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Huge decline . . . .?


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Wow, I have read CC a bit over the past year or so, but have almost completely refrained from posting. Just looked at the CC member reviews for the Voyager for the first time in many months, and 8 of the last 12 reviewers rate their cruise aboard Voyager 2 stars or fewer.

 

After having sailed on the Voyager the past three years in the Med in October, for personal and business reasons, we are strongly considering canceling our Oct cruise this year, and seeing these extremely poor ratings makes me think that perhaps this would the best course right now.

 

Aloha from Hanalei,

 

Mark

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Mark, for whatever it is worth, my husband and I were on the Voyager in Feb 2014 and again in July 2014 - and had great cruises each time. We are looking forward to our next Voyager cruise in October of this year. We have also sailed on Silversea (2 cruises) and Crystal (2 cruises) in the last two years as well (and many more in the last 10+ years, but wanted to relate to you our recent experiences)....At this point, I give Silversea the nod and my husband gives Regent (Voyager) the nod as our favorite cruise line. But we agree that we really like both and will toggle between the two lines in the future.

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Mark, I've been reading the reviews as well as we have a 10 day September cruise booked. We were on Voyager for 7 days in 2012 and 21 days in 2014. We had wonderful cruises both times. I think that if a cruiser has a negative experience they are more likely to post a review. That may be the reason rather than a reflection of declining quality. And, there are many "glass half empty" types who pick apart their experience and allow imperfections to sour the whole trip. I personally think it would be stupid for Regent to cut costs in a way that would impact passenger experience, so I'll try to post a review when we return.

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We were on Voyager for 30 days in November/Dec 2014 and thought it was a great cruise. Was everything perfect - no but then i have no expectation of perfection. We had a bit of an issue with our cabin but they tried very hard to remedy it. The service and food were wonderful as usual.

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We were on the full Grand Voyage from Tokyo to Southampton 3/11-6/6 and cannot say enough about the ship, crew, itinerary, food and service...ESPECIALLY the crew who went out of their way to make us feel special. Was it 100% ? No, but darn close. I don't think the word "no" was in their vocabulary - though we are fairly low- maintenance any and all reasonable requests were granted and with a smile and truly genuine care. DH's mom passed away during the voyage which meant we had to leave the ship from Kuala Lumpur and return to the ship 10 days later in Cochin, India. Word got around the ship quickly before we departed on very short notice, with crew and passengers expressing their condolences...the Exec Concierge and Purser's office smoothed the way with the necessary immigration issues when departing/rejoining the ship at odd ports...and the "Welcome back" we received upon our return was truly heartwarming.

The ship itself was in excellent repair...was there a stain or two on a carpet and maybe a scratch on the furniture? Of course there was, but this did not impact our enjoyment of the voyage any more than a scratch on our furniture at home. Was she worn and tired? NOT in our opinion.

Staff was very quick to respond to an a/c problem in our suite late one evening- we noticed a strange odor and the temperature was quite warm when we returned to the suite one evening- maintenance arrived within 15 minutes and had the problem (a burned-out switch or something) repaired within 30 minutes.

Servers remembered our preferences including such things as the Champagne glasses that we preferred (we don't care for the new ones without stems) and "no added salt" at meals.

I would not say we are the "Regent Cheerleaders" of this board but are just expressing our personal experience. YMMV.

But it goes without saying that we were sufficiently impressed with our experience that we went ahead and booked 3 more voyages while onboard (2Mariner and 1Explorer). This was our 2nd time on the Voyager and have previously sailed 1x on Mariner and 2x on Navigator so we are not "newbies" in this regard. We have also enjoyed voyages on Silversea, Seabourn and Crystal but just feel that Regent provides the best fit for us at this time.

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I just read the recent (June) reviews of the Voyager and Navigator. The reviewers do make some interesting points about the Navigator needing refurbishment, the entertainment and excursions. I noticed that a couple of posters indicated that the food and service were wonderful but, due to problems in other areas, they gave the cruise a very low score.

 

My biggest concern was the most recent post that discussed the food. If there is a food issue, we would have a discussion with the F&B Director and/or the Executive Chef. Having a meeting should bring about positive changes. However, as always, I suggest advising the General Manager of the issue as well as writing down your experiences on the Comment Cards. While most of our Regent cruises have had excellent food, there have been a couple of instances where there were problems.

 

Agree that the entertainment needs improvement. It is my understanding that the entertainment will be replaced when the contract with Jean Ann Ryan is up (which does not help us now). It seems like Regent is stuck with their contract for the time being (just as they were with the horrible art auction people, Park West ....... thankfully they are gone!)

 

Excursions are what they are - some good and some not.

