Explorer Reviews

I really hope that you will do a review in the "Review" section of Cruise Critic. I just posted one (not approved yet). There was a very critical review posted which concerned me as it was based mainly on not liking the décor of the ship which, IMO, is not something that a ship should be reviewed on. After all, we all have different tastes.

 

Secondly, the service was reviewed harshly. While I understand that the crew is still getting used to the ship and the service may be slow, IMO, it is unfair to judge a maiden voyage as harshly as this one was judged. Again, IMO, many MV are not as good as the Explorer's!

TC2,

Has your Explorer review been published in the 'Review' section yet?

I see that there is another Explorer review that will have to be removed........................no, not because it is negative.............but because it appears to be a review of Voyager :confused:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=543365

Both my DH and I submitted our reviews but they were not printed. I suspect this could be because we were on a pre-maiden voyage cruise. In any case, there was nothing in it that I could not copy from my Word document and paste here. Unfortunately, my DH did not keep a copy of his review (which was 100%o positive). The review is below:

Our expectations of the Explorer were high. Amazingly, it exceeded our expectations. Let me start at the beginning.

We heard that Lufthansa’s “new” lie-flat seats were installed on most of their flights so, instead of booking British Airways, we booked Lufthansa. We still enjoy Lufthansa’s service and food but were disappointed in their “lie flat” seats. They were uncomfortable and we will not book Lufthansa in the future.

We arrived in Nice (14 miles from Monte Carlo) the day of embarkation. While this is not something we would normally do, we were aware that the Explorer was overnighting in Monte Carlo. We arrived on time, were picked up by Regent and delivered to the ship.

It is difficult to board the Explorer without feeling the “wow” factor. I understand that some passengers may not like the décor (dark woods, black marble, etc.) but this met our tastes 100%. Even if it did not meet our tastes, we would never rate a cruise line based on their décor alone.

We were blown away by this ship. We were assigned a “concierge suite” – something that we would typically not book as we stay in PH and above suites. We were pleasantly surprised that the concierge suite had a large closet and plenty of storage space. We were happy campers.

The “wow” factor followed us throughout the cruise. A great percentage of the passengers were travel agents or investors. This made the cruise a bit different than a typical cruise. The Observation Lounge was booked almost every night for “special events” as were many of the new dining venues (Chartreuse and Pacific Rim). This was to be expected so it was not a big deal (but we did miss “hanging out” with our favorite bartender, Olga who was assigned to the Observation Lounge.

We were amazed at the attention to detail that was paid to this ship. A book could be written about this. Passengers on the CV (christening voyage) were able to tour most of the suite levels on two separate occasions. It is not surprising to learn that the Regent Suite is over the top gorgeous. There is even a professional teeth whitening unit in the suite (the part where you receive included treatments from Canyon Ranch Spa). On our cruise, CEO Frank Del Rio and his family were residents of this spectacular suite (and he certainly deserved to be in this suite).

We have been Regent customers for 12 years and tend to book PH and above suites. However, due to the anticipation of the Explorer, we booked two cruises in a Grand Suite and one in a Master Suite. After the second suite tour, we changed our Grand Suite to a Seven Seas Suite on one cruise (absolutely amazing suite!)

Okay – about the ship. The first thing we noticed was the smoking area on the pool deck (no, we do not smoke and do not want to smell smoke). We were impressed with the glass enclosed area on the pool deck that should keep the smoke away from people enjoying themselves in the pool or sunning themselves on a chaise lounge.

The biggest surprise in terms of food was Compass Rose. Their new menu is over the top. We had lobster three nights in a row (one time I paired my lobster with a small Filet of Mignon). While not a fan of Signatures, we found Chartreuse to be much better than expected.

Okay, so nothing is perfect….. we are not fans of “Asian Fusion” but were fans of “Latitudes” – a former Asian Fusion restaurant on Regent. My choice of sashimi was a good one, however, some of the dishes did not meet the expectations of my DH or my friend that dined with us. On the other hand, having dined a few times on Regent’s sister cruise line, Oceania, we felt that the food in Pacific Rim was better than in Red Ginger. When we board the Explorer in a little over 3 months, we will try other items on the Pacific Rim menu (but will order the sashimi again).

The “new” shows on the Explorer were interesting. While the entertainers were, IMO, better than the ones currently on some Regent ships, the productions left much to be desired. I truthfully do not feel that NCL Productions understand what luxury cruisers are looking for (and it is definitely not music from the 1930’s).

Service was a bit slow as is to be expected when working on a new ship. The Explorer was turned over to Regent late – so late that they had to cancel the first “shakedown” cruise”. So, the servers had little time to perfect their service. I must give props. To the kitchen and servers when it comes to the christening dinner when 600+ guests were served at the same time (special menu with a choice of two entrees). They did an amazing job.

