Goodbye to Regent for now

We really enjoyed our 3 cruises on Regent but with the Canadian $ so bad and the rising prices on Regent we have to look to other lines to cruise.

In the past, we found Regent to be excellent value as we took advantage of everything that they offered including business class upgrades and pre- and post cruise packages. We have had great experiences and met some fabulous people.

Now with an exchange rate that adds about 30% we have to look to cruise lines that offer their product in Canadian $ at a discounted exchange rate. We are going to try the 'suite experience' on other lines and hope for the best.

If our $ improves and there are itineraries we want to do we may be back to Regent sometime in the future. We are hedging our bets and are not going to cancel the Regent cruise we have booked until the last moment with the hope we will get to use, within the year, the $200 they will charge when we cancel.

Thanks to all the people on the Regent boards that have been very helpful as we planned our cruises.

Good sailing and please post your experiences. We've had 6 Regent cruises and loved them all. Two more coming in the next year but we're open to other lines if the itineraries are appealing. Our present must haves are: showers instead of tubs and open dining. Wouldn't mind saving money as well!

Hope you continue to post on the Regent board -- you would definitely be missed if you didn't post. Best of luck in finding a cruise line that is a bit more reasonable and has the suites, service and food that you are looking for :)

Hope you continue to post on the Regent board -- you would definitely be missed if you didn't post. Best of luck in finding a cruise line that is a bit more reasonable and has the suites, service and food that you are looking for :)

Try Oceania. We did. We love it! It is "luxury cruising a la carte". So you pay for what you want to inckude and not for things you dont need...or want. Like TravelCat2 and excursions...same goes for us.

Cunard Grills are very good.seperate dining rooms,seperate terraces and some...

Our favourite ship was The Royal Clipper....

We are also Canadian and have 2 Regent and one Uniworld booked in the next year.

It is difficult when we receive promotions from other cruise lines with Canadian pricing.

It is not Regent's responsibility to help us with the currency fluctuation but I thought they might have something in place from a business perspective. Our TA contacted Regent to see if anything can be done for the one that we have final payment looming in the next couple of months.

The response:

There is, in fact, a special pricing offer available exclusively to Canadian residents called The Canadian Special Pricing Promotion. Unfortunately, this promotion applies exclusively to selected winter sailings that are weak on the Voyager and the Mariner. We would, of course, be pleased to qualify you for this new discount if you were to switch over to a January, February, or March sailing on the Mariner or Voyager that qualifies.

That doesn't help us much :(

Hopefully, our dollar will improve and prevent us from making the same decision.

In the mean time, come support our economy and enjoy the tourist benefits that our weak currency will give you! ;)

Tina, for entry-level "suites," both Silversea and Seabourn are a bit less expensive and Oceania downright affordable. I sailed on Regent Navigator in January but have upcoming cruises booked with Seabourn and Silversea and am looking seriously at Oceania.

We are also Canadian and have 2 Regent and one Uniworld booked in the next year.

It is difficult when we receive promotions from other cruise lines with Canadian pricing.

 

It is not Regent's responsibility to help us with the currency fluctuation but I thought they might have something in place from a business perspective. Our TA contacted Regent to see if anything can be done for the one that we have final payment looming in the next couple of months.

 

The response:

There is' date=' in fact, a special pricing offer available exclusively to Canadian residents called The Canadian Special Pricing Promotion. Unfortunately, this promotion applies exclusively to selected winter sailings that are weak on the Voyager and the Mariner. We would, of course, be pleased to qualify you for this new discount if you were to switch over to a January, February, or March sailing on the Mariner or Voyager that qualifies.

 

That doesn't help us much :(

Hopefully, our dollar will improve and prevent us from making the same decision.

 

In the mean time, come support our economy and enjoy the tourist benefits that our weak currency will give you! ;)[/quote']

 

I have traveled extensively in Canada and love our country. However we now want to see as much of the world as we can while we are still healthy enough to do handle the long flights and the miles of walking.

 

I see nothing to suggest our $ will improve significantly in the near future so we will try cruise lines that offer their itineraries with Canadian pricing.