 

Management both in Florida and onboard Regent ships ask one thing of their guests that I feel is important to remember. If there is a problem, let them know about it. Telling them afterward you depart the ship does not allow them to fix the problem (if it is something they can fix).

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We have traveled on Regent every year since 2007. Each year before we traveled we read all kinds of bad reports - but our cruises have been outstanding. We just refuse to pay attention to people who are hard to please, & we have not been disappointed.

 

Wow, I have read CC a bit over the past year or so, but have almost completely refrained from posting. Just looked at the CC member reviews for the Voyager for the first time in many months, and 8 of the last 12 reviewers rate their cruise aboard Voyager 2 stars or fewer.

 

After having sailed on the Voyager the past three years in the Med in October, for personal and business reasons, we are strongly considering canceling our Oct cruise this year, and seeing these extremely poor ratings makes me think that perhaps this would the best course right now.

 

Aloha from Hanalei,

 

Mark

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Maybe it's better to just not read reviews. Sometimes I think the people who have never heard of CC are the lucky ones. They just get on the ship and have a good time without all the over analysis.

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I've always had a good time on Regent/Radisson going back to 2000. But, without doing any research (even factoring in included excursions), I'd say prices have roughly doubled in the past half dozen years. So although the quality may be about the same, it is quite a different value proposition.

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You needn't get stressed because of the CC reviews. For one thing, even though there are reviews going as far back as 2004, there are only 144 in total. That's a pretty tiny sample size for a ship that is generally filled to capacity on most cruises.

 

And for most reviewers, their Voyager review was the only one they have posted. That generally means that reviews are only from the extremes; people who were blown away, or people that were really disappointed and want to vent. Other people just don't bother to post a review.

 

BTW - I'm as guilty of this as anybody. We had a fantastic Baltic cruise last August on Voyager, and I never provided a review. Although in my defense, I tried once and CC crashed when I hit the submit button.

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I read reviews & am influenced by them, but once I make my decision, I expect things will go well & I don't go on the trip planning for problems.

I would not want to board a cruise ship with the plan that if the food is not good, I should complain to the F&B Director and/or the Executive Chef.

I would board a luxury cruise ship expecting it to be excellent. Why would you have to complain on a luxury cruise ship to avoid getting steak that was cold, almost impossible to cut and had too much gristle? What could they do instantly to fix poor quality beef & why did it happen in the first place? If getting high quality food required complaining, I would never return.

I advocate making your best judgment based on the reviews & then enjoying it.

Of course my opinion has no value because, as my signature indicates, I have never cruised. Concerns about food is one of the reasons why Regent is very low on my potential list.

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I'm guilty of the same thing. Have not done a review in a couple of years. Also, some of what people write in their reviews has nothing to do with what a typical cruiser experiences. Earlier this year there was a negative review because someone spent $111,000 on a Master Suite for 4 people (Voyager). The complaint was about the size of the second bedroom. Obviously, they did not do their homework!

 

As has been said, nothing is perfect. We have never had a "perfect" cruise nor have we expected one. Our last cruise started with a disappointing dinner in Prime 7. This did not ruin our cruise -- I cannot think of a restaurant in our hometown where we have not been disappointed at least once.

 

In terms of the ships, everyone by now should know about the aft vibration on the Voyager and Navigator - either from their TA or Cruise Critic. Of course, there are some people that insist on booking through Regent and I doubt if they warn future passengers about things such as vibration (one compelling reason to use a TA that not only books cruises but has a working knowledge of Regent).

 

Also, sometimes a person vents by writing a review after a cruise. When we completed our "cruise from hell", I did not review it but we did wonder if we would ever cruise Regent again. After some time had passed, we realized that there were circumstances that would unlikely occur on another cruise. Obviously we have cruised Regent since then and are happy that we did not let one cruise ruin everything for us in the future.

 

P.S. A short Navigator story. Prior to our first Navigator cruise - many years ago -- we read on Cruise Critic that the ship loses power, has brown water, has lost electricity and floated around until it came back and had a horrible vibration. We learned that all of this was true but still had a wonderful time (note: a lot of these problems have been corrected).

Edited by Travelcat2
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We just returned from the Mariner and found things to be excellent. Service everywhere could not have been better. Last October our transatlantic cruise had some rough spots and they have been fixed.

 

I don't usually write reviews but perhaps I should so that it is not only the negative that gets reported.

 

I can only speak for the Mariner. We plan to sail the Voyager in December and expect it to be fine.

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We were on Voyager in May, and while we wouldn't discourage anyone from sailing her, we were somewhat surprised by the uneven service. The ship itself is in great condition, staff attitudes and helpfulness were wonderful and warm, food was good (IMO it can never be as good as a land-based restaurant), but it seemed as if staffing might have been cut back in areas.

