Tips for a Regent Newbie

[bitob]

14 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

Of course there isn’t any bias on the Regent boards. 

Huge difference

look how many on these threads are criticizing aspects of regent 

specialty restaurants, chair hog policy, lack of loungers on some balconies, shorex and more 

there is bias but there is balance 

 

not on crystal boards. 
they do not like you to praise other cruise lines or criticize crystal

i speak from years of experience 

[pappy1022]

I don’t follow the Crystal boards since I have no intention of sailing with them in the near future. Are you saying that Crystal deletes less than stellar reviews or customers are afraid to speak their minds? I am not sure a cruise line has that power of deciding what does and doesn’t get posted on these boards. 

[ToxM]

2 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

I don’t follow the Crystal boards since I have no intention of sailing with them in the near future. Are you saying that Crystal deletes less than stellar reviews or customers are afraid to speak their minds? I am not sure a cruise line has that power of deciding what does and doesn’t get posted on these boards. 

I think bitob means that there are a lot of very loyal cheerleaders on that board. 

[bitob]

Just now, pappy1022 said:

I don’t follow the Crystal boards since I have no intention of sailing with them in the near future. Are you saying that Crystal deletes less than stellar reviews or customers are afraid to speak their minds? I am not sure a cruise line has that power of deciding what does and doesn’t get posted on these boards. 

On their Facebook page anything negative is deleted. On the cc page some diehards feel no other cruise lines can be mentioned or praised and a few will try to get your posts deleted. There has been some success in that area

 

Crystal is never to blame for anything and everything is always perfect. Crew is better than any other crew. lol. Food is always better. 🤮 many of these posters never sail any other line.

 

the ships are not sailing full. 
 

 

[seasickphil]

5 hours ago, ToxM said:

I think bitob means that there are a lot of very loyal cheerleaders on that board. 

Are you saying that there are no loyal cheerleaders on this board then.

[ToxM]

1 minute ago, seasickphil said:

Are you saying that there are no loyal cheerleaders on this board then.

Nope, I am saying there are a lot of cheerleaders on that board  😄

[pappy1022]

I went to the Crystal board for fun and I did see quite a few negative comments about the same things we are seeing with Regent. Significant changes to itineraries, lack of communication, some food and cabin issues, etc. There are definite cheerleaders on both Crystal & Regent sites where neither cruise line can’t do anything wrong even when it’s obvious they screwed up. Before Crystal went bankrupt, I cruised with them occassionaly, about the same as I do with Regent. I don’t recall all these significant itinerary changes, other than for safety or security reasons, pre COVID. It feels like in at least some cases the rules are changing on the cruise lines post sales but prior to departure and this is causing significant angst among passengers because they don’t feel they re getting the product they paid for. As an example, the French Polynesia islands are now limiting the size of the cruise ships that can visit. I’m sure some large ship cruise lines sold some cabins prior to this announcement.  

[Mahogany]

17 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

I went to the Crystal board for fun and I did see quite a few negative comments about the same things we are seeing with Regent. Significant changes to itineraries, lack of communication, some food and cabin issues, etc. There are definite cheerleaders on both Crystal & Regent sites where neither cruise line can’t do anything wrong even when it’s obvious they screwed up. Before Crystal went bankrupt, I cruised with them occassionaly, about the same as I do with Regent. I don’t recall all these significant itinerary changes, other than for safety or security reasons, pre COVID. It feels like in at least some cases the rules are changing on the cruise lines post sales but prior to departure and this is causing significant angst among passengers because they don’t feel they re getting the product they paid for. As an example, the French Polynesia islands are now limiting the size of the cruise ships that can visit. I’m sure some large ship cruise lines sold some cabins prior to this announcement.  

What are examples of "all these significant itinerary changes"? Surely you're not blaming Regent for French Polynesia's regulations.

[SWFLAOK]

It's hard enough to trust cruise lines that have not gone out of business while they have passengers onboard, but there is no way I will ever book a cruise on a cruise line that had passengers onboard and additional bookings when they ran out of fuel and had no credit to pay for more. What kind of maintenance were they doing since they had no money for fuel?

I don't know how you can get insurance for cruises on Crystal, since its previous owner could not make it work financially even with a substantial capital backing from other cruise ships in China, and when a non cruise travel company purchased Crystal, minus 1 ship bought by another company since it must have been the best deal from a business point of view.

[-Lew-]

1 hour ago, SWFLAOK said:

I don't know how you can get insurance for cruises on Crystal

 

Easy...  Have you ever had to provide the name of the cruise line when purchasing travel insurance?  I haven't.

[Trunkabella]

3 minutes ago, -Lew- said:

 

Easy...  Have you ever had to provide the name of the cruise line when purchasing travel insurance?  I haven't.

Every travel insurance policy that I have ever had has had an addendum containing cruise lines, travel packagers and airlines that it would not insure.  They don’t typically call attention to it, but it is there.

[pappy1022]

15 hours ago, Mahogany said:

What are examples of "all these significant itinerary changes"? Surely you're not blaming Regent for French Polynesia's regulations.

As far as examples you can read these boards and get plenty of them. You can also read other cruise boards that are doing the same thing. I am not blaming Regent or anyone else (because we don’t know the details). I was just using the French Polynesia example because that is my next cruise and I have been following boards and news related to this area. I was using that example because it is quite possible that larger cruise lines sold cabins prior to the legal changes and now can’t deliver on that promise because of new local law restrictions and they have to change the itinerary. I just don’t know what is going on with Regent and other cruise lines that are making significant itinerary changes. I am not talking about a missed port because of weather conditions or recent security changes. 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

On 12/30/2023 at 10:44 AM, irishwitchy said:

We are wine drinkers, not the stuff is free, the wine that you order.  We have found,  ordering a couple of nice bottles the first couple of nights,  seems to set the stage for the rest of the cruise. 
 

Sommelier knows us, extra reservations in the speciality restaurants,  specials on some wine they are trying to move off the menu because they are down to one bottle, etc.  Also,  we get the details on the wine or champagne lunch and sign up for it.  

We love good wine also and am curious what wines you were able to order? 

[2SailingNomads]

Agree that on Crystal you either are crystalized (I guess that means drink the kool aid or not, despite my garage being bigger than the "suite" we had) or not. we ARE NOT! And the biggest cheerleader, still waiting to see his skirt and pompoms on that board who gets $ from Crystal apparently to post must have nothing else in his life to do than write 6 paragraphs every hour touting Crystal. Sad...

 

Lots of good except for the pitiful size of a room that on Seabourn, Regent, Scenic etc. for the price would have ben 100 sq foot larger for that price. And if a first timer no one wants to associate with you.  First question we were asked: how many Crystal cruises have we done?  

Naw Seabourn and Regent MUCH more friendly pax.