Final Thoughts on Mariner Anchorage to Vancouver, June 8-15 2016

1. Anchorage - Hilton is average and why bother with that breakfast on the 15th floor before the shuttle. Just a miserable bacon and eggs with some bakery items and terrible fruit. That is not a great way to start a cruise. If you are going to offer this (and I really did not even expect it), just let people go to buffet downstairs which is much better. We did the coastal bike trail - great easy cycle and highly recommended

2.Ride to Seeward and boarding: great scenery and effortless boarding to be greeted by lovely lunch buffet

3. The Ship: fantastically looked after and maintained. Rooms very good size and loved walk-in robe. OH did not care for shower in bath

Excursions: can really only book one/day online but can add in extras when on ship but it does make it quite hectic and not relaxing

4. Hubbard Glacier - was a brilliant blue day, got very close and saw lots of calving and heard lots of noise

5. Sitka: we did the kayaking which was fun followed by the Sea Otter and Whale quest, also good and saw them both, but maybe a touch too long

6. Juneau: poor weather and the helicopter to the glacier and dogsled was cancelled so we did the Glacier Gardens and walk to Mendenhall Glacier (all one tour, about 3 hours) both fun - Glacier Gardens could have been shorter as they left us in the souvenir shop for too long at the end. Would have preferred more time at the Glacier - we hiked to the waterfall but would have also liked time to go into the exhibit

7. Skagway: White Horse scenic railway. Great scenery but one way would have been enough. Would have loved the option of cycling down. Probably would have taken the Glacier helicopter ride if we had the choice and knowing what the railway was about afterwards.

8 Ketchikan: Lovely town. We did the rainforest walk - quite gentle stroll, great guide, lots of flora but no fauna. Loved the town though

9. Food:Average to good. I felt the specialty restaurants were overrated. On our recent Celebrity cruise, the French restaurant was significantly better. Buffets were average. Loved the outside BBQ for lunch

10. Service: Very very variable. Some good and some terrible. Items ordered for dinner never arrived, rice arrived about 30 min after main course. Sodas ordered never arrived multiple times. One server wiped crumbs off the plate in front of me with her hand before giving me the plate. Food was constantly cold despite numerous entreaties. There were a couple of outstanding servers though.

Disembarkation Vancouver was easiest and fastest I have even seen on any cruise

Summary impressions: Go later in the season for more wildlife - we saw no bears. Loved the all inclusive nature and not having to pay or swipe cards. Service needs major improvement. I would go on Regent again.

Btw, we immediately went the Chateau Fairmont in whistler, where the service was outstanding, the buffets were great. A marked contrast but trying achieve a similar service level I would think.

Thanks for taking the time to report back on your experience. We are on Mariner end August Alaksa cruise. Our 2 previous Alaksa cruises were both in August and it's a time that suits us work wise but we would like to go earlier if possible in future. Jean.

Thanks for taking the time to post impressions-- I always enjoy reading them.

Sorry you missed your Juneau druthers, but as you probably know, that's an excursion which gets cancelled with some frequency. At least you had that fine experience at Hubbard; our Hubbard day a couple of weeks before your cruise was nothing to write home about.

As I mentioned in my own post, our dining experience, mainly in CR, was also quite variable, with many meals (or parts of meals) served no better (and sometimes worse) than lukewarm, plus items forgotten. Service was sometimes disengaged. And worst of all, I more than a few times saw food-handlers wiping their eyes or nose and continuing to serve food. In fact, we saw quite a number of both crew and staff sneezing into the air or their hand instead of their elbow or whatever. One time it was so blatant-- a great big sneeze straight out-- that I actually said something (gently).

I'm sorry that you didn't much enjoy the specialty restaurants. I don't know your taste in food, but I want to mention some of our favorites; I'm curious to know if you ordered any of them. In Signatures: sliced Lobster salad; escargot; mushroom soup; scallop/lobster ravioli; tournedos with foie gras; rack of lamb; sea bass (I think that was Signatures). Prime 7: Dover sole; steamed lobster; crab legs; a number of other dishes that I can't recall now, but much enjoyed at the time (including the 14-layer cake!)

I hope that you have many more pleasant experiences on Regent.

Hearing your compass rose meal service Poss and also other posters mentioning similar concerns it sounds as tho the training with the wait staff is not up to par. That kind of service is certainly not what people should be getting on board.

Jean.

 

I'm sorry that you didn't much enjoy the specialty restaurants. I don't know your taste in food, but I want to mention some of our favorites; I'm curious to know if you ordered any of them. In Signatures: sliced Lobster salad; escargot; mushroom soup; scallop/lobster ravioli; tournedos with foie gras; rack of lamb; sea bass (I think that was Signatures). Prime 7: Dover sole; steamed lobster; crab legs; a number of other dishes that I can't recall now, but much enjoyed at the time (including the 14-layer cake!)

 

I hope that you have many more pleasant experiences on Regent.

You are making me very hungry:) I'm wondering if Chartreuse will have the wonderful mushroom soup (one of our favorites) and rack of lamb. Also love the Dover sole and steamed lobster (we special order it in CR sometimes).

Agree that there is a lot of training going on due to the crew members that transferred to the Explorer. Perhaps a comment to the Dining Room Mgr. would assist in the training process.

With the recent weather in Alaska, it is good that you choose what is usually the best month of the year to sail in Alaska - May. When we were on the Mariner last week we heard that it rained most of the time on the previous cruise (and the weather wasn't too good on the day of embarkation of the current cruise which ends tomorrow). Wish some of this cool weather would blow up to the Med....... seriously not looking forward to the heat and may decide to stay on the ship 24/7!

Should a restruant manager not be able to see the above mentioned staff issues? If diners are noticing this the senior staff should always be observing how the new juniors under training are working?

Should a restruant manager not be able to see the above mentioned staff issues? If diners are noticing this the senior staff should always be observing how the new juniors under training are working?

Logically this is true but apparently the behavior was not witnessed by senior staff. Being able to see the whole of Compass Rose is easy on the Voyager but, due to the center walled in area, on the Mariner, it is difficult to monitor the entire room. Hopefully the training of new members will be completed soon but due wish these items were addressed prior to working on the ship.

PS BTW, we found the Mariner to be one of the smoothest ships around with really minimal vibration - dunno if this is a reflection of the speeds and really smooth seas but it was very noticeable (or not noticeable) compared to other ships we had been on recently

PS BTW, we found the Mariner to be one of the smoothest ships around with really minimal vibration - dunno if this is a reflection of the speeds and really smooth seas but it was very noticeable (or not noticeable) compared to other ships we had been on recently

Definitely feel that the Mariner is the smoothest sailing ship of the current fleet!