 

One night in the Observation Lounge, we sat for a full 10 minutes without a server coming over. We left. Another early evening, same thing in the Horizon Lounge, so I went up to the bar to get drinks, and the bartender apologized and said she was the only one working. So they tried hard and worked hard, but if they're short staffed somewhere, service will be affected. We also found the Coffee Connection didn't get the attention it needed, particularly after hours - no plates, no napkins. One evening after the show, other passengers were searching for napkins, so I went behind the counter and started looking through unlocked drawers and cabinets until I found some. (I was ready to take coffee drink orders!)

 

We did note those two areas on the mid-cruise questionnaire, and of course received the obligatory phone call acknowledging the issue and saying they'd look into it, but neither situation changed.

 

Again, in the overall scheme of things, not a deal breaker, but it was a bit of a surprise to us, given that we hadn't experienced those situations on prior Regent cruises.

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I've always had a good time on Regent/Radisson going back to 2000. But, without doing any research (even factoring in included excursions), I'd say prices have roughly doubled in the past half dozen years. So although the quality may be about the same, it is quite a different value proposition.

 

Agree so much with the way you are stating it

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I am the first one to dismiss really bad reviews on CC...since many just have an agenda, etc.

 

But... given the overall luddite attributes of the typical Regent cruiser, and their general ignorance of CC in general...

 

... seeing 2/3 of the last dozen reviews of the Voyager being not-so-good, it truly does sound like there's trouble in River City.

 

I would not pay much mind to them, if I was sailing soon... but Corporate damn well better take a hard look at the reports.

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You needn't get stressed because of the CC reviews. For one thing, even though there are reviews going as far back as 2004, there are only 144 in total. That's a pretty tiny sample size for a ship that is generally filled to capacity on most cruises.

 

And for most reviewers, their Voyager review was the only one they have posted. That generally means that reviews are only from the extremes; people who were blown away, or people that were really disappointed and want to vent. Other people just don't bother to post a review.

 

BTW - I'm as guilty of this as anybody. We had a fantastic Baltic cruise last August on Voyager, and I never provided a review. Although in my defense, I tried once and CC crashed when I hit the submit button.

 

We are new to Regent and the included excursions, have never done ship's excursions preferring smaller private tours. Can I ask you please, on your Baltic cruise, did you visit St Petersburg and if so, did you go on the included excursions and how were they e.g. Number of people in the group, did you see what you thought you would see as per the description of the tour? I'm not very good at queuing (no patience!) and I've read that in some of the places, the queues to get in are horrendous but can be avoided by guides providing early access (at the Hermitage for example) and this is something Regent does mention although they don't guarantee it.

 

I'm asking as we may only go to St Petersburg once, and are now wondering if we should skip the included Regent excursions and book a private guide? I understand a private guide may be the best choice or only choice for some, but leaving that aside, do the included Regent excursions give you a good tour without adding more expense to what is already quite an expensive cruise?

Thank you. :)

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We took three Regent tours in SP, and were very happy with each of them.

 

Our first day, we took the Peterhof tour. There were probably 20-25 people on our bus. The tour guide, named Adele, was absolutely fantastic. She was witty, and was able to make the history of the place come alive, something not every guide can do. It was a "free" excursion.

 

That evening we went to a folk dancing and singing show. Again, it was a really enjoyable tour, also included in our fare. The only problem was the hrat. The temp was in the high 80s, and the auditorium was not air conditioned. Still a good show.

 

On day 2 we took the Hermitage and Gold Room tour. This one had a surcharge, as the Golf Room isn't included in your Hermitage ticket. There were 28 people on our bus, which initially seemed like too many. But there were two guides, so each group was only 14 people. And, once again we were in Adele's group. There wasn't a line to get in, and the exhibits weren't crowded at all, even the Da Vinci. Adele seemed surprised, do that's probably not normal. You have an assigned time for the Gold Room, so there's no queuing there. A great tour!

 

We had a canal cruise scheduled for the second afternoon, but cancelled due to burnout.

 

So we were very happy with all of the Regent excursions we took in SP. I apologize if there's any incoherent stuff in this post because I'm doing it from my phone.

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I took the ship's (included) tours as well in St Petersburg and never felt there were too many people on the bus. The guides we had were all very good, we never had to wait in line.

 

I did b2b so was in SP for a total of 5 days.

 

If you go on your own, you'll need a visa - if you stick to the ship's tours, you do not.

 

Peggy

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We just returned from a 12 night cruise on the Voyager and I did write a less than favorable review because to us it boiled down to value. My point was that we have fairly high standards when we have paid upwards of $20,000 for a cruise. I also have the comparison of earlier experiences on Regent. So for my own personal opinion...it just wasn't a five star experience. That being said...someone in the adjoining cabin, who went on the same excursions, ate the same meals and experienced the same service might have rated it five stars. We're all different.

