Impact on other ships from Explorer staffing

I apologize if this has been asked/discussed on another thread. I searched and did not find anything.

We are about ready to book Alaska next summer (July 2016) on Mariner. Have cruised on Regent twice before. We felt that service levels and quality had slipped a bit on our second cruise, but it was still a very enjoyable experience.

Any thoughts as to whether they will pull key personnel from the other ships to staff Explorer and, if so, what impact that might have on the other ships?

It seems like a lot of the variation from cruise to cruise on Regent (for better or for worse) is tied to particular personnel more than any other factor. That has me a bit worried.

Thanks for your input.

This is an interesting question and one that has not been discussed on the Regent board. As you may know, one of Regent's sister companies, Oceania, successfully debuted two new ships in the past 2-3 years. The CEO overseeing those new ships is overseeing Regent's new ship so there is plenty of experience in this area.

I would assume that Regent will put senior officers and crew on the Explorer for the inaugural season -- at least for the first few months, however, they have excellent and qualified officers for their other ships. In terms of the crew, Regent is hiring and training consistently so there is a mix of senior crew members and those newly hired on the ships pretty much all of the time. If I remember correctly, Oceania had a lot of training programs going on before launching their new ships and assume that Regent will do the same. There will no doubt be a extra hiring going on in the months preceding the debut of the Explorer.

We will be on the Mariner during Alaska season 2016 and have no concerns about the officers or crew that will be onboard.