 

 

Octoberkat - Silverseas and Oceania are USD so they aren't options for us as we still have to pay the 30% surcharge that just makes it uneconomical. Besides in actual fact i find Oceania as expensive as or more than Regent when we take into all that we want.

Seabourn is an option as they do offer in our currency but I was unable to find the itinerary we wanted. I will continue to consider them though i have a problem with their smoking policy.

 

Thanks everyone.

I'm sorry to hear you won't be cruising with Regent in the near future. That said, I totally understand. Regent is getting pretty pricey even for us paying with dollars. I'm afraid that sometime in the future we may have to give it up too. Spending over $60,000/year on cruises gets pretty steep when you're retired (unless you have tons of disposable money which we don't). I don't find Oceania any less expensive when you add upgrade to business, drink package and excursions. I find Oceania a good choice for Caribbean cruises since we don't do excursions (well maybe one or two). We did Oceania cruise last January. I found the cabin (Concierge) too small (I hated the closet and the shower was miniscule), the food was good but not out of this world, and I hated having to show my card even with a drink package. I love having everything included with Regent (even excursions since I don't mind traveling with a group and we have always have good guides). So will continue with Regent until it gets outrageously expensive (it's getting there). Good luck and I hope you find a cruise company you like (the thought of thousand of passengers is not to my liking). Hopefully you'll be able to comeback in the future.

I'm sorry to hear you won't be cruising with Regent in the near future. That said, I totally understand. Regent is getting pretty pricey even for us paying with dollars. I'm afraid that sometime in the future we may have to give it up too. Spending over $60,000/year on cruises gets pretty steep when you're retired (unless you have tons of disposable money which we don't). I don't find Oceania any less expensive when you add upgrade to business, drink package and excursions. I find Oceania a good choice for Caribbean cruises since we don't do excursions (well maybe one or two). We did Oceania cruise last January. I found the cabin (Concierge) too small (I hated the closet and the shower was miniscule), the food was good but not out of this world, and I hated having to show my card even with a drink package. I love having everything included with Regent (even excursions since I don't mind traveling with a group and we have always have good guides). So will continue with Regent until it gets outrageously expensive (it's getting there). Good luck and I hope you find a cruise company you like (the thought of thousand of passengers is not to my liking). Hopefully you'll be able to comeback in the future.

Thanks. Regent really suited us as well. We generally had very good luck with shore excursions. Occasionally we were disappointed but we have been disappointed with private tours as well. I am with you regarding the thousands of passengers. I am not looking forward to that but hoping that by being in a suite and having things like a dedicated restaurant and concierge lounge we will minimize the effect of all the other people. I spend a lot of time in our cabin when we aren't ashore regardless of the ship so that helps avoid the crowds.

Right now with the exchange rate i just can't justify going with Regent. With luck the rate will improve in the next year or so.

We loved Regent and took a few years off when I took early retirement and moved south. When we looked to start cruising again, Regent had become substantially more expensive and we just could not justify it. Our TA convinced us to try Holland America and we did two cruises and didn't particularly care for HAL. Our TA then suggested Celebrity. The 1,2,3 promo we got, with pre-paid gratuities, free beverage cards and a substantial OBC, made the cruise almost all-inclusive. We sailed on Silhouette, arguably their best ship, out of Lauderdale. We're not big on shore excursions and flights to Lauderdale are dirt cheap so those portions of the Regent package were no great loss to us.

I have to say we loved the cruise. We had Aqua Class, which is a more upscale balcony cabin on a separate area of the ship. Aqua eats in BLU, a private restaurant which is not far off Regent's service. With the beverage card, we had free-flowing wine with dinner as we were used to. The major difference with the card is you have to present it in the bars to get your free drinks. In BLU, they knew we had the card and stopped asking for it each time.

The Celebrity ships are much larger than Regent's, however there are a number of quiet, unpopulated areas to hang out. The pool can get crowded, especially on sea days, but there is a second, adults only pool, which usually has some big, comfortable loungers.

Celebrity ships have a number of specialty restaurants that charge, but there are half price deals if you're flexible and that's what the OBC is for.