The ship docked at a few ports in France, Spain and Italy during our 8 days onboard. We are not fans of included excursions but did one excursion that was satisfactory. IMO, sailing the Mediterranean in the summer is not the best time to cruise. It is too hot and the flights to and from the area are crowded.

Overall, we feel that the Explorer is Regent’s best ship by far. We are currently looking at booking yet another voyage in 2017 because, at least for now, we cannot get enough of this ship.

I wonder why your reviews weren't published? At least one review from the Christening Cruise and one from the Shakedown Cruise have already been published. Perhaps you are considered to be a special case.

I would guess that your reviews haven't been rejected for reasons of excessive negativity or reticence :rolleyes:

By posting your review here are you in some way trying to get around CruiseCritic's decision not to publish them? ;)..........Surely that could be considered somewhat mischievous :eek:

Travelcat2 your detailed review reads well and describes the ship and restruants to full details. However for the passengers sailing on the MV which was certainly an expensive cruise their experiences for a special voyage are somewhat different.

For me I got the vibe from a few of the reviews and posts that some of the passengers felt the special service for a landmark cruise was not there?

Mybe I have got that wrong for some of the passengers and I am sure I will be corrected if I have. I like many other look forward to sailing on Epxlorer next year hopefully, and I really do like the look of many of the photographs that I have seen, but I am not going to get carried away in the "hype" of it all. Service and all the other aspects of the most luxurious ship built will need to deliver in all areas.

Many Regent regulars are eagerly awaiting reviews of all the cabins/suites prior to booking. As noted recently in many threads all reviews are constructive whether giving the completely satisfied review you have given or the negative aspects from others and that's what gives the future passenger the full picture.

It's never going to be perfect nothing is but expectations will be high after all the marketing for the ship.

Jean.

I’ve seen so much and “heard” so much about the Explorer that only further review that now interests me is my review when I’m on my upcoming 40 days of cruises on her. I’ve started to plan what to do shipboard – I’ll be lucky to get it all done!

Very nice review, Jackie. Good job!

Thanks Linda. Despite conspiracy theories, not all reviews are posted in the "Review" section where they live forever. Most of mine have been posted but some have not been - no big deal. Obviously there was nothing in the review that is controversial and there were positive and not so positive comments. My DH has only 3 or 4 posts on CC and this was the first review that he posted and it was also not accepted.

If you are still online, can you let me know if you are able to "see" my less than positive comments (general question as it appears that I am the only poster that sees my somewhat negative comments about Pacific Rim, etc.) In the past week I've also recommended taking a concierge suite over a PH suite (due to the layout and closet).

Obviously, not everything was positive but I made the decision not to comment on things that would likely be fixed by the time passengers starting boarding the ship. For instance, plumbing leakage issues in some suites, infinity pool not ready for a few days, artwork still going up on the wall, construction going on during the day, etc.

liptastic: I'm not sure what MV cruisers were expecting but did not receive on the maiden voyage. Perhaps if the executives had not given up their suites for passengers and stayed on board the experience would have been different. Just being on a MV is very special. I know that some MV'ers wanted the christening to occur during or right before their sailing. At least with Oceania, the christening is always separate from the MV.

Speaking of Oceania (since they have the same CEO as Regent), there was a lot learned from the debut of the Marina and Riviera. For some reason I didn't read complaints on the Oceania board but the Marina had many issues on the MV. Don Horner (may he rest in peace) posted about the issues once the internet finally got connected. I seem to remember that everyone received free cocktails on the MV due to the number of ongoing problems with the ship.

In any case, there should be many more suite reviews in the upcoming months. We will be in two different categories of suites on our back-to-back cruises in November. Even though we have toured all of the suites, "living" in them for two weeks can be different.

poss, if you are reading this, if the beds in the G1/2 and H suites are smaller, housekeeping should be aware of it since the bedding will be different (I just thought of that). So, if no one else has an answer for you between now and November, I'll let you know what I learn.

Oh, sure I'm reading. Actually I just got word about the bed size in "G" on Explorer: 63" wide. Holy-Moly, that's a good deal smaller than the beds on the other ships: a good deal more narrow, certainly, than a U.S. (or even European, I think) king-size bed. I just don't understand this, since the suite is same size as on Mariner. This makes an already very expensive ship even more expensive, as we'd have to book an "F." I don't see Explorer in our future (though there's an itinerary that I'd like to do-- I wish it were Voyager!)

Now I'm trying to learn about shower size in F and G. Seems futile at this point though.

Btw, Regent is switching some of the less expensive F's to the more expensive ones as of January 2017. There's another discouragement for us.

Oh, well, still plenty of good choices.

