Review: First time with Regent

[travelwell]

My husband and I just returned from a week-long cruise on the Navigator with our two adult children ages 23 and 25. Thanks for all the people on this board who answered my questions regarding Regent. Your input was invaluable.

 

This was our first jump into the world of luxury cruising, our last cruise was a 12 day Oceania. Due to the kids schedule we were limited to a 7 day cruise with a 2 night pre-cruise. We are past main stream cruises. We really loved our Oceania cruise but did not consider due to our length of cruise requirements. We did question ourselves prior to the cruise if the price difference between the 2 cruise lines would be worth it and for us it was. I will give a mini review below.

 

Before I give my input on the cruise you might be interested to know the Travel Channel was on the ship all week filming for a new series about top ten cruises. They were secretive whether it was about top ten cruise-lines or top ten itinerary's. I personally think it was Regent cruise-line they were reviewing. They did film activities daily and did participate in all the the Circle of Interest food and wine activities. The hour long program on this cruise is set to air in December or January.

 

Rooms: My husband and I were in a category E balcony suite (631) and our kids were in a category H window suite (526). The rooms were fabulous. Large bathroom with separate tub and shower. We were stunned at the size of the walk-in closets. The room layouts were great. The furnishings and linens looked new. We asked to have sparkling water and diet coke in the room at all times and and never came close to running out. The only negative with this ship is there was a loud vibration that was felt on the upper aft decks and the kids room on deck five. We did go thru quite a storm on the last night with 60 mile an hour wind gusts: the ship made quite a bit of noise and it really was rough sailing. Many seasick. I am not sure I'd want to do a transatlantic on this ship and if I did I would probably book on a lower deck, mid-ship.

 

Food:

Food is subjective but for me it was very good. The Compass Rose restaurant exceeded expectations. Food was always cooked correctly and at the right temperature. We would ask for things not on the menu , asparagus for example, and it would show up with the main course. My son asked for one of my favorite wines he had been served at Portofino's and a bottle was delivered to the table within minutes with no extra charge. I ordered a lamb chop for breakfast with room service one morning. I wrote in the order as it was not on the menu and I got my lamb chop cooked to perfection. There were several surprises, an officer caught a large fish and it was cooked and put as part of the lunch buffet. The only disappointing meal I had was at Portofino's, too much food, my meal was overcooked. Overall very impressed with the service and food.

 

Staff:

I have nothing but good things to say. Staff was friendly and helpful. The Captain, John McNeil, could be seen about the ship the whole cruise. He even was on one of our shore excursions (it took us 1/2 of the excursion to figure out who he was). He was personable and approachable. We all had a chance to chat with him sometime in the voyage.

 

The travel concierge: Christine Andrusyshyn, went above and beyond for my family. We had tight connections back to the states (not made by Regent) and she priced and timed everything from taxis to helicopters to get us to the airport. She also gave us ideas on where to stay if we missed our flight. She arranged a trip for the two kids while we were on a circle of interest tour that both kids said was the "best day they had ever had." The independent trips with the travel concierge were expensive but they were so happy it was worth it.

 

Circle of Interest: We were one of 24 people who participated in the Circle of Interest Food and Wine events. This apparently is a new thing for Regent and we did not know too much about it prior to the cruise. There were two guest Hosts. First,Walter Scheib who was the White House personal chef all 8 years for the Clintons and for 2 of the Bush years. The second guest host was Alan Tardi who is the author of "Romancing the Vine" and has had several restaurants over the years etc. Walter spoke and gave us a cooking class on our day at sea and Alan did a wine tasting. I could have listened to either all day. The highlight of the circle of interest was a full day with our group in Sorrento. We first went to a back entrance in Pompeii. We were taken to Pompeii's private vineyards for a tour and then had a glass of the exceptional wine in the vineyard. It is hard to describe how special this tour of Pompeii was, it was a memory I will have for a lifetime. We then went to a fabulous restaurant for lunch on the way back to the ship. I was so impressed by this tour we while take this into account when booking a future cruise.

 

Shore excursions:

We usually do not book shore excursions but we were intrigued by some of Regents selections. We went to a private concert in Ephesus at night. It was another as we called it on our household "Regent moment." In general people seemed happy with the shore excursions they picked.