 

I read the reviews here, just like the reviews on TripAdvisor or Yelp or Urban Spoon. I don't blindly follow everyone's advice or opinion, but use their reviews as one tool in my toolbox. I'm always conscious of how many reviews people have submitted (for example...I'm highly suspect of a negative hotel review on Trip Advisor from a traveler with only a handful of reviews, or a dining reviewer with only a few).

 

I agree with TravelCat and some others who suggested telling Regent directly where they can improve. I wrote a detailed summary regarding the cruise when they asked for mid cruise and end of cruise feedback. I hope they take the feedback seriously.

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I am the first one to dismiss really bad reviews on CC...since many just have an agenda, etc.

 

But... given the overall luddite attributes of the typical Regent cruiser, and their general ignorance of CC in general...

 

... seeing 2/3 of the last dozen reviews of the Voyager being not-so-good, it truly does sound like there's trouble in River City.

 

I would not pay much mind to them, if I was sailing soon... but Corporate damn well better take a hard look at the reports.

 

What do you mean by "luddite attributes of the typical Regent cruiser " ? Do you just mean they do not post on CC, or something else? Most luxury cruisers are affluent and the ones I have seen on 7 luxury cruises in the last few years seem very much into cell phones, iPADs, and technology, as they need them to help run their businesses and investments, not to mention stay in touch with grandkids' Facebook pages (some very old, old school retirees perhaps being an exception). Note many people are very aware of CC but just lurk and do not post, for a variety of reasons (just like on Yelp or Trip Advisor) but I probably would not call them Luddites. :) Other people are just too busy to surf CC, much less post.

 

I was disappointed in my first Regent cruise in the Med for a variety of reasons but still reviewed it overall positively a couple years ago because we still had a good time and life is too short for "glass half empty". But Regent is in competition with SS, SB, and Crystal (and now also Hapag-Lloyd's stunning Europa II), so there is a relative value assessment that luxury cruisers make (that is one reason they lurk on CC), even if they will likely have a pleasant trip no matter what. SS also had some new flaws I saw on the last couple cruises.

 

I am doing a group-sponsored cruise on HAL to Alaska soon (have not done mainstream since I was young), and even though I will be in a very nice suite, it will be interesting to go "backwards", so to speak, to compare overall services. After that: bookings are SB Odyssey, Europa II, and SB Quest. Am looking for a reason to retry Regent, when there are so many other viable choices.

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Have to agree that some reviewers do have an agenda but certainly not all (or even most). ladymadeline's review, for instance, sounded sincere and honest. When I read a review, I look for a pattern. For instance, on Cruise Critic's sister company, Trip Advisor, if I am looking hotel reviews and a good number of posters make the same comment (negative or positive), I tend to believe it. It is more difficult on Cruise Critic as there are fewer reviews -- sometimes months apart.

 

I see more reviews this month than I usually see in the "Review" section of CC . The differences of opinion is quite amazing. Assuming that the current crew on the ships will not be there on our next cruise (5 1/2 months away), the experiences may be completely different.

 

Any review of food I tend to discount unless it is about food temperature (particularly in La Veranda). Food is simply too subjective. There have been reviews from people on the same cruise with one finding the food exceptional and the other finding it poor.

 

Agree that there are flaws on all of the luxury cruise lines (do not think that Europa II is competition to the four major luxury lines for many reasons but understand that the ship is beautiful). Over the years I have read all of the luxury boards. IMO, the choices in luxury cruise lines is quite limited. One cruise line has not been keeping up with the refurbishments of their ships and has failed three health department inspections (two very recently). Another has smoking on the balconies and another has tiny cabins and set seating. My point is that Regent is not perfect ...... but neither are any of the other luxury lines.

 

Lastly, I would not generalize about the type of people that cruise on luxury lines. We find people from all walks of life on Regent - some are probably wealthy and some save up for a long time to take one luxury cruise for a special occasion.

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What do you mean by "luddite" attributes of the typical Regent cruiser " ?.

 

Look how few post on Roll Calls... and on this discussion forum.

And... just hang out at the Internet stations onboard for a while to get a flavor.

 

Q.E.D. :p

Edited by computerworks
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I can't agree with that. There could be lots of reasons that people don't review their cruise, or join up in roll calls. Possibly Regent attracts a more solitary type of traveler, as compared to mass market cruise lines. And the all-inclusive nature of the product means that there just aren't as many unknowns, so not as many questions need to be answered. This board is at least as active as the other luxury lines after all.

 

And it's not like this site is anything approaching high tech. It's much closer to 20th century technology than it is to a cutting edge site.

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