One thing I noticed re the concierge cabins - on the other Regent ships, if you are in concierge you get 10% off of purchased wine/spirits. That's a big deal to us as we usually have a substantial onboard credit and like to use it to buy some really good wine. I don't see that perk on Explorer :confused:

One thing I noticed re the concierge cabins - on the other Regent ships, if you are in concierge you get 10% off of purchased wine/spirits. That's a big deal to us as we usually have a substantial onboard credit and like to use it to buy some really good wine. I don't see that perk on Explorer :confused:

I copied and pasted the benefits from Regent's website. This applies to all Regent ships.

CONCIERGE-LEVEL AMENITIES

•FREE 1-Night Pre-Cruise Luxury Hotel Package

•FREE WiFi throughout the ship*

• Priority Online Shore Excursion Reservations

•Priority Online Dining Reservations

•FREE 15 Minutes of Ship-to-Shore Phone Time

•10% Discount on Premium Wine and Liquor

•5% discount on Regent Choice Shore Excursions, Hotel and Land Programs

•In-suite use of Binoculars, illy® Espresso Maker and Cashmere Blanket

Phone time and Internet time access minutes are in addition to those earned as Seven Seas Society benefits.

Jackie, I don't know why they didn't publish your review. I think we need more reviews of the Explorer from known members.

I was reading the reviews yesterday as I'm going to be cruising on the ship next year. There were only nine reviews, but four of the nine (three overly positive and one overly negative) were written by people who appeared to have joined CC solely for the purpose of posting the review. They have no other footprint on here. I wouldn't rely on any of those.

Tom.

Jackie, I don't know why they didn't publish your review. I think we need more reviews of the Explorer from known members.

 

I was reading the reviews yesterday as I'm going to be cruising on the ship next year. There were only nine reviews, but four of the nine (three overly positive and one overly negative) were written by people who appeared to have joined CC solely for the purpose of posting the review. They have no other footprint on here. I wouldn't rely on any of those.

 

Tom.

Hi Tom - I don't believe that my review met all of CC's criteria. Admittedly it was not one of my better reviews in terms of content. At first I was hesitant to even post from the christening cruise but realized that if I didn't post about being on the ship that I would not be able to answer questions about it.

I will do some posting from our November Explorer cruises - mainly about food, service and the two suites that we will be in. At the conclusion, I'll attempt to write a more thorough review and will submit it to Cruise Critic.

I saw you on Roll Call for the March, 2017 Explorer voyage - we are on that one as well and look forward to meeting you both.

Jackie

The Emperor is doing a sterling job of review of the MV in his thread, where he is covering food and beverage and excursion reports. A very enjoyable and balanced report.

Thanks TravelCat2 for the detailed Explorer review. You have mentioned before how much you liked the Seven Seas Suite on this ship - can you elaborate a bit about what makes it especially desirable? We are booked in one of the Explorer Suites for a voyage this spring, and wonder what you think the big differences and pros and cons are. Your input is always helpful!

Pamela and Marq - Although the Guidelines are a bit confusing regarding FTC Disclosure rules, it is possible that some reviews are not accepted because of an abundance of caution regarding those concerns. In the FTC Disclosure section of the Guidelines, CC states:

"Forum Postings

If a poster reviews a cruise they bought, of course disclosure is not necessary. If they review a free cruise acquired via a contest disclosure is necessary. If a cruise company sends the poster on a free cruise and the poster does a review on the forum in any format – freestanding or in response to info requests -, both the cruise line and the poster are responsible for disclosure. If a tour operator offers someone a discount on a future tour if they mention their company, disclosure would be required."

Actually, it is not strange to have a review not be posted. However, when I went back to find the guidelines for a review to post on this thread, I found my unpublished review still sitting there - uncompleted (did not go to the "port" portion where the "finish button" is.)

I did add a couple of items to the above review and won't know if it is published for a week or so. I've asked my DH to make sure his review is not still sitting on his computer.

TC, were you not comped on your cruise? Yes or no.

TC, were you not comped on your cruise? Yes or no.

Everyone on the christening cruise was an invited guest (although we paid for our airfare). The guests consisted of friends and family of Regent management, Regent Miami employees, the presidents of Regent, Oceania and NCL, at least one member of the NCHL Board of Directors (probably more), investors, travel agents and I believe 26 or 27 Seven Seas Titanium members with at least 1,000 nights on Regent. For the record, we have paid for all of the cruises that we have booked on Regent (313 nights worth) as well as for the 5 upcoming cruises.

Thank you, finally a straight answer! I think we can all guess that CC should never post biased reviews as a result of a "comped" cruise" as it is not an objective opinion. It would be a thrill for many to be an invited guest on a christening cruise so I am not diminishing that experience at all, nor would I have declined. But it needs to be considered in context of the situation.

I might be inclined to write a review of a cruise, hotel, restaurant etc where I paid the bill, but if a friend or business acquaintance invited me at their expense then I would never publicly comment on the experience, let alone post a public review...whether that be a cruise, a restaurant, hotel or their personal residence.

