Best Small-Ship Cruise LIne

[wripro]

I check Regent prices regularly and find them consistently higher than Seabourn or Silversea. In addition, they seem to have cut back on longer cruises with lots of 7 day itineraries.

[Robroy]

My wife and I have booked our first Regent cruise this December on the Voyageur having sailed almost exclusively with Princess and once with Celebrity. We made our decision to try this line based on research of materials provided by Seabourn, Crystal and Regent as well as reviewing independent reviews by CC members as well as info from other cruise boards. The ranking in a publication such as Conde Naste didn't factor in any of our decision-making and unless one was quite familiar with the parameters of any such survey I can't see how it would have much value frankly. Not to demean the Conde Naste reputation, but there are so many things which go into a decision to select a cruiseline and ship that I don't see what the fuss is all about. My vacation won't be any better on the basis of survey results unless there is some data provided - which is exactly the type of information which these Boards provide.

The first-place ranking is fine - provides a good marketing banner but at the end of the day, if the product isn't perceived by the paying customer as worthy of a good ranking, they aren't going to be repeat customers. All we knew was that Regent was a very good line providing a great vacation experience. That was sufficient to get us to try it out. Based upon everything we've seen thus far, we're quite excited about the upcoming trip.

Just my two cents....

 

Rob

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I'm sure you will enjoy Regent. They are a class operation, shipboard, without being stuffy. It's perfect for us, we love the ships.

[comettgirl]

Wendy, We booked a 2 for 1 Caribbean trip, 7 day from Ft. Lauderdale on December 1, 2008. It also ends up being a "spotlight on Chocolate" cruise!!!! I am really looking forward to it. WE are also going on the Caribbean Princess this November 25th.

[mpb43]

My husband and I are booked on the Navigator in December. This is only our second cruise. The first was a multigenerational cruise in the Med with 14 other family members in July. This is the first cruise that we have planned for ourselves and we chose Regent based on research, and reading these boards. We are new to cruising, but have traveled extensively overseas both before we had children, and also with our kids.

We booked our cruise before the Conde Nast article, but I have to say that as a newbie, if I were planning my first cruise, the Conde Nast article would probably cause me to look more closely at Regent.

We are just on the 3-day Navigator cruise (first time we will have traveled without our children in 11 years!), but we are waitlisted for the "Spotlight on Chocolate" cruise in December 2008. We are looking forward to a great cruise and maybe a regular "grown-up" trip every year.

[comettgirl]

is the "Spotlight on chocolate" cruise for December 2008 already sold out? or did you want a specific catagory?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

That's pretty much the cruise we're doing this December, sans chocolat. Pretty amazing that it's waitlisted already. Our cruise is not full as far as I know. I'm betting too that you're holding out for a specific category??

[Iamboatman]

I am showing literally every category is available on the Voyager on 12/1/08

[comettgirl]

Wendy, We booked a guareenteed H cat...... I have not checked lately to see if we had been assigned a cabin yet.

[comettgirl]

I see the "Spotlight on Chocolate" cruise for THIS December 7th is waitlisted.

[Iamboatman]

Oops! Should have read more carefully. You are correct. Everything is waitlisted.:o

[mpb43]

Hi all, Sorry I mistyped! We are waitlisted for the cruise this year, but at this late date (after final payment) I doubt anything will come of it. I imagine we will love the short cruise, and we'll probably book next year's "Chocolate" cruise while on board the Navigator in December.

[shorton]

Where can I go on the Regent site to check on whether cabins are available on a particular cruise? Thanks.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Ahh, everything explained!

 

You can't really check on line for cabin availability. Sometimes if you click on Fares you can see which cabin classes are sold out, but as far as I know, that's all the detail you can get.

[Iamboatman]

Travel agents who sign up for the Regent booking engine can see the inventory for each sailing. The general public cannot.

[Robroy]

Comettgirl -

 

We're on the "Spotlight on Chocolate" Voyageur sailing this December 7th - will let you know how it turns out. From what I've read about Regent thus far, a heavy dose of chocolate is just what we didn't need in addition to the food everyone is raving about but we'll do our best!

 

Rob

[comettgirl]

Oh Please, come back and tell us all about the chocolate cruise!!!!

[crusinbanjo]

Wednesday night.

 

BTW, I think the second place "winner" in the small cruise line category was Grand Circle Travel for its barge cruises. We all know about the problems with GCT...so one must ponder: Is there any validity to a poll that obviously allows ballot stuffing?

 

OK GCT may not be the best tour operator, but the Barge Cruise companies are not part of GCT, they are usually independant small companies, and a few that own multiple barges. Having said that, every Barge Cruise I have been on has bee fantastic, small & cramped because of the size limits of the barge, but fantastic none the less. I would recomend to anybody that wants to barge cruise to look to book your own or use Abercrombie & Kent, they seem to be wired into the Barge cruise world.

[Iamboatman]

I received notice that the Berlitz book's release date has been pushed back to October 23rd. Hummm, I wonder if the ratings have been changed?:eek: :D

[BBfromCA]

I just received notice from Amazon.com that the Berlitz book's release date has been changed to December 18th.