Currently on Navigator Miami to Montreal

[Portolan]

28 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

 

I wonder what this tells us all about the suite we're booked mid-ship on the port side, "Not yet reviewed"?

Not really. The Suite Guru is only seen by those visiting this forum and only filled out by a relatively small subset of those people.  With over 3000 suites across the Regent fleet, there are lots of gaps in the record.  There are several deck 8 mid-ship reviews (including one by UUNetBill himself), all of which recommend their reviewed suites as "absolutely" recommended. 

 

And, after you provide a review, it'll have an entry...

Edited May 18, 2022 by Portolan

[UUNetBill]

Having sailed on each of Regen't ships at least once (including several trips on Navigator) I can say that Navigator is without a doubt the buzziest ship in the Regent fleet.  The new builds (Explorer and Splendor) are the smoothest, but being ships are still susceptible to some rattles when the conditions are right.

 

Navigator's vibrations are noticeable pretty much throughout the ship (to me, at least) but only objectionable aft.  She actually sails fairly smoothly at lower speeds in smooth seas, but when the seas are rough and/or she's making close to max speed, well, all bets are off.

 

As to service issues, I'm not gonna try and make excuses - even with staffing issues, supply chain disruptions, etc. Regent promises a solid product and from some of the posts I've read they're dropping the ball on occasion.  Pre-pandemic, I'm sure many of these issues wouldn't have arisen.  Our last cruise on Regent was a quick run on Splendor in January and the only real problem I noticed was a slight decline in the quality and selection of the house wines.  Service was impeccable...but we were also sailing at something like 45% capacity, too, so take that with a grain of salt. 

 

I should probably visit the Seabourn and Silversea boards to see if they're also having any 'restarting pains' or if this problem is specific to Regent...

 

Our next Regent cruise isn't until next January and I'm confident they'll have these issues worked out well before then.  

[Sunprince]

13 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

Btw I’ve only been reading Regent’s board for a little more than a year. Searching on CC boards isn’t necessarily the easiest way to find things.  Why didn’t you warn me this past year? You knew long ago. 😁

There is a bit of a technique to searching the forums. If for ex you want to search “navigator vibration”, just make sure you tick the box to search only the Regent forum and then click “more search options” where you choose “search all words”. 
 

There was a recent discussion in March on the Navigator vibration issue (along with many older postings), where it clearly described the concerns.  Here is the link:

The severity of Vibration on Navigator is a factor of 3 things: 1) the ships design/operation (this will never change); 2j speed of the ship (worse at higher speed); 3) the seas where the ship is sailing (I.e. open seas with higher waves/swells means more vibration).

[ChucktownSteve]

I just received a call on behalf of the chef inquiring about my preferences for the sugar free desserts and if they could use artificial sweetener.  Looks like I'm going to get my just desserts. 😁  That's very accommodating which I appreciate.

 

Just a few hours out of Bermuda. At about 2pm CD Ray (I call him "Clicker" for the noise he makes as he transitions segments on the daily TV schedule.) will give us a narrative to the open decks as we sail into Bermuda.

[2012_Alaska_bound]

3 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

I just received a call on behalf of the chef inquiring about my preferences for the sugar free desserts and if they could use artificial sweetener.  Looks like I'm going to get my just desserts. 😁  That's very accommodating which I appreciate.

 

 

Since you mentioned being almost half way through your cruise, I was going to ask if you had put the dessert problem on your mid-cruise review? The mid-cruise reviews seem to get lots of quick attention, since they are looked at by all the departments.

[ChucktownSteve]

Our Concierge Suite sitting area

 

The Spacious walk in closet. More hanging and drawer space than we could use.

 

10 minutes before we sailed from Port Canaveral the Space Center launched after we did an excursion to the KSC.  If you can download, then zoom in, you will actually see the rocket fuselage above the flames. This was taken from deck 10 port side.

 

Sailing into the Charleston Jetties with the Morris Island Lighthouse in the background.

 

Sailing in towards the USS Yorktown and Cooper River Bridge named Arthur Ravenel Bridge.

 

First night overlooking Charleston sunset.

 

Navigator from Charleston Harbor

 

 

As we sailed out of Charleston we passed the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum where I worked part time for six years waiting for my DW to want to retire.

Edited May 18, 2022 by ChucktownSteve

[ChucktownSteve]

1 hour ago, 2012_Alaska_bound said:

 

 

Since you mentioned being almost half way through your cruise, I was going to ask if you had put the dessert problem on your mid-cruise review? The mid-cruise reviews seem to get lots of quick attention, since they are looked at by all the departments.

I was going to do that today but my request to the server last night in Prime 7 got the desired results before I submitted it.  I like that the verbal comment was sufficient.

 

I was incorrect earlier. We're only through about 1/3 of the 16 day cruise.