Our TA was on this cruise and she told me the ship is beautiful but service and food were not quite there yet.

Thank you, finally a straight answer! I think we can all guess that CC should never post biased reviews as a result of a "comped" cruise" as it is not an objective opinion. It would be a thrill for many to be an invited guest on a christening cruise so I am not diminishing that experience at all, nor would I have declined. But it needs to be considered in context of the situation.

 

I might be inclined to write a review of a cruise, hotel, restaurant etc where I paid the bill, but if a friend or business acquaintance invited me at their expense then I would never publicly comment on the experience, let alone post a public review...whether that be a cruise, a restaurant, hotel or their personal residence.

The question has not been asked previously or I would have answered it. I did mention that we were invited along with all of the individuals described above so I assumed that people understood.

In terms of my review (that may or may not be posted). I think that the fact that we booked four Explorer cruises should attest to our feelings about the ship. We always give honest reviews - of restaurants, hotels, etc. The fact that we were guests on the christening cruise played no part in the review.

Suite Travels: I have posted that the service was not yet up to par but the food (and service) in CR was amazing (better than we have had on other ships - this could be due to the menu change as well as the fact that when we dined there the place was mostly empty). Chartreuse and Pacific Rim chefs had been practicing for some time. As mentioned, we enjoyed our one meal in Chartreuse but had issues with Pacific Rim (both service and food). There were large groups in Pacific Rim and Chartreuse - many more than are typical for Regent which also may have played into the service issues. Not being a fan of Asian fusion, we are not sure if the food was suppose to taste the way it did or if could have been prepared better. We find Asian fusion more "confusion" than anything. I would be happy to dine there and only have sashimi and Saki but that is my taste.

IMO, the one big hiccup on the ship was the food temperature in La Veranda at breakfast and lunch (it was fine at dinner when it turned into Sette Mari because food was prepared to order in the open kitchen. The food temperature issues are likely resolved by now.

I guess that is then a difference of personal ethics...don't answer the question until asked. Post a public live blog and post a review without disclosure. Doesn't seem right to me. Although everyone on this board has already figured it out.

It's not about the future or past cruises booked with Regent...we all know your position on this. It's your business if you pay for it yourself and no one else's, but if you are publicly commenting and promoting something

that was "invited" "aka free" then that is different.

The Emperor kindly mentioned it in his very first line of his very first MV blog post...for those that missed it he said, and I quote: "This is going to be my review of my time on the paying passengers inaugural cruise on the Regent Explorer.".

Enough said.

The question has not been asked previously or I would have answered it. I did mention that we were invited along with all of the individuals described above so I assumed that people understood.

.......

"Invited" is a very ambiguous term. I have been invited to a lot of events that charge each invitee whatever the customary fee is or in sometimes a reduced fee. Recently I was invited to a restaurant that has a special dinner for a fee. There was no discount. I have frequent invitations to fundraisers, most of which charge a fee.

Complimentary or comped is the term that isn't ambiguous. I had not assumed that invited meant complimentary. The terms are in now way synonymous.

Actually, it is not strange to have a review not be posted. However, when I went back to find the guidelines for a review to post on this thread, I found my unpublished review still sitting there - uncompleted (did not go to the "port" portion where the "finish button" is.)

 

I did add a couple of items to the above review and won't know if it is published for a week or so. I've asked my DH to make sure his review is not still sitting on his computer.

I trust that you and your husband have taken the time to add to your reviews that this cruise was complementary at the invitation of the cruise company

If the reviews are published, readers can then take into account any potential partiality, whether intentional or subliminal

For information I enclose details of my email to Cruise Critic and their reply about three of the Explorer cruise reviews -

Whilst reading the reviews on Regent’s new ship, The Explorer, over the weekend I discovered that three of the reviews – those by LCBettaver, tvlforfun & msh597 – were from people that had sailed on the two pre Maiden Voyage cruises and had therefore been guests of Regent Seven Seas and had a free cruise.

I could find no mention of this in their reviews and therefore wondered if it was fair/correct to include these reviews along with those by fare paying passengers ?

During the review collection process, we ask that each person agree to the following:

“I certify that this review is my genuine opinion of this cruise and all tour operators/guides/businesses in ports of call. I have no personal or business affiliation with any establishment, and have not been offered any incentive or payment originating from any of these businesses to write this review”.

If they do not agree, the review will not be accepted. The onus is on the author and/or the vendor who has offered any product for free or greatly reduced rates to counsel a "blogger" on including a disclaimer.

That said, we have no way of ascertaining whether someone has paid for a sailing, nor do we know specifically that everyone on a pre-maiden voyage actually does sail for free.

Laura Sterling

One can only assume from this that these three reviewers didn't mention the fact that they were 'guests' of Regent:confused: