wonder what is going on 

[Belfast Taxman]

Based on the full page adverts today in a number of UK Sunday newspapers such as The Sunday Times, Regent clearly believe that the TV programme was a great success as the adverts all clearly refer to the main tag line of the programme, the most expensive cruise ship in the world.

[flossie009]

2 hours ago, Belfast Taxman said:

the most expensive cruise ship in the world.

.... which it isn't anyway, is it?

[Stickman1990]

8 hours ago, flossie009 said:

If Regent felt the need to market themselves on UK TV, why did they not join the numerous cruise-lines who entrusted themselves to the BAFTA winning UK Channel 5 TV series "Cruising with Jane McDonald".

We are not fans of the ex cruise ship entertainer, Jane McDonald, but at least her programmes give a reasonably balanced view of the cruise industry and the various ships (from mainstream to luxury) on which she sails.

Cough, splutter - perish the thought - I think Jane is a little too irreverent for Regent - can you imagine her prancing around with her selfie stick!

 

I don’t think the Explorer is big enough to accomodate the size of Jane and Johns egos at the same time...

 

A better programme to target would be the Mighty Cruise Ships series 

 

Having said that these documentaries are all so false and cheesy - as most of us know they don’t reflect the real cruise experience for most cruisers 

 

Who actually thinks Mary Jean Tully really paid anything like the quoted amount for the Regent Suite? or bought the necklace? or that they were real friends at the cocktail party (I suspect they would have been her clients who were onboard)?
 

Nothing surprising about it as all the cruise lines create these ego trip videos to promote their brands and favoured customers - it seems to be becoming more common in fact