While on board we booked a cruise for next year. We're getting the free gratuities, free beverages and an OBC of $550 to which out TA will probably add. For a few hundred dollars difference we have their entry level suite, probably close to what the entry level suites on Regent would be like. By the time we sail there will be a new, high-end, suites -only restaurant. The fare for the two of us is $3,200...much less than Regent. There are a lot of Canadians on "X" ships so we know they run many promotions up there.

We love Regent and ,if money was no object, would never switch. However, all things considered, Celebrity is not bad deal.

The suite experience on Celebrity is excellent and although I have not been on the SClass ships, I hear they are excellent. Celebrity now includes more than they did when we traveled on them many times. Give it a try if they have the right pricing for you.

Right now I am looking around for another option as there is so much discussing about tendering on Oceania.

The suite experience on Celebrity is excellent and although I have not been on the SClass ships, I hear they are excellent. Celebrity now includes more than they did when we traveled on them many times. Give it a try if they have the right pricing for you.

 

Right now I am looking around for another option as there is so much discussing about tendering on Oceania.

Actually, we are trying the X Solstice this Oct 2015 for OZ, NZ, and Fiji S. Pacific

in Aqua class. Suites were sold out on 1st part of this B2B and we have done Aqua once on M class and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Paul Gauguin is having a promotion for Canadians right now, until the end of May I think. A 10% discount for us--don't think we will take advantage, but it's a wonderful experience, and easier to do from B.C.

We are giving Celebrity a try in a suite later this fall/early winter. They have the itinerary we want for Japan to Hong Kong. We made that decision strictly because of itinerary. It was the only cruise i could find at the time of year we wanted that visited the places we wanted. We went with a suite to try and get a similar experience to Regent. With the dedicated restaurant, a couple of complimentary visits to their specialty restaurants, included beverage package and enough OBC to cover internet and gratuities we are getting closer to the Regent experience we hope. We will see how it works out. We are doing all small private tours with some people from our roll call.

Because of our dollar we made the decision to go with Celebrity again for a cruise in 2016. It is going to the most important ports that the Regent cruise goes to that we originally booked. We have a suite and the included beverage package, included gratuities and some OBC from Celebrity as well a good chunk of OBC from our TA that will again cover internet and anything else we may need.

I second hvsteve1's suggestion to look into the "X" ships. I love to cruise and usually travel with several friends. Some can spend more then others, so our cruises and budgets vary. I have always loved Celebrity and found them to be great for the moderate budget. Best of all you can go as grand or cautious as you like and still have a class experience.

Sailing Regent for first time in 2016 and hoping it will be worth the cost. Honestly would have gone "X" ship had they had the itinerary I wanted :)

The Paul Gauguin is having a promotion for Canadians right now, until the end of May I think. A 10% discount for us--don't think we will take advantage, but it's a wonderful experience, and easier to do from B.C.

Just FYI, PG Cruises have turned this into a much better promotion. Special rates for Canadian residents now pertain to a broad range of sailings, with an approximate 25% reduction on the cruise portion of the fare, to try to approximate "par" for Canadian travellers. Here's the link:

http://pgcruises.com/canada-par?e=dmoore@pgcruises.com&j=4480&jb=4480

Hope it's not out of place mentioning this on the Regent board, but we have been talking about price and value, and the current Canadian problem with our currency.

Well, then, Wendy- surely you're not going to resist such enticements! ;-)

Just FYI, PG Cruises have turned this into a much better promotion. Special rates for Canadian residents now pertain to a broad range of sailings, with an approximate 25% reduction on the cruise portion of the fare, to try to approximate "par" for Canadian travellers. Here's the link:

 

http://pgcruises.com/canada-par?e=dmoore@pgcruises.com&j=4480&jb=4480

 

Hope it's not out of place mentioning this on the Regent board, but we have been talking about price and value, and the current Canadian problem with our currency.

Thanks Wendy. I will check it out.

Well, then, Wendy- surely you're not going to resist such enticements! ;-)

No poss, in fact we haven't been able to resist. We booked today, for December 2016.

Normally we wouldn't have done this, especially since we have a big trip for September of that year. But we have friends who wanted to plan a trip with us, and they were attracted to the PG and the South Pacific. We are also very much in "carpe diem" mode these days--our travel days won't last forever.

Way to go, Wanderer and Wonderer!