Explorer: The Truth Revealed 😱

Well, having captured your attention with the thread headline (a cheap populist press device!), we just wanted to share the memories of our recent cruise on Explorer and give our impressions of the latest ship to join the Regent fleet.

In this first post we will give a brief summary of the cruise and then in subsequent posts we will review various aspects of the cruise & the ship in more detail.

:D We thoroughly enjoyed our 17 days on Explorer, service was excellent and we met some delightful &interesting fellow travellers

Initially we booked a 10-day cruise from Barcelona to Venice and then close to sailing extended the cruise with a further 7-day segment from Venice to Rome.

So the overall itinerary was:

It was a very port intensive cruise taking in some beautiful locations. Sea conditions were generally calm and the weather was mostly good; some days were colder than we had hoped for.

The two segments of our cruise had a different dynamic.

The first segment was an“Anniversary Cruise” with Regent executives, Jason Montague and Jason O’Keefe,on-board. Over 350 passengers on this segment had started in Miami and most were seasoned Regent customers. Being Easter there were a number of families with children & teenagers – all well behaved. A number of staff and officers also had their families on board, including John Barron, the Cruise Director,whose beautiful wife, Melissa, and two adorable sons joined him for the cruise.

Only 54 of us continued on to the next segment and a number of tour and corporate groups joined in Venice,including a fairly large contingent from the car company, Audi; this reduced the average age of the guests (not a bad thing at all).

Subsequent posts will give our impressions of various areas on Explorer, our dining experiences, entertainment and the sometimes-divisive subject of Regent excursions

If you have any questions we will seek to provide factual answers and/or our opinions as appropriate

Suites on Explorer

We can only comment in detail on the grade of suite that we occupied; for the first segment this was a D Concierge on deck 10; for the last 7 days we were in an E Concierge on deck 6 (booked as a gty)

Positives

• as others have reported the D, E and F suites on Explorer are superb; a very good size & layout and arguably the best value suites on the ship
  
• both D & E suites have a wide, deep balcony with sun-lounger, two reclining chairs and a table; (F suites have a shallower balcony)
  
• plenty of drawer space in suite, closet and bathroom; plenty of hanging space and hooks in closet
  
• bathroom very well appointed - double basin, large tub, excellent shower, shaver socket
  
• comfortable bed (as all Regent ships)
  
• TV is well positioned for viewing from couch or bed
  
• lighting is excellent in both suite and bathroom; ‘night light’ outside bathroom is useful
  
• 2 USB sockets each side of the bed
  
• bedside clock with alarm (same as other Regent ships)
  
• large safe in closet
  

Negatives

• most sockets are European; only one US socket at desk/make-up station; other US sockets are awkwardly located under bedside cabinets; there are no UK sockets
  
• light switches are not intuitive e.g. one light switch for bathroom is outside and one is inside; master switch requires key card or similar
  
• watch your heels on the protruding skirting when stepping out of the bathroom; also the metal trim to the drawers can inflict painful injury if you catch yourself on them when open
  
• balcony doors/windows are not the full width of the suite
  
• privacy screens on balcony make it difficult to look forward or aft, plus impossible to pass time of day with neighbours (maybe this should be in the ‘positives’ section?).
  
• suite door and bathroom door can easily clash - plenty of dings on the bathroom door already
  
• cannot use magnets on walls (can on bathroom door)
  
• not easy to adjust temperature (thermostat not very responsive)
  
• could do with another chair or stool in the room
  

Both suites that we occupied had some noise issues. 1003 suffered minor noise from above in the afternoon,which appeared to result from moving Afternoon Tea in and out of the Observation Lounge. (As has been reported previously it appears that noise insulation between decks is not very effective).

646 had greater noise issues; the first being a whistling balcony door. More of an issue in tender ports was the very noisy lifeboat winch gear directly beneath the suite.

The Steward/Stewardess teams servicing both suites were excellent and looked after us very well.