 

To conclude, I had several people who wanted a comparison of Regent with Oceania. Regents strength was in the room layout and service. Until Oceania builds new ships I would probably stay at their pent house level. Food in the speciality restaurant was much better on Oceania but the main restaurant on Regent beat all the others. Although Regent has limited the smoking in staterooms and balcony's they still allow it on key spots on the ship including our favorite hideout, the balcony outside Galileo's. I wish that Regent would consider making 1/2 of this popular space non-smoking. I did not notice smoky areas in the ship though we did not go into the casino. Lastly I really missed Oceania's resort casual dress code. We had no formal nights on this cruise but with the airlines limiting baggage and the hassle of traveling with more that a bag a person it will be a consideration for us (you do have the good option of room service on formal nights). Both lines tend to have strong itinerary's. We loved not having to sign for drinks and the complimentary wines with meals on Regent. We had 50 children under 21 on our ship and many adults in their 40's and 50's. Oceania had no one under 21 and one couple under 30. This was probably based on the 7 night cruise. The mood and people on both cruiselines were very similar, both lines have well traveled, well mannered and personable clients and I would not hesitate to go on either line.

[Aruba]

That's an excellent review of our 2 favorite cruise lines. Thank you.

I, too, wish that Regent would consider adopting Oceania's smoking policy and country club dress policy. We've been tending more to Oceania, frankly because of the price differential and itineraries, but I would go on Regent again in a heartbeat.

[orchestrapal]

Travelwell; Thank you for a wonderful, thoughtful review. We have been on Oceania 6 times and have just booked 23 nights on Regent.

You convinced us we have not made a mistake and if we're lucky a lot of the smokers will not be on this cruise.:)

[edels]

I found Travelwell's Oceania v Regent evaluation (Review: First time with Regent), to be nicely done. Regent is of more interest to me since their banning of Cabin & Balcony smoking. In particular, because of their excursions, their lecturers, and their classical music. But they have not gone far enough for me in limiting smoking.

 

Oceania is as yet the only cruise line for me, because of their Very-limited-smoking policy. Otherwise I would likely have to stick with land-based travelling. I will be cruising with Oceania for 73 days in 2008, so there must be enough positives for me, even with my own criticisms.

 

I estimate that 50% of the passenger area on Regent ships would be off-limits to me, because of the many smoking areas, smoke drifting into corridors, and smoke carried on the smoker's person. A few years back I took a cruise on Holland America, and found that 75% of the ship's passenger areas was unacceptable to me, and hence avoided.

[esther e]

I am a former smoker and bothered terribly by the smell. Having said that, I have never smelled any lingering smoke on Regent. Actually, my husband and I just spoke of that when we were on the last Regent cruise. We were not aware of any smoking or smokers.

[orchestrapal]

I have heard from MANY Regent cruisers that say exactly what Esther has reported.:) HAL allows smoking in cabins and balconies and almost everywhere else except the dinning facilities... They also, judging by their blog, have the most ardent smokers who don't give a d.:mad:

[Paint Horse]

I do not recall encountering any smokers, anywhere on the Mariner.

[RachelG]

My nose is an extremely sensitive detector of cigarette and cigar smoke. I have never smelled smoke in any of the halls on Voyager, and that includes right outside the cigar room. We haven't smelled any on our balconies either.

On PG, there was a faint odor of smoke in the hall near where the staff went to their quarters--it was drifting up from the staff's quarters as far as I could tell.

[travelwell]

I do understand the concerns regarding smelling smoke on the cruise ship. I had responded to a post a year ago that Regent's smoking policy was a deal breaker for me. Then they changed their policy to no smoking in rooms and balconies and with the need for a 7 day cruise, we took a chance. This was still a concern pre-cruise. I am very sensitive to smoke and my daughter is asthmatic. Running into cigarette or cigar smoke would have made for a miserable cruise. Needless to say we were pleasantly surprised to run into a very small number of smokers, about 10 people. No indoor area was had an odor. The only outdoor area that was a problem was outside Galileo's. I will stress we did not go to the casino so I do not have an input about that area of the ship.