Edited May 18, 2022 by ChucktownSteve

[mrlevin]

18 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

I was going to do that today but my request to the server last night in Prime 7 got the desired results before I submitted it.  I like that the verbal comment was sufficient.

 

I was incorrect earlier. We're only through about 1/3 of the 16 day cruise.

Miami monitors CC and will cut and paste reports to ships; your dessert "fix" may be result of your posts here.  One time I gave strong kudos to a staff member on CC and next day GM thanked me for my feedback and later that day so did the employee.

Edited May 18, 2022 by mrlevin

[ChucktownSteve]

Had two pots of coffee delivered via room service at 6:30am today to hold us over until Compass Rose opened at 8am.

 

We wanted a quiet and leisurely served breakfast this morning.  Yesterday was room service breakfast.

 

I had the strip steak which was about 1/2" thick, cooked to MR temperature.   I also requested eggs over easy while my DW ordered over medium.  Everything was cooked as ordered. The food came out hot and in good time. Everything was on point and coffee was refilled regularly.  They certainly had their rhythm going today.

 

Let me add here that the space launch was actually taken from the starboard side. I thought starboard but my brain typed port. lol

Edited May 18, 2022 by ChucktownSteve

[1982CruzStart]

Thank you for your lovely pictures and all the time you have taken to give us your honest assessment of your cruise and the ship so far. 

Have a wonderful rest of your cruise. 

[bayonejoe]

cruiseluv,

thank you for the information.

we have a forward suite

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

Had two pots of coffee delivered via room service at 6:30am today to hold us over until Compass Rose opened at 8am.

 

We wanted a quiet and leisurely served breakfast this morning.  Yesterday was room service breakfast.

 

I had the strip steak which was about 1/2" thick, cooked to MR temperature.   I also requested eggs over easy while my DW ordered over medium.  Everything was cooked as ordered. The food came out hot and in good time. Everything was on point and coffee was refilled regularly.  They certainly had their rhythm going today.

 

Let me add here that the space launch was actually taken from the starboard side. I thought starboard but my brain typed port. lol

We always enjoy coffee in the suite before breakfast—just a nice way to start the day.

[purpleally]

22 hours ago, DISNEY GIRL said:

We too are on this Regent sailing and it is our first experience with Regent, as we are looking for a replacement for the wonderful Crystal Serenity.   Unfortunately, Regent Navigator is not it!!! Checkin took 2 hours, lady in front of us fainted... not impressed.

 

Have complained twice about the service in Compass Rose.  However our biggest bugbear is the vibration throughout the ship. Frankly, it's like being on a car ferry.  

 

Will be trying Seabourn next.....

While I personally prefer Seabourn to Regent, but not by much, Regent has other ships in their fleet. The explorer is beautiful 

[DISNEY GIRL]

17 hours ago, cruiseluv said:

The Navigator has been around for over 20 years, and it’s a well known issue that it vibrates, mainly aft. We’re you not aware of that before booking the cruise?

As we are new to Regent, we had no idea it had vibration issues, clearly neither did our TA.

[edgee]

5 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Miami monitors CC and will cut and paste reports to ships; your dessert "fix" may be result of your posts here.  One time I gave strong kudos to a staff member on CC and next day GM thanked me for my feedback and later that day so did the employee.

Interesting. Over on the Oceania board there was some debate about whether Miami monitors Cruise Critic. A well connected TA active on the board quoted Frank Del Rio himself saying that as a corporate policy Miami definitely does not monitor cruise critic, although some staff may view it on their own.

[royallondon]

What has surprised me reading this thread is that the ships vibration now appears to be “throughout” the ship (ChucktownSteve, DISNEY GIRL).

 

Thanks to CC, I asked a few questions, read reviews and checked the cabin info.  I concluded the issue was confined to the aft and so booked a midship stateroom expecting to avoid the vibration issue, perhaps not 🤔.   Unfortunately,  it appears that being “laid up” has not been kind to the “Navigator” ☹️
 

We’re really looking forward to our cruise and optimistic that Regent won’t run the risk of tarnishing their brand by having a real “duffer” in their fleet.

 

Regards
 

 

[cwbegg]

ChucktownSteve, would you post the name of the General Manager on board the Navigator?  Also, if you have the name of the Food & Beverage Manager, would you post that also?  Thank you.

[ChucktownSteve]

I thought I would share an interesting, what some might call frightening,  episode about two hours out of Bermuda.  We were in our suite and all of a sudden I thought I was back on a sailboat.  The ship keeled sharply.  All our bottles of champagne, Vero Water and liquor slid to the opposite end of the desk.  A coffee cup slid off the saucer onto the fruit dish.

 

My DW thought it might have been the remake of The Poseidon Adventure just more politically correct.