Unfortunately 646 had a couple of maintenance issues, (whistling/draughty balcony door and a broken shower support), which were not fixed during the period of our occupancy - despite being reported both by us and by our Stewardess

Thanks very much for posting, flossie. I'm especially interested to hear about the ports/excursions, as we've got a somewhat similar cruise coming up on Voyager beginning June 1, with 3 days pre-cruise in Venice.

I suspect that you, like us, know most of the ports to some extent. If that's the case, I'll be interested to hear what different kinds of things you may have chosen to do this time. We no longer have the stamina to do long or arduous excursions (alas), but I like all the destinations (have been to about 3/4 of them, most several times), so it should be a lovely voyage even without the "biggies."

I'm glad that you enjoyed Explorer, a ship we're not overly eager to try (but would because we like Regent so much). I suspect it makes a difference when the big-wigs are on board, btw. Maybe not a major difference, but has to affect the whole show to some extent.

Just in case you run into John Barron and his wife again, her name is Lynsay. BTW, you were curious about John Barron prior to your cruise. How do you feel he matched up to other CD's?

Thank you for taking the time to review the Explorer (hopefully you will also post in the Review section of CC where your review will remain for years). There have been so many reviews of the Explorer - I enjoy reading all of them (even if I don't agree with everyone's "facts". ). While I agree with most of your opinions and observations, I would like to list the areas where we disagree. I really like your lists so I will respond using the same format.

Where we disagree:

1. IOO (in our opinion), the light outside the bathroom is too bright to be considered a night light. A tiny nightlight inside of the bathroom would not interfere with the lighting in the suite. Staying on the topic of lighting, we found the light switch outside the bathroom very helpful and it was needed in order to enter the bathroom without it being totally dark. The inside suite illuminates the area around the large mirror.

2. The U.S. sockets next to the bed were not inconvenient for us. Also, while we would have liked to see more U.S. plugs, we have plenty of plug converters so the European plugs worked fine as well.

3. We had no difficulty with the room temperature control. Although it does not show the temperature, it is easy to make the suite cooler or warmer. We like our suite quite cold and it worked perfectly for us.

4. While not exactly a point of disagreement, all Regent ships have privacy screens. Not sure that the visibility aft is worse on Explorer. I do not recall being able to see much aft from any Regent ship. (BTW, a tiny bit off topic but I just saw pictures of Europa 2 which is supposed to be one of the best luxury ships around. I was quite surprised to see "open balconies" -- privacy screens. but not to the railing. Passengers could walk from balcony to balcony if they choose to do so).

The biggest issue that we agree on is the clashing doors (bathroom and front door to suite). This is also an issue in the Master Suite and perhaps others. My DH got his hand caught between the doors and really was in pain from it.

The extra chair discussion has popped up several times on CC so I asked about it. The "powers that be" felt that it would be too cramped if they had an extra chair or stool in these suites. However, if you request one, the steward/stewardess or butler will be happy to get one for you.

Looking forward to more chapters!

Flossie thanks for your review posts. You have made it an easy and comprehensive review to read, thanks. Pity to hear the whistling doors continue.

How did you find the evening ambience compared to the other 3 ships in view of music post dinner?

Glad you had a good cruise. Look forward to hearing more. Thanks Jean.