 

When we went to lunch shortly afterwards, another passenger at the adjoining table told us they were in Compass Rose when it happened.  She said there was a cascade of glasses and wine bottles crashing in the galley.  Then she heard lots of shouting behind the closed doors and sounds of large amounts of glass being swept up.

 

We found out shortly thereafter that they had to take the sudden and what I perceived a sharp, drastic course alteration to avoid some fishing nets in the water.  Too bad there wasn't enough time for me to toss my hands in the air and shout weeeeee.  Weee, weee,Weeeeeeee. 😄

Edited May 18, 2022 by ChucktownSteve

[ChucktownSteve]

1 hour ago, cwbegg said:

ChucktownSteve, would you post the name of the General Manager on board the Navigator?  Also, if you have the name of the Food & Beverage Manager, would you post that also?  Thank you.

 

Here ya go. The lazy way.

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by ChucktownSteve

[RachelG]

Love Navigator despite the vibration issues.  As far as desserts, I don’t eat sugar at all, and have never had any problem finding a dessert that I could not eat in any venue.  Usually I don’t eat dessert, but their sugar free ice creams are delicious, and you can get berries anytime without sugar.

[cwbegg]

2 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

 

Here ya go. The lazy way.

 

Thank you - not lazy and exactly what I wanted to know.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

On 5/17/2022 at 9:13 PM, takemewithyou said:

The one at the top of the page with 377 posts, started in 2017?

 

Do the other ships, such as Mariner have the vibration problem……or just.Navigator?  I almost booked Navigator once and would have been a new Regent cruiser?

Mariner is quite stable in my experience.  Voyager has some vibration from damage early on in its career, on its maiden voyage I believe.

 

In my experience on Navigator, the vibration is worst aft, although the ship as a whole can be quite bouncy, so mid-ship cabins are best.  The show lounge is aft and can be quite affected in bad weather.  (I still really like Navigator, btw.)

[GOARMY]

ChucktownSteve:  

 

Been following this Thread and your comments, as we will be doing a Navigator B/t/B Itinerary beginning at NYC on May 31, 2023. 

 

Many previous sailings on Navigator, going back to 2008 or so.  Ray Solaire has been our Cruise Director on several occasions--always on Navigator.  The last being in late 2019.  Then--COVID, and a bunch of cancelations.   

 

Navigator's vibration situation was never a serious issue; just sometimes a nuisance when in The Theater during a Lecture.  Any beverage container would, magically "navigate" across the table whenever the ship came into, or left, a Port.  Lots of vibration throughout the venue.  The Presenter often had to, literally, hang-on to the podium.   

 

Sooos--if you have the opportunity, please pass on our best to Ray in the form of a BIG, wait for it: 

 

How do you Doooooooo! from 

 

Jim and Sue

Redmond, WA

 

We hope to meet Ray again in a year should he be our Cruise Director.  

 

GOARMY!

 

 

 

[ChucktownSteve]

7 hours ago, GOARMY said:

ChucktownSteve:  

 

Been following this Thread and your comments, as we will be doing a Navigator B/t/B Itinerary beginning at NYC on May 31, 2023. 

 

Many previous sailings on Navigator, going back to 2008 or so.  Ray Solaire has been our Cruise Director on several occasions--always on Navigator.  The last being in late 2019.  Then--COVID, and a bunch of cancelations.   

 

Navigator's vibration situation was never a serious issue; just sometimes a nuisance when in The Theater during a Lecture.  Any beverage container would, magically "navigate" across the table whenever the ship came into, or left, a Port.  Lots of vibration throughout the venue.  The Presenter often had to, literally, hang-on to the podium.   

 

Sooos--if you have the opportunity, please pass on our best to Ray in the form of a BIG, wait for it: 

 

How do you Doooooooo! from 

 

Jim and Sue

Redmond, WA

 

We hope to meet Ray again in a year should he be our Cruise Director.  

 

GOARMY!

 

 

 

 

I now understand How do you Doooooooo!  lol  Will dooooooo.

 

Absolutely no vibrations for the show last night which was excellent btw. 

[ChucktownSteve]

We docked right in downtown Hamilton, Bermuda about 3pm Wednesday and off to a glass bottom boat excursion at 3:30.  We went out to the reef.  It was interesting but not as colorful as the reefs I have dived before.  Our boat was litterally just a few feet above the area the captain took us to.

 

 

The bow of an intentionally sunken ship from the 1800's that was an ironclad that never fired a shot in anger.

 

The fish have been trained to go into a feeding frenzy when the bread from a bucket supplied by the boat operator is tossed overboard by the passengers.

 

This morning is beautiful in Hamilton.  The weather is perfect.  Here is a panoramic view from our suite balcony .  We're on the port side which isn't facing the port. 😉

Edited May 19, 2022 by ChucktownSteve