Thanks Flossie and Travel Cat for your comments. We were on board the Explorer from Miami to Venice and then ended in Rome also. The three segments did have completely different dynamics, The crossing was a lot of experienced Regent cruisers that participated in all of the daily events. Afternoon trivia was so popular that they moved it to the theater and kept afternoon tea in the Observation lounge. At least that kept us from indulging in all those goodies for a few days! The second segment (25th Anniversary) was nice with all the special events, we especially enjoyed the "galley lunch". The third segment was completely different with many new cruisers including the Audi group of younger people. Anyway, we agree with some of your critiques but we agree with Travel Cat about the single light outside the bathroom door (we were in E category on deck 7). I have been buying those small battery operated tea candles and using those as night lights and they work very well and are really inexpensive. Regarding the whistling noises around balcony door, we had no issue with that but during the crossing there were workers on board that were doing repairs on the doors, they actually came to our suite and worked on it twice. The same workers were still on board on the Venice to Rome segment working on doors as we had changed suites and they came to fix the one we moved to. We loved all the storage with the self closing drawers that worked better than my own at home. The closet was wonderful with the long hanging bar and the drawers that are wider than on the other Regent ships. As for the restaurants, we did not enjoy Compass Rose as much as on the other ships but did like the changes to the menu. Compass Rose seemed to be noisier, especially if you were seated in the two areas in the back on either side. We loved the new "Pacific Rim" restaurant and wish they had it on the other ships, fabulous menu, especially the Miso black cod (I actually ordered it all three times we ate there). We enjoyed Chartreuse but continental cuisine is not our favorite. Prime 7 used to be very special because of the menu but now that many of the items are available in Compass Rose we think it has detracted a bit from Prime 7. The pool grill was great with the heaters in the seating area on the port side, especially since our cruise was mostly on the cool side. One thing that I noticed was that the large seating areas on deck 4 outside of Compass Rose and on deck 5 near reception was underutilized, we seldom saw more than a handful of passengers there. This was in contrast to the Cafe that was almost always crowded. I may remember some other things later as we are still battling the jet lag a bit (nine hour time difference).

Thank you for posting this Flossie. I look forward to reading the rest of your posts about your cruise on Explorer.

poss,

In light of your interest, we will do a post dedicated to ports & excursions…….might not be for a couple of days, though.

The presence of Regent executives on-board made absolutely no difference to the high level of service, and they were not afforded any visible extra privileges. One evening we found Jason Montague waiting politely and patiently with other guests at the entrance to Compass Rose – no queue jumping :halo:

Travelcat2,

Thank you for your corrections and opinions.

We will have to disagree on many of your points………but not on the name of John Barron’s wife. Sincere apologies to John & Lynsay and hope we haven’t started a domestic :o

We will give our thoughts on John and the rest of the entertainment (which was all very good) in a subsequent post

Liptastic,

Thanks for your kind comments.

Yes it was disappointing to find that not all balcony doors on Explorer have been fixed. No draughts or whistles in 1003, but you could see that the locking mechanism had been “re-drilled” and an extra strip of rubber had been glued to the outside of the door jamb; this work had not been done on the door in 646

Konagolfer,

Thanks for chiming in. As you were on the same cruise segments, your comments will be very useful in augmenting and/or correcting our review posts

Isklaar,

Thanks for your support

So, on with the next section of our review……………

Thanks for the reviews and information. I have to ask, what is a privacy screen on the balcony ? We were in G1 and didn't have anything like that..

Dining

Well, for sure we didn’t go hungry on this cruise and loved the variety of restaurants on Explorer. Service was good to excellent in all the venues

Compass Rose

We dined in CR 7 times for Dinner, always at a shared table, and once for lunch (Galley Lunch)

Positives:

• comfortable seating
  
• excellent menu
  
• only one entrance
  

Negatives:

• can be noisy because of the amount of hard surfaces and low ceiling
  
• although smaller than on other Regent ships the layout makes it feel less intimate
  

There has been some discussion on CC as to why the aft elevators & staircase do not allow access to the rear of CR and why there are no restrooms at the rear. This appears to be because the ship’s engine space protrudes up into the centre-rear of the restaurant leaving no space for these facilities.

Chartreuse

We dined here 3 times for Dinner and once for lunch

Positives:

• a well laid out restaurant; tables at the aft have a wonderful view through picture windows
  
• reasonable dinner menu (but in our opinion not as good as Signatures, and never varies); menu could do with a few tweaks
  
• very good lunch menu
  

Negatives:

• some bench seating
  

Prime 7

We dined here twice for Dinner and twice for lunch

Positives:

• larger than on the other Regent ships,
  
• a very light and airy feel to the restaurant
  
• very good lunch menu; the mini-dessert selection was yummy
  

Negatives:

• some bench seating
  

Pacific Rim

We dined here 4 times for dinner

Positives:

• impressive entrance & good layout; high ceiling
  
• wait staff uniforms are very attractive
  
• a very good menu
  

Negatives:

• a lot of wasted space at the entrance
  
• some bench seating
  

Sette Marie

We only dined here once for dinner as it is not our favourite venue

Positives:

• open kitchen
  
• good buffet area (starters & desserts)
  

Negatives:

• menu could do with a revamp
  

La Veranda

Our favoured lunch venue

Positives:

• very good serving areas (much improved from the other ships)
  
• large seating area in the open air at the back of the ship as well as comfortable seating inside
  
• good selection of hot and cold dishes
  

Negatives:

• hot desserts are no longer served for lunch :(
  

Pool Grill

Positives:

• good al-fresco dining
  
• ceiling heaters for the cooler days
  

Negatives:

• seating areas are very sterile and there is no truly outside seating
  
• heavy double doors between Pool Grill and La Veranda (these doors should have been made automatic)
  

Café

A very good venue with comfortable seating. Excellent & friendly Baristas

Room Service

We only used this for coffee or breakfast in the morning. Always arrived early (once 45 mins early!). Service was inconsistent and often had to ask for the table to be laid with a tablecloth (which they had with them but weren’t going to use!)

While we are on the subject of food, two other experiences that we tried while on Explorer:

Culinary Kitchen

We spent a very enjoyable two hours on our one sea-day participating in the "Gone Fishing" culinary class.

We prepared four dishes and watched the preparation of a further two. Copious quantities of wine were consumed during the class ;p

The Culinary Arts Kitchen is well laid out and equipped. The class was taken by Brenda La Noue (one of the two teaching Chefs on board) who we found to be very pleasant & knowledgeable; she was supported by two sous chefs and a pot-washer

The level of teaching/skill was just right for the mix of attendees and the time available.

It was a pity that no memento was given out and the end of the class e.g. an apron; if you want one you have to buy it at extra cost

Galley Lunch

This was very good and made up for the fact that we did not have a Sunday sea-day for the famous Explorer Sunday Brunch

Thank you Flossie for starting this thread!

I'm very interested in all of your thoughts and observations!

This thread is terrific-- all those solid details and so easy to read. Greatly appreciated, flossie.

Thanks very much for posting, flossie. I'm especially interested to hear about the ports/excursions, as we've got a somewhat similar cruise coming up on Voyager beginning June 1, with 3 days pre-cruise in Venice.

 

I suspect that you, like us, know most of the ports to some extent. If that's the case, I'll be interested to hear what different kinds of things you may have chosen to do this time. We no longer have the stamina to do long or arduous excursions (alas), but I like all the destinations (have been to about 3/4 of them, most several times), so it should be a lovely voyage even without the "biggies."

 

I'm glad that you enjoyed Explorer, a ship we're not overly eager to try (but would because we like Regent so much). I suspect it makes a difference when the big-wigs are on board, btw. Maybe not a major difference, but has to affect the whole show to some extent.

Just a quick comment ... IMO, having management on board is not always a positive......

This thread is terrific-- all those solid details and so easy to read. Greatly appreciated, flossie.

Agree!

I've been impressed by the menus that I've seen posted here at CC and on the Regent website, the food choices seem very much to my taste. Also there's a good choice of dining venues, appropriate I guess for a ship the size of Explorer.

Flossie, did you have any issues waiting for a table at dinner in CR? I've seen this mentioned a couple of times on CC although I think the problem has been flagged on other Regent ships, not Explorer.

Interesting that some balcony doors are still whistling.

This thread is terrific-- all those solid details and so easy to read. Greatly appreciated, flossie.

Thank you Flossie and the others for taking the time to give your observations. I really enjoy reading your detailed reports.

Dining Post-Script

Forgot to mention:

Afternoon Tea (served in the Observation Lounge)

We only went once but thoroughly enjoyed our Twinings tea, scones, clotted cream and raspberry jam (mis-labelled as strawberry)

Champagne & Caviar breakfast (Sunday, La Veranda - also available in CR)

Again, a once only treat

Tried a CC recommendation of caviar with scrambled egg......................interesting, but will in future stick to having the caviar on toast and the scrambled egg either with smoked salmon or with bacon & sausage; would prefer black pudding but Regent's fine dining has not yet progressed to this gourmet delight ;)

Just a quick comment ... IMO, having management on board is not always a positive......

OK, I'll bite - why?

Flossie, did you have any issues waiting for a table at dinner in CR? I've seen this mentioned a couple of times on CC although I think the problem has been flagged on other Regent ships, not Explorer.

No we didn't have any issues, but we always opt for a sharing table. Believe that the issues previously reported have been with those wanting a table for two but we did not witness any problems of this type on Explorer

We were offered a table in one of the speciality restaurants one lunchtime when La Veranda was particularly busy; we were happy to accept :)

I have to ask, what is a privacy screen on the balcony ? We were in G1 and didn't have anything like that..

By 'privacy screen' I just mean the screen between your balcony and your neighbour's

On Explorer it just seemed that these extended almost past the balcony railing, making it more difficult to view forward or aft (compared to other Regent ships)....................but maybe my memory is playing tricks

There is a hinged section of screen which is normally locked but, when opened, allows the maintenance crew to walk safely and easily from balcony to balcony

Dining

 

 

 

Chartreuse

 

 

Negatives:

• some bench seating
  

Prime 7

 

 

Negatives:

• some bench seating
  

Pacific Rim

 

 

Negatives:

• a lot of wasted space at the entrance
  
• some bench seating
  

Just want to point out that for those folks "Of Size" that bench setting is going to be a positive and improve comfort levels. There is nothing worse then going out a "fancy" dinner and not fitting into a chair.

Personally, I'm thrilled it's there.

Thanks for posting Flossie!

I agree about the outlets in the rooms. Need more accessible US plugins. I have plenty of adapters, but it seems that they could have put in more US style outlets.

Also agree about the clashing doors. Obviously someone wasn't thinking. Ours already had a bunch of dings, and we were on in September.

The one entrance to CR is a good thing IMO. How many times have we gone to meet someone in CR for dinner and been at opposite ends? I have had to wander through just to find my husband many times, though now that they ask your suite number when seating you, that doesn't happen.

Just want to point out that for those folks "Of Size" that bench setting is going to be a positive and improve comfort levels. There is nothing worse then going out a "fancy" dinner and not fitting into a chair.

 

Personally, I'm thrilled it's there.

Understood, but if you are 'petite' the 'benches' seem too low and too deep; however, the staff are good at finding cushions to make the situation more comfortable

Just want to point out that for those folks "Of Size" that bench setting is going to be a positive and improve comfort levels. There is nothing worse then going out a "fancy" dinner and not fitting into a chair.

 

 

Personally, I'm thrilled it's there.

The bench seating is not as good for full-figured folk as you might think. The tables are close to the benches. My DH (full-figured) and our friend (average size) both preferred the chair in P7 to the bench. We found the chairs in CR and Chartreuse to be large and very comfortable. And we thought the food in all the restaurants was delicious.

Lots of good comments as well as disagreements over what is preferred and what is not (to be expected).

I like having one door to CR and also the design as it feels more intimate. The restrooms are not far - you just have to exit through the front door. Agree with the noise levels in some but not all areas of CR. The new menu seems to be so popular that CR does fill up which causes waits to get in . We love the seating area where you can sit and have a drink while you are waiting (the Explorer was packed so the extra seating helped).

Rachel, after thinking about it, I agree that there should be more U.S. plugs since 80% of passengers are from the U,S. A U.K plug and maybe a few less European plugs would be better.

I'm not "getting" the bench seat comments as they relate to larger sized people. They are deep but the pillows work fine. I found the booths in P7 generally uncomfortable. They look great and cozy but are not.

In general, while some of the comments are correct they seem a bit nit picky. For a couple of years the chairs in the lounges on the Mariner were either too low (so low that they were difficult to get out of) or too high (the bar stools in the Observation Lounge made me feel like I was in a child's high chair). I guess that chairs are simply not "one size fits all". Also, the plug issues are worse on other ships (plus, unless they were recently installed, there are no USB ports on other Regent ships.

Having read Explorer reviews in the Review section of CC, some people strongly dislike the ship while others love "almost" everything about her. Still, all of this makes for